Beeckman, Isaac (1588–1637)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Callergård
Keyword(s):  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Applied Mathematics ◽  
Classical Mechanics ◽  
Free Fall ◽  
Empty Space ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Water Supply Systems ◽  
History Of ◽  
Latin Schools ◽  
Supply Systems

Isaac Beeckman (1588–1637) was a Dutch pioneer of early modern atomist and mechanist speculation. By profession a maker of candles and water supply systems, and later head of various Latin schools, Beeckman devoted a lifetime to studies in natural philosophy, and has received considerable scholarly attention since the rediscovery of his Journal which he kept between 1604 and 1634. Beeckman’s topics in these studies were the atomist assumption that natural phenomena result from nothing but the motion in empty space of small and hard bits of matter and the mechanist assumption that causal impact in the natural world takes place by way of direct contact of matter with matter. To this revival of ancient schools of atomist thought Beeckman added the principle of inertia, which he formulated independently of Galileo. Beeckman’s approach to the study of physics is a combination of applied mathematics and a preference for explanations that can be displayed visually. Notable among his achievements are his derivation of the law of falling bodies and a proof in acoustics that the length of a sounding string is inversely proportional to the frequency. Beeckman’s scientific connections included Pierre Gassendi and Marin Mersenne. His most remarkable relation, however, was to Descartes. Their collaboration on the study of free fall is a chapter in the history of pre-Newtonian classical mechanics and their personal relationship a topic for biographers interested in Descartes’ life and the development of his philosophy.

scholarly journals Studying the cognitive states of animals: Epistemology, ethology and ethics

2009 ◽  
Vol 37 (3/4) ◽  
pp. 369-422
Author(s):  
Otto Lehto
Keyword(s):  
Animal Studies ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Cognitive Ethology ◽  
Evolutionary Account ◽  
Cognitive States ◽  
History Of ◽  
Scientific Quest ◽  
Selection Of

The question of cognitive endowment in animals has been fiercely debated in the scientific community during the last couple of decades (for example, in cognitive ethology and behaviourism), and indeed, all throughout the long history of natural philosophy (from Plato and Aristotle, via Descartes, to Darwin). The scientific quest for an empirical, evolutionary account of the development and emergence of cognition has met with many philosophical objections, blind alleys and epistemological quandaries. I will argue that we are dealing with conflicting philosophical world views as well as conflicting empirical paradigms of research. After looking at some examples from the relevant literature of animal studies to elucidate the nature of the conflicts that arise, I propose, in strict Darwinian orthodoxy, that cognitive endowments in nature are subject to the sort of continuum and gradation that natural selection of fit variant forms tends to generate. Somewhere between the myth of “free” humans and the myth of “behaviourally conditioned” animals lies the reality of animal behaviour and cognition. In the end, I hope to have softened up some of those deep-seated philosophical problems (and many quasi-problems) that puzzle and dazzle laymen, scientists and philosophers alike in their quest for knowledge about the natural world.

Introduction

2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ulf Grenander ◽  
Michael I. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Computer Vision ◽  
Computational Linguistics ◽  
Applied Mathematics ◽  
General Pattern ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Practical Applications ◽  
Pattern Theory ◽  
Algebraic Framework ◽  
History Of ◽  
Mathematical Formalization

This book is to be an accessible book on patterns, their representation, and inference. There are a small number of ideas and techniques that, when mastered, make the subject more accessible. This book has arisen from ten years of a research program which the authors have embarked upon, building on the more abstract developments of metric pattern theory developed by one of the authors during the 1970s and 1980s. The material has been taught over multiple semesters as part of a second year graduate-level course in pattern theory, essentially an introduction for students interested in the representation of patterns which are observed in the natural world. The course has attracted students studying biomedical engineering, computer science, electrical engineering, and applied mathematics interested in speech recognition and computational linguistics, as well as areas of image analysis, and computer vision. Now the concept of patterns pervades the history of intellectual endeavor; it is one of the eternal followers in human thought. It appears again and again in science, taking on different forms in the various disciplines, and made rigorous through mathematical formalization. But the concept also lives in a less stringent form in the humanities, in novels and plays, even in everyday language. We use it all the time without attributing a formal meaning to it and yet with little risk of misunderstanding. So, what do we really mean by a pattern? Can we define it in strictly logical terms? And if we can, what use can we make of such a definition? These questions were answered by General Pattern Theory, a discipline initiated by Ulf Grenander in the late 1960s [1–5]. It has been an ambitious effort with the only original sketchy program having few if any practical applications, growing in mathematical maturity with a multitude of applications having appeared in biology/medicine and in computer vision, in language theory and object recognition, to mention but a few. Pattern theory attempts to provide an algebraic framework for describing patterns as structures regulated by rules, essentially a finite number of both local and global combinatory operations. Pattern theory takes a compositional view of the world, building more and more complex structures starting from simple ones. The basic rules for combining and building complex patterns from simpler ones are encoded via graphs and rules on transformation of these graphs.

scholarly journals “Atomisme” Dan “Hilomorfisme” Dalam Diskursus Pemikiran Islam

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-120
Author(s):  
Akhmad Rofii Damyati
Keyword(s):  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Intellectual Tradition ◽  
Philosophical Thought ◽  
Islamic Thought ◽  
History Of

Physics is the study of natural world. In the history of Islamic thought, there were two primary intellectual school in which nature was discussed: Atomism and Hylomorphism. Atomism is generally belong mutakallimin, or Islamic speculative theology, that in general approached issues in physics from an atomistic framework. While Hylomorphism is generally belong to Islamic philosophers that had its roots in the Greek intellectual tradition and more specifically in the philosophical thought of Aristotle. This writing is going to explain the atomistic theories found among the mutakallimin, that is called as “Atomism” shool of thought, followed by the Aristo-Avicennian natural philosophy, that is called as “Hylomorphism” school of thought.

Teleology Without Tears: Aristotle and the Role of Mechanistic Conceptions of Organisms

2007 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 351-369 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sylvia Berryman
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Perceived Similarity ◽  
Greek Philosophy ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Living Things ◽  
Ancient Greek Philosophy ◽  
History Of

In this paper I outline a role for mechanistic conceptions of organisms in ancient Greek natural philosophy, especially the study of organisms. By ‘mechanistic conceptions’ I mean the use of ideas and techniques drawn from the field of mechanics to investigate the natural world. ‘Mechanistic conceptions’ of organisms in ancient Greek philosophy, then, are those that draw on the ancient understanding of the field called ‘mechanics’ — hê mêchanikê technê—to investigate living things, rather than those bearing some perceived similarity to modern notions of ‘the mechanical.’ I have argued elsewhere that evidence of mechanistic conceptions of the natural world can be found, not only among seventeenth and eighteenth century ‘mechanical philosophers,’ but also—albeit in vestigial form — in some ancient Greek texts. Unfortunately, these reports are slight, often by detractors of this approach, and offer only clues as to the motivational context for employing these mechanical conceptions. Here, my purpose is to suggest what role they might have played in the history of natural philosophy.

History of Water Supply Systems

1992 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Alfred Z. Keller ◽  
Henry C. Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Water Supply ◽  
Water Supply Systems ◽  
History Of ◽  
Supply Systems

scholarly journals Making sustainable water and sanitation in the Peruvian Andes: an intervention model

2008 ◽  
Vol 6 (S1) ◽  
pp. 27-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Campos
Keyword(s):  
Rural Communities ◽  
Skills Development ◽  
Water Supply Systems ◽  
Intervention Model ◽  
Water Supplies ◽  
Peruvian Andes ◽  
Operation And Maintenance ◽  
History Of ◽  
Supply Systems ◽  
And Training

Sustainability of water supplies in remote rural communities is problematic and resource consuming. CARE has a long history of working hand in hand with remote rural communities and devising programs tailored to their needs. We present here an intervention that integrates development of water supplies and sanitation, with operation and maintenance skills development and training of health promoters that can educate from within the community that ensures the sustainability of drinking water supply systems in rural communities. The training used is innovative in that it uses a series of video-workshops which are found to be particularly useful in communities with high illiteracy rates.

Cartesian Physics

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
John A. Schuster
Keyword(s):  
Celestial Mechanics ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Explanatory Style ◽  
Rene Descartes ◽  
Classical Mechanics ◽  
History Of Physics ◽  
Developmental Anatomy ◽  
René Descartes ◽  
History Of

This article examines the physics of René Descartes. Descartes’ natural philosophy marks a significant moment in the larger history of physics. His system of natural philosophy was a novel, daring, and intricate construction in that field, with two main sets of historical significances for later physics. Before discussing these two significant consequences of Descartes’ natural philosophy for physics, the article provides an overview of the developmental anatomy of Cartesian physics during the period 1618–1644. In particular, it considers the successes, failures, and fate of Descartes’ early physico-mathematics programme, his work on physico-mathematical optics and corpuscular dynamics, and his career inflection between 1628 and 1633. It also explores Descartes’ ideas on vortex celestial mechanics, the explanatory style of mature Cartesian physics, and his work on classical mechanics. Finally, it looks at Descartes’ concerns with realist Copernicanism.

Galilean Reflections on Milton Friedman’s "Methodology of Positive Economics", with Thoughts on Vernon Smith’s "Economics in the Laboratory"

2007 ◽  
pp. 55-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Schliesser
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Evidence ◽  
Experimental Economics ◽  
Nobel Prize ◽  
Free Fall ◽  
Nobel Prize Winner ◽  
Theoretical Physics ◽  
History Of ◽  
Positive Economics

The article examines in detail the argument of M. Friedman as expressed in his famous article "Methodology of Positive Economics". In considering the problem of interconnection of theoretical hypotheses with experimental evidence the author illustrates his thesis using the history of the Galilean law of free fall and its role in the development of theoretical physics. He also draws upon methodological ideas of the founder of experimental economics and Nobel prize winner V. Smith.

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