The present study investigated epistemological development among adolescents, young and middle aged adults in terms of first six stages of epistemological development proposed by Perry (1968). The investigation was carried out in a series of three studies. The first study involved generating culture specific dilemmas that triggered higher stages of epistemological development among 63 men and women in Pakistan with an age range of 17 to 55 years. The cue-list developed by Mentkowski, Moeser and Strait (1983) was used to categorize the descriptions of participants’ experiences of dilemmas on Perry’s first six stages of epistemological development. Two independent judges rated the participants’ narratives of their experiences along the Perry stages. The findings revealed substantial inter-rater agreement (k = .71) on the rating process along the six stages. Four types of dilemmas were identified i-e loss related, relationship related, work related and belief related. Types of dilemmas did not show any association with age. However gender was associated with types of dilemmas with women reporting more relationship related dilemmas and men reporting more career-related dilemmas. The stages of epistemological development also did not turn out to be associated with types of dilemmas, thus implying that epistemological stages are not associated with external situations and dilemmas that emerge in the external world. Two dilemmas that were culturally most relevant with the consensus of three judges were selected for use as vignettes in study 2. Additional cues were included in the cue list from the observations of two judges in the rating process in study 1. The cues in the original cue-list by Mentkowski, Moeser and Strait (1983) that were not used in the rating process in study 1 were dropped from the cue-list in study 2. Thus the cue list consisted of seventy nine cues that included additional cues suggested by raters and the cues (from original cue-list) cited in study 1. The study 2 involved piloting the vignettes and the cue list. The findings revealed the ratings by two independent raters to be significantly correlated with education, age and HEXACO-openness to experience subscale. The main study of study 2 involved exploring the relationship of epistemological development with age, education, gender, social paradigm beliefs in terms of Social Paradigm Belief Inventory, personality traits in terms of HEXACO-openness to experience subscale, HEXACO-emotionality subscale and wisdom in terms of Wisdom development scale. The sample consisted of 180 participants with the age range of 17-55 years, classified into adolescents (17-21 years), young adults (22-40 years) and middle aged adults (41-55 years). A two way ANOVA revealed significant main effect of age and education on epistemological stage scores. However no significant main effect of gender in terms of epistemological development was found. The findings of correlational analysis showed epistemological stage scores to be significantly correlated with age, education, wisdom and openness to experience. Multiple linear regression revealed age, education and wisdom to be the significant predictors of epistemological stage scores. A standardized mediation analysis showed education to have a significant mediation effect on the relationship of age and epistemological development. Findings also showed wisdom to have a significant mediation effect on the relationship of education and epistemological development. Study 3 was conducted to explore the nature of experiences of the people at higher levels of epistemological development regarding socio psychological conflicts, coping with negative emotions and age related changes in epistemological levels in Pakistan. Nine participants with the age range 20-55 years were interviewed. Seven of them were at 4th and 5th stages, whereas two were at stage 3 of epistemological development. The selection of participants was based on the analysis of responses given to epistemological vignettes in study 2. The interpretative phenomenological analysis of the transcribed interviews revealed categories of meaning which were organized into seven super ordinate themes: sticking firmly to immediate experience, reluctance in accepting own judgment, internally and externally induced personal responsibility, turning negative emotional experience into self-regulation, being compassionately critical, striving for external change without compromise, belief in spirituality in the face of uncertainty. These super ordinate themes suggested that epistemological development is accompanied by emotion-stimulating situations formed by a dynamic interaction of environmental restrictions and individual choice. Proactive and religious coping leads to development of self-regulation and insight. The study also highlighted the difference in the epistemological experiences between younger and older adults in terms of emotion regulation. This study has wide implications in the field of education, cognition and developmental psychology. Key-words: Epistemological development, adolescents, young and middle aged adults, education, gender, wisdom and dialectical thinking.
ڈاکٹر ابواللیث صدیقی مرحوم گزشتہ ستمبر میں اردو کے نامور استاد محقق و نقاد اور ماہر لسانیات جناب ڈاکٹر ابواللیث صدیقی کا کراچی میں ۸۰ سال کی عمر میں انتقال ہوگیا، اِناﷲ وَاِنا اِلَیہ رَاجِعُون۔ وہ بدایوں میں پیدا ہوئے، علی گڑھ یونیورسٹی میں اعلیٰ تعلیم حاصل کی، رشید احمد صدیقی اور مولانا احسن مارہروی وغیرہ سے اکتساب فیض کیا اور رشید صاحب کی زیر نگرانی لکھنؤ کے دبستان شاعری پر تحقیقی مقالہ لکھ کر ڈاکٹریٹ کی ڈگری حاصل کی۔ مسلم یونیورسٹی کے شعبہ اردو سے یہ اعزاز حاصل کرنے والے وہ پہلے شخص تھے، بعد میں یہ مقالہ کتابی شکل میں متعدد بار شائع ہوا اور یہی ان کی شہرت کا اصل سبب بھی بنا، مضمون نگاری کا شوق زمانہ تعلیم سے تھا چنانچہ اسی زمانہ میں ان کے مضامین معارف کے علاوہ دوسرے رسالوں میں بھی شائع ہوئے، درس و تدریس کا سلسلہ بھی مسلم یونیورسٹی سے شروع ہوا، جہاں وہ شعبہ اردو میں لکچرر مقرر ہوئے بعد میں پاکستان بننے کے بعد وہ کچھ عرصہ لاہور کے اورینٹل کالج میں اور پھر کراچی یونیورسٹی میں شعبہ اردو کے استاد ہوئے، ترقی اردو بورڈ کراچی کے معتمد ہوئے اور ریٹائر ہونے کے بعد کراچی یونیورسٹی میں پروفیسر ایمریٹس ہوئے، مضامین کثرت سے لکھے اور متعدد کتابیں بھی لکھیں۔ معلوم ہوا کہ انہوں نے خود نوشت سوانح بھی لکھے تھے جو رسالہ تہذیب میں قسط وار چھپتے رہے ہیں لیکن غالباً ابھی کتابی شکل میں طبع نہیں ہوئے، ’’سرسید احمد خاں کی اسباب بغاوت ہند‘‘ کو بھی حواشی و تعلیقات کے ساتھ کراچی سے شائع کیا، ان کے حسب ذیل مضامین معارف میں بھی شائع ہوئے۔ میر کا فارسی کلام، میرحسن کی ایک نادر مثنوی رموز العارفین، محسن کاکوروی اور ان کی خصوصیات اور مناقب ذوالنورین المعروف بہ بہارستان سخن وغیرہ، متانت اور سلاست کے...
This research is intended to explore the nature of relationship between Islam and Science whether they are compatible with each other or not? By studying and comparing the teachings of Islam and science it has been exposed that both are different in their foundations, nature and scope. Domain of science is limited to the realm of senses whereas Islam provides the knowledge and guidance about materialistic, unseen and metaphysical domain. Foundations of religion are based upon the revelation while science is based upon theories and experiments. Therefore when science reach the reality after passing through trial and error, confirms the teachings of religion, which proves that Islam and science are not only compatible but Islam plays a role of leadership and basic source for the scientific investigations. Moreover after careful review of Islamic and scientific knowledge it is suggested to know the foundations, nature and scope of both to know the relationship between them and to avoid the confusion.
Recently there has been growing concern about public health and ecosystems due to the presence of trace quantities of quinolone antibiotics in the environment. These antibiotics enter the environment through irrigation by contaminated waste water, particularly in the areas that are arid or semi-arid. Another route of these antibiotics is the application of sludge and manure containing antibiotics as soil amendments on agricultural land. Once they enter the environment they can cause ecotoxic effect. In the current study, the concentration of ciprofloxacin, enrofloxacin, and levofloxacin in waste water and sludge were relatively higher than reported in many countries. To degrade the aforementioned antibiotics in agricultural soil, eight bacterial strains were isolated and characterized. The isolated bacterial strains possess multiple antibiotic resistance and degraded ciprofloxacin by whole cell activity. No DNA transformation were observed when naked DNA of the isolated bacterial strain were exposed to indigenous soil microbes. The isolated bacterial strains survived well under aerobic conditions in soil treated with ciprofloxacin at the concentration of 5 mg kg-1, 50 mg kg-1 and 100 mg kg-1. The quinolone antibiotics did not affect germination of wheat even at 400 mg L-1 concentration but the young wheat seedlings were sensitive to the antibiotics at relatively low concentrations (5 mg L-1). The toxicity of the quinolone antibiotics ciprofloxacin (CIP), enrofloxacin (ENR), levofloxacin (LEV), and a mixture (MIX) of the same were tested in a greenhouse study with wheat for 20 days. Antioxidants, which play a vital role in detoxifying reactive oxygen species (ROS) during stress, were xxii also studied. The highest antibiotic concentrations, 100 and 300 mg L-1, significantly decreased plant growth and caused oxidative stress. The quinolone antibiotics ciprofloxacin (CIP), enrofloxacin (ENR), levofloxacin (LEV), and a mixture (MIX) in agricultural soil were readily sorbed when tested in agricultural soil. The antibiotics showed high sorption coefficient (Kd) values at low concentration and low Kd values at high concentrations, which means sorption was concentration dependent and time for sorption decreased with increasing concentrations. In both the individual and MIX treatment the order of sorption was CIP > ENR > LEV and for desorption it was LEV > ENR > CIP. In a bacterial assisted phytoremediation study, wheat was grown in greenhouse conditions in soil supplemented with CIP, ENR, and LEV at 5, 50 and 100 mg kg-1 in individual and MIX treatments. CIP, ENR and LEV accumulated in plant roots and shoots from soil and more accumulation was observed in roots. The order of accumulation in plant parts was LEV > ENR > CIP both in individual and MIX treatments. The pots having only plants enhanced the recovery of antibiotics from soil compared to those where there were only bacteria but greater degradation was observed where plants were grown in the presence of bacteria. CIP, ENR, and LEV were completely degraded in individual treatments at 5 and 50 mg kg-1 level in the presence of plants and bacteria after 30 days compared to the control. In the MIX treatment all three antibiotics were less degraded compared to individual treatments in the presence of plants and bacteria after 30 days because of the higher concentration of each antibiotic in the pots.