scholarly journals ROBERT GROSSETESTE: A MEDIEVAL THINKER WITH A LEGACY FOR MODERN SCIENCE

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian K. Tanner
Keyword(s):  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Interdisciplinary Collaboration ◽  
Modern Science ◽  
Detailed Examination ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Big Bang ◽  
Natural Phenomena ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Complex Phenomena ◽  
The Universe

Robert Grosseteste (ca. 1170-1253) was one of the first scholars to embed the newly rediscovered ideas of Aristotle into medieval natural philosophy. In a series of short scientific treatises written between about 1215 and 1230 he focused on explaining why, rather than how, the natural world behaves as it does. He adopted a principle of subalternation in which complex phenomena could be understood in terms of simpler underlying behaviour that could be tested by observation. For example, he explained the features of the rainbow in terms of optics, which in turn could be explained by geometry. Grosseteste’s “Big Bang” theory of the formation of the universe, based on the expansion of light from a point, is founded on the need to explain the stability of solid matter. Although surviving manuscripts do contain almost no diagrams, it is evident that he thought both mathematically and pictorially in developing a unified model of natural phenomena. In a unique interdisciplinary collaboration between historians, philosophers, palaeographers, linguists, artists and scientists (www.ordered-universe.com) we have shown how detailed examination of Grosseteste’s science can stimulate both new contemporary scientific research and artistic creativity.

scholarly journals Time and Life in the Relational Universe: Prolegomena to an Integral Paradigm of Natural Philosophy

Philosophies ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abir Igamberdiev
Keyword(s):  
Probability Function ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Spatiotemporal Structure ◽  
Internal Logic ◽  
Decision Making System ◽  
Relational Domains ◽  
Relational Order ◽  
Infinite Set ◽  
The Universe

Relational ideas for our description of the natural world can be traced to the concept of Anaxagoras on the multiplicity of basic particles, later called “homoiomeroi” by Aristotle, that constitute the Universe and have the same nature as the whole world. Leibniz viewed the Universe as an infinite set of embodied logical essences called monads, which possess inner view, compute their own programs and perform mathematical transformations of their qualities, independently of all other monads. In this paradigm, space appears as a relational order of co-existences and time as a relational order of sequences. The relational paradigm was recognized in physics as a dependence of the spatiotemporal structure and its actualization on the observer. In the foundations of mathematics, the basic logical principles are united with the basic geometrical principles that are generic to the unfolding of internal logic. These principles appear as universal topological structures (“geometric atoms”) shaping the world. The decision-making system performs internal quantum reduction which is described by external observers via the probability function. In biology, individual systems operate as separate relational domains. The wave function superposition is restricted within a single domain and does not expand outside it, which corresponds to the statement of Leibniz that “monads have no windows”.

scholarly journals DISJUNCTIONS AND NATURAL PHILOSOPHY IN MARCUS AURELIUS

2019 ◽  
Vol 69 (2) ◽  
pp. 858-879
Author(s):  
Benjamin Harriman
Keyword(s):  
Recent Literature ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Marcus Aurelius ◽  
The Universe

In his Meditations, Marcus Aurelius repeatedly presents a disjunction between two conceptions of the natural world. Either the universe is ruled by providence or there are atoms. At 4.3, we find perhaps its most succinct statement: ἀνανεωσάμενος τὸ διεζευγμένον τό⋅ ἤτοι πρόνοια ἢ ἄτομοι (recall the disjunction: either providence or atoms). The formulation of the disjunction differs; at 7.32, being composed of atoms is contrasted with a stronger sort of unity (ἕνωσις) that may survive death. In 10.6 and 11.18 Marcus simply offers φύσις (nature, construed in the Stoic manner as providentialist and causally efficacious) in opposition. On the surface, the contrast between the theory of atomism and the acceptance of providence seems to not warrant the term ‘disjunction’; it seems possible to accept both atomism and a causally determined providential universe. Yet, it is agreed on all sides, in the recent literature, that the relevant contrast for Marcus is not between the atomist and the non-atomist views of the constitution of the natural world as such but between two entailments that follow from the atomist Epicurean and the non-atomist Stoic advocacy of these positions. The contrast is between the providential ordering of the Stoic universe and the chaotic chance-ridden Epicurean model.

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 The Rise of Early Modern Science

1995 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-111
Author(s):  
Graham Leonard
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Islamic Law ◽  
Modern Science ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Educational Systems ◽  
Legal Systems ◽  
The West ◽  
Early Modern Science ◽  
Basic Premise ◽  
The Universe

The author has shown great courage in undertaking an endeavor thathas daunted historians of science, intellectual historians, Islamicists, andSinologists. Huff utilizes excellent sources and makes insightful hypothesesin this multidisciplinary work. If the book is not perfect, the failure issmall compared to what he has achieved. Building on this work, otherscholars will be able to sharpen the on-going debate and propose boldconclusions for years to come.The Rise of Early Modern Science concentrates on why science "tookoff' in the West but not in China or the Islamic world, where it had muchlonger histories. By "takeoff," Huff means the explosion of scientific discoverythat flowered in the West, especially during the early seventeenthcentury. His basic premise is succinct: "Modem science depends on thebelief that the natural world is a rational and ordered world" and that"man is a rational creature who is able to understand and accuratelydescribe the universe." Claiming that such Greek tenets never occurred inChina and noting that the Arabs passed them on to Europe, he enwnerateshow they took hold in the West and facilitated the modem world.Huff compares the legal systems of the three cultures as institutionalizationsof their social, political, and intellectual experiences. While comparisonsof their legal systems produce interesting results, contrasting theirthought processes, educational systems, and practices of science couldhave shed more light on the differences in their utilization of scientificmethodologies. His recourse co legal systems for comparisons in scienceis not successful, for law parallels scientific methodology in that bothemploy rigor, empiricism, and deduction. But induction, essential for science,was used in law mainly for purposes of legislation. His comparisonof Islamic law with the West's fails because the former includes everyaspect of life, whereas the latter is more limited to criminal, civil, and corporateaspects. China's law, on the other hand, is concerned with the socialorder.Huff notes that China concentrated more on the organization ofhuman society than on the natural environment. Emperors and their minionsopposed searching for "truths" lest the established order be troubled.China did not codify or institutionalize its laws in ways comparable toIslam and the West. Given this history, China should be effectively out of ...

Reasoning with visual metaphors

2013 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 367-379 ◽  
Author(s):  
James W. McAllister
Keyword(s):  
Visual Art ◽  
Visual Inspection ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Modern Science ◽  
Visual Metaphors ◽  
The World ◽  
Form Part ◽  
The Universe

AbstractResearch into visual reasoning up to now has focused on images that are literal depictions of their objects. I argue in this article that an important further mode of visual reasoning operates on images that depict objects metaphorically. Such images form part of the class of expressive symbols: they are found, for example, in allegorical representations in works of visual art, studied by iconology. They were also a common way of encapsulating insights about the universe in natural philosophy in the Renaissance. Many writers assume that expressive symbols have vanished from modern science, but I argue in the second part of the article that mathematical law statements in present-day physics should be seen, in part, as images that constitute expressive symbols of the world. In support of this view, I offer evidence that law statements relate to their objects metaphorically and that physicists engage with them primarily through visual inspection and visual reasoning.

scholarly journals We Need to Recreate Natural Philosophy

Philosophies ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 28
Author(s):  
Nicholas Maxwell
Keyword(s):  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Modern Science ◽  
Methodological Framework ◽  
Problem Of Induction ◽  
Metaphysical Assumption ◽  
Unified Theories ◽  
The Universe

Modern science began as natural philosophy, an admixture of philosophy and science. It was then killed off by Newton, as a result of his claim to have derived his law of gravitation from the phenomena by induction. But this post-Newtonian conception of science, which holds that theories are accepted on the basis of evidence, is untenable, as the long-standing insolubility of the problem of induction indicates. Persistent acceptance of unified theories only in physics, when endless equally empirically successful disunified rivals are available, means that physics makes a persistent, problematic metaphysical assumption about the universe: that all disunified theories are false. This assumption, precisely because it is problematic, needs to be explicitly articulated within physics, so that it can be critically assessed and, we may hope, improved. The outcome is a new conception of science—aim-oriented empiricism—that puts science and philosophy together again, and amounts to a modern version of natural philosophy. Furthermore, aim-oriented empiricism leads to the solution to the problem of induction. Natural philosophy pursued within the methodological framework of aim-oriented empiricism is shown to meet standards of intellectual rigour that science without metaphysics cannot meet.

scholarly journals An Alternative Cosmology: The QSSC

1999 ◽  
Vol 183 ◽  
pp. 277-285
Author(s):  
Jayant V. Narlikar
Keyword(s):  
Steady State ◽  
Exact Solutions ◽  
Big Bang ◽  
Observational Constraints ◽  
Quasi Steady State ◽  
Stability Of Solutions ◽  
Theoretical Formulation ◽  
Basic Equations ◽  
The Stability ◽  
The Universe

This review begins with a brief survey of the observational constraints on the standard big bang cosmology, pointing out that the various limits leave a very narrow window in the parameter space of plausible models. There is thus a strong case for alternative cosmologies. The rest of the review concentrates on one alternative, the quasi steady state cosmology (QSSC) and summarises the recent work on this model. This includes, the theoretical formulation and simple exact solutions of the basic equations, their relationship to observations, the stability of solutions and the toy model for understanding the growth of structures in the universe.

scholarly journals Saat Iman dan Akal Berbenturan

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fanny Yapi Markus Kaseke
Keyword(s):  
Natural World ◽  
Big Bang ◽  
Science And Religion ◽  
Cultural Narrative ◽  
Faith And Reason ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Natural Philosophers ◽  
Descent Of Man ◽  
The Universe

Now two groups composed of Christian within the Young Earth Creationist and the Old Earth Creationist to understand the evolution issue. For centuries, natural philosophers, their scientific successors, and theologians alike sought to explain the physical and natural world. The now common cultural narrative of perpetual conflict between science and religion simplifies the arguments and struggles of the past and overlooks cross-pollination between those who embraced faith and reason as the keys to understanding earth history. When evolutionists unequivocally dismissed the idea of a creation in the sixth day of universe, nature and human, recognized big bang theory, also Darwin’s Descent of Man and natural selection, many conservative theologians acknowledged that there was more to the past than literally spelled out in Genesis, the opening chapter of the Bible. But some theologists rejected this perspective and chose to see universe as a threat to their faith. In so doing, they abandoned faith in reason and cast off a long-standing theological tradition that rocks don’t lie. The objective of the research was to know objectively the creation of the universe whether directly by order of God or with advocate of evolutionary theory. This article was based upon theological paradigm (Bible) enrich with some literatures of evolution theories.

A view of the universe before the big bang

2006 ◽  
Vol 190 ◽  
pp. 15-15
Author(s):  
D CASTELVECCHI
Keyword(s):  
Big Bang ◽  
The Big Bang ◽  
The Universe

"Marketocentric" Economics Is Obsolete

2004 ◽  
pp. 36-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Buzgalin ◽  
A. Kolganov
Keyword(s):  
Economic Theory ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Modern Science ◽  
Economic Systems ◽  
Main Mode ◽  
Post Market ◽  
Market Relations ◽  
Post Industrial ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
The Universe

The "marketocentric" economic theory is now dominating in modern science (similar to Ptolemeus geocentric model of the Universe in the Middle Ages). But market economy is only one of different types of economic systems which became the main mode of resources allocation and motivation only in the end of the 19th century. Authors point to the necessity of the analysis of both pre-market and post-market relations. Transition towards the post-industrial neoeconomy requires "Copernical revolution" in economic theory, rejection of marketocentric orientation, which has become now not only less fruitful, but also dogmatically dangerous, leading to the conservation and reproduction of "market fundamentalism".

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