Ker nimamo avtorskih didaskalij, je celoten svet drame (vključno s psihično in materialno realnostjo) predstavljen izključno z besedami, ki jih govorijo dramski liki. Roman Ingarden imenuje takšen način predstavljanja shematična reprezentacija: na ta način predstavljeni predmeti so namreč samo skicirani, nešteta nedoločena mesta v njihovi predstavitvi vabijo bralca, da jih v procesu konkretizacije alirekonstrukcije zapolni z intelektualnimi in domišljijskimi operacijami in se pri tem opira na svoje znanje in izkušnje. Tako konkretizacijo kot rekonstrukcijo je treba ločevati od literarnega dela samega; (...) ker ju oblikuje bralec s svojo domišljijsko dejavnostjo, predstavljata oviro pri spoznavanju dela samega. Ingardnovo teorijo so kritizirali prav zaradi tega, ker daje bralcu preveč manevrskega prostora pri konstituiranju in tudi pri rekonstrukciji literarne umetnine (Ray, Kos, Holub, Calinescu). Zdi se, da te kritike temeljijo v nekoliko poenostavljenem razumevanju Ingardnove izredno kompleksne analize, v kateri se kaže, da je vloga bralca sicer omejena s tekstom, a vendarle vitalnega pomena za sekundarno eksistenco literarne umetnine. V članku so obravnavani neverbalni dejavniki motivacije v Sofoklovi tragediji; razdeljeni so v tri skupine: značajske poteze, dramska klima in čutne izkušnje. Članek se zaključi z analizo Odisejeve neverbalne motivacije v tragediji Ajant, ki predstavlja poseben primer, saj je tu odločilni dejavnik motivacije Odisejeva izkušnja numinoznega. (shrink)

Pričujoči članek obravnava vpliv dramske klime, v kateri se prepletajo zunanje in notranje okoliščine dramskega dogajanja, na odločitve, sodbe in ravnanja dramskih likov. To ponazarjava s primeroma iz Antigone in Trahink. V vzdušju povojnih Teb Ismena omahuje med strahom pred kaznijo in strahom pred božanskim srdom zaradi nepokopa Polinejka. Prav tako lahko vpliv dramske klime opazimo v Kreontovi spremembi odločitve glede Ismenine obsodbe na smrt. Posebno pozornost v članku dobi tudi zahtevno vprašanje atribucije verzov v Antigoni 572, 574 in 576, (...) ki pomembno vpliva na razume­vanje psihologije junakov. Druga obravnavana junakinja, Dejanejra, strahoma pričakuje prerokovano odločitev Heraklove usode v Tra­hini, na robu civilizacije. S spoznanjem resnice o Ioli se Dejanejrina psihološka napetost zaostri do skrajnosti in po premisleku, ki zori v njej v zaodrski tišini med prvim in drugim dejanjem, se odloči za usodno dejanje. (shrink)

The invariant evolution parameter τ is often used in the formulation of a so-called unconstrained relativistic quantum theoryof a point particle. Such a theory is very elegant, and contains the usual Klein-Gordon or the Dirac particle as a special case. In the present paper we extend the unconstrained theory to describe a continuous set of point particles forming a string or, in general, a membrane of arbitrary dimension p.The action of this system is not invariant with respect to reparametrizations of (...) the evolution parameter τ and therefore there is no constraints among the dynamical variables, and no need for ghosts in the quantized theory. Then we show that such an unconstrained membrane is equivalent to a wiggly membranewhich has variable tension on its (p+1)-dimensional worldsheet. The equations of motion admit the usual well-known Dirac-Nambu-Goto membranes as particular solutions. (shrink)

Using Finsler brane solutions [see details and methods in: S. Vacaru, Class. Quant. Grav. 28:215001, 2011], we show that neutrinos may surpass the speed of light in vacuum which can be explained by trapping effects from gravity theories on eight dimensional (co) tangent bundles on Lorentzian manifolds to spacetimes in general and special relativity. In nonholonomic variables, the bulk gravity is described by Finsler modifications depending on velocity/momentum coordinates. Possible super-luminal phenomena are determined by the width of locally anisotropic brane (...) (spacetime) and induced by generating functions and integration functions and constants in coefficients of metrics and nonlinear connections. We conclude that Finsler brane gravity trapping mechanism may explain neutrino super-luminal effects and almost preserve the paradigm of Einstein relativity as the standard one for particle physics and gravity. (shrink)

Using quantum liquids one can simulate the behavior of the quantum vacuum in the presence of the event horizon. The condensed matter analogs demonstrate that in most cases the quantum vacuum resists formation of the horizon, and even if the horizon is formed different types of the vacuum instability develop, which are faster than the process of Hawking radiation. Nevertheless, it is possible to create the horizon on the quantum-liquid analog of the brane, where the vacuum life-time is long enough (...) to consider the horizon as the quasistationary object. Using this analogy we calculate the Bekenstein entropy of the near-extremal and extremal black holes, which comes from the fermionic microstates in the region of the horizon—the fermion zero modes. We also discuss how the cancellation of the large cosmological constant follows from the thermodynamics of the vacuum. (shrink)

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)

William C. Dell teaches us to move our imaginations beyond the bounds of ordinary space time into the realm of eternal Zen consciousness, of the endless process of Zen deconstructing.

Pri Slovenski matici je izšla imenitna knjiga izbranih pisem italijan­skega pesnika Francesca Petrarce, ki je po svoji vsebini, številnih aluzijah ter idejnih odvodih v okviru antičnega izročila za ljubitelje književnosti in humanizma prava poslastica. Prevajalca Anja Božič in Brane Senegačnik sta pripravila posrečen izbor iz sicer obsežne zbirke Petrarcovih pisem domačim oziroma prijateljem (Rerum fa­miliarum libri), ki sta ga razdelila na tri dele: Prijateljem, V spodnji svet, kjer gre za antične avtorje, ter pisma V zgornji svet, namenjena Petrarcovim sodobnikom.

If we live on the weak brane with zero effective cosmological constant in a warped 5D bulk spacetime, gravitational waves and brane fluctuations can be generated by a part of the 5D Weyl tensor and carries information of the gravitational field outside the brane. We consider on a cylindrical symmetric warped FLRW background a U self-gravitating scalar field coupled to a gauge field without bulk matter. It turns out that brane fluctuations can be formed dynamically, due to the modified energy–momentum (...) tensor components of the scalar-gauge field. As a result, we find that the late-time behavior could significantly deviate from the standard evolution of the universe. The effect is triggered by the time-dependent warpfactor with two branches of the form \}\) constants) and the modified brane equations comparable with a dark energy effect. This is a brane-world mechanism, not present in standard 4D FLRW, where the large disturbances are rapidly damped as the expansion proceed. Because gravity can propagate in the bulk, the cosmic string can build up a huge angle deficit by the warpfactor and can induce massive KK-modes felt on the brane. Disturbances in the spatial components of the stress-energy tensor cause cylindrical symmetric waves, amplified due to the presence of the bulk space and warpfactor. They could survive the natural damping due to the expansion of the universe. It turns out that one of the metric components becomes singular at the moment the warp factor develops an extremum. This behavior could have influence on the possibility of a transition from acceleration to deceleration or vice versa. (shrink)

I discuss a model inspired from the string/brane framework, in which our Universe is represented (after perhaps appropriate compactification) as a three brane, propagating in a bulk space time punctured by D0-brane (D-particle) defects. As the D3-brane world moves in the bulk, the D-particles cross it, and from an effective observer on D3 the situation looks like a “space-time foam” with the defects “flashing” on and off (“D-particle foam”). The open strings, with their ends attached on the brane, which represent (...) matter in this scenario, can interact with the D-particles on the D3-brane universe in a topologically non-trivial manner, involving splitting and capture of the strings by the D0-brane defects. Such processes are consistently described by logarithmic conformal field theories on the world-sheet of the strings. Physically, they result in effective decoherence of the string matter on the D3 brane, and as a result, of CPT Violation, but of a type that implies an ill-defined nature of the effective CPT operator. Due to electric charge conservation, only electrically neutral (string) matter can exhibit such interactions with the D-particle foam. This may have unique, experimentally detectable (in principle), consequences for electrically-neutral entangled quantum matter states on the brane world, in particular the modification of the pertinent Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) Correlation in neutral mesons in an appropriate meson factory. For the simplest scenarios, the order of magnitude of such effects might lie within the sensitivity of upgraded φ-meson factories. (shrink)

It is argued that physics must eventually expand to accommodate mind and consciousness but that this will require a new paradigm. The paradigm required will impinge on two problems on the borders of physics and philosophy: the relationship between physical space and perceptual space and the nature of the passage of time. It is argued that the resolution of both these problems may involve a 5-dimensional model, with the 5th dimension being associated with mental time, and this proposal may relate (...) to recent developments in brane cosmology. A description of consciousness must also entail a proper understanding of the specious present, the minimum timescale of conscious experience, this possibly being associated with a compactified extra dimension. There could even be a hierarchy of levels of consciousness, associated with a hierarchy of extra dimensions. (shrink)

The holographic principle was proposed by Nobel laureate Gerard ‘t Hooft in the 1990s and it has also been modeled by Leonard Susskind and Stephen Hawking. We’ve heard light mentioned with regard to the fundamental nature of reality for a long time; God said Let there be light, we are the light of the world, etc. But we haven’t investigated a possible role for the speed of light in our illnesses. This paper will do just that. The central premise is (...) that light’s “speed” is a reflection of the degree to which the observer is removed from its source. In its Platonic state, light’s speed is zero. It is light from which time, by degrees, emerges. The Big Bang can be envisioned as a sphere, the center of which is a point, Alpha. Via expansion, Alpha becomes a sphere, Omega, by degrees, where each degree is c. For any given Alpha, the circumference of a circle on the sphere, Omega, is a set of resonant points that represent the speed of light or “end of time.” Every radius—every line drawn from Alpha to Omega—is an arrow of time, a parallel universe. Alpha and Omega increase in tandem, maintaining the degree of separation required by special relativity, E=mc^2. The holographic sphere of points equidistant from the Big Bang on which we find ourselves is not the only sphere of points equidistant from the Big Bang. There are spheres that are smaller and larger than ours. Where an arrow of time intersects a sphere-brane of light’s speed will be treated here as a “2D hologram.” For an observer behind the hologram, reality will appear to be accelerating/expanding. For an observer in front of it, reality will appear to be decelerating/contracting. For an observer at the speed of light, time is no longer a variable. (shrink)

Weight systems on chord diagrams play a central role in knot theory and Chern-Simons theory; and more recently in stringy quantum gravity. We highlight that the noncommutative algebra of horizontal chord diagrams is canonically a star-algebra, and ask which weight systems are positive with respect to this structure; hence we ask: Which weight systems are quantum states, if horizontal chord diagrams are quantum observables? We observe that the fundamental gl(n)-weight systems on horizontal chord diagrams with N strands may be identified (...) with the Cayley distance kernel at inverse temperature beta=ln(n) on the symmetric group on N elements. In contrast to related kernels like the Mallows kernel, the positivity of the Cayley distance kernel had remained open. We characterize its phases of indefinite, semi-definite and definite positivity, in dependence of the inverse temperature beta; and we prove that the Cayley distance kernel is positive (semi-)definite at beta=ln(n) for all n=1,2,3,... In particular, this proves that all fundamental gl(n)-weight systems are quantum states, and hence so are all their convex combinations. We close with briefly recalling how, under our "Hypothesis H", this result impacts on the identification of bound states of multiple M5-branes. (shrink)

This book presents the author’s personal historical perspective and conceptual analysis on symmetry and geometry. The author enlightens with modern views the historical process which led to the contemporary vision of space and symmetry that are used in theoretical physics and in particular in such abstract and advanced descriptions of the physical world as those provided by supergravity. The book is written intertwining storytelling and philosophical argumentation with some essential technical material. The author argues that symmetry and geometry are inextricably (...) entangled and their current meaning is the result of a long process of abstraction which was determined through history and can be understood within the analytic system of thought of western civilization that started with the Ancient Greeks. The evolution of geometry and symmetry theory in the last forty years has been deeply and constructively influenced by supersymmetry/supergravity and the allied constructions of strings and branes. Further advances in theoretical physics cannot be based simply on the Galilean method of interrogating nature and then formulating a testable theory to explain the observed phenomena. One ought to interrogate human thought, meaning frontier-line mathematics concerned with geometry and symmetry in order to find there the threads of so far unobserved correspondences, reinterpretations and renewed conceptions. (shrink)

This paper reviews four current theories of brain-consciousness relations—classical Cartesian Dualism, the Identity Theory, Eliminative Materialism, and a new form of Substance Dualism that includes a modified form of the Cartesian theory. This entails a critical examination of our basic concepts of what consciousness is, of the nature of the body image, and the relation of phenomenal space to physical space. This investigation reaches the same result as that attained recently by the physicist Bernard Carr (2008)—that what is needed is (...) a paradigm shift in our basic concepts of the geometry of the Universe. In order to understand phenomenal consciousness we need to replace the present four-dimensional model with a higher-dimensional structure, in which a phenomenal space (with its contents) and physical space (with its contents) are different cross-sections (branes) of a higher-dimensional space (the bulk). Keywords: brain—consciousness—mechanisms—substance dualism—brane theory. (shrink)

Teza o "neskrivljenom neznanju" je instrument u okviru teorije pravednog rata koja sluzi da se moralno opravda ucesce u ratu za pripadnike one strane koja je porazena; uslovi za neskrivljenost su da su porazeni borci iskreno verovali da brane pravednu stvar i da su takodje iskreno verovali da imaju nekih izgleda da pobede. Bez ovog instrumenta teorija pravednog rata, jedna teorija koja opravdava rat preko pravednog uzroka rata, bi porazenoj strani narocito ako je slabija, morala da unapred pripise krivicu sto (...) je uopste usla u rat. Medjutim, u savremenoj situaciji rasirene kriminalizacije rata sam pojam rata se menja i postaje izuzetno neodredjen. Kako ratovi postaju sve vise i vise "asimetricni", pre svega u snazi sukobljenih strana, cini se da se teorija pravednog rata suocava sa teskocom da u svoje okvire uopste situira "neskrivljeno neznanje", ali to povlaci teskocu te teorije da pokaze da pravda ide sa pobedom, otvarajuci tako pitanje artikulacije pravednog mira. (shrink)

The foundations of Wesson’s induced matter theory are analyzed. It is shown that the empty—without matter—5-dimensional bulk must be regarded as a Weylian space rather than as a Riemannian one. Revising the geometry of the bulk, we have assumed that a Weylian connection vector and a gauge function exist in addition to the metric tensor. The framework of a Weyl–Dirac version of Wesson’s theory is elaborated and discussed. In the 4-dimensional hypersurface (brane), one obtains equations describing both fields, the gravitational (...) and the electromagnetic. The result is a geometrically based unified theory of gravitation and electromagnetism with mass and current induced by the bulk. In special cases on obtains on the brane the equations of Einstein–Maxwell, or these of the original induced matter theory. (shrink)

Physical arguments stemming from the theory of black-hole thermodynamics are used to put constraints on the dynamics of closed-string tachyon condensation in Scherk–Schwarz compactifications. A geometrical interpretation of the tachyon condensation involves an effective capping of a noncontractible cycle, thus removing the very topology that supports the tachyons. A semiclassical regime is identified in which the matching between the tachyon condensation and the black-hole instability flow is possible. We formulate a generalized correspondence principle and illustrate it in several different circumstances: (...) an Euclidean interpretation of the transition from strings to black holes across the Hagedorn temperature and instabilities in the brane-antibrane system. (shrink)

I propose an experiment that may be performed, with present low temperature and cryogenic technology, to reveal Wheeler’s quantum foam. It involves coupling an optical photon’s momentum to the center of mass motion of a macroscopic transparent block with parameters such that the latter is displaced in space by approximately a Planck length. I argue that such displacement is sensitive to quantum foam and will react back on the photon’s probability of transiting the block. This might allow determination of the (...) precise scale at which quantum fluctuations of space–time become large, and so differentiate between the brane-world and the traditional scenarios of spacetime. (shrink)

Cosmopolitans hold that our duties of distributive justice to others do not stop at borders. Darrel Moellendorf is among those who defend the view that principles of distributive justice are applicable beyond borders. He suggests as a principle of international justice the global difference principle, which allows inequalities in the distribution of wealth and resources only if they are to the greatest advantage of the least advantaged individuals. In this paper, I try to indicate that Moellendorf’s argument for the global (...) difference principle is far from sustaining it. Instead, I argue for a minimum floor principle of distributive justice on the basis of the idea that each person ought to have an equal standard of living with respect to the fulfillment of their basic interests. I also propose the principle of contribution backed up by the principle of fair equality of opportunity, aiming to equalize background conditions of a competition for socially favored positions, as the basic principles of a complete account of global distributive justice.Kozmopolitanisti drže da se naše dužnosti distributivne pravednosti prema drugima ne zaustavljaju na granicama. Darrel Moellendorf je među onima koji brane gledište da su načela distributivne pravednosti primjenjiva s onu stranu granica. Kao načelo međunarodne pravednosti on predlaže globalno načelo razlike, koje nejednakosti u raspodjeli bogatstva i resursâ dopušta samo ako su one u najveću korist najlošije stojećih individua. U ovome članku pokušavam pokazati da Moellendorfov argument u prilog globalnog načela razlike to načelo nimalo ne potkrepljuje. Umjesto toga argumentiram u prilog načela distributivne pravednosti minimalne razine na osnovi zamisli da bi svaka osoba trebala imati jednaki standard življenja s obzirom na ispunjenje njezinih osnovnih interesa. Ujedno kao osnovna načela potpunog opisa globalne distributivne pravednosti predlažem načelo doprinosa poduprto načelom pravične jednakosti mogućnosti, koje stremi izjednačavanju pozadinskih uvjeta natjecanja za društveno favorizirane pozicije. (shrink)

String Theory is the result of the conjunction of three conceptually independent elements: the metaphysical idea of a nomological unity of the forces, the model-theoretical paradigm of Quantum Field Theory, and the conflict resulting from classical gravity in a quantum world - the motivational starting point of the search for a theory of Quantum Gravity. String Theory is sometimes assumed to solve this conflict: by means of an application of the model-theoretical apparatus of Quantum Field Theory, interpreting gravity as the (...) result of an exchange of gravitons, taken here to be dynamical states of the string. But, String Theory does not really solve the conflict. Rather it exemplifies the inadequacy of the apparatus of Quantum Field Theory in the context of Quantum Gravity: After several decades of development it still exists only in an essentially perturbative formulation. And, due to its quantum field theoretical heritage, it is conceptually incompatible with central implications of General Relativity, especially those resulting from the general relativistic relation between gravity and spacetime. All known formulations of String Theory are background-dependent. And no physical motivation is given for this conceptual incompatibility. On the other hand, although String Theory identifies all gauge bosons as string states, it was not even possible to reproduce the Standard Model. Instead, String Theory led to a multitude of internal problems - and to the plethora of low-energy scenarios with different nomologies and symmetries, known as the String Landscape. All attempts to find a dynamically motivated selection principle remained without success, leaving String Theory without any predictive power. The nomological unification of the fundamental forces, including gravity, is only achieved in a purely formal way within the model-theoretical paradigm of Quantum Field Theory - by means of physically unmotivated epicycles like higher dimensionality, Calabi-Yau spaces, branes, etc. Finally, the possibility remains that some of the central assumptions of String Theory are physically wrong. On the one hand, the idea of a nomological unity of the forces could be simply wrong. On the other hand, even if a nomological unity of all fundamental forces should be realized in nature, the possibility remains that gravity is not a fundamental force, but a residual, emergent and possibly intrinsically classical phenomenon, resulting from a quantum substrate without any gravitational degrees of freedom. (shrink)

We construct the Extended Relativity Theory in Born-Clifford-Phase spaces with an upper R and lower length λ scales (infrared/ultraviolet cutoff). The invariance symmetry leads naturally to the real Clifford algebra Cl (2, 6, R) and complexified Clifford Cl C (4) algebra related to Twistors. A unified theory of all Noncommutative branes in Clifford-spaces is developed based on the Moyal-Yang star product deformation quantization whose deformation parameter involves the lower/upper scale $$(\hbar \lambda / R)$$. Previous work led us to show (...) from first principles why the observed value of the vacuum energy density (cosmological constant) is given by a geometric mean relationship $$\rho \sim L_{\rm Planck}^{-2}R^{-2} = L_{P}^{-4} (L_{\rm Planck} / R)^{2} \sim 10^{-122}M_{\rm Planck}^4$$, and can be obtained when the infrared scale R is set to be of the order of the present value of the Hubble radius. We proceed with an extensive review of Smith’s 8D model based on the Clifford algebra Cl (1, 7) that reproduces at low energies the physics of the Standard Model and Gravity, including the derivation of all the coupling constants, particle masses, mixing angles,....with high precision. Geometric actions are presented like the Clifford-Space extension of Maxwell’s Electrodynamics, and Brandt’s action related to the 8D spacetime tangent-bundle involving coordinates and velocities (Finsler geometries). Finally we outline the reasons why a Clifford-Space Geometric Unification of all forces is a very reasonable avenue to consider and propose an Einstein-Hilbert type action in Clifford-Phase spaces (associated with the 8D Phase space) as a Unified Field theory action candidate that should reproduce the physics of the Standard Model plus Gravity in the low energy limit. (shrink)

Modern cosmology has two competing theories of the origin of the universe: the "Singularity theory" and the "Superstring theory". Four Dilemmas of the "Super-string theory" are presented: the incompleteness of the eleven space–time dimensions,the inextricable dependence on the “Space–Time Background”, the "Zero-Brane the-ory" admitting stuff smaller than the Planck scale, and the pure mathematical theory that cannot be falsified by experiments. Although the "Singularity theory" is faced with many critiques from the "Superstring theory", from the perspective of Informa-tion Ontology, treating (...) the "Singularity" as "Origin Information" can dissolve these troubles well. For the "Singularity theory", the new philosophical thinking frame-work effectively explains the parameter problems of the universe, and gives satisfied response to the challenges from the "Superstring theory". As a result, the "Singularity theory" has a more competitive advantage on the origin of the universe. (shrink)

An extended scale relativity theory, actively developed by one of the authors, incorporates Nottale's scale relativity principle where the Planck scale is the minimum impassible invariant scale in Nature, and the use of polyvector-valued coordinates in C-spaces (Clifford manifolds) where all lengths, areas, volumes⋅ are treated on equal footing. We study the generalization of the ordinary point-particle quantum mechanical oscillator to the p-loop (a closed p-brane) case in C-spaces. Its solution exhibits some novel features: an emergence of two explicit scales (...) delineating the asymptotic regimes (Planck scale region and a smooth region of a quantum point oscillator). In the most interesting Planck scale regime, the solution recovers in an elementary fashion some basic relations of string theory (including string tension quantization and string uncertainty relation). It is shown that the degeneracy of the first collective excited state of the p-loop oscillator yields not only the well-known Bekenstein–Hawking area-entropy linear relation but also the logarithmic corrections therein. In addition we obtain for any number of dimensions the Hawking temperature, the Schwarschild radius, and the inequalities governing the area of a black hole formed in a fusion of two black holes. One of the interesting results is a demonstration that the evaporation of a black hole is limited by the upper bound on its temperature, the Planck temperature. (shrink)

continent. 1.4 (2011): 279—285. Concerning its Transitive Nature, the Conversion of Native Americans of Spanish Colonial California, Indoctrinated Catholicism, & the Creation There’s no direct archaeological evidence that Jesus ever existed. 1 I memorized the Act of Contrition. I don’t remember it now, except the beginning: Forgive me Father for I have sinned . . . This was in preparation for the Sacrament of Holy Reconciliation, where in a confessional I confessed my sins to Father Scott, who looked like Jesus, (...) at least in Western cultural representations of Jesus since the middle ages, and if Jesus put on a few pounds. Father Scott was long-haired, redheaded, bearded, chubby, and tall. When he left church with the procession of altar servers and Eucharistic ministers, yelling, “Sing a Good Song Unto the Lord,” he smiled, hands folded, and he gazed over his parishioners, and bounced along. For four months every year he lived among the Crow Nation in Montana, where towards the end of his tenure at Our Lady of Refuge, they adopted him as an honorary member of their tribe. * This is the prayer we chanted, holding hands, every night before dinner: Bless us oh Lord, for these our gifts, which we are about to receive, our bounty through Christ, our Lord, Amen. Then we all said, God bless the cook! When we were with my grandparents, Grandpa said, God bless Chicky, and Holly, and Harvey, and Boots—all the dead dogs. * My sister tells me that she sits next to a handsome man on a flight across the country. After chitchat, she withdraws her book. She’s reading Kevin Sampsell’s A Common Pornography . After a few moments, the handsome man also reads from his book—his leather-bound Bible. Sister thinks, Oh, Jesus—too bad. She falls asleep. Later, settled in Nashville, she opens her volume and out falls a Jesus-covered card that reads, You can still find God and Salvation! Because that handsome God-fearing young man saw that word— pornography . * I suppose Father Jim’s dark hair, beard, and glasses made me think doctoral-ly of him. He called while I was in the midst of a breakup, after I’d twice attempted suicide, and my mother was desperate for help. She somehow found and phoned him. And Jim, now years out of Our Lady of Refuge’s parish, twenty years since my baptism, years even since he’d left the priesthood and the Catholic faith, still made the effort to bring me back into the fold. He said, “Have you seen a priest?” I did not respond, as I was more shocked to hear his voice than anything, so I said, “How are you, Father Jim? Sorry, I guess I shouldn’t call you ‘Father.’” And I said, “Why did you leave the priesthood? Do you have a girlfriend?” He said that I should call him just “Jim.” He said, “Do you need someone to talk to?” I said, “Not really.” He said, “Call your mother; she’s worried about you.” That was the last time I talked to Father Jim. * Mother let me know just how disappointed Jesus was. I cried and cried, and said I was sorry. Into my hands she placed my missal, ordered forty Rosaries. She said next Saturday I would go to confession. I hated confession. Who wouldn’t? * I realize, of course, that this page is a kind of confessional. * The Kumeyaay, Ipai, Tipai, Chumash, Esselen, Rumsen—all Native Americans of Alta California—shared similarities in their religions. Southern Californian tribes made use of Datura, or jimpson weed, a hallucinogen, for religious rituals. In the creation, God made brother sky and sister earth. Brother and sister mated, and sister gave birth to all things on Earth, including people, but it was difficult to distinguish people from all other aspects of Earth because everything was alive: granite and obsidian, the Pacific and its waves, the San Diego and Los Angeles Rivers. Wiyot—a hero—was very powerful, born from lightning, the son of the Creator and a virgin. When Wiyot thought that human women’s legs were more beautiful than Frog’s, Frog became jealous and poisoned Wiyot. The dying Wiyot went to all the people’s villages, and he distributed his power among them. He said, “When I die, I should be cremated.” The people built the fire and funeral pyre. When the fire was ready, and the people about to place Wiyot’s body upon it, Coyote came and snatched away Wiyot’s heart. * My friend Nick told me once how he ate some jimpson weed and that he hallucinated for three days. His family took a road trip and, while driving over the Sierra Nevada mountains, he kept seeing dinosaurs roaming the open meadows and charging down snowy slopes. So it’s no wonder that Native Americans who ingested this plant would have developed religion. * Walking Castroville’s streets after school I got into fights but mostly watched other boys scrabbling on the asphalt. I went to Burger King for Whoppers. Me and my friends cussed. Antonio admonished me when I said, “damn,” while strutting a sidewalk alongside the church. He said, “Jaime”—pronounced Hi-May, which was what all the Mexicans called me—“you’re crazy, eh. Don’t cuss at the church.” He meant while at church, as in, within its vicinity. I said, “We’re not in church.” Once we’d crossed the street, Tony said, “Damn dude, you’re fuckin crazy!” * Blessed Father Fray Junípero Serra raised the Eucharistic goblet to his lips, and candlelight danced on the blood’s tiny waves. Incense clouded the church so completely that some of the Pame natives grew nauseous. So, too, felt Blessed Father Fray Junípero Serra later that night, as he bent over a ceramic bowl and vomited blood, not only the Lord’s, but his own, for poison had laced the sacred vessel into which he poured the sacrament. The physician tending to the sick prelate urged him to take the remedy he’d prepared. But Blessed Father Fray Junípero Serra refused, said that he would pray, for he had never taken any medicine in his life, and he never would. * The Chumash of El Valle de Los Osos called themselves the Stishni, separating themselves from Chumash of other regions, those varying tribes of the central California coast that spoke mutually unintelligible dialects of their Hokan language. This made learning their languages impossible for the Spanish friars, to say nothing of translating the Doctrina. Thus the priests baptized few natives, despite the help that the tribes offered the fledgling settlements in the form of meat and acorn meal, which the Spaniards found repugnant. Some from these cultures, feeling threatened by the newcomers, shot flaming arrows into the thatched roofs of the mission structures. And why wouldn’t they feel threatened when priests chastised them for performing, for example, their Coyote Dance, wherein a man donning a coyote-skin-and-skull costume dances while a singer sings his tale, which laments the human feces strewn imaginatively about the Earth? Coyote, meantime, tries to get an onlooker to lick his genitals, and finally engages in public sexual intercourse with a female tribe member or two, then ends the dance by defecating. Though the Franciscans called such forbidden acts devilry , the Chumash maintained their Datura cult religion, along with the enforced Christianity. For the Chumash, the Earth was made of two enormous snakes that caused earthquakes when they slithered past one another—a vast reptilian tectonics. In the 20th century, long after Blessed Father Fray Junípero Serra and his cohorts had died, when asked by an anthropologist about religious contradictions, conflating the Datura and Christian cults, a Chumash man replied, incredulous: “But these are two different religions.” * When Portolá ordered that if by March 19th, the feast day of St. Joseph, the San Antonio had not arrived in San Diego Bay to relieve them, the Sacred Expedition to Nueva California would be abandoned, Blessed Father Fray Junípero Serra prayed a novena for San José’s intercession. And lo, a lookout sighted the San Antonio ’s sails—what seemed to the priest a miracle—that very Saint’s feast day. Europeans would stay in California, and Blessed Father Fray Junípero Serra would continue to reap a great harvest of souls for the Lord. By the end of mission secularization in 1836—sixty-six years after the San Antonio rescued the Spaniards—Native American populations in California had declined by seventy-three percent. * When Peter the Aleut would not renounce his Eastern Orthodox faith the padre of San Francisco had a toe severed from each foot with each refusal, totaling ten. The native Ohlones employed in this gruesome task—their obsidian chiseled knives tearing through skin and grinding bone—continued as per their orders, and cut off also each of Peter’s fingers (equals a total of twenty refusals). They quartered the martyr, spilled his bowels, as if from bear attack, attack by a bear in the shape of a Catholic. * Blessed Father Fray Junípero Serra absolutely believed that the slow rate of conversion for the native people was due to the influence of the Devil, who had been outraged by the coming of the Catholics to California, this region that he had long held in his dominion. * In his reception speech for the Nobel Prize for Literature, John Steinbeck said, “Man himself has become our greatest hazard and our only hope. So that today, St. John the Apostle may well be paraphrased: In the end is the Word, and the Word is Man—and the Word is with Men.” * In 1602, when Sebastián Vizcaíno and his friars sang mass on Catalina Island, as many as a hundred Pimungans witnessed the rite, asking by signs what it was about. According to Vizcaíno’s records, the Californians marveled not a little at the idea of Heaven and at the image of Jesus crucified. * Vizcaíno was brought to a prairie on Santa Catalina Island where the Pimungans worshipped their sun god. Upon the prairie they had placed an icon, a headless figure with horns protruding from the body, a figure that Vizcaíno predictably described as a demon. The Pimungans urged Vizcaíno not to approach the image of their deity, but he ignored them. He placed his crucifix against the wooden figurine and prayed the Our Father. Vizcaíno told the natives that his prayer was from Heaven, and that their god was the Devil. Vizcaíno held out his crucifix, encouraging the Pimungans to touch it and receive Jesus. He pointed at the sky and indicated Heaven. The Pimungans worshipped a sun deity, so they were impressed with this white man and his description of his god, for their gods seemed to be one and the same. It’s no wonder then that Vizcaíno’s diary reports the natives being pleased with this exchange. “Surely,” the diary says, “they will be converted to our Holy Faith.” * The Miwok women wailed and scratched at their faces when their men consorted with Sir Francis Drake and the other Englishmen who had landed on California’s coast in the summer of 1579. “The blood streaming downe along their brests, besides despoiling the upper parts of their bodies of those single coverings . . .they would with furie cast themselves upon the ground . . . on hard stones, knobby hillocks, stocks of wood, and pricking bushes.” Drake and his men fell themselves to their knees in prayer, their eyes Heavenward, so that the natives might see they prayed to God and they too might worship God then their eyes that had been so blinded by the deceiver might be opened. * Father Fray Antonio de la Ascención—Carmelite friar in Vizcaíno’s party—writes that the Indians of California can “easily and with very little labor be taught our Holy Catholic faith, and that they would receive it well and lovingly.” He calls for two hundred older and honorable soldiers to ensure brotherhood during the conquest, so that peace and love—the best tools to pacify pagans—should reign. The religious, the friar says, should likewise be wise and loving to easily quell animosities between Spaniards and the heathen, and therefore avoid war. The Spaniards should bring with them trinkets—beads, mirrors, knives—to distribute amongst the gentiles, so that they might come to love the Christians, and see “that they are coming to their lands to give them that of which they bring, and not to take away the Indians’ possessions, and may understand that they are seeking the good of their souls.” No women are to accompany the conquest, says Father Fray Antonio, “to avoid offenses to God.” * In 1955 Wallace Stevens admitted himself to St. Francis Hospital in Hartford, Connecticut. There, it’s rumored he converted to Catholicism before dying of stomach cancer, exclaiming to his priest after the baptism, “Now I am in the fold.” Stevens’s late-career poems seem less cynical, more in awe of being and death (read “Metaphor as Degeneration” from The Auroras of Autumn ). He could have chosen from at least three secular hospitals in Hartford at the time. * I was reading Stevens’s Collected Poems when I joined eHarmony and listed that as my “currently reading” book among the “more than twelve” books a year that I would read. I fell in love with my wife when she said, “Are you sending your work out to literary journals?” Prior to this, the first girl I talked to on the phone, when I explained my doctoral exams, said, “So, you’re like, reading Stephen King and stuff?” When I said not exactly she responded defensively: “He must be doing something right, since he makes all that money.” * Mom walked me, my brother, and sister, through the Stations of the Cross. We did this on Ash Wednesdays, or whenever she thought we needed extra God after church. It might’ve happened before church, though that’s unlikely because we were always late. Anyway, it’s easiest to walk the Stations of the Cross when there’s no one else around. To walk the actual Stations means one goes to Jerusalem and walks the Via Dolorosa to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. So the Stations elsewhere—usually paintings, or low-relief sculptures upon church walls—serve as a kind of virtual Dolorosa. Mom held our hands and started from the rear of Our Lady of Refuge: the First Station. Mom said we should say a prayer at each Station and to think of all the pain Jesus went through so that we could go to Heaven. It was hard to keep thinking about that one thing for so long. My mind went to that Saturday’s little league game, to the donut and chocolate milk (our after-church reward from Castroville Bakery), and as I grew older I thought about girls. When you’re thirteen you can’t not think about the girl’s butt in the pew in front of yours as she kneels and stands to pray throughout mass. * It grew increasingly juvenile to lie awake at night daring myself to utter a simple sentence. Even if I said I didn’t believe in God, wouldn’t He know the truth? He was omniscient, like a narrator. Even the idea of Him as a him ceased making sense. Not only did this come with a budding realization of my paternalistic culture, but due to the simple question of why? If God was everything, everywhere, all knowing, then why would he be a man? There’s that question: If God is a man then God must have a penis, and if so, what for? * The Catholic Church incorporates some modern scientific research into its dogma concerning the formation of the Universe, Solar System, and Earth, as well as evolution. According to Catholic doctrine, in approximately the fifth millennia BCE, humans began to worship the one true God. Those humans were Adam and Eve, though the Church says humans had been around for thousands of years prior to Adam and Eve. The Church claims to be infallible. Every time the Church changes its doctrine it remains infallible. * One Catholic writer, Tom Meagher, writes that “Modernism[—]the idea that we come to our beliefs individually through emotional or personal experiences[—]has crept into our Catholic schools.” * Catholics believe that evil spirits, given power through Original Sin, can imbue ordinary inanimate objects of everyday use. Thus, such objects should be blessed in order to induce in them the desire to serve the good. Such objects are not limited to, but include, “new ships and boats, railways and trains, bridges, fountains, wells, cornmills, limekilns, smelting furnaces, telegrams, steam engines, and machines for providing electricity.” * In The Sound of Music Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer sing together: “Nothing comes from nothing, nothing ever could...” * To explain competing theories on the very early universe, and pre-verse would be another book. What was the inflaton? Did (mem)branes collide, initiating the Big Bang, as opposed to Lemaître’s primordial atom, a singularity? Without a unified theory there’s gravity hanging out there, fucking everything up. We cannot make sense of the mechanics of the Planck Epoch—0-10-34 seconds into the Universe’s creation—named for Max Planck, who stumbled into the discovery of quantum mechanics in the early twentieth century. * My students often ask if I believe in God, since I espouse evolution, the Big Bang, Science, reject a strictly biblical or creationist theory of the Universe. I tell them that yes, I believe in God, though not the God that they imagine one must believe in. * When questioned regarding the rumor that, before his death, founder of quantum mechanics Max Planck had converted to Catholicism, he replied that he did not believe “in a personal God, let alone a Christian God.” * Physicist and Catholic priest George Lemaître, who formulated the theory and wrote the 1946 book The Primeval Atom Hypothesis , was made a household name by then-detractor Fred Hoyle, who pejoratively referred to the idea as a “Big Bang.” * Suicide is a mortal sin. To end one’s own life one must have despair, which is to lose hope, which is to lose faith, and to disbelieve in God. * Archaeology has uncovered graffiti in all of California’s missions—Indian pictographs inscribed into the adobe, covered with layers of whitewash. Native deities and depictions of cultural practices show that tribespeople never fully gave up their native traditions even after baptism and coming to the missions. There was something inside Native Californians that would never die. (shrink)

Some authors defend literary cognitivism – the view that literary fiction is cognitively valuable – by drawing an analogy between cognitive values of thought experiments and literary fiction. In this paper my aim is to analyse the reasons for drawing this analogy and to see how far the analogy can be stretched. In the second part, I turn to the claim put forward by literary anti-cognitivists according to which literature can at best be the source of hypotheses, not of knowledge. (...) I challenge this claim by showing that hypotheses can have valuable cognitive benefits on their own, thus hoping to restore cognitive benefits readers get from literature.Neki autori brane književni kognitivizam – stajalište da književna fikcija ima spoznajnu vrijednost – povlačeći analogiju između spoznajne vrijednosti misaonih eksperimenata i književne fikcije. U ovome ću radu analizirati razloge za ovu analogiju te vidjeti koliko se njen doseg može proširiti. U drugome dijelu razmotrit ću tvrdnju književnih antikognitivista prema kojoj književnost u najboljem slučaju može biti samo izvor hipoteza, a ne znanja. Ovu ću tvrdnju dovesti u pitanje pokazujući da hipoteze same mogu imati vrijedne spoznajne koristi, u nadi da se na taj način mogu obnoviti spoznajne koristi koje čitatelji pronalaze u književnosti.Certains auteurs défendent le cognitivisme littéraire – position selon laquelle la fiction littéraire a une valeur cognitive – en établissant une analogie entre les valeurs cognitives de l’expérience mentale et la fiction littéraire. Dans cet article, j’analyserai les raisons de cette analogie et verrai jusqu’où cette analogie peut s’étendre. Dans la seconde partie, j’examinerai l’affirmation des anti-cognitivistes littéraires selon lesquels la littérature peut tout au plus être une source d’hypothèses et non pas du savoir. Je mets cette affirmation au défi en montrant que les hypothèses à elles seules peuvent avoir de précieux avantages cognitifs, dans l’espoir de restaurer ainsi les avantages cognitifs que les lecteurs tirent de la littérature.Einige Verfasser verteidigen den literarischen Kognitivismus – einen Standpunkt, nach welchem die literarische Fiktion erkenntnismäßig ersprießlich ist – indem sie eine Parallele zwischen den Erkenntniswerten der Gedankenexperimente und der Literaturfiktion ziehen. In dieser Schrift fasse ich den Vorsatz, die Ursachen für diese Parallelisierung auszukundschaften wie auch zu ermitteln, inwieweit sich diese Analogie ausdehnen lässt. In dem zweiten Teil wende ich mich der vonseiten der literarischen Antikognitivisten vorgebrachten Behauptung zu, welcher zufolge die Lieratur günsigstensfalls eine Hypothesen- und keineswegs eine Wissensquelle zu sein vermag. Ich hinterfrage diese These, indem ich die Anschauung erhärte, dass Hypothesen über eigene wertvolle erkenntnisbezogene Vorzüge verfügen können; all dies in der Hoffnung, kognitive Vorteile herzustellen, welche die Leserschaft aus der Literatur herausliest. (shrink)

Scale invariance is considered in the context of gravitational theories where the action, in the first order formalism, is of the form S=∫ L 1 Φ d 4 x+∫ L 2 $\sqrt{-g}$ d 4 x where the volume element Φ d 4 x is independent of the metric. For global scale invariance, a “dilaton” φ has to be introduced, with non-trivial potentials V(φ)=f 1 eαφ in L 1 and U(φ)=f 2 e 2αφ in L 2 . This leads to non-trivial (...) mass generation and a potential for φ which is interesting for inflation. Interpolating models for natural transition from inflation to a slowly accelerated universe at late times appear naturally. This is also achieved for “Quintessential models,” which are scale invariant but formulated with the use of volume element Φ d 4 x alone. For closed strings and branes (including the supersymmetric cases), the modified measure formulation is possible and does not require the introduction of a particular scale (the string or brane tension) from the begining but rather these appear as integration constants. (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)

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)

Cosmopolitan liberals would be ready to fight - and to kill and be killed for the sake of restoring international justice or for the abolition of profoundly unjust political institutions. Patriots are ready to do the same for their own country. Sometimes the cosmopolitan liberals and patriots would fight on the same side and sometimes on the opposite sides of the conflict. Thus the former would join the latter in the defense of Serbia against Austria-Hungary but would oppose the white (...) Southerner patriots in the American Civil War. In this paper I argue that fighting and killing for one?s country is, in both of those cases, different from the defense of one?s own life and the lives of those who cannot defend themselves. Killing for one?s country is killing in order to fulfill a particular political preference. The same is the case with fighting for the abolition of a profoundly unjust political institution. It is not amoral or immoral to refuse to kill for any one of these two political preferences because there is no reason to believe that either political preference trumps our moral constraints against killing. Kosmopolitski liberali bi bili spremni da se bore - kao i da ubijaju i budu ubijeni - zarad uspostavljanja medjunarodne pravde ili za ukidanje duboko nepravednih politickih ustanova. Patrioti su spremni da ucine isto za svoju zemlju. Ponekad se kosmopolitski liberali i patrioti bore na istoj strani, a ponekad na suprotnim stranama u sukobu. Tako bi se, na primer, liberali pridruzili patriotima u odbrani Srbije od Austrougarske, ali bi se suprotstavili belim juznjackim patriotima u Americkom gradjanskom ratu. U ovom radu obrazlazem tezu da je borba i ubijanje za svoju zemlju u oba slucaja nesto razlicito od odbrane sopstvenog zivota i zivota onih koji ne mogu da se sami brane. Ubijanje za svoju zemlju jeste ubijanje kako bi se ostvarila odredjena politicka preferencija. Isto vazi za ratovanje zarad ukidanja duboko nepravedne politicke ustanove. Nije amoralno ili imoralno odbiti da ubijamo zbog bilo koje od ovih politickih preferencija, zato sto nema razloga da verujemo kako bilo koja od njih nadjacava moralne uzde koje nas sprecavaju da ubijamo. (shrink)

Naszym celem jest dostarczenie formalnego modelu oceny możliwie szerokiej klasy argumentacji, w szczególności tych, które pojawiają się w kontekstach naturalnych. We wprowadzeniu przedstawiamy elementarne sposoby rozbudowywania argumentacji prostych w coraz bardziej złożone struktury. W drugim rozdziale podajemy ścisłe definicje pojęć służących do opisu tych struktur — argumentację definiujemy jako niepusty i skończony zbiór sekwentów, tj. jako niepustą i skończoną relację zachodzącą pomiędzy niepustymi i skończonymi zbio-rami zdań a pojedynczymi zdaniami danego języka; wprowadzamy także kilka pojęć (nie-spójność, rozbieżność, kolistość), które pozwalają (...) wyróżniać niektóre nietypowe lub wadliwe struktury argumentacyjne. W trzecim rozdziale proponujemy ogólną, liczbową metodę oceny siły argumentacji. Metoda ta pokazuje, jak wiarygodność przesłanek pierwszych przekłada się na wiarygodność konkluzji głównej w zależności od budowy argumentacji (wiarygodność wyrażamy za pomocą liczb wymiernych z domkniętego przedziału <0, 1>). Jedną z charakterystycznych własności argumentacji potocznej jest występowanie w niej wzajemnie wzmacniających się tzw. rozumowań równoległych. Dlatego za istotny składnik proponowanej metody należy uznać wzór: a * b = 2a+2b-2ab-1. Wzór ten pozwala obliczyć wiarygodność (konkluzji) dowolnej argumentacji równoległej, składającej się z dwóch wzajemnie niezależnych rozumowań, które brane z osobna uwiarygodniają konkluzję w stopniach a oraz b (zakładamy przy tym, że obie te wartości są większe niż ½). (shrink)

The impact of the KK-modes in d-brane models of gravity with large compactification radii and TeV-scale quantum gravity on the hadronic potential at small impact parameters is examined. The effects of the gravitational hadron form factors obtained from the hadron generalized parton distributions (GPDs) on the behavior of the gravitational potential and the possible spin correlation effects are also analysed.

Integralni komentirani prevod Homerskih himn, ki jih zdaj prvikrat lahko beremo v slovenskem jeziku, je sredi prevladujočega trivialnega slovstva in pojemajočega duha v slovenski kulturi nedvomno izjemen dosežek tako na področju navdihnjenega oživljanja antičnega izročila kot tudi subtilnega ohranjanja in negovanja zbornega poetičnega jezika. V njem izpričuje osupljiv prevajalski talent in redko dovzetnost za religiozno intonacijo grških himničnih poezij, ki se sicer slogovno vpisujejo v Homerjevo epsko izročilo, najmlajša generacija klasičnih filologinj in filologov, ki so smelo zastavili skupni prevajalski projekt (...) pod mentorstvom profesorja in urednika izdaje Braneta Senegačnika, tudi avtorja poglobljenih spremnih besedil ≫Homerske himne: mostovi med ljudmi in bogovi≪ in ≫Misteriji, ki so za zmeraj ostali misteriji≪. (shrink)

A new theory is considered according to which extended objects in n-dimensional space are described in terms of multivector coordinates which are interpreted as generalizing the concept of center of mass coordinates. While the usual center of mass is a point, by generalizing the latter concept, we associate with every extended object a set of r-loops, r=0,1,...,n−1, enclosing oriented (r+1)-dimensional surfaces represented by Clifford numbers called (r+1)-vectors or multivectors. Superpositions of multivectors are called polyvectors or Clifford aggregates and they are (...) elements of Clifford algebra. The set of all possible polyvectors forms a manifold, called C-space. We assume that the arena in which physics takes place is in fact not Minkowski space, but C-space. This has many far reaching physical implications, some of which are discussed in this paper. The most notable is the finding that although we start from the constrained relativity in C-space we arrive at the unconstrained Stueckelberg relativistic dynamics in Minkowski space which is a subspace of C-space. (shrink)