Introduction

Author(s):  
Paul J. Nahin

This introductory chapter considers the work of mathematician George Boole (1815–1864), whose book An Investigation of the Laws of Thought (1854) would have a huge impact on humanity. Boole's mathematics, the basis for what is now called Boolean algebra, is the subject of this book. It is also called mathematical logic, and today it is a routine analytical tool of the logic-design engineers who create the electronic circuitry that we now cannot live without, from computers to automobiles to home appliances. Boolean algebra is not traditional or classical Aristotelian logic, a subject generally taught in college by the philosophy department. Boolean algebra, by contrast, is generally in the hands of electrical engineering professors and/or the mathematics faculty.

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-47
Author(s):  
Christina Johanna Bischoff

AbstractThe present contribution deals with excess in medieval and early modern monastic asceticism. It claims that excess, in this context, is not an individual option, but a general problem inherent to Christian asceticism. By giving priority to self-denial, this type of asceticism promotes a self-regulated, autonomous subjectivity which is clearly an unintentional by-product of the asceticism. Therefore individual asceticism oscillates between prohibited self-fashioning and, as a response, intensified self-denial. The problem is outlined in an introductory chapter about ‘De exterioris et interioris hominis compositione’ by David of Augsburg. Following this, two early modern Spanish books are used to illustrate how spiritual texts deal with the ambivalences of asceticism. The ‘Exercitatorio de la vida spiritual’ by García Jiménez de Cisneros regulates asceticism in detail, while the ‘Subida del monte Sión’ by Bernardino de Laredo allows the subject more room for interpretation; this however comes at the price of a fictionalisation of asceticism.


2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (09) ◽  
pp. 83-97
Author(s):  
Claudio Reyes Lozano

Los estudios críticos de género sustancialistas desconocen su posición teórico-política en el momento de explayar algunas de sus hipótesis fundamentales. El presente estudio intenta dar cuenta de las consecuencias éticas que asume llevar hasta el final algunas de estas posiciones teóricas. Advertimos así que obras fundamentales de estos estudios se apropian con claridad, y sin saberlo, de una lógica aristotélica para tratar la asunción material del cuerpo, el sujeto y el género ¿Qué encontramos específicamente en esta lógica? Esta última se caracteriza por tener su raíz en una ontología inamovible, en donde cualquier intento de desbaratar el “ser” tiene como respuesta inmediata la exclusión violenta de la diferencia: concretamente observamos esto, dialogando tanto con colegas como legos, en la “violencia académica” pero también en la “violencia cotidiana” ¿Cómo salir del cierre metafísico que ha mantenido durante décadas la violencia y exclusión de aquello que se generó en primera instancia, paradójicamente, como argumentación de tolerancia y emancipación? Pensamos que deconstruyendo el discurso de género aristotélico podremos vislumbrar nuevas hipótesis y posiciones ético-políticas que no recurran, para validarse, a la exclusión violenta de nuevos cuerpos-sujetos-géneros. Some critical gender studies do not know their theoretical and political position at the time to developing some of their basic assumptions. This study attempts to explain the ethical consequences that lead to the end some of these theoretical positions. We realize that fundamental works of these studies clearly appropriating, and without knowing it, an aristotelian logic to justify the assumption of material body, the subject and gender. What specifically found in this logic? It is characterized to found on an immovable ontology, where any attempt to disrupt the “being” has as an immediate violent response to exclude the difference: specifically we observe this, dialoguing with colleagues and laymen, in the “academic violence” but also “everyday violence”. How to get out of the metaphysical closure that maintained for decades the violence and exclusion of what is generated in the first place, paradoxically, as argument of tolerance and emancipation? We think deconstructing the aristotelian discourse of gender can warn new hypotheses and ethical positions that not based, to validate, on a violent exclusion of new bodies-subject-genres positions.


PEDIATRICS ◽  
1963 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 122-122
Author(s):  
KENNETH J. RYAN

This short publication covers the subject of family planning with regard to both the use of contraceptive methods for preventing pregnancy and the infertility evaluation for those who cannot conceive. A short introductory chapter is devoted to a discussion of the physiology of ovulation and fertilization. The material is well organized and reasonably comprehensive for the lay reader. In addition, it is a fair and accurate summary of our present state of knowledge. The book has a pleasing format and is executed with taste. While this material is suitable for the educated layman, there is, as yet, no completely satisfactory source book for the physician.


2003 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-87
Author(s):  
Krasimir Penev ◽  
Kostadin Brandisky

The Department of Theoretical Electrical Engineering (TEE) of Technical University of Sofia has been developing interactive enterprise-technologies based course on Theoretical Electrical Engineering. One side of the project is the development of multimedia teaching modules for the core undergraduate electrical engineering courses (Circuit Theory and Electromagnetic Fields) and the other side is the development of Software Architecture of the web site on which modules are deployed. Initial efforts have been directed at the development of multimedia modules for the subject Electrical Circuits and on developing the web site structure. The objective is to develop teaching materials that will enhance lectures and laboratory exercises and will allow computerized examinations on the subject. This article outlines the framework used to develop the web site structure, the Circuit Theory teaching modules, and the strategy of their use as teaching tool.


Author(s):  
Jed Z. Buchwald ◽  
Mordechai Feingold

This introductory chapter discusses Isaac Newton’s immersion in ancient prophecies, Church history, and alchemy. These investigations raise several questions: what links his interest in such matters to his investigations in optics, mechanics, and mathematics? Was Newton in his alchemical laboratory the same Newton who analyzed the passage of light through a prism and who measured the behavior of bodies falling through fluid media? What did the Newton who interpreted the Book of Revelation have to do with the man who wrote the Principia Mathematica? And how does the Newton who pored over ancient texts square with the author of the Opticks? The Newton that is the subject of this book differs in striking ways from any scientist of the twenty-first century. But he differed as well from his contemporary natural philosophers, theologians, and chronologers. The book investigates the origin of this difference and then uses it to produce a new understanding of Newton’s worldview and its historical context.


Author(s):  
Anthony Ossa-Richardson

This introductory chapter sets out the book's purpose, which is to explore the intellectual and cultural impact of the oracles of pagan antiquity on modern European thought. It identifies a conflict between the conservative and the radical, the orthodox and the heterodox, with the latter usually glorified, explicitly or not, as the harbinger of Enlightenment. It devotes significant attention to the actual process and texture of argument, and to those who lost the debate. It argues that heterodoxy is not as transparent as it may seem, and has often been taken for granted without justification, or sought in the wrong places. The book also engages with texts outside the canons of libertine and antilibertine thought. The extent of historical interest in the oracles may come as a surprise: alongside the poets and preachers who reworked conventional tropes from antiquity, hundreds of scholars, theologians, and critics commented on the subject, drawing on all manner of intellectual contexts to frame their beliefs.


Author(s):  
Ian Aitken

This book explores the subject of cinematic realism through a long Introduction which covers general notions related to cinematic realism, and then through close analysis of book chapters written by Siegfried Kracauer and Georg Lukács. The theories of Edmund Husserl and Henri Bergson are also covered. The long Introduction attempts to set out a model of cinematic realism based on a philosophical realist and ‘externalist’ position. This is followed by an introductory chapter on Bergson, which serves as a foundation for the following four chapters, which cover the work of Lukács. The same structure is then repeated for Kracauer: an introductory chapter on Husserl is followed by four chapters on Kracauer.


Author(s):  
Lloyd P. Gerson

This introductory chapter looks at how philosopher Richard Rorty advanced the thesis that Platonism and philosophy are more or less identical. The point of insisting on this identification is the edifying inference Rorty thinks is to be drawn from it: If one finds Platonism unacceptable, then one ought to abandon philosophy. Hence, a rejection of Platonism is really a rejection of the principles shared by most philosophers up to the present. The chapter then poses the opposition between Platonism and Naturalism as the opposition between philosophy and anti-philosophy. Plato states in his Republic in a clear and unambiguous way that the subject matter of philosophy is “that which is perfectly or completely real,” that is, the intelligible world and all that it contains. If Rorty is right, then the denial of the existence of this content is the rejection of philosophy. But self-declared Naturalists divide over whether philosophy has a distinct subject matter. Nevertheless, the most consistent form of Naturalism will hold that with the abandonment of the Platonic subject matter must go the abandonment of a distinct subject matter for philosophy.


Author(s):  
Laurence Saglietto

The concept of intermediation has existed for a long time and taken numerous different forms. In this introductory chapter, we will therefore start by examining the state of the art of intermediaries through a range of different disciplines (history, management, economics, health, sociology), highlighting their historical evolution and current forms. We will then present the different models and theories of intermediation and their development, to produce an appreciation of their similarities and differences and a comprehensive view of the subject. This will allow us, in the last section, to propose the framework for a general theory of intermediation, in terms of organisational architecture and the services provided.


Inception ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 7-8
Author(s):  
David Carter

This introductory chapter provides an overview of Christopher Nolan's Inception (2010). Inception blurs the distinctions between various genres. It is considered as science fiction although it does not contain many of the elements associated with the genre. It can also be identified as a kind of heist film, and the first part of the film, the extraction, certainly involves a complex robbery; but then the second part of the film, while having many of the trappings of a heist, involves putting something into a heavily guarded location rather than stealing from it. Moreover, the heist motifs and the film's character types are reminiscent of film noir. Inception can also be described as a psychological thriller and it deals with the subject of time and how dreams are related to the conscious and unconscious mind.


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