The Vague Concept of ‘Primitive’: The Change in Perceptions from Barbarism to Wisdom

This study focuses on the usage and effect of the ‘primitive’ concept in social sciences. This concept, which is used to express both people who lived in the deep past and people who did not come into contact with modernity, has a rather ambiguous world of meaning. It is possible to say that non-Western societies are coded as ‘primitive’ in this approach, which is basically based on the Western and other dichotomy. The Western mind, which sees itself at the top of the line of progress, people who did not come into contact with modernity as irrational, unaware of his surroundings, and lacking many values and institutions. It can be said that the ‘theory of primitive society’ plays a dominant role in the background of transferring democracy and prosperity to ‘developing societies’. This article also discusses the transformation of the ancient human, coded as barbarian and savage, under the influence of the progressive approach, into a creature with knowledge and wisdom, with the effect of romance over time. The concept of ‘primitive’, which continues to find a place for itself in the literature despite some criticisms, has a influence of domain beyond what is thought. The criticism of the ‘primitive’ contributes to the correct understanding of both the ancient human and the traditionally expressed contemporary societies.

Discrete systems in thermal physics and engineering: a glance from non-equilibrium thermodynamics

Non-equilibrium processes in Schottky systems generate by projection onto the equilibrium subspace reversible accompanying processes for which the non-equilibrium variables are functions of the equilibrium ones. The embedding theorem which guarantees the compatibility of the accompanying processes with the non-equilibrium entropy is proved. The non-equilibrium entropy is defined as a state function on the non-equilibrium state space containing the contact temperature as a non-equilibrium variable. If the entropy production does not depend on the internal energy, the contact temperature changes into the thermostatic temperature also in non-equilibrium, a fact which allows to use temperature as a primitive concept in non-equilibrium. The dissipation inequality is revisited, and an efficiency of generalized cyclic processes beyond the Carnot process is achieved.

Ontology

One example of the impressive breadth, depth, and deep interconnectedness of Fine’s work concerns his views about what sorts of entities we should commit ourselves to, as philosophers. In “The Question of Ontology” he challenges existing accounts of the philosophical task of ontology, rejecting a Quinean concern with what there is in favor of a focus on what entities are real. Fine thinks such a notion of reality is primitive, although linked to the notion of being ungrounded. The present chapter constitutes a critique of Fine’s interconnected set of ideas about the task of ontology, and defends the ability of quantificational constructions to capture ontological commitments, while questioning the usefulness to ontology of a primitive concept of reality.

The semiconducting principle of monetary and environmental values exchange

This short article represents the first attempt to define a new core cultural value that will enable the new strategy for engaging the business sector in humankind's mission to heal nature. The presentation is just a primitive concept, which will be calibrated further in the coming months.

Hegel on the Productivity of Action: Metaphysical Questions, Non-Metaphysical Answers, and Metaphysical Answers

Charles Taylor claims that not only Kant, but also successors of Kant such as Fichte and Hegel, advocate a primitive concept of action, namely, a basic, irreducible, indispensable concept allegedly essential to our self-understanding. This paper shows how philosophers like Robert Brandom agree with Taylor explicitly with regard to Hegel, and attribute to him transcendental non-metaphysical arguments in support of such a concept. It then proceeds to challenge this attribution (both of the concept and the type of argument), offering a brief presentation of an alternative non-transcendental metaphysical approach to the Hegelian idea of giving actuality to a concept (or end) through a productive activity.

On Multi-Fuzzy Rough Sets, Relations, and Topology

This article describes how rough set theory has an innate topological structure characterized by the partitions. The approximation operators in rough set theory can be viewed as the topological operators namely interior and closure operators. Thus, topology plays a role in the theory of rough sets. This article makes an effort towards considering closed sets a primitive concept in defining multi-fuzzy topological spaces. It discusses the characterization of multi-fuzzy topology using closed multi-fuzzy sets. A set of axioms is proposed that characterizes the closure and interior of multi-fuzzy sets. It is proved that the set of all lower approximation of multi-fuzzy sets under a reflexive and transitive multi-fuzzy relation forms a multi-fuzzy topology.

Second Law and Non-Equilibrium Entropy of Schottky Systems—Doubts and Verification–

Meixner’s historical remark in 1969 “... it can be shown that the concept of entropy in the absence of equilibrium is in fact not only questionable but that it cannot even be defined....” is investigated from today’s insight. Several statements—such as the three laws of phenomenological thermodynamics, the embedding theorem and the adiabatical uniqueness—are used to get rid of non-equilibrium entropy as a primitive concept. In this framework, Clausius inequality of open systems can be derived by use of the defining inequalities which establish the non-equilibrium quantities contact temperature and non-equilibrium molar entropy which allow to describe the interaction between the Schottky system and its controlling equilibrium environment.

Second Law and Non-Equilibrium Entropy of Schottky Systems --Doubts and Verification--

Meixner's historical remark in 1969 "... it can be shown that the concept of entropy in the absence of equilibrium is in fact not only questionable but that it cannot even be defined...." is investigated from today's insight. Several statements --such as the three laws of phenomenological thermodynamics, the embedding theorem and the adiabatical uniqueness-- are used to get rid of non-equilibrium entropy as a primitive concept. In this framework, Clausius inequality of open systems can be derived by use of the defining inequalities which establish the non-equilibrium quantities contact temperature and non-equilibrium molar entropy which allow to describe the interaction between the Schottky system and its controlling equilibrium environment.