Moral Visions in Medieval Muslim Interpretations of Sūra 102 Al-Takāthur: Warnings against Pride, Wealth, or Pleasure?

This article focuses on sūra 102 al-Takāthur of the Qur’ān which addresses those preoccupied with al-takāthur (competition for superiority in number, or accumulation of wealth), warning them of the punishment of Hell in the Hereafter and of their interrogation about al-na‘īm (the worldly pleasures) on the Day of Judgement. The grave eschatological implications of engaging in al-takāthur and al-na‘īm, conveyed in this sūra, have triggered attempts by Muslim scholars to determine the intended meanings of these notions and the scope of their reference. This article examines the interpretations of al-takāthur and al-na‘īm in medieval commentaries on sūra al-Takāthur with the aim of identifying and analysing various interpretative trends regarding these two notions and exploring their connection with the moral orientations among Muslims in the medieval period of Islamic history.

From Rhetoric to Reality

What are the implications of our results for scientific and religious communities? Drawing on the core empirical patterns discussed in the book, this chapter explains how the rhetoric of New Atheism espoused by celebrity scientists does not square with the reality of atheism experienced by atheist scientists in the U.S. and U.K. Religious communities may not be aware of atheist scientists’ actual views of faith, scientism, their moral orientations, or—for atheists who grew up religious—the reasons why they abandoned past faith. And, there is more common ground between the scientific and religious communities than either group is aware, offering fertile ground for dialogue. A diverse array of stakeholders should be involved in such pursuits, including national organizations, universities, churches, and science communicators. The success of these efforts have implications for public confidence in science and diversity within the profession.

Asking and Telling in Conversation

The work contains nine published conversation analytic articles by Anita Pomerantz on asking and telling practices. Each paper explicates complexities involved when people ask or tell something. Asking and telling practices are used to exchange information, share evaluative reactions, offer compliments, and make accusations. The ways in which participants perform the actions reflect how they orient to those actions and to the matter asked about or reported. The timing of asking or telling within a sequence of actions and/or interactional project bears on how the talk and action are formed and understood. Implicit and explicit knowledge claims and expectations are foundational to asking and telling activities. Assumptions are associated with participants’ directly and indirectly seeking or providing information. Reporting or asking about praiseworthy or blameworthy matters implicates an attribution of responsibility. Moral orientations influence asking and telling activities. The conversation analytic papers included in this work range from Pomerantz’s earliest research on preference organization to her more recent work on asking and telling. For each article, there is a lead-in that identifies the research interests that drove the analysis and a commentary that provides her current sense of the analysis. The introductory and concluding chapters discuss the complexities of asking and telling in the light of the articles’ findings, and they illuminate the links the papers have to one another. Pomerantz shares her views about the program of conversation analytic research, a view that is reflected both in the studies and in her commentaries.

Desarrollo moral a través de un programa predeportivo y de valores en estudiantes adultos con discapacidad intelectual

El objetivo del presente trabajo fue incrementar el desarrollo moral en alumnos adultos con discapacidad intelectual, a través de un programa predeportivo y de valores. El programa se llevó a cabo a lo largo de un cuatrimestre de un título dirigido a la inserción sociolaboral de personas con discapacidad intelectual. Participaron 37 alumnos de ambos sexos, de tres promociones consecutivas (n1 = 11; n2 = 12; n3 = 14), entre los 19 y los 37 años (M = 24.49 ± 4.22). Se utilizó la versión española del Moral Competence Test (MCT), que mide los dos componentes del desarrollo moral: la competencia moral y las orientaciones o preferencias morales. Se planificó un diseño cuasiexperimental de cohorte de ciclo institucional recurrente, implicando a tres cohortes evaluadas en tres años consecutivos. Además, para asegurar la equivalencia de los grupos se realizó un estudio acerca de la influencia de variables sociodemográficas y clínicas en el cambio de la competencia moral del alumnado, a través de un diseño ex post facto prospectivo de grupo único. Los resultados mostraron un aumento del desarrollo moral, en sus dos componentes, con significación estadística en el estadio 4 de las orientaciones o preferencias morales. The aim of this study was to increase moral development of the students with intellectual disabilities, through an intervention with values learning and adapted sports. The program was developed in a training course for Social and Labor insertion of People with Intellectual Disability. The sample consisted of 37 students of three consecutive promotions (n1 = 11; n2 = 12; n3 = 14), aged from 19 to 37 years (M = 24.49 ± 4.22). Instrument used was the Spanish version of the Moral Competence Test adapted to intellectual disability (MCT) which measures the two components of moral development through two scores: moral competence and moral orientations/preferences. A quasi-experimental recurrent institutional cycle cohort design was planned. This design involved three cohorts, evaluated in three consecutive years. In addition, to ensure the equivalence of the groups, a study was carried out on the influence of sociodemographic and clinical variables in the change of students' moral competence, through a prospective ex post facto single group design. The results showed an improvement in two components of moral development, with statistically significant differences in stage 4 of moral orientations/preferences.

The moral foundations of crime control in American presidential platforms, 1968–2016

The present research for the first time uses Moral Foundations Theory (MFT) as an analytical framework for evaluating the moral foundations of prescriptive presidential party platform statements on crime control from 1968 through 2016. We use summative content analysis to consider the politics of crime control at a broad, foundational level. Our analysis brings data to bear on previously observed trends in the politics of crime control (e.g., Democrats became increasingly conservative on crime in the 1990s) and deepens our understanding by illuminating and contextualizing the latent ideologies and implicit moral orientations to crime of both parties over time. Our findings speak to the prominence of certain moral foundations, authority and care in particular, in partisan frameworks on crime control and indicate trends in reliance on individualizing foundations ( fairness and care) and binding foundations ( authority, loyalty, purity). We consider the implications of these findings for future research on the politics of crime control.

Moral Religiosities: How Morality Structures Religious Understandings during the Transition to Adulthood

Religiosity remains an important sociological concept, from assessing religion’s effects on various outcomes to describing large-scale religious change. And yet conceptualizing religiosity—as a measure of intensity of religious practice—requires accounting for how respondents understand religious practice. Drawing on four waves of longitudinal interview data from the National Study of Youth and Religion (NSYR), this paper examines the religious understandings of young Americans as they develop over 10 years. I find that respondents’ religious understandings are shaped by deeper moral orientations that broadly structure their lives. From these moral orientations, I theorize four ideal types of religious practitioners that help explain complex patterns of religiosity in America—the Congregant, the Believer, the Spiritualist, and the Metaphysician. Recognizing the moral orders that structure young Americans’ religious understandings opens new pathways for theorizing religion’s influence and change over time.

Moral Religiosities: How Morality Structures Religious Understandings during the Transition to Adulthood

Religiosity remains an important sociological concept, from assessing religion’s effects on various outcomes to describing large-scale religious change. And yet conceptualizing religiosity—as a measure of intensity of religious practice—requires accounting for how respondents understand religious practice. Drawing on four waves of longitudinal interview data from the National Study of Youth and Religion (NSYR), this paper examines the religious understandings of young Americans as they develop over ten years. I find that respondents’ religious understandings are shaped by deeper moral orientations that broadly structure their lives. From these moral orientations, I theorize four ideal types of religious practitioners that help explain complex patterns of religiosity in America—the Congregant, the Believer, the Spiritualist, and the Metaphysician. Recognizing the moral orders that structure young Americans’ religious understandings opens new pathways for theorizing religion’s influence and change over time.

Suffering and the moral orientation of presence: lessons from Nazi medicine for the contemporary medical trainee

Medical trainees should learn from the actions of Nazi physicians to inform a more just contemporary practice by examining the subtle assumptions, or moral orientations, that led to such heinous actions. One important moral orientation that still informs contemporary medical practice is the moral orientation of elimination in response to suffering patients. We propose that the moral orientation of presence, described by theologian Stanley Hauerwas, provides a more fitting response to suffering patients, in spite of the significant barriers to enacting such a moral orientation for contemporary trainees.

EXPRESSIVE SYNTACTIC STRUCTURES IN M.E. SALTYKOV-SHCHEDRIN'S ARTISTIC DISCOURSE

The article is dedicated to the research of expressive syntactic structures in M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin’s artistic discourse that received major or minor types and phraseological statuses. By strikingly combining and synthesizing real and fictional things, writer reaches the heights of satirical imagery. It should be noted that, judging by the satirical nature of his works, the intensity semantics (exaggeration or hyperbole) carries a strong importance, while the wide specter of hypotaxis-based sentences is used as a means of its realization. Syntactic units of idiomatic structure that express intensity-consequential, concession-amplification, temporal-concession and other relations are differentiated by their semantic diversity, merging of informative and connotative meanings, combination of real and surreal contents, combination of stable and variable components. The expressions created by the tak/takoj/nastol'ko/do togo/do takoj stepeni…chto; slishkom/chereschur…chtoby; chto (by) ni/kak (by) ni…a; uzh na chto…a; ne uspeet…a (kak); eshche ne..., a uzh scheme are related to the phrase models mentioned above. They are formed on the base of constant components that make up sentence’s carcass, which provides free lexical filling. Meanwhile, the sphere of relational meanings is complicated by the modus-expressive meanings. Semantics of contrast, unusualness, suddenness (subjective hyperbolization that does not match the objective state of affairs, combining of incompatible, shift of moral orientations, combination of real and potential plans etc.) contributes to the appearance of the comical or sarcastic effect. In the functional and textual aspect, the analyzed phrase models become the leading means of presenting speaker’s position in the comprehension of world’s moral picture