Physics and Politics

1946 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 445-457
Author(s):  
Charles E. Merriam

The Atomic Bomb. In 1869, Walter Bagehot wrote an interesting volume entitled Physics and Politics. Today we look again at this topic, but in a new and blinding light. The atomic bomb is an index of dynamic and revolutionary changes, the end of which is not in sight, and which I do not have the temerity to forecast. Even before the bomb was made, there were revolutionary changes on the way. We were on notice that physics, biochemistry, psychology, medicine, were bursting with possibilities which staggered the imagination of the most starry-eyed. This was before the bomb was dropped. Now we know that we were on the beam. We are now confronted by revolution, dimming in meaning all human revolutions rolled into one.First of all, the meaning of controlled atomic energies is often wholly misunderstood. The real marvel is not that these vast forces exist, but that they are found and harnessed by the human mind. The real explosive force is that of the mind that unleashed these giants and made them available for the service of mankind. The mind is king, not the atom. We trapped the atom; we have mastered some secrets of its latent forces, not by accident, but by deliberate design, by organization and ingenuity. We may marvel at the display of physical force, but the deeper force of mind made this triumph possible, and will bring still greater triumphs as we move along through eras of discovery and invention.

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-39
Author(s):  
Murat Kaş

The structure of human cognition and the means of apprehension is suitable only for partly and gradually conceiving reality. This limitation has led to a certain distance between appearance and reality. This means that there will always be a gap between the judgments of the mind about the external world and its contents, which are entities, cases, facts, and states. This partiality and partiteness of human understanding has produced the truth-maker problem with regard to mind judgments. Muslim scholars who admit the correlation between the structure of reality and the categories of the mind but reject the notion of the construction and the determination of reality by the mind refer to the realm that is independent of the mind’s personal judgments as nafs al-amr. This realm is concerned with the all degrees of reality, namely—from the existent to the non-existent, from the necessity to the contingency and impossibility, from the absolute to the relative, from the material to the non-physical, from the external to the mental, and from the real entities to the abstracted ones—which step into the shot of human cognition or not. Carrying the concept of nafs al-amr from the logical plane to the metaphysical realm that intersects epistemology and ontology has led to debates that pave the way for various treatments. In particular, Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī’s (d. 672/1274) nafs al-amr epistle that posited it to the cosmic sphere resulted in criticisms of this conception of nafs al-amr, and these criticisms are the same ones directed to the Avicennian theory of emanation and its epistemological implications. Scholars who use this concept free from any metaphysical presumption and implication argue against his leap from the logical to the cosmic sphere. During the following period, this tension occasioned debates that led to the approaches that refer to the various degrees of reality, i.e., to the cosmic spheres, the spiritual realms, and the divine realms. This work aims to create a map of treatments, arguments and problems with regard to the concept of nafs al-amr.


Author(s):  
Maksim Prikhodko

The present paper investigates the interaction between Logos and language in the treatise of Philo of Alexandria "The Worse attacks the Better". Language is regarded by Philo as the actualization of thought in its articulated expression, as the initial moment of creativity. The source of such action is the divine Logos, but the development of thought in the word happens in two opposite directions: one leads to joy, while the other, to suffering. The starting point of this separation is the initial orientation (love) of the mind to God or to self. In the first case, the mind in the act of utterance (expression) overcomes its own isolation. It comes into contact with the divine Logos and achieves joy. The crucial moment of this "leaving the brackets" of self individual thinking towards the light of the divine Logos is laughter. In another case, when the mind does not link words with their source, false creativity is produced, leading to suffering. Аpplying the concept of laughter to the doctrine of Logos and language, Philo reconciles the ideal plan of conceiving truth and its interpretation with the real functioning of the human mind and speech.


2020 ◽  
Vol 111 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-84
Author(s):  
Mary Franklin-Brown

Abstract Through a study of early French romances, especially the Conte de Floire et Blancheflor and Alexandre de Paris’s Roman d’Alexandre, this essay offers a new approach to the automaton in medieval literature. Bruno Latour’s plural ontology, which elaborates on the earlier work of Gilbert Simondon and Étienne Souriau, provides a way to break down the division between the human mind and the world (and hence the mind and the machine), offering a rich understanding of the way in which the beings of technology [TEC], fiction [FIC], and religion [REL] act in concert upon us to inspire our desire for technological fictions.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1SE) ◽  
pp. 17-18
Author(s):  
Shalini Dhiman

Art is natural expression of human. It is through art that a human looks at his personality. Art is such a valuable asset that everyone would have had, but not everyone is aware of it. Art enables the human mind to show direction to the senses, instill the tendencies and twist the mind. Art received by nature as a gift to human consciousnes ,divine gift. The entire creation of any artist is based on his autobiographical approach. Impressed by the material objector natural beauty, the artist through his imagination transforms the feelings produced in the mind into a work. These creations are completely different from the members of the real object. All these mediums of the artist’s expression would be line colors, stones, objects or words. Since ancient times cavities have been painted individuals through human lines. In his struggle whenever he got a break in the primitive life, he devoted every moment of his portrayal. The effects of which we still find in the prehistoric caves , painting, Ajanta, Bagh,Ellora, etc are easily available.


Illuminatio ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 112-161
Author(s):  
Mustafa Cerić

The focus of this article is a reflection on the nature of the human heart (al-qalb), human mind (al-‘aql) and human hand (al-yad). The heart is the place of emotion - love or hate; the mind is the place of thought - right or wrong; the hand is the tool of power – justice or injustice. So, the question may be asked, what is the tipping scale for the heart from love to hate; what makes the mind to think right or wrong; and what causes the hand to do justice or injustice? Then, what is the role of faith/religion in harmonizing the human heart, mind and hand? How can the Sīrah, the way of the life of the messenger of God, teach the human heart to love, the human mind to thing right and the human hand to act justly? What can man learn from the parallel lives and trials of the early aṣḥāb, the Prophet’s companions, and their immediate tābi’ūn, the followers? Here, the article introduces the way of life of two aṣḥāb: ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Abbās and Mu‘ādh ibn Jabal and one tābi‘un: Al-Qāḍī Shuraikh ibn Al-Ḥārith Al-Kindī, to show that the heart is not a pump that drives the blood, but it is the blood of love that drives the heart to love; that the mind is not a vessel to be filled, but the light to be kindled; and that the hand is not a tool to be abused, but a means to be used for justice. The author aims to open the way for a critique of the pure faith of Muslims. Indeed, the Muslims need to examine their faith in a serious way to find out the right exit from the current crisis of the relationship between their heart, mind and hand. Where is the pure faith of Muslims? Is it in their heart only? Is it in their mind only? Is it in their hand only? How can the Muslims connect these three into a coherent whole for the good of humanity? The good examples from the Sīrah might provide us with the right answer to these questions provided that the Muslims open their hearts, employ their minds and educate their hands. This article is trying to guide them to that direction.


1983 ◽  
Vol 76 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Chidester

There is widespread disagreement as to exactly what Augustine might have meant by his theory of learning, in which Christ, the truth, teaches within. The precise interpretation of Augustine's doctrine of illumination has been the subject of centuries of debate. How is this kind of learning process which Augustine outlines—a process by which the word of God illumines the soul—to be understood? The major schools of thought on this subject have been: the ontologistic version, which regards the immediate presence of the divine light, the continuity between the mind of man and the mind of God, as primary in the act of learning; the ideogenetic version, which regards the activity of the word of God, mysteriously producing ideas in the human mind, as primary in the learning process; and, finally, what we might call the normative version, which understands the metaphor of illumination to refer to the way in which the divine light provides an ultimate standard of certainty by which knowledge is evaluated, rather than describing an inner, psychological process through which the act of learning occurs.


2018 ◽  
pp. 735-751
Author(s):  
Recep Yilmaz ◽  
Nurdan Oncel Taskiran

Every advertisement text has a specific impact on the mind of receivers. Just like a water-mill or wind mill, human mind develops a specific systematic interaction against different advertisement texts. This section focuses on how information presented and carried by different texts are built on human mind. The basic aim is to reveal how advertisement texts operate human mind. In this sense, the authors try to understand the impact of analogue media on our minds through discussing the nature of science, the way human mind operates, and the structure of mass communication means. On top of that, the authors visualize this interaction on a model. This model would not only make it possible for us to understand our interaction with analogue media but also would give clues about digital media. With these clues, it would be possible to make predictions about changing advertising environment, and accordingly the way of making more effective strategies and future of advertising sector.


1993 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 737-748 ◽  
Author(s):  
Merlin Donald

AbstractThis book proposes a theory of human cognitive evolution, drawing from paleontology, linguistics, anthropology, cognitive science, and especially neuropsychology. The properties of humankind's brain, culture, and cognition have coevolved in a tight iterative loop; the main event in human evolution has occurred at the cognitive level, however, mediating change at the anatomical and cultural levels. During the past two million years humans have passed through three major cognitive transitions, each of which has left the human mind with a new way of representing reality and a new form of culture. Modern humans consequently have three systems of memory representation that were not available to our closest primate relatives: mimetic skill, language, and external symbols. These three systems are supported by new types of “hard” storage devices, two of which (mimetic and linguistic) are biological, one technological. Full symbolic literacy consists of a complex of skills for interacting with the external memory system. The independence of these three uniquely human ways of representing knowledge is suggested in the way the mind breaks down after brain injury and confirmed by various other lines of evidence. Each of the three systems is based on aninventivecapacity, and the products of those capacities – such as languages, symbols, gestures, social rituals, and images – continue to be invented and vetted in the social arena. Cognitive evolution is not yet complete: the externalization of memory has altered the actual memory architecture within which humans think. This is changing the role of biological memory and the way in which the human brain deploys its resources; it is also changing the form of modern culture.


Mayéutica ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 46 (101) ◽  
pp. 55-110
Author(s):  
Radni Caparas ◽  

This article attempts to explore the Christological hermeneutics of Augustine in Benedict XVI’s method of reading Christ. The study is divided into three parts. The first part explores the Christological issues and methods since Vatican II. The proliferation of the Christological hermeneutics ignited the Church (Dei Verbum and Pontifical Biblical Commission) to set some guidelines and controls in order to pave the way to a better quest for the real Jesus. Within this context, Benedict XVI proposed a Christological hermeneutics which present a convincing figure of the real Jesus of Nazareth. The second part of the article deals with the commonalities and distinction of the hermeneutics of Augustine and of Benedict XVI. It highlights the similarities of the theological context of both theologians. Likewise, it presents the continuity of the thought of Augustine and Benedict XVI. The last part explains the Christological Hermeneutics of Augustine in the mind of Benedict XVI. It investigates and defines the Augustinian method of knowing Christ within the framework of Benedict XVI’s personal quest for Christ.


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