The Instability of Space-Time and the Contingency of Necessity

Author(s):  
Wes Furlotte

The second chapter shifts from a general outline of the thesis concerning nature’s extrinsicality in order to substantiate its plausibility. It begins with a reconstruction of the basal categories with which Hegel’s philosophy of nature begins, i.e. space and time. Hegel frames space and time in terms of indeterminacy and externality such that we cannot speak of a distinct unit(y), or internality, of space or time, both features which are crucial to conceptuality and subjectivity. In this special sense, Hegelian nature begins in a void. Space-time displays an utter failure at auto-articulation. The chapter then outlines the duplicitous signification of Hegel’s analysis. It argues that while Hegel’s analysis is fundamentally concerned with conceptual discourse it is not solely concerned with discourse. Consequently, at an ontological level, the striking contingency of Hegelian nature. There is no necessity in advance that this or that thing emerges though definite ones certainly do, e.g. the objects of physics and those of mechanics. Instead, there is a contingent array of objects that thought references and then must, retroactively, construct an account of their necessary interrelations. However, this necessity is one that is posited retroactively and so displays the contingency of thought’s narrative concerning necessity.

GEOgraphia ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 51
Author(s):  
Gilvan Luiz Hansen

Resumo Este artigo é uma discussão introdutória acerca da importância das concepções de espaço e tempo na modernidade. O objetivo deste texto é enfatizar os aspectos teóricos e práticos dos conceitos de espaço e tempo, mediante a apresentação de três perspectivas de interpretação desta questão na filosofia desenvolvida na modernidade. Palavras-chave: Modernidade, Espaço, Tempo, Filosofia Moderna, J. Habermas.Abstract This article is an introductory debate about the importance of space and time conceptions in modernity. The objective from this text is emphasize the theoretical and practical aspects of space and time concepts, by presentation of three interpretation perspectives of this question in the philosophy developed in modernity. Keywords: Modernity, Space, Time, Modern Philosophy, J. Habermas.


2010 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 181-195 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony Cordingley

This essay argues for the presence of Aristotelian ideas of cosmic order, syllogism, space and time in Beckett's . It accounts for how such ideas impact upon the novel's 'I' as he attempts to offer a philosophical 'solution' to his predicament in an underworld divorced from the revolving heavens. Beckett's study of formal logic as a student at Trinity College, Dublin and his private study of philosophy in 1932 is examined in this light; particularly his “Philosophy Notes,” along with some possible further sources for his knowledge. The essay then reveals a creative transformation of Aristotelian ideas in which led to formal innovations, such as the continuous present of its narrative.


Genetics ◽  
1993 ◽  
Vol 133 (3) ◽  
pp. 711-727
Author(s):  
B K Epperson

Abstract The geographic distribution of genetic variation is an important theoretical and experimental component of population genetics. Previous characterizations of genetic structure of populations have used measures of spatial variance and spatial correlations. Yet a full understanding of the causes and consequences of spatial structure requires complete characterization of the underlying space-time system. This paper examines important interactions between processes and spatial structure in systems of subpopulations with migration and drift, by analyzing correlations of gene frequencies over space and time. We develop methods for studying important features of the complete set of space-time correlations of gene frequencies for the first time in population genetics. These methods also provide a new alternative for studying the purely spatial correlations and the variance, for models with general spatial dimensionalities and migration patterns. These results are obtained by employing theorems, previously unused in population genetics, for space-time autoregressive (STAR) stochastic spatial time series. We include results on systems with subpopulation interactions that have time delay lags (temporal orders) greater than one. We use the space-time correlation structure to develop novel estimators for migration rates that are based on space-time data (samples collected over space and time) rather than on purely spatial data, for real systems. We examine the space-time and spatial correlations for some specific stepping stone migration models. One focus is on the effects of anisotropic migration rates. Partial space-time correlation coefficients can be used for identifying migration patterns. Using STAR models, the spatial, space-time, and partial space-time correlations together provide a framework with an unprecedented level of detail for characterizing, predicting and contrasting space-time theoretical distributions of gene frequencies, and for identifying features such as the pattern of migration and estimating migration rates in experimental studies of genetic variation over space and time.


Author(s):  
Karen Nicholson

Local sites and practices of information work become embroiled in the larger imperatives and logics of the global knowledge economy through social, technological, and spatial networks. Drawing on human geography’s central claim that space and time are dialectically produced through social practices, in this essay I use human/critical geography as a framework to situate the processes and practices—the space and time—of information literacy within the broader social, political, and economic environments of the global knowledge economy.  As skills training for the knowledge economy, information literacy lies at the intersection of the spatial and temporal spheres of higher education as the locus of human capital production. Information literacy emerges as a priority for academic librarians in the 1980s in the context of neoliberal reforms to higher education: a necessary skill in the burgeoning “information economy,” it legitimates the role of librarians as teachers. As a strategic priority, information literacy serves to demonstrate the library’s value within the university’s globalizing agenda. While there has been a renewed interest in space/time within the humanities and social sciences since the 1980s, LIS has not taken up this “spatial turn” with the same enthusiasm—or the same degree of criticality—as other social science disciplines. This article attempts to address that gap and offers new insights into the ways that the spatial and temporal registers of the global knowledge economy and the neoliberal university produce and regulate the practice of information literacy in the academic library. Pre-print first published online 12/09/2018


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 313
Author(s):  
Andrea Bordone ◽  
Francesca Pennecchi ◽  
Giancarlo Raiteri ◽  
Luca Repetti ◽  
Franco Reseghetti

Accurate measurement of temperature and salinity is a fundamental task with heavy implications in all the possible applications of the currently available datasets, for example, in the study of climate changes and modeling of ocean dynamics. In this work, the reliability of measurements obtained by oceanographic devices (eXpendable BathyThermographs, Argo floats and Conductivity-Temperature-Depth sensors) is analyzed by means of an intercomparison exercise. As a first step, temperature profiles from XBT probes, deployed by commercial ships crossing the Ligurian and Tyrrhenian seas during the Ship of Opportunity Program (SOOP), were matched with profiles from Argo floats quasi-collocated in space and time. Attention was then paid to temperature/salinity profiling Argo floats. Since Argo floats usually are not recovered and should last up to five years without any re-calibration, their onboard sensors may suffer some drift and/or offset. In the literature, refined methods were developed to post-process Argo data, in order to correct the response of their profiling CTD sensors, in particular adjusting the salinity drift. The core of this delayed-mode quality control is the comparison of Argo data with reference climatology. At the same time, the experimental comparison of Argo profiles with ship-based CTD profiles, matched in space and time, is still of great importance. Therefore, an overall comparison of Argo floats vs. shipboard CTDs was performed, in terms of temperature and salinity profiles in the whole Mediterranean Sea, under space-time matching conditions as strict as possible. Performed analyses provided interesting results. XBT profiles confirmed that below 100 m depth the accordance with Argo data is reasonably good, with a small positive bias (close to 0.05 °C) and a standard deviation equal to about 0.10 °C. Similarly, side-by-side comparisons vs. CTD profiles confirmed the good quality of Argo measurements; the evidence of a drift in time was found, but at a level of about E−05 unit/day, so being reasonably negligible on the Argo time-scale. XBT, Argo and CTD users are therefore encouraged to take into account these results as a good indicator of the uncertainties associated with such devices in the Mediterranean Sea, for the analyzed period, in all the climatological applications.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 382 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vaishnavi Thakar

The world witnessed the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The first case of COVID-19 in the United States of America (USA) was confirmed on 21 January 2020, in Snohomish County in Washington State (WA). Following this, a rapid explosion of COVID-19 cases was observed throughout WA and the USA. Lack of access to publicly available spatial data at finer scales has prevented scientists from implementing spatial analytical techniques to gain insights into the spread of COVID-19. Datasets were available only as counts at county levels. The spatial response to COVID-19 using coarse-scale publicly available datasets was limited to web mapping applications and dashboards to visualize infected cases from state to county levels only. This research approaches data availability issues by creating proxy datasets for COVID-19 using publicly available news articles. Further, these proxy datasets are used to perform spatial analyses to unfolding events in space and time and to gain insights into the spread of COVID-19 in WA during the initial stage of the outbreak. Spatial analysis of theses proxy datasets from 21 January to 23 March 2020, suggests the presence of a clear space–time pattern. From 21 January to 6 March, a strong presence of community spread of COVID-19 is observed only in close proximity of the outbreak source in Snohomish and King Counties, which are neighbors. Infections diffused to farther locations only after a month, i.e., 6 March. The space–time pattern of diffusion observed in this study suggests that implementing strict social distancing measures during the initial stage in infected locations can drastically help curb the spread to distant locations.


2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (01) ◽  
pp. 1850093 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chaoxu Pei ◽  
Mark Sussman ◽  
M. Yousuff Hussaini

A space-time discontinuous Galerkin spectral element method is combined with two different approaches for treating problems with discontinuous solutions: (i) adding a space-time dependent artificial viscosity, and (ii) tracking the discontinuity with space-time spectral accuracy. A Picard iteration method is employed to solve nonlinear system of equations derived from the space-time DG spectral element discretization. Spectral accuracy in both space and time is demonstrated for the Burgers’ equation with a smooth solution. For tests with discontinuities, the present space-time method enables better accuracy at capturing the shock strength in the element containing shock when higher order polynomials in both space and time are used. The spectral accuracy of the shock speed and location is demonstrated for the solution of the inviscid Burgers’ equation obtained by the tracking method.


Philosophy ◽  
1977 ◽  
Vol 52 (202) ◽  
pp. 399-408 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. M. Shorter

John Locke claimed that: ‘We never finding, nor conceiving it possible, that two things of the same kind should exist in the same place at the same time, we rightly conclude that, whatever exists anywhere at any time excludes all of the same kind, and is there itself alone’. He argued that, otherwise, ‘The notions and names of identity and diversity would be in vain, and there could be no such distinctions of substances or anything else one from another’. More recently Professor D. Wiggins has made a similar claim for similar reasons. I shall maintain that, even if we accept the general outline of the essentialist account of identity given by Wiggins in his book, the claim that two things of the same kind cannot be in the same place at the same time should be rejected, until better reasons are forthcoming.


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