Introduction: A New Way to Read Nature

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
J. Arvid Ågren

There really is something special about biology. The French biochemist and Nobel Prize winner Jacques Monod described its position among the sciences as simultaneously marginal and central (Monod 1970, p. xi). It is marginal, because its object of study—living organisms—are but a special case of chemistry and physics, contributing to only a minuscule part of the universe. Biology will never be the source of natural laws in the way physics is. At the same time, if, as Monod believed, the whole point of science is to understand humanity’s place in the world, then biology is the most central of them all. No other field of study deals so directly with the question of who we are and how we got here in the first place....

Author(s):  
Alexander Sukhodolov ◽  
Elena Antipina

The article considers the peculiarities of the philosophical concepts implementation and the essence of anthropocosmism in the works by the great Russian writer, Nobel prize winner I. A. Bunin. A comparative analysis of his works «The Gentleman from San Francisco» and «Waters Aplenty» is given. The cultural phenomenon of wandering is shown in order to reveal a specific character of the writers poetic universe. The peculiarities of I. A. Bunins anthropocosmic philosophy are described, his idea of the universe as of a structured world and of the man in the light of the artistic and philosophical, religious and ethical opposition «The Gentleman of the World» - «The Cosmopolite» is substantiated.


1993 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 165-177
Author(s):  
Karen Harding

Ate appearances deceiving? Do objects behave the way they do becauseGod wills it? Ate objects impetmanent and do they only exist becausethey ate continuously created by God? According to a1 Ghazlli, theanswers to all of these questions ate yes. Objects that appear to bepermanent are not. Those relationships commonly tefemed to as causalare a result of God’s habits rather than because one event inevitably leadsto another. God creates everything in the universe continuously; if Heceased to create it, it would no longer exist.These ideas seem oddly naive and unscientific to people living in thetwentieth century. They seem at odds with the common conception of thephysical world. Common sense says that the universe is made of tealobjects that persist in time. Furthermore, the behavior of these objects isreasonable, logical, and predictable. The belief that the univetse is understandablevia logic and reason harkens back to Newton’s mechanical viewof the universe and has provided one of the basic underpinnings ofscience for centuries. Although most people believe that the world is accutatelydescribed by this sort of mechanical model, the appropriatenessof such a model has been called into question by recent scientificadvances, and in particular, by quantum theory. This theory implies thatthe physical world is actually very different from what a mechanicalmodel would predit.Quantum theory seeks to explain the nature of physical entities andthe way that they interact. It atose in the early part of the twentieth centuryin response to new scientific data that could not be incorporated successfullyinto the ptevailing mechanical view of the universe. Due largely ...


2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-199
Author(s):  
O. B. Karyakin

On July 26, 1895, Pierre Curie and Maria Sklodowska were married.  On June 23, 1903, Maria presented her doctoral dissertation “Investigation of radioactive substances” at the Sorbonne, which described the results of hard work in previous years, including the isolation of new elements - polonium and radium. In the same 1903, Marie and Pierre Curie were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics “in recognition of the exceptional services they rendered to science through the joint research of radiation phenomena discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel”. She became the first female - laureate and remained the only one until 1935, when her daughter Irene was awarded the Nobel Prize.  In 1911, Marie Curie received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry “for outstanding achievements in the development of chemistry: the discovery of the elements radium and polonium, the isolation of radium and the study of the nature and compounds of this remarkable element”. Marie Curie became the first and to date the only woman in the world -twice the Nobel Prize winner.  After many years, the proposal of Marie and Pierre Curie on the use of radium in medicine has been implemented at the present time. Studied and proved its effectiveness in the treatment of bone metastases of prostate cancer.  The merits of these scientists before the whole world can hardly be overestimated. Humanity gratefully keeps a good memory for great discoveries for the benefit of people.


2001 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-106
Author(s):  
Zdzisław Wąsik

A logical-philosophical approach to the meaning-carriers or meaning-processes is juxtaposed with the anthropological-biological concepts of subjective significance uniting both for the semiotics of culture and the semiotics of nature. It is assumed that certain objects, which are identifiable in the universe of man and in the world surrounding all living organisms as significant from the perspective of meaning-receivers, meaning-creators and meaning-utilizers, can be determined as signs when they represent other objects, perform certain tasks or satisfy certain needs of subjects. Hence, the meaning of signifying objects may be found in the relation between the expression of a signifier and (1) a signified content, or (2) a signified function, or (3) a signified value of the cultural and natural objects subsumed by the interpreting subjects under the semiotic ones.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-39
Author(s):  
Dong Zhu ◽  
Wei Ren

Abstract Tao Te Ching, the masterpiece of Laozi the renowned philosopher of Pre-Imperial China, plays an important role in Chinese history. Laozi’s philosophy centres on such concepts as ming (names), li (rituals), and dao (the way). Ming, originally developed as a result of human beings’ endeavours to understand the world in which they live and to bring order to their society, has degenerated into the sources of evils and the reason for turbulence when people stop at nothing for fame and fortune; Li, an effective and efficient means for the kings of West Zhou Dynasty to maintain social stability, has become but a collection of empty sign vehicles with the disintegration of rituals and music; Dao concerns Laozi’s metaphysical reflection on the origin of the universe and its ultimate laws. Ming and li are but artificial restraints imposed on human intelligence whereas dao provides the way out. Therefore, to lead a simple and natural life, it is advisable to eliminate ming and li, and worship dao. In semiotic terms, this means that desemiotisation is the solution to the crisis.


1995 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 539-544
Author(s):  
Taha J. Al Alwani

By the time secularist thought had succeeded, at an intellectuallevel, in challenging the authority of the Church, its roots had alreadytaken firm hold in western soil. Later, when western political and economicsystems began to prevail throughout the world, it was only naturalthat secularism, as the driving force behind these systems, shouldgain ascendency worldwide. In time, and with varying degrees of success,the paradigm of positivism gradually displaced traditional andreligious modes of thinking, with the result that generations of thirdworld thinkers grew up convinced that the only way to “progress” andreform their societies was the way of the secular West. Moreover, sincethe experience of the West was that it began to progress politically,economically, and intellectually only after the influence of the Churchhad been marginalized, people in the colonies believed that they wouldhave to marginalize the influence of their particular religions in orderto achieve a similar degree of progress. Under the terms of the newparadigm, turning to religion for solutions to contemporary issues is anabsurdity, for religion is viewed as something from humanity’s formativeyears, from a “dark” age of superstition and myth whose time hasnow passed. As such, religion has no relevance to the present, and allattempts to revive it are doomed to failure and are a waste of time.Many have supposed that it is possible to accept the westernmodel of a secular paradigm while maintaining religious practices andbeliefs. They reason that such an acceptance has no negative impactupon their daily lives so long as it does not destroy their places ofworship or curtail their right to religious freedom. Thus, there remainshardly a contemporary community that has not fallen under the swayof this paradigm. Moreover, it is this paradigm that has had the greatestinfluence on the way different peoples perceive life, the universe,and the role of humanity as well as providing them with an alternativeset of beliefs (if needed) and suggesting answers to the ultimate questions ...


2016 ◽  
Vol 19 (6) ◽  
pp. 528-529
Author(s):  
Elena V. Ipatova

Ivan P. Pavlov was the first Russian Nobel Prize winner, a great scientist, the pride of the national science community and ‘the first physiologist of the world’, as described by his colleagues at an international congress. 22 February 2016 marks 80 years since the death of the Russian scientist, physiologist Ivan Pavlov.


2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ragbir Bhathal ◽  
Ralph Sutherland ◽  
Harvey Butcher

This book tells the story of the Mt Stromlo Observatory in Canberra which began with W.G. Duffield's idealism and vision in 1905. The Observatory began life as a government department, later becoming an optical munitions factory producing gun sights and telescopes during the Second World War, before changing its focus to astrophysics – the new astronomy. In the ensuing years programs were introduced to push the Observatory in new directions at the international frontiers of astronomy. The astronomers built new, better and larger telescopes to unravel the secrets of the universe. There were controversies, exciting new discoveries and new explanations of phenomena that had been discovered. The Observatory and its researchers have contributed to determining how old the universe is, participated in the largest survey of galaxies in the universe, and helped to show us that the universal expansion is accelerating – research that led to Brian Schmidt and his international team being awarded the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics. These and other major discoveries are detailed in this fascinating book about one of the great observatories in the world.


Author(s):  
Paul Kalligas

This chapter presents the English translation of Paul Kalligas’s commentary on the third Enneads of Plotinus. The third Ennead is focused on physical reality and cosmological issues, but viewed from a more general perspective, “dealing with considerations about the universe” (VP 24.59–60). It is the most miscellaneous in character, and Porphyry spends some time in trying to justify his inclusion of treatises like III 4, III 5 and III 8 (VP 25.2–9), without mentioning III 9, which is but a cento of disparate notes without any unity. Nevertheless, this Ennead consistently revolves around issues and concepts central to Plotinus’s understanding of how the universe functions, the forces that pervade it and make it work as it does, and the way in which the various kinds of soul that Plotinus postulates (and which, according to the standard Platonic doctrine, are the cause of every change and motion in the world) govern and organize it into an integrated and coherent whole.


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