We investigate a theory in which fundamental objects are branes described in terms of higher grade coordinates $X^{\mu{_1}\ldots \mu{_n}}$ encoding both the motion of a brane as a whole, and its volume evolution. We thus formulate a dynamics which generalizes the dynamics of the usual branes. Geometrically, coordinates $X^{\mu{_1} \ldots \mu{_n}}$ and associated coordinate frame fields { ${\gamma_{\mu{_1}\ldots\mu{_n}}}$ } extend the notion of geometry from spacetime to that of an enlarged space, called Clifford space or C-space. If we start from (...) four-dimensional spacetime, then the dimension of C-space is 16. The fact that C-space has more than four dimensions suggests that it could serve as a realization of Kaluza-Klein idea. The “extra dimensions” are not just the ordinary extra dimensions, they are related to the volume degrees of freedom, therefore they are physical, and need not be compactified. Gauge fields are due to the metric of Clifford space. It turns out that amongst the latter gauge fields there also exist higher grade, antisymmetric fields of the Kalb–Ramond type, and their non-Abelian generalization. All those fields are naturally coupled to the generalized branes, whose dynamics is given by a generalized Howe–Tucker action in curved C-space. (shrink)

This study described the relationships between academic class and student moral sensitivity and reasoning and between curriculum design components for ethics education and student moral sensitivity and reasoning. The data were collected from freshman (n = 506) and senior students (n = 440) in eight baccalaureate nursing programs in South Korea by survey; the survey consisted of the Korean Moral Sensitivity Questionnaire and the Korean Defining Issues Test. The results showed that moral sensitivity scores in patient-oriented care and conflict were (...) higher in senior students than in freshman students. Furthermore, more hours of ethics content were associated with higher principled thinking scores of senior students. Nursing education in South Korea may have an impact on developing student moral sensitivity. Planned ethics content in nursing curricula is necessary to improve moral sensitivity and moral reasoning of students. (shrink)

The relativistic quantum mechanics with Lorentz-invariant evolution parameter and indefinite mass is a very elegant theory. But it cannot be derived by quantizing the usual classical relativity in which there is the mass-shell constraint. In this paper the classical theory is modified so that it remains Lorentz invariant, but the constraint disappears; mass is no longer fixed—it is an arbitrary constant of motion. The quantization of this unconstrained theory gives the relativistic quantum mechanics in which wave functions are localized and (...) normalized in spacetime. Though many authors have published good works in support for such a localization in time, the latter has been generally considered as problematic. Here I show that wave packets restricted to a finite region of spacetime are not a nuisance, but just the contrary. They have the physical interpretation in the fact that an observer perceives a world line event by event, as his experience of “now” proceeds in spacetime. Quantum mechanically this means that at a certain value of the evolution parameter τ the event is most probably to occur within the spacetime region around {ie1005-1} occupied by the wave packet; at later value of τ the position {ie1005-2}—and hence the time coordinate t—of the wave packet is changed. This is closely related to the interpretation of quantum mechanics in general. (shrink)

The relativistic theory of unconstrained p-dimensional membranes (p-branes) is further developed and then applied to the embedding model of induced gravity. Space-time is considered as a 4-dimensional unconstrained membrane evolving in an N-dimensional embedding space. The parameter of evolution or the evolution time τ is a distinct concept from the coordinate time t=x0. Quantization of the theory is also discussed. A covariant functional Schrödinger equation has a solution for the wave functional such that it is sharply localized in a certain (...) subspace P of space-time, and much less sharply localized (though still localized) outside P. With the passage of evolution the region P moves forward in space-time. Such a solution we interpret as incorporating two seemingly contradictory observations: (i) experiments clearly indicate that space-time is a continuum in which events are existing; (ii) not the whole 4-dimensional space-time, but only a 3-dimensional section which moves forward in time, is accessible to our immediate experience. The notorious problem of time is thus resolved in our approach to quantum gravity. Finally we include sources into our unconstrained embedding model. (shrink)

Starting from the geometric calculus based on Clifford algebra, the idea that physical quantities are Clifford aggregates (“polyvectors”) is explored. A generalized point particle action (“polyvector action”) is proposed. It is shown that the polyvector action, because of the presence of a scalar (more precisely a pseudoscalar) variable, can be reduced to the well known, unconstrained, Stueckelberg action which involves an invariant evolution parameter. It is pointed out that, starting from a different direction, DeWitt and Rovelli postulated the existence of (...) a clock variable attached to particles which serve as a reference system for identification of spacetime points. The action they postulated is equivalent to the polyvector action. Relativistic dynamics (with an invariant evolution parameter) is thus shown to be based on even stronger theoretical and conceptual foundations than usually believed. (shrink)

We consider a theory in which spacetime is a 4-dimensional manifold V4 embedded in an N-dimensional space VN. The dynamics is given by a first-order action which is a straightforward generalization of the well-known Nambu-Gotto string action. Instead of the latter action we then consider an equivalent action, a generalization of the Howe-Tucker action, which is a functional of the (extrinsic) embedding variables ηa(x) and of the (intrinsic) induced metric gυv (x) on V4. In the quantized theory we can define (...) an effective action by means of the Feynman path integral in which we functionally integrate over the embedding variables. What remains is functionally dependent solely on the induced metric. It is well known that the effective action so obtained contains the Ricci scalar R and its higher orders. But due to our special choice of a quantity, the so-called “matter” density ω(η) in VN entering the original first-order action, it turns out that the effective action contains also the source term. The latter is in general that of a p-dimensional membrane (p-brane). In particular we consider the case of bosonic point particles. Finally we discuss and clarify certain interpretational aspects of quantum mechanics from the viewpoint of our embedding model. (shrink)

A relativistic, i.e., Lorentz co-variant theory without constraints is formulated. This is possible if we allow the dynamical variables to depend on an invariant parameter τ. Thus we obtain a dynamical theory in spacetime, called relativistic dynamics. First the case of a point particle, and then of extended objects such as membranes of arbitrary dimensions are considered.

A theory is presented in which a field depends not only on spacetime coordinates xμ, but also on a Lorentz-invariant parameter τ. Such a theory is conceptually and technically simple and manifestly covariant at every step. The generator of evolution and the generator of spacetime translations and Lorentz transformations are obtained in a straightforward way. In the quantized theory the Heisenberg equation of motion is written in a covariant form and is equivalent to the field equation. The equal τ commutator (...) between the field and its canonically conjugate momentum is just proportional to the spacetime δ function. Finally comparison with the conventional field theory is done, and it is found that the expectation value of the momentum operator in the on shell states is the same. (shrink)

The theory of unconstrained membranes of arbitrary dimension is presented. Their relativistic dynamics is described by an action which is a generalization of the Stueckelberg point-particle action. In the quantum version of the theory, the evolution of a membrane's state is governed by the relativistic Schrödinger equation. Particular stationary solutions correspond to the conventional, constrained membranes. Contrary to the usual practice, our spacetime is identified, not with the embedding space (which brings the problem of compactification), but with a membrane of (...) dimension 4 or higher. A 4-membrane is thus assumed to represent spacetime. The Einstein-Hilbert action emerges as an effective action after functionally integrating out the membrane's embedding functions. (shrink)

The arguments by Pandres that the double valued spherical harmonics provide a basis for the irreducible spinor representation of the three dimensional rotation group are further developed and justified. The usual arguments against the inadmissibility of such functions, concerning hermiticity, orthogonality, behaviour under rotations, etc., are all shown to be related to the unsuitable choice of functions representing the states with opposite projections of angular momentum. By a correct choice of functions and definition of inner product those difficulties do not (...) occur. And yet the orbital angular momentum in the ordinary configuration space can have integer eigenvalues only, for the reason which have roots in the nature of quantum mechanics in such space. The situation is different in the velocity space of the rigid particle, whose action contains a term with the extrinsic curvature. (shrink)

This paper is an update of the documents we have concerning the Acts of the Christian martyrs, focused on three main aspects: 1) the kind of acts we know of and their classification from the point of view of their historic value; 2) the versions or editions of the texts that are most accepted by scholars; 3) the relevance of the different parts that make up these documents in order to discern the original text from passages that were rewritten or (...) underwent later variations. In this way, the article offers an exhaustive list of the documents for use in researching Christian martyrs in the Roman period. (shrink)

In recent literature, panpsychism has been defended by appeal to two main arguments: first, an argument from philosophy of mind, according to which panpsychism is the only view which successfully integrates consciousness into the physical world (Strawson 2006; Chalmers 2013); second, an argument from categorical properties, according to which panpsychism offers the only positive account of the categorical or intrinsic nature of physical reality (Seager 2006; Adams 2007; Alter and Nagasawa 2012). Historically, however, panpsychism has also been defended by appeal (...) to a third argument based on considerations about the nature and observability of causation. This argument has not been much discussed in recent times. Here is a concise version from William James: "… the concrete perceptual flux, taken just as it comes, offers in our own activity-situations perfectly comprehensible instances of causal agency … If we took these experiences as the type of what actual causation is, we should have to ascribe to cases of causation outside of our life, to physical cases also, an inwardly experiential nature. In other words, we should have to espouse a so-called “pan-psychic” philosophy" (James 1911: 218). James here suggests that we have direct experience of causation in our own agency. He thereby directly contradicts David Hume, who famously denied that we have any experience of causation. James goes on to claim that if this experience is representative of causation in general, it follows that all causation is mental, and that panpsychism is true. This kind of argument for panpsychism can be called the argument from (experience of) causation. This chapter offers, first, a history of this argument and arguments closely related to it, and second, an analysis of the argument – is it valid, are its premises in any way defensible, and how does it relate to the other, more popular arguments for panpsychism from philosophy of mind and categorical properties? (shrink)

Ibn al-ʻArabī, 1165-1240; views on freedom; Sufism; Islamic philosophy.

Greek text, english translation and commentary on the surviving fragments of Empedocles (fragments as known in 1981, does not include more recent finds).

Contrary to Vaesen's argument that humans are unique with respect to nine cognitive capacities essential for tool use, we suggest that although such cognitive processes contribute to variation in tool use, it does not follow that these capacities arenecessaryfor tool use, nor that tool use shaped cognition per se, given the available data in cognitive neuroscience and behavioral biology.

The idea that spacetime has to be replaced by Clifford space (C-space) is explored. Quantum field theory (QFT) and string theory are generalized to C-space. It is shown how one can solve the cosmological constant problem and formulate string theory without central terms in the Virasoro algebra by exploiting the peculiar pseudo-Euclidean signature of C-space and the Jackiw definition of the vacuum state. As an introduction into the subject, a toy model of the harmonic oscillator in pseudo-Euclidean space is studied.

There are obvious benefits to be gained from the study of logic: heightened ability to express ideas clearly and concisely, increased skill in defining one's terms, enlarged capacity to formulate arguments rigorously and to analyze them critically. But the greatest benefit, in my judgment, is the recognition that reason can be applied in every aspect of human affairs.

What are conspiracy theories? And what, if anything, is epistemically wrong with them? I offer an account on which conspiracy theories are a unique way of holding a belief in a conspiracy. Specifically, I take conspiracy theories to be self-insulating beliefs in conspiracies. On this view, conspiracy theorists have their conspiratorial beliefs in a way that is immune to revision by counter-evidence. I argue that conspiracy theories are always irrational. Although conspiracy theories involve an expectation to encounter some seemingly disconfirming (...) evidence (allegedly planted by the conspirators), resistance to all counter- evidence cannot be justified on these grounds. (shrink)

This paper is devoted to the study of some subvarieties of the variety Qof Q-Heyting algebras, that is, Heyting algebras with a quantifier. In particular, a deeper investigation is carried out in the variety Q 3 of three-valued Q-Heyting algebras to show that the structure of the lattice of subvarieties of Qis far more complicated that the lattice of subvarieties of Heyting algebras. We determine the simple and subdirectly irreducible algebras in Q 3 and we construct the lattice of subvarieties (...) (Q 3 ) of the variety Q 3. (shrink)

Traditional Chinese commentators rightly see that understanding Zhuangzi's way with words is the presupposition for understanding Zhuangzi at all. They are not sure, however, if Zhuangzi's words are super-effective or pure nonsense. I consider Zhuangzi's experience with language, and then turn to Heidegger's word of being to see if it may throw light on Zhuangzi's way of saying. I argue that a conversation between Heidegger and Zhuangzi on language is possible, but only by expanding Heidegger's notion of Gestell and through (...) a destruction of the dominant Confucian discourse that obscures Zhuangzi's way of saying. (shrink)

Several variants of Lewis's Best System Account of Lawhood have been proposed that avoid its commitment to perfectly natural properties. There has been little discussion of the relative merits of these proposals, and little discussion of how one might extend this strategy to provide natural property-free variants of Lewis's other accounts, such as his accounts of duplication, intrinsicality, causation, counterfactuals, and reference. We undertake these projects in this paper. We begin by providing a framework for classifying and assessing the variants (...) of the Best System Account. We then evaluate these proposals, and identify the most promising candidates. We go on to develop a proposal for systematically modifying Lewis's other accounts so that they, too, avoid commitment to perfectly natural properties. We conclude by briefly considering a different route one might take to developing natural property-free versions of Lewis's other accounts, drawing on recent work by Williams. (shrink)

For the theorists of crisis, the revolutionary state comes into existence through violence, and due to its inability to provide an authoritative katechon (restrainer) against internal and external violence, it perpetuates violence until it self-destructs. Writing during extreme economic depression and growing social and political violence, the crisis theorists––Joseph de Maistre, Juan Donoso Cortés, and Carl Schmitt––each sought to blame the chaos of their time upon the Janus-faced postrevolutionary ideals of liberalism and socialism by urging a return to pre-revolutionary moral (...) and religious values. They are united by three counterrevolutionary principles, all of which are purported to remedy revolutionary violence: traditional constitutional fidelity, the philosophy of the decision, and opposition to bourgeois liberalism. This essay is followed by the first complete English translation and publication of Donoso’s letter of October 24, 1851, which contains Donoso’s only reference to the “discussing class,” a political entity later popularized by Schmitt in his 1922 work Political Theology. (shrink)

This article examines three candidate cases of non-causal explanation in computational neuroscience. I argue that there are instances of efficient coding explanation that are strongly analogous to examples of non-causal explanation in physics and biology, as presented by Batterman, Woodward, and Lange. By integrating Lange’s and Woodward’s accounts, I offer a new way to elucidate the distinction between causal and non-causal explanation, and to address concerns about the explanatory sufficiency of non-mechanistic models in neuroscience. I also use this framework to (...) shed light on the dispute over the interpretation of dynamical models of the brain. _1_ Introduction _1.1_ Efficient coding explanation in computational neuroscience _1.2_ Defining non-causal explanation _2_ Case I: Hybrid Computation _3_ Case II: The Gabor Model Revisited _4_ Case III: A Dynamical Model of Prefrontal Cortex _4.1_ A new explanation of context-dependent computation _4.2_ Causal or non-causal? _5_ Causal and Non-causal: Does the Difference Matter? (shrink)

Perhaps more than any philosophy written in the past few centuries, the work of Friedrich Nietzsche has given rise to controversy, misunderstanding, and dissent. Today Nietzsche is remembered as the revolutionary author of such polemical ideas as the death of God, the revaluation of values, the will to untruth, and the Übermensch. Yet is Nietzsche’s philosophy as atheistic, relativistic, nihilistic, and immoral as some commentators have claimed? Or ought we perhaps to give more credence to Nietzsche’s own assertion that one (...) writes books “precisely to conceal what one harbors” (BGE, 9, 289)? If “whatever is profound loves masks” (BGE, 2, 40) then might Nietzsche’s more daring claims be interpreted as clever masks behind which he conceals a deeper philosophy and on which he reveals a hidden truth? Is it not possible that the standard readings of Nietzsche are in fact misreadings—that his work invites misreading, that it is intentionally unclear, deceptive, disguised? The goal of this volume is to reread Nietzsche for all that he shows and all that he hides. It is to dig deeper into his work in order to challenge misreadings of old and invite misreadings anew—as, indeed, his work itself calls for and demands. (shrink)

"My work has had nothing to do with gay liberation," Michel Foucault reportedly told an admirer in 1975. And indeed there is scarcely more than a passing mention of homosexuality in Foucault's scholarly writings. So why has Foucault, who died of AIDS in 1984, become a powerful source of both personal and political inspiration to an entire generation of gay activists? And why have his political philosophy and his personal life recently come under such withering, normalizing scrutiny by commentators as (...) diverse as Camille Paglia, Richard Mohr, Bruce Bawer, Roger Kimball, and biographer James Miller? David M. Halperin's Saint Foucault is an uncompromising and impassioned defense of the late French philosopher and historian as a galvanizing thinker whose career as a theorist and activist will continue to serve as a model for other gay intellectuals, activists, and scholars. A close reading of both Foucault and the increasing attacks on his life and work, it explains why straight liberals so often find in Foucault only counsels of despair on the subject of politics, whereas gay activists look to him not only for intellectual inspiration but also for a compelling example of political resistance. Halperin rescues Foucault from the endless nature-versus-nurture debate over the origins of homosexuality ("On this question I have absolutely nothing to say," Foucault himself once remarked) and argues that Foucault's decision to treat sexuality not as a biological or psychological drive but as an effect of discourse, as the product of modern systems of knowledge and power, represents a crucial political breakthrough for lesbians and gay men. Halperin explains how Foucault's radical vision of homosexuality as a strategic opportunity for self-transformation anticipated the new anti-assimilationist, anti-essentialist brand of sexual identity politics practiced by contemporary direct-action groups such as ACT UP. Halperin also offers the first synthetic account of Foucault's thinking about gay sex and the future of the lesbian and gay movement, as well as an up-to-the-minute summary of the most recent work in queer theory. "Where there is power, there is resistance," Michel Foucault wrote in The History of Sexuality, Volume I. Erudite, biting, and surprisingly moving, Saint Foucault represents Halperin's own resistance to what he views as the blatant and systematic misrepresentation of a crucial intellectual figure, a misrepresentation he sees as dramatic evidence of the continuing personal, professional, and scholarly vulnerability of all gay activists and intellectuals in the age of AIDS. (shrink)

Philosophical study of classical music of India.