On the Various Benefits of the Domains of Human Knowledge (1765)

Keyword(s):  
2011 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 86-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isra Yazicioglu

Miracle stories in sacred texts have been a source of both fascination and heated debate across religious traditions. Qur'anic miracle stories are especially interesting because they are part of a discourse that also de-emphasises the miraculous. By looking at how three scholars have engaged with Qur'anic miracle stories, I here investigate how these narratives have been interpreted in diverse and fruitful ways. The first part of the article analyses how two medieval scholars, al-Ghazālī (d. 505/1111) and Ibn Rushd (d. 595/1198), engaged with the implications of miracle stories. Taking his cue from miracle stories, al-Ghazālī offered a sophisticated critique of natural determinism and suggested that the natural order should be perceived as a constantly renewed divine gift. In contrast, Ibn Rushd dismissed al-Ghazālī’s critique as sophistry and maintained that accepting the possibility that the natural order might be suspended was an affront to human knowledge and science. In the second part, I turn to Bediuzzaman Said Nursi (1870–1960), whose interpretation offers a crystallisation of al-Ghazālī’s insights as well as, surprisingly, an indirect confirmation of Ibn Rushd's concerns about human knowledge and science. Nursi redefines the miraculous in light of miracle stories, and interprets them as reminders of ‘everyday miracles’ and as encouragements to improve science and technology in God's name.


Author(s):  
Tim Gorichanaz

A synthesis of the work of Michael Buckland reveals the critique that, for too long, LIS has been a one-sided coin. Growing out of professional education, LIS has traditionally nurtured only its applied, practical and empirical side. Challenging this imbalance, emerging research in LIS points to the development of the basic, liberal arts and conceptual side of the discipline. Indeed, the advent of JCLIS reflects this trend. An interest in basic LIS is welcome for a number of reasons: By clarifying key concepts, it will lead to improved practice; by contributing more widely to human knowledge it will fulfill the obligations of being an academic research department; and by exploring information issues which are becoming relevant to all members of society, it will realize a greater purpose. This paper surveys the extent to which the basic side of LIS has emerged, examining the content of the top LIS journals and the curricula of the top LIS institutions. The findings point to an inchoate reverse, but one with numerous challenges that remain beyond the horizon. This paper serves as an invitation to researchers and educators to consider how they can further contribute to minting the basic side of the coin of LIS.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 80-87
Author(s):  
Laura Carmen Cuțitaru

Abstract The 2016 much acclaimed American sci-fi movie Arrival is based on (what is in reality an extension of) the so-called “Sapir-Whorf” hypothesis, a linguistic theory set forth in the first half of the 20th century, according to which one’s native language dictates the way in which one perceives reality. By taking into account the latest in human knowledge, this paper tries to provide arguments as to why such a claim works wonderfully in fiction, but not in science.


2013 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-3
Author(s):  
João José Pinto Ferreira ◽  
Anne-Laure Mention ◽  
Marko Torkkeli

The expansion of human knowledge in all areas is largely the outcome of the activity of academic institutions and the result of their mission to contribute to the cultural, intellectual and economic development of the society, involving education, research and university extension activities. For many years, the academic community has been organizing itself in all different ways to respond to current and future needs, ensuring research integrity and recognition, and building on successive generations of peers to validate and support the launching and development of novel research streams. We owe the current state of research and development of our society to generations of scholars and scientists that have brought all of us here.(...)


2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 108
Author(s):  
Dian Permata Sari

<p>Sistem pakar merupakan sistem yang mengadopsi pengetahuan manusia ke komputer yang dirancang untuk memodelkan kemampuan menyelesaikan masalah seperti layaknya seorang pakar. Dengan sistem pakar ini, orang awam pun dapat menyelesaikan masalahnya atau hanya sekedar mencari suatu informasi berkualitas yang sebenarnya hanya dapat diperoleh dengan bantuan para ahli di bidangnya. Salah satunya yaitu dibidang medis untuk mendiagnosapenyakit anak. Mengetahui gejala dari suatu penyakit secara dini dapat menjadi bantuan pertama yang dapat dilakukan para orang tua di rumah jika anak mereka terserang penyakit.Basis pengetahuan disusun sedemikian rupa kedalam database dengan beberapa tabel. Penarikan kesimpulan dalam sistem pakar ini menggunakan metode inferensi <em>forward chaining</em>. Sistem pakar akan memberikan pertanyaan-pertanyaan kepada user berupa gejala dari beberapa penyakit dan user akan menjawab pertanyaan tersebut. Hingga <em>user</em> akan mendapatkan solusi dari hasil pertanyaan tadi. </p><p><em><br /></em></p><p><em>Expert systems are systems that adopt human knowledge into computers designed to model the ability to resolve problems like an expert. Through thisexpert systems,commoner cansolvetheproblem orjustlookingfor a qualityinformationthat can onlybeobtainedwiththehelpofexperts in thefield. One ofthemis in the medical field to diagnosethe children's illness.Knowingthesymptomsofanillnessearly can bethefirstaidto parents if their children stricken withthedisease at home.</em><em>Knowledgebase is arranged into a highlystructureddatabasewithmultipletables. Inferences in this expert system uses forward chaining inference method. Expert systems will provide questions to the user in the form of the symptoms of some diseases and the user will answer that question. Until the user will get the solution of the question.</em></p>


Author(s):  
Barry Stroud

This chapter presents a straightforward structural description of Immanuel Kant’s conception of what the transcendental deduction is supposed to do, and how it is supposed to do it. The ‘deduction’ Kant thinks is needed for understanding the human mind would establish and explain our ‘right’ or ‘entitlement’ to something we seem to possess and employ in ‘the highly complicated web of human knowledge’. This is: experience, concepts, and principles. The chapter explains the point and strategy of the ‘deduction’ as Kant understands it, as well as the demanding conditions of its success, without entering into complexities of interpretation or critical assessment of the degree of success actually achieved. It also analyses Kant’s arguments regarding a priori concepts as well as a posteriori knowledge of the world around us, along with his claim that our position in the world must be understood as ‘empirical realism’.


This book explores the intertwining domains of artificial intelligence (AI) and ethics—two highly divergent fields which at first seem to have nothing to do with one another. AI is a collection of computational methods for studying human knowledge, learning, and behavior, including by building agents able to know, learn, and behave. Ethics is a body of human knowledge—far from completely understood—that helps agents (humans today, but perhaps eventually robots and other AIs) decide how they and others should behave. Despite these differences, however, the rapid development in AI technology today has led to a growing number of ethical issues in a multitude of fields, ranging from disciplines as far-reaching as international human rights law to issues as intimate as personal identity and sexuality. In fact, the number and variety of topics in this volume illustrate the width, diversity of content, and at times exasperating vagueness of the boundaries of “AI Ethics” as a domain of inquiry. Within this discourse, the book points to the capacity of sociotechnical systems that utilize data-driven algorithms to classify, to make decisions, and to control complex systems. Given the wide-reaching and often intimate impact these AI systems have on daily human lives, this volume attempts to address the increasingly complicated relations between humanity and artificial intelligence. It considers not only how humanity must conduct themselves toward AI but also how AI must behave toward humanity.


Author(s):  
Kathleen Long

Monsters take on many roles in Montaigne’s Essays, almost always in novel ways. They do not take on their usual roles as markers of other races, genders, or bodies, as threats or objects of repulsion. Rather, the authorial self and his work are seen as monstrous; Europeans and their culture are seen as monstrous; the knowledge systems that create monsters are themselves monstrous; man’s vanity is monstrous. But most of all, the monster is the provocation to meditation on man’s presumption, and on the limitations of human knowledge and power in the face of the world and the divine. As the sign of the diversity and mutability of the natural world and thus of divine omnipotence, the monstrous and unusual is valued by Montaigne over the normal or usual. It is also the mark of human creativity, dependent as it is on the vagaries of the imagination, new and radically different from the rhetorical, literary, and artistic norms. This is why the Essays themselves can be considered a monstrous work.


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