• Undang-undang Pelabuhan Kedah dari Perspektif Sejarah dan Budaya
  (Kedah Port Laws from the Historical and Cultural Perspectives)
  Mohd Sukki Othman dan Adi Yasran Abdul Aziz
  
  Abstrak: Kajian ini bertujuan menjelaskan beberapa aspek sejarah dan budaya Melayu yang terdapat dalam manuskrip Undang-undang Pelabuhan Kedah bertarikh 1060 H/1650 M. Undang-undang ini dipercayai telah menjadi panduan kepada semua pedagang yang berdagang di pelabuhan Kuala Kedah dari abad ke-17 hingga abad ke-19 termasuklah pedagang dari India, China dan Eropah. Pelabuhan Kuala Kedah juga dipercayai telah muncul sebagai pelabuhan terbesar di Nusantara ketika itu, iaitu selepas kejatuhan Melaka dan kemerosotan pelabuhan Banda Aceh. Kemunculan pelabuhan Kuala Kedah sebagai pelabuhan terpenting di rantau ini telah mendorong kerajaan Kedah pada masa itu untuk mengkanunkan undang-undang pelabuhannya sendiri. Manuskrip undang-undang pelabuhan Kedah ini dianggap sebagai undang-undang pelabuhan Melayu lama yang paling lengkap. Justeru, kajian ini menggunakan pendekatan analisis teks berdasarkan manuskrip Undang-undang Pelabuhan Kedah versi Raf 77 dan dibantu dengan manuskrip Undang-undang Pelabuhan Kedah versi MS 40329 dan ML 25. Hasil kajian ini mendapati terdapat banyak aspek sejarah dan budaya Melayu berkaitan dengan perdagangan dan kewangan yang sebahagiannya telah membentuk jati diri bangsa Melayu itu sendiri sehingga sekarang.
  
  Kata kunci dan frasa: sejarah, budaya, perdagangan, kewangan, manuskrip Undang-undang Pelabuhan Kedah
  
  Abstract: This study aims to unravel some aspects of Malay culture and history that are found in the Kedah Port Laws, dated 1060 H/1650 M. It is believed that these laws served as a guide to traders including those from India, China and Europe who traded at the port of Kuala Kedah between the 17th century and the 19th century. Kuala Kedah emerged as the largest port in the archipelago after the fall of Malacca and the decline of the port of Banda Aceh. The emergence of Kuala Kedah as the most important port in the region led the Kedah government at the time to codify its own port laws. The Kedah Port Laws manuscript is regarded as the most complete old Malay port laws. This study is a text analysis of the Kedah Port Laws manuscript version Raf 77 and the Kedah Port Laws manuscript version MS 40329 and ML 25. The study reveals that there are many aspects of the Malay culture and history associated with trade and finance that are integral to the Malay identity until today.
  
  Keywords and phrases: history, culture, commerce, finance, Kedah Port Laws

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• Applied and Professional Ethics
  Göran Collste
  
  Abstract: The development of applied ethics in recent decades has had great significance for philosophy and society. In this article, I try to characterise this field of philosophical inquiry. I also discuss the relation of applied ethics to social policy and to professional ethics. In the first part, I address the following questions:
  
  (1) What is applied ethics?
  (2) When and why did applied ethics appear?
  (3) How do we engage in applied ethics? What are the methods?
  
  In the second part of the article, I introduce professional ethics. What is professional ethics, and how can one distinguish professional ethics from applied ethics? I argue that the moral content of professional ethics is a result of professional relations. I also argue that professional ethics best can be understood as a type of virtue ethics.

Keywords and phrases: applied ethics, professional ethics, reflective equilibrium, moral principles, method

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• The Founding Father of Korean Democracy beyond the Ideological Controversy: Tosan's Political Philosophy of the Humane Democracy and Its Moral Foundation
  Ilsup Ahn
  
  Abstract: Although Tosan An Ch'ang-ho (Ahn, Chang-Ho: 1878–1938) is regarded as one of the key national leaders of Korea's independence movement in the early twentieth century, recent scholarship has discovered that An Ch'ang-ho is "an elusive figure in modern Korean history". The debate surrounding the identity of An Ch'ang-ho as a person and as a leader in Korea's independence movement is divided among scholars according to how he is understood with regard to his involvement in the independence movement. In this paper, I argue that the controversy is largely due to the interpreters' reductionist standpoint, which fails to integrate Tosan's foundational work in moral thought with his innovative insight in political philosophy. Later in this paper, through the critical and constructive integration of Tosan's moral and political ideas, I present the concept of "humane democracy" as Tosan's original contribution to the establishment of the Korean political philosophy of democracy.

Keywords and phrases: Tosan An Ch'ang-ho (Ahn Chang-Ho), humane democracy, Korea's founding father, Korean independence movement, Korean democracy

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• An Appraisal of the Aesthetic Dimension of the African Philosophy of Cloth
  Bridget O. J. Omatseye and Kingsley O. Emeriewen
  
  

This article has been retracted. Please read the official retraction

• Language Vitality of the Sihan Community in Sarawak, Malaysia
  Noriah Mohamed and Nor Hashimah Hashim
  
  Abstract: This paper discusses the language vitality of the Sihan or Sian community in Sarawak. Vitality of language refers to the ability of a language to live or grow. The language vitality of the Sihans was investigated using a field survey, observation and interviews. The output of the field survey was analysed using the nine criteria of language vitality, outlined in the UNESCO Expert Meeting in March, 2003 (Lewis 2006, 4; Benzinger et al. 2003). The nine criteria include intergenerational language transmission, absolute number of speakers, proportion of speakers within the total population, trends in existing language domains, response to new domains and media, materials for language education and literacy, language attitudes and policies, community members' attitudes toward their own language and the amount and quality of documentation (Brenzinger et al. 2003, 7–17). The data from the survey were supported by the data obtained from observation and interviews. The findings of the study reveal that the Sihan language is under threat as it does not fulfil UNESCO's nine criteria of language vitality.

Keywords and phrases: language vitality, Sihan language

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Book Review

• Aesthetics and Radical Politics by Grindon, Gavin, Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. pp. 1–138. ISBN (10): 1-84718-979-2, ISBN (13): 9781847189790, 2008.
  Lok Chong Hoe

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