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A Certain Ambiguity: A Mathematical Novel (PDF)
by Gaurav Suri Hartosh Singh BalWhile taking a class on infinity at Stanford in the late 1980s, Ravi Kapoor discovers that he is confronting the same mathematical and philosophical dilemmas that his mathematician grandfather had faced many decades earlier--and that had landed him in jail. Charged under an obscure blasphemy law in a small New Jersey town in 1919, Vijay Sahni is challenged by a skeptical judge to defend his belief that the certainty of mathematics can be extended to all human knowledge--including religion. Together, the two men discover the power--and the fallibility--of what has long been considered the pinnacle of human certainty, Euclidean geometry. As grandfather and grandson struggle with the question of whether there can ever be absolute certainty in mathematics or life, they are forced to reconsider their fundamental beliefs and choices. Their stories hinge on their explorations of parallel developments in the study of geometry and infinity--and the mathematics throughout is as rigorous and fascinating as the narrative and characters are compelling and complex. Moving and enlightening, A Certain Ambiguity is a story about what it means to face the extent--and the limits--of human knowledge.
Certainty and Ambiguity in Global Mystery Fiction: Essays on the Moral Imagination
by John J. Han, C. Clark Triplett, and Matthew BardowellMystery fiction as a genre renders moral judgments not only about detectives and criminals but also concerning the cultural structures within which these mysteries unfold.In contrast to other volumes which examine morality in crime fiction through the lenses of personal guilt and personal justice, Certainty and Ambiguity in Global Mystery Fiction analyzes the effect of moral imagination on the moral structures implicit in the genre. In recent years, public awareness has attended to the relationship between social structures and justice, and this collection centers on how personal ethics and social ethics are bound together amidst the shifting moral landscapes of mystery fiction.Contributors discuss the interplay between personal guilt and social guilt – considering morality and justice on an individual level and at a societal level – using frameworks of certainty and ambiguity. They show how individual characters in works by Agatha Christie, Gabriel García Márquez, Natsuo Kirino, F.H. Batacan, and Stephen King, among others, may view their moral standing with certainty but clash with the established mores of their culture. Featuring essays on Japanese, Filipino, Indian, and Colombian mystery fiction, as well as American and British fiction, this volume analyzes social guilt and justice across cultures, showing how individuals grapple with the certainty, and, at times, the moral ambiguity, of their respective cultures.
Certainty and Ambiguity in Global Mystery Fiction: Essays on the Moral Imagination
Mystery fiction as a genre renders moral judgments not only about detectives and criminals but also concerning the cultural structures within which these mysteries unfold.In contrast to other volumes which examine morality in crime fiction through the lenses of personal guilt and personal justice, Certainty and Ambiguity in Global Mystery Fiction analyzes the effect of moral imagination on the moral structures implicit in the genre. In recent years, public awareness has attended to the relationship between social structures and justice, and this collection centers on how personal ethics and social ethics are bound together amidst the shifting moral landscapes of mystery fiction.Contributors discuss the interplay between personal guilt and social guilt – considering morality and justice on an individual level and at a societal level – using frameworks of certainty and ambiguity. They show how individual characters in works by Agatha Christie, Gabriel García Márquez, Natsuo Kirino, F.H. Batacan, and Stephen King, among others, may view their moral standing with certainty but clash with the established mores of their culture. Featuring essays on Japanese, Filipino, Indian, and Colombian mystery fiction, as well as American and British fiction, this volume analyzes social guilt and justice across cultures, showing how individuals grapple with the certainty, and, at times, the moral ambiguity, of their respective cultures.
Certainty in Action: Wittgenstein on Language, Mind and Epistemology
by Danièle Moyal-SharrockIn Certainty in Action, Danièle Moyal-Sharrock describes how her encounter with Wittgenstein overturned her previous assumptions that the mind is a product of brain activity and that thought, consciousness, the will, feelings, memories, knowledge and language are stored and processed in the brain, by the brain. She shows how Wittgenstein enables us to veer away from this brain-centred view of intelligence and behaviour to a person-centred view focusing on ways of acting that are both diversely embedded across forms of human life and universally embedded in a single human form of life. The book traces the radical importance of action as the cohesive thread weaving through Wittgenstein's philosophy, and shows how certainty intertwines with it to produce new ways of engaging in epistemology, the philosophy of mind and the philosophy of language. This selection of Moyal-Sharrock's essays vividly illustrates some of the ways in which Wittgenstein's pioneering enactivism has impacted – and can further impact – not only philosophy, but also neighbouring disciplines such as linguistics, psychology, primatology, evolutionary psychology and anthropology. Certainty in Action is essential reading for students and researchers of these disciplines, and for anyone interested in getting a grasp of Wittgenstein's lasting genius and influence.
Certainty in Action: Wittgenstein on Language, Mind and Epistemology
by Danièle Moyal-SharrockIn Certainty in Action, Danièle Moyal-Sharrock describes how her encounter with Wittgenstein overturned her previous assumptions that the mind is a product of brain activity and that thought, consciousness, the will, feelings, memories, knowledge and language are stored and processed in the brain, by the brain. She shows how Wittgenstein enables us to veer away from this brain-centred view of intelligence and behaviour to a person-centred view focusing on ways of acting that are both diversely embedded across forms of human life and universally embedded in a single human form of life. The book traces the radical importance of action as the cohesive thread weaving through Wittgenstein's philosophy, and shows how certainty intertwines with it to produce new ways of engaging in epistemology, the philosophy of mind and the philosophy of language. This selection of Moyal-Sharrock's essays vividly illustrates some of the ways in which Wittgenstein's pioneering enactivism has impacted – and can further impact – not only philosophy, but also neighbouring disciplines such as linguistics, psychology, primatology, evolutionary psychology and anthropology. Certainty in Action is essential reading for students and researchers of these disciplines, and for anyone interested in getting a grasp of Wittgenstein's lasting genius and influence.
Certainty in Law (Law and Philosophy Library #114)
by Humberto ÁvilaInstead of the usual apologetic treatment found in legal doctrine, linked to the determinacy, immutability or predictability of norms, this book treats legal certainty innovatively, holistically and in depth. Using a method at once analytical and functional, Professor Ávila examines the structural elements of legal certainty, from its definition and foundations to its various dimensions, normative forces and efficacies, citing a wealth of examples from case law to support each of the theses defended.No subject is more important and topical than legal certainty. Problems relating to lack of understanding, instability and unpredictability of law intensify day by day everywhere, in civil law and common law countries alike. Normative sources are increasingly diverse in origin (national, international, community) and multiple in nature (legal, contractual, jurisprudential). They change constantly, and present increasingly frequent problems of ambiguity and vagueness that significantly hinder their comprehension. This state of affairs, which to a greater or lesser extent is true of any legal order, justifies a return to the subject of legal certainty. In this book, essential questions are answered such as: Legal certainty in what sense? Certainty of what, for whom, in whose vision and by whom? When, to what extent, and to what end? “(…) it is probably the most comprehensive and systematic study ever produced on this subject using the analytical method.” (Riccardo Guastini, Professor of Jurisprudence, University of Genoa, Italy)
Certified Programs and Proofs: Third International Conference, CPP 2013, Melbourne, VIC, Australia, December 11-13,2013, Proceedings (Lecture Notes in Computer Science #8307)
by Georges Gonthier Michael NorrishThis book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Third International Conference on Certified Programs and Proofs, CPP 2013, colocated with APLAS 2013 held in Melbourne, Australia, in December 2013. The 18 revised regular papers presented together with 1 invited lecture were carefully reviewed and selected from 39 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on code verification, elegant proofs, proof libraries, certified transformations and security.
Certified Programs and Proofs: Second International Conference, CPP 2012, Kyoto, Japan, December 13-15, 2012, Proceedings (Lecture Notes in Computer Science #7679)
by Chris Hawblitzel Dale MillerThis book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Second International Conference on Certified Programs and Proofs, CPP 2012, held in Kyoto, Japan, in December 2012. The 18 revised regular papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 37 submissions. They deal with those topics in computer science and mathematics in which certification via formal techniques is crucial.
Certified Programs and Proofs: First International Conference, CPP 2011, Kenting, Taiwan, December 7-9, 2011, Proceedings (Lecture Notes in Computer Science #7086)
by Jean-Pierre Jouannaud Zhong ShaoThis book constitutes the referred proceedings of the First International Conference on Certified Programs and Proofs, CPP 2011, held in Kenting, Taiwan, in December 2011. The 24 revised regular papers presented together with 4 invited talks were carefully reviewed and selected from 49 submissions. They are organized in topical sections on logic and types, certificates, formalization, proof assistants, teaching, programming languages, hardware certification, miscellaneous, and proof perls.
César Vallejo: A Poet of the Event (Studies in Revolution and Literature)
by Víctor VichThis book argues that the poetry of César Vallejo announces the event, as a moment of irruption of a truth that destabilises the usual state of reality. It studies the emergence of a subject who affirms a truth that exceeds the law, interrupts hegemonic repetition, asserts universal solidarity, and defends "lost causes" despite political failure. The author reconfigures the traditional reading of Vallejo only as a poet of pain and human suffering, and offers new ways of understanding the relationship between poetry and politics.
Ceterus Paribus Laws
by SandraMitchell ClarkGlymour JohnEarmanNatural and social sciences seem very often to hedge their laws by ceteris paribus clauses - a practice which is philosophically very hard to understand because such clauses seem to render the laws trivial and unfalsifiable. This volume collects the most prominent philosophers of science in the field and presents a lively, controversial, but well-integrated, highly original discussion of the issue. It will be the reference book in the coming years concerning ceteris paribus laws.
Cha Dao: The Way of Tea, Tea as a Way of Life
by Solala TowlerIn China, the art and practice of drinking tea is about much more than merely soaking leaves in a cup of hot water. The tradition is rooted in Daoism, and emerged from a philosophy that honoured living a life of grace and gratitude, balance and harmony, and fulfilment and enjoyment - what the ancient Chinese called Cha Dao, or the Way of Tea. Cha Dao takes us on a fascinating journey through the Way of Tea, from its origins in the sacred mountains and temples of ancient China, through its links to Daoist concepts such as Wu Wei or non-striving and the Value of Worthlessness, to the affinity between Tea Mind and the Japanese spirit of Zen. Interspersed are a liberal helping of quotes from the great tea masters of the past, anecdotes from the author's own trips to China, and traditional tea stories from China and Japan. The unique health benefits of tea are also explored, and a chapter is devoted to describing the history, characteristics and properties of 25 different tea varieties. This book will interest tea lovers, as well as those who want to learn more about tea culture, Daoist and Zen thought and practice, and Asian history and culture.
Cha Dao: The Way of Tea, Tea as a Way of Life (PDF)
by Solala TowlerIn China, the art and practice of drinking tea is about much more than merely soaking leaves in a cup of hot water. The tradition is rooted in Daoism, and emerged from a philosophy that honoured living a life of grace and gratitude, balance and harmony, and fulfilment and enjoyment - what the ancient Chinese called Cha Dao, or the Way of Tea. Cha Dao takes us on a fascinating journey through the Way of Tea, from its origins in the sacred mountains and temples of ancient China, through its links to Daoist concepts such as Wu Wei or non-striving and the Value of Worthlessness, to the affinity between Tea Mind and the Japanese spirit of Zen. Interspersed are a liberal helping of quotes from the great tea masters of the past, anecdotes from the author's own trips to China, and traditional tea stories from China and Japan. The unique health benefits of tea are also explored, and a chapter is devoted to describing the history, characteristics and properties of 25 different tea varieties. This book will interest tea lovers, as well as those who want to learn more about tea culture, Daoist and Zen thought and practice, and Asian history and culture.
Chaim L. Pekeris and the Art of Applying Mathematics with WEIZAC, 1955–1963 (SpringerBriefs in History of Science and Technology)
by Leo Corry Raya LeviathanThis book describes the groundbreaking work of Chaim Leib Pekeris and his collaborators. Between 1955 and 1963 they used the first electronic computer built in Israel, the Weizmann Automatic Computer (WEIZAC), to develop powerful numerical methods that helped achieve new and accurate solutions of the Boltzmann equation, calculate energy levels of the helium atom, produce detailed geophysical and seismological models derived from the study of the free oscillations of the earth, and refine models used to predict meteorological phenomena and global oceanic tides. This book provides a unique account of the pioneering work of Chaim L. Pekeris in applied mathematics and explains in detail the background to the rise of the Weizmann Institute as a world-class center of scientific excellence. This hitherto untold story is of great interest to historians of twentieth-century science with special emphasis on the application of computer-assisted numerical methods in various branches of mathematical physics.
The Chain: The unique and unforgettable thriller of the year
by Adrian McKintyVICTIM.SURVIVOR.ABDUCTOR.CRIMINAL.YOU WILL BECOME EACH ONE.'Starting THE CHAIN is like climbing aboard a runaway train. You'll miss meals, sleep, and your stop on the bus - guaranteed.'VAL McDERMID'Incredibly propulsive and original. You won't shake it for a long time.'STEPHEN KING'Scary, plausible, gripping ... If you like compelling storytelling, this taut thriller is going to be your summer holiday read.'IAN RANKIN'I may not read a better thriller in my lifetime. It just doesn't get any better than THE CHAIN.'STEVE CAVANAGH * * * * *YOUR PHONE RINGS.A STRANGER HAS KIDNAPPED YOUR CHILD.TO FREE THEM YOU MUST ABDUCT SOMEONE ELSE'S CHILD.YOUR CHILD WILL BE RELEASED WHEN YOUR VICTIM'S PARENTS KIDNAP ANOTHER CHILD.IF ANY OF THESE THINGS DON'T HAPPEN:YOUR CHILD WILL BE KILLED. YOU ARE NOW PART OF THE CHAIN * * * * *'A masterpiece. You will never be able to forget it.'DON WINSLOW'A unique and unforgettable thriller. Breath-taking, breakneck, brilliant.'MARK BILLINGHAM 'Terrifying. Terrific.'MICK HERRON'Striking, memorable, should be savoured.'TANA FRENCH'THE CHAIN does for parenting what Gone Girl did for marriage. A must-read thriller.'JAMES SWALLOW'Inventive, tense, unputdownable - THE CHAIN is the real deal.'TIM WEAVER'Diabolical, unnerving, relentless.'DENNIS LEHANE'An electrifying thriller - one of the very best of its kind'FIONA CUMMINS 'A first-rate edge-of-your-seat thriller. I can't believe what went through my mind while reading it.'ATTICA LOCKE'Gripping, nail-biting, convincing.'MEG GARDINER'Brutally compelling.'MASON CROSS'Staggeringly brilliant. Gripping, propulsive, profoundly affecting.'LIAM McILLVANNEY'Relentless from the first page to the last. Clever, uncompromising, and gripping.'LUCA VESTE'This is the thriller of the year.'SJI HOLLIDAY "YOU ARE NOT THE FIRST.AND YOU WILL CERTAINLY NOT BE THE LAST."
Chains of Being: Infinite Regress, Circularity, and Metaphysical Explanation
by Ross P. CameronIn Chains of Being, Ross P. Cameron argues for both Metaphysical Infinitism, the view that there can be infinitely descending chains of ontological dependence or grounding, with no bottom level of fundamental things or facts, and Metaphysical Holism, the view that there can be circles of ontological dependence or grounding. Cameron argues against the widespread orthodoxy of Metaphysical Foundationalism: that everything in reality is ultimately accounted for by a base class of fundamental phenomena. In doing so, he makes the case against another widespread orthodoxy: that relations like grounding and ontological dependence are explanatory relations. Cameron provides an alternative account of metaphysical explanation that does not tie explanation to determination relations like grounding and ontological dependence, and he shows how explanation works in infinitist and holistic metaphysics. Embracing the possibility of infinite regress and circularity can be theoretically fruitful, as is shown by applying it to a number of cases across a wide range of philosophical areas, including: non-well-founded set theory, mathematical structuralism, the metaphysics of persons, the metaphysics of gender and sexuality, the semantic paradoxes, and others. In the course of exploring these applications, Cameron defends distinctive views concerning when an infinite regress is vicious, the nature of truth, non-classical logic and dialetheism, social construction, and more.
Chains of Being: Infinite Regress, Circularity, and Metaphysical Explanation
by Ross P. CameronIn Chains of Being, Ross P. Cameron argues for both Metaphysical Infinitism, the view that there can be infinitely descending chains of ontological dependence or grounding, with no bottom level of fundamental things or facts, and Metaphysical Holism, the view that there can be circles of ontological dependence or grounding. Cameron argues against the widespread orthodoxy of Metaphysical Foundationalism: that everything in reality is ultimately accounted for by a base class of fundamental phenomena. In doing so, he makes the case against another widespread orthodoxy: that relations like grounding and ontological dependence are explanatory relations. Cameron provides an alternative account of metaphysical explanation that does not tie explanation to determination relations like grounding and ontological dependence, and he shows how explanation works in infinitist and holistic metaphysics. Embracing the possibility of infinite regress and circularity can be theoretically fruitful, as is shown by applying it to a number of cases across a wide range of philosophical areas, including: non-well-founded set theory, mathematical structuralism, the metaphysics of persons, the metaphysics of gender and sexuality, the semantic paradoxes, and others. In the course of exploring these applications, Cameron defends distinctive views concerning when an infinite regress is vicious, the nature of truth, non-classical logic and dialetheism, social construction, and more.
Chains of Persuasion: A Framework for Religion in Democracy
by Benjamin R. HertzbergDemocratic politics seems to inspire religious conflict - politicians consistently use religious differences for political gain, while religious nationalism and nationalistic reactions to religious diversity are on the rise in much of the world. And yet predominant theoretical accounts of liberal democracy provide citizens precious little applicable guidance in making judgments about religion's proper role in their political societies. Chains of Persuasion provides a new moral framework to guide citizens' evaluations of religious politics. Rejecting claims that religion must be relegated to the private sphere or that all attempts to evaluate its political roles are oppressive, Benjamin Hertzberg argues that democratic ideals are robust enough to assess the full range of ways religion influences democratic political life. Hertzberg's analysis draws on critical theories of religion, philosophical debates about public reason, deliberative and instrumental justifications of democracy, and democratic virtue theory. He argues that citizens must recognize that democracy is a way-of-life, with crucial implications for civic society beyond formal political institutions, in order to attend to the ways in which religion can both enhance and undermine democracy. He applies this framework by criticizing American public discussions of two prominent religious minorities: Mormons and Muslims. If citizens are to make judgments consistent with democratic norms, they must pay more attention to the nature of religions' authority claims instead of merely evaluating the values religions proclaim.
Chains of Persuasion: A Framework for Religion in Democracy
by Benjamin R. HertzbergDemocratic politics seems to inspire religious conflict - politicians consistently use religious differences for political gain, while religious nationalism and nationalistic reactions to religious diversity are on the rise in much of the world. And yet predominant theoretical accounts of liberal democracy provide citizens precious little applicable guidance in making judgments about religion's proper role in their political societies. Chains of Persuasion provides a new moral framework to guide citizens' evaluations of religious politics. Rejecting claims that religion must be relegated to the private sphere or that all attempts to evaluate its political roles are oppressive, Benjamin Hertzberg argues that democratic ideals are robust enough to assess the full range of ways religion influences democratic political life. Hertzberg's analysis draws on critical theories of religion, philosophical debates about public reason, deliberative and instrumental justifications of democracy, and democratic virtue theory. He argues that citizens must recognize that democracy is a way-of-life, with crucial implications for civic society beyond formal political institutions, in order to attend to the ways in which religion can both enhance and undermine democracy. He applies this framework by criticizing American public discussions of two prominent religious minorities: Mormons and Muslims. If citizens are to make judgments consistent with democratic norms, they must pay more attention to the nature of religions' authority claims instead of merely evaluating the values religions proclaim.
Challenge and Change: Global Threats and the State in Twenty-first Century International Politics
by Norma C. Noonan Vidya NadkarniThis edited volume addresses how the state system, the organizing political institution in world politics, copes with challenges of rapid change, unanticipated crises, and general turmoil in the twenty-first century. These disruptions are occurring against the background of declining US influence and the rising power of countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Traditional inter-state security concerns coexist with new security preoccupations, such as rivalries likely to erupt over the resources of the global commons, the threat of cyber warfare, the ever-present threat of terrorism, and the economic and social repercussions of globalization. The contributors explore these key themes and the challenges posed by rapid change.
The Challenge of Bergsonism: Phenomenology, Ontology, Ethics
by Leonard LawlorThe Challenge of Bergsonism explores how Bergsonism questions our ways of thinking, particularly the concept of reality, and ultimately demands a return to ethics. The book also includes the first English translation of Jean Hyppolite's highly influential essay, "Various Aspects of Memory in Bergson".
The Challenge of Chance: A Multidisciplinary Approach from Science and the Humanities (The Frontiers Collection)
by Klaas Landsman Ellen Van WoldeThis book presents a multidisciplinary perspective on chance, with contributions from distinguished researchers in the areas of biology, cognitive neuroscience, economics, genetics, general history, law, linguistics, logic, mathematical physics, statistics, theology and philosophy. The individual chapters are bound together by a general introduction followed by an opening chapter that surveys 2500 years of linguistic, philosophical, and scientific reflections on chance, coincidence, fortune, randomness, luck and related concepts. A main conclusion that can be drawn is that, even after all this time, we still cannot be sure whether chance is a truly fundamental and irreducible phenomenon, in that certain events are simply uncaused and could have been otherwise, or whether it is always simply a reflection of our ignorance. Other challenges that emerge from this book include a better understanding of the contextuality and perspectival character of chance (including its scale-dependence), and the curious fact that, throughout history (including contemporary science), chance has been used both as an explanation and as a hallmark of the absence of explanation. As such, this book challenges the reader to think about chance in a new way and to come to grips with this endlessly fascinating phenomenon.
The Challenge of Competence: Professionalism through Vocational Education and Traning
by Phil HodkinsonOffers a range of related perspectives on competence issues, which should be of interest to policy-makers, practitioners, academics and researchers in the fields of teaching, social work, and youth and community work. The book includes comparisons with vocational education initiatives in Europe.
The Challenge of Complexity: Essays by Edgar Morin
by Amy Heath-CarpentierThe Challenge of Complexity gathers in one volume over 32 essays by the esteemed French philosopher and sociologist, Edgar Morin, probably France's greatest living public intellectual. The essays span six decades of his career, addressing topics such as complexity, sociology, ecology, education, film, biology, and politics. At his centenary (July 2021), Morin holds honorary doctorates from over 20 universities in Europe and Latin America, and recently the Centre d'Etudes Transdisciplinaires, Sociologie, Anthropologie, Histoire, at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), the prestigious French National Research Center, was renamed the Centre Edgar-Morin. He is also the UNESCO Chair of Complex Thought. Several university centres and institutes have been dedicated to advancing his work in Europe and Latin America. He is the author of more than 80 books, translated into 28 languages, and the 1960 documentary Chronicle of a Summer, which he co-directed with Jean Rouch, has become a classic and the first example of cinema verite. Morin's work on complexity is distinct from the mathematically driven science of complexity. He argues for an epistemological revolution and focuses on the need to develop complex thought to address the lived complexity of an interconnected, interdependent, uncertain world. Morin's contribution in such a wide range of disciplines has been influential because of his ability to bring complex thought to bear on seemingly diverse topics, reflecting on the limitations of how they are approached and articulating a transdisciplinary way that doesnt sacrifice complexity in an effort to find an oversimplified clarity. Morin illuminates the complexity and creativity of the world and of our lived experience, and invites us to participate in the creative process that is existence itself. A substantive overview of Morin's philosophical journey by Alfonso Montuori introduces the reader to Morin's remarkable work and life. And the work is completed by a substantive Letter from Edgar Morin, putting his life's work in the context of recent advances in Science and the Humanities.
The Challenge of Enlightenment, Conflict Transformation and Peace in Pakistan
by Moonis AhmarThis book looks at the process of cultural enlightenment in the context of Pakistan. It undertakes an interesting and in-depth research focusing on how the world’s second largest Muslim state can learn from Europe’s heritage of enlightenment. It studies why Pakistan lacks a process of awakening and what the scope of cultural enlightenment in Pakistan is against the backdrop of militant Islam. The author argues that cultural enlightenment can help promote positive conflict transformation in Pakistan and discusses the ways in which challenges to establishing a culture of reasoning, tolerance, accommodation, social justice and peace can be dealt with. A unique contribution, this book will be of interest to students and researchers of philosophy, political science, history, international relations, South Asian studies and religious studies. It will also appeal to think tanks, policymakers and general readers interested in these topics.