Na[sdotu]īr al-Dīn al-[Tdotu]ūsī, Memoir on Astronomy . [Sdotu]adr al-Sharī‘a. An Islamic Response to Greek Astronomy: Kitāb Ta‘dīl Hay’at al-Aflāk of [sdotu]adr al-Sharīa , Edited with Translation and Commentary by Ahmad S. Dallal, X + 461 pp., figs., index. Leiden - New York - Köln, E.J. Brill, 1995.

bit b. Qurra is especially known as a mathematician, but his work in astronomy is also important. This article reviews his eight surviving astronomical treatises, as well as relevant fragments of his lost works cited by later authors in Arabic and Latin. We conclude that, as an active participant in the scientific movement of 9th-century Baghdad, bit played a crucial role in the establishment of astronomy as an exact science. The argument is based on an assessment of his contribution in (...) three areas: the relationship between observation and theory, the of astronomy, and the relationship between astronomy and astronomy. (shrink)

Our aim is to show that translating the modal graphs of Moretti’s “n-opposition theory” (2004) into set theory by a suited device, through identifying logical modal formulas with appropriate subsets of a characteristic set, one can, in a constructive and exhaustive way, by means of a simple recurring combinatory, exhibit all so-called “logical bi-simplexes of dimension n” (or n-oppositional figures, that is the logical squares, logical hexagons, logical cubes, etc.) contained in the logic produced by any given modal graph (an (...) exhaustiveness which was not possible before). In this paper we shall handle explicitly the classical case of the so-called 3(3)-modal graph (which is, among others, the one of S5), getting to a very elegant tetraicosahedronal geometrisation of this logic. (shrink)

An empirical interaction potential has been developed primarily to simulate displacement cascades in a UO 2 matrix. After a bibliographical survey revealed that the potentials discussed in the literature are not entirely suitable for describing point defects and their migration, we decided to adapt the most representative of the existing potentials. Our objective was specifically to reproduce transport phenomena, which are fundamental to a satisfactory description of atomic displacement cascades. The modified potential more correctly describes the experimental energies of formation (...) and migration of point defects as well as the oxygen diffusion coefficients in the superionic phase. Thermal expansion, heat capacity and enthalpy are also better modelled over a wide temperature range. The new potential is much more transferable than earlier potentials fitted mainly to the properties of perfect crystals. The initial simulated atomic displacement cascades showed that this potential is well suited to the description of structural effects created by decelerating recoil nuclei in a UO 2 matrix. (shrink)

Cases or examples can be often explained by the interplay of arguments in favour or against their outcomes. This paper addresses the problem of finding explanations for a collection of cases where an explanation is a labelled argumentation graph consistent with the cases, and a case is represented as a statement labelling. The focus is on semi-abstract argumentation graphs specifying attack and subargument relations between arguments, along with particular complete argument labellings taken from probabilistic argumentation where arguments can be excluded. (...) The framework and computational considerations lead to an iterated local iterative deepening depth-first search to collect ‘interesting’ semi-abstract argumentation graphs consistent with a collection of statement labellings. Finally, the framework is illustrated and evaluated with a proof-of-concept implementation. (shrink)

Alan Gewirth's Reason and Morality directed philosophical attention to the possibility of presenting a rational and rigorous demonstration of fundamental moral principles. Now, these previously unpublished essays from some of the most distinguished philosophers of our generation subject Gewirth's program to thorough evaluation and assessment. In a tour de force of philosophical analysis, Professor Gewirth provides detailed replies to all of his critics--a major, genuinely clarifying essay of intrinsic philosophical interest.

O autor esboça seu projeto de apresentar a liberdade como independente da versão forte - ontológica - da contingência; e discutir certas afinidades indeterministas de Aristóteles com a interpretação dominante da física quãntica, em contraste com o determinismo da ciência moderna.

Cet ouvrage est une réédition numérique d’un livre paru au XXe siècle, désormais indisponible dans son format d’origine.

Figure essentielle du militantisme gay des années 1970, engagé à gauche, pionnier des recherches sociohistoriques sur l’homosexualité en Europe – notamment avec son ouvrage Coming Out: Homosexual Politics in Britain from the Nineteenth Century to the Present, paru en 1977 –, Jeffrey Weeks, successivement professeur dans diverses universités britanniques, est aussi à l’initiative de belles réussites scientifiques comme la création de revues à comité de lecture spécifiquement dédiées à l’étude...

Georges Hérelle (1848-1935), professeur de philosophie, intéressé par les arts et traditions populaires, membre de nombreuses sociétés savantes, est réputé pour ses travaux sur les pastorales basques, la Champagne moderne ou encore ses traductions littéraires de l’italien vers le français. Grâce à l’ouvrage de Clive Thomson (Université de Guelph, Canada), qui a examiné attentivement l’impressionnant fonds qu’il a légué à la Bibliothèque municipale de Troyes, il est désormais possible d’enfin...

According to Bergson, there is no laugh without an « anaesthesia of the heart ». A kind of malice always ultimately lies in the depths of the pleasure of laughter. Can this pleasure be mora l ? It creates an affective community which can be both the site of identity and that of challenge, of calling everything into question. Cathartic, conservative, revolutionary, philosophical, desperate, the pleasure of laughter is a complex passion which must be taken seriously.

This paper proposes an approach to investigate norm-governed learning agents which combines a logic-based formalism with an equation-based counterpart. This dual formalism enables us to describe the reasoning of such agents and their interactions using argumentation, and, at the same time, to capture systemic features using equations. The approach is applied to norm emergence and internalisation in systems of learning agents. The logical formalism is rooted into a probabilistic defeasible logic instantiating Dung’s argumentation framework. Rules of this logic are attached (...) with probabilities to describe the agents’ minds and behaviours as well as uncertain environments. Then, the equation-based model for reinforcement learning, defined over this probability distribution, allows agents to adapt to their environment and self-organise. (shrink)

Why is Butterfield's best-seller The Origins of Modern Science (1949) such a powerful big picture, nearly impossible to move away from? Considered in the context of his life, the contrast between his attacks on Whig history and the contents of his best-seller reveals that his big picture of science continues at the centre because of his spiritual beliefs and practices. Butterfield did not make explicit his Christian (Methodist) world view to his history of science readers, although one could infer this (...) from his point that Christianity and the Scientific Revolution were the most significant events in universal history, transcending cultural boundaries. As long as Christian beliefs and practices continue to be at the centre of Western Society, so will Butterfield's big picture be at the centre. Western society is a Christian civilization. For Butterfield, the meaning of history is Christianity and The Origins of Modern Science is very much a Christian statement of the evolution of knowledge acquisition in Western society. To de-centre The Origins would require first a de-centred view of Christianity. (shrink)