Risk prediction is one of the central goals of medicine. However, ultimate prediction-perfectly predicting whether individuals will actually get a disease-is still out of reach for virtually all... Show moreRisk prediction is one of the central goals of medicine. However, ultimate prediction-perfectly predicting whether individuals will actually get a disease-is still out of reach for virtually all conditions. One crucial assumption of ultimate personalized prediction is that individual risks in the relevant sense exist. In the present paper we argue that perfect prediction at the individual level will fail-and we will do so by providing pragmatic, epistemic, conceptual, and ontological arguments. Show less
‘Philosophers Beyond Borders’ covers 30 philosophers, some known and some not so known, from different parts of the world. They were chosen to show how persons from diverse cultures and different... Show more‘Philosophers Beyond Borders’ covers 30 philosophers, some known and some not so known, from different parts of the world. They were chosen to show how persons from diverse cultures and different times are driven by the same desire to question well-established truths, and to find answers to the questions humans encounter in life. Over time the questions might have changed but the answers continue to provide us with values, principles, and ideas that are a guide for living. As the world is getting smaller and smaller, we are confronted with people from different cultures, religions, and values. We need to learn to live in peace and harmony with these ‘others’. Philosophy can provide the bridge to cover the gap between different worldviews. It will show that our differences and our similarities stem from the same desire to understand our world and the place of the human within. To promote an international culture of dialogue between the different schools of philosophical thought, UNESCO introduced ‘World Philosophy Day’, in 2002, celebrated every third Thursday of November. We hope that this book will contribute to that dialogue and that we learn to realize that no ethnic group, nor gender, has a monopoly on ‘doing philosophy’. (The authors: Saskia Pfaeltzer, Maria van Enckevort) Show less
This "Key" to the Khamsa consists of thirteen essays by eminent scholars in the field of Persian Studies, each focusing on different aspects of the Khamsa, which is a collection of five long poems... Show moreThis "Key" to the Khamsa consists of thirteen essays by eminent scholars in the field of Persian Studies, each focusing on different aspects of the Khamsa, which is a collection of five long poems written by the Persian poet Nizami of Ganja. Nizami (1141-1209) lived and worked in Ganja in present-day Azerbaijan. He is widely recognized as one of the main poets of Medieval Persia, a towering figure who produced outstanding poetry, straddling mysticism, romances and epics. He has left his mark on the whole Persian-speaking world and countless younger poets in the area stretching from the Ottoman to the Mughal worlds (present-day Turkey, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Iran, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Pakistan, India) have found him an inspiration and have tried to emulate him. His work has influenced such other immense poets as Hafez, Rumi, and Saadi. His five masnavis (long poems) address a variety of topics and disciplines and have all enjoyed enormous fame, as the countless surviving manuscripts of his work indicate. His heroes, Khosrow and Shirin, Leili and Majnun, Iskandar count amongst the stars of the Persian literary firmament and have become household names all over the Islamic world. The essays in the present volume constitute a significant development in the field of Nizami-studies, and on a more general level, of classical Persian literature. They focus on topics such as mysticism, art history, comparative literature, science, and philosophy. they show how classical Greek knowledge mingles in a unique manner with the Persian past and the Islamic culture in Nizami's world. They reflect a high degree of engagement with the existing scholarship in the field, they revive and challenge traditional views on the poet and his work and are indispensable both for specialists in the field and for anyone interested in the movement of ideas in the Medieval world. Show less
The Master Class on "Comparative Intellectual Histories of the Early Modern World" was held at the International Institute for Asian Studies in Leiden in May-June, 2006. The idea of a master class ... Show moreThe Master Class on "Comparative Intellectual Histories of the Early Modern World" was held at the International Institute for Asian Studies in Leiden in May-June, 2006. The idea of a master class - assembling a team of scholars to discuss recent advances in a field with doctoral and postdoctoral students - is the brain child of IIAS's former director, Wim Stokhof, and I express my thanks to him for his vision and energy in making this intellectual experiment possible. I say experiment because none of the participants, the instructors included, had ever engaged in this kind of comparative intellectual-historical conversation. As Michael Cook confessed, although he works with Benjamin Elman in the very same building at Princeton University, the two had never previously exchanged ideas on problems shared across their regions. It was just this sort of noncommunication - fallout from the division of the world of knowledge into studies of areas - that the class was designed in part to address. Show less
Taking its cue from poststructuralist deconstruction, this study develops a new concept of technics, technique, and technology. This new concept of technics is located at a quasi-ontological level,... Show moreTaking its cue from poststructuralist deconstruction, this study develops a new concept of technics, technique, and technology. This new concept of technics is located at a quasi-ontological level, and it thereby becomes possible to renegotiate the relation between being and technics. Technics is understood as an operative force that is inscribed with multiplicity and heterogeneity from the very outset, while at the same time defying rigid order and origin. This leads to a new conceptualization of the machine. The author distinguishes between three different machines: a literary machine, a metaphysical machine, and a political machine. These three machines constantly interrelate, but while the metaphysical machine plays a decisive role in structuring the interrelation between these three machines, the literary machine plays a decisive role in deconstructing the interrelations Show less
Pre-modern Asia's diverse intellectual traditions shared a scientific enterprise in the development of mathematical astronomy and astrology. Inspired by the prospect of foretelling the future, and... Show morePre-modern Asia's diverse intellectual traditions shared a scientific enterprise in the development of mathematical astronomy and astrology. Inspired by the prospect of foretelling the future, and by the mathematical beauty of heavenly motions, scholars in the dominant cultures of Asia and Europe constructed a remarkably complex system of calculation, observation and prediction that became the springboard for modern physical science. Show less
Ethnologists inevitably come to their subjects with a certain philosophical baggage which is part of their own, North Atlantic universe of cosmological and moral meaning, and influences the way... Show moreEthnologists inevitably come to their subjects with a certain philosophical baggage which is part of their own, North Atlantic universe of cosmological and moral meaning, and influences the way they gather and interpret their data. This chapter examines one particular, widespread assumption informing Maussian and structuralist theorising on gifts and reciprocity: the idea of violence as a basic tendency of human nature. While most other contributions to this volume focus on detailed archaeological and ethnographic data pertaining to conflict and violence more directly, the present one looks at historical and epistemological backgrounds of one particular, quite influential way of handling such data theoretically and conceptually. Show less
