Great Thinkers: (VIII) Spinoza

Philosophy ◽  
1936 ◽  
Vol 11 (43) ◽  
pp. 271-287
Author(s):  
W. G. de Burgh
Keyword(s):  
First Principles ◽  
Logical Necessity ◽  
Geometrical Form ◽  
Detailed Interpretation ◽  
Almost All ◽  
The Universe

The student of Spinoza is faced by a peculiar difficulty. On opening the Ethics—Spinoza's chief work, completed for publication shortly before his death in 1674—he finds a system of metaphysics set forth in geometrical form, starting from definitions, axioms, and postulates, and advancing synthetically from first principles to a detailed interpretation of the universe. The difficulty lies not in the language— Spinoza's Latin is easy to construe, and there are translations—nor in the lack of literary graces; his style indeed is singularly impressive in its austere dignity. It lies rather in this, that the method of exposition conveys a misleading suggestion of dogmatism and finality, and conceals almost all traces of the patient inquiries that issued in the finished structure. If once the principles of the system are admitted, the rest appears to follow by logical necessity. But by what processes of thought was Spinoza led to those principles? This is the problem that besets the reader: in order to understand the Ethics, he must penetrate behind the text of the propositions to their significance as answers to the questions that were stirring in Spinoza's mind.

Elements of ∞-Category Theory

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Riehl ◽  
Dominic Verity
Keyword(s):  
First Principles ◽  
Category Theory ◽  
Higher Dimensional ◽  
Background Material ◽  
Model Independent ◽  
The Universe ◽  
Formal Category

The language of ∞-categories provides an insightful new way of expressing many results in higher-dimensional mathematics but can be challenging for the uninitiated. To explain what exactly an ∞-category is requires various technical models, raising the question of how they might be compared. To overcome this, a model-independent approach is desired, so that theorems proven with any model would apply to them all. This text develops the theory of ∞-categories from first principles in a model-independent fashion using the axiomatic framework of an ∞-cosmos, the universe in which ∞-categories live as objects. An ∞-cosmos is a fertile setting for the formal category theory of ∞-categories, and in this way the foundational proofs in ∞-category theory closely resemble the classical foundations of ordinary category theory. Equipped with exercises and appendices with background material, this first introduction is meant for students and researchers who have a strong foundation in classical 1-category theory.

Lost in the Woods

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arthur Lupia
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Deliberative Democracy ◽  
Source Credibility ◽  
Logical Necessity ◽  
Educational Strategies ◽  
Two Factors ◽  
Important Challenge ◽  
Degree Of Control ◽  
Basic Facts ◽  
Almost All

Chapter 5 offered a logic that clarifies the kinds of information that can increase knowledge and competence. In the coming chapters, I explain how educators can more effectively communicate this kind of information to others. From this point forward in part I, I focus on the time after an educator has identified information that can increase desired knowledge and competences. An educator in this situation faces an important challenge: Just because information can increase knowledge and competence does not mean that it will do so. For information to have these effects, prospective learners must think about the information in certain ways. For example, if a piece of information is to increase another person’s competence, that person must pay attention to the information. If the prospective learner ignores the information or processes it in ways that an educator did not anticipate, then the information may not have the educator’s desired effect. In chapters 6 to 8, I use insights from research on information processing to describe two necessary conditions for persuading an audience to think about information in ways that increase knowledge and competence. These conditions are gaining an audience’s attention and having sufficient source credibility. I focus on these conditions not only because of their logical necessity, but also because they are two factors over which educators often have some degree of control. “Not so fast!” This is a reaction that I sometimes get when suggesting that we base educational strategies on basic facts about attention and credibility, rather than continuing to rely on often-faulty intuitions about how others learn. Indeed, I have met many educators who initially argue that: “Being an expert in (say, deliberative democracy) makes me persuasive. Citizens and policymakers should respect me and be interested in what I have to say.” This is an attractive notion. It is also an illusion in many cases. Learning is a process that has knowable biological and psychological properties. A fundamental implication of these properties is that people ignore almost all of the information to which they could attend and people forget about almost all of the information to which they pay attention.

scholarly journals Supernovae as a Cosmological Tool

1983 ◽  
Vol 104 ◽  
pp. 227-229
Author(s):  
Virginia Trimble
Keyword(s):  
Dynamical Evolution ◽  
The Other ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Evolution Of Structure ◽  
Almost All ◽  
The Universe ◽  
The Way

Cosmology can mean many different things to different people. Sandage (1970) once described it as “the search for two numbers” (Ho and qo). At the other end of the spectrum, it may comprise almost all the interesting bits of astronomy and physics that bear on how the universe got to be the way it is. Supernovae can probe many of these bits because they are bright, have been going on for a long time, and contribute directly to the chemical and, perhaps, dynamical evolution of structure in the universe.

scholarly journals Description of the Fission Process: Nuclear Models for Fission Dynamics

2020 ◽  
Vol 242 ◽  
pp. 03005
Author(s):  
M. Verriere ◽  
M.R. Mumpower ◽  
T. Kawano ◽  
N. Schunck
Keyword(s):  
National Security ◽  
Heavy Nucleus ◽  
First Principles ◽  
Energy Generation ◽  
Nuclear Fission ◽  
Theoretical Understanding ◽  
Fission Process ◽  
New Approaches ◽  
Nuclear Models ◽  
The Universe

Nuclear fission is the splitting of a heavy nucleus into two or more fragments, a process that releases a substantial amount of energy. It is ubiquitous in modern applications, critical for national security, energy generation and reactor safeguards. Fission also plays an important role in understanding the astrophysical formation of elements in the universe. Eighty years after the discovery of the fission process, its theoretical understanding from first principles remains a great challenge. In this paper, we present promising new approaches to make more accurate predictions of fission observables.

scholarly journals The key to the solution of the world crisis we face

Human Affairs ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-39
Author(s):  
Nicholas Maxwell
Keyword(s):  
18Th Century ◽  
World Crisis ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
The World ◽  
Global Problems ◽  
Almost All ◽  
The Universe ◽  
Great Danger

Abstract Humanity faces two fundamental problems of learning: learning about the universe, and learning to become civilized. We have solved the first problem, but not the second one, and that puts us in a situation of great danger. Almost all of our global problems have arisen as a result. It has become a matter of extreme urgency to solve the second problem. The key to this is to learn from our solution to the first problem how to solve the second one. This was the basic idea of the 18th century Enlightenment, but in implementing this idea, the Enlightenment blundered. Their mistakes are still built into academia today. In order to le arn how to create a civilized, enlightened world, the key thing we need to do is to cure academia of the structural blunders we have inherited from the Enlightenment. We need to bring about a revolution in science, and in academia more broadly so that the basic aim becomes wisdom, and not just knowledge.

scholarly journals The Λ and the CDM as Integration Constants

Symmetry ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 2076
Author(s):  
Priidik Gallagher ◽  
Tomi Koivisto
Keyword(s):  
Dark Matter ◽  
Gauge Theory ◽  
Symmetry Breaking ◽  
Cosmological Constant ◽  
Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking ◽  
First Principles ◽  
Cold Dark Matter ◽  
Dark Sector ◽  
Λcdm Model ◽  
The Universe

Notoriously, the two main problems of the standard ΛCDM model of cosmology are the cosmological constant Λ and the cold dark matter, CDM. This essay shows that both the Λ and the CDM arise as integration constants in a careful derivation of Einstein’s equations from first principles in a Lorentz gauge theory. The dark sector of the universe might only reflect the geometry of a spontaneous symmetry breaking that is necessary for the existence of spacetime and an observer therein.

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