Causality Then and Now

1993 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 165-177
Author(s):  
Karen Harding
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Theory ◽  
Common Sense ◽  
Mechanical Model ◽  
Physical World ◽  
Scientific Data ◽  
The World ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Universe ◽  
The Way

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 ...

scholarly journals Some 'Philosophicall Scribbles' attributed to Robert Hooke

1980 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-32 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Common Sense ◽  
Trinity College ◽  
Robert Hooke ◽  
Separate Sheet ◽  
The World ◽  
The Common ◽  
Almost All

Among the Hooke manuscripts held in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge, is an undated document of four pages, entitled (on a separate sheet): XVI Philosophicall Scribbles’. We shall offer here an edition of this hitherto unpublished document; its contents will be discussed and compared with Hooke’s published theories of the soul, mind action and memory in his ‘Lectures of light’ (I); and some consideration will be given to the general adequacy of Hooke’s epistemology, as revealed in the ‘Scribbles’ and the ‘Lectures of light’, and its place in history. A transcription of the ‘Philosophicall scribbles’ reads as follows: It has pleased y e al wise contriuer of y e Universe to send man into the world almost/ready tempered,/like a peice of soft wax to receiue those impressions and stamps, which he has though[t] it most conuenient to receiue, though altogether unfit for/some/other perhaps, which his infinite wisdom saw good to w th hold. Those stamps are only of five kinds. And are generally comprisd under one name, to wit The Objects of Sense, /and this ? is calld the common sense,/But this is only that passiue facully [ sic ] w ch this lump or mass of bodys come furnished w th all, w ch is much y e same w th what y e bodys of almost all animalls are as well if not in a better manner endowed.

Figurations of the Ecstatic

Janus Head ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 203-221
Author(s):  
David D. Dillard-Wright ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Common Sense ◽  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Consumer Society ◽  
The World ◽  
The Common

Descriptions of “aesthetic arrest,” those ecstatic moments that lift the common sense subject-object dichotomy, abound in Merleau-Ponty’s writings. These special experiences, found in both artistic and mystical accounts, arise from the daily life of ordinary perception. Such experiences enable the artist, philosopher, or mystic to overturn received categories and describe phenomena in a creative way; they become dangerous when treated as the sine qua non of aesthetic experience. Aesthetic arrest, though rare in consumer society, need not be overwhelmed by the flood of information and can still provide fresh glimpses into the world as lived.

The Genesis of Mind

1862 ◽  
Vol 8 (41) ◽  
pp. 61-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry Maudsley
Keyword(s):  
Common Sense ◽  
Golden Age ◽  
The World ◽  
Gradual Development ◽  
The Common ◽  
Rudimentary Form

It might seem unaccountable that, notwithstanding the common sense of mankind has in all ages recognised the existence of intellect in animals, certain philosophers should always have been found to repudiate the vulgar opinion; were it not that experience proves there is much truth in the description which Condillac gives of the philosophers, as “men who love much better an absurdity that they imagine than a truth which all the world adopts.” Though Plato tells us that in the golden age men derived all their knowledge from communication with beasts, and though the little understood and much misunderstood Egyptians of old paid divine honours to certain animals—not, as is sometimes superficially concluded, on account of their brute wisdom, but really as living symbols of Divine intelligence, which they embodied and instinctively displayed—yet the Cartesian philosophy actually denied sensibility to animals, and designated them living machines. For such unmerited ignominy they have, however, been more than compensated by writers who, like M. Charles Bonnet, maintain the existence of immortal souls in them, and predict for them a future world and a happier destiny. The ancients would appear generally to have entertained a somewhat similar opinion; for, without referring to the doctrine of metempsychosis, we have the authority of Homer, who represents Orion as chasing the souls of stags over the plains of hell. And modem instinct, when not perverted by the prejudices and conceit of learning, never fails to acknowledge the rationality of brutes. According to a Scandinavian aphorism, the bear has the strength of ten men and the sense of twelve; and the Red Indians are so impressed with the intellectual powers of this animal that, whenever they have killed one, they scrupulously strive to appease its manes with various important ceremonies. They deck out its head with various trinkets, and make a long speech in which the courage of the departed is praised, its living relatives profusely complimented, and a hope expressed that the conduct of its slayer has been satisfactory both to itself and them. The intelligence of civilisation may dismiss with a smile of pity or contempt such barbarous displays; but the most advanced intelligence will not forget that there is some substratum of truth beneath every superstition, by virtue of which it lives. As no nation ever yet worshipped a piece of carved wood or chiselled stone otherwise than as a symbol of the Great Incomprehensible, by which both barbarous and civilised men are surrounded; so we may rest satisfied that the Red Indian only labours to propitiate the ghost of the bear because he has at times found, to his cost, that its intelligence has surpassed his own. The extremes of attributing too much and too little intelligence to animals will, however, be alike avoided by that sincere and unbiassed observation which, while discrediting all exaggerated theories, willingly recognises the undoubted existence in them of intelligence in its rudimentary form, and strives to point out the evidences of its gradual development through them.

scholarly journals Intricate Coalescence of Nature and Philosophy in Coelho’s world: Ruminations from The Alchemist

2020 ◽  
pp. 72-79
Author(s):  
L. Monica Lilly
Keyword(s):  
Common Language ◽  
Human Species ◽  
The World ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Common ◽  
Human Psyche ◽  
Egyptian Desert ◽  
The Universe

 In The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho projects Santiago communicating with Nature which he refers to as the common language of the world. A study of The Alchemist will reveal how Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who yearns to travel in search of a bounty treasure explores the wisdom of life. His quest for the treasure buried near the Pyramids propels him to enter an unchartered territory from his homeland in Spain to the Egyptian desert. This paper aims to explore the ecological reflections mired with concepts of slants in philosophy. Ecology on one hand is considered as a branch of science but, despite providing erudition on the subject it is understood that it provides sagacity to understand the universe better. This paper rightly discusses the amalgamation of nature and literature. It is indeed a manifestation of the recurrently believed ideologies that connect human psyche and platitudes of the cosmos. The logos that interrelates the existing connection between the non human and the human species require an exceptional mastery. This paper will analyze and depict the emotions connected with nature from the spectacle of the Protagonist Santiago in The Alchemist.

scholarly journals Vínculos entre la Escuela Austriaca de Economía y el método de la inversión en valor

2021 ◽  
pp. 255-304
Author(s):  
Diego E. Quijano Durán
Keyword(s):  
Common Sense ◽  
Jel Classification ◽  
Austrian School ◽  
Economic Calculation ◽  
Austrian School Of Economics ◽  
Value Investing ◽  
Palabras Clave ◽  
The World ◽  
The Common

The Austrian school of economics and the investment method known as value investing have a similar conception of the world, so that it is possible to find multiple links between them and form a coherent structure. To the economist, this allows for a much deeper understanding of the entrepreneurial function and the manner in which economic calculation is actually performed. To the investor, it offers a theoretical framework that explains economic phenomena, permitting him to better understand the role of the entrepreneur and to protect his investment when dangerous patterns can be observed. In this essay, we begin from the common stance of both schools of thought towards common sense, the use of realistic assumptions, the importance of prudence and the low value of complex mathematics in the fields of economics and finance. We then proceed to develop in greater depth nine aspects that have strong philosophical and scientific links. Key words: Value investing, Austrian school of economics, entrepreneurship, dynamic efficiency, economic calculation. JEL Classification: A12, G17, M20. Resumen: La Escuela Austriaca de Economía y el método de inversión en valor tienen una concepción similar del mundo que permite entrelazarlas coherentemente. Al economista, le permite profundizar el conocimiento del ejercicio de la función empresarial y la realización del cálculo económico en la práctica. Al inversor, le ofrece un marco teórico para comprender mejor el papel del empresario y los fenómenos económicos y detectar temprano patrones peligrosos y así protegerse. En este trabajo partimos de la base de que ambas escuelas de pensamiento tienen sus raíces en el sentido común y los supuestos realistas, que son prudentes a la hora de ver el futuro y que dudan de la utilidad de las matemáticas complejas en los campos económicos y financieros. Sobre ello, desarrollamos nueve aspectos en los cuales hay fuertes conexiones como, por ejemplo, la manera en que el ejercicio de la empresarialidad mejora la eficiencia del mercado y coordina los planes de las personas. Palabras clave: Inversión en valor, escuela austriaca de economía, empre-sarialidad, eficiencia dinámica, cálculo económico. Clasificación JEL: A12, G17, M20.

scholarly journals Litteratur og politik

2007 ◽  
Vol 35 (104) ◽  
pp. 148-165
Author(s):  
Frederik Tygstrup ◽  
Isak Winkel Holm
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
Form And Function ◽  
Symbolic Forms ◽  
Representational Practices ◽  
The World ◽  
Cultural Poetics ◽  
The Common ◽  
And Function ◽  
The Way

Literature and PoliticsLiterature is political by representing the world. The production of literature is a contribution to a general cultural poetics where images of reality are constructed and circulated. At the same time, the practice of literature is institutionalized in such a way that the form and function of the images of reality it produces are conceived and used in a distinctive way. In this article, we suggest distinguishing between a general cultural poetics and a specific literary poetics by using Ernst Cassirer’s neo-Kantian concept of »symbolic forms«. We argue that according to this view, the political significance of literary representational practices resides in the way they activate a common cultural repertoire of historical symbolic forms while at the same time deviating from the common ways of treating these forms.

Contemporary Echoes of the World Soul

2021 ◽  
pp. 320-342
Author(s):  
Valia Allori
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Quantum Theory ◽  
Conscious Experience ◽  
Hard Problem ◽  
Quantum Theories ◽  
The World ◽  
The Hard Problem ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Way

Quantum mechanics is a groundbreaking theory: it not only is extraordinarily empirically adequate but also is claimed to having shattered the classical paradigm of understanding the observer-observed distinction as well as the part-whole relation. This, together with other quantum features, has been taken to suggest that quantum theory can help one understand the mind-body relation in a unique way, in particular to solve the hard problem of consciousness along the lines of panpsychism. In this chapter, after having briefly presented panpsychism, Valia Allori discusses the main features of quantum theories and the way in which the main quantum theories of consciousness use them to account for conscious experience.

Worshiping Computers

2019 ◽  
pp. 85-110
Author(s):  
Gary Smith ◽  
Jay Cordes
Keyword(s):  
Neural Networks ◽  
Monte Carlo ◽  
Monte Carlo Simulations ◽  
Common Sense ◽  
Deep Neural Networks ◽  
Computer Software ◽  
Square Roots ◽  
The World ◽  
The Way

Computer software, particularly deep neural networks and Monte Carlo simulations, are extremely useful for the specific tasks that they have been designed to do, and they will get even better, much better. However, we should not assume that computers are smarter than us just because they can tell us the first 2000 digits of pi or show us a street map of every city in the world. One of the paradoxical things about computers is that they can excel at things that humans consider difficult (like calculating square roots) while failing at things that humans consider easy (like recognizing stop signs). They can’t pass simple tests like the Winograd Schema Challenge because they do not understand the world the way humans do. They have neither common sense nor wisdom. They are our tools, not our masters.

A New Quarrel

On Universals ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 96-120
Author(s):  
Étienne Balibar
Keyword(s):  
Political Participation ◽  
Philosophical Anthropology ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Unity ◽  
The World ◽  
The Common ◽  
To Come ◽  
Question Today ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Universe

This chapter assesses the new “quarrel of universals” that now occupies philosophy and other overlapping disciplines. In this new quarrel, the question today is not only whether one is for or against the universal; the question is also how one defines the universal—a term whose surprising equivocity has become increasingly clear. Still more fundamentally, the question is how one should articulate the relationship between three related but heterogeneous terms whose widespread use has prompted conflicting claims: the universal, universality, and universalisms. The chapter begins by situating the question of the universal and its variations within the field that seems to constitute the strategic site of intersecting domains: philosophical anthropology, understood as the analysis of the historical differences of the human and of the problem that those differences pose to their bearers. It then outlines the difficulties which can be identified in every philosophical and political usage of the universal and its “doubles” according to three aporias. The first is the aporia of the multiplicity of the “world,” or of the universe as multiversum; the second is that of Allgemeinheit or All(en)gemeinheit, in other words, the irreducible gap between the universal and the common (or community); and, finally, that of co-citizenship, the form of belonging to a political unity to come, a unity whose law of belonging (membership) would be the heterogeneity within equality or the political participation of those foreign to the community.

scholarly journals An Inquiry into the Semiotic Thought of Laozi

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-39
Author(s):  
Dong Zhu ◽  
Wei Ren
Keyword(s):  
Social Stability ◽  
Chinese History ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Tao Te Ching ◽  
The World ◽  
Imperial China ◽  
The Universe ◽  
Natural Life ◽  
Origin Of The Universe ◽  
The Way

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.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document