Quantum Mechanics in Terms of Consciousness Theory

Attempts to explain consciousness through quantum mechanics lead to quantum theories of consciousness that are hard to accept as successful. Their main flaw is that they a priori consider the reality studied by quantum mechanics to be the cause of consciousness. We will look at this reality from a different perspective and show that it exists only in the mind, and is a product, not a cause of consciousness. If so, then the wave function, the measuring object, and the measurement results are the content of an understanding that behaves in a certain way. This opens up possibilities for close interaction between quantum mechanics and the theory of consciousness in solving related problems.

What Sort of Kinetic Materialism Did Marx Find in Epicurus?

In his Theses on Feuerbach, Karl Marx suggests that the main flaw of all previous materialism has been to uncritically accept and champion a notion of matter that has its proper place in a dualistic framework, where matter is passive and the mind is active. If this is so, true materialism will conceive of matter as an active principle, and of material beings as perfectly capable of conscious sensation and agency.

Stablecoins, Central Bank Digital Currencies and US Dollar Hegemony

Stablecoins are second generation cryptocurrencies, aimed at maintaining their value stable with respect to official currencies. The most famous example is perhaps represented by libra, the cryptocurrency announced by Facebook in 2019 and yet to be issued; the most widespread is tether, with a market capitalization of almost 10 billion dollars and a daily transaction volume of almost 50 billion dollars, which makes it the most used cryptocurrency. The diffusion of stablecoins is hardly surprising. By minimizing volatility – the main flaw of first generation cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin –, stablecoins are expected to play an even more important role on a global scale within a few years. Our contribution deals not with the economic, but specifically with the geopolitical factors that could foster the use of stablecoins for strategic and military purposes. In particular, we focus on how such payment instruments, together with other alternative electronic payment systems, could be used as a means to circumvent economic sanctions and ultimately as a challenge to the hegemony of the US dollar in the international monetary system.

Experimental and Numerical Studies on Crack Initiation and Coalescence in Sandy Mudstone with Prefabricated Cross-Flaws Under Uniaxial Compression

The purpose of this paper is to study the crack initiation, propagation, and coalescence of the sandy mudstone sample with two sets of prefabricated cross-flaws under uniaxial compression. This study is different from previous studies on single or multiple parallel prefabricated flaws. The prefabricated cross-flaws are characterized by the dip of the rock bridge with the direction of the main flaw ( β ) and the angle between the direction of main and minor flaws ( γ ). The effects of these two parameters on crack initiation, propagation, coalescence, crack initiation stress, and coalescence stress are analyzed. Moreover, numerical simulation of the uniaxial compression experiments is performed using PFC2D with a flat-joint model, and the simulation results are in good agreement with those from the experiments. The results demonstrate that the dip angle of the rock bridge with the direction of the main flaw ( β ) has strong effects on the crack initiation and coalescence stresses. The larger the angle between the direction of main and minor flaws γ , the greater the crack initiation and coalescence stresses. The crack initiation stress is reduced for the case with cross-flaws compared with that with non-cross-flaws. Meanwhile, the connection type of main flaws and the width of the crack coalescence zone are difficult to observe through the experiments and are discovered from the numerical simulation.

The people and the voters

Cristina Lafont’s Democracy Without Shortcuts enriches the discussion of deliberative democracy with new insights. After discussing her three objections against Waldron’s denunciation of judicial review as antidemocratic, the main flaw of Waldron’s thesis is argued to remain out of focus. The constitution is understood by him as owned by the living citizens, in a pattern of serial sovereignty that raises three problems: (a) the ‘wanton republic’; (b) the under-individuation of the polity; (c) generational inequality. The answer to Lafont’s question ‘Can We Own the Constitution?’ (Section Three) is then argued to be that only ‘we the people’, including past, present and future ‘free and equal’ generations, own the constitution. The living citizens are the segment of ‘the people’ endowed with agency, have a voice, can modify the inherited political scheme, but cannot legitimately disfigure it, under penalty of destroying the regulatory function of the constitution.

Crack Initiation Behaviors of Granite Specimens Containing Crossing-Double-Flaws with Different Lengths under Uniaxial Loading

Crack initiation is an important stage in the failure process of rock masses. In this paper, crack initiation behaviors (crack initiation model, crack initiation location, crack initiation angle, and crack initiation stress) of granite specimens containing crossing-double-flaws with different lengths were investigated using PFC2D software. Crack initiation models were all tensile wing cracks, which did not exactly initiate from the main flaw with a length of 30 mm. They can initiate from the secondary flaw with a length 20 mm at α of 30° (included angle between main flaw and horizontal direction) and β of 90° (included angle between main and secondary flaws) and from main and secondary flaws at α of 30° and β of 60°. These were mainly induced by the superposition of stress fields around the main and secondary flaws as β varied from 0° to 90°, especially the tensile force concentration zones superposition. The tensile forces concentration zone around flaw shrank towards flaw tips with the increase of flaw’s inclinations measured horizontally. Under stress field superposition effects, the crack initiation stress decreased firstly and then increased with β at α of 30° and 45°. Crack initiation locations were close to flaw tips but not restricted to them. The distances between crack initiation locations and flaw tips, and the crack initiation angles depended on the flaw where first macrocracks initiated from. Microdisplacement field distributions of granite specimens to reveal the mesomechanism of crack initiation behaviors were discussed.

The System of Views on the Orthodox Church of the Participants in “Religious-Philosophical Meetings” (1901–1903)

The purpose of the article is to identify and analyze ecclesiology, the doctrine of the Church, offered by the participants of Religious and philosophical meetings (1901–1903) from the “party” of the intelligentsia (Ternavtsev, Merezhkovsky, Rozanov, Philosofov, Minsky, Romanov), as well as to show its secular and political nature. This ecclesiology contained the following provisions: change in Christian dogma was declared possible; the Church was differentiated as “historical” and “mystical”; the main flaw of the “historical” Church being that it preached only the heavenly and ignored the worldly ideals; the worldly principles were declared autonomous and equal to the divine principles; the intelligentsia proposed the way of Christianizing the world and returning the Church to its “fullness”, in which not the world approached the Church, but the Church approached the world and became a worldly, secular institution; the secularization of the Church in this context meant the introduction of Protestant and pagan elements into the Christian doctrine.

Crisis of German Policy of Multiculturalism: Indicators, Socio-Political Consequences, Ways of Settlement and Development Prospects

The article analyzes the main problems faced by German society in the process of increasing the number of migrants: below-average employment; dependence on social benefits; above-average fertility; increase in crime rates, etc. The authors state that the overwhelming majority of migrants, contrary to the expectations of German authorities, do not share the Western European system of values: democratic foundations of society, law-abiding, cultural and religious diversity, etc. On the contrary, cultural and spatial isolation increased the phenomenon of parallel societies living by their own laws and traditions. The article identifies the reasons for the failure of idea and policy of peaceful existence in the format of integration without assimilation. The main flaw in the German migration policy is its fragmented and inconsistent nature. Following a number of researchers, the authors characterize this approach as imitational multiculturalism. The article also proposes a series of measures that can mitigate the effects of multiculturalism policies

"Ewondo in the Classes, French for the Masses"

Cameroon is home to over two hundred eighty native languages coming from three language families, making it one of the most linguistically diverse countries on Earth. Despite this, native languages hold very few domains in Cameroonian society. In recent years, several experimental programs have begun to implement native languages in schools, citing that children learn best in their mother tongue. Among these schools is ELAN-Afrique, an initiative put forth by La Francophonie with the main aim of helping students better learn French by way of their mother tongue. This paper seeks to differentiate the benefits prescribed or expected by ELAN leadership from the actual benefits occurring at one Ewondo-medium ELAN school in Yaoundé. The study includes a series of twenty interviews with program leadership, linguists, and NGOs, as well as teachers and parents of students enrolled in the program. Claims made in interviews were then validated or refuted by classroom observation. The program’s main flaw is the assumption that the students’ mother tongue is Ewondo when in reality, due to their urban upbringing, the students’ mother tongue is French. This causes the reality of the program to differ fundamentally from the expectations of La Francophonie as some predicted benefits are negated, some manifest differently than expected, and other benefits appear never having been predicted.

Integrationist reflections on the place of dialogue in our communicational universe

Roy Harris identifies the “main flaw” in J. L. Austin’s account of language as a “failure to consider to what extent being able to ‘do things with words’ is parasitic on being able to do things without them”. Harris’s comment here serves as a springboard for a critical evaluation of communicational theories based around “talk-in-interaction” or dialogic principles. The primacy thereby given to linguistic interaction arguably entails a mystification of communication processes and the dis-integration of the social world into which our communicational experiences are intervowen. Consequently, the ghost of segregationism, in the shape of Harris’s “fallacy of verbalism”, continues to haunt, at times faintly, at times aggressively, the assumptions and methodologies of the approaches in question.