scholarly journals Editorial in English

Author(s):  
Abdallah Abdulrahman El- Khatib

We are pleased to introduce to our esteemed readers this special issue on the conference proceedings on “Occidentalism in Contemporary Cognitive Deliberation: Toward Objective Scientific Vision for Exploring the Other”. For decades Occidentalism has been receiving growing academic interest for its substantial importance in several domains. Dialog among civilizations and strategic relations between East and West is perhaps the most salient example. This Conference is the outcome of tireless work and close cooperation between Kuwait University, represented by the Journal of Sharia and Islamic Studies, and Qatar University College of Sharia, represented by the ISESCO Chair in Alliance of Civilizations. Scholars and researchers specializing in this field were invited to participate in the Conference. The Conference was held on ZOOM on 28/2/2021. This issue features the fruit of twinning between two well-established journals in the Arabian Gulf: Journal of Sharia and Islamic Studies at Kuwait University and Journal of College of Sharia and Islamic Studies at Qatar University. We are grateful to all those who contributed to this achievement and appreciate the efforts of the journal’s former editorial board. We thank the Almighty God for selecting our Journal for inclusion in the Arabic Citation Index (ARCI) on the Web of Science, this year. The Conference culminated in serious, insightful and well-founded studies on occidentalism Conference papers covered different aspects in Occidentalism discourse, such as Dr. Zahia Smail Salhi's “The Arab World and the Occident: Toward the Construction of an Occidentalist Discourse” and Dr. Youssef Ban El Mahdi's “Contemporary Arab Discourse of Occidentalism: A Reading in the Paradigms, Introductions and Results”. Furthermore, the Conference touched on the criticism of the intellectual foundations and legitimacy, such as in “Foundational premises for objective research in Occidentalism,” by Dr. Azzeddine Mamiche. The presence of Occidentalism in Eastern, Far-Eastern, and Latin experiences was also discussed in Dr. Mabrouk Mansouri's “The Deliberation of Occidentalism in Contemporary Global Thought: A Comparative Study of Japanese and Western thoughts”. The theoretical underpinnings of the subject were also explored as in Dr. Hassan Azzouzi's “The Need of Methodological Rules composing the Occidentalist Thought”. Moreover, Indian Occidentalism was present in “In Retrospect: Indian Occidentalism, Reference-corpus and Questions of Specificity” by Dr. Mohammad Sanaullah AlNadawi. Finally, religious identities were also discussed in “The Jewish Community between Orientalism and Occidentialism” by Prof. Muhammad Khalifa Hasan. From the findings of the Conference, select papers of which will be featured in this exceptional issue of our journal, we can conclude that geographical diversity is an undisputed reality, and cultural diversity is inevitable (Had your Lord willed, He would have made mankind one nation, but they continue to have their differences) [Hud 11: 118]. East and West are different in nature, roots, motives and aims. The great principles and lofty values, as elaborated by the Islamic perspective, are the available and accessible means to build relations, including:  Human Succession: Human beings are the successors of Allah on Earth. The have a religious obligation to fulfill the duties of succession, promote growth and prosperity on earth, spread justice, and avoid injustice, aggression, and bloodletting.  Human Unity: Humanity has one origin, and all human beings descend from a single common ancestor. Hence, there should be no inequality between races or repugnant racism. The criteria for excellence and preference shall be righteousness, good deeds and working for the common good (The noblest of you before Allah is the most righteous of you) [al-Hujurat 49: 13]. The difference is one of the main objectives of creation. It shall entail coming to know and cooperate with one another, rather than rivalry, antagonism, and arrogance.  Dialog and Coming to Common Terms: Dialog with the other is a civil imperative to build a compassionate human model. This is the premise for cultural exchange and cross-fertilization, the exchange of useful experiences serving the humanity of humans, and coming together to promote growth and prosperity on earth. Humanity has much in common regarding what could serve upright conduct and promote human welfare and prosperity on earth.  Utilizing the Islamic experience in knowing and building fair normal relations with other this could be found in the writings of religious scholars, comparative religion scholars, Muslim geographists and travelers. These writings have yielded a wide network of ties with the East and West and these efforts have contributed to the establishment of the just and prosperous Islamic civilization, as Muslims depended on the overriding Qur'anic rule (God does not forbid you to deal kindly and justly with anyone who has not fought you for your faith or driven you out of your homes: God loves the just. However, God forbids you to take as allies those who have fought against you for your faith, driven you out of your homes, and helped others to drive you out: any of you who take them as allies will truly be wrongdoers) [Al-Mumtahinah 60: 8-9]. Let us not prejudice the reader, as the cited studies are through and sufficient. The published papers encourage researchers to make their contributions, criticisms, questioning and additions, which will benefit all. It is worth noting that while this JCSIS special issue on “Occidentalist Thought in Contemporary Intellectual Discourse” is being published, Qatar University Press is preparing to publish the first parts of the “Encyclopedia of Occidentalism”; which is the first of its kind largest intellectual encyclopedia in the Arab and Islamic world that studies and focuses on the West. These encyclopedia’s entries have been written by more than eighty researchers from four continents (Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America). It is being issued in collaboration between a number of entities, including; the Qatari Committee for the Alliance of Civilizations (QCAC) at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the ISESCO Chair in Alliance of Civilizations, and the College of Sharia and Islamic Studies at Qatar University.

2007 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 363-363
Author(s):  
Hajime Asama ◽  
◽  
Jun Ota ◽  

Animals behave adaptively in diverse environments. Adaptive behavior, which is one of intelligent sensory-motor functions, is disturbed in patients with neurological disorders. Mechanisms for the generation of intelligent adaptive behaviors are not well understood. Such an adaptive function is considered to emerge from the interaction of the body, brain, and environment, which requires that a subject acts or moves. Intelligence for generating adaptive motor functions is thus called mobiligence. This special issue features papers dealing with mobiligence. The 18 papers were selected after a thorough peer review. The scope of these papers extends from analytical studies close to biology to synthetic studies close to engineering. Subjects are diverse – insects, monkeys, human beings, robots, networks. All papers play a part in mobiligence studies. We thank the Editorial Board of Journal of Robotics and Mechatronics for giving us the opportunity for publishing this special issue. We also thank the authors for their perseverance and expertise, and deeply appreciate the timely and helpful comments of the reviewers.


2000 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 501-501
Author(s):  
Michitaka Kameyama ◽  

Recent advance in the information technology makes our society very convenient from the viewpoint of human-to-human information communication. However, our new living style will require not only human-tohuman communication but also autonomous intelligent applications that support human beings such as an intelligent robot system, an intelligent transportation system, and a security/safe system as shown in Figure. These applications will contribute to human-oriented information society.Intelligent vehicle Home service robot Security The use of special-purpose VLSI processors capable of processing a large amount of real-world data is essential to make such applications realistic. In recent industrial trend, the special-purpose processors are called ""System LSIs"". One of the most important environmental informations in real-world applications is a vision information. The factor common to the applications is to catch an environment information moment by moment and to respond quickly with it. Therefore, it is important to make the response time from inputs to outputs very small. In this case, sensor data transfer bottleneck is not allowed as well as memory-to-PE (Processing Element) data transfer bottleneck. An image sensor signal processing VLSI together with image sensor devices is a key issue in such applications. From the above point of views, this special issue was planned to demonstrate the recent results of this area. Finally, I would like to express my appreciation to the authors for their efforts and contributions to this special issue and also the members of the Editorial Board for their cooperation.


2005 ◽  
Vol 17 (6) ◽  
pp. 607-607
Author(s):  
Taketoshi Mori ◽  

Human modeling is becoming an essential key technology for robotics and mechatronics systems that aid and expand human activities. Human modeling is indispensable in designing systems that conduct tasks difficult or even impossible for human beings to accomplish. Such systems include humanoid robots, power assistance suits, communication robots, intelligent support rooms, and user interface devices. This special issue focuses on the latest state-of-the-art human modeling research, especially in robotics, presenting a wide variety of human modeling areas. To support human beings in real-world environments, human behavior model is considerably important. Adaptation to personal characteristics may be the core function of next-generation system mechanisms, and human social modeling is the principal focus of interfacing for interaction systems. Cognitive and psychological models of human beings have always been an important domain in human-machine systems. Probabilistic and static methods have attracted attention in this research field. Not only mechanical but physiological human modeling may soon become 'vital' for all kind of robotic systems. This special issue is the kernel node for cultivating these rapidly advancing areas. I thank the authors of the articles in this issue for their invaluable effort and contributions. I also thank the members of the Editorial board, without whose work this special issue would not have been possible.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 3
Author(s):  
Daniele Bertini

Evolutionary research on the biological fitness of groups has recently given a prominent value to the role that prosocial behaviors play in favoring a successful adaptation to ecological niches. Such a focus marks a paradigm shift. Early views of evolution relied on the notion of natural selection as a largely competitive mechanism for the achievement of the highest amount of resources. Today, evolutionists from different schools think that collaborative attitudes are an irremovable ingredient of biological change over time. As a consequence, a number of researchers have been attracted by evolutionary studies of human behaviors. Some think that a continuity among prosocial attitudes of human beings and other social mammals (particularly primates) can be detected, and that this fact has relevance for accounting for human morality. Others deny one or the other of these claims, or both. The papers in the present special issue address how these topics impact ethics and religion.


2012 ◽  
Vol 24 (5) ◽  
pp. 717-717
Author(s):  
Hideaki Takanobu ◽  
Taketoshi Mori

Intentions for health and well-being are increasing as associated technology has progressed. In 2011, the average life span of Japanese men was 79.44 years and that of women was 85.90 years. This situation has made cooperation in medical science and engineering an important issue in robotics and mechatronics research. In the same way, cooperation in medical science and engineering has come to include operations support, life support, informational intelligence, virtual reality, and so on. The following special issues in the Journal of Robotics and Mechatronics have been related to medical science and engineering: - Special Issue on Service Technology for Health andWell-Being, Vol.20, No.6. - Special Issue on Human Modeling in Robotics, Vol.17, No.6. - Special Issue on Advanced Mechatronics Technology for Life Support and Human Welfare, Vol.4, No.4. This next special issue centers on the following keywords: wheelchair, rehabilitation support system, life pattern estimation, blood flow measurement, diagnostic probe, surgical navigation, children, blood pressure, safe actuator, gait rehabilitation, measurement, and children’s behavior. We thank all of the authors who have submitted their papers for this special issue and reviewers for their time and effort. We also thank the JRM Editorial Board for the opportunity to take part in this work.


1992 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 257-257
Author(s):  
Hideto Ide

In the latter part of July, 1991, I attended the cultural lecture meeting called ""Welfare Robots"" as the chairman and also as one of the lecturers, which was held in a certain city in the suburbs of Tokyo. Some 250 people between the ages of 20 and 80 listened to the lectures attentively and also participated in various discussions. One of the topics at this meeting was whether or not sophisticated robots could be useful for welfare. One of project leaders made a statement saying in essence ""If robots could be produced which are similar to human beings, then men could be replaced by robots without modifying the current production lines which are relied on by human beings. In consequence, the development of brainy, sophisticated robots is absolutely indispensable for achieving automation."" This implies that sophisticated robots are viewed as a powerful tool for the automation of tasks. With regard to this point, I have been making somewhat negative statements in the past. In the current situations in Japan, there are only few examples of the use in production lines intelligent robots with sensors which have been studied by the so-called robot researchers. Production lines employ more simply repetitive robots which are technically mature but only have position control functions. Even visiting a highly automated factory, one does not often encounter a scene where a robot with sophisticated intelligence or sensors is actively engaged in a task. Because research results are not fully utilized in practical robots, one often hears stories about corporate managers saying to their robot researchers in a blaming tone ""what are you going to produce a robot that is usable?"" The idea that robot technology is part of automation technology is not something which has originated in this project. It appears that a number of people in hospitals are thinking along this line. I myself often receive inquiries concerning technical matter like ""Couldn't this task be automated by a robot?"" Moreover, a variety of robot terms are now being used with the names of various applicable fields being attached to the word robot such as maintenance robot, sweeping robot, nursing robot, medical robot, welfare robot, etc. All these are names of robots as automated systems which may replace men for work in various fields. In trying to develop a certain practical system, there are developmental goals that are peculiar to the system. To construct systems which serve such goals efficiently and economically is the basis for the development of individual systems. When the goal of the development of a system is identical with that intended by the study of a robot, then this robot is expected to provide a powerful solution to the creation of the system. However, it is not necessarily true that such a condition is always satisfied, but it often happens that robot technology does not assume the optimum solution for the intended system. For example, in considering the construction of an automated system for a production line as mentioned above, what is intended is the construction of a highly productive line, and the machines required as components of the system are those which carry out tasks with reliability and at low costs. In general, the practical technology which is used for the development of machines with such requirements is not the advanced robot technology but is the technology for building highly rigid systems or the high-speed positioning servo technology. It can therefore be said that from the standpoint of constructing automated lines, it is more effective to study system designs or servo technology. When robots are viewed as automation technology, then such servo technology can be said to be part of the robot technology. But simply saying that would eliminate any characteristic inherent in robot technology. In that case, the question naturally arises as to what robot engineering or robotics is. I believe that regardless of applications, the study involves looking at the functions of living bodies, making technical interpretations, and then discovering new design concepts for engineering systems. By taking such attitude, I think that the world of learning peculiar to robot engineering is born for the first time which is independent of the traditional areas of learning such as mechanical engineering and control engineering. This magazine is a special issue on welfare robots whose articles have been kindly written by various experts engaged in studies of robots from the standpoint of placing particular emphasis on the characteristics of living bodies.


1996 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 491-491
Author(s):  
Michitaka Kameyama ◽  

Intelligence is one of the most important subjects in information and electronics systems. In many applications such as multi media systems, home electronics systems, factory automation systems, security systems and aerospace systems, advanced intelligent processing technologies are more required to be developed as shown in Figure. There are two approaches to increase intelligence, although they are closely related each other and may not be separable. One is an algorithm-based approach to directly increase intelligence quality. The other is a computational-power-based approach to directly increase processing performance. Even if a single operation is very simple, its repeated operations often make the processing intelligent. The problem is how to increase the computational power. It is obvious that software acceleration using general-purpose microprocessors has some limitation. Therefore, special acceleration using newly developed chips is one of the most important solutions. In particular, real-world applications need to achieve very quick response for dynamically changing real-world environment. Therefore, special-purpose processors and special-purpose accelerators or engines, are essential to make the above applications realistic. Another words, ""to realize high speed processing intelligence"" On the other hand, solid-state circuits technology enabling single-chip systems have rapid advancement resulting in dramatic improvements in both performance and cost oer function. In fact, one-giga-bit DRAMs, ten SPECint95 microprocessors containing ten million transistors are being developed by recent VLSI technology. It is no more a dream to develop practical special processors using the recent VLSI technology. Moreover, new architecture and new concept circuits have been actively studied for the next-generation integration technology. From the above point of view, this special issue was planned to demonstrate the above important area. Especially, intelligent robot is a typical class of applications, soits intelligence technology makes also any other application promising. Finally, I would like to express my application to the authors for their efforts and contributions to this special issue and also the members of the Editorial Board for their useful comments.


MediaTropes ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. i-xvi
Author(s):  
Jordan Kinder ◽  
Lucie Stepanik

In this introduction to the special issue of MediaTropes on “Oil and Media, Oil as Media,” Jordan B. Kinder and Lucie Stepanik provide an account of the stakes and consequences of approaching oil as media as they situate it within the “material turn” of media studies and the broader project energy humanities. They argue that by critically approaching oil and its infrastructures as media, the contributions that comprise this issue puts forward one way to develop an account of oil that further refines the larger tasks and stakes implicit in the energy humanities. Together, these address the myriad ways in which oil mediates social, cultural, and ecological relations, on the one hand, and the ways in which it is mediated, on the other, while thinking through how such mediations might offer glimpses of a future beyond oil.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
José Luis Sepúlveda Ferriz

Freedom and Justice have always been challenged. Since the most remote times, and in the most varied circumstances of places and people, human beings have tried to clarify and put into practice these two controversial concepts. Freedom and Justice, in effect, are words, but also dreams, desires and practices that, not being imperfect, are less sublime and ambitious. Reflecting on them on the basis of an ethics of development and socioenvironmental sustainability is still a great challenge in our contemporaneity. This book is born from the need that we all have to reflect, understand what our role is in relation to the OTHER, understood as the other as Environment. Doing this from such disparate areas and at the same time as current as Economics, Philosophy and Ecology, is still a great opportunity to discuss complexity, transdisciplinarity and the inclusion of diverse themes, but which all converge in the Human Being and its relationship with the world. Endowing human beings with Freedom and a sense of Justice means RESPONSIBILITY. To be free and to want a better and fairer world is to endow our existence with meaning and meaning. Agency, autonomy, functioning, dignity, rights, are capacities that must be leveraged individually and collectively for authentic development to exist. Development as Freedom is a valid proposal for thinking about a socio-environmental rationality that interferes in the controversial relations between economics, ethics and the environment.


Author(s):  
عبد المجيد قاسم عبد المجيد (Qasim Abdulmajid) ◽  
محمد ليبا (Liba)

تناولت هذه الورقة فلسفة العقوبة في الشريعة الإسلامية، وفلسفتها في القانون الوضعي، وتمت الموازنة بين الفلسفتين، وخلص العرض والموازنة إلى نتائج ملخصها أن مسألة عصمة الشريعة وسموها تعد علامة فارقة بين الشريعة الإسلامية والقانون الوضعي، هذه العلامة نتج عنها فروق كثيرة أولها أن العقوبة في التشريع الوضعي تكون تابعةً للهدف، فالهدف يوضع أولاً ثم تصاغ على ضوئه العقوبة، ولذلك كلما ظهرت مدرسةٌ جديدةٌ تؤسس لفكرٍ جديدٍ ظهر اختلافٌ في التشريع العقابي. بينما النظام العقابي الإسلامي ثابتٌ ومعصوم، وقد وُجدت الحاجة إلى معرفة أهدافه وفلسفته ليتسنى السير على مقتضاها فيما يستجد من وقائع، وأن سمو فلسفة العقوبة في الشريعة الإسلامية ينبع من سمو مصدرها، فواضع هذه العقوبات هو خالق البشر. بينما العقوبة في القانون الوضعي تعتمد في فلسفتها على خبرة واضعيها، وهي خبرة محدودة وأحكامها نسبية، لذا كان تطبيق العقوبات الشرعية أجدر حتى وإن لم يُدرَك كنه هذه العقوبات وفلسفتها. الكلمات الرئيسية: فلسفة العقوبة، القانون الإسلامي، القانون الوضعي، التشريع العقابي.******************************In this paper light is shed on the philosophy of punishment in Islamic and positive laws and a comparison between them is accomplished. In brief, the conclusion of the exposition and comparison is that issue of infallibility of SharÊ‘ah and its nobleness are the distinguishing marks between Islamic and positive laws. This led to further differences. The first difference is that the punishment in positive laws is in accordance with the stipulated goal, that is, the goal is set first and then the punishment is formulated in that light. That is why whenever any new school of thought appears based on some ideology, differences emerge in punitive legislation. Islamic penal system is, however, immutable and infallible. There is a need to know its objectives and wisdom so as to in order to tackle new emerging issues. The nobility of the philosophy of punishment in Islamic law stems from the nobility of its source and that is no one but the Creator of human beings. The punishment in the positive law, on the other hand, relies on the philosophy that is based on the experiences of the authors of these laws. And these experiences are limited and their rulings are relativistic. Applying Islamic legal punishments are, therefore, more legitimate, even though their essence and philosophy are not fully grasped.Key words: Philosophy of Punishment, Islamic Law, Positive Law, Punitive Legislation.


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