Introduction to The Infinite

1928 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
David Eugene Smith

Our Attitude to the lnfinite.—It is not a matter of much moment that we should or should not teach the various methods of factoring an expression in the form of ax2 + bx + c. Most of the common methods are worthless when we come to the actual use of these factors in the theory of algebraic polynomials, and any application of the work to a “real” problem in algebra is rarely seen. What is said of this detail of elementary algebra may be said of various others; they have a value, bnt in many cases this value is relatively slight; each concerns a single unimportant muscle of the body algebraic, bnt it scarcely touches the soul.

Rhizomata ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 239-267
Author(s):  
Kathryn Morgan

Abstract This paper uses a problematic passage at Phaedo 69a–c as a case study to explore the advantages we can gain by reading Plato in his cultural context. Socrates argues that the common conception of courage is strange: people fear death, but endure it because they are afraid of greater evils. They are thus brave through fear. He proposes that we should not exchange greater pleasures, pains, and fears for lesser, like coins, but that there is the only correct coin, for which we must exchange all these things: wisdom (phronēsis). Commentators have been puzzled by the precise nature of the exchange envisaged here, sometimes labelling the coinage metaphor as inept, sometimes describing this stretch of argument as “religious” and thus not to be taken seriously. The body of the paper looks at (1) the connection between money and somatic materialism, (2) the incommensurability in Plato of financial and ethical orders, (3) financial metaphors outside Plato that connect coinage with ethics, (4) intrinsic and use values in ancient coinage, and (5) Athenian laws on coinage, weights, and measures that reflect anxiety about debased coins in the fifth and early fourth centuries. It sees the Phaedo passage as the product of a sociopolitical climate which facilitated the consideration of coinage as an embodiment of a value system and which connected counterfeit or debased currency with debased ethical types. Athenians in the early fourth century were much concerned with issues of commensurability between different currencies and with problems of debasement and counterfeiting; understanding this makes Socrates’ use of coinage metaphors less puzzling. Both the metaphor of coinage and the other metaphors in this passage of the Phaedo (painting and initiation) engage with ideas of purity, genuineness, and deception. Taken as a group, these metaphors cover a large area of contemporary popular culture and are used to illustrate a disjunction between popular and philosophical ways of looking at value.


2010 ◽  
Vol 4 (supplement) ◽  
pp. 46-63
Author(s):  
Vidar Thorsteinsson

The paper explores the relation of Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri's work to that of Deleuze and Guattari. The main focus is on Hardt and Negri's concept of ‘the common’ as developed in their most recent book Commonwealth. It is argued that the common can complement what Nicholas Thoburn terms the ‘minor’ characteristics of Deleuze's political thinking while also surpassing certain limitations posed by Hardt and Negri's own previous emphasis on ‘autonomy-in-production’. With reference to Marx's notion of real subsumption and early workerism's social-factory thesis, the discussion circles around showing how a distinction between capital and the common can provide a basis for what Alberto Toscano calls ‘antagonistic separation’ from capital in a more effective way than can the classical capital–labour distinction. To this end, it is demonstrated how the common might benefit from being understood in light of Deleuze and Guattari's conceptual apparatus, with reference primarily to the ‘body without organs’ of Anti-Oedipus. It is argued that the common as body without organs, now understood as constituting its own ‘social production’ separate from the BwO of capital, can provide a new basis for antagonistic separation from capital. Of fundamental importance is how the common potentially invents a novel regime of qualitative valorisation, distinct from capital's limitation to quantity and scarcity.


Author(s):  
Anne Phillips

No one wants to be treated like an object, regarded as an item of property, or put up for sale. Yet many people frame personal autonomy in terms of self-ownership, representing themselves as property owners with the right to do as they wish with their bodies. Others do not use the language of property, but are similarly insistent on the rights of free individuals to decide for themselves whether to engage in commercial transactions for sex, reproduction, or organ sales. Drawing on analyses of rape, surrogacy, and markets in human organs, this book challenges notions of freedom based on ownership of our bodies and argues against the normalization of markets in bodily services and parts. The book explores the risks associated with metaphors of property and the reasons why the commodification of the body remains problematic. The book asks what is wrong with thinking of oneself as the owner of one's body? What is wrong with making our bodies available for rent or sale? What, if anything, is the difference between markets in sex, reproduction, or human body parts, and the other markets we commonly applaud? The book contends that body markets occupy the outer edges of a continuum that is, in some way, a feature of all labor markets. But it also emphasizes that we all have bodies, and considers the implications of this otherwise banal fact for equality. Bodies remind us of shared vulnerability, alerting us to the common experience of living as embodied beings in the same world. Examining the complex issue of body exceptionalism, the book demonstrates that treating the body as property makes human equality harder to comprehend.


2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 338-357
Author(s):  
Cornelius Berthold

AbstractKoran manuscripts that fit comfortably within the palm of one’s hand are known as early as the 10th century CE.For the sake of convenience, all dates will be given in the common era (CE) without further mention, and not in the Islamic or Hijra calendar. Their minute and sometimes barely legible script is clearly not intended for comfortable reading. Instead, recent scholarship suggests that the manuscripts were designed to be worn on the body like pendants or fastened to military flag poles. This is corroborated by some preserved cases for these books which feature lugs to attach a cord or chain, but also their rare occurrence in contemporary textual sources. While pendant Korans in rectangular codex form exist, the majority were produced as codices in the shape of an octagonal prism, and others as scrolls that could be rolled up into a cylindrical form. Both resemble the shapes of similarly dated and pre-Islamic amulets or amulet cases. Building on recent scholarship, I will argue in this article that miniature or pendant Koran manuscripts were produced in similar forms and sizes because of comparable modes of usage, but not necessarily by a deliberate imitation of their amuletic ‘predecessors’. The manuscripts’ main functions did not require them to be read or even opened; some of their cases were in fact riveted shut. Accordingly, the haptic feedback they gave to their owners when they carried or touched them was not one of regular books but one of solid objects (like amulets) or even jewellery, which then reinforced this practice.


Author(s):  
Shatishraj Jothee ◽  
Mohamed Swarhib Shafie ◽  
Faridah Mohd Nor

Abstract Background Previous reported cases on excited delirium syndrome studied on the common clinical manifestations of the syndrome. The usual forensics implication for the syndrome is that death commonly is associated with restraint procedures by law enforcement agencies; however, not many cases reported highlights the difficulties in attributing a violent scene of death to the syndrome. Case presentation We present a case of a partially naked body found in an apartment unit under suspicious circumstances with multiple injuries. The scene of death was violent, and the body was found with blood wiped all over the floor and walls. Investigators believed a violent crime had occurred, and a suspect was reprimanded. However, upon autopsy, it was found that all injuries were superficially inflicted and were unlikely to have been part of an act of commission or caused his death. Internal examination found no remarkable pathology. Toxicology revealed a presence of psychostimulants, that is, methamphetamine, MDMA, and ethyl alcohol. Reconstruction of events by the witness, who was initially suspected of the ‘murder’, revealed that the injuries and his death could likely be explained by an episode of excited delirium. Conclusion The case highlights the challenges faced when attributing excited delirium syndrome as a cause of death. The syndrome can present with injuries from aggressive or bizarre behaviour, coupled with the destruction of property, which may confuse investigators on the possible manner of death.


1963 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
RICHARD BAINBRIDGE

1. Observations made on bream, goldfish and dace swimming in the ‘Fish Wheel’ apparatus are described. These include: 2. An account of the complex changes in curvature of the caudal fin during different phases of the normal locomotory cycle. Measurements of this curvature and of the angles of attack associated with it are given. 3. An account of changes in area of the caudal fin during the cycle of lateral oscillation. Detailed measurements of these changes, which may involve a 30 % increase in height or a 20 % increase in area, are given. 4. An account of the varying speed of transverse movement of the caudal fin under various conditions and the relationship of this to the changes in area and amount of bending. Details of the way this transverse speed may be asymmetrically distributed relative to the axis of progression of the fish are given. 5. An account of the extent of the lateral propulsive movements in other parts of the body. These are markedly different in the different species studied. Measurements of the wave length of this movement and of the rate of progression of the wave down the body are given. 6. It is concluded that the fish has active control over the speed, the amount of bending and the area of the caudal fin during transverse movement. 7. The bending of the fin and its changes in area are considered to be directed to the end of smoothing out and making more uniform what would otherwise be an intermittent thrust from the oscillating tail region. 8. Some assessment is made of the proportion of the total thrust contributed by the caudal fin. This is found to vary considerably, according to the form of the lateral propulsive movements of the whole body, from a value of 45% for the bream to 84% for the dace.


2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 24
Author(s):  
Majed F. Mujalli ◽  
Maen Z. Zakarneh ◽  
Ala’a Kh. Abu Aloyoun

<p>The aim of the study was to investigate the common sports injuries among physical activities practitioners at the physical fitness centers in Jordan. Study sample consisted of (272) volunteered male (n=221) and female (n=51) (age 30±3). Researchers used a special form used to evaluate athletic injuries. After collecting and analyzing the data. Results showed that the most common sports injuries among sample of the study was muscular tears 27.7%, muscle spasm 20.7%, and tears ligament 20.2%. And the most exposed parts of the body to injury is the lumbar area 26.8%, elbows 16.9%, followed by shoulders 8.9%. Also the study results revealed that the most cusses of injuries was over training 24.14%. Poor warm-up 22.1% and bad technic 11.3%. Bodies-building was the most type of activities subjects to injury with 18.8%. Physical Fitness 6.6% and weight loss 27.7. Results also showed that physical therapy was the most means of treating injuries 54.14%, drugs therapy 33.3% and surgical intervention 4.2%. Also the study shows that males are more exposed to injuries than females.</p><p>Conclusions: These finding indicate that sports injures is part of physical</p><p>Activities participations, preventive measures should be taken by participant's the researchers recommended the need for physical and medical checkup before participation in physical activity at the physical fitness centers.</p>


Archaeologia ◽  
1785 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 211-213
Author(s):  
Pegge
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  

Besides the common mistake of the annalists and historians in regard to this passage in Juvenal,Regem aliquem capies, aut de temone BritannoExcidet Arviragus—Juvenal IV. 126.By taking Arviragus for the proper name of a person, and not of an officer; the words of the satyrist are memorable in another respect, as serving to inform us, by the word temone, of a singular mode of fighting amongst the Britons; as if by leaving his carriage, and running upon the pole, the combatant from thence, or from the yoke, engaged the enemy, as long as he thought prudent and convenient, and then retreated back into the body of the vehicle.


1. The common freshwater mollusc, Limnœa peregra , in normally dextral: a sinistral variety, in which the spiral twist of the body and shell is completely reversed, is very rare. 2. Sinistrality behaves as a mendelian recessive character, but the appearance of any change of twist imposed by crossing is delayed by one generation. Thus a sinistral fertilised by a dextral produces (F 1) sinistral young which (F 2) produce dextral broods: these dextrals produce (F 3) dextral and sisital broods in the proportion of 3 to 1. Similarly a dextral fertilised by a sinistral produces dextrals in F 1 and F 2 and a 3 to 1 mixture of dextral and sinistral broods in F 3.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-23
Author(s):  
Maricica Munteanu

The present article explores the collective imaginary of the cenacle, referring to the case of Viața românească literary group from Iași, focussing on the bodily community and its representations in the common space, understood as space-in-common. This approach shifts the interest from the ideological component that is the ‘poporanism’, as promoted by Viața românească revue, to the ethical and social aspects of the community. This does not mean that the bodily community is “more real” than the ideological community, or that it translates with fidelity the common practices of the cenacle; the bodily community is in fact another form of representation, a phantasm of the living-together, analysed through Roland Barthes’s theory as the space where solitude and sociability coexist. The corporal representations of the community, always engaged in an ethical debate, is further discussed through two manners of the living-together: the gesture and the rhythm. The theoretical reference of this analysis is Marielle Macéʼs book Styles. Critique de nos formes de vie, which proposes a formal approach of life, concentrating on the ethical implications. The issues derived from this sort of reading state the relation between the body and the environment, the vicinities and the somatic interactions between the members of the cenacle, the adjustment of distances, and the maintenance of solitude inside the community. The gestures, attitudes, behaviour, verbal and non-verbal tics, clothing, the manners of speech or the rhythm of doing certain things are seen not as marks of personal identity that positions itself inside the spaces of power, but as collective signs, as form of encounter and interaction, of exposure to the others but also responsiveness of the others, of expropriation as well as appropriation, of affirmation as well as alteration of the forms of life.


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