Do Material Things Have Intrinsic Properties?

Metaphysica ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 105-117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger Harris
2020 ◽  
Vol 88 ◽  
pp. 215-237
Author(s):  
Kenneth L. Pearce

AbstractThe central unifying element in the philosophy of Peter Browne (d. 1735) is his theory of analogy. Although Browne's theory was originally developed to deal with some problems about religious language, Browne regards analogy as a general purpose cognitive mechanism whereby we substitute an idea we have to stand for an object of which we, strictly speaking, have no idea. According to Browne, all of our ideas are ideas of sense, and ideas of sense are ideas of material things. Hence we can conceive of spiritual things – including even our own spirit – only by analogy. One interesting application Browne makes of his theory is an account of how concepts such as knowledge can be correctly applied to beings that have no intrinsic properties in common, such as non-human animals, humans, angels, and God. I argue that this is best understood as what, in the contemporary literature, is known as a ‘multiple realizability’ problem and that Browne's solution to this problem has important similarities to functionalist theories in recent philosophy of mind.


2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 90-91
Author(s):  
Camilo Perez

Objects are not just material things but containers of memories. They occupy a particular place in our life trajectories, and as we re-encounter them in the act of remembering, as we assort them in new assemblages through the act of storytelling, new layers of meaning, affect, and emotion may emerge. In this performance script, the intersection of three objects—“a gold medal,” a “gun,” and “a steak”—become an avenue to explore my past experiences and re-visit, re-think the issue of the normalization of violence in my home country, Colombia.


2012 ◽  
Vol 6 (1-3) ◽  
pp. 291-307
Author(s):  
Jason T. Larson

This article considers the intersection of Christian and imperial memory in the physical Gospel book. Besides describing the function of gospel books in the post-Constantine Roman Empire, it examines the connection between the Roman construction and production of sites of memory that established Roman imperium in the Mediterranean and the development of the Christian Gospel codex as a site of memory within Christianity. It also explores the related issues of imperial and divine power as manifest through material things, the rhetoric of seeing and iconicity, and the invented tradition of Christian orthodoxy. The article shows that the Christian Gospels and Roman sites of memory, despite a vast difference in their intended functions and original uses, both established imperium. It maintains that the creation of the Gospels' imperial iconicity was not based on their function as texts of spiritual enlightenment in late ancient Christianity, but on the fact that the production of Gospels as material cultural objects depended on Roman cultural exemplars and ideological rhetoric.


2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 145-157
Author(s):  
Hartmut Von Sass
Keyword(s):  

God’s being is becoming – the title is the thesis. The first section of this paper will be dedicated to the problem of radical historicity in sketching three dogmatic approaches dealing with the relation between God and history. After critically introducing the concept of relational – in contrast to intrinsic – properties in the second section I will apply a revised version of this concept theologically in integrating it into the architecture of Trinitarian thinking. Accordingly, and on that basis, the last section can address the ambivalent as well as precarious question in which sense God’s ultimate being is in real (be) coming.


2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 4178-4187
Author(s):  
Michael A Persinger ◽  
Stanley A Koren

                The capacity for computer-like simulations to be generated by massive information processing from electron-spin potentials supports Bostrom’s hypothesis that matter and human cognition might reflect simulations. Quantitative analyses of the basic assumptions indicate the universe may display properties of a simulation where photons behave as pixels and gravitons control the structural organization. The Lorentz solution for the square of the light and entanglement velocities converges with the duration of a single electron orbit that ultimately defines properties of matter. The approximately one trillion potential states within the same space with respect to the final epoch of the universe indicate that a different simulation, each with intrinsic properties, has been and will be generated as a type of tractrix defined by ±2 to 3 days (total duration 5 to 6 days). It may define the causal limits within a simulation. Because of the intrinsic role of photons as the pixel unit, phenomena within which flux densities are enhanced, such as human cognition (particularly dreaming) and the cerebral regions associated with those functions, create the conditions for entanglement or excess correlations between contiguous simulations. The consistent quantitative convergence of operations indicates potential validity for this approach. The emergent solutions offer alternative explanations for the limits of predictions for multivariate phenomena that could be coupled to more distal simulations.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kseniya A. Mariewskaya ◽  
Denis Larkin ◽  
Yuri Samoilichenko ◽  
Vladimir Korshun ◽  
Alex Ustinov

Molecular fluorescence is a phenomenon that is usually observed in condensed phase. It is strongly affected by molecular interactions. The study of fluorescence spectra in the gas phase can provide a nearly-ideal model for the evaluation of intrinsic properties of the fluorophores. Unfortunately, most conventional fluorophores are not volatile enough to allow study of their fluorescence in the gas phase. Here we report very bright gas phase fluorescence of simple BODIPY dyes that can be readily observed at atmospheric pressure using conventional fluorescence instrumentation. To our knowledge, this is the first example of visible range gas phase fluorescence at near ambient conditions. Evaporation of the dye in vacuum allowed us to demonstrate organic molecular electroluminescence in gas discharge excited by electric field produced by a Tesla coil.


2013 ◽  
Vol 17 (15) ◽  
pp. 1633-1640 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva Espigule ◽  
Fabiola Vilaseca ◽  
Xavier Puigvert ◽  
Nour-Eddine Mansouri ◽  
Francesc-Xavier Espinach ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. 685-707 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amna Batool ◽  
Farid Menaa ◽  
Bushra Uzair ◽  
Barkat Ali Khan ◽  
Bouzid Menaa

: The pace at which nanotheranostic technology for human disease is evolving has accelerated exponentially over the past five years. Nanotechnology is committed to utilizing the intrinsic properties of materials and structures at submicroscopic-scale measures. Indeed, there is generally a profound influence of reducing physical dimensions of particulates and devices on their physico-chemical characteristics, biological properties, and performance. The exploration of nature’s components to work effectively as nanoscaffolds or nanodevices represents a tremendous and growing interest in medicine for various applications (e.g., biosensing, tunable control and targeted drug release, tissue engineering). Several nanotheranostic approaches (i.e., diagnostic plus therapeutic using nanoscale) conferring unique features are constantly progressing and overcoming all the limitations of conventional medicines including specificity, efficacy, solubility, sensitivity, biodegradability, biocompatibility, stability, interactions at subcellular levels. : This review introduces two major aspects of nanotechnology as an innovative and challenging theranostic strategy or solution: (i) the most intriguing (bare and functionalized) nanomaterials with their respective advantages and drawbacks; (ii) the current and promising multifunctional “smart” nanodevices.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sapna Saini ◽  
Sanju Nanda ◽  
Anju Dhiman

: Chitosan, a natural biodegradable polymer obtained from deacetylation of chitin, has been used as an approbative macromolecule for the development of various novel drug delivery systems. It is one of the most favorable biodegradable carriers for nanoparticulate drug delivery due to its intrinsic properties, such as biocompatibility, biodegradability, non-toxicity, availability of free reactive amino groups, and ease of chemical modification into different active derivatives. Furthermore, interesting physical properties (film-forming, gelling and thickening) make it a suitable candidate for formulations, such as films, microcapsules, beads, nanoparticles, nanofibres, nanogel and so on. Researchers have reported that chitosan nanoparticles act as a promising vehicle for herbal actives as they provide a superior alternative to traditional carriers and improve pharmaceutical efficiency. As no review of chitosan nanoparticles encapsulating herbal extracts and bioactives has been published till date, a maiden effort has been made to collate and review the use of chitosan nanoparticles for the entrapment of phytoconstituents to yield stable, efficient and safe drug delivery systems. Additionally, the paper presents a comprehensive account of the state-of the-art in fabricating herbal chitosan nanoparticles and their current pharmacological status. A list of patents on chitosan nanoparticles of herbal actives has also been included. This review is intended to serve as a didactic discourse for the formulation scientists endeavoring to develop advanced delivery systems for herbal actives.


Author(s):  
Martin Haspelmath

This chapter focuses on various theoretical approaches to the semantic and syntactic functions of indefinite pronouns. It begins with a discussion of structuralist semantics, which suggests that language is a system whose parts must be defined and described on the basis of their place in the system and their relation to each other, rather than on the basis of their own intrinsic properties. It then considers some of the problems associated with structuralist semantics, including the unclear status of the semantic features; significant overlap of the functions of grammatical items in many areas, including indefinite pronouns; and structuralist semantics makes wrong predictions about semantic change. The chapter proceeds by analysing logical semantics and the issues raised by this approach, along with syntactic approaches, the theory of mental spaces, pragmatic scales and scale reversal. Finally, it explains the relationship between focusing and sentence accent.


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