Topic Review
Moral Psychology of Possibilities
Discussions about the ethics of buying and consuming animal products normally assume that there are two choices equally available to moral agents: to engage or not to engage in such behaviour. This paper suggests that, in some cases, the experience of those who refuse to participate in animal exploitation is not best described as a choice, but as the natural outcome of a reconfiguration of their understanding of what animals, and hence the products made out of them, are. Such reconfiguration involves not seeing animals as something to eat, wear, control, etc. In these cases, veganism is not a choice because it does not depend on opting for one of two possible courses of actions: on a certain way of thinking about other animals, the consumption of animals does not present itself as a possibility at all.
  • 811
  • 30 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Sri Sarada Math
Sri Sarada Math is named after Sri Sarada Devi, the consort of Sri Ramakrishna and founded on 2 December 1954. Built by a group of eight nuns, as per the instructions given by Swami Vivekananda, it serves as a monastic order for women. Headquartered at Dakshineshwar, Kolkata, the organisation has branch centres all over India, in Sri Lanka and Australia.
  • 810
  • 17 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Na'vi Language
The Naʼvi language (Naʼvi: Lìʼfya leNaʼvi) is the constructed language of the Naʼvi, the sapient humanoid indigenous inhabitants of the fictional moon Pandora in the 2009 film Avatar. It was created by Paul Frommer, a professor at the USC Marshall School of Business with a doctorate in linguistics. Naʼvi was designed to fit James Cameron's conception of what the language should sound like in the film, to be realistically learnable by the fictional human characters of the film, and to be pronounceable by the actors, but to not closely resemble any single human language. When the film was released in 2009, Naʼvi had a growing vocabulary of about a thousand words, but understanding of its grammar was limited to the language's creator. However, this has changed subsequently as Frommer has expanded the lexicon to more than 2900 words and has published the grammar, thus making Naʼvi a relatively complete, learnable and serviceable language.
  • 808
  • 09 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Lincos (Artificial Language)
Lincos (an abbreviation of the Latin phrase lingua cosmica) is a constructed language first described in 1960 by Dr. Hans Freudenthal in his book Lincos: Design of a Language for Cosmic Intercourse, Part 1. It is a language designed to be understandable by any possible intelligent extraterrestrial life form, for use in interstellar radio transmissions. Freudenthal considered that such a language should be easily understood by beings not acquainted with any Earthling syntax or language. Lincos was designed to be capable of encapsulating "the whole bulk of our knowledge."
  • 806
  • 09 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Risk Factors of Schizophrenia
Risk factors of schizophrenia include multiple genetic and environmental risk factors. The prevailing model of schizophrenia is that of a neurodevelopmental disorder with no precise boundary, or single cause, and is thought to develop from complex gene–environment interactions with involved vulnerability factors. The interactions of these risk factors are complicated, as numerous and diverse insults from conception to adulthood can be involved. The combination of genetic and environmental factors leads to deficits in the neural circuits that affect sensory input and cognitive functions. A genetic predisposition on its own, without interacting environmental factors, will not give rise to the development of schizophrenia. Environmental risk factors are many, and include pregnancy complications, prenatal stress and nutrition, and adverse childhood experiences. An environmental risk factor may act alone or in combination with others. Schizophrenia typically develops between the ages of 16–30 (generally males aged 16–25 years and females 25–30 years); about 75 percent of people living with the illness developed it in these age-ranges. Childhood schizophrenia that develops before the age of 13 is quite rare. There is on average a somewhat earlier onset for men than women, with the possible influence of the female sex hormone estrogen being one hypothesis and socio-cultural influences another. Estrogen is seen to have a dampening effect on dopamine receptors.
  • 804
  • 28 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Occultism in Nazism
Nazism and occultism describes a range of theories, speculation and research into the origins of Nazism and its possible relation to various occult traditions. Such ideas have been a part of popular culture since at least the early 1940s, during World War II, and gained renewed popularity starting in the 1960s. There are documentaries and books on the topic, among the most significant are The Morning of the Magicians (1960) and The Spear of Destiny (1972). Nazism and occultism has also been featured in numerous films, novels, comic books and other fictional media. Some good examples are the film Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) and the comic book series Hellboy. Historian Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke analyzed the topic in The Occult Roots of Nazism in which he argued there were in fact links between some ideals of Ariosophy and Nazi ideology. He also analyzed the problems of the numerous popular occult historiography books written on the topic. He sought to separate empiricism and sociology from the modern mythology of Nazi occultism that exists in many books which "have represented the Nazi phenomenon as the product of arcane and demonic influence". He considered most of these to be "sensational and under-researched".
  • 801
  • 27 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Altruism
In biology, altruism refers to behaviour by an individual that increases the fitness of another individual while decreasing the fitness of the agent. Altruism in this sense is different from the philosophical concept of altruism, in which an action would only be called "altruistic" if it was done with the conscious intention of helping another. In the behavioural sense, there is no such requirement. As such, it is not evaluated in moral terms—it is the consequences of an action for reproductive fitness that determine whether the action is considered altruistic, not the intentions, if any, with which the action is performed. The term altruism was coined by the French philosopher Auguste Comte in French, as altruisme, for an antonym of egoism. He derived it from the Italian altrui, which in turn was derived from Latin alteri, meaning "other people" or "somebody else". Altruistic behaviours appear most obviously in kin relationships, such as in parenting, but may also be evident among wider social groups, such as in social insects. They allow an individual to increase the success of its genes by helping relatives that share those genes. Obligate altruism is the permanent loss of direct fitness (with potential for indirect fitness gain). For example, honey bee workers may forage for the colony. Facultative altruism is temporary loss of direct fitness (with potential for indirect fitness gain followed by personal reproduction). For example, a Florida scrub jay may help at the nest, then gain parental territory.
  • 801
  • 20 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Intervention Program to Reduce Religious Prejudice in Education
In a plural society, education has an important role in preparing students to be able to live together with differences, including religious differences. In the context of education, various terminology can be used to describe a prejudice reduction intervention program as a combination of the terms interfaith or inter-religious with learning, education, and dialogue. There are four forms of interfaith learning in educational settings, namely formal academic, informal academic, formal social, and informal social. Intervention program activities can be one or a combination of two or more forms of interfaith learning. Contact theory hypotheses can be applied in interfaith learning in educational settings to reduce religious prejudice through changes in knowledge, attitudes, and skills/behaviors. To obtain a wider impact of intervention programs on educational settings, intervention programs can be integrated with existing learning/curriculum so that they are compulsory for all students.
  • 800
  • 02 Jun 2022
Topic Review
Language Game
A language-game (German: Sprachspiel) is a philosophical concept developed by Ludwig Wittgenstein, referring to simple examples of language use and the actions into which the language is woven. Wittgenstein argued that a word or even a sentence has meaning only as a result of the "rule" of the "game" being played. Depending on the context, for example, the utterance "Water!" could be an order, the answer to a question, or some other form of communication.
  • 799
  • 09 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Three Mothers (2006) by Dina Zvi-Riklis
Dina Zvi-Riklis’ film Three Mothers (2006) reveals a complex approach to the issue of immigration, an issue that is central to both the Jewish religion and Israeli identity. While for both, reaching the land of Israel means arriving in the Promised Land, they are quite dissimilar in that one is a religious command while the other is an ideological imperative. But more than anything, the two approaches share a common imperative to forget the past. However, this imperative does not apply to the heroines of Three Mothers, a film which follows the extraordinary trajectory of triplet sisters, born to a rich Jewish family in Alexandria, who were forced to leave Egypt after King Farouk’s abdication and immigrate to Israel. This article demonstrates that Three Mothers represents an outstanding achievement because it dares to deal with its heroines’ longing for the world left behind and the complexity of integrating the past into the present. Following Nicholas Bourriaud’s Radicant theory, designating an organism that grows roots and adds new ones as it advances, this article will prove that though the heroines of Three Mothers never avow their longing for Egypt, the film’s narrative succeeds in revealing a subversive démarche through which the sisters succeed in integrating Egypt into their present.
  • 798
  • 19 Aug 2020
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