When I turned on my computer the other day, a notification greeted me to update my software. I clicked " okay " and marveled at the computer's capacity to improve itself. An hour or so later, my computer had improved its programs to run faster, cleaned up its layout to appear more modern, and deleted several useless programs. On many occasions, the brain has been compared to a computer in its v...

the verse on “the world of primal covenant (‘alam al-zarr)” is among difficult quranic verses whose difficulty can be discovered by consideration of different opinions, which are sometimes opposite to one another, presented by quranic commentators. having accepted the existence of “the world of primal covenant,” mulla sadra has interpreted and expounded that world in accordance with his philoso...

Mind that Found Itself. By Clifford Whittingham Beers. New York and London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1908. Pp. 362. "A Mind that Found Itself" is a wonderfully graphic account of the wandering of a mind set adrift, recorded by that mind after it had once more found its moorings. The author describes, as only one who has experienced them can describe, the vividly realistic hallucinations and terri...

The paper discusses how systems biology is working toward complex accounts that integrate explanation in terms of mechanisms and explanation by mathematical models-which some philosophers have viewed as rival models of explanation. Systems biology is an integrative approach, and it strongly relies on mathematical modeling. Philosophical accounts of mechanisms capture integrative in the sense of...