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The formation of students' professional identity is considered in modern psychology as a complex and multi-level process that determines the success of their future activities and personal development. Professional identity is understood as the integration of personal and professional qualities, self-awareness in a future profession, stability of professional values and norms. An important factor is the educational environment of the university: interaction with teachers, participation in professional communities, and internships help strengthen identity. A study using the methodology for studying the status of professional identity (MISPI) by A.A. Azbel compared humanities students in Armenia and Germany. Armenian participants demonstrated a more pronounced emotional and value-oriented component, while German students tended to a rational and behavioral approach. These differences reflect differences in educational systems and social expectations.

In this compelling essay, Nobel Laureate Joachim Frank denounces the resurgence of authoritarianism and the spread of fascist tendencies threatening democracy and academic freedom in the United States. Reflecting on his early life in Nazi Germany and his five decades as a scientist and professor in America, Frank warns that universities, centers of critical thinking, diversity, and open debate, are now being targeted by political forces that seek control through fear, censorship, and ideological manipulation. He exposes how attacks on higher education, science, and free expression are intertwined with broader patterns of discrimination, propaganda, and the dismantling of democratic institutions. Frank’s message is both urgent and hopeful: defending universities means defending truth, reason, and the very essence of a free society.

IASHA e.V is a registered non-profit society to promote sciences, humanities, research, art, culture, education and individual vocations, including editorial support of this exceptional journal and annual awarding of Demetrios prizes for outstanding bachelor, master and doctoral theses. The association is entitled to issue tax-effective certificates for donations and membership fees. The annual fee is 100 €. General meetings take place bi-annually. You find here the minutes of the general meeting of November 8, 2024. We are soliciting new members and more donations in order to boost the global altruistic mission of IASHA e.V. We encourage you to become a member of IASHA e.V. and/or to support us with your donation. Further information and an application form for membership can be found on the homepage of IASHA e.V. under www.iasha.org.

In September 2022, the Federal Labour Court ruled that employers are obliged to introduce a system that records the start and end of their employees' daily working hours. Since, according to corresponding regulations in the higher education or civil service laws of the federal states, the working time law does not apply to university teachers at state universities, the question arises as to which regulations apply to university teachers at private universities. The following article is dedicated to this problem and deals with a draft bill of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs on the revision of the Working Hours Act of March 2023. The paper was previously published in Ordnung der Wissenschaft Issue 03, Volume 2023 (https://ordnungderwissenschaft.de/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Wertheimer.pdf).

Idiomatic is a branch of lexicology dealing with idioms. It is the study of the peculiarities of a language, a dialect, and the totality of idioms of a language. While it is having already been the subject of several studies in a so-called written culture as Germany, it has been sparsely researched in societies with a strong oral tradition, such as those in Africa. This article therefore focuses on 56 idioms of the Fon from Benin (West Africa). The focus is on the significance of human body parts in the Fon idioms and on their cultural aspect. The aim of the paper is to fill the gap in Beninese idiom in particular and in Africa in general.

This article is inspired by a quotation from Heinrich Heine (1833) („No, we do not seize an idea, but the idea seizes us and kneads us and whips us into the arena that we, like forced gladiators, fight for it”), in which he refers to the power that thoughts can gain over the thinking person. The paper explores this perspective on thinking and asks how it can happen at all that thoughts acquire power. To this end, it provides examples of thought phenomena such as fixed ideas, prejudices, dogmatism, fundamentalism, and conspiracy theories. The question then arises as to what kind of conception of thinking emerges if one foregrounds the content of thought rather than the cognitive processes, as is common today. These considerations lead to assumptions about what thoughts are, what makes them persistent and why a flexible, reflective handling of them so often fails. Recommendations on how to accomplish a critical way of dealing with thoughts are indicated at the end.

This paper will not be able to cover the subject comprehensively, rather it will highlight and explain major lines of thought in Artificial Intelligence (AI). Mathematics will be largely avoided. The paper describes the elementary working principles of today's AI, points to a number of successful applications, and presents perspectives for the future. This paper was previously published in Ordnung der Wissenschaft (OdW) Issue 02/2023 (https://ordnungderwissenschaft.de/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/02_02_Burkhardt.pdf).

The number of computer- and data-based tools is rapidly increasing in the field of oncology. Corresponding methods are finding their way into almost all areas of application, from diagnostic systems and tumour modelling to prognosis of disease progression. However, the sheer combinatorial complexity of this disease, resulting from more potential combinations of cancerous mutations than atoms in the universe, leads to the need for cancer treatment optimised for individual patients. The use of artificial intelligence to optimise therapeutic interventions aimed at controlling cancer within clinically meaningful limits is still a very uncharted territory that has rarely been entered beyond pure in silico experiments. In this manuscript, we explain the basics of artificial intelligence, show some applications already established today, provide a vision of an AI-controlled therapeutic system, and briefly discuss some general ethical considerations.

Reflection on Hannah Arendt can show: If we let ourselves be driven by the idea of avoiding death at all costs, there is not much left of life. Everything in life is connected with danger for life. We have to first and foremost accept our finiteness and our mortality. Then we must ask ourselves what is worth living for and what is worth the risk of dying for.

Artificial intelligence: For some time now, this magic word has been stirring not only business and the public, but also our imagination. We imagine brains intervene in everyday life, make complex decisions with cool expertise, perform the most astonishing services, and - in the worst case - put us out of work. Fact is that artificial intelligence (also referred to as AI) has already come a long way and that the status quo is only the beginning of many further developments and revolutions.