Philosophical and Legal Foundations of the Comprehensive Theory of Law

The article is devoted to the clarification of the essence of the law. The article examines the ontology of law, and the epistemology of law reflects the philosophical problems of law. The conclusion about the law as a contradictory social phenomenon is formulated. The article substantiates the theory of the comprehensive (all-encompassing) study of law as a philosophical and philosophical-legal theory, the purpose of which is characterized not in the justification of any one theory of law but in the comprehensive study of law, taking into account all available theories. The comprehensive theory allows us to look at the law philosophically, stating the different properties of the object, their manifestations and contradictions. The article argues that it is the philosophical attitude to the law that many scientists lack.

The Revelation and Compilation of Torah: A Critical Review of a Few Prominent Muslim Scholars

Muslim scholars have generally assumed that the Torah was all revealed at once to Prophet Musa [Moses], peace be on him, which is why the Muslim discourse on the Torah generally lacks discussion on its codification. However, some of the Muslim scholars took the position that, like the Qur’an, the Torah was revealed gradually. The present paper examines the views of four eminent scholars – ‘Ubaydullah Sindhi, Abu ’l-A‘la Mawdudi, Amin Ahsan Islahi and Javed Ahmad Ghamidi – and tries to build a comprehensive theory about the revelation and codification of the Torah as well as about critical analysis of the content of the Pentateuch. It concludes that the principles which Muslim tradition has developed for ascertaining authenticity of traditions and for interpretation of the Qur’anic verses and Prophetic traditions as well as for reconciliation of apparently conflicting texts can be very beneficial in developing a coherent Muslim theory for Biblical criticism.

From replication to substantiation: A complexity theory perspective

In contemporary methodological thinking, replication holds a central place. However, relatively little attention has been paid to replication in the context of complex dynamic systems theory (CDST), perhaps due to uncertainty regarding the epistemology–methodology match between these domains. In this paper, we explore the place of replication in relation to open systems and argue that three conditions must be in place for replication research to be effective: results interpretability, theoretical maturity, and terminological precision. We consider whether these conditions are part of the applied linguistics body of work, and then propose a more comprehensive framework centering on what we call substantiation research, only one aspect of which is replication. Using this framework, we discuss three approaches to dealing with replication from a CDST perspective theory. These approaches are moving from a representing to an intervening mindset, from a comprehensive theory to a mini-theory mindset, and from individual findings to a cumulative mindset.

A New Theory of Human Behavior and Motivation

We introduce a novel and comprehensive theory of human behavior and motivation, which incorporates within it both the laws of biology and core aspects of the social sciences. In continuation of the governing postulates of natural sciences we formulate the principle of preservation as the primary law of psychology; provide precise criteria for the definition of basic human needs and uncover their origin; explore the relation between body and mind; and show correlations between individual and social perspectives of life. Subsequently, we integrate these concepts into a unified model of human behavior. We reevaluate the place of psychology within the overall domain of social science and postulate the key role of psychological drives in formation of social processes both in the current and historical perspectives. The paper signifies a step towards establishment of a common paradigm of psychology.

Feminist theory and the problem of misogyny

Feminist theory, broadly construed, lacks a comprehensive theory of misogyny. While there has been a great deal of feminist work dedicated to analysing the social, cultural, political, and institutional effects of misogyny, the ancillary theories of misogyny these analyses produce are only ever partial, fragmented, vague or conceptually inconsistent. This article engages and critiques these theories by focusing on three separate but related issues within existing feminist scholarship on misogyny: the conflation of misogyny with sexism, the elision of misogyny's affective elements and the supplanting of misogyny with gendered violence. Through my identification and critique of these issues, I argue that misogyny should be understood as a profoundly complicated and emotional social dynamic. Moreover, I argue that to attempt to cleanse misogyny of its affective/emotional complexity or conflate misogyny with sexism and/or violence is to rob theorists of possible loci of apprehension and intervention. My hope is that this article will stimulate feminist theorists to work collectively towards a more comprehensive feminist understanding of misogyny – one that grapples with the interpersonal and affective complexities of how misogyny emerges, circulates and self-perpetuates.

The Necessity of an Emic Paradigm in Psychology

This article provides an overview of developments in the field of Black/Africana/Pan African psychology over the past 50 years. It has evolved toward production of psychological knowledge grounded in an emic cultural paradigm consistent with the understandings emerging from classical African civilization and across the Diaspora. The historical context for the development of a Black/Africana cultural paradigm is discussed, including an analysis of the failure of Eurowestern psychology to effectively address the mental health needs of people of African ancestry, particularly as exemplified in the experience of Non-immigrant Africans in the Americas (NIAAs). Readers are introduced to the rise of African-centered cultural frames of reference, values, and psychological models, practices, and strategies. The development of Optimal Psychology or Optimal Conceptual Theory (OCT) is highlighted. OCT is a comprehensive theory successfully implemented, utilized, and researched for more than 40 years. The production of psychological knowledge built upon a cultural paradigm rooted in the wisdom tradition of African deep thought traceable to the birthplace of all humankind is essential to a comprehensive understanding of humanity and will be described.

Dropwise Condensation Mechanism on Smooth Hydrophilic Surfaces

The objective of this work is to identify the mechanism of dropwise condensation on a smooth solid surface. We investigate the stable dropwise condensation that occurs at a droplet growth rate of 1 µm/s in diameter on a gold-coated glass surface. Additionally, we present our observations on unstable dropwise condensation, i.e., degradation of dropwise condensation of steam on a gold surface. Surface Plasmon Resonance Imaging (SPRi) is used to evaluate the existence and structure of thin films and occurrence of initial nuclei during condensation. SPRi approach used in this study has lateral resolutions of 4–10 µm, thickness resolutions of 0.1–1 nm, and temporal resolutions of 200–10,000 frames per second (FPS). Visualization of the onset of stable dropwise condensation suggests droplets form at heterogeneous nucleation sites and that no film greater than a monolayer exists on the surface before the formation of droplets. Observation of the unstable dropwise condensation of steam shows the existence of water films that are several nanometers thick between droplets. This work shows that neither the nucleation theory nor film rupture theory can individually explain the physics of dropwise condensation. Therefore, there is a need for a more comprehensive theory that can explain the mechanism of dropwise condensation.

Modular coinduction up-to for higher-order languages via first-order transition systems

The bisimulation proof method can be enhanced by employing `bisimulations up-to' techniques. A comprehensive theory of such enhancements has been developed for first-order (i.e., CCS-like) labelled transition systems (LTSs) and bisimilarity, based on abstract fixed-point theory and compatible functions. We transport this theory onto languages whose bisimilarity and LTS go beyond those of first-order models. The approach consists in exhibiting fully abstract translations of the more sophisticated LTSs and bisimilarities onto the first-order ones. This allows us to reuse directly the large corpus of up-to techniques that are available on first-order LTSs. The only ingredient that has to be manually supplied is the compatibility of basic up-to techniques that are specific to the new languages. We investigate the method on the pi-calculus, the lambda-calculus, and a (call-by-value) lambda-calculus with references.

How diverse is child language acquisition?

A comprehensive theory of child language acquisition requires an evidential base that is representative of the typological diversity present in the world’s 7,000 or so languages. However, languages are dying at an alarming rate, and the next 50 years represents the last chance we have to document acquisition in approximately half of them. In the current paper we take stock of the last 45 years of research published in the four main child language acquisition journals: Journal of Child Language, First Language, Language Acquisition, and Language Learning and Development. We coded each article for the following variables: (i) language(s), (ii) topic(s), and (iii) country of author affiliation, from each journal’s inception until the end of 2020. We found that we have at least one article published on around 103 languages, representing only around 1.5% of the world’s languages. The distribution of articles was highly skewed towards English and other well-studied Indo-European languages, with the majority published on non-Indo-European languages having just one paper. There was a more even distribution of topics across language categories, but a vast majority of the research was produced in the Global North. The number of articles published on non-Indo-European languages from countries outside of North America and Europe is increasing; however, this increase is driven by research conducted in relatively wealthy countries. We conclude that, despite a proud history of crosslinguistic research, the goals of the discipline need to be recalibrated before we can lay claim to a truly representative account of child language acquisition.