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Despite considerable investment, health outcomes for First Nations people are well below those of the rest of the population in several countries, including Canada, the United States, and Australia. In this article, the authors draw on actor-network theory and the case of Birthing on Country, a successful policy initiative led by First Nations Australians, to explore the decolonization of health services. Using publicly available archival data and the theoretical guidance of actor-network theory, the analysis offers insight into how marketing techniques and technologies can be deployed to achieve improved health outcomes and implement decolonized approaches. The insights provided have theoretical implications for marketing scholarship, social implications for understanding and implementing an agenda of decolonization, and practical implications for health care marketing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In his critique of historicism and utopian social engineering, Karl Popper treats various writers – notably, Plato, Hegel, and Marx – as expounding these mistaken ideas, and as illustrating the threat they pose to ‘the open society’. Among contemporaries, one of those he singles out for criticism is the sociologist Karl Mannheim. While he spends relatively little time discussing Mannheim’s work compared to that of Plato and Marx, I argue that Ideology and Utopia and Man and Society in an Age of Reconstruction may have had particular significance for Popper. I examine his evaluation of Mannheim’s work, assessing its accuracy, and what it reveals about the similarities and fundamental differences in the orientations of these two writers, both of whom had a significant impact upon social science in the twentieth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sceptical arguments in epistemology typically employ sceptical hypotheses, which are rivals to our everyday beliefs so constructed that they fit exactly the evidence on which those beliefs are based. There are two ways of using a sceptical hypothesis to undermine an everyday belief, giving rise to two distinct sorts of sceptical argument: underdetermination‐based and closure‐based. However, both sorts of argument, as usually formulated in the literature, fall foul of evidential holism, for they ignore the crucial role of background beliefs. An analogy with the philosophy of science makes this point explicit. There is no simple way to "holism proof" the two sceptical arguments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Manufacturing companies face a volatile environment with multiple sustainability challenges threatening their competitiveness. To meet these challenges, they need to adapt quickly to the changing demands and environment to improve their sustainability in production. Therefore, this contribution presents a holistic and multidimensional model for sustainable production systems based on three levels: elements, overarching elements, and dimensions. First, a systematic literature review (SLR) was conducted to capture the state of research. Second, two studies were conducted to identify and cluster the relevant sustainability elements. One of the studies is based on the SLR findings, which were verified by an expert survey. The other is based on a document analysis of sustainability reports. Finally, both studies are compared, and the results are presented. In total, 40 elements, such as energy efficiency, and eight overarching elements, such as efficiency, can be identified in addition to the three dimensions of economic, social, and environmental sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During his Jena period, Fichte endorses a curious dictum: ‘the kind of philosophy one chooses depends on the kind of person one is’. How can Fichte’s dictum support a vindication of German idealism over Spinozism, which he also calls ‘dogmatism’? I will show that the answer to this seemingly straightforward question reveals a rather complex series of metametaphysical objections that shape the development of the entire German idealist tradition. Ultimately, as I will suggest, the series of metametaphysical questions that shape the German idealist tradition must culminate in the question of how to understand the relation between philosophy and its presuppositions. I will conclude by briefly considering a hermeneutical response to this question. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the simultaneous presence of multiple ambitions is inherent in hybrid venturing, pursuing social and/or environmental missions while securing commercial viability can generate ambivalence among stakeholders. In this study, we draw on the notion of "holism" to show how venture founders both embrace tensioned ambitions and sustain hybridity during critical venture development phases. Based on 6 years of data on The People's Supermarket in the United Kingdom, we identify three distinct practices— fantasizing, bartering, and conjuring —used by founders to harness tensions productively, without compromising their venture's multiple ambitions. These practices demonstrate the founders' ability to maintain a venture's hybrid nature throughout the ideation, organizational, and scale-up phases, thereby shedding light on the application of "holism" within the realm of hybrid venturing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I argue that the logical perspective—the study of arguments as products—is not well integrated into pragma-dialectics. I show that the Validity Rule and the Argumentation Scheme Rule, despite being procedural rules, are, in a certain sense, "logical" rules. Subsequently, I distinguish and review three successive periods in the development of the logical dimension of pragma-dialectics: conventionalist, inferentialist and dualist, to reveal that none of them is completely satisfactory. I contend that, given the assumptions and conceptual apparatus of pragma-dialectics, the integration of the logical perspective, and especially of a suitable account of counterargumentation, requires the adoption of a conception of logic as a theory of reasons, as opposed to the traditional conception of logic as a theory of inferences. Understanding logic as a theory of the dialogical construction of reasons enables us to approach the study of the relationships between arguments and the weighing of opposing arguments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How does unconscious matter become conscious? How does our physical part, which lacks consciousness, have such a subjective quality? This is the explanatory gap in the problem of consciousness or the hard problem of consciousness which comes from a physicalist (eliminativist physicalism) point of view. From the opposite point of view, i.e. dualism, the mind-body problem has led to the problem of consciousness and the explanation of how our unconscious physical (matter) part (substance) is related to our conscious mental part (substance). If the problem of consciousness is the result of such views (eliminativism and dualism), is it possible to adopt a different perspective so that the problem does not arise at all? Or find a solution for it (maximum answer) or at least determine the right way to solve the problem (minimum answer)? The current research goes to this issue by adopting subjectivism and holism to make its subjective holism theory. Therefore, it gives a positive (maximum and minimum) answer to the above questions.

The text discusses a special issue of Semiotica dedicated to Göran Sonesson, exploring the interplay of presence and absence in human meaning-making. The issue originated from Göran's idea of a research network on relevance, combining phenomenology and semiotics. The contributions in the issue cover themes such as the lifeworld, relevance, encyclopedia, and building culturally articulated worlds, reflecting Göran's lasting influence on the field. The articles collectively honor Göran's legacy and emphasize the social dimension of meaning-making across generations of scholars. [Extracted from the article]

How does unconscious matter become conscious? How does our physical part, which lacks consciousness, have such a subjective quality? This is the explanatory gap in the problem of consciousness or the hard problem of consciousness which comes from a physicalist (eliminativist physicalism) point of view. From the opposite point of view, that is, dualism, the mind-body problem has led to the problem of consciousness and the explanation of how our unconscious physical (matter) part (substance) is related to our conscious mental part (substance). If the problem of consciousness is the result of such views (eliminativism and dualism), is it possible to adopt a different perspective so that the problem does not arise at all? Or find a solution for it (maximum answer) or at least determine the right way to solve the problem (minimum answer)? The current research goes into this issue by adopting subjectivism and holism to make its subjective holism theory. Therefore, it gives a positive (maximum and minimum) answer to the above questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of EurAmerica is the property of EurAmerica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In the present business environment, the strategic challenge of increasing performance along multiple dimensions simultaneously—e.g., financial, social, and personal—has never been greater. Thus, the purpose of this study is to improve the understanding of how firms can successfully pursue diverse performance goals simultaneously. To that end, specifically, this study's objectives are to not only explore whether entrepreneurs are more successful than their corporate manager peers in that pursuit but also to explore how being an entrepreneur and being spiritual provide possible paths to being successful in such a pursuit. We draw upon a recent survey of 168 medium-sized venture entrepreneurs and their corporate executive peers in the US to better understand how such integration of roles and goals can be managed. Results indicate that being an entrepreneur and being spiritual lead to greater synergies among the performance outcomes, with some exceptions. The holistic nature underlying the findings has implications for policy (e.g., resource allocation) and for practice in that all firms should be seeking ways to find synergies not only between pairs of outcomes (e.g., profits and CSR) but among networks of outcomes (and at different levels of impact). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses attempts to enact complexity in postgenomic experimentations using the case of epigenetic research on biomarkers of psychosocial stress. Enacting complexity in this research means dissecting multiple so-called biosocial processes of health differentiation in the face of stressful experiences. To characterize enactments of biosocial complexity, the article develops the concepts of complexity work and complexification. The former emphasizes the social, technical, and material work that goes into the production of mixed biological and social representations of stress in epigenetics. The latter underlines how complexity can be assembled differently across distinct configurations of experimental work. Specifically, complexification can be defined as producing, stabilizing, and normalizing novel experimental systems that are supposed to improve techno-scientific enactments of complexity. In the case of epigenetics, complexification entails a reconfiguration of postgenomic experimental systems in ways that some actors deem 'better' at enacting health as a biosocial process. This study of complexity work and complexification shows that biosocial complexity is hardly a univocal enterprise in epigenetics. Consequently, the article calls for abandoning analysis of these research practices using clear-cut dichotomies of reductionism vs. holism, as well as simplicity vs. complexity. More broadly, the article suggests the relevance of a sociology of complexification for STS approaches to complexity in scientific practices. Complementing the existing focus on complexity as instrumental rhetoric in contemporary sciences, complexification directs analytical attention to the pragmatic opportunities that alternative (biosocial) complexities offer to collective, societal, and political thinking about science in society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to anti‐exceptionalism about logic (AEL), logic is not as exceptional in terms of its epistemology and subject matter as has been conventionally thought. Whereas logic's epistemology has often been considered distinct from those of the recognised sciences, in virtue of being both non‐inferential and a priori, it is in fact neither. Logics are justified on the basis of similar mechanisms of theory‐choice as theories in the sciences, and further the sources of evidence which inform these theory choices are (at least) not wholly a priori. In this first part of a two‐part entry on AEL, we trace these epistemological elements of AEL back to Quine's naturalism and evidential holism, but then highlight important differences between the motivations and commitments of Quine's version of AEL and those within the contemporary literature. This demonstrates the need to assess contemporary anti‐exceptionalist positions on their own merits, rather than treating them as mere reincarnations of Quine's evidential holism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on Arnold Schönberg's seminal opera "Moses and Aron", the comment focuses on the role of holistic politics in Andrew Arato's and Jean L. Cohen's "Populism and Civil Society". It argues that their anti-populist stance is too quick in dismissing a politics which is driven by representing and re-constituting the whole of the social order. Against this backdrop, a rejuvenation of the political left may not consist in a rejection of holism as such but in a popular politics which relies on functional equivalences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Is it good for us if the different parts of our lives are connected to each other like the parts of a good story? Some philosophers have thought so, while others have firmly rejected it. In this paper, I focus on the state-of-the-art anti-narrativist arguments Amy Berg has recently presented in this journal. I argue that while she makes a good case that the best kind of lives for us do not revolve around a single project or theme, the best kind of narrativist views actually encourage us to pursue a variety of different projects, as long as they are mutually supportive. I claim that when interpreted in the most plausible way, prudentially good-making narrative coherence arises precisely out of this kind of unity in diversity. Well-roundedness and narrative coherence are thus not inherently in tension, but are both good-making holistic features of our lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nonfiction has long been left out of the discourse on literacy and little is known about the affective experiences that children seek when they choose to engage with facts via reading and otherwise. We have conducted an interview study in which children of diverse socioeconomic backgrounds in Czechia (N = 20, age 9–11) reflected on the world of facts as a springboard for affective engagement. Bespoke creative props were developed for the study. First, children made collages of their real-world interests and then reflected on the different activities (e.g. reading, viewing, talking, playing) through which they nurture these interests. Second, children engaged in the design of an imaginary nonfiction book on a topic of their choosing, a process that involved laying out a double page, leafing through sample books, and sorting picture cards representing different book design features. We present the interview toolkit and its holistic rationale and offer two contrasting case studies of children whose engagement was characterised respectively by a 'learning' and 'wonder' focus. Their differences showcase the interview toolkit's flexibility for further research and practice and expose the underexplored complexity and diversity of children's nonfiction experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Politica: Tidsskrift for Politisk Videnskab is the property of Politica: Tidsskrift for Politisk Videnskab and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Rice commodity is becoming increasingly important for most countries worldwide, particularly those where rice is the main staple meal. This study examines the socioeconomic attributes of farmers, their perspectives on management practises, and the implementation of paddy machinery technology in the four MADA (Muda Agricultural Development Authority) regions in Malaysia. The study aims to determine the main factors effecting paddy productivity in the MADA regions. Primary data was collected from paddy farmers in the four MADA zones using a standardised questionnaire. The data was collected from 673 respondents from four regions of MADA. The analysis employed both descriptive statistics and regression analysis. The results indicate that variables such as land area, selection of paddy planting as the primary occupation, increased time spent on paddy farms, gender, and the educational background of farmers have a significant impact on paddy productivity in the MADA regions. The findings also show that, only a small percentage of respondents (6.2%) followed the crop schedule, and 93.8 percent of them were late. The utilisation of machinery in paddy cultivation achieved the following results: nine farmers achieved a success rate of 85.71 percent, while a majority of farmers (662 farmers) achieved a 71.43 percent utilisation rate, with one farmer earning the lowest usage rate of 57.14 percent. In conclusions the study has found that it is imperative to promote the use of management practises and advanced machinery technologies among paddy farmers to effectively increase productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The evolving landscape of global trade and economic cooperation has spurred the establishment of Special Border Economic Zones (SBEZs) as a comprehensive strategy to catalyse economic growth and enhance collaboration between neighbouring countries. These zones have developed as a distinctive economic strategy to harness the potential of cross-border collaboration, while addressing the particular socioeconomic difficulties of border regions as globalisation continues to change the dynamics of global commerce and investment. However, the main challenge to such an effort is understanding how to fully tap the potential of the SBEZs to facilitate cross-border trade, drive economic development, and advance regional integration while simultaneously minimising potential hazards and unfavourable effects. This article provides an in-depth analysis of the relationship between Malaysia and Thailand and the relevance of a SBEZ between the two neighbors. It aims to pursue these objectives: (1) To delve into the historical trajectory of economic progress in the relationship between Malaysia and Thailand, (2) To critically examine the importance of the SBEZs in the Malaysia-Thailand context from various aspects, and (3) To critically evaluate the SBEZs by comparing the economic development of Malaysia and Thailand and by analysing the factors that led to the Thailand-Malaysian SBEZ. Content analysis was used to analyse the secondary data obtained from journals, publications, and official reports. The findings are as follows: 1) There have historically been several economic periods in the relationship between Malaysia and Thailand; 2) In the Malaysia-Thailand region, Special Border Economic Zones are significant in terms of their role in trade facilitation, economic growth, investment, industrialisation, and regional economic balance; and 3)Three factors had an effect on the development of the SBEZs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The systems thinking approach to problem solving is a dynamic and productive approach. However, emphasizing only the objective aspects of a phenomena and neglecting their subjective aspects can decrease its problem solving power. In order to enhance the problem solving power of systems thinking, it is proposed in this article to enrich systems thinking by using the hermeneutic loop. This applied research adopts practical aspects of systems thinking and hermeneutics in understanding and solving problems more effectively. The proposed approach is comprised of an additive loop, named the hermeneutic loop, concerning simultaneously "the whole system and its parts" and "subjectively and objectively". Requirements of systems thinking are highlighted involving the holism and life cycle of the system. A summary of the considerations for systems thinking regarding holism and lifetime are as follows: (1) feedback in lifetime, (2) feed forward, (3) combining human and tools, (4) resources, (5) stock and flow and (6) carrying capacity (saturation). The utilization of this enriched systems thinking is investigated in three real engineering design processes, including case studies for designers in the field of remote communication. As the result, the proposed enriched systems thinking provides an improved understanding of the whole, which improves the solving power of the designers of components, and adds subjective product design to the objective design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study examined how information technology affects internal control systems in tertiary institutions in Osun State. Specific goals were to ascertain whether or not information technology has a significant impact on the internal control systems and internal audit processes of tertiary institutions. A survey research design was chosen. A sample size of 100 respondents participated in the study. This study used the stratified sampling method and a regression technique was used for data analysis. The findings showed that internal control systems and internal audit procedures in tertiary institutions in Osun State were highly influenced by information technology with t= 20.02 P< 0.0 and t= 19.049p<0.05, respectively. It was concluded that internal control systems and internal audit procedures at tertiary institutions were strengthened and improved by information technology. The study has recommended that tertiary institutions adopt information technology in order to improve their internal control frameworks. To keep their staff's necessary skills and knowledge current, the management of tertiary institutions should encourage both on-the-job and off-the-job training in information technology. To stop fraud, internal control mechanisms should be put in place. To establish who will be held accountable for violations, tasks must be digitally separated effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the concept of figuration, which was an innovation of Norbert Elias, from the standpoint of sociological theory. Among today's followers of this approach to sociology, considerable emphasis is placed on the explanatory potential of this concept, reflected, among other things, in Elias's processual approach to the investigation and explanation of social reality being referred to as "sociology of figurations" (Figurationsoziologie). The author of this contribution considers the content of the concept in a systematic way to present its strengths and weaknesses. This is done by confronting figuration with the dilemmas and antinomies that sociological thinking traditionally encounters, assessing it from the perspective of: a) positivism and antipositivism, b) statics and dynamics, c) individualism and holism, d) consensus and conflict, e) micro and macro perspectives, f) the relationship between spirit and matter, g) social masses and great historical personalities. The contribution concludes by stating the necessity to additionally think about discussions and aspects of the concept of figuration that its creator did not catch or clarify sufficiently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Filosofija, Sociologija is the property of Lithuanian Academy of Sciences Publishers and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper studies an argument in the prologue of the Charmides which defends the view that it is impossible to cure the body independently of the soul. I argue that Socrates is committed to an account of the psychē as an embodied soul, causally responsible for the biological condition of the body. Furthermore, the prescription of kaloi logoi as a treatment for the soul's biological failures suggests that Socrates appears to initially regard the ethical and biological dimensions of the soul as intimately connected. But I also show that Socrates is unable to maintain this position consistently throughout the passage. A similar conflation of functions can be traced in R. X.608d–611a. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Manufacturing companies face a volatile environment with multiple sustainability challenges threatening their competitiveness. To meet these challenges, they need to adapt quickly to the changing demands and environment to improve their sustainability in production. Therefore, this contribution presents a holistic and multidimensional model for sustainable production systems based on three levels: elements, overarching elements, and dimensions. First, a systematic literature review (SLR) was conducted to capture the state of research. Second, two studies were conducted to identify and cluster the relevant sustainability elements. One of the studies is based on the SLR findings, which were verified by an expert survey. The other is based on a document analysis of sustainability reports. Finally, both studies are compared, and the results are presented. In total, 40 elements, such as energy efficiency, and eight overarching elements, such as efficiency, can be identified in addition to the three dimensions of economic, social, and environmental sustainability.

The deep emotion we feel when entering any timeless place of worship—a synagogue, a church, or a Buddhist temple—stems from the patterns of space that generated them. These are patterns that reflect the innate patterns printed in our minds from the outset and that are thus common to us all as human beings of any culture or religion. In designing the Maimonides Central Sephardic Synagogue I endeavored to capture the timeless spiritual exaltation one experiences in the places of worship where Maimonides prayed, such as the Iben Denan Synagogue in Fez, Morocco or the Ben-Ezra Synagogue in Cairo, Egypt, and to revive the traditional patterns based on Maimonides’ halachic rulings—the laws he set down in his book Hayad Hahazaka, as passed on to me in the synagogues of Tzfat, the holy Kabbalah city of Galilee, birthplace of Judaism’s mystical strand, and hometown of my family since the early nineteenth century.

The philosophical terza via explored so richly by Paolo Parrini seeks to support realism regarding empirical, especially scientific findings by distinguishing three forms of ‘holism’: semantic (re: intension, meaning), methodological and justificatory; by highlighting the practical-operational character of empirical inquiries, especially in the sciences; and by identifying cogent forms of relative a priori principles. In these regards, our aims and findings converge substantially. Two papers Paolo associated closely examine important differences between Carnap’s and Quine’s views, and track Quine’s prevarications regarding his holism and analyticity. I shall corroborate and extend our philosophical convergence by identifying further features of both Carnap’s and Quine’s views which provide yet more reasons why Paolo was so very right about those Prague alternatives and about the proper terza via.

Ulwaluko is an essential rite of passage for men in the Xhosa community in South Africa. This particular initiation rite of passage is a critical part of the transition from boyhood to manhood. In a post-apartheid South Africa, this African practice has received criticism for promoting gender and sexual exclusion with some calling for a halt to the practice. Using Simon Maimela’s theological anthropology and Jackson’s concept of modern slavery as human plasticity, I attempt to expose how post-apartheid constitutionalism has epistemically distorted the theological anthropology of this rite of passage. This is done acknowledging Ulwaluko theologically within the context of African holism. This, I argue, has had significant ethical implications for society. Recognising it as a site of black theological reflection using Maimela’s theological anthropology, I argue that this particular practice can positively influence discourses on morality in South Africa. Contribution: This article makes a theological contribution by situating African and black theology of liberation discourse within the epistemic framework of Ulwaluko as an initiation rite of passage. Recognising the prevalence of initiation rites of passage in South Africa, this discourse attempts to contribute towards thinking about the creation of humanity from these spaces of formation. This I do in the very challenging contexts within which Ulwaluko is practised.

Introduction. The article is devoted to methodological issues of the formation of the worldview of universalism, excluding the reduction of the one, the whole, many and a part to each other. Limited, one-sided types of worldviews of holism, merism and the genological type allow such a reduction, excluding the choice of optimal, sustainable co-development of nature, society and a man. Theoretical analysis. A comparative analysis of the ideological and methodological attitudes of holism, merism and onecentrism is carried out in order to identify their reductionist extremes. As their replacement, the author proposes a new version of the worldview of universalism (postholism), formed by methodological means that exclude the absolutization of a one, whole or parts. The main means of such kind are the concept of a «one whole in a single part», the procedure of «harmonic convergence» and the principle of «non-reductionism», which ensure a tendency to fusion of the semantic content of the concepts of a one, whole, singular, and unique. Conclusion. The conclusion is made that, thanks to these tools, the worldview of postholism is able to neutralize the methodological flaws of holism, mechanicism, elementarism, individualism, henotheism, and other ideological and methodological platforms. This allows for a proportionate interaction in the course of the development of a one (fundamental laws of being), a whole (society) and a part (person).

Educational practices are affected by the dominant paradigm in the belonging context, which influences the representation of the human being, the idea and the purposes of education. Consequently, as a connecting science between the human sciences, pedagogy is called upon to be a critical instance. This article examines the issue of educational poverty — and of possible actions to prevent and combat it — in light of the cultural frameworks in which it is conceived. The responses to variations of the phenomenon could benefit from contaminations or from the openness to different epistemological and cultural paradigms, capable of enriching educators’ professionalism and nourishing their motivation. In order to deal with today’s Western society typical forms of poverty, it is proposed to draw from both the emerging systemic holistic paradigm and the epistemology of complexity, as well as from proto-holistic practices and guiding principles deriving from neurosciences. The reader is supported in reflecting on the foundations of an integrating education which, taking advantage of sciences from East to West, favours the flourishing and expression of human multidimensionality.

This paper aims to interpret the role of the soul as ontological, intellectual or cognitive and as the moral principle within the frame of the holistic conception of human psychosomatic health that emerges from the context of Zalmoxian medicine in the proemium of Plato's Charmides. It examines what the ontological status of the soul is in relation to the body and the body–soul complex of man considered as a psychosomatic whole. By comparing the presentation of the soul as principle in the Charmides and the Phaedrus, the paper defends the thesis that in the former dialogue, Plato develops his own anthropological ontology, which paves the way for the salvation of human existence and health. The soul is bestowed with an ontological primacy that determines the philosophical and medical presuppositions for treating human illness under a holistic view. The interpretation of the ontological relation of the soul to the body and the entire human being in the context of Zalmoxian holistic medicine is based on Hermias Alexandrinus' exegesis of the conception of the soul as principle in the Phaedrus. This paper demonstrates that, from both the medical holistic viewpoint and the anthropological philosophical perspective, the soul is the principle and πρῶτον with regard to the body and the body–soul complex without being the whole that the corresponding medical epistemology must apprehend. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The historical representation of natural science as the experimental testing of causal hypotheses with reductionistic, mechanistic explanations has been rightly rejected as an exclusive approach for psychology. However, this representation of science is simplistic and misleading. Interdisciplinary science studies show how biology, physics, and empirical psychology include reflection, empathy, imagination, qualitative analysis, and the creative use of ordinary language in natural scientific practice. Beyond causal experimentation in research and mechanistic explanation in theory, practices across all sciences include intentionality, meaning, holism, values, teleology, temporality, and agency in phenomena. Psychophysical subject matter requires unique methodological norms that interrelate intentional meanings and their external physical, vital, and social realities. Understanding psychology's complex relation to natural science begs for a closer, more probing, comparative examination of the actual practices of scientists. Only on this basis will methodological norms adequately clarify, justify, and integrate the diverse, pluralistic approach required by psychology's paradoxical identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Throughout history, most genuinely good ideas have been the same ideas, albeit presented differently by philosophers and theorists or presented only in part by different schools of thought. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Alfred Adler compiled good ideas and presented an elegant framework for understanding the human condition. A hundred years have passed, and nothing has suggested that Adler got it wrong or missed any critical factor. But as with any model, followers and theoretical visitors pick and choose their favorite elements of the theory and fail to understand the model's core elements. Without a holistic understanding, the elegance and potential usefulness of the model can be lost. This article distinguishes the core theoretical components from more tangential aspects to provide a theoretical overview and useful model of the human condition, which should make the more tangential aspects of this model and other approaches more understandable and sensibly applied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Pravnik is the property of Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of State & Law and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)