The Quest to Solve Problems That Don’t Exist: Thought Artifacts in Contemporary Ontology

Questions about the nature of reality and consciousness remain unresolved in philosophy today, but not for lack of hypotheses. Ontologies as varied as physicalism, microexperientialism and cosmopsychism enrich the philosophical menu. Each of these ontologies faces a seemingly fundamental problem: under physicalism, for instance, we have the ‘hard problem of consciousness,’ whereas under microexperientialism we have the ‘subject combination problem.’ I argue that these problems are thought artifacts, having no grounding in empirical reality. In a manner akin to semantic paradoxes, they exist only in the internal logico-conceptual structure of their respective ontologies

Literary neo-Ottomanism : the emergence of a cosmopolitan Turkey in world literature

This dissertation offers a new reading of Modern Turkish literature as drawing on its Ottoman past and participating in a global discourse through an analysis of recent developments in Turkish literature. By developing the phrase “literary neo-Ottomanism” through a set of images that are typical of the Ottomans produced mainly in the nineteenth century and later reworked in contemporary Turkish novels, the dissertation focuses on the refractions of this Ottoman past for two Turkish authors, Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar and Orhan Pamuk and explores how they speak to a global readership. A revival of the Ottoman past projects possibilities for a continued Turkish presence in world literature. Each writer has a distinct view of and use for the Ottoman past, and the convergences and divergences reveal much about the implications of modernism. I explore the status of Turkish literature as both a local expression and as a “world” literary tradition, through which Turkish literature seeks a place for itself in world literature while at the same time addressing the local. This exploration takes on both of these projects through a reconsideration of the Ottoman theme. I argue that the Turkish case is exceptional because of the distinct nature of the Ottoman Empire and because its demise was internally engineered.Comparative Literatur

The Quantum Mitochondrion and Optimal Health

A sufficiently complex set of molecules, if subject to perturbation, will self-organise and show emergent behaviour. If such a system can take on information it will become subject to natural selection. This could explain how self-replicating molecules evolved into life and how intelligence arose. A pivotal step in this evolutionary process was of course the emergence of the eukaryote and the advent of the mitochondrion, which both enhanced energy production per cell and increased the ability to process, store and utilise information. Recent research suggest that from its inception life embraced quantum effects such as “tunnelling” and “coherence” while competition and stressful conditions provided a constant driver for natural selection. We believe that the biphasic adaptive response to stress described by hormesis – a process that captures information to enable adaptability, is central to this whole process. Critically, hormesis could improve mitochondrial quantum efficiency, improving the ATP/ROS ratio, while inflammation, which is tightly associated with the aging process, might do the opposite. This all suggests that to achieve optimal health and healthy ageing, one has to sufficiently stress the system to ensure peak mitochondrial function, which itself could reflect selection of optimum efficiency at the quantum level

Italian guidelines for primary headaches: 2012 revised version

The first edition of the Italian diagnostic and therapeutic guidelines for primary headaches in adults was published in J Headache Pain 2(Suppl. 1):105–190 (2001). Ten years later, the guideline committee of the Italian Society for the Study of Headaches (SISC) decided it was time to update therapeutic guidelines. A literature search was carried out on Medline database, and all articles on primary headache treatments in English, German, French and Italian published from February 2001 to December 2011 were taken into account. Only randomized controlled trials (RCT) and meta-analyses were analysed for each drug. If RCT were lacking, open studies and case series were also examined. According to the previous edition, four levels of recommendation were defined on the basis of levels of evidence, scientific strength of evidence and clinical effectiveness. Recommendations for symptomatic and prophylactic treatment of migraine and cluster headache were therefore revised with respect to previous 2001 guidelines and a section was dedicated to non-pharmacological treatment. This article reports a summary of the revised version published in extenso in an Italian version

The invisible dance : persistence of the Turkish harem in Oscar Wilde's Salomé

textVarious representations of the figure of Salomé and the Biblical legend have been produced in the European, specifically in the English literature and arts throughout the nineteenth century. Oscar Wilde’s 1891 dramatic version of the legend in many ways epitomizes the full potential of the legend and capitalizes on the period’s fascination with the Orient. The climax of the orientalism of the play, the Dance of the Seven Veils, offers a unique reflection on European fantasies about the harem and invites a comparison to Ottoman representations of this same cultural space. This project seeks to analyze the relation between the Dance of the Seven Veils as presented by Wilde, and the figure of dancing woman in the harem of the Ottoman Empire. It is the slippage between the two which has informed various representations of the Oriental female figure in the West. The gap that emerges between the Western representations and the real practices in the harem, allows for a focused critique of Orientalist practices while recovering, in some ways, the actual experience of Muslim women.The vision of the harem that the Dance of the Seven Veils in Wilde’s Salomé offers is informed not by an actual encounter, but by the image of the harem as understood in nineteenth century English culture. At the same time, it participates in Victorian feminist debates on liberating the oppressed harem woman from her veils, her sexualization, and her objectification. Ultimately the dance functions as a reaffirmation of conventional gender roles as understood in Victorian society.Comparative Literatur

AMO Practices, Innovative business strategy and digitalization

Nowadays, many firms use digitalization to be innovative and have competitive advantage. In this master thesis, the influence of different AMO practices on the degree of digitalization and the influence of innovative business strategy is researched, where innovative business strategy is based on two approaches: strategy as objective and strategy as practice. This research has been conducted by Dutch manufacturing companies. The AMO model consists of three constructs: ability, motivation and opportunity. These constructs include a number of practices that can be used in manufacturing companies. Based on theoretical research, these AMO practices were expected to have a positive impact on the degree of digitalization. Also the presumption is made that innovative business strategy has a positive influence into this relationship. To test these hypotheses, a mixed methods study is conducted. The quantitative data derives from the European Manufactory Survey of 2018 and the qualitative data consist of six semi-structured interviews. The results show that there is an overall effect of AMO practices on the degree of digitalization. Quantitative results show that ability, motivation and opportunity enhancing practices have a positive influence on the degree of digitalization, where qualitative research show that ability and opportunity enhancing practices influence the degree of digitalization. Furthermore, the two approaches of innovative business strategy show different results. It seems like that AMO practices have no influence on companies with strategy as objective approach, while by companies with strategy as practice approach, AMO practices do have influence. These findings have not only theoretical implications, but are also useful for managers to implement digitalization. The results of this master thesis together with the recommendations for future research are explained and provided