Esoteric Science Research Articles

Spiritism in the Novel Paola: novelina espiritista, by Jaime Gálvez


 
 
 To study the novel Paola: novelina espiritista (1922), by Jaime Gálvez, the principles of Allan Kardec are applied along with religious symbolisms and characters (medium and ghost). From the perspective of a literary-criticism approach, a description is provided of spiritism as an esoteric science, the sociohistorical development of the phenomenon under study, both in Costa Rica and in Latin America, and its appearance as a theme in various samples of Costa Rican literature.
 
 

Pemikiran Pendidikan Islam Syekh Ahmad al-Qushashi dan Relevansinya di Era Modern

Islamic education of Indonesia cannot be separated from the role of previous middle eastern scholars. Sheikh Ahmad al-Qushāshī is one of the middle eastern scholars who influenced previously the thinking of Indonesian scholars, whose students took many roles in Indonesian history. Some of the problems discussed in this study are the objectives, methods, educational curriculum and patterns of teacher-student interaction according to Sheikh Ahmad al-Qushāshī and their relevance to modern education in Indonesia. This research is a library research with analytical descriptive method, with several literature sources examined such as as-Simth al-Majid, Manżūmah al-Tawhīd, and other sources. The data analysis technique used is content analysis initiated by Shelley and Krippendorff. The results of research on the educational thinking of al-Qushāsh are briefly as follows: the purpose of education according to al-Qushāsh is to unite God, and become a pious servant. The educational curriculum is a curriculum based on monotheism which is divided into common, special and very special. The al-Qushāshī curriculum approach has an integration pattern between exoteric and esoteric sciences. The method of al-Qushāshī education is the exemplary method, bai'at-talqīn, al-Ŝuhbah and al-ta'dīb, taslīm, and Ilbās. The pattern of teacher-student interaction has a familial pattern of interaction (teachers act as parents, educators, and student guides), so that his thoughts are quite relevant to the modern era.

Developing Experiential Exhibitions Based on Conservation Science Content of Bronze Mirror

In museums, exhibition content focuses mostly on cultural heritage’s historical values and functions, but doing so tends to limit visitors’ interest and immersion. To counter this limitation, the study developed an experiential media art exhibition fusing bronze mirrors’ traditional production technology and modern conservation science. First, for the exhibition system, scientific cultural heritage contents were projected on the three-dimensional (3D) printed bronze mirror through interactions between motion recognition digital information display (DID) and the projector. Then, a scenario of 17 missions in four stages (production process, corrosion mechanism, scientific analysis and diagnosis, and conservation treatment and restoration) was prepared according to the temporal spectrum. Additionally, various media art effects and interaction technologies were developed, so visitors could understand and become immersed in bronze mirrors’ scientific content. A user test was evaluated through the living lab, reflecting generally high levels of satisfaction (90.2 points). Qualitative evaluation was generally positive, with comments such as “easy to understand and useful as the esoteric science exhibition was combined with media art” (16.7%), “wonderful and interesting” (11.7%), and “firsthand experience was good” (9.2%). By combining an esoteric science exhibition centered on principles and theories with visual media art and by developing an immersive directing method to provide high-level exhibition technology, the exhibition induced visitors’ active participation. This exhibition’s content can become an important platform for expanding universal museum exhibitions on archaeology, history, and art into conservation science.

Eric Kurlander. Hitler’s Monsters: A Supernatural History of the Third Reich.

Historians who set out to chart the relations between the Third Reich and the occult are faced with many challenges. On the one hand they must confront the all-too-present specter of Nazi occultism within the contemporary popular imagination, fed by innumerable crypto-historical films, video games, and the like. On the other hand, they must also contend with the uncomfortable silence on the part of many historians regarding these relations, which probably reflects a concern that to highlight them risks trivializing the regime’s monstrous deeds. The task is made more difficult by the highly inconsistent nature of the Nazi regime’s attitudes toward the occult. Take the story of the regime’s crackdown on astrologers and their ilk following the sudden flight of Nazi Party deputy Rudolf Hess, a notorious dabbler in mysticism, to Scotland in the spring of 1941. This so-called “Hess Action” resulted in the arrest of numerous clairvoyants, soothsayers, and others. But as Eric Kurlander shows in Hitler’s Monsters: A Supernatural History of the Third Reich, many of those arrested were subsequently released from camps within a matter of weeks. Even more surprising is Kurlander’s finding that the regime subsequently recruited many of these very same figures—in certain cases directly from the camps where some were still interned—to help find Benito Mussolini after the Italian partisans who overthrew him went to great lengths to hide him. Even if their efforts contributed nothing to finding Il Duce, this incident attests to the remarkable confluence between National Socialism and esoteric science.

Pawangs on the Frontier: Miracles, prophets, and divinities in the ricefields of modern Malaya

AbstractThis article unearths two Jawi manuscripts pertaining to Muslim miracle-workers, orpawangs, who were key intermediaries of agrarian change in the interior of modern Malaya. These compendia of frontier patois are analysed to recount a history of rice worlds and environments wherein forest clearing and rice cultivation were directly associated with the Islamic esoteric science (ilmu) ofpawangs. As professional miracle-workers,pawangswere employed to spearhead a broad range of socio-economic activities in western Malaya. As pivots of cults joined by Malay peasants,pawangswere venerated as heirs of agrarian prophets and saints from earlier Islamic periods, and esteemed for their fertility rituals and miracles in contemporary forests and ricefields. This article analyses the elaborate Islamic genealogies ofpawangsand popular historical traditions that were recorded in these texts, and investigates how these documents were informative about the religio-economic sensibilities of cultivators. This article also pays particular attention to howpawangsnegotiated with a variety of Islamic and African spirits in Malayan forests, to lead forest clearing and rice production and to mobilize labourers. It further presents explorations into the social and spiritual cosmopolitanism ofpawangsand peasants upon the modern Malay frontier, whose labour and connected histories are yet to be written.

KEDUDUKAN NOTARIS YANG MERANGKAP SEBAGAI DOSEN DAN MEMILIKI JABATAN STRUKTURAL DI PERGURUAN TINGGI

Characteristic of Notarial as an esoteric science brings consequence which makes this science cannot be taught to person who does not possess knowledge within this field. In order to produce high quality candidates of notary public, Some University as educational agency of notarial science provides structural position for notarial practitioner to become lecturer in Notarial Master Program at the University. This approach is conducted to adjust between learning curriculum of notarial science and learning outcome of the graduates as notary public. But this approach is obstructed with rules that are enacted in Regulation of Notary Public (Undang-Undang Jabatan Notaris) which prohibit notary public to hold double positions as lecturer coupled with practitioner.

Secrets on the Muhammadan Way: Transmission of the Esoteric Sciences in 18th Century Scholarly Networks

The eighteenth century witnessed a flurry of Islamic scholarly exchange, connecting North and West Africa to the Middle East and even India. The Islamic sciences transmitted through these networks have had lasting resonance in Africa, particularly in chains transmitting Ḥadīth and Sufi affiliations. Academics have been justly skeptical as to the actual content of these often short meetings between scholars, suggesting such meetings tell us little about shared scholarly understandings. Study of unpublished manuscripts detailing the acquisition of “secrets” (asrār), apparently widespread in these eighteenth-century networks, can add new understanding to the affinities between scholarly legacies emerging in the period. This paper considers such questions in relationship to Aḥmad al-Tijānī (d. 1815, Fez), the founder of the Tijāniyya Sufi order prominent in West Africa today.

Franciscans and the Elixir of Life: Religion and Science in the Later Middle Ages by Zachary A. Matus

Reviewed by: Franciscans and the Elixir of Life: Religion and Science in the Later Middle Ages by Zachary A. Matus Claire Fanger KEY WORDS Franciscans, Medieval Europe, 13th century, 14th century, alchemy, elixir of life, Roger Bacon, Vitalis of Furno, John of Rupescissa, Christianity, apocalypticism, Joachim of Fiore zachary a. matus. Franciscans and the Elixir of Life: Religion and Science in the Later Middle Ages. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017. Pp. 216. This book is focused on three late thirteenth-and early fourteenth-century Franciscans concerned with alchemy, and in particular interested in the alchemical notion of the elixir of life. The elixir was a material substance with spiritual properties; its formula was occult (though tended to involve distillation). It was understood as a medicine of wide application that could extend lives and that conferred spiritual gifts, enhancing intellect and other virtues and powers of the soul. The authors primarily under scrutiny are Roger Bacon (˚c. 1292), Vitalis of Furno (˚1327) and John of Rupescissa (˚after 1365). Matus does not suggest there is anything like a Franciscan “school of alchemy” or even a single way of thinking about the elixir itself; rather he is interested in the nexus between the alchemy and the Franciscanism of each author, and uses his analysis of this relation as a way of fingering broader connections between religion and science in the period. In a general way it is not news that that premodern alchemy in all of its cultural milieus has religious ramifications. In Christian culture, alchemical processes, for the writers that countenance them, are likely to be treated as sacral, and to be associated with allied Christian processes or substances linking the material and spiritual, such as the Eucharist, or resurrected bodies. Yet I know of no other book that sets out to examine Christian thinking about alchemy using such a specific set of focal points within a specific tradition of Christian religiosity. This is a valuable book from many angles; it is [End Page 489] readable, curates its data points well, and conveys fascinating information in a useful package. The book comprises four chapters and a brief conclusion. Chapter 1, “Franciscans and the Sacral Cosmos,” examines historical contexts for the Franciscan interests in the natural world that ground the alchemical discourse, starting with Francis’s Canticle of Brother Sun, and drawing interestingly on Peter John Olivi and his views on Genesis. Chapter 2, “Three Elixirs,” concerns the traditions surrounding the elixir of life that informed the theological and cosmological models of each of his Franciscan subjects: Roger Bacon connects the elixir to the resurrected body; John of Rupescissa reads it, as the quintessence, a literal distillation of heaven. The treatment in Vitalis’s largely compilatory work, Pro conservanda sanitate (On Preserving Health), examined as a kind of bridge between the two views, is important largely because it draws on widely available encyclopedic texts. Vitalis understands the elixir as distilled wine or brandy, though with numerous applications for it that move this mundane substance into esoteric realms. Chapter 3, “The Apocalyptic Imperative,” looks at apocalyptic speculations and how these connected to alchemy. This chapter is a kind of keystone for the book, not only because all the authors under scrutiny had an urgent sense of impending apocalypse which they tended to view (with greater or lesser degrees of openness) through a Joachite lens, but because their thinking touches on crucial events in the history of the Franciscan order in the controversies over the Spiritual Franciscans who were suspected of heresy and periodically repressed after 1295—a point when, as Matus notes (101), the condemnation of alchemy and other esoteric sciences also becomes more acute. The chapter draws in a useful treatment of Joachim of Fiore and his Trinitarian understanding of sacred history and shows how concerns with esoteric science and the natural world come to seem vital under pressure of imminent apocalypse. Chapter 4, “A Subjunctive Science,” discusses how Franciscan ritual life opens up a way of adumbrating the human relationship to God and the cosmos. The term “subjunctive science” refers to the way knowledge was understood to concern that which must happen as importantly as that which actually happens—“the world...

Children of the Light: Gnostic Fiction and Gnostic Practice in Vladimir Sorokin’s Ice Trilogy

This paper offers a close reading of the contemporary Russian writer Vladimir Sorokin’s Ice trilogy and explores its deep roots in early gnostic spiritual movements of late antiquity, Russian esoteric philosophy and literature, and Western popular culture. Reflecting sources as varied as the Apocryphon of John, the Disney movie Escape to Witch Mountain, Russian New Age paganism, and esoteric Soviet science, these three interconnected novellas are based on the real-life “Tunguska event,” the great fireball that appeared over the Tunguska region of Siberia in 1908, flattening more than 800 square miles of forest. Famous in ufo circles as the “Russian Roswell” and long a magnet for esoteric speculation, in Sorokin’s hands this probable meteor strike becomes the springboard for a contemporary gnostic fantasy in which a giant chunk of ice carries the spirits of 23,000 gnostic demiurges to earth, where they inhabit human bodies that they despise and seek only to reunite and return to their source. More than a simple postmodern parable of the seventy-year Soviet regime and post-Soviet societal excesses, Sorokin’s damning portrait of his “children of the Light” illuminates the deeper and darker currents of human nature, ethics, and spirituality.

Dede Ömer Ruşeni'nin Divanı'nda Tasavvufi Mertebeler

Bu makale, Dede Omer Ruseni ’nin (o. 892/1486-87) Divan’inda tasavvuf mertebeleri olarak nitelendirdigi tevbe, zuhd ve nihayetinde tecelli kavramlarina yaklasimini ortaya koymayi hedeflemektedir. Halvetiyye’nin dort buyuk kolundan biri konumundaki Ruseniyye’nin nispet edildigi Dede Omer Ruseni (o. 892/1486-87), yasadigi onbesinci asirda zahiri ve bâtini ilimleri birlestirmis âlim ve ârif bir sahsiyet olarak taninmaktadir. Kendisi, medrese tahsili sonrasi Halvetilik’te “Pir-i Sâni” diye de anilan Seyyid Yahya Sirvani’nin yaninda manevi egitim gormustur. Tefsir, hadis, akâid, kelâm basta olmak uzere Islâmi ilimlere vâkif olan Dede Omer’in dusuncelerinde Mevlânâ ve Ibn Arabi’nin tesiri acik bir sekilde hissedilir. Ruseni, yetistirdigi Ibrahim Gulseni, Timurtas Halife, Sâhin-i Halveti gibi isimler yaninda eserleriyle de tasavvuf tarihinde etkili olmus bir sahsiyettir.

Spices, Smells and Spells: The Use of Olfactory Substances in the Conjuring of Spirits

This article examines five inter-connected conjuration spells, found in the sixteenth-century Bijapuri astrological encyclopaedia, the Nujūm al-ʿulūm (The Stars of the Sciences, 1570), each of which is used to summon one of a family of jinn sisters, known as the ‘children of the heart-ravishing houris’. Through an examination of these spells, I direct attention to the ways in which knowledge of the esoteric sciences became a useful skill in courtly society in the Deccan, and intersected with widely shared understandings of both the physical body and the cosmos, which it inhabited. Focusing particularly on the importance of olfactants and olfactory techniques in magical practices, this article will also highlight an oft-forgotten sense – smell – and the practices associated with it in the sixteenth-century Deccan. Finally I also consider the importance of practices of conceptual translations in sixteenth-century courtly culture and statecraft.

Agonology as a Deeply Esoteric Science – An Introduction to Martial Arts Therapy on a Global Scale

The struggle is the relation, which is common for people all over the world. It can be encountered from daily quarrel of two people, through political disputes, commercial competition, soccer matches, antiterrorist actions to military conflicts between countries. Increase in the frequency of these struggles and their brutalisation reached the border, which further crossing means that the lynch will become an acceptable way to claim own arguments and the freedom of speech and gestures will be tied up with the awareness of such sanctions. Paradoxically, television channels educate the most aggressively using the word “sport”. Beating unconscious, lying into the cage, dripping blood the neo-gladiator do not fall within a definition of “sport”. There is no exaggeration in stating that the brutalization of fights is the epidemic on the global scale. Always, when threats appear which is a concern of large populations, let alone the entire earth's population, the hope is in the science. The general theory of struggle (agonology) was established by Kotarbiński (1938). Konieczny developed (1970) a cybernetic theory of struggle. Rudniański created the theory of a non-armed struggle (1989). I’m the author the theory of defensive struggle (1991) and combat sports theory (2000). Thus, five complete theories of struggle built esoteric science – agonology (the original achievement of the Polish scholars). Jigoro Kano was the first scholar who yoked the blood fights in the close contact. In 1882, the educational system was named friendly for the man through the fight judo kodokan. My judo qualifications turned out to be useful enough so that since 1991 agonology can be find as science that provides the argumentation for the inclusion of certain elements of the some combat sports as effective means of the cognitive-behavioural therapy. The main aim of this therapy is to reduce the development of human aggressiveness and bravery (crucial feature to effectively resolve any fight and in a manner worthy of the man).

Conditionals in causal decision theory

This paper explores the possibility that causal decision theory can be formulated in terms of probabilities of conditionals. It is argued that a generalized Stalnaker semantics in combination with an underlying branching time structure not only provides the basis for a plausible account of the semantics of indicative conditionals, but also that the resulting conditionals have properties that make them well-suited as a basis for formulating causal decision theory. Decision theory (at least if we omit the frills) is not an esoteric science, however unfamiliar it may seem to an outsider. Rather it is a systematic exposition of the consequences of certain well-chosen platitudes about belief, desire, preference and choice. It is the very core of our common-sense theory of persons, dissected out and elegantly systematized. (David Lewis, Synthese 23:331–344, , p. 337). A small distortion in the analysis of the conditional may create spurious problems with the analysis of other concepts. So if the facts about usage favor one among a number of subtly different theories, it may be important to determine which one it is. (Robert Stalnaker, A Defense of Conditional Excluded Middle, pp. 87–104, , p. 87)

Agricultural economics: an exoteric or esoteric science?

ABSTRACT The main argument in this article is that agricultural economists in South Africa must address at least two fundamental questions, namely: (1) “What is the influence of public policy on the structure of agriculture?” and (2) “What is the influence of the governance of farm businesses on their success from a financial, economic, social and environmental point of view?” These questions have been at the core of the profession of agricultural economics since its beginning, but if agricultural economists want to provide useful answers they will need to revisit the currently dominant paradigm of applied microeconomics. As a profession, agricultural economists have not kept pace with a number of new developments in economics; have ignored the lessons of history; have lost their connection with the everyday realities of farming; and have paid insufficient attention to new developments in systems thinking.

Apple, Are You Ready to Make Contact?

According to the holistic world view of the western esoteric tradition, science and esoteric knowledge have always been intertwined due to their recognition of the universal relationships of energy. By providing a continuation of the esoteric approach to science and technology in the post-modern period, the computer and the internet represent particular examples of the continuation of characteristic esoteric principles. Yet, they also shed light on the adaptability of esoteric approaches to understanding the world. Bearing this in mind, this article examines the esoteric understanding of the computer and internet as manifest in texts of various genres, such as the New-Age ‘Faces of Findhorn: Images of a Planetary Family’ (1980), Starhawk's esoteric-utopian novel ‘The Fifth Sacred Thing’ (1993) as well as the Neopagan texts ‘The Goddess in the Office’ (1993) by Zsuzsanna Budapest, and, finally, Barbara Ardinger's ‘Pagan Every Day’ (2006) and ‘Finding New Goddesses’ (2003). These texts show how, on the one hand, esoteric traditions of correspondences and principles of universal interdependence have remained stable over the ages. On the other hand, they demonstrate how these traditions are creatively and pragmatically applied to the innovation of the computer. Thus, an old esoteric tradition is brought to bear on a new paradigm of communication technology which testifies to the creative adaptability of esotericism and accounts for its persistence throughout the ages.

O SIGNO DO POETA

This is a semiotic analysis of the poem "Greenwich Meridian Time", exploring the non-verbal components as regards symbolic terms presentation. We try to show that the good visual poem should be based on tradition, which goes bach to the beginning of the esoteric Sciences, especially the mandala, the cabala and the alchemy.

A Dialogue

MOHAMMED FAGHFOORY: I read the review on my book, Kernel of theKernel, in a recent edition of the journal [21:2] and would like to respond tosome of the reviewer’s remarks. The bulk of the review is, in fact, takenfrom the book itself and is nothing more than a description of each chapter’scontent. That is fine by itself, and your journal’s format requires that. It is,however, to his concluding paragraph that I would like to address myresponse, where he talks about Sufism in light of feminist literature and theories,which are alien to Islamic spirituality.First, the reviewer’s statement that “No women are found among all theShi`ite scholars and masters of esoteric sciences” is simply wrong. As earlyas the first Islamic century, Sufism produced masters like Rabi`ah `Adawiyah,to whom Hasan al-Basri, the celebrated patriarch of Basrah and thefirst major Sufi master, referred to frequently for spiritual advice. To this,one must add prominent women like Sayyidah Nafisah (the daughter ofImam Hasan) and Sayyidah `A’ishah (the daughter of Imam Sadiq), whosemastery of exoteric and esoteric knowledge have been acknowledged bySufi masters like Ibn `Ata’llah Iskandarani and many others. One might alsomention Fatimah of Nayshabur, the Persian Nizam, and another Fatimahwho was, in fact, the spiritual master of the octogenarian Sufi master Muhyal-Din ibn al-`Arabi.More problematic is the reviewer’s statement on Sufi doctrine and itsview on men and women. When God decided to manifest Himself, He did sothrough Revelation, cosmos, and human being (microcosm). We read in theQur’an that God is Ahad (He is One, Absolute) and Samad (Sufficient toHimself, Infinite). This means that everything is contained in Him. Thus, God ...

Characterizing and Controlling Industrial Dust: A Case Study in Small Particle Measurement

Instrumentation used to measure characteristics of fine particles entrained in gas or suspended in aerosols provides information needed to develop valid regulations for emission sources and to support the design of control technologies. This case study offers a brief history of "micromeritics," a term used by early researchers to describe the science of small particles, and the related invention of laboratory instruments for characterizing very fine particles. The historical view provides insights into the role that Progressive Era government agencies played in advancing esoteric science and applying this knowledge to the regulation of workplace air pollution. Micromeritics instrumentation developed in conjunction with federal research now has many commercial applications worldwide, with characterizing airborne pollutants only a minor one. However, the continuing advances in the micromeritics field provide important laboratory measurement capabilities to environmental research organizations, such as the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).

The Impact of Age, Generation and Sex Variables on Religious Beliefs and Practices in Morocco

English Many sociologists have confirmed the effect of 'age' and 'generation' variables on the religious phenomenon, particularly in Europe. On this continent, many longitudinal surveys show, on the one hand, a disaffection with religion depending on generation and age and, on the other hand, a slowdown of institutional religion. This disaffection with institutional religion has favoured the birth of new religious movements and a consolidation of beliefs in paranormal "phenomena and esoteric sciences. In Morocco, measurement by generational parameters is a difficult business because there are few statistics quantifying long-term religious beliefs and practices among Moroccans. The few figures available come from Moroccan surveys which offer few possibilities of interpretation because the questionnaire model used varies from one survey to another and the sample sizes differ. To try and make up for these lacunae, our survey (based on a sample of 300 Moroccans residing in Fez and the surrounding region) sought to measure the impact of age, generation and sex variables on'religious beliefs and practices. Early results show that there is indeed a "revitalization of religion depending on age and generation. French Plusieurs sociologues ont confirmé l'effet des variables 'âge' et 'génération' sur le phénomène religieux, notamment en Europe. Dans ce continent, plusieurs enquêtes longitudinales montrent, d'une part, une désaffection du religieux en fonction des générations et de l'âge et, d'autre part, une perte de vitesse des "religions institutionnelles. La désaffection vis-à-vis de ces religions instituées a facilité l'émergence de nouveaux mouvements religieux et le renforcement de la croyance dans les phénomènes paranormaux et les sciences ésotériques. Au Maroc, la mesure par le paramètre générationnel est difficile à réaliser car il existe peu de statistiques quantifiant les croyances et les pratiques religieuses des marocains dans la durée. Les quelques chiffres disponibles sont issus "d'enquêtes marocaines qui offrent peu de possibilités d'interprétation eu égard aux différents modèles de questionnaires utilisés dans ces enquêtes et aux tailles différentes des échantillons. Pour tenter de combler cette lacune, une enquête a été menée (échantillon de 300 marocains résidant à Fès et sa région) pour mesurer l'impact des variables âge, génération et sexe sur les croyances et les pratiques religieuses. Les premiers résultats montrent qu'il existe bien une revitalisation du religieux en fonction de l'avancement de l'âge et de la génération.

Constructing Expertise

There is much with which to agree in the discussion paper of Collins & Evans (2002) on a 'normative theory of expertise' as the next step in science studies, but also much with which to disagree. While I have a problem with their various rhetorical strategies,' I strongly agree with Collins and Evans that a normative theory of expertise is an important challenge for science studies at the present time (2002: 237, 239) .2 However, I found their paper curiously disappointing in how they address that challenge. There are three items in their paper that qualify for a normative theory, or the beginnings of such a theory. First, Collins and Evans emphasize that there is expertise, often 'experience-based', which is not recognized by certification (2002: 238).3 They do not follow-up on how one can recognize such expertise, and recognize it at an early stage, perhaps as a competence. Although this may well be impossible, one might be able to improve the processes of recognition. Second, they emphasize that more 'extension', i.e. more participation by non-specialists, is not always better. This point deserves to be reiterated, and further articulation is important. Collins and Evans appear to suggest that the actual, 'optimal', extension is to be decided on a case-by-case basis. At least, that is the way they discuss their cases (2002: 261-65). Third, they emphasize that one can usefully start with esoteric sciences as a model, and with the experience of the sociologist studying such sciences as a heuristic. That this is indeed part of a normative theory is visible in phrases such as: