Becoming a "practising muslim" : : reflections on gender, racism and religious identity among women in a Swedish muslim youth organisation

Artikkelit

LEIBNIZ Y LA FILOSOFÍA DE LA RELIGIÓN EN NISHIDA KITARÔ

ABSTRACT This paper is an analysis of the manner Nishida Kitarô (1870-1945), in the process of construction of his own philosophy of religion, enters into dialogue with Leibniz's thought concerning Pre-established Harmony. Although the philosophy of religion is an important theme and Nishida goes back to Leibniz at some points in his textual career, there are relatively few studies that touch on the relationship between these two thinkers. I study Nishida's approach under three headings. The first section concerns ten main aspects of the world of pre-established harmony. The second tries to show the manner in which such a world becomes a guide towards a philosophy of religion, placing the emphasis on three characteristically Christian aspects: a created, fallen, and Trinitarian world. The third section includes some elements such as the entrance into religion, metanoia, satori and a comparison between Christian agape and Buddhist maha-kruna. These are themes on which Nishida elaborates in his 1945 masterpiece, The Logic of Basho and a Religious Worldview.

Indian female gurus in contemporary in Hinduism : a study of central aspects and expressions of their religious leadership

Den rikt utformade och komplexa hinduiska traditionen har hittills huvudsakligen tecknats av manliga forskare och det är främst manliga religiösa strävanden som har dokumenterats. Detta förhållande och de patriarkala synsätt som styr många auktoritativa heliga texter har bidragit till att skapa intrycket att hinduiska kvinnors religiösa erfarenheter antingen saknas eller är avsevärt begränsade. Denna studie lyfter fram det faktum att ett ökande antal indiska kvinnor inom dagens hinduism axlar publika roller som religiösa ledare. Med sitt framträdande utmanar många av dessa rådande sociala uppfattningar om kvinnors underordnade ställning och främjar därmed en förnyad medvetenhet av urgamla föreställningar om Gud som kvinna. Avhandlingen utforskar fenomenet kvinnliga guruer genom att belysa sjuttio guruers andliga karriär, med särskild fokus på fyra av dem. Några av de frågor som behandlas är följande: På vilket sätt är kvinnliga guruer del av den hinduiska traditionen? Vilka förväntningar ställs på dem? Hur legitimeras deras auktoritet som guruer? Hur handskas guruerna med sina dubbla roller som kvinnor och andliga ledare? Hur återspeglas gudinnans ställning, som i indisk religiositet ofta är central, i kvinnors faktiska verklighet? Bidrar kvinnliga guruer med sitt religiösa engagemang till att nyskapa och förändra den indiska religiösa diskursen och utövningen av religion?

Faster for the master! : exploring issues of religious expression and alternative Christian identity within the Finnish Christian metal music scene

Populärkulturen har i dagens läge kommit att utgöra en allt mer viktig och central inspirationskälla för allt fler människors konstruktion av den egna religiösa identiteten även inom traditionella och institutionella kristna sammanhang. Denna avhandling belyser denna utveckling i ljuset av den finländska kristna metallmusik-kulturen - en sällsynt stark sammanblanding av protestantisk kristendom och en utpräglad och kontroversiell populärmusikform och dess kultur. Fokus riktas framför allt på hur den kristna metallmusik-kulturen blir meningsfull för sina medlemmar genom de sätt på vilka den konstrueras diskursivt, dvs. genom de sätt på vilka den representeras och talas om bland sina egna anhängare. Den diskursiva konstruktionen av den kristna metallmusik-kulturen utforskas på ett såväl bredare transnationellt som ett finländskt nationellt plan. Studien redogör även för den kristna metalmusikens och -kulturens huvudsakliga verbala, visuella och estetiska kännetecken. Uppbyggnaden och spridningen av dagens transnationella kristna metallmusik-kultur undersöks även i ljuset av det teoretiska konceptet scene. Avhandlingens centrala argument är att den kristna metallmusikscenen erbjuder sina medlemmar en mängd resurser för skapandet av ett alternativt och komplementärt religiöst uttrycksätt, religiös praxis och en alternativ kristen identitet.

The dawn of paraconsistency: Russia's logical thought in the turn of XX century

The paper deals with the factors which enabled N. A. Vasiliev to put forward in 1910 - 12 the idea of logics free of the laws of contradiction and excluded middle, the idea of metalogic and to construct his imaginary logic as novel non-classical system. It is shown that background of Vasiliev's ideas lies deeply in Russia's culture and particular approach to logical discourse. Several Russian scholars expressed ideas similar to Vasiliev's though not in such explicit form. This period might be called the prehistory of paraconsistency. Real history of paraconsistency starts with N.C.A. da Costa's works.

Boundless thought. The case of conceptual mental episodes

I present and defend here a thesis named vehicleless externalism for conceptual mental episodes. According to it, the constitutive relations there are between the production of conceptual mental episodes by an individual and the inclusion of this individual in social discursive practices make it non-necessary to equate, even partially, conceptual mental episodes with the occurrence of physical events inside of that individual. Conceptual mental episodes do not have subpersonal vehicles; they have owners: persons in interpretational practices. That thesis is grounded on inferentialism and on the endorsement of the idea that "meaning is normative". After having recapitulated this heritage and after having presented that thesis, the paper especially attempts to articulate how, in that framework, we may then positively conceive the relations there are between conceptual mental episodes, intracranial events and inferential behaviour.

Singular Reference Without Singular Thought

Abstract In this paper I challenge the widespread assumption that the conditions for singular reference are more or less the same as the conditions for singular thought. I claim that we refer singularly to things without thinking singularly about them more often than it is usually believed. I first argue that we should take the idea that singular thought is non-descriptive thought very seriously. If we do that, it seems that we cannot be so liberal about what counts as acquaintance; only perception (and memory) will do. I also briefly discuss and reject semantic instrumentalism. Finally, I argue that while singular reference is cheap, singular thought comes only at a price.

Religious women in Britain reappraised

Kirjallisuusarvostelu

The duality of tactical thought : a study of how Swedish land forces' commanders view tactics in irregular warfare

This is a sociological study of the views of officers in the Swedish Army and its Amphibious Forces on tactics in Irregular Warfare (IW), in particular, Counterinsurgency (COIN). IW comprises struggles, where the military weaker part uses an indirect approach with smaller units and integrates the civilian and military dimensions in a violence spectrum including subversion, terrorism, Guerrilla Warfare and infantry actions. IW is the main armed warfare style in insurgencies. COIN is the combined political, military, economic, social and legal actions in counter insurgencies. Data has been collected by means of interviews with almost all (n =43) officers, who were either commanding battalions or rifle and manoeuvre companies while undergoing training for general warfare and international operations. The main theoretical and methodological inspiration is the traditional one for research on social fields, inaugurated by the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. The statistical technique used is Multiple Correspondence Analysis. As a background and context base, an inquiry inspired by the Begriffsgechichte (Conceptual History) tradition explores the genesis and development of understandings of the term Irregular Warfare. The research question is outlined as; “how can contemporary Swedish military thought on tactics in Irregular Warfare be characterized using descriptive patterns, mapped in relation to background factors and normative standards? The most significant findings are that there are two main opposing notions separating the officers’ views on tactics in Irregular Warfare: (1) a focus on larger, combat oriented and collectively operating military units versus smaller and larger, more intelligence oriented and dispersed operating units, and (2) a focus on military tasks and kinetic effects versus military and civilian tasks as well as “soft” effects. The distribution of these views can be presented as a two-dimensional space structured by the two axes. This space represents four categories of tactics, partly diverging from normative military standards for Counterinsurgency. This social space of standpoints shows different structural tendencies for background factors of social and cultural character, particularly dominant concerning military backgrounds, international mission experiences and civilian education. Compared to military standards for Counterinsurgency, the two tactical types characterized by a Regular Warfare mind-set stands out as counter-normative. Signs of creative thought on military practice and theory, as well as a still persistent Regular Warfare doxa are apparent. Power struggles might thus develop, effecting the transformation to a broadened warfare culture with an enhanced focus also on Irregular Warfare. The result does not support research results arguing for a convergence of military thought in the European transformation of Armed Forces. The main argument goes beyond tactics and suggests sociological analysis on reciprocal effects regarding strategy, operational art, tactics as well as leadership, concerning the mind-set and preferences for Regular, Irregular and Hybrid Warfare.

Control of Robot by Means of Human Thought

Brain computer interface (BCI) is a kind of human machine interface, which provides a new interaction method between human and computer or other equipment. The most significant characteristic of BCI system is that its control input is brain electrical activities acquired from the brain instead of traditional input such as hands or eyes. BCI technique has rapidly developed during last two decades and it has mainly worked as an auxiliary technique to help the disable people improve their life qualities. With the appearance of low cost novel electrical devices such as EMOTIV, BCI technique has been applied to the general public through many useful applications including video gaming, virtual reality and virtual keyboard. The purpose of this research is to be familiar with EMOTIV EPOC system and make use of it to build an EEG based BCI system for controlling an industrial manipulator by means of human thought. To build a BCI system, an acquisition program based on EMOTIV EPOC system is designed and a MFC based dialog that works as an operation panel is presented. Furthermore, the inverse kinematics of RV-3SB industrial robot was solved. In the last part of this research, the designed BCI system with human thought input is examined and the results indicate that the system is running smoothly and displays clearly the motion type and the incremental displacement of the motion.

Karl Polanyi, Athens and us: the contemporary significance of Polanyi's thought

Karl Polanyi is considered one of the most prominent social scientists of the 20th century. In his writings, an important concern was the relationship between the markets and the society (therefore, the state) as a whole; to discuss it, he introduced the concept of "embeddedness", fundamental for his study of the origins and consequences of the Industrial Revolution. An important part of his heritage is the study of the economic history of what he called "ancient societies," especially of Classical Greece. Polanyi used these studies to compare the ancient societies with his own times, in an effort to understand them all. This paper aims to relate Polanyi's work on the Athenian society with his studies about the modern times, showing that it is possible to draw lessons from Polanyi's thought on the relationship between the society, the state and the market that can help to design a political agenda for our days. In the first part, we present the most important aspects o the life and work of Polanyi, and in the second we discuss the most important aspects of his worldview. Then, in the third part, we study his view of the early Athenian economy; mainly, we focus on the coexistence of a kind of state planning and a market, showing how this understanding is crucial for the whole Polanyian legacy, with its emphasis in the comparison of different societies and times. We conclude by underlining the relevance of this interpretation advanced by Polanyi to understand the societies of our days, focusing on some proposals to extend his approach to deal with our contemporary problems.