Emerson's Atom and the Matter of Suffering

2009 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-47
Author(s):  
Mark Noble
Keyword(s):  
Field Theory ◽  
Natural History ◽  
Classical Field Theory ◽  
Classical Field ◽  
The Other ◽  
History Of ◽  
The One ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Solid Bodies ◽  
Lines Of Force

This essay argues that Ralph Waldo Emerson's interest in the cutting-edge science of his generation helps to shape his understanding of persons as fluid expressions of power rather than solid bodies. In his 1872 "Natural History of Intellect," Emerson correlates the constitution of the individual mind with the tenets of Michael Faraday's classical field theory. For Faraday, experimenting with electromagnetism reveals that the atom is a node or point on a network, and that all matter is really the arrangement of energetic lines of force. This atomic model offers Emerson a technology for envisioning a materialized subjectivity that both unravels personal identity and grants access to impersonal power. On the one hand, adopting Faraday's field theory resonates with many of the affirmative philosophical and ethical claims central to Emerson's early essays. On the other hand, however, distributing the properties of Faraday's atoms onto the properties of the person also entails moments in which materialized subjects encounter their own partiality, limitation, and suffering. I suggest that Emerson represents these aspects of experience in terms that are deliberately discrepant from his conception of universal power. He presumes that if every experience boils down to the same lines of force, then the particular can be trivialized with respect to the general. As a consequence, Emerson must insulate his philosophical assertions from contamination by our most poignant experiences of limitation. The essay concludes by distinguishing Emersonian "Necessity" from Friedrich Nietzsche's similar conception of amor fati, which routes the affirmation of fate directly through suffering.

ASSOCIATED LENGTH AND INFLATION IN QUANTUM MECHANICS WITH GRAVITATIONAL SELF-INTERACTION

1994 ◽  
Vol 03 (02) ◽  
pp. 461-483
Author(s):  
A.N. PETROV ◽  
A.D. POPOVA
Keyword(s):  
Field Theory ◽  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Characteristic Length ◽  
Classical Field Theory ◽  
Classical Field ◽  
Wave Functions ◽  
The Other ◽  
Probability Interpretation ◽  
Cosmological Inflation ◽  
The One

Earlier, quantum mechanics with gravitational self-interaction was constructed which, on the one hand, maximally resembles classical field theory and, on the other hand, admits a probability interpretation. The main feature of the constructed theory is the presence of some characteristic length associated with each particle. Here, in the framework of this theory, the cosmological inflation solution is considered together with restrictions following from the problems of horizon and flatness. An analysis gives the admissible values of the parameters involved: the associated length of inflatons and their number factorized by a parameter characterizing initial data for their wave functions.

Spiders, Ants, and Bees

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 27-51
Author(s):  
Doina-Cristina Rusu ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
The Other ◽  
Francis Bacon ◽  
Middle Way ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
History Of ◽  
The One ◽  
Natural Histories

This paper argues that the methodology Francis Bacon used in his natural histories abides by the theoretical commitments presented in his methodological writings. On the one hand, Bacon advocated a middle way between idle speculation and mere gathering of facts. On the other hand, he took a strong stance against the theorisation based on very few facts. Using two of his sources whom Bacon takes to be the reflection of these two extremes—Giambattista della Porta as an instance of idle speculations, and Hugh Platt as an instance of gathering facts without extracting knowledge—I show how Bacon chose the middle way, which consists of gathering facts and gradually extracting theory out of them. In addition, it will become clear how Bacon used the expertise of contemporary practitioners to criticise fantastical theories and purge natural history of misconceived notions and false speculations.

Means And Seas

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (46) ◽  
pp. 40-54
Author(s):  
Siegfried Zielinski
Keyword(s):  
Close Contact ◽  
The Other ◽  
Viable Alternative ◽  
World Community ◽  
Guiding Principle ◽  
History Of ◽  
The One ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Bodies Of Water

In this article, the author examines the contrasting worldviews of specific philosophers, architects, and physicists in an attempt to identify a position that would represent a viable alternative to the concept of universalization. In the history of civilization, he asserts, almost all wars have been of a territorial nature. Territories tend toward uniformity and universalization. He contrasts this worldview with reflections on oceanic thinking, which perceives bodies of water such as the Mediterranean as mediators between continents as well as between opposing worldviews, connecting and dividing at the same time. The sea, however, does not connect in order to homogenize but rather creates distance as an important prerequisite for true communication, thus linking multiplicity in all its variety as a viable alternative to universalism. The author moves on to scrutinize the cosmopolitan attitude as a paradox that on the one hand is oriented to the particular individual and on the other hand to an imaginary world community, that is, the universal. Taking this notion further to consider today’s world that is saturated with the imaginary and symbolic power of the Internet, the author proposes that cosmopolitanism could be understood as an adequate expression for the technologically advanced world community by its capability to strike a balance between the individual and the world as a whole, on one side, and synthetic identity generated by culture and technology, on the other. Nevertheless, deviating from all of these worldviews, the author concludes with a short reflection, inspired by two films, on an alternative to cosmopolitanism that he calls cosmoethics, which employs ethics as the guiding principle of thought and action and commits to a practice that stays in close contact not only with real but also with diverse realities.

Some Remarks on the Logic of Explanation in the Social Sciences

1970 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 64-81
Author(s):  
Albrecht Wellmer
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Philosophy Of Science ◽  
Scientific Explanation ◽  
The Other ◽  
Analytical Philosophy ◽  
Practical Consequence ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
The One ◽  
The Individual

If one were to write a history of the philosophy of science in the spirit of T. S. Kuhn, one would have to consider the model of scientific explanation which Popper proposed and Hempel and Oppenheim developed to be one of the great paradigms of contemporary analytical philosophy of science. This analogue to the historically important paradigms of the individual sciences seems to me to be justifiable for the following reasons: first, the Hempel—Oppenheim model (or HO-model, as I shall call it) claims universal methodological validity; second, discussions on the problem of explanation have centred on this model for some time; third, the recent cognitive progress in this field has been largely the result of the interrelation between criticism of this model on the one hand and its improvement and explication on the other hand; and lastly, this model stands for a particular comprehension of the problems and possibilities of science, a concept of quite important practical consequence.

The Boundary of Animality

10.1068/d359t ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 23 (5) ◽  
pp. 787-793 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lars Christian Risan
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
The Other ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Human Computer Interactions ◽  
Generalized Symmetry ◽  
History Of ◽  
Anthropological Fieldwork ◽  
The One

In this paper I explore some limits of the generalized symmetry of actor-network theory. The paper is based on a study on cows, farming technology, and farming science, and is empirically based on an anthropological fieldwork in modern, computerized cowsheds. By exploring differences in interactions between human beings and cows, on the one hand, and between human beings and computers, on the other, I argue that the partly common natural history of human beings and cows, and the lack of such a history in human–computer interactions, makes it impossible to be agnostic about where to find subjectivity in such a place as a cowshed. Animal bodies (including human beings) demand certain kinds of interactions, and thus produce certain distributions of subjectivities. The boundary of animality is not a purely ‘cultural’ distinction, and cannot be deconstructed as such.

Analogy, Natural History and the Philosophy of Nature

2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 240-257 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dalia Nassar
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
A Priori ◽  
The Other ◽  
Empirical Science ◽  
Methodological Challenge ◽  
Philosophy Of Nature ◽  
History Of ◽  
The One ◽  
Fundamental Tension ◽  
Critical Reviews

In 1785 Kant published a series of critical reviews of Johann Gottfried Herder’s Ideas for a Philosophy of the History of Humanity (1784–1785), in which he not only challenges Herder’s conception of nature but also, and more importantly, his methodology. Kant’s complaint is that by relying on analogy, Herder draws deeply mistaken conclusions that overlook fundamental differences between human and nonhuman beings. But was Kant’s critique of Herder entirely fair? And how does it compare to Kant’s own use of analogy? My claim is that Herder’s use of analogy posed a fundamental methodological challenge to Kant, a challenge he sought to meet in the years following the reviews. In so doing, however, Kant found himself in the untenable situation of, on the one hand, granting analogy greater significance, and, on the other, severely restricting its use. By tracing the shifts in Kant’s thought through the lens of analogy, I aim to show that Kant’s transformed understanding of analogy reveals a fundamental tension between his a priori “metaphysics of nature” and empirical science, a tension that fundamentally shaped the philosophies of nature after Kant.

scholarly journals Liquid Biopsy for Solid Ophthalmic Malignancies: An Updated Review and Perspectives

Cancers ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 3284
Author(s):  
Arnaud Martel ◽  
Stephanie Baillif ◽  
Sacha Nahon-esteve ◽  
Lauris Gastaud ◽  
Corine Bertolotto ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Anterior Chamber ◽  
Gold Standard ◽  
Liquid Biopsy ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
The Other ◽  
Non Invasive ◽  
History Of ◽  
Diagnosis Of Cancer ◽  
The One

Tissue biopsy is considered the gold standard when establishing a diagnosis of cancer. However, tissue biopsies of intraocular ophthalmic malignancies are hard to collect and are thought to be associated with a non-negligible risk of extraocular dissemination. Recently, the liquid biopsy (LB) has emerged as a viable, non-invasive, repeatable, and promising way of obtaining a diagnosis, prognosis, and theragnosis of patients with solid tumors. LB refers to blood, as well as any human liquid. The natural history of uveal melanoma (UM) and retinoblastoma (RB) are radically opposed. On the one hand, UM is known to disseminate through the bloodstream, and is, therefore, more accessible to systemic venous liquid biopsy. On the other hand, RB rarely disseminates hematogenous, and is, therefore, more accessible to local liquid biopsy by performing an anterior chamber puncture. In this review, we summarize the current knowledge concerning LB in UM, RB, conjunctival tumors, and choroidal metastases. We also develop the current limitations encountered, as well as the perspectives.

scholarly journals Cities, Nature, Justice: a zoologist's perspective

2010 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Lunney
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Urban Ecosystem ◽  
The Other ◽  
City Life ◽  
Animal Populations ◽  
History Of ◽  
The One ◽  
The City ◽  
Rapid Conversion

Cities and nature may seem mutually exclusive, but the animal inhabitants, both native and introduced, from pets to pests, are a major component of city life. Using Sydney as an example, this paper takes a critical look at cities and nature, more narrowly zoology, with a long-term view, i.e. one with intergenerational equity in mind. In the rapid conversion of bush to farmland, then suburbs and industrial areas, flora and fauna have not been given a strong voice. We need a new ethic for this new urban ecosystem, one which encompasses dealing with exotic species, pests and vermin on the one hand, and relic native animal populations on the other. Plans for sustainability in environment, economics and society need to recognise that these are interrelated subjects, not separate entities. I argue that knowing the natural history of Sydney is integral to understanding the city, its history, and its sustainability.

Some Remarks on the Logic of Explanation in the Social Sciences

1970 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 64-81
Author(s):  
Albrecht Wellmer
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Philosophy Of Science ◽  
Scientific Explanation ◽  
The Other ◽  
Analytical Philosophy ◽  
Practical Consequence ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
The One ◽  
The Individual

If one were to write a history of the philosophy of science in the spirit of T. S. Kuhn, one would have to consider the model of scientific explanation which Popper proposed and Hempel and Oppenheim developed to be one of the great paradigms of contemporary analytical philosophy of science. This analogue to the historically important paradigms of the individual sciences seems to me to be justifiable for the following reasons: first, the Hempel—Oppenheim model (or HO-model, as I shall call it) claims universal methodological validity; second, discussions on the problem of explanation have centred on this model for some time; third, the recent cognitive progress in this field has been largely the result of the interrelation between criticism of this model on the one hand and its improvement and explication on the other hand; and lastly, this model stands for a particular comprehension of the problems and possibilities of science, a concept of quite important practical consequence.

scholarly journals III. The natural history of cochineal; being an account of a book entituled, Histoire naturelle de la cochinelle justifiée par des documens authentiques Amsterdam, 1729

1730 ◽  
Vol 36 (413) ◽  
pp. 264-268
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
New Spain ◽  
Small Animal ◽  
The Other ◽  
Histoire Naturelle ◽  
History Of ◽  
The One

A dispute arising betwixt the author ( Melchior de la Ruuscher ) and a friend, concerning the substance of cochineal, the one maintaining it to be a small animal, the other the fruit, or grain of a plant, the author took the pains to procure from Antiquera in New Spain , the place where there is the greatest traffick for it, the attestations upon oath of eight persons who have been immediately employed in propagating and managing it for many years; from whence the whole natural history of this drug is collected.

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