The Old Story: Metaphysics, Newtonian Physics, and Classical Economics

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Nadeau
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Problems ◽  
Religious Movement ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
Newtonian Physics ◽  
Natural Laws ◽  
Classical Economics ◽  
Neoclassical Economic Theory ◽  
Physical Laws ◽  
The Universe ◽  
Moral Philosophers

The causes of the environmental crisis may be staggeringly complex, but the most effective way to deal with it in economic terms seems rather obvious. We must begin very soon to implement scientifically viable economic solutions for what is now a large number of very menacing environmental problems. If this could be accomplished within the framework of the theory that now serves as the basis for coordinating global economic activities, neoclassical economics, political leaders, economic planners, and environmental scientists could work together in harmony to implement these solutions. Unfortunately, this cannot happen because neoclassical economic theory is predicated on unscientific assumptions about the dynamics of market systems that effectively preclude the prospect of implementing scientifically viable economic solutions for environmental problems. These assumptions were articulated in their original form by eighteenth century moral philosophers Adam Smith, Thomas Malthus, and David Ricardo who were members of and greatly influenced by a widespread philosophical and religious movement known as deism. The fundamental impulse in this movement was to make belief in the existence of the God of the Judeo-Christian tradition consistent with the implications of the mechanistic worldview of Newtonian physics. Because physical laws in this physics completely determine the future state of physical systems, the deists concluded that the universe does not require, or even permit, active intervention by God after the first moment of creation. They then imaged God as a clockmaker and the universe as a clock regulated and maintained after its creation by physical laws. The moral philosophers we now call classical economists assumed that this deistic god created two sets of laws to govern the workings of the clockwork universe—the laws of Newtonian physics and the natural laws of economics. Based on this assumption, they argued that the forces associated with the natural laws of economics determine the movement and interactions of economic actors in much the same way that forces associated with Newton’s laws of gravity determine the movements and interactions of material objects.

Plant Sex from Empedocles to Theophrastus

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lincoln Taiz ◽  
Lee Taiz
Keyword(s):  
Direct Observation ◽  
Modern Science ◽  
Physical World ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Biological Information ◽  
Natural Laws ◽  
Physical Laws ◽  
The Universe ◽  
Plant Sex ◽  
Divine Order

“Plant Sex from Empedocles to Theophrastus” investigates Greek philosophies concerning plants. The Pythagoreans and pre-Socratic philosophers taught that the universe was governed by a divine order that could be understood through mathematical or physical laws, and that “natural laws” were discoverable by observation and logic. This tradition eventually gave rise to modern science. Unlike Plato, who viewed the physical world as “shadows,” knowable only through mathematics and abstract philosophy, Aristotle and Theophrastus regarded everything in the natural world that could be perceived by the senses as both real and knowable, and believed direct observation combined with reason and logic were the most reliable guides to truth. They systematized a prodigious amount of biological information, but were unable to elucidate the problem of plant sex. Theophrastus’ failed to understand the so-called “degeneration” of trees grown from seed because it couldn’t be understood without a two-sex model. Biblical theorists fared no better.

scholarly journals “Business Ecosystems” and Social Entrepreneurship as ways to Solve Environmental Problems

2021 ◽  
Vol 93 ◽  
pp. 01004
Author(s):  
Мaria Mukhlynina
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Social Entrepreneurship ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
Environmental Safety ◽  
Environmental Problems ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
Russian State ◽  
Production And Consumption ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
Environmental Development

Based on the analysis of the norms of strategic documents and other normative legal acts, the author considers environmental entrepreneurship in the light of sustainable socio-economic development of the Russian state, determines the significance of the concept of sustainable development for ensuring environmental safety, as well as environmental development of Russia. Social entrepreneurship, which has a high methodological potential, is designed to help solve a large number of accumulated environmental problems, especially in the field of waste management of production and consumption. The article analyzes individual UN sustainable development goals and national legislation designed to ensure the implementation of social entrepreneurship, which has a high methodological potential. The author concludes that the legislation is becoming more and more environmentally friendly, and these norms also penetrate into acts regulating economic activities, the profit from which should be reinvested in solving socio-environmental problems.

scholarly journals The Meta-Dynamic Nature of Consciousness

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Barnden
Keyword(s):  
Mathematical Formulation ◽  
Physical Universe ◽  
Time Flow ◽  
Non Local ◽  
Physical Interactions ◽  
Key Aspects ◽  
Physical Laws ◽  
The Universe ◽  
Non Locality ◽  
Do So

How, if at all, consciousness can be part of the physical universe remains a baffling problem. This article outlines a new, developing philosophical theory of how it could do so, and offers a preliminary mathematical formulation of a physical grounding for key aspects of the theory. Because the philosophical side has radical elements, so does the physical-theory side. The philosophical side is radical, first, in proposing that the productivity or dynamism in the universe that many believe to be responsible for its systematic regularities is actually itself a physical constituent of the universe, along with more familiar entities. Indeed, it proposes that instances of dynamism can themselves take part in physical interactions with other entities, this interaction then being “meta-dynamism” (a type of meta-causation). Secondly, the theory is radical, and unique, in arguing that consciousness is necessarily partly constituted of meta-dynamic auto-sensitivity, in other words it must react via meta-dynamism to its own dynamism, and also in conjecturing that some specific form of this sensitivity is sufficient for and indeed constitutive of consciousness. The article proposes a way for physical laws to be modified to accommodate meta-dynamism, via the radical step of including elements that explicitly refer to dynamism itself. Additionally, laws become, explicitly, temporally non-local in referring directly to quantity values holding at times prior to a given instant of application of the law. The approach therefore implicitly brings in considerations about what information determines states. Because of the temporal non-locality, and also because of the deep connections between dynamism and time-flow, the approach also implicitly connects to the topic of entropy insofar as this is related to time.

scholarly journals The river basins of Pirapó, Paranapanema 3 and Paranapanema 4: socioeconomic and environmental aspects

2015 ◽  
Vol 75 (4 suppl 2) ◽  
pp. 77-95
Author(s):  
A. M. G. Godoy ◽  
M. L. L. Sousa
Keyword(s):  
Water Resources ◽  
Representative Sample ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
River Basins ◽  
Environmental Problems ◽  
Legal Environment ◽  
Environmental Aspects ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
Productive Activities ◽  
The World

Scarcity of water in the world, virtually, has two sources: the quality and the quantity made available for populations. In the area covered by this study, the selected municipalities from the river basins 3 e 4 of the Paranapanema River and from the basin of the Pirapó River, availability is always greater than the demand and the environmental problems are more often linked to the quality than to the quantity of water. To check the socioeconomic aspects and the daily practices involving water resources and environmental problems we selected a representative sample of families from 10 studied municipalities. The main conclusions point to the existence of key municipalities, regarded as foci of pollution, i. e., the municipalities do not contribute in equal measure to the pollution of rivers from their regions and some stand out in economic activities and inherited cultural practices. However, respondents did not always relate the environmental impacts with their routine and productive activities. Thus, although the new legal environment imposes new practices, there are still cultural heritages, which require more incisive and continuous public interventions.

Ancient and Modern Christian Apologetics

1931 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
George La Piana
Keyword(s):  
Religious Experience ◽  
Natural Laws ◽  
Human Control ◽  
Christian Apologetics ◽  
The Universe

The belief in miracles has played a very important part in all the great historical religions. In primitive religions the intervention of powers supposed to be beyond ordinary human control and acting for purposes of their own did not assume the character of supernatural events, for natural and supernatural were not two distinct categories in the primitive religious experience of mankind. It was the process of moralization of religions and the growing knowledge of the consistent working of natural laws that gradually led to a classification of phenomena into the two great divisions of those which were natural and those above nature, a distinction that very soon became an opposition and gave rise to that dualistic conception of life and of the universe which we find at the basis of all the great historical religions.

God′s Body: Epistemic and Ritual Conceptions from Sanskrit Texts of Logic

Paragrana ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-63
Author(s):  
Gérard Colas
Keyword(s):  
Image Of God ◽  
The Other ◽  
Religious Images ◽  
Natural Laws ◽  
Sacred Texts ◽  
Technical Requirements ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Image Of God ◽  
The Universe

AbstractDiscussions on the nature of the relationship between a god, his body and his material representation are almost non-existent in the Hindu devotional perspective, where such concerns are superfluous. Hindu theological and ritual Sanskrit texts, on the other hand, applied procedures of reasoning with regard to that relationship. This rationalization however accommodated rather than conflicted with the devotional attitude. Their attempt to clarify their stand vis-à-vis god′s body and material image followed from ideological or technical requirements. This was done sometimes systematically, as in the Viśiṣṭādvaita school of philosophy where the ritual image is declared to be “a divine descent (of God) for the purpose of worship”; sometimes incidentally, as in ritual manuals, where the process of changing statues into divine bodies is described.But why should gods have a body at all? While some contend that they do not possess any body, others assert that they possess several at the same time, yet others infer the necessity of a body for God to create the universe, to reveal sacred texts, etc. These are some arguments and counter-arguments found in theological texts. The nature of the hierarchy between divine descents and images (which may or may not be considered as real bodies of gods) is another aspect of the discussion.Another question is the various ways in which ritual texts consider the relation between a god and his image. While immediacy characterizes the relation between the devotee and the image of god, the relation between ritual and image is far from being spontaneous. Rituals insure the presence of a god in an image through a technico-mystical process consisting of successive stages and involving patrons, astrologers, artists, priests and others. The final product, namely a concrete god-cum-image, is fit for devotion, but remains for ever fragile, dependent on the continuity of rites and on the material preservation of the image. Behind the ritual perspective also lies the notion that this process of creating a body for a god is in keeping with “natural” laws. Hindu ritual prescriptions are applicable only to the religious images which, though man-made, are considered as “natural”. Supra-natural divine images, known as “self-manifested” images, must be worshiped, but are beyond the range of these prescriptions.

The motion of test particles and cosmological interpretations: the role of MOND

2015 ◽  
Vol 93 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Bothun
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Acoustic Power ◽  
Second Law ◽  
Newtonian Physics ◽  
Retrograde Motion ◽  
Test Particles ◽  
Newton's Second Law ◽  
Orbital Data ◽  
The Universe

Throughout history, observations of the motions of objects in the Universe have provided the foundation for various cosmological models. In many cases, the invoked causes of the observed motion appeal to mysterious elements. Indeed, the very first test motion was that of the retrograde motion of Mars, which lead to a required epicycle to save the model (e.g., Ptolemy’s unmoving Earth). By the early 1840s, from approximately 50 years of orbital data (since its 1789 discovery) it was apparent that Uranus was disobeying the Newtonian rules in its orbit and speculation mounted that a “large unseen mass” was perturbing the orbit. Using Uranus as a test particle then yields the first notion of dark matter (DM). Alas, it was not DM but merely Neptune, discovered in September 1846. By 1859 enough data had been gathered to reveal that Mercury is also not obeying Newtonian physics but rather revealing curved space–time. The continuation of this history is now set in scales larger than the Solar System. Observations suggest two basic choices: (i) gravity is fully understood and Newton’s second law is invariant (except in very strong gravity) and observed motions on galactic scales require the existence of DM (a currently unproven “epicycle”) or (ii) Newton’s second law can be modified (e.g., MOND) in certain low acceleration scale environments. In this contribution we discuss the case for and against MOND on various scales and conclude that neither MOND nor our current cosmology (ΛCDM) consistently explain all observed phenomena. In general, MOND works much better on small scales than ΛCDM but encounters difficulties on large scales. Moreover, the nature of the acoustic power spectrum of the CMB now pretty clearly shows that a fully baryonic Universe is ruled out, thus necessitating some DM component. But this should not diminish the consideration of MOND as its introduced acceleration scale; ao is fully consistent with the observed structural properties of galaxies in a way that the DM halo paradigm cannot match. Indeed, despite many attempts to falsify MOND, it has always come back from its proclaimed death to provide unique insights into the gravitational nature of galaxies, consistently raising the specter that our current understanding of gravity acting over large spatial scales may be flawed.

scholarly journals Universe: the dynamics of the minimum and maximum expansion states

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sócrates Petrakis
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Mass Energy ◽  
Time Dimension ◽  
Rest Energy ◽  
Maximum Expansion ◽  
Evolution Of The Universe ◽  
3D Space ◽  
Thermal Death ◽  
Physical Laws ◽  
The Universe

Abstract Two hypotheses stand out in describing the evolution of the Universe. The predominant one predicts that the current expansion began at a certain instant and will not preserve any variation of energy that performs work; apparent flat Universe (Ω = 1) is advocated by relativistic calculations and observational data, with an end or thermal death at its maximum expansion (3D Space). The other hypothesis considers that the Universe is cyclical (always alternating phases of expansion and contraction). This proposal aims to demonstrate that both hypotheses can be correct by not being distinct, but complementary. Supported by the immutability of physical laws, analyses of concepts such as space, mass, energy, gravity, spin, and entropy define an exclusive presence of 1D Space in the minimum and maximum expansion states of the Universe. With our 3D Space Universe created and existing between these extreme states, the entire process is outlined. More objectively, the exposed dynamics complements the usual relativity. The concept of complete rest energy (1D Space) was able to be applied, demonstrating that the complete evolution of the Universe is spatially dynamic in a perpetual time dimension, always recreating our Universe.

scholarly journals Return to neptunism: review article

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Yu N Golubchikov
Keyword(s):  
Anthropic Principle ◽  
Religion And Science ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Historical Processes ◽  
Natural Landscapes ◽  
Physical Forces ◽  
Physical Laws ◽  
Reliable Isolation ◽  
The Universe

The article tries to revive the traditions of neptunizm. The neptunist Cuvier believed that «the fossil is the key to the past. The past is characterized by a radical break with the present, perhaps it even proceeded according to another physical laws. This is evidenced by the fossils. With the modern action of physical forces, all the deceased remnants decompose. Fossils could have formed during catastrophically rapid burial with reliable isolation from oxygen. The present is the key to the past according to the lawyer Lyell. The past is like the present. It contains an incredible amount of time and years. All processes were going with the same energy as they do now and were not overshadowed by any gigantic disaster. Lyell's statements entered science under the name of the principle of actualism. He gave a paradigmal form not only to the earth sciences, but to all of science, and formed the basis of the evolutionary doctrine. The fundamental dogma of randomness of both natural and all historical processes is the basis of modern scientific ideology. This randomness has no purpose and cannot have. Nevertheless, paradoxically, it predetermines the evolutionary progress of all things. With the appearance of the anthropic principle the teleologism regains its completeness and direction. The anthropic principle is teleological. Since the entire Universe and the biosphere are attuned to human nature, the more such attunement can be expected from earthly nature. There are opportunities for harmonizing human with natural landscapes for health-improving purposes. Nothing was known about the subtlest adjustment of the Universe for humans, or about the incredible complexity of the biosphere even 50-70 years ago. The universe could be explained by evolution and actualism. The discovered incredible complexity of the world brings religion and science closer together. A catastrophic and probably anti-random picture of the planet's history is emerging more and more clear. In this light, the power of science is seen again not in confrontation with religion, but in harmonization with it.

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