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Notwithstanding Karl Popper’s deep admiration for ancient Greece and his affection for modern Greece, his work has been mostly viewed with caution by Greek scholars who, until relatively recently, often chose to either ignore or downplay it. This stance can be partially attributed to the novel approach of Popper’s critique to Plato which did not fare well with the foundational biases of modern Greek academic tradition and the prevailing intellectual inclinations of Greek scholars in the fields of the methodology of science and political theory. Although this bias has begun to recede during the last decades, there remains a lot to be done to fully integrate Popper’s work into the Greek intellectual and social discourse. Nevertheless, the establishment of the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at Athens University, along with the efforts of academics and public intellectuals, particularly during the Greek financial crisis of the last decade, have played a pivotal role in generating a broader interest in critical rationalism and popularizing Popper’s ideas among a wider audience. This paper examines the evolution of the reception of Popper’s ideas in Greece, both in scholarly circles and in public life, from the time of publication of his seminal work “The Open Society and its Enemies” until today, highlighting the efforts to foster a more comprehensive understanding of his important contributions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soren Kierkegaard, as one of the leading anti-philosophers of the school of existentialism, employs an ironic and groundbreaking approach to find fault with rationalism, abstract thinking, heteronomy, ethics and pluralism developed from the ideas of thinkers such as Kant and Hegel. Instead of valuing society, government, and conventional ethical and moral norms, he supports de-familiarization, creativity, autonomy, activity, individuality, and singularity. Kierkegaard argues that there are three stages on life's way or three spheres of existence on the path to self-realization. He believes that the highest realm of human life is the religious sphere in which Abraham, as a believer in the realm of faith, decides to sacrifice his son Isaac to God with the aim of saving his agency, individuality and singularity from the clutches of moral, governmental and public systems. Kierkegaard argues that the leap of faith is making a decision in the very moment of madness, and considers it as a kind of gambling and risktaking. He believes that faith is a belief in the impossibility, irrationality and paradoxicality. In this sense of faith, on the one hand, Abraham is willing to obey God's command regarding the sacrifice of Isaac, and on the other hand, he believes in his heart that Isaac will be returned to him in this material world by God's command. The present paper, accordingly, examines the following hypothesis: Although Kierkegaard is against the official government policy based on sovereignty and pluralism, his leap of faith, which implies standing on the boundaries and suspending the moral and the general, can lead to the emergence of a political event and, consequently, the birth of an active and autonomous subject. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Open Theism, as a new perspective in theology, has attracted attention of many scholars and mainly claims that some teachings of classical theism are not in accordance with Scripture and depict God in the way of Greek metaphysic and Hermeneutical pattern. Therefore, Open Theists proposed a new model of theology based on the notion of Openness in reaction to deterministic model of classical theism. Their point of view had some implications like mutability, temporality and direct involvement of God. But these lead to some problems in their view like inconsistency and ambiguity in addition to denying absolute perfection from Him. In this paper, we will clarify these defects and give solutions based on Islamic thought and Lastly introduce Doctrine of Badā' by which we will answer many of unsolved problems that led some theologians toward Open Theism. It will be shown that by Badā' there will be no room for inconsistency in Devine properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The deepest and most rooted form of racism can be found in the Bible which claims the superiority of a race as God's demand or divine destination. But this idea survived in modern philosophy by appeal to the different methods. In this paper I will introduce methods of justifying racism, most of which are in the philosophical context. Legal racism claims that some races have not enough reason to be members of civil society and enjoy their rights. Racism in its historical method, claims that the history of thought has shown that some races play a major role in the production of thought and this is a result of their superiority. In philosophical method, it is argued that some of the human capabilities in some species have not been activated and finally in scientific method, it is claimed that the superiority of one race in the struggle for survival is a scientific achievement of the scientific laws such as Evolution hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Asking from the truth of Cogito as the basis of knowledge, this paper tries to analyze all possible answers in Descartes' philosophy. Inductively, four possible answers are open to consideration: either Cogito is true 1) based on argumentation, 2) because it is clear and distinct, 3) because of being innate, or, lastly, 4) because of intuition. All of these explanations either entail accepting some prior knowledge to Cogito or fall in a vicious circle. A proper way to explain Cogito's truth is a new perspective to the meaning of intuition in Descartes' philosophy. Through this perspective Cogito is a presential experience. Lack of any gap, separation, and disjunction in this presential experience is the reason for the truth of Cogito because this lack is the lack of error's cause. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of the care crisis in modern medicine, the existential needs of patients are not sufficiently satisfied. One idea to address the crisis is that physicians should be educated to be virtuous. This suggestion is inadequate because it does not take into account the role of (non-)human factors, including technologies. The paper focuses on online caring forums, arguing that they are technological factors that can play the role of "focal things", in which the members gather together to do a carerelated focal practice. We study empirically the online forums of Ninisite, a popular Persian website on pregnancy, childbirth, and parenting, and suggest that these forums shape focal practices that are helpful in alleviating the care crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pluralists believe in the occurrence of numerically distinct spatiotemporally coincident objects. They argue that there are coincident objects that share all physical and spatiotemporal properties and relations; nevertheless, they differ in terms of modal and some other profiles. Appealing to the grounding problem according to which nothing can ground the modal differences between coincident objects, monists reject the occurrence of coincident objects. In the first part of this paper, I attempt to show that the dispute between monists and pluralists cannot be settled based upon the grounding problem tout court. I argue that the grounding problem or a very similar problem is a challenge for all monists and pluralists alike if they are ontologically committed to the existence of composite objects as independent entities. In the final part, adopting the Aristotelian account of essence, I propose a solution that enables pluralists to plausibly ground modal differences between coincident objects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ilene Philipson, the Californian born sociologist and licensed psychologist, asserts that Erich Fromm is the second widely read psychoanalyst in the world standing after Freud. Fromm discusses "necrophilia", love of death, and "biophilia", love of life. He also studies "being mode" and "having mode", one's general orientation toward being a better person or toward having more, respectively. This paper is the case study of Tolstoy's novella The death of Ivan Ilyich (1886/2009) in light of Fromm's insights as reflected in his later works. There are two opposing views arguing if Ivan Ilyich, the protagonist, eventually changes for better or worse. Invoking Fromm's theories, we argue that Ivan Ilyich undergoes positive changes toward the end of his life which are actualized through the protagonist's departure from necrophilia and conversion to biophilia. In this sense, it is also argued that Ivan casts "having mode" to embrace that of "being". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]