1.
Wikiquote
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Wikiquote is one of a family of wiki-based projects run by the Wikimedia Foundation, running on MediaWiki software. And to be as proper as possible in regard to the details of the quotations, though there are many online collections of quotations, Wikiquote is distinguished by being among the few that provide an opportunity for visitors to contribute. Wikiquote pages are cross-linked to articles about the personalities on Wikipedia. Initially, the project was created solely in English, an expansion to include additional languages was started in July 2004. As of September 2016, there are 89 versions, as of September 2016, thirty-one versions each have more than 1,000 articles. Sixty language versions have 100 or more articles, Wikimedia Foundation List of Wikiquote Projects by Language Official website
2.
Infinite regress
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An infinite regress in a series of propositions arises if the truth of proposition P1 requires the support of proposition P2, the truth of proposition P2 requires the support of proposition P3. The truth of proposition Pn−1 requires the support of proposition Pn, distinction is made between infinite regresses that are vicious and those that are not. Others think there is, but that all truths are demonstrable, neither doctrine is either true or a necessary deduction from the premises. Our own doctrine is not all knowledge is demonstrative, on the contrary. Such, then, is our doctrine, and in addition we maintain that besides scientific knowledge there is its original source which enables us to recognize the definitions. Infinite regress is akin to the phenomenon wherein an infinite sequence of receding images is formed between two parallel facing mirrors. A similar process occurs in optical feedback
3.
World Turtle
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The World Turtle is a mytheme of a giant turtle supporting or containing the world. The mytheme, which is similar to that of the World Elephant and World Serpent, occurs in Chinese mythology, the World-Tortoise mytheme was discussed comparatively by Edward Burnett Tylor. The World Turtle in Hindu mythology is known as Akupāra, or sometimes Chukwa. Example of a reference to the World Turtle in Hindu literature is found in Jñānarāja, A vulture, why can in the form of a tortoise, who possesses an inconceivable potency, not hold the Earth in the sky for a kalpa. The Lenape myth of the Great Turtle was first recorded between 1678 and 1680 by Jasper Danckaerts, the myth is shared by other indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, notably the Iroquois. Great ATuin—the World Turtle in Terry Pratchetts Discworld Turtles all the way down
4.
World Elephant
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The world-elephants are mythical animals, which according to some authors, appear in Hindu cosmology. However, this concept is not found anywhere in the Puranas or the Epics and Al Biruni makes no mention of it, the popular rendition of the World Turtle supporting one or several World Elephants is recorded in 1599 in a letter by Emanual de Veiga. The Amarakosha lists the names of eight male elephants bearing the world, the names listed are, Airavata, Pundarika, Vamana, Kumunda, Anjana, Pushpa-danta, Sarva-bhauma, Supratika. Four names are given in Ramayana 1.41, Viru-paksha, Maha-padma, Saumanas, the spelling Mahapudma originates as a misprint of Mahapadma in Sri Aurobindos 1921 retelling of a story of the Mahabharata, Love and Death. On the wondrous dais rose a throne, And he its pedestal whose lotus hood With ominous beauty crowns his horrible Sleek folds, great Mahapudma, high displayed He bears the throne of Death. There sat supreme With those compassionate and lethal eyes, Who many names, who many natures holds, Yama, the strong pure Hades sad and subtle, Dharma, who keeps the laws of old untouched
5.
India
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India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and it is bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast. It shares land borders with Pakistan to the west, China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the northeast, in the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Indias Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a border with Thailand. The Indian subcontinent was home to the urban Indus Valley Civilisation of the 3rd millennium BCE, in the following millennium, the oldest scriptures associated with Hinduism began to be composed. Social stratification, based on caste, emerged in the first millennium BCE, early political consolidations took place under the Maurya and Gupta empires, the later peninsular Middle Kingdoms influenced cultures as far as southeast Asia. In the medieval era, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam arrived, much of the north fell to the Delhi sultanate, the south was united under the Vijayanagara Empire. The economy expanded in the 17th century in the Mughal empire, in the mid-18th century, the subcontinent came under British East India Company rule, and in the mid-19th under British crown rule. A nationalist movement emerged in the late 19th century, which later, under Mahatma Gandhi, was noted for nonviolent resistance, in 2015, the Indian economy was the worlds seventh largest by nominal GDP and third largest by purchasing power parity. Following market-based economic reforms in 1991, India became one of the major economies and is considered a newly industrialised country. However, it continues to face the challenges of poverty, corruption, malnutrition, a nuclear weapons state and regional power, it has the third largest standing army in the world and ranks sixth in military expenditure among nations. India is a constitutional republic governed under a parliamentary system. It is a pluralistic, multilingual and multi-ethnic society and is home to a diversity of wildlife in a variety of protected habitats. The name India is derived from Indus, which originates from the Old Persian word Hindu, the latter term stems from the Sanskrit word Sindhu, which was the historical local appellation for the Indus River. The ancient Greeks referred to the Indians as Indoi, which translates as The people of the Indus, the geographical term Bharat, which is recognised by the Constitution of India as an official name for the country, is used by many Indian languages in its variations. Scholars believe it to be named after the Vedic tribe of Bharatas in the second millennium B. C. E and it is also traditionally associated with the rule of the legendary emperor Bharata. Gaṇarājya is the Sanskrit/Hindi term for republic dating back to the ancient times, hindustan is a Persian name for India dating back to the 3rd century B. C. E. It was introduced into India by the Mughals and widely used since then and its meaning varied, referring to a region that encompassed northern India and Pakistan or India in its entirety
6.
Hinduist
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Hindutva, or Hinduness, a term popularised by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar in 1923, is the predominant form of Hindu nationalism in India. The Bharatiya Janata Party adopted it as its ideology in 1989. It is championed by the Hindu nationalist volunteer organisation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and its affiliate organisations, many Indian social scientists have described the Hindutva movement as fascist, adhering to the concept of homogenised majority and cultural hegemony. Some Indian social scientists, as well as the Hindutva movement, on 2 January 2017, the Supreme Court of India declined to reconsider its 1995 judgment, which defined Hindutva as a way of life and not a religion. The notion of Hindutva, meaning Hinduness was coined in the early 20th century, referring to three meanings of Hindu, viz. Indian, follower of Indian religions in general, and follower of Hinduism. Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, an activist interned in Ratnagiri prison in the 1920s and his tract, Essentials of Hindutva, better known under the later title Hindutva, Who Is a Hindu. Defined a Hindu as one who was born of Hindu parents, the three essentials of Hindutva were said to be the common nation, common race and common culture/civilisation. Hindus thus defined formed a nation that had existed since antiquity, Savarkar claimed and it was a form of ethnic nationalism as understood by Clifford Geertz, Lloyd Fallers and Anthony D. Smith. Savarkars formulation of Hinduness was regarded in his time as akin to a scientific discovery, christophe Jaffrelot states that Savarkars idea of Hindutva marked a qualitative change in Hindu nationalism. Hedgewar, another Indian independence activist in Nagpur, who was concerned with the weaknesses of the Hindu society against foreign domination. He visited Savarkar in Ratnagiri in March 1925 and discussed with him methods for organising the Hindu nation, in September that year, he started Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh with this mission. However, the term Hindutva was not used to describe the ideology of the new organisation, the official constitution of the RSS, adopted in 1948, used the phrase Hindu Samaj. In the words of an RSS publication, it became evident that Hindus were the nation in Bharat, both the terms Hindutva and Hindu Rashtra were used liberally in the Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha, a party Savarkar became the president of in 1937. He asked for the membership of Hindu Mahasabha to be open to all communities. When this was not accepted, he resigned from the party, thus, yet another term Bharatiya came into parlance with rough resemblance to Hindutva, which continues to be used in the successor party Bharatiya Janata Party to this day. Whereas Savarkars Hindutva was an identity and religion was considered a part of the culture. The all-comprehensive religion of the Indian nation is Hinduism of which the culture is a product. Those only are nationalist patriots, who with the aspiration to glorify the Hindu race, the rest are traitors and enemies to the National Cause
7.
Unmoved mover
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The unmoved mover or prime mover is a monotheistic concept advanced by Aristotle, a polytheist, as a primary cause or mover of all the motion in the universe. As is implicit in the name, the unmoved mover moves other things, in Book 12 of his Metaphysics, Aristotle describes the unmoved mover as being perfectly beautiful, indivisible, and contemplating only the perfect contemplation, itself contemplating. He equates this concept also with the active intellect, st. Thomas Aquinas, for example, elaborated on the unmoved mover in the Quinque viae. In the Physics Aristotle finds surprising difficulties explaining even commonplace change, Aristotles first philosophy, or Metaphysics, develops his peculiar theology of the prime mover, as πρῶτον κινοῦν ἀκίνητον, an independent divine eternal unchanging immaterial substance. While the number of spheres in the model itself was subject to change, Aristotles account of aether, as such, it would be physically impossible for them to move material objects of any size by pushing, pulling or collision. Their influence on lesser beings is purely the result of an aspiration or desire, the first heaven, the outmost sphere of fixed stars, is moved by a desire to emulate the prime mover, in relation to whom, the subordinate movers suffer an accidental dependency. Many of Aristotles contemporaries complained that oblivious, powerless gods are unsatisfactory, nonetheless, it was a life which Aristotle enthusiastically endorsed as one most enviable and perfect, the unembellished basis of theology. As the whole of nature depends on the inspiration of the unmoved movers. It is through the action of the Sun upon the terrestrial spheres. The intellect, nous, or whatever else it be that is thought to rule and lead us by nature and it is also the most sustainable, pleasant, self-sufficient activity, something which is aimed at for its own sake. This aim is not strictly human, to achieve it means to live in accordance not with mortal thoughts, according to Aristotle, contemplation is the only type of happy activity which it would not be ridiculous to imagine the gods having. In Aristotles psychology and biology, the intellect is the soul and he argues that in the beginning, if the cosmos had come to be, its first motion would lack an antecedent state, and as Parmenides said, nothing comes from nothing. The Cosmological argument, later attributed to Aristotle, thereby draws the conclusion that God exists, however, if the cosmos had a beginning, Aristotle argued, it would require an efficient first cause, a notion that Aristotle took to demonstrate a critical flaw. The purpose of Aristotles cosmological argument, that at least one eternal unmoved mover must exist, is to support everyday change, of things that exist, substances are the first. But if substances can, then all things can perish. and yet, time, now, the only continuous change is that of place, and the only continuous change of place is circular motion. Therefore, there must be a circular motion and this confirmed by the fixed stars which are moved by the eternal actual substance substance thats purely actual. Even though the foregoing might have suggested that generation of substances is fundamental for all the kinds of changes. Aristotle argues at the opening of Physics bk.8 that motion and change in the universe can have no beginning, with this argument Aristotle can establish an eternal chain of motions and refute those who hold that there could have been a previous stationary state of the universe
8.
Cosmology
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Cosmology is the study of the origin, evolution, and eventual fate of the universe. The term cosmology was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blounts Glossographia, religious or mythological cosmology is a body of beliefs based on mythological, religious, and esoteric literature and traditions of creation and eschatology. Physical cosmology is studied by scientists, such as astronomers and physicists, as well as philosophers, such as metaphysicians, philosophers of physics, and philosophers of space and time. Because of this scope with philosophy, theories in physical cosmology may include both scientific and non-scientific propositions, and may depend upon assumptions that can not be tested. Cosmology differs from astronomy in that the former is concerned with the Universe as a whole while the latter deals with individual celestial objects. Theoretical astrophysicist David N. Spergel has described cosmology as a science because when we look out in space. Physics and astrophysics have played a role in shaping the understanding of the universe through scientific observation. Physical cosmology was shaped through both mathematics and observation in an analysis of the whole universe, cosmogony studies the origin of the Universe, and cosmography maps the features of the Universe. In Diderots Encyclopédie, cosmology is broken down into uranology, aerology, geology, metaphysical cosmology has also been described as the placing of man in the universe in relationship to all other entities. Physical cosmology is the branch of physics and astrophysics that deals with the study of the physical origins and it also includes the study of the nature of the Universe on a large scale. In its earliest form, it was what is now known as celestial mechanics, greek philosophers Aristarchus of Samos, Aristotle, and Ptolemy proposed different cosmological theories. The geocentric Ptolemaic system was the theory until the 16th century when Nicolaus Copernicus. This is one of the most famous examples of epistemological rupture in physical cosmology, when Isaac Newton published the Principia Mathematica in 1687, he finally figured out how the heavens moved. A fundamental difference between Newtons cosmology and those preceding it was the Copernican principle—that the bodies on earth obey the same laws as all the celestial bodies. This was a crucial advance in physical cosmology. Physicists began changing the assumption that the Universe was static and unchanging, in 1922 Alexander Friedmann introduced the idea of an expanding universe that contained moving matter. In parallel to this approach to cosmology, one long-standing debate about the structure of the cosmos was coming to a climax. This difference of ideas came to a climax with the organization of the Great Debate on 26 April 1920 at the meeting of the U. S. National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D. C
9.
Epistemology
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Epistemology is the branch of philosophy concerned with the theory of knowledge. Epistemology studies the nature of knowledge, justification, and the rationality of belief, the term Epistemology was first used by Scottish philosopher James Frederick Ferrier in 1854. However, according to Brett Warren, King James VI of Scotland had previously personified this philosophical concept as the character Epistemon in 1591 and this philosophical approach signified a Philomath seeking to obtain greater knowledge through epistemology with the use of theology. The dialogue was used by King James to educate society on various concepts including the history, the word epistemology is derived from the ancient Greek epistēmē meaning knowledge and the suffix -logy, meaning a logical discourse to. J. F. Ferrier coined epistemology on the model of ontology, to designate that branch of philosophy which aims to discover the meaning of knowledge, and called it the true beginning of philosophy. The word is equivalent to the concept Wissenschaftslehre, which was used by German philosophers Johann Fichte, French philosophers then gave the term épistémologie a narrower meaning as theory of knowledge. Émile Meyerson opened his Identity and Reality, written in 1908, in mathematics, it is known that 2 +2 =4, but there is also knowing how to add two numbers, and knowing a person, place, thing, or activity. Some philosophers think there is an important distinction between knowing that, knowing how, and acquaintance-knowledge, with epistemology being primarily concerned with the first of these, while these distinctions are not explicit in English, they are defined explicitly in other languages. In French, Portuguese, Spanish and Dutch to know is translated using connaître, conhecer, conocer, modern Greek has the verbs γνωρίζω and ξέρω. Italian has the verbs conoscere and sapere and the nouns for knowledge are conoscenza and sapienza, German has the verbs wissen and kennen. The verb itself implies a process, you have to go from one state to another and this verb seems to be the most appropriate in terms of describing the episteme in one of the modern European languages, hence the German name Erkenntnistheorie. The theoretical interpretation and significance of linguistic issues remains controversial. In his paper On Denoting and his later book Problems of Philosophy Bertrand Russell stressed the distinction between knowledge by description and knowledge by acquaintance, gilbert Ryle is also credited with stressing the distinction between knowing how and knowing that in The Concept of Mind. This position is essentially Ryles, who argued that a failure to acknowledge the distinction between knowledge that and knowledge how leads to infinite regress and this includes the truth, and everything else we accept as true for ourselves from a cognitive point of view. Whether someones belief is true is not a prerequisite for belief, on the other hand, if something is actually known, then it categorically cannot be false. It would not be accurate to say that he knew that the bridge was safe, because plainly it was not. By contrast, if the bridge actually supported his weight, then he might say that he had believed that the bridge was safe, whereas now, after proving it to himself, epistemologists argue over whether belief is the proper truth-bearer. Some would rather describe knowledge as a system of justified true propositions, plato, in his Gorgias, argues that belief is the most commonly invoked truth-bearer
10.
Hindu mythology
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As such, it is a subset of mainstream Indian and Nepali culture. The roots of mythology that evolved from classical Hinduism come from the times of the Vedic civilization, the four Vedas, notably the hymns of the Rigveda, contain allusions to many themes. The characters, philosophy and stories make up ancient Vedic myths are indelibly linked with Hindu beliefs. The Vedas are four in number, namely RigVeda, YajurVeda, SamaVeda, in the period of Classical Sanskrit, much material is preserved in the Sanskrit epics. Besides mythology proper, the voluminous epics also provide a range of information about ancient Nepali and Indian society, philosophy, culture, religion. The two great Hindu Epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata tell the story of two incarnations of Vishnu. These two works are known as Itihasa, the epics Mahabharata and Ramayana serve as both religious scriptures and a rich source of philosophy and morality. The most famous of these chapters is the Bhagavad Gita in the Mahabharata, in which Lord Krishna explains the concepts of duty and these stories are deeply embedded in Hindu philosophy and serve as parables and sources of devotion for Hindus. The Mahabharata is the worlds longest epic in verse, running to more than 2,000,000 lines, the epics themselves are set in different Yugas, or periods of time. The Ramayana, written by the Maharshi Valmiki, describes the life and times of Lord Rama, the Mahabharata, describing the life and times of the Pandavas, occurs in the Dvapara Yuga, a period associated with Lord Krishna. In total, there are 4 Yugas and these are the Satya or Krita Yuga, the Treta Yuga, the Dvapara Yuga, and the Kali Yuga. The avatara concept, however, belongs to the Puranic times, the Puranas deal with stories that are old and do not appear in the epics. They contain legends and stories about the origins of the world, and the lives and adventures of a variety of gods, goddesses, heroes, heroines. They contain traditions related to ancient kings, seers, incarnations of God and legends about holy places, the Bhagavata Purana is probably the most read and popular of the Puranas. It chronicles the legends of the god Vishnu and his avatars on earth, the act of creation was thought of in more than one manner. One of the oldest cosmogonic myth in the Rigveda had come into existence as a cosmic egg, the Purusha Sukta narrates that all things were made out of the mangled limbs of Purusha, a magnified non-natural man, who was sacrificed by the gods. In the Puranas, Vishnu, in the shape of a boar, plunged into the cosmic waters, the Shatapatha Brahmana says that in the beginning, Prajapati, the first creator or father of all, was alone in the world. He differentiated himself into two beings, husband and wife, the wife, regarding union with her producer as incest, fled from his embraces assuming various animal disguises
11.
Society of Jesus
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The Society of Jesus Latin, Societas Iesu, S. J. SJ or SI) is a religious congregation of the Catholic Church which originated in Spain. The society is engaged in evangelization and apostolic ministry in 112 nations on six continents, Jesuits work in education, intellectual research, and cultural pursuits. Jesuits also give retreats, minister in hospitals and parishes, and promote social justice, Ignatius of Loyola founded the society after being wounded in battle and experiencing a religious conversion. He composed the Spiritual Exercises to help others follow the teachings of Jesus Christ, ignatiuss plan of the orders organization was approved by Pope Paul III in 1540 by a bull containing the Formula of the Institute. Ignatius was a nobleman who had a background, and the members of the society were supposed to accept orders anywhere in the world. The Society participated in the Counter-Reformation and, later, in the implementation of the Second Vatican Council, the Society of Jesus is consecrated under the patronage of Madonna Della Strada, a title of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and it is led by a Superior General. The Society of Jesus on October 3,2016 announced that Superior General Adolfo Nicolás resignation was officially accepted, on October 14, the 36th General Congregation of the Society of Jesus elected Father Arturo Sosa as its thirty-first Superior General. The headquarters of the society, its General Curia, is in Rome, the historic curia of St. Ignatius is now part of the Collegio del Gesù attached to the Church of the Gesù, the Jesuit Mother Church. In 2013, Jorge Mario Bergoglio became the first Jesuit Pope, the Jesuits today form the largest single religious order of priests and brothers in the Catholic Church. As of 1 January 2015, Jesuits numbered 16,740,11,986 clerics regular,2,733 scholastics,1,268 brothers and 753 novices. In 2012, Mark Raper S. J. wrote, Our numbers have been in decline for the last 40 years—from over 30,000 in the 1960s to fewer than 18,000 today. The steep declines in Europe and North America and consistent decline in Latin America have not been offset by the significant increase in South Asia, the Society is divided into 83 Provinces with six Independent Regions and ten Dependent Regions. On 1 January 2007, members served in 112 nations on six continents with the largest number in India and their average age was 57.3 years,63.4 years for priests,29.9 years for scholastics, and 65.5 years for brothers. The current Superior General of the Jesuits is Arturo Sosa, the Society is characterized by its ministries in the fields of missionary work, human rights, social justice and, most notably, higher education. It operates colleges and universities in countries around the world and is particularly active in the Philippines. In the United States it maintains 28 colleges and universities and 58 high schools and he ensured that his formula was contained in two papal bulls signed by Pope Paul III in 1540 and by Pope Julius III in 1550. The formula expressed the nature, spirituality, community life and apostolate of the new religious order, the meeting is now commemorated in the Martyrium of Saint Denis, Montmartre
12.
Samuel Purchas
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Not to be confused with Samuel Purchas, author of A Theatre of Political Flying-Insects. Samuel Purchas, an English cleric, published volumes of reports by travellers to foreign countries. Purchas was born at Thaxted, Essex, son of an English yeoman and he graduated from St Johns College, Cambridge, in 1600. In 1604 James I presented him to the vicarage of St. Laurence and All Saints, in Eastwood, Eastwood is two miles from Leigh-on-Sea, which was then a prosperous shipping center and a congregational place of seafaring men. Purchas himself never travelled 200 miles from Thaxted in Essex where I was borne, instead, he recorded personal narratives shared with him by the sailors, who returned to England from their voyages. He added these accounts to a vast compilation of unsorted manuscripts, in 1614, Purchas became chaplain to Archbishop George Abbot and rector of St Martin, Ludgate, London. He held a Bachelor of Divinity degree, and with this degree was admitted at Oxford University in 1615, in 1613 he published Purchas His Pilgrimage, or Relations of the World and the Religions observed in all Ages and Places discovered, from the Creation unto this Present. In this work, intended as an overview of the diversity of Gods creation from an Anglican world-view, the book achieved immediate popularity and went through four editions between 1613 and 1626, the year of Purchass death. His second book, Purchas his Pilgrim or Microcosmus, or the Historie of Man, relating the Wonders of his Generation, Vanities in his Degeneration, Necessities of his Regenerations, was published in 1619. Volume II is dedicated to Africa, Palestine, Persia, volume III provides history of the North-East and North-West passages and summaries of travels to Tartary, Russia, and China. Volume IV deals with America and the West Indies, the fourth edition of the Pilgrimage is usually catalogued as the fifth volume of the Pilgrimes, but the two works are essentially distinct. Purchas himself said of the two volumes, These brethren, holding much resemblance in name, nature and feature, yet differ in both the object and the subject. This being mine own in matter, though borrowed, and in form of words and method, acting their own parts in their own words, only furnished by me with such necessities as that stage further required, and ordered according to my rules. Purchas died in September or October 1626, according to some in a debtors prison, in addition, his move to London allowed Purchas to expand his research. None of his works was reprinted till the Glasgow reissue of the Pilgrimes in 1905-1907 and his editorial decisions as well as the commentary he added can be understood from his basic goal, to edify and educate the reader about the world, foreign culture, and morality. This should be contrasted with Hakluyts goal of inspiring and interesting the nation in pursuing the project of exploration. Purchas his Pilgrimes became one of the sources of inspiration for the poem Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. ”Purchas, his Pilgrimage, or, Relations of the World, Microcosmus, or the historie of Man. Reprinted in 1905-1907 in 20 volumes, Works by Samuel Purchas at Project Gutenberg Works by or about Samuel Purchas at Internet Archive Purchas his Pilgrimes, digital images of all four volumes, Library of Congress Purchas, Samuel
13.
John Locke
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John Locke FRS was an English philosopher and physician, widely regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers and commonly known as the Father of Liberalism. Considered one of the first of the British empiricists, following the tradition of Sir Francis Bacon and his work greatly affected the development of epistemology and political philosophy. His writings influenced Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, many Scottish Enlightenment thinkers and his contributions to classical republicanism and liberal theory are reflected in the United States Declaration of Independence. Locke was the first to define the self through a continuity of consciousness and he postulated that, at birth, the mind was a blank slate or tabula rasa. This is now known as empiricism, an example of Lockes belief in Empiricism can be seen in his quote, whatever I write, as soon as I discover it not to be true, my hand shall be the forwardest to throw it into the fire. This shows the ideology of science in his observations in that something must be capable of being tested repeatedly, challenging the work of others, Locke is said to have established the method of introspection, or observing the emotions and behaviours of one’s self. Locke was born on 29 August 1632, in a thatched cottage by the church in Wrington, Somerset. He was baptised the same day, soon after Lockes birth, the family moved to the market town of Pensford, about seven miles south of Bristol, where Locke grew up in a rural Tudor house in Belluton. In 1647, Locke was sent to the prestigious Westminster School in London under the sponsorship of Alexander Popham, after completing studies there, he was admitted to Christ Church, Oxford, in the autumn of 1652 at the age of twenty. The dean of the college at the time was John Owen, although a capable student, Locke was irritated by the undergraduate curriculum of the time. He found the works of philosophers, such as René Descartes. Locke was awarded a degree in February 1656 and a masters degree in June 1658. In 1666, he met Lord Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury, Cooper was impressed with Locke and persuaded him to become part of his retinue. Locke had been looking for a career and in 1667 moved into Shaftesburys home at Exeter House in London, in London, Locke resumed his medical studies under the tutelage of Thomas Sydenham. Sydenham had an effect on Lockes natural philosophical thinking – an effect that would become evident in An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. Lockes medical knowledge was put to the test when Shaftesburys liver infection became life-threatening, Locke coordinated the advice of several physicians and was probably instrumental in persuading Shaftesbury to undergo surgery to remove the cyst. Shaftesbury survived and prospered, crediting Locke with saving his life, Shaftesbury, as a founder of the Whig movement, exerted great influence on Lockes political ideas. Locke became involved in politics when Shaftesbury became Lord Chancellor in 1672, following Shaftesburys fall from favour in 1675, Locke spent some time travelling across France as tutor and medical attendant to Caleb Banks
14.
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
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An Essay Concerning Human Understanding is a work by John Locke concerning the foundation of human knowledge and understanding. It first appeared in 1689 with the printed title An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding and he describes the mind at birth as a blank slate filled later through experience. The essay was one of the sources of empiricism in modern philosophy. Book I of the Essay is Lockes attempt to refute the rationalist notion of innate ideas and these secondary qualities, Locke claims, are dependent on the primary qualities. He also offers a theory of identity, offering a largely psychological criterion. Book III is concerned with language, and Book IV with knowledge, including intuition, mathematics, moral philosophy, natural philosophy, faith, Book I of the Essay is devoted to an attack on nativism or the doctrine of innate ideas. Locke allowed that some ideas are in the mind from an early age, if we have a universal understanding of a concept like sweetness, it is not because this is an innate idea, but because we are all exposed to sweet tastes at an early age. One of Lockes fundamental arguments against innate ideas is the fact that there is no truth to which all people attest. Chapter ten in this book focuses on Abuse of Words, here, Locke calls out metaphysicians for making up new words that have no clear meaning. He also criticizes the use of words which are not linked to clear ideas, thus he uses a discussion of language to demonstrate sloppy thinking. Locke followed the Port-Royal Logique in numbering among the abuses of language those that he calls affected obscurity in chapter 10, writers may also invent such obfuscation to make themselves appear more educated or their ideas more complicated and nuanced or erudite than they actually are. This book focuses on knowledge in general – that it can be thought of as the sum of ideas, Locke discusses the limit of human knowledge, and whether knowledge can be said to be accurate or truthful. Thus there is a distinction between what an individual might claim to know, as part of a system of knowledge, for example, Locke writes at the beginning of Chap. Knowledge, say you, is only the Perception of the Agreement or Disagreement of our own Ideas, but of what use is all this fine Knowledge of Mans own Imaginations, to a Man that enquires after the reality of things. In the last chapter of the book, Locke introduces the classification of sciences into physics, semiotics. Many of Lockes views were criticized by rationalists and empiricists alike. In 1704 the rationalist Gottfried Leibniz wrote a response to Lockes work in the form of a chapter-by-chapter rebuttal, the empiricist George Berkeley was equally critical of Lockes views in the Essay. Berkeleys most notable criticisms of Locke were first published in A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge, Berkeley held that Lockes conception of abstract ideas was incoherent and led to severe contradictions
15.
Henry David Thoreau
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Henry David Thoreau was an American essayist, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, and historian. Thoreaus books, articles, essays, journals, and poetry amount to more than 20 volumes and he was a lifelong abolitionist, delivering lectures that attacked the Fugitive Slave Law while praising the writings of Wendell Phillips and defending the abolitionist John Brown. Amos Bronson Alcott and Thoreaus aunt each wrote that Thoreau is pronounced like the word thorough, Edward Waldo Emerson wrote that the name should be pronounced Thó-row, with the h sounded and stress on the first syllable. Among modern-day American speakers, it is more commonly pronounced thə-ROH—/θəˈroʊ/—with stress on the second syllable. Thoreau was a man, with a nose that he called my most prominent feature. Of his appearance and disposition, Ellery Channing wrote, His face, once seen, Henry David Thoreau was born David Henry Thoreau in Concord, Massachusetts, into the modest New England family of John Thoreau, a pencil maker, and Cynthia Dunbar. His paternal grandfather was born in Jersey and his maternal grandfather, Asa Dunbar, led Harvards 1766 student Butter Rebellion, the first recorded student protest in the American colonies. David Henry was named after his recently deceased uncle, David Thoreau. He began to call himself Henry David after he finished college and he had two older siblings, Helen and John Jr. and a younger sister, Sophia. Thoreaus birthplace still exists on Virginia Road in Concord, the house has been restored by the Thoreau Farm Trust, a nonprofit organization, and is now open to the public. He studied at Harvard College between 1833 and 1837 and he lived in Hollis Hall and took courses in rhetoric, classics, philosophy, mathematics, and science. He was a member of the Institute of 1770, according to legend, Thoreau refused to pay the five-dollar fee for a Harvard diploma. He commented, Let every sheep keep its own skin, a reference to the tradition of using sheepskin vellum for diplomas, after he graduated in 1837, he joined the faculty of the Concord public school, but he resigned after a few weeks rather than administer corporal punishment. He and his brother John then opened the Concord Academy, a school in Concord in 1838. They introduced several concepts, including nature walks and visits to local shops. The school closed when John became fatally ill from tetanus in 1842 after cutting himself while shaving, upon graduation Thoreau returned home to Concord, where he met Ralph Waldo Emerson through a mutual friend. Emerson urged Thoreau to contribute essays and poems to a periodical, The Dial. Thoreaus first essay published in The Dial was Aulus Persius Flaccus and it consisted of revised passages from his journal, which he had begun keeping at Emersons suggestion
16.
New-York Mirror
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The New-York Mirror was a weekly newspaper published in New York City from 1823 to 1842, and again as a daily newspaper renamed The Evening Mirror from 1844 to 1898. The Mirror was founded by George Pope Morris and Samuel Woodworth in August 1823, the journal was a weekly publication, and it included coverage of arts and literature in addition to local news. Circulation flagged in the 1840s and at the end of 1842 the paper was closed, in 1843 Morris partnered with popular writer Nathaniel Parker Willis to revamp the business, and together they relaunched the newspaper as The Evening Mirror in 1844. In both incarnations, the paper employed many well known figures of the day. Edgar Allan Poe worked for the newspaper as a critic until February 1845, in the January 29,1845 issue, the Mirror was the first to publish Poes poem The Raven with the authors name. In his introduction to the poem, Willis called it unsurpassed in English poetry for subtle conception, masterly ingenuity of versification and it will stick to the memory of everybody who reads it. Willis and Morris left the publication in 1846, after Willis, the newspaper was edited by Hiram Fuller, a noted enemy of Poe. Fuller published attacks on Poe made by Charles Frederick Briggs and Thomas Dunn English in May, a letter printed by the Mirror in the July 23,1846 issue caused Poe to sue the newspaper for libel and defamation of character. Poe won the suit and was awarded $225.06 as well as an additional $101.42 in court costs, the New York Mirror at Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore
17.
William James
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William James was an American philosopher and psychologist who was also trained as a physician. A Review of General Psychology survey, published in 2002, ranked James as the 14th most cited psychologist of the 20th century and he also developed the philosophical perspective known as radical empiricism. James work has influenced intellectuals such as Émile Durkheim, W. E. B, du Bois, Edmund Husserl, Bertrand Russell, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Hilary Putnam, and Richard Rorty, and has even influenced Presidents, such as Jimmy Carter. Born into a family, James was the son of the Swedenborgian theologian Henry James Sr. James wrote widely on topics, including epistemology, education, metaphysics, psychology, religion. William James was born at the Astor House in New York City and he was the son of Henry James Sr. a noted and independently wealthy Swedenborgian theologian well acquainted with the literary and intellectual elites of his day. William James received an eclectic trans-Atlantic education, developing fluency in both German and French, education in the James household encouraged cosmopolitanism. The family made two trips to Europe while William James was still a child, setting a pattern that resulted in thirteen more European journeys during his life. In his early adulthood, James suffered from a variety of ailments, including those of the eyes, back, stomach. Two younger brothers, Garth Wilkinson and Robertson, fought in the Civil War, the other three siblings all suffered from periods of invalidism. He took up studies at Harvard Medical School in 1864. His studies were interrupted once again due to illness in April 1867 and he traveled to Germany in search of a cure and remained there until November 1868, at that time he was 26 years old. During this period, he began to publish, reviews of his works appeared in periodicals such as the North American Review. James finally earned his M. D. degree in June 1869, what he called his soul-sickness would only be resolved in 1872, after an extended period of philosophical searching. He married Alice Gibbens in 1878, in 1882 he joined the Theosophical Society. Jamess time in Germany proved intellectually fertile, helping him find that his interests lay not in medicine but in philosophy. Later, in 1902 he would write, I originally studied medicine in order to be a physiologist, I never had any philosophic instruction, the first lecture on psychology I ever heard being the first I ever gave. In 1875–1876, James, Henry Pickering Bowditch, Charles Pickering Putnam, G. Stanley Hall, Henri Bergson and Sigmund Freud
18.
John R. Ross
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John Robert Haj Ross is a linguist who played a part in the development of generative semantics along with George Lakoff, James D. McCawley, and Paul Postal. He was a professor of linguistics at MIT from 1966–1985 and has worked in Brazil, Singapore and he is currently at the University of North Texas. Rosss 1967 MIT dissertation is a landmark in syntactic theory and documents in great detail Rosss discovery of islands, sluicing, slifting, sloppy identity, sounding, squib, squishes, viability, and syntactic islands. As a student, Ross was exposed to many figures within the field. Ross met Lakoff in 1963 and began collaborating with him especially on work by and he was a professor of linguistics at MIT from 1966–1985 and has worked in Brazil, Singapore and British Columbia. He is currently at the University of North Texas and his class offerings there include Linguistics and Literature, Syntax, Field Methods, History of English, Metaphor and Semantics, he also oversees U. N. T. s Doctorate in Poetics program. Relating to syntactic islands, he coined the terms left-branch condition, complex-np constraint, coordinate structure constraint. In phonology, he suggested the conspiracy to Charles Kisseberth. Like Roman Jakobson, Ross analyzes poetry using linguistics, biographical dictionary of western linguistics, 1450–present. Lakoff, George, & Ross, John R. Criterion for verb phrase constituency, in Harvard Computation Laboratory Report to the National Science Foundation on Mathematical linguistics and automatic translation. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Computation Laboratory, Lakoff, George, & Ross, John R. In J. D. McCawley, Syntax and semantics 7, in Harvard Computation Laboratory Report to the National Science Foundation on Mathematical linguistics and automatic translation. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Computation Laboratory, Ross, John R. Relativization in extraposed clauses. In Harvard Computation Laboratory Report to the National Science Foundation on Mathematical linguistics, cambridge, MA, Harvard University Computation Laboratory. Ross, John R. Constraints on variables in syntax, on the cyclic nature of English pronominalization. In To honor Roman Jakobson, Essays on the occasion of his seventieth birthday, Ross, John R. Auxiliaries as main verbs. In W. Todd, Studies in philosophical linguistics, in R. A. Jacobs & P. S. Rosenbaum, Readings in English transformational grammar. Ross, John R. Gapping and the order of constituents, in M. Bierwisch & Karl E. Heidolph, Progress in linguistics
19.
David Hume
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David Hume was a Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist, who is best known today for his highly influential system of radical philosophical empiricism, skepticism, and naturalism. Humes empiricist approach to philosophy places him with John Locke, Francis Bacon, beginning with his A Treatise of Human Nature, Hume strove to create a total naturalistic science of man that examined the psychological basis of human nature. Humes compatibilist theory of free will takes causal determinism as fully compatible with human freedom, Kant himself credited Hume as the spur to his philosophical thought who had awakened him from his dogmatic slumbers. Arthur Schopenhauer once declared there is more to be learned from each page of David Hume than from the collected philosophical works of Hegel, Herbart. Hume is thus regarded as a pivotal figure in the history of philosophical thought. David Hume was the second of two born to Joseph Home of Ninewells, an advocate, and his wife The Hon. Katherine. He was born on 26 April 1711 in a tenement on the side of the Lawnmarket in Edinburgh. Humes father died when Hume was a child, just after his birthday, and he was raised by his mother. He changed the spelling of his name in 1734, because of the fact that his surname Home, throughout his life Hume, who never married, spent time occasionally at his family home at Ninewells in Berwickshire, which had belonged to his family since the sixteenth century. His finances as a man were very slender. His family was not rich and, as a younger son and he was therefore forced to make a living somehow. Hume attended the University of Edinburgh at the early age of twelve at a time when fourteen was normal. He had little respect for the professors of his time, telling a friend in 1735 that there is nothing to be learnt from a Professor, which is not to be met with in Books. Aged around 18, he made a discovery that opened up to him a new Scene of Thought. He did not recount what this scene was, and commentators have offered a variety of speculations, due to this inspiration, Hume set out to spend a minimum of ten years reading and writing. He soon came to the verge of a breakdown, suffering from what a doctor diagnosed as the Disease of the Learned. Hume wrote that it started with a coldness, which he attributed to a Laziness of Temper, later, some scurvy spots broke out on his fingers. This was what persuaded Humes physician to make his diagnosis, Hume wrote that he went under a Course of Bitters and Anti-Hysteric Pills, taken along with a pint of claret every day
20.
Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion
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Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion is a philosophical work by the Scottish philosopher David Hume. Through dialogue, three philosophers named Demea, Philo, and Cleanthes debate the nature of Gods existence, whether or not these names reference specific philosophers, ancient or otherwise, remains a topic of scholarly dispute. While all three agree that a god exists, they differ sharply in opinion on Gods nature or attributes and how, or if, humankind can come to knowledge of a deity. In the Dialogues, Humes characters debate a number of arguments for the existence of God, such topics debated include the argument from design—for which Hume uses a house—and whether there is more suffering or good in the world. Hume started writing the Dialogues in 1750 but did not complete them until 1776 and they are based partly on Ciceros De Natura Deorum. The Dialogues were published posthumously in 1779, originally with neither the nor the publishers name. Pamphilus is a present during the dialogues. In a letter, he reconstructs the conversation of Demea, Philo and he serves as the narrator throughout the piece. At the end of the Dialogues he believes that Cleanthes offered the strongest arguments, however, this could be out of loyalty to his teacher, as this does not seem to reflect Humes own views on the topic. When other pieces on religion by Hume are taken into consideration, while the irony may be less readily evident in the Dialogues, this would suggest a similar reading of this works ending. Cicero used a technique in his Dialogues. Philo, according to the predominant view among scholars, is the character who presents views most similar to those of Hume, Demea defends the Cosmological argument and philosophical theism. He believes that the existence of God should be proven through a priori reasoning, Demea rejects Cleanthes natural religion for being too anthropomorphic. Demea objects to the abandonment of the a priori arguments by Philo, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion at Project Gutenberg Free audio book of Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion
21.
Bertrand Russell
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Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, writer, social critic, political activist and Nobel laureate. At various points in his life he considered himself a liberal, a socialist, and a pacifist and he was born in Monmouthshire into one of the most prominent aristocratic families in the United Kingdom. In the early 20th century, Russell led the British revolt against idealism and he is considered one of the founders of analytic philosophy along with his predecessor Gottlob Frege, colleague G. E. Moore, and protégé Ludwig Wittgenstein. He is widely held to be one of the 20th centurys premier logicians, with A. N. Whitehead he wrote Principia Mathematica, an attempt to create a logical basis for mathematics. His philosophical essay On Denoting has been considered a paradigm of philosophy, Russell mostly was a prominent anti-war activist, he championed anti-imperialism. Occasionally, he advocated preventive nuclear war, before the opportunity provided by the monopoly is gone. He went to prison for his pacifism during World War I, in 1950 Russell was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought. Bertrand Russell was born on 18 May 1872 at Ravenscroft, Trellech, Monmouthshire and his parents, Viscount and Viscountess Amberley, were radical for their times. Lord Amberley consented to his wifes affair with their childrens tutor, both were early advocates of birth control at a time when this was considered scandalous. Lord Amberley was an atheist and his atheism was evident when he asked the philosopher John Stuart Mill to act as Russells secular godfather, Mill died the year after Russells birth, but his writings had a great effect on Russells life. His paternal grandfather, the Earl Russell, had asked twice by Queen Victoria to form a government. The Russells had been prominent in England for several centuries before this, coming to power, Lady Amberley was the daughter of Lord and Lady Stanley of Alderley. Russell often feared the ridicule of his grandmother, one of the campaigners for education of women. Russell had two siblings, brother Frank, and sister Rachel, in June 1874 Russells mother died of diphtheria, followed shortly by Rachels death. In January 1876, his father died of bronchitis following a period of depression. Frank and Bertrand were placed in the care of their staunchly Victorian paternal grandparents and his grandfather, former Prime Minister Earl Russell, died in 1878, and was remembered by Russell as a kindly old man in a wheelchair. His grandmother, the Countess Russell, was the dominant family figure for the rest of Russells childhood, the countess was from a Scottish Presbyterian family, and successfully petitioned the Court of Chancery to set aside a provision in Amberleys will requiring the children to be raised as agnostics. Her favourite Bible verse, Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil, the atmosphere at Pembroke Lodge was one of frequent prayer, emotional repression, and formality, Frank reacted to this with open rebellion, but the young Bertrand learned to hide his feelings
22.
Sturgill Simpson
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John Sturgill Simpson is an American country music and roots rock singer-songwriter. To date, he has released three albums as a solo artist and he released two albums independently, High Top Mountain in 2013 and Metamodern Sounds in Country Music in 2014. Simpson was born in Jackson, Breathitt County, Kentucky, the son of a secretary, due to his fathers work, Simpsons family moved to Versailles, outside Lexington, where Simpson graduated from Woodford County High School. Simpsons mothers family were coal miners, Simpson is the first male on his mothers side of the family to not work in a strip mine or deep mine. After three years in the United States Navy, Simpson spent time in Japan, then lived in Everett, Washington, Simpson formed the bluegrass band Sunday Valley in 2004, which played at the Pickathon festival in Portland, Oregon. Simpson took a break from music, focusing on building a career at a Salt Lake City railroad freight-shipping yard for Union Pacific Railroad, after playing local open mics and gigs, Simpson returned to Sunday Valley. The band toured and made an album and he and his wife moved to Nashville when the group disbanded in 2012. The album was produced by Dave Cobb, among the session musicians were Hargus Pig Robbins on piano and Robby Turner, a former guitarist for Waylon Jennings, on steel guitar. The record is named after a cemetery near Jackson where many of Simpsons family members are buried, stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic rated High Top Mountain 3 and half stars out of 5, comparing its sound favorably to Waylon Jennings. The albums style has also compared to Merle Haggards. Erik Ernst of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel also compared it to Jennings, saying that it had rich vintage sounds, heartbreaking ballads, in 2014, Simpson released his second album produced by Dave Cobb, Metamodern Sounds in Country Music to positive reviews. The albums lead single is Living the Dream, the record is described as a deep and unconventional relationship between traditionalism and new ways of thinking, and deviates from Simpsons more traditional hard country debut. Simpson said that recording and mixing was done in five and a days for about $4,000. I was pretty proud about that, the album made two separate Top Albums of 2014 lists in The New York Times and was also called the best album of the year by American Songwriter. Simpson made his US network television debut on July 14,2014, on the Late Show with David Letterman, in 2015, he returned to The Late Show and Conan playing Long White Line in February and Let It Go in April. He has also played the Grand Ole Opry and at Austin City Limits and he has opened for artists like Dwight Yoakam, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, and the Zac Brown Band. His cover of The Promise by 1980s band When In Rome was featured in the Season 2 Episode 9 of the HBO series The Leftovers in November 2015, Simpson also wrote and performed the theme song to the Martin Scorsese/Mick Jagger-produced TV show, Vinyl. The song is called Sugar Daddy, as of July 2015, Simpsons songs are represented by Downtown Music Publishing—an agreement that followed his record deal with Atlantic Records
23.
Metamodern Sounds in Country Music
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Metamodern Sounds in Country Music is the second studio album by American country music singer-songwriter Sturgill Simpson. The album was produced and engineered by Dave Cobb and was released on May 13,2014, the title of the album is likely a reference to the Ray Charles album Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music. Prior to its release, the entire album was available to stream on MSNs Listening Booth. To further promote the album, Simpson performed on Late Show with David Letterman, Conan, Simpson also performed a set for NPRs Tiny Desk Concert series. Turtles All the Way Down was featured on FXs The Bridge and his cover of The Promise by 80s band When In Rome was featured in the Season 2 Episode 9 of the HBO series The Leftovers. Metamodern Sounds in Country Music received universal acclaim according to Metacritic, jonathan Bernstein of American Songwriter noted Simpsons cover of When in Romes The Promise, stating that he turns the song into a countrypolitan torch song that culminates in a cathartic release. 59 and the Top Country Albums at No,11, with 5,500 copies sold in the US for the week. As of January 2017, the album has sold 228,600 copies in the US
24.
John Green (author)
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John Michael Green is an American author, vlogger, writer, producer, actor and editor. He won the 2006 Printz Award for his novel, Looking for Alaska. The 2014 film adaptation opened at one on the box office. In 2014, Green was included in Time magazines list of The 100 Most Influential People in the World, another film based on a Green novel, Paper Towns, was released on July 24,2015. Aside from being a novelist, Green is also known for his YouTube ventures. In 2007, he launched the VlogBrothers channel with his brother, Green was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, to Mike and Sydney Green. Three weeks after he was born, his family moved to Michigan, then later Birmingham, Alabama, Green graduated from Kenyon College in 2000 with a double major in English and Religious studies. He has spoken about being bullied and how it had made life as a teenager miserable for him, after graduating from college, Green spent five months working as a student chaplain at Nationwide Childrens Hospital in Columbus, Ohio while enrolled at the University of Chicago Divinity School. Green lived for years in Chicago, where he worked for the book review journal Booklist as a publishing assistant. While there, he reviewed hundreds of books, particularly literary fiction and he has also critiqued books for The New York Times Book Review and created original radio essays for NPRs All Things Considered and WBEZ, Chicagos public radio station. Green later lived in New York City for two years while his wife attended graduate school, the novel was awarded the annual Michael L. Printz Award by the American Library Association, recognizing the years best book written for teens, based entirely on its literary merit. It also appeared on the ALAs annual list Top 10 Best Books for Young Adults, as sales of Looking for Alaska continued to increase in 2011, Green showed mixed feelings about a movie, which he felt would threaten readers intense and private connection to the story. In 2012, the book reached The New York Times Best Seller list for childrens paperbacks, Greens second novel, An Abundance of Katherines was a runner-up for the Printz Award and a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. In November 2009, that book reached Number 10 on The New York Times Best Seller list for childrens books. In 2008, Greens third novel, Paper Towns, debuted at five on The New York Times Best Seller list for childrens books. In 2009, Paper Towns was awarded the 2009 Edgar Award for Best Young Adult Novel, after this, Green and his friend, young-adult writer David Levithan, collaborated on the novel Will Grayson, Will Grayson, which was published by Dutton in 2010. It was a runner-up for two of the annual ALA awards, the Stonewall Book Award, and the Odyssey Award for Excellence in Audiobook Production, in August 2009, Green announced he was writing a new book entitled The Sequel, which was later scrapped. His sixth book, The Fault in Our Stars, was released in January 2012 and he crafted the novel by collaborating with Dutton editor Julie Strauss-Gabel
25.
Stephen Hawking
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Hawking was the first to set forth a theory of cosmology explained by a union of the general theory of relativity and quantum mechanics. He is a supporter of the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. In 2002, Hawking was ranked number 25 in the BBCs poll of the 100 Greatest Britons, Hawking has a rare early-onset, slow-progressing form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis that has gradually paralysed him over the decades. He now communicates using a single cheek muscle attached to a speech-generating device, Hawking was born on 8 January 1942 in Oxford, England to Frank and Isobel Hawking. Despite their families financial constraints, both attended the University of Oxford, where Frank read medicine and Isobel read Philosophy. The two met shortly after the beginning of the Second World War at a research institute where Isobel was working as a secretary. They lived in Highgate, but, as London was being bombed in those years, Hawking has two younger sisters, Philippa and Mary, and an adopted brother, Edward. In 1950, when Hawkings father became head of the division of parasitology at the National Institute for Medical Research, Hawking and his moved to St Albans. In St Albans, the family were considered intelligent and somewhat eccentric. They lived an existence in a large, cluttered, and poorly maintained house. During one of Hawkings fathers frequent absences working in Africa, the rest of the family spent four months in Majorca visiting his mothers friend Beryl and her husband, Hawking began his schooling at the Byron House School in Highgate, London. He later blamed its progressive methods for his failure to learn to read while at the school, in St Albans, the eight-year-old Hawking attended St Albans High School for Girls for a few months. At that time, younger boys could attend one of the houses, the family placed a high value on education. Hawkings father wanted his son to attend the well-regarded Westminster School and his family could not afford the school fees without the financial aid of a scholarship, so Hawking remained at St Albans. From 1958 on, with the help of the mathematics teacher Dikran Tahta, they built a computer from clock parts, although at school Hawking was known as Einstein, Hawking was not initially successful academically. With time, he began to show aptitude for scientific subjects and, inspired by Tahta. Hawkings father advised him to medicine, concerned that there were few jobs for mathematics graduates. He wanted Hawking to attend University College, Oxford, his own alma mater, as it was not possible to read mathematics there at the time, Hawking decided to study physics and chemistry
26.
A Brief History of Time
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A Brief History of Time, From the Big Bang to Black Holes is a popular-science book on cosmology by British physicist Stephen Hawking. It was first published in 1988, Hawking wrote the book for nonspecialist readers with no prior knowledge of scientific theories. He talks about basic concepts like space and time, basic building blocks that make up the universe and he writes about cosmological phenomena such as the Big Bang and the black holes. He discusses two major theories, general relativity and quantum mechanics, that scientists use to describe the universe. Finally, he talks about the search for a theory that describes everything in the universe in a coherent manner. The book became a bestseller and sold more than 10 million copies in 20 years and it was also on the London Sunday Times bestseller list for more than four years and was translated into 35 languages by 2001. Early in 1983, Hawking first approached Simon Mitton, the editor in charge of books at Cambridge University Press. Mitton was doubtful about all the equations in the draft manuscript, with some difficulty, he persuaded Hawking to drop all but one equation. The author himself notes in the books acknowledgements that he was warned that for every equation in the book, the book does employ a number of complex models, diagrams, and other illustrations to detail some of the concepts it explores. In A Brief History of Time, Stephen Hawking attempts to explain a range of subjects in cosmology, including the Big Bang, black holes and light cones and his main goal is to give an overview of the subject, but he also attempts to explain some complex mathematics. In the first chapter, Hawking discusses the history of studies, including the ideas of Aristotle. Aristotle, unlike other people of his time, thought that the Earth was round. Aristotle also thought that the sun and stars went around the Earth in perfect circles, second-century Greek astronomer Ptolemy also pondered the positions of the sun and stars in the universe and made a planetary model that described Aristotles thinking in more detail. Today, it is known that the opposite is true, the earth goes around the sun, the Aristotelian and Ptolemaic ideas about the position of the stars and sun were disproved in 1609. The first person to present an argument that the earth revolves around the sun was the Polish priest Nicholas Copernicus. To fit the observations, Kepler proposed an elliptical orbit model instead of a circular one, in his 1687 book on gravity, Principia Mathematica, Isaac Newton used complex mathematics to further support Copernicuss idea. Newtons model also meant that stars, like the sun, were not fixed but, rather, nevertheless, Newton believed that the universe was made up of an infinite number of stars which were more or less static. Many of his contemporaries, including German philosopher Heinrich Olbers, disagreed, the origin of the universe represented another great topic of study and debate over the centuries
27.
Antonin Scalia
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Antonin Gregory Scalia was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1986 until his death in 2016. Appointed to the Court by President Ronald Reagan in 1986, Scalia was described as the anchor for the originalist and textualist position in the Courts conservative wing. Scalia was born in Trenton, New Jersey and he attended Xavier High School in Manhattan and then college at Georgetown University in Washington, D. C. He obtained his law degree from Harvard Law School and spent six years in a Cleveland law firm before becoming a law professor at the University of Virginia. In the early 1970s, he served in the Nixon and Ford administrations and he spent most of the Carter years teaching at the University of Chicago, where he became one of the first faculty advisers of the fledgling Federalist Society. In 1982, Ronald Reagan appointed him as judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, in 1986, Reagan appointed him to the Supreme Court. Scalia was unanimously confirmed by the Senate, becoming the first Italian-American justice and he was a strong defender of the powers of the executive branch, believing presidential power should be paramount in many areas. He opposed affirmative action and other policies that treated minorities as special groups and he filed separate opinions in many cases and often castigated the Courts majority in his minority opinions using scathing language. Antonin Scalia was born on March 11,1936, in Trenton, New Jersey and his father, Salvatore Eugene Scalia, an Italian immigrant from Sommatino, Sicily, was a graduate student at Columbia University and clerk at the time of his sons birth. The elder Scalia would become a professor of Romance languages at Brooklyn College and his mother, Catherine Louise Scalia, was born in Trenton to Italian immigrant parents and worked as an elementary school teacher. In 1939, Scalia and his moved to the Elmhurst section of Queens, New York. He later stated that he spent much of his time on schoolwork and admitted, while a youth, he was also active as a Boy Scout and was part of Scoutings national honor society, the Order of the Arrow. Classmate and future New York State official William Stern remembered Scalia in his school days. He could have been a member of the Curia and he was the top student in the class. He was brilliant, way above everybody else, in 1953, Scalia enrolled at Georgetown University, where he graduated valedictorian and summa cum laude in 1957 with a Bachelor of Arts in history. While in college, he was a champion debater in Georgetowns Philodemic Society. He took his junior year abroad at the University of Fribourg, Scalia studied law at Harvard Law School, where he was a Notes Editor for the Harvard Law Review. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard in 1960, becoming a Sheldon Fellow of Harvard University, the fellowship enabled him to travel throughout Europe during 1960–1961
28.
Supreme Court of the United States
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The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest federal court of the United States. In the legal system of the United States, the Supreme Court is the interpreter of federal constitutional law. The Court normally consists of the Chief Justice of the United States and eight justices who are nominated by the President. Once appointed, justices have life tenure unless they resign, retire, in modern discourse, the justices are often categorized as having conservative, moderate, or liberal philosophies of law and of judicial interpretation. Each justice has one vote, and while many cases are decided unanimously, the Court meets in the United States Supreme Court Building in Washington, D. C. The Supreme Court is sometimes referred to as SCOTUS, in analogy to other acronyms such as POTUS. The ratification of the United States Constitution established the Supreme Court in 1789 and its powers are detailed in Article Three of the Constitution. The Supreme Court is the court specifically established by the Constitution. The Court first convened on February 2,1790, by which five of its six initial positions had been filled. According to historian Fergus Bordewich, in its first session, he Supreme Court convened for the first time at the Royal Exchange Building on Broad Street and they had no cases to consider. After a week of inactivity, they adjourned until September, the sixth member was not confirmed until May 12,1790. Because the full Court had only six members, every decision that it made by a majority was made by two-thirds. However, Congress has always allowed less than the Courts full membership to make decisions, under Chief Justices Jay, Rutledge, and Ellsworth, the Court heard few cases, its first decision was West v. Barnes, a case involving a procedural issue. The Courts power and prestige grew substantially during the Marshall Court, the Marshall Court also ended the practice of each justice issuing his opinion seriatim, a remnant of British tradition, and instead issuing a single majority opinion. Also during Marshalls tenure, although beyond the Courts control, the impeachment, the Taney Court made several important rulings, such as Sheldon v. Nevertheless, it is primarily remembered for its ruling in Dred Scott v. Sandford, which helped precipitate the Civil War. In the Reconstruction era, the Chase, Waite, and Fuller Courts interpreted the new Civil War amendments to the Constitution, during World War II, the Court continued to favor government power, upholding the internment of Japanese citizens and the mandatory pledge of allegiance. Nevertheless, Gobitis was soon repudiated, and the Steel Seizure Case restricted the pro-government trend, the Warren Court dramatically expanded the force of Constitutional civil liberties. It held that segregation in public schools violates equal protection and that traditional legislative district boundaries violated the right to vote
29.
Rapanos v. United States
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Rapanos v. United States,547 U. S.715, was a United States Supreme Court case challenging federal jurisdiction to regulate isolated wetlands under the Clean Water Act. It was the first major case heard by the newly-appointed Chief Justice, John Roberts and Associate Justice. The Supreme Court heard the case on February 21,2006, Justice Kennedy did not fully join either position. The case was remanded to the lower court, ultimately, Rapanos agreed to a nearly-$1,000,000 settlement with the EPA without admitting to any wrongdoing. The case involves developers John A. Rapanos and June Carabell whose separate projects were stopped because of the regulations that make up the Clean Water Act. In the late 1980s, Rapanos filled 22 acres of wetland that he owned with sand, in preparation for the construction of a mall, without filing for a permit. He argued that the land was not a wetland and that he was not breaking the law, Rapanos claimed that his land was up to 20 miles from any navigable waterways. However, the navigable waterway has been broadly interpreted by the US Environmental Protection Agency to include areas connected to or linked to waters via tributaries or other similar means. Rapanos was convicted of two felonies for filling wetlands in violation of law in 1995, the conviction was overturned and restored several times but in the end, he was forced to serve three years of probation and pay $5,000 in fines. Eventually, Rapanos appealed the case against him, which included millions of dollars of fines. Carabell took the issue to the courts by arguing that the government did not have jurisdiction. After losing in the Federal District Court and the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, in United States v. Riverside Bayview the unanimous Court had found that wetlands abutting Lake St. Clair were included in the Corps jurisdiction over waters of the United States. In 2001, a divided Court found that the migratory bird rule could not reach isolated ponds in Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County v. Army Corps of Engineers. All waters with a significant nexus to navigable waters are covered under the CWA, however, some regulations included water features such as intermittent streams, playa lakes, prairie potholes, sloughs and wetlands as waters of the United States. The justices were unable to produce a majority decision, four justices voted to vacate, to strike down the Corps interpretation of the CWA, and to remand under a new continuous surface water connection standard. Justice Kennedy also voted to vacate and remand but under the different, significant nexus, the Court voted 4-1-4, with three justices making oral readings at the opinion announcement, and five printed opinions spanning over 100 pages. Both cases were remanded for further proceedings, Justice Antonin Scalia authored a plurality opinion, in which he was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Clarence Thomas, and Justice Samuel Alito. Justice Scalia argued the expansion of federal regulation over swampy lands would give the Corps jurisdiction over half of Alaska
30.
Cartesian theater
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Descartes originally claimed that consciousness requires an immaterial soul, which interacts with the body via the pineal gland of the brain. Many theorists would insist that they have rejected such an obviously bad idea. But the persuasive imagery of the Cartesian Theater keeps coming back to haunt us—laypeople, circular reasoning Münchhausen trilemma Turtles all the way down The Numskulls Inside Out Richard Chappell on The Cartesian Theater Qualia. Now showing at a Theater near you by Eric Lormand
31.
Chicken or the egg
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The chicken or the egg causality dilemma is commonly stated as which came first, the chicken or the egg. The dilemma stems from the observation that all chickens hatch from eggs, chicken-and-egg is a metaphoric adjective describing situations where it is not clear which of two events should be considered the cause and which should be considered the effect. Although the question is used metaphorically, literal answers have been formulated for whether the chicken or egg came first. If the question refers to eggs in general, the egg came first, if the question refers to chicken eggs specifically, the answer is again the egg, but the explanation is more complicated. An animal nearly identical to the modern chicken laid an egg that had DNA identical to the modern chicken. Put more simply by Neil deGrasse Tyson, Which came first, the egg – laid by a bird that was not a chicken. Ancient philosophers were not aware of biological evolution, for there could not have been a first egg to give a beginning to birds, or there should have been a first bird which gave a beginning to eggs, for a bird comes from an egg. Evolutionary biology Sexual reproduction Common descent
32.
Cosmological argument
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It is traditionally known as an argument from universal causation, an argument from first cause, or the causal argument. Whichever term is employed, there are three variants of the argument, each with subtle yet important distinctions, the arguments from in causa, in esse. The basic premise of all of these is the concept of causality, contemporary defenders of cosmological arguments include William Lane Craig, Robert Koons, Alexander Pruss, and William L. Rowe. Cosmological argument has been used by atheists and theists. Plato and Aristotle both posited first cause arguments, though each had certain notable caveats, in The Laws, Plato posited that all movement in the world and the Cosmos was imparted motion. This required a self-originated motion to set it in motion and to maintain it, in Timaeus, Plato posited a demiurge of supreme wisdom and intelligence as the creator of the Cosmos. Aristotle argued against the idea of a first cause, often confused with the idea of a prime mover or unmoved mover in his Physics and Metaphysics, like Plato, Aristotle believed in an eternal cosmos with no beginning and no end. From an aspiration or desire, the spheres, imitate that purely intellectual activity as best they can. The unmoved movers inspiring the planetary spheres are no different in kind from the prime mover, correspondingly, the motions of the planets are subordinate to the motion inspired by the prime mover in the sphere of fixed stars. Aristotles natural theology admitted no creation or capriciousness from the immortal pantheon, plotinus, a third-century Platonist, taught that the One transcendent absolute caused the universe to exist simply as a consequence of its existence. His disciple Proclus stated The One is God, centuries later, the Islamic philosopher Avicenna inquired into the question of being, in which he distinguished between essence and existence. Thus, he reasoned that existence must be due to an agent cause that necessitates, imparts, gives, to do so, the cause must coexist with its effect and be an existing thing. Referring to the argument as the Kalam cosmological argument, Duncan asserts that it received its fullest articulation at the hands of Muslim and Jewish exponents of Kalam. Thomas Aquinas adapted and enhanced the argument he found in his reading of Aristotle and his conception of First Cause was the idea that the Universe must have been caused by something that was itself uncaused, which he asserted was God. In the scholastic era, Aquinas formulated the argument from contingency, since the Universe could, under different circumstances, conceivably not exist, its existence must have a cause – not merely another contingent thing, but something that exists by necessity. In other words, even if the Universe has always existed, it owes its existence to an Uncaused Cause, Aquinas further said. Aquinass argument from contingency allows for the possibility of a Universe that has no beginning in time and it is a form of argument from universal causation. Aquinas observed that, in nature, there were things with contingent existences, since it is possible for such things not to exist, there must be some time at which these things did not in fact exist
33.
Discworld
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The series is popular, with more than 80 million books sold in 37 languages. Forty-one Discworld novels have been published, Pratchett, who suffered from Alzheimers disease, said that he would be happy for his daughter Rhianna to continue the series when he is no longer able to do so. However, Rhianna has stated she will only be involved in spin-offs, adaptations and tie-ins, the original British editions of the first 26 novels, up to Thief of Time, had distinctive cover art by Josh Kirby. The American editions, published by Harper Collins, used their own cover art, since Kirbys death in October 2001, the covers have been designed by Paul Kidby. Companion publications include eleven short stories, four popular science books, in addition, the series has been adapted for graphic novels, for the theatre, as computer and board games, as music inspired by the series, and repeatedly for television. Newly released Discworld books regularly topped The Sunday Times best-sellers list, Discworld novels have also won awards such as the Prometheus Award and the Carnegie Medal. In the BBCs Big Read, four Discworld novels were in the top 100, very few of the Discworld novels have chapter divisions and instead feature interweaving storylines. Pratchett is quoted as saying that he just never got into the habit of chapters, however, the first Discworld novel The Colour of Magic was divided into books, as is Pyramids. The Discworld novels contain common themes and motifs that run through the series, fantasy clichés are parodied in many of the novels, as are various subgenres of fantasy, such as fairy tales, witch and vampire stories and so on. Analogies of real-world issues, such as religion, business and politics, are recurring themes, parodies of non-Discworld fiction also occur frequently, including Shakespeare, Beatrix Potter, and several movies. Major historical events, especially battles, are used as the basis for both trivial and key events in Discworld stories, as are trends in science, technology. There are also humanist themes in many of the Discworld novels, Discworld stories stand alone as independent works set in the same fantasy universe. However, a number of novels and stories can be grouped together into grand story arcs dealing with a set number of characters and events, and some books refer to earlier events. The main threads within the Discworld series are, Rincewind was the first protagonist of Discworld, a wizard with no skill, no wizardly qualifications and he is the archetypal coward but is constantly thrust into extremely dangerous adventures. As such, he not only succeeds in staying alive, but also saves Discworld on several occasions. Rincewind appeared in eight Discworld novels as well as the four Science of Discworld supplementary books, Death appears in every novel except The Wee Free Men and Snuff, although sometimes with only a few lines. As dictated by tradition, he is a skeleton in a black robe who sits astride a pale horse. As the anthropomorphic personification of death, Death has the job of guiding souls onward from this world into the next, over millennia in the role, he has developed a fascination with humanity, even going so far as to create a house for himself in his personal dimension
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Kurma
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In Hinduism, Kurma is the second Avatar of Vishnu, succeeding Matsya and preceding Varaha. Like Matsya, this also occurred in Satya Yuga. The temples dedicated to Kurma are located in Kurmai, Chittoor district, Andhra Pradesh, scripture indicates that the sage Durvasa had given a garland to Indra, the king of Gods. Indra placed the garland around his elephant, but the animal trampled it, Durvasa then cursed the gods to lose their immortality, strength, and divine powers. After losing the kingdom of heaven, they approached Vishnu for help and he advised that they had to drink the nectar of immortality to regain their glory. To obtain it, they needed to churn the ocean of milk, a body of water so large they needed Mount Mandara as the staff. The Devas were not strong enough to churn on their own, and declared peace with their foes, finally, Mount Mandara churned, but the force was so great the mountain began to sink into the ocean of milk. Taking the form of the turtle Kurma, Vishnu bore the mountain on his back as they churned the waters, fourteen precious things arose from the turbulent ocean, culminating with Dhanvantari, the physician of the gods, who brought with him the nectar of immortality. The Asuras immediately took the nectar, and quarreled amongst themselves, Vishnu then manifested himself as the beautiful Mohini and tricked the Asuras to retrieve the potion, which he then distributed to the Devas. Though the Asuras realized the trick, it was too late—the Devas had regained their powers, the name of the village Kurmai mentioned above originated as there is historical temple of Kurma Varadarajaswamy, god in this village. The temple located in Srikurmam in Srikakulam District, Andhra Pradesh, is also the Avatar of Kurma, Vishnu Media related to Kurma at Wikimedia Commons Hindu Gods, Kurma Indian Divinity, Kurma Avatar
35.
Matryoshka doll
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A matryoshka doll, also known as a Russian nesting doll, or Russian doll, is a set of wooden dolls of decreasing size placed one inside another. The name matryoshka, literally little matron, is a form of Russian female first name Matryona or Matriosha. A set of matryoshkas consists of a figure which separates, top from bottom, to reveal a smaller figure of the same sort inside, which has, in turn, another figure inside of it. The first Russian nested doll set was made in 1890 by Vasily Zvyozdochkin from a design by Sergey Malyutin, traditionally the outer layer is a woman, dressed in a sarafan, a long and shapeless traditional Russian peasant jumper dress. The figures inside may be of either gender, the smallest, innermost doll is typically a baby turned from a piece of wood. Much of the artistry is in the painting of each doll, the dolls often follow a theme, the themes may vary, from fairy tale characters to Soviet leaders. Matryoshka dolls are referred to as babushka dolls, babushka meaning grandmother or elderly woman. The first Russian nested doll set was carved in 1890 by Vasily Zvyozdochkin, a Russian industrialist and patron of arts. The doll set was painted by Malyutin, malyutins doll set consisted of eight dolls—the outermost was a girl in a traditional dress holding a rooster. The inner dolls were girls and a boy, and the innermost a baby, Zvyozdochkin and Malyutin were inspired by a doll from Honshu, the main island of Japan. Sources differ in descriptions of the doll, describing it as either a round, hollow daruma doll, portraying a bald old Buddhist monk, Savva Mamontovs wife presented the dolls at the Exposition Universelle in Paris, where the toy earned a bronze medal. Soon after, matryoshka dolls were being made in places in Russia. Matryoshka dolls are designed to follow a particular theme, for instance. Modern artists create new styles of nesting dolls. Common themes include floral, Christmas, Easter, religious, animal collections, portraits and caricatures of politicians, musicians, athletes, astronauts, robots. Matryoshka dolls that featured communist leaders of Russia became very popular among Russian people in the early 1990s, today, some Russian artists specialize in painting themed matryoshka dolls that feature specific categories of subjects, people or nature. Areas with notable matryoshka styles include Sergiyev Posad, Semionovo, Polkhovsky Maidan, during Perestroika, the leaders of the Soviet Union became a common theme of matryoshkas. The largest, outside figure was that of Mikhail Gorbachev, followed by Leonid Brezhnev, Nikita Khrushchev, Joseph Stalin and finally the smallest, newer versions start with Vladimir Putin and then follow with Dmitry Medvedev, Boris Yeltsin, Mikhail Gorbachev, Joseph Stalin and Vladimir Lenin
36.
Primum Mobile
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In classical, medieval and Renaissance astronomy, the Primum Mobile, or first moved, was the outermost moving sphere in the geocentric model of the universe. The Ptolemaic system presented a view of the universe in which apparent motion was taken for real – a viewpoint still maintained in common speech through such everyday terms as moonrise or sunset. Astronomers believed that the seven planets were carried around the spherical Earth on invisible orbs. Motion was provided to the system by the Primum Mobile, itself set within the Empyrean. The total number of spheres was not fixed. In this 16th-century illustration, the firmament is eighth, a sphere is ninth. Outside all is the Empyrean, the habitation of God and all the elect, copernicus accepted existence of the sphere of the fixed stars, and that of the Primum Mobile, as too did Galileo - though he would later challenge its necessity in a heliocentric system. Francis Bacon was as sceptical of the Primum Mobile as he was of the rotation of the earth. Once Kepler had made the sun, not the Primum Mobile, the cause of motion, however. Dante made the Primum Mobile the ninth of the ten heavens into which he divided his Paradiso, yeats wrote, The Primum Mobile that fashioned us / Has made the very owls in circles move. Unmoved mover Firmament C. S. Lewis, The Discarded Image M. A. Orr, Dante and the Early Astronomers
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Primum movens
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The unmoved mover or prime mover is a monotheistic concept advanced by Aristotle, a polytheist, as a primary cause or mover of all the motion in the universe. As is implicit in the name, the unmoved mover moves other things, in Book 12 of his Metaphysics, Aristotle describes the unmoved mover as being perfectly beautiful, indivisible, and contemplating only the perfect contemplation, itself contemplating. He equates this concept also with the active intellect, st. Thomas Aquinas, for example, elaborated on the unmoved mover in the Quinque viae. In the Physics Aristotle finds surprising difficulties explaining even commonplace change, Aristotles first philosophy, or Metaphysics, develops his peculiar theology of the prime mover, as πρῶτον κινοῦν ἀκίνητον, an independent divine eternal unchanging immaterial substance. While the number of spheres in the model itself was subject to change, Aristotles account of aether, as such, it would be physically impossible for them to move material objects of any size by pushing, pulling or collision. Their influence on lesser beings is purely the result of an aspiration or desire, the first heaven, the outmost sphere of fixed stars, is moved by a desire to emulate the prime mover, in relation to whom, the subordinate movers suffer an accidental dependency. Many of Aristotles contemporaries complained that oblivious, powerless gods are unsatisfactory, nonetheless, it was a life which Aristotle enthusiastically endorsed as one most enviable and perfect, the unembellished basis of theology. As the whole of nature depends on the inspiration of the unmoved movers. It is through the action of the Sun upon the terrestrial spheres. The intellect, nous, or whatever else it be that is thought to rule and lead us by nature and it is also the most sustainable, pleasant, self-sufficient activity, something which is aimed at for its own sake. This aim is not strictly human, to achieve it means to live in accordance not with mortal thoughts, according to Aristotle, contemplation is the only type of happy activity which it would not be ridiculous to imagine the gods having. In Aristotles psychology and biology, the intellect is the soul and he argues that in the beginning, if the cosmos had come to be, its first motion would lack an antecedent state, and as Parmenides said, nothing comes from nothing. The Cosmological argument, later attributed to Aristotle, thereby draws the conclusion that God exists, however, if the cosmos had a beginning, Aristotle argued, it would require an efficient first cause, a notion that Aristotle took to demonstrate a critical flaw. The purpose of Aristotles cosmological argument, that at least one eternal unmoved mover must exist, is to support everyday change, of things that exist, substances are the first. But if substances can, then all things can perish. and yet, time, now, the only continuous change is that of place, and the only continuous change of place is circular motion. Therefore, there must be a circular motion and this confirmed by the fixed stars which are moved by the eternal actual substance substance thats purely actual. Even though the foregoing might have suggested that generation of substances is fundamental for all the kinds of changes. Aristotle argues at the opening of Physics bk.8 that motion and change in the universe can have no beginning, with this argument Aristotle can establish an eternal chain of motions and refute those who hold that there could have been a previous stationary state of the universe
38.
Teleological argument
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It is an argument in natural theology. The earliest recorded versions of this argument are associated with Socrates in ancient Greece, Socratic philosophy influenced the development of the Abrahamic religions in many ways, and the teleological argument has a long association with them. In the Middle Ages, Islamic theologians such as Al-Ghazali used the argument, although it was rejected as unnecessary by Quranic literalists, later, the teleological argument was accepted by Saint Thomas Aquinas and included as the fifth of his Five Ways of proving the existence of God. In early modern England clergymen such as William Turner and John Ray were well-known proponents, in the early 18th century, William Derham published his Physico-Theology, which gave his demonstration of the being and attributes of God from his works of creation. From the beginning, there have been criticisms of the different versions of the teleological argument. Also starting already in classical Greece, two approaches to the argument developed, distinguished by their understanding of whether the natural order was literally created or not. The non-creationist approach starts most clearly with Aristotle, although many thinkers, such as the Neoplatonists, the Neoplatonists did not find the teleological argument convincing, and in this they were followed by medieval philosophers such as Al-Farabi and Avicenna. Later, Averroes and Thomas Aquinas considered the argument acceptable, religious thinkers in Judaism, Hinduism, Confucianism, Islam and Christianity also developed versions of the teleological argument. Later, variants on the argument from design were produced in Western philosophy, Anaxagoras is the first person who is definitely known to have explained such a concept using the word nous. Aristotle reports an earlier philosopher from Clazomenae named Hermotimus who had taken a similar position, amongst Pre-Socratic philosophers before Anaxagoras, other philosophers had proposed a similar intelligent ordering principle causing life and the rotation of the heavens. For example Empedocles, like Hesiod much earlier, described cosmic order and living things as caused by a version of love. In his Philebus 28c Plato has Socrates speak of this as a tradition, saying that all philosophers agree—whereby they really exalt themselves—that mind is king of heaven, and later states that the ensuing discussion confirms the utterances of those who declared of old that mind always rules the universe. Xenophons report in his Memorabilia might be the earliest clear account of an argument that there is evidence in nature of intelligent design. In Platos Phaedo, Socrates is made to say just before dying that his discovery of Anaxagoras concept of a cosmic nous as the cause of the order of things, was an important turning point for him. But he also expressed disagreement with Anaxagoras understanding of the implications of his own doctrine, Socrates complained that Anaxagoras restricted the work of the cosmic nous to the beginning, as if it were uninterested and all events since then just happened because of causes like air and water. Socrates, on the hand, apparently insisted that the demiurge must be loving. Plato has a character explain the concept of a demiurge with supreme wisdom, Platos teleological perspective is also built upon the analysis of a priori order and structure in the world that he had already presented in The Republic. The story does not propose creation ex nihilo, rather, the demiurge made order from the chaos of the cosmos, Platos student and friend Aristotle, continued the Socratic tradition of criticising natural scientists such as Democritus who sought to explain everything in terms of matter and chance motion
39.
Transfinite induction
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Transfinite induction is an extension of mathematical induction to well-ordered sets, for example to sets of ordinal numbers or cardinal numbers. Let P be a property defined for all ordinals α, suppose that whenever P is true for all β < α, then P is also true. Then transfinite induction tells us that P is true for all ordinals, usually the proof is broken down into three cases, Zero case, Prove that P is true. Successor case, Prove that for any successor ordinal α+1, P follows from P, limit case, Prove that for any limit ordinal λ, P follows from. All three cases are identical except for the type of ordinal considered and they do not formally need to be considered separately, but in practice the proofs are typically so different as to require separate presentations. Zero is sometimes considered a limit ordinal and then may sometimes be treated in proofs in the case as limit ordinals. Transfinite recursion is similar to induction, however, instead of proving that something holds for all ordinal numbers, we construct a sequence of objects. As an example, a basis for a space can be created by choosing a vector v 0. This process stops when no vector can be chosen, more formally, we can state the Transfinite Recursion Theorem as follows, Transfinite Recursion Theorem. Given a class function G, V → V, there exists a unique transfinite sequence F, Ord → V such that F = G for all ordinals α, where ↾ denotes the restriction of Fs domain to ordinals < α. As in the case of induction, we may treat different types of ordinals separately, another formulation of transfinite recursion is the following, Transfinite Recursion Theorem. Given a set g1, and class functions G2, G3, there exists a unique function F, Ord → V such that F = g1, F = G2, for all α ∈ Ord, F = G3, for all limit λ ≠0. Note that we require the domains of G2, G3 to be enough to make the above properties meaningful. The uniqueness of the sequence satisfying these properties can be proved using transfinite induction, however, if the relation in question is already well-ordered, one can often use transfinite induction without invoking the axiom of choice. Then let v1 equal rα1, where α1 is least such that rα1 − v0 is not a rational number, continue, at each step use the least real from the r sequence that does not have a rational difference with any element thus far constructed in the v sequence. Continue until all the reals in the r sequence are exhausted, the final v sequence will enumerate the Vitali set. The above argument uses the axiom of choice in a way at the very beginning. After that step, the axiom of choice is not used again, other uses of the axiom of choice are more subtle
