Wandering Towards a Goal
Wandering Towards a Goal

Author: Anthony Aguirre

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2018-05-30

Total Pages: 251

ISBN-13: 3319757261

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This collection of prize-winning essays addresses the controversial question of how meaning and goals can emerge in a physical world governed by mathematical laws. What are the prerequisites for a system to have goals? What makes a physical process into a signal? Does eliminating the homunculus solve the problem? The three first-prize winners, Larissa Albantakis, Carlo Rovelli and Jochen Szangolies tackle exactly these challenges, while many other aspects (agency, the role of the observer, causality versus teleology, ghosts in the machine etc.) feature in the other award winning contributions. All contributions are accessible to non-specialists. These seventeen stimulating and often entertaining essays are enhanced versions of the prize-winning entries to the FQXi essay competition in 2017.The Foundational Questions Institute, FQXi, catalyzes, supports, and disseminates research on questions at the foundations of physics and cosmology, particularly new frontiers and innovative ideas integral to a deep understanding of reality, but unlikely to be supported by conventional funding sources.

What is Fundamental?
What is Fundamental?

Author: Anthony Aguirre

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2019-03-21

Total Pages: 189

ISBN-13: 3030113019

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Are there truly fundamental entities in nature? Or are the things that we regard as fundamental in our theories – for example space, time or the masses of elementary particles – merely awaiting a derivation from a new, yet to be discovered theory based on elements that are more fundamental? This was the central question posed in the 2018 FQXi essay competition, which drew more than 200 entries from professional physicists, philosophers, and other scholars. This volume presents enhanced versions of the fifteen award-winning essays, giving a spectrum of views and insights on this fascinating topic. From a prescription for “when to stop digging” to the case for strong emergence, the reader will find here a plethora of stimulating and challenging ideas - presented in a largely non-technical manner - on which to sharpen their understanding of the language of physics and even the nature of reality.

Wandering in Darkness
Wandering in Darkness

Author: Eleonore Stump

Publisher: OUP Oxford

Published: 2012-09-13

Total Pages: 688

ISBN-13: 0191056316

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Only the most naïve or tendentious among us would deny the extent and intensity of suffering in the world. Can one hold, consistently with the common view of suffering in the world, that there is an omniscient, omnipotent, perfectly good God? This book argues that one can. Wandering in Darkness first presents the moral psychology and value theory within which one typical traditional theodicy, namely, that of Thomas Aquinas, is embedded. It explicates Aquinas's account of the good for human beings, including the nature of love and union among persons. Eleonore Stump also makes use of developments in neurobiology and developmental psychology to illuminate the nature of such union. Stump then turns to an examination of narratives. In a methodological section focused on epistemological issues, the book uses recent research involving autism spectrum disorder to argue that some philosophical problems are best considered in the context of narratives. Using the methodology argued for, the book gives detailed, innovative exegeses of the stories of Job, Samson, Abraham and Isaac, and Mary of Bethany. In the context of these stories and against the backdrop of Aquinas's other views, Stump presents Aquinas's own theodicy, and shows that Aquinas's theodicy gives a powerful explanation for God's allowing suffering. She concludes by arguing that this explanation constitutes a consistent and cogent defense for the problem of suffering.

Humanity Divided
Humanity Divided

Author: Manuel Duarte de Oliveira

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2021-09-20

Total Pages: 657

ISBN-13: 3110741180

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With exacting scholarship and fecund analysis, Manuel Oliveira probes through the lens of Martin Buber (1878-1965) the theological and political ambiguities of Israel’s divine election. These ambiguities became especially pronounced with the emergence of Zionism. Wary, indeed, alarmed by the tendency of some of his fellow Zionists to conflate divine chosenness with nationalism, Buber sought to secure the theological significance of election by both steering Zionism from hypertrophic nationalism and by a sustained program to revalorize what he called alternately “Hebrew Humanism.” As Oliveira demonstrates, Buber viewed the idea of election teleologically, espousing a universal mission of Israel, which effectively calls upon Zionism to align its political and cultural project to universal objectives. Thus, in addressing a Zionist congress, he rhetorically asked, “What then is this spirit of Israel of which you are speaking? It is the spirit of fulfillment. Fulfillment of what? Fulfillment of the simple truth that man has been created for a purpose (...) Our purpose is the upbuilding of peace (...) And that is its spirit, the spirit of Israel (...) the people of Israel was charged to lead the way to righteousness and justice.”

Rendezvous with the Sensuous
Rendezvous with the Sensuous

Author: John Murungi

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2014-03-17

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 1443857874

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In Rendezvous with the Sensuous readers are drawn to, and become situated within, the dynamic place of the aesthetic experience. While there, human sensuousness comes into relief as it combines with the sensuousness that derives from nature. In this complex place where artistic expression coalesces with the natural world, readers are extended an invitation to share in the journey of a richly diverse synesthetic experience and to gain a greater appreciation of the important place of the sensuous in illuminating the role of aesthetics in the world of ideas.

Design of the Unfinished
Design of the Unfinished

Author: Luciano Crespi

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2021-07-07

Total Pages: 250

ISBN-13: 3030734579

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The book aims to provide city administrators and planners with a tool to accompany them in experimenting with the regeneration of no longer used parts of the built heritage, called leftovers, by adopting an innovative approach. A new and radically different form of project, with the task of proposing a new aesthetic code and a style of thought aimed at creating shelters for nomads of the third millennium. In the design field, the 21st century will be destined to measure itself against temporariness and precariousness, also in terms of aesthetic practices. Based on this hypothesis, the text identifies the design of the unfinished as the perspective for attributing to the leftovers a character, which is representative of the conditions of the just begun century. Through a transdisciplinary, exhibition-like and reversible approach, the elements of degradation of the existing work are welcomed in the project as a "gift", to be translated into a syntax aimed at giving form and meaning to the internal and external environments, with the inclusion of "additional components".

SEMIOTICS AND ITS MASTERS 2 (OLTEANU/COBLEY) SCC 36 PB
SEMIOTICS AND ITS MASTERS 2 (OLTEANU/COBLEY) SCC 36 PB

Author: Alin Olteanu

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2023-01-30

Total Pages: 356

ISBN-13: 3110857804

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Semiotics has ever-changing vistas in consonance with changes in the ever-increasing complexity of life on Planet Earth. This book presents cutting-edge work in semiotics, projecting developments in the future of the field. Authored by leading semioticians, Semiotics and its Masters, Volume 2 contains essays on learning, transdisciplinarity, science, scaffolding, narrative, selfhood, ecosemiotics, agency, cybersemiotics, pornography, nostalgia, language and money. The volume presents a panorama of semiotics as it will develop in the third decade of the 21st century. This book will furnish the reader with an overview of the challenges that face explorers in the contemporary world of signs.

The Demon in the Machine
The Demon in the Machine

Author: Paul Davies

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2019-10-16

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13: 022666970X

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Physics World Book of the Year A Financial Times, Sunday Times, and Telegraph Best Science Book of the Year What is life? For generations, scientists have struggled to make sense of this fundamental question, for life really does look like magic: even a humble bacterium accomplishes things so dazzling that no human engineer can match it. Huge advances in molecular biology over the past few decades have served only to deepen the mystery. In this penetrating and wide-ranging book, world-renowned physicist and science communicator Paul Davies searches for answers in a field so new and fast-moving that it lacks a name; it is a domain where biology, computing, logic, chemistry, quantum physics, and nanotechnology intersect. At the heart of these diverse fields, Davies explains, is the concept of information: a quantity which has the power to unify biology with physics, transform technology and medicine, and force us to fundamentally reconsider what it means to be alive—even illuminating the age-old question of whether we are alone in the universe. From life’s murky origins to the microscopic engines that run the cells of our bodies, The Demon in the Machine journeys across an astounding landscape of cutting-edge science. Weaving together cancer and consciousness, two-headed worms and bird navigation, Davies reveals how biological organisms garner and process information to conjure order out of chaos, opening a window onto the secret of life itself.

Baroness Orczy: Collected Works
Baroness Orczy: Collected Works

Author: Emma Orczy

Publisher: Good Press

Published: 2023-12-28

Total Pages: 10886

ISBN-13:

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This meticulously edited collection contains 31 novels and over 100 short stories of Emma Orczy, including the complete Scarlet Pimpernel series and other historical novels, adventure and romance classics._x000D_ Contents:_x000D_ The Scarlet Pimpernel Series:_x000D_ The Laughing Cavalier_x000D_ The First Sir Percy_x000D_ The Scarlet Pimpernel_x000D_ Sir Percy Leads the Band_x000D_ The League of the Scarlet Pimpernel_x000D_ I Will Repay_x000D_ The Elusive Pimpernel_x000D_ Lord Tony's Wife_x000D_ The Way of the Scarlet Pimpernel_x000D_ Eldorado_x000D_ Mam'zelle Guillotine_x000D_ Sir Percy Hits Back_x000D_ Adventures of the Scarlet Pimpernel_x000D_ The Triumph of the Scarlet Pimpernel_x000D_ A Child of the Revolution_x000D_ In the Rue Monge_x000D_ Pimpernel and Rosemary_x000D_ The Scarlet Pimpernel Looks at the World_x000D_ Other Novels:_x000D_ The Emperor's Candlesticks_x000D_ The Tangled Skein (In Mary's Reign)_x000D_ Beau Brocade_x000D_ The Nest of the Sparrowhawk_x000D_ Petticoat Rule (Petticoat Government)_x000D_ The Heart of a Woman (A True Woman)_x000D_ Unto Caesar_x000D_ A Bride of the Plains_x000D_ The Bronze Eagle_x000D_ Leatherface_x000D_ His Majesty's Well-Beloved_x000D_ The Honourable Jim_x000D_ The Celestial City_x000D_ Marivosa_x000D_ A Joyous Adventure_x000D_ The Uncrowned King_x000D_ Short Stories:_x000D_ The Old Man in the Corner_x000D_ Unravelled Knots_x000D_ The Khaki Tunic_x000D_ The Ingres Masterpiece_x000D_ The Pearl Necklace_x000D_ The Russian Prince_x000D_ The Mysterious Tragedy in Bishop'S Road_x000D_ The Dog'S Tooth Cliff_x000D_ The Tytherton Case_x000D_ The Brudenell Court_x000D_ The White Carnation_x000D_ The Montmartre Hat_x000D_ The Miser of Maida Vale_x000D_ The Fulton Gardens Mystery_x000D_ A Moorland Tragedy_x000D_ Lady Molly of Scotland Yard_x000D_ The Ninescore Mystery_x000D_ The Frewin Miniatures_x000D_ The Irish-Tweed Coat_x000D_ The Fordwych Castle Mystery_x000D_ A Day's Folly_x000D_ A Castle in Brittany_x000D_ A Christmas Tragedy_x000D_ The Bag of Sand_x000D_ The Man in the Inverness Cape_x000D_ The Woman in the Big Hat_x000D_ Sir Jeremiah's Will_x000D_ The End_x000D_ The Man in Grey_x000D_ Silver-leg_x000D_ The Spaniard_x000D_ The Mystery of Marie Vaillant_x000D_ The Emeralds of Mademoiselle Philipa_x000D_ The Bourbon Prince_x000D_ The Mystery of a Woman's Heart_x000D_ The League of Knaves_x000D_ The Arrow Poison_x000D_ The Last Adventure_x000D_ Castles in the Air_x000D_ A Roland For His Oliver_x000D_ A Fool's Paradise_x000D_ On The Brink_x000D_ Carissimo_x000D_ The Toys_x000D_ Honour Among ––_x000D_ An Over-Sensitive Heart_x000D_ Skin o' My Tooth

The League of the Scarlet Pimpernel
The League of the Scarlet Pimpernel

Author: Baroness Orczy

Publisher: Standard Ebooks

Published: 2021-01-14T17:14:01Z

Total Pages: 263

ISBN-13:

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At the scene of Marat’s death, in an infamous cabaret in the old section of Paris, in an old abandoned château on the outskirts of the city, in a prison in the midst of the September massacres—the Scarlet Pimpernel and his League may be in all of these places, or they may be in none of them. In these eleven stories Chauvelin, Robespierre, and several other officials each make their attempts to catch the Pimpernel as he intervenes on the side of the innocent and helpless. The question in these stories is not really whether they will snare him, but how he will make his escape—and in some cases, whether he’s there at all. This book is part of the Standard Ebooks project, which produces free public domain ebooks.