۱.
Russian language, with regard to its grammar, is a language with its own special complexities, hardly found in other languages. Although languages are different from each other, they have some similarities as well. The Iranian learner, while learning Russian, analyzes the sentences using patterns similar to his/ her native language patterns. Occasionally, such native patterns cause the learner to make glaring mistakes. Verb, in Russian language, is a word that grammatically conducts a noun and its modifiers (падеж). The difficulty, which the learners encounter is the lack of a complete agreement of verb conduction. That is to say, it is possible for a verb in Persian language to conduct its dependent word in a particular manner, which the very same verb, in Russian language, might conduct its defendant word in a different manner. It is even possible that the verb conduction by the same verb in the two languages might occur by means of two totally different prepositions. In other to avoid such errors, it seems necessary to make the learners aware of their occurrences at the very initial steps of language learning.
۲.
The protection of fundamental human rights at the time of war or peace is an obligation that should be observed at anytime by the states and international organizations. After the Second World War, the non-peaceful situations such as occupation and economic sanctions have occurred numerously, which in some cases lasted for more than a decade. Unfortunately, the laws governing these situations are not implemented properly, and therefore fundamental human rights of people, especially their life, integrity and security, have been violated. This article aims at considering legal rules and their effectiveness in protecting fundamental human rights at the times of occupation and economic sanctions. This study is based primarily on the conventional and customary international legal rules.
۳.
Disasters provide physical, social, political and environmental development windows of opportunities that can be used not only to reconstruct the impacted areas, but also to improve the socio-economic and physical conditions of the impacted population in the long run. It is argued, however, that there is a limited time frame of approximately four years for such opportunities to be utilized efficiently. Bam earthquake in December 2003 that killed more than 27000 and devastated the historical part of the city opened several unique opportunities for mitigation, socio-economic and physical development. This paper examines the roles that various stakeholders played in the Bam reconstruction and their contribution to the success and failure of utilizing disaster development opportunities. The results show that stakeholders’ collaboration and participation, knowledge and experience, long-term and holistic visions, division of labour and use of resources have had significant influence on the success and failure of using post-disaster opportunities.
۴.
Philosophical sketch of Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) on the primary conditions for Peace and co-existence between states is reflected in his Perpetual Peace. In Kant's view, three primary conditions of perpetual peace of a republican government in every country are based on a civil constitution, establishment of a federation of free states, and cosmopolitan right of individuals as world citizens. The foundations of republican system, i.e. freedom for all members of the society as human beings, belonging of each individual to a public code of law as subject, and equality before law as a citizen, are important in Kant's political philosophy. Two primary responsibilities for Kant's federation of free states, i.e. non-interference in the internal affairs of member states, and upholding of a unified front against extraterritorial aggression, suffer from ambiguity and inadequacy, and is therefore vulnerable. Kant's formulation of "a unified world government" is cautionary and conditional; for it can be ended to despotism and decline.
۵.
The present study investigates the effect of different exposure densities on third grade Iranian junior high school (IJHS) students’ EFL development and retention. It also attempts to explore whether there is any differential performance due to type of post-exposure assessment tasks (recognition vs. written production). Performances of five groups of learners receiving equal amount of exposure to EFL knowledge with different densities over different time spans were compared on both recognition and written production tasks. The results of the repeated measures analysis of variance and paired sample tests reveal that there seems to be a threshold exposure density for development of structure production, as well as for the retention of total EFL and vocabulary production. Analyses of variance for the five groups were performed on the raw scores obtained for a pre-test and two post-tests. The results further reveal significant differences for acquisition and retention of the target EFL knowledge among different groups. The results also suggest different optimal exposure densities for the target EFL knowledge development and retention.
۶.
The problem of the hermeneutical circle is one of the contentious issues in philosophical hermeneutics. This paper, begins with focusing on the question as to whether what hermeneuts mean by a hermeneutical circle is in fact a real circle with no analogical sense involved. Recognizing that this problem is not confined to the relation between part and whole, this study confines itself to explore the problem of the hermeneutical circle with regard to the circularity between part and whole in a sentence. I will argue that, as far as the interdependence between part and whole of a sentence is concerned, there is no real circularity between them. This will be followed by scrutinizing the source of such a misunderstanding, i.e., the circular interdependence between understanding the part and the whole of a sentence. I will present my analysis through a critical reading of two contemporary hermeneuts, Eric Donald Hirsch and Graeme Nicholson, even though both are on the right track in questioning the existence of such a circle in the first place. The argument presented could apply to contexts well beyond that of the circularity between part and whole in a sentence.
۷.
The research entitled “A comparative study of Saadi’s Golestan and Samuel Johnson’s Rasselas” is based on the inclination of 18th century writer and theorist Johnson on towards rich Persian literature and outstanding resemblance of Golestan and Rassales from the structural, moral, Philosophical points of view. The findings are based on two hypotheses: (1) Has there been any basis for Johnson’s specific attention to Persian literature and if there has been any interest or familiarity with Persian literature, how extensive or profound has it been? (2) With regard to the deep influence of the French Neo-classicists on English Neo-classicists in the 18th century, is there any possibility that, even Johnson had an access to the English text of Golestan. The present paper also comes up with noteworthy results representing this fact that the first feeling about the similarity between Golestan and Rasselas was not baseless. The evidence indicates that not only was Johnson fascinated by Arabic and Persian literature (which Europeans considered interchangeable) but also widely studied the translation of Persian poets like Saadi. The similarity between the two works has been so remarkable that it attracted the attention of some of Persian and English scholars. However, the present project is intended to test and check the authenticity of this sense of similarity, to give it a second thought and to deal with it more consciously and seriously than it has experienced so far.
۸.
Jonathan Dancy advocates a radical particularist theory of ethics. Arguing against a variety of generalist doctrines, he maintains that there are no moral principles and that our ethical decisions are highly context-dependent: they are made case by case, without the support of such principles. In this paper, drawing on a number of theoretical concepts used in science as well as the philosophy of science I shall try to develop a moderate generalist-pluralist model. This model, I shall argue, is less vulnerable to Dancy’s criticisms and better equipped, in comparison to Dancy’s own model, to deal with moral cases.
