This article discusses the history of the concepts of potential infinity and actual infinity in the context of Christian theology, mathematical thinking and metaphysical reasoning. It shows that the structure of Ancient Greek rationality could not go beyond the concept of potential infinity, which is highlighted in Aristotle's metaphysics. The limitations of the metaphysical mind of ancient Greece were overcome through Christian theology and its concept of the infinite God, as formulated in Gregory of Nyssa's theology. That is how the (...) concept of actual infinity emerged. However, Gregory of Nyssa's understanding of human rationality went still further. He said that access to the infinity of God was to be found only in an asymptotic ascension, as expressed in apophatic theology, and this view endangered the rationality of theology. Deeply influenced by the apophatic tradition, Nicholas of Cusa avoided this danger by showing that infinity could be accessed by symbolic representation and asymptotic mathematical reasoning. Thus, he made an immense contribution in making infinity rationally accessible. This endeavor was finally realized by Georg Cantor. This rational accessibility revealed discernible structures of infinity, such as the continuum hypothesis, and the cardinal numbers. However, the probable logical inconsistency of Georg Cantor's all-encompassing Absolute Infinity points to an intuitive understanding of infinity that goes beyond its rational structures – as in apophatic theology. (shrink)

This paper addresses three issues. In the first part the relation between consciousness and time is being discussed as it developed in the history of philosophy and theology. This covers Plato, Plotinus and St. Augustine. It continues in the second part to describe that time is being perceived in the mystical consciousness as eternity which means in this context timelessness. Examples from world religions are offered. The question is asked if this eternity in mystical experience can be understood as relating (...) to the eternity of God or as a mere self-experience. In order to settle this question mystical experiences are being interpreted from the angle of modern neuroscience as the result of self-organizing processes of meditation that can be described as attractors. In the final third part it is suggested to discern the eternity of mystical states of mind as timelessness from eternity as an attribute of the triune God. (shrink)

Theories of the nature of time offered by anthropology, science, and religion are not only numerous but also very different. This groundbreaking book cuts through the confusion by introducing a provocative new tripolar model of time that integrates the human, natural, and religious dimensions of time into a single, harmonious whole. Wolfgang Achtner, Stefan Kunz, and Thomas Walter begin by exploring the structures of time in anthropological terms. They discuss time phenomenologically, showing how it can be experienced in (...) three distinct ways -- the mythic-cyclic, the rational-linear, and the mystic-holistic -- and they root these experiences in the findings of modern neuroscience and trace these three forms of the perception of time within various cultures of antiquity. The second part of the book looks at time as it has been described by some of sciences most profound theories, including classical mechanics, the special and general theories of relativity, quantum mechanics, thermodynamics, and chaos theory. The authors then bring religion into the equation by surveying how time is conceived in both the Hebrew Bible and the Christian New Testament. They distinguish time concepts in wisdom and apocalyptic literature from time concepts in prophetic literature, and they demonstrate the basic eschatological orientation of the Christian view of time. "Dimensions of Time culminates by tying together the various strands of the authors' multidisciplinary, tripolar model of time. Offering a fascinating application of their unique theory, Achtner, Kunz, and Walter show how the unhealthy acceleration of life in contemporary society needs to be balanced by a rediscovery ofthe mystical experience of time, leading to a greater, deeper sense of human fulfillment. (shrink)

Hermann Grassmann is known to be the founder of modern vector and tensor calculus. Having as a theologian no formal education in mathematics at a university he got his basic ideas for this mathematical innovation at least to some extent from listening to Schleiermacher’s lectures on Dialectics and, together with his brother Robert, reading its publication in 1839. The paper shows how the idea of unity and various levels of reality first formulated in Schleiermacher’s talks about religion in 1799 were (...) transformed by him into a philosophical system in his dialectics and then were picked up by Grassmann and operationalized in his philosophical-mathematical treatise on the extension theory in 1844. (shrink)

ZusammenfassungDie Mystik gilt im interreligiösen Dialog als diejenige Dimension von Religion, die gemäß dem Essentialismus den gemeinsamen Kern der Religionen darstellt. In Unterschied dazu vertritt der Kontextualismus die These, dass Mystik nur in spezifischen religiösen Kontexten entsteht und so seine unverwechselbare Eigenheit erhält. Saeed Zarrabi-Zadeh vergleicht in seiner Arbeit Meister Eckhart und Rumi methodisch so miteinander, dass er die jeweiligen Stärken des Essentialismus und des Kontextualismus nutzt und ihre Schwächen vermeidet. Auf der Grundlage dieses methodischen Neuansatzes und eines weitgefassten Mystikbegriffs, (...) der Ethik, Praxis, Spekulation und Dogmatik umfasst, kommt er zu neuen Differenzierungen im religionsphänomenologischen Vergleich und legt zugleich erhebliche Differenzen im theologischen Deutehorizont der jeweiligen Mystiker offen. Darüberhinaus arbeitet er mit seiner Interpretation der. (shrink)

ZUSAMMENFASSUNGEs werden aus der Theologiegeschichte vier Typen von Willensfreiheit erhoben: der Typus liberum arbitrium , der Typus des nominalistischen Willensbegriffs , der Typus des mystischen Willensbegriffs und der Typus der Rechtfertigungslehre. Die ersten drei Typen werden psychologisch interpretiert im Sinne der Ichentwicklung als präautonom, autonom und transautonom. Nach der Darstellung und Diskussion der gegenwärtigen neurowissenschaftlichen Debatte um die Willensfreiheit wird ein systemisch verstandener Personbegriff als Brückenkonzept vorgeschlagen.SUMMARYFour types of free will are identified from the history of theology: The type of (...) the liberum arbitrium, the type of nominalism, the type of mysticism and the type of justification. For the first three types a psychological interpretation in terms of pre-autonomy, autonomy, and trans-autonomy is offered, based on self-transcendence as a religious feature. Two basically opposing interpretations of the same empirical data favoring free will and favoring a non-free will are discussed and compared with the theological tradition. A new notion of the person, based on the system theory, is suggested as a bridging concept to link the theological and neuro-scientific ideas of free will. (shrink)

'The infinite! No other question has ever moved so profoundly the spirit of man; no other idea has so fruitfully stimulated his intellect; yet no other concept stands in greater need of clarification than that of the infinite.' David Hilbert (1862-1943). This interdisciplinary study of infinity explores the concept through the prism of mathematics and then offers more expansive investigations in areas beyond mathematical boundaries to reflect the broader, deeper implications of infinity for human intellectual thought. More than a dozen (...) world-renowned researchers in the fields of mathematics, physics, cosmology, philosophy, and theology offer a rich intellectual exchange among various current viewpoints, rather than a static picture of accepted views on infinity. The book starts with a historical examination of the transformation of infinity from a philosophical and theological study to one dominated by mathematics. It then offers technical discussions on the understanding of mathematical infinity. Following this, the book considers the perspectives of physics and cosmology: Can infinity be found in the real universe? Finally, the book returns to questions of philosophical and theological aspects of infinity"--Provided by publisher. (shrink)

This paper is about time preferences, the phenomenon that the very same things are usually considered the less valuable the farther in the future they are obtained. The utilities of those things are discounted at a certain rate. The paper presents a novel normative argument for exponential discount rates, whatever their empirical adequacy. It proposes to take indexical utility seriously, i.e. utilities referring to indexical propositions (that speak of ‘I’, ‘now’, etc.) as opposed to non-indexical propositions. Economic focus is only (...) on the latter, while the former are neglected. The potential ignorance of when is now generates a difference between indexical and non-indexical utility that can be exploited for a novel argument in favour of exponential discount rates. (shrink)

Der Unterricht in Medizinethik soll Medizinstudierenden die Grundlagen dafür vermitteln, in ihrer zukünftigen ärztlichen Tätigkeit gute Entscheidungen treffen zu können. Im Rahmen einer Panelstudie wird derzeit die Entwicklung moralischer Positionen, medizinethischer Kenntnisse und Motivationen von Medizinstudierenden der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München über den Verlauf des Studiums untersucht. Für die Datenerhebung wurde ein Fragebogen entwickelt, der medizinethische Positionen und Kenntnisse sowie Motivationen erfasst. Im Wintersemester 2009/10 wurde die erste Querschnittsuntersuchung mit Studierenden im 1., 3. und 8. Semester sowie im Praktischen Jahr durchgeführt. Die (...) Mehrzahl der Befragten verfügte über einen geringen Kenntnisstand in verschiedenen Themenbereichen des Unterrichtsfachs GTE. Rechtliche Grundlagen und praktische Umsetzung von Therapiebegrenzungsmaßnahmen waren bis ins PJ-Semester vielen Studierenden nicht bekannt. Im Verlauf des Studiums veränderten sich die Motivationen weg von der Motivation, Menschen helfen zu wollen, hin zu Wissenserwerb und dem Ergreifen eines sicheren Berufs. Obwohl viele Befragte ein hohes Interesse an medizinethischen Fragestellungen und Unterricht im Bereich GTE angaben, zeigte sich kein nachhaltiger Zuwachs an medizinethischen Kenntnissen im Laufe des Studiums. In der Zusammenschau werfen die Ergebnisse die Frage auf, inwieweit verschiedene Ausbildungskonzepte Einfluss auf die individuelle ethische Entwicklung Medizinstudierender nehmen können. Eine Untersuchung dieser Fragestellung bleibt Gegenstand weitergehender Forschung. (shrink)

And this paper is an attempt to say precisely how, thus addressing a philosophical problem which is commonly taken to be a serious one. It does so, however, in quite an idiosyncratic way. It is based on the account of inductive schemes I have given in (1988) and (1990a) and on the conception of causation I have presented in (1980), (1983), and (1990b), and it intends to fill one of many gaps which have been left by these papers. Still, I (...) have tried to make this paper self-contained. Section 1 explains the philosophical question this paper is about; in more general terms it asks what might be meant by objectifying epistemic states or features of them and to which extent epistemic states can be objectified. The next sections introduce the basis I rely on with formal precision and some explanation; section 2 deals with induction and section 3 with causation. Within these confines, section 4 attempts to give an explication of the relevant sense of objectification and section 5 investigates the extent to which various features of epistemic states are objectifiable. The two most salient results are roughly that the relation "A is a reason for B" cannot be objectified at all and that the relation "A is a cause of B" can be objectified only under substantial, though reasonable restrictions. What has all of this to do with probability? A lot. The paper trades on a pervasive duality between probabilistic and deterministic epistemology, between a probabilistic representation of epistemic states together with a theory of probabilistic causation and another representation of epistemic states which I call deterministic because it lends itself, in a perfectly parallel fashion, to a theory of deterministic causation. Here I explicitly deal only with the deterministic side, but the duality should pave the way for further conclusions concerning objective probabilities and statistical laws. This outlook is briefly expanded in the final section 6. (shrink)

Concentrating upon applications that are most relevant to modern physics, this valuable book surveys variational principles and examines their relationship to dynamics and quantum theory. Stressing the history and theory of these mathematical concepts rather than the mechanics, the authors provide many insights into the development of quantum mechanics and present much hard-to-find material in a remarkably lucid, compact form. After summarizing the historical background from Pythagoras to Francis Bacon, Professors Yourgrau and Mandelstram cover Fermat's principle of least time, the (...) principle of least action of Maupertuis, development of this principle by Euler and Lagrange, and the equations of Lagrange and Hamilton. Equipped by this thorough preparation to treat variational principles in general, they proceed to derive Hamilton's principle, the Hamilton-Jacobi equation, and Hamilton's canonical equations. An investigation of electrodynamics in Hamiltonian form covers next, followed by a resume of variational principles in classical dynamics. The authors then launch into an analysis of their most significant topics: the relation between variational principles and wave mechanics, and the principles of Feynman and Schwinger in quantum mechanics. Two concluding chapters extend the discussion to hydrodynamics and natural philosophy. Professional physicists, mathematicians, and advanced students with a strong mathematical background will find this stimulating volume invaluable reading. Extremely popular in its hardcover edition, this volume will find even wider appreciation in its first fine inexpensive paperbound edition. (shrink)

Wolfgang Rudzio ist als Politikwissenschaftler bekannt, der eines der wichtigsten und erfolgreichsten Lehrbücher zur Politik in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland geschrieben hat. In seinen Erinnerungen gibt er uns einen spannenden Einblick in sein wissenschaftliches, politisches und privates Leben, seine Kindheit in Ostpreußen und seine Familie. Es waren Flucht, Nachkriegszeit, Studentenbewegung, eigenes linkes Polit-Engagement und die Herausforderung des Kommunismus, die das Leben des Autors prägten. Zeitweilig für bekannte Politiker wie Carlo Schmid und Hans Matthöfer arbeitend, entschied er sich nach Mathematik-Examen und (...) Promotion in Geschichte nicht für Politik, sondern Politikwissenschaft. Manche seiner Forschungen knüpften an Lebenserfahrungen an. (shrink)

Seit seiner Jugend kritisierte Wolfgang Harich die Philosophie Nietzsches. In den funfziger Jahren verfestigte sich dann ein dezidiert marxistisches Nietzsche-Bild, das er Zeit seines Lebens verteidigte. Nietzsche war fur ihn der Wegbereiter, ja, Begrunder der faschistischen Ideologie. Indem Harich am sozialistischen und humanistischen Erbe des originaren Marxismus festhielt, loste er in den achtziger Jahren die Nietzsche-Debatte der DDR aus, die ihn im kulturellen und wissenschaftlichen Leben der DDR endgultig isolierte. Band 12 der Reihe prasentiert Harichs letztes grosses Werk, den (...) Dialog "Nietzsche und seine Bruder", sowie zahlreiche Dokumente, darunter auch Briefe an Erich Honecker, Willy Stoph, Kurt Hager oder Stephan Hermlin. (shrink)

Seit Ende der 40er Jahre setzte sich Wolfgang Harich intensiv mit naturwissenschaftlichen und anthropologischen Fragestellungen auseinander. Dabei ging er der Frage nach, ob der Marxismus eine eigenständige Lehre vom Menschen benötige. Um 1950 entstand dann der Kontakt zu Arnold Gehlen, die Brieffreundschaft der beiden hielt bis zum Tod Gehlens. Über alle weltanschaulichen Diskrepanzen hinweg korrespondierten sie über wissenschaftliche Fragen und in zunehmendem Maße auch über Privates. Der Band enthält nach drei einleitenden Aufsätzen und Manuskripten Harichs dessen erhaltene Briefe an (...) Arnold Gehlen. Außerdem werden seine weiteren Studien zur Anthropologie präsentiert. Abschließend wird dann sein Eintreten für Paul Alsberg vorgestellt. (shrink)

Alles dreht sich um Werte. Sie werden von Politikern herbeizitiert, gerne bekennt man sich zu ihnen? in der Konsumwelt, in der politischen Aktionskunst, beim Wohnen, beim Essen und im Fitnesskult. Wolfgang Ullrich nimmt die Karriere der Werte in verschiedenen Bereichen unter die Lupe. Seine These: Sich zu Werten zu bekennen ist so beliebt, weil es dem Selbstbewusstsein schmeichelt. Man darf sich dann moralisch gut und sogar kreativ fühlen. Ullrich untersucht, wie Werte im Einzelnen in Szene gesetzt werden. Aber er (...) fragt auch, wie sich gesellschaftspolitische Debatten unter diesen Vorzeichen entwickeln. (shrink)

The Illusion of Control makes the case that people waste an inordinate amount of energy trying to control events and people that they have little or no control over.

This thought-provoking volume of essays, wide-ranging in scope and interdisciplinary in its approach, engages with questions surrounding the many meanings ascribed to death and the memorialisation of the dead. In its eight essays, it traverses whole thought-continents: from those who muse that "death has happened since the beginning of time; it is not to upset you today" to the stark presentation of a reality which erodes the human face and thus a person's individuality. What clearly emerges are the many respects (...) in which death itself has been and, indeed, remains, contested ground (both literally and metaphorically). This collection is an important contribution to the ever-expanding field of studies on Death and Dying." - Salvador Ryan - ed., Death and the Irish: a Miscellany (Dublin: Wordwell Books, 2016). (shrink)

The book has a twofold content and aim: on the one hand, it offers a radical critique of the modern world, and on the other, it seeks to expound timeless wisdom. And the second end presupposes the first: for so long as we have not "broken through the barrier of scientistic belief" as the subtitle has it, that timeless wisdom-that veritable sophia perennis-remains inaccessible.

Research Integrity (RI) is high on the agenda of both institutions and science policy. The European Union as well as national ministries of science have launched ambitious initiatives to combat misconduct and breaches of research integrity. Often, such initiatives entail attempts to regulate scientific behavior through guidelines that institutions and academic communities can use to more easily identify and deal with cases of misconduct. Rather than framing misconduct as a result of an information deficit, we instead conceptualize Questionable Research Practices (...) (QRPs) as attempts by researchers to reconcile epistemic and social forms of uncertainty in knowledge production. Drawing on previous literature, we define epistemic uncertainty as the inherent intellectual unpredictability of scientific inquiry, while social uncertainty arises from the human-made conditions for scientific work. Our core argument—developed on the basis of 30 focus group interviews with researchers across different fields and European countries—is that breaches of research integrity can be understood as attempts to loosen overly tight coupling between the two forms of uncertainty. Our analytical approach is not meant to relativize or excuse misconduct, but rather to offer a more fine-grained perspective on what exactly it is that researchers want to accomplish by engaging in it. Based on the analysis, we conclude by proposing some concrete ways in which institutions and academic communities could try to reconcile epistemic and social uncertainties on a more collective level, thereby reducing incentives for researchers to engage in misconduct. (shrink)

Wolfgang Greive würdigt in seinem Buch das Werk Wolfhart Pannenbergs (1928–2014) als einzigartige Denkleistung, die den christlichen Glauben in seinem Wahrheitsanspruch neu zur Geltung bringt. Dabei versteht er Pannenbergs Denken als Widerspruch zu postmodernen Auffassungen, in denen die Frage nach „Wahrheit“ als unproduktiv abgekanzelt. Die Wahrheitsfrage ist dann fruchtbar, wenn sie in ihrer radikalen Geschichtlichkeit bestimmt wird. Indem Pannenberg die grundlegenden Probleme von Philosophie und Theologie zueinander in Beziehung setzt, gibt er Antworten auf die großen Fragen der Menschheit: Woher (...) kommen wir? Wohin gehen wir? Wer sind wir? Worauf vertrauen wir? (shrink)

Rooted in the metaphysics of bygone times, the notion of soul in our Western tradition is packed with associations and meanings that are incompatible with the anthropological and naturalistic thinking that prevails in modernity. Whereas treatises of old conceived of the soul as an infinite, immaterial substance which was the ground of man's hope for eternal salvation, modern psychology has for the most part discarded the concept in favor of more tangible touchstones such as the emotions, desires, and attachments which (...) characterize man as a finite, bodily-existing positive fact. An exception to this trend has been the analytical psychology of C. G. Jung. Against the positivistic spirit of his times, Jung insisted upon a "'psychology with soul,' that is, a psychology based upon the hypothesis of an autonomous mind." In this volume, Wolfgang Giegerich once again takes up the Jungian commitment to a psychology with soul. Agreeing with Jung that the soul concept is indispensable for a truly psychological psychology, he supplements and re-orients the Jungian approach to both this concept and the phenomenology of the soul by means of a whole series of nuanced discussions that are as rigorous as they are thoroughgoing. The result is nothing short of a tour de force. Tarrying with the negative, Giegerich's particular contribution resides in his showing the movement against the soul to be the soul's own doing. In animus moments of itself, consciousness in the form of philosophy and Enlightenment reason turned upon itself as religion and metaphysics. Far from abolishing the soul, however, these incisive negations were themselves negated. As if dancing upon its own demise, the soul came home to itself, not as an invisible metaphysical substance, but more invisibly still as the logically negative evaporation of that substance into the form of subject, or even better said, into psychology. (shrink)

The analysis of knowledge and belief has provoked intensive discussions in philosophy and linguistics. One of the issues in this area is the semantics of attitude verbs whose complement expresses a thought about the Self of the thinking person. What is the content of my belief when I think that I am tired? Some philosophers propose it is a proposition, others think it is a property. It will be shown in this essay that existing proposals in either direction are unsatisfying. (...) The property theorist expells the subject of the predicate "tired" from the analysis; their theory is at best incomplete. The propositionalist has difficulties with the analysis of the pronoun that refers back to the subject of the attitude, as is the case with "he" in "Wolfgang believes he is tired". The present new proposal ventures the idea that a conscious person is endowed with their own Logical Space that deviates from the standard model in providing for a separate entity, the Self, as the object or target of inner thoughts about oneself. Moreover, this Logical Space leaves room for linguistic error: in such a model, subjects may be unable to correctly identify the reference of a name or may fail to identify the Self with its bearer. By contrast, reference to the Self is immune to error through misidentification, it is a paradigm case of brute indexicality. In consequence, de se pronouns are rigid designators in the sense of Kripke. The book solves several puzzles of reference failure and explores numerous consequences for the semantics of attitude reports and for possible world semantics in general. (shrink)

Wolfgang Harich (1923-1995) zahlt zu den wichtigen und streitbaren Intellektuellen des 20. Jahrhunderts. Befreundet mit Georg Lukacs, Bertolt Brecht und Ernst Bloch wirkte er als Philosoph, Historiker, Literaturwissenschaftler und durch sein praktisches politisches Engagement. Letzteres brachte ihm ab 1956 eine achtjahrige Haftstrafe in der DDR ein. Die nachgelassenen Schriften Harichs erscheinen nun erstmals in einer achtbandigen Edition, die das unbequeme Werk des undogmatischen Querdenkers in seiner ganzen Breite widerspiegelt: von seinen Beitragen zur Hegel-Debatte in der DDR uber seine Abrechnung (...) mit der 68er-Bewegung im Westen bis zu seinen Uberlegungen zu einer marxistischen Okologie. Zum vorliegenden Band: Kaum ein Klassiker der Philosophie war in der DDR derart umstritten wie Hegel - von Stalin wurde er als preussischer reaktionarer Staatsphilosoph denunziert, von Georg Lukacs als Anhanger der Franzosischen Revolution positiviert. Wolfgang Harich hat sich immer wieder mit dem Haupttheoretiker des deutschen Idealismus auseinandergesetzt und wurde dafur deutlich von der SED kritisiert. Seine Hegel-Vorlesung von 1951, die in diesem Band zum Abdruck kommt, markiert einen wichtigen Wendepunkt der Diskussionen um Hegel und trug ihm eine Parteiruge und ein Magengeschwur ein. 1956 sollte dann sein Aufsatz zu Hegels 125. Geburtstag in der von ihm geleiteten "Deutschen Zeitschrift fur Philosophie" erscheinen. Die SED liess das bereits fertig gestellte Heft jedoch konfiszieren und vernichtete die Auflage. Die Beitrage von Harich und Ernst Bloch wurden durch Reden von Walter Ulbricht und Kurt Hager ersetzt. Der 5. Band der "Schriften aus dem Nachlass Wolfgang Harichs" enthalt zudem weitere fruhe Texte Harichs zu Hegel, darunter das Gutachten, welches er als Lektor des Aufbau-Verlages anfertigte, um den Druck von Lukacs' "Der junge Hegel" zu ermoglichen. Auch verschiedene Manuskripte aus den spaten sechziger Jahren werden erstmals vorgestellt. Daruber hinaus prasentiert die Edition Aufsatze Harichs zu Heine, Feuerbach und Marx, da sie mit den Hegel-Studien in engem Zusammenhang stehen. Eingeleitet wird der Band durch einen ausfuhrlichen Essay des Herausgebers uber die Hegel-Debatte in der DDR. (shrink)

Hauptbeschreibung Wolfgang Pleger bietet in diesem Handbuch eine kompakte, historisch-systematische Darstellung der wichtigsten anthropologischen Konzepte der europäischen Geschichte und thematisiert die problematische Situation des Menschen in der Welt. Wie etwa in der antiken und biblischen Mythologie, wo der Mensch als sterbliches Geschöpf Gottes gilt oder der materialistischen Anthropologie, die von dem Menschen als determinierte Materie ausgeht. Von der Antike bis in die Moderne, von Homer bis Sartre, wird jedes Konzept durch drei historisch bedeutsame Positionen wichtiger Denk.

Nobel Laureate's brilliant early treatise on Einstein's theory consists of his original 1921 text plus retrospective comments 35 years later.

Excerpt from Das Ethische System des Helvetius Beobachtung gegründeten Principien irgend einer Kunst oder Wissenschaft. Gehe der Philosoph nicht bei der Erfahrung in. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, (...) such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works. (shrink)