My Library Net

Silent Night

2011-12-19T14:05:00.001+01:00

Dear Reader

With Best Wishes for Christmas and the New Year

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IP

Simon Armitage reads An Accommodation

2011-12-14T15:22:00.000+01:00

.... from his 2010 collection Seeing Stars, a tale of estranged partners dividing their shared space with a net curtain

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IP

Mark Twain or Samuel Langhorne Clemens

2011-11-30T10:14:00.001+01:00

Biography: Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910),[1] better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist. He is most noted for his novels, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), and its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), the latter often called "the Great American Novel."

Source: Wikipedia

The Adventure of Tom Sayer

Huckleberry Finn may be the greater book, but Tom Sawyer has always been more widely read. Moreover, it is a book that can be enjoyed equally by both children and adults. Twain, who called it a "hymn" to boyhood, would be thrilled that in narrator Patrick Fraley his hymn has found its most passionate voice. Many good unabridged readings of Tom Sawyer have already been recorded, but most are simply that: readings. Fraley's performance is something more; in attempting to bring each character to life, his enthusiasm for the material is so palpable that the mere sound of his voice commands attention. A can't-miss addition to all libraries, including those that have other Tom Sawyer programs. Kent Rasmussen, Thousand Oaks, CA
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Life on the Mississipi

Memoir of the steamboat era on the Mississippi River before the American Civil War by Mark Twain, published in 1883. The book begins with a brief history of the river from its discovery by Hernando de Soto in 1541. Chapters 4-22 describe Twain's career as a Mississippi steamboat pilot, the fulfillment of a childhood dream. The second half of Life on the Mississippi tells of Twain's return, many years after, to travel the river from St. Louis to New Orleans. By then the competition from railroads had made steamboats passe, in spite of improvements in navigation and boat construction. Twain sees new, large cities on the river, and records his observations on greed, gullibility, tragedy, and bad architecture. -- The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature.

How to Tell a Story and Other Essays
For Children and Adults

The Mysterious Stranger

Click here for Reading these e-books

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IP

Democracy Live

2011-11-05T21:58:00.001+01:00

On this channel you'll find:

Prime minister's questions
House of Commons
House of Lords
Europe
Institution Guide
Historic moments

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Italo

Guy Fawkes Night (Explained)

2011-11-04T17:08:00.003+01:00

On "The Telegraph" I read the following article titled "Is it anti Catholic to Celebrate Guy Fawkes' night?"

In my opinion this is not an anti Catholic celebration but it is simple an occasion a tradition for observing fireworks - but if you are perplexed you should be against the commercial sphere of Christmas, do you agree?

Guy Fawkes

(13 April 1570 – 31 January 1606), also known as Guido Fawkes, the name he adopted while fighting for the Spanish in the Low Countries, belonged to a group of provincial English Catholics who planned the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605

Source: Wikipedia

Gunpowder Plot (5 November 1605)

The Gunpowder Plot of 1605, in earlier centuries often called the Gunpowder Treason Plot or the Jesuit Treason, was a failed assassination attempt against King James I of England and VI of Scotland by a group of provincial English Catholics led by Robert Catesby.

The plan was to blow up the House of Lords during the State Opening of England's Parliament on 5 November 1605, as the prelude to a popular revolt in the Midlands during which James's nine-year-old daughter, Princess Elizabeth, was to be installed as the Catholic head of state. Catesby may have embarked on the scheme after hopes of securing greater religious tolerance under King James had faded, leaving many English Catholics disappointed.

His fellow plotters were John Wright, Thomas Wintour, Thomas Percy, Guy Fawkes, Robert Keyes, Thomas Bates, Robert Wintour, Christopher Wright, John Grant, Sir Ambrose Rookwood, Sir Everard Digby and Francis Tresham. Fawkes, who had 10 years of military experience fighting in the Spanish Netherlands in suppression of the Dutch Revolt, was given charge of the explosives.

Source: Wikipedia

University of Cambridge Video and Audio Lecture

2011-11-03T00:55:00.002+01:00

University of Cambridge Library

Here you will find the most interesting public lecture and audio of the University of Cambridge, click here

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Italo

Madingley Public Lecture (University of Cambridge)

2011-11-03T00:42:00.002+01:00

Institution:	Madingley Hall home of Institute Continuing Education
Description:	A series of free public lectures given by leading authorities in their fields. The lectures take place at Madingley Hall, home of the University of Cambridge Institute of Continuing Education (ICE). The Madingley Lectures are an important part of ICE's commitment to public engagement. IP

The White House Channel

2011-11-02T16:46:00.000+01:00

UK's Channels an Radios Live

2011-11-02T16:40:00.002+01:00

Channel 4 News

RTE Player (Channels + Radio)

BBC Player (Only Radio)

UK Parliament's Channel Live

2011-11-02T16:38:00.002+01:00

Poppy Day

2011-11-02T14:24:00.004+01:00

Remembrance Day (also known as Poppy Day, Armistice Day or Veterans Day) is a memorial day observed in Commonwealth countries to remember the members of their armed forces who have died in the line of duty since World War I.

This day, or alternative dates, are also recognized as special days for war remembrances in many non-Commonwealth countries. Remembrance Day is observed on 11 November to recall the official end of World War I on that date in 1918; hostilities formally ended "at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month" of 1918 with the German signing of the Armistice ("at the 11th hour" refers to the passing of the 11th hour, or 11:00 a.m.)

The day was specifically dedicated by King George V on 7 November 1919 as a day of remembrance of members of the armed forces who were killed during World War I. This was possibly done upon the suggestion of Edward George Honey to Wellesley Tudor Pole, who established two ceremonial periods of remembrance based on events in 1917.

The red remembrance poppy has become a familiar emblem of Remembrance Day due to the poem In Flanders Fields. These poppies bloomed across some of the worst battlefields of Flanders in World War I, their brilliant red colour an appropriate symbol for the blood spilled in the war.

Source: Wikipedia

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Nobel literature prize for poet unable to speak for the last two decades

2011-10-07T14:42:00.003+02:00

By Arifa Akbar, Deputy Literary Editor
Friday, 7 October 2011

"A Swedish poet who all but lost the power of speech after suffering a stroke more than 20 years ago plans to accept the grandest prize in literature by way of a piano recital."

Source: The Independent

Read All

A Video Interview (The Telegraph)

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Italo

Neutrino experiment on breaking speed of light Explained

2011-09-24T01:39:00.000+02:00

A neutrino ( English pronunciation: /njuːˈtriːnoʊ/,Italian pronunciation: [neuˈtriːno]) is an electrically neutral, weakly interacting elementary subatomic particle[1] with a small but non-zero mass. Meaning "small neutral one", it is an elementary particle that usually travels close to the speed of light. Being electrically neutral, it is able to pass through ordinary matter almost unaffected, "like a bullet passing through a bank of fog"[2]. The neutrino is denoted by the Greek letter ν (nu).

Neutrinos are similar to the more familiar electron, with one crucial difference: neutrinos do not carry electric charge, which means that they are not affected by the electromagnetic forces which act on electrons.

Neutrinos are affected only by the weak sub-atomic force of much shorter range than electromagnetism, and are therefore able to pass through great distances within matter without being affected by it. Neutrinos also interact gravitationally with other particles.

Neutrinos are created as a result of certain types of radioactive decay or nuclear reactions such as those that take place in the Sun, in nuclear reactors, or when cosmic rays hit atoms. There are three types, or "flavors", of neutrinos: electron neutrinos, muon neutrinos and tau neutrinos. Each type also has a corresponding antiparticle, called an antineutrino.

Electron neutrinos (or antineutrinos) result when protons decay, through beta decay, to neutrons, or vice versa. Interactions involving neutrinos are mediated by the weak interaction.
Most neutrinos passing through the Earth emanate from the Sun. Every second, in the region of the Earth, about 65 billion (6.5×1010) solar neutrinos pass through every square centimeter perpendicular to the direction of the sun.[3]

Source: Wikipedia

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Italo

Kindle Library E-Book Lending Goes Live

2011-09-21T20:55:00.000+02:00

"Amazon on Wednesday formally launched its library book lendingprogram, which allows Kindle and Kindle app users to borrow e-books from morethan 11,000 libraries in the United States."

Source: PC Mag

Have a good reading

Italo

Westminster Abbey

2011-04-20T16:48:00.000+02:00

The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, which is almost always referred to popularly and informally as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic church, in Westminster, London, England (UK), located just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English, later British and later still (and currently) monarchs of the Commonwealth Realms. The abbey is a Royal Peculiar and briefly held the status of a cathedral from 1546 to 1556.

Westminster Abbey is a collegiate church governed by the Dean and Chapter of Westminster, as established by Royal Charter of Queen Elizabeth I in 1560, which created it as the Collegiate Church of St Peter Westminster and a Royal Peculiar under the personal jurisdiction of the Sovereign.

The members of the Chapter are the Dean and four residentiary Canons, assisted by the Receiver General and Chapter Clerk. One of the Canons is also Rector of St Margaret's Church, Westminster, and often holds also the post of Chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons.

In addition to the Dean and Canons, there are at present two full-time minor canons, one precentor, the other succentor.

The office of Priest Vicar was created in the 1970s for those who assist the minor canons. Together with the Clergy and Receiver General and Chapter Clerk, various Lay Officers constitute the College, including the Organist and Master of the Choristers, the Registrar, the Auditor, the Legal Secretary, the Surveyor of the Fabric, the Head Master of the Choir School, the Keeper of the Muniments and the Clerk of the Works, as well as twelve Lay Vicars and ten of the choristers and the High Steward and High Bailiff. There are also forty Queen's Scholars who are pupils at Westminster School (the School has its own Governing Body).

Those who are most directly concerned with liturgical and ceremonial matters are the two Minor Canons and the Organist and Master of the Choristers.

Source: Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westminster_Abbey http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westminster_Abbey

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Italo

What's Multiculturalism?

2011-03-20T16:50:00.000+01:00

Individual Morality v Morality of Institutions?

2010-10-16T15:38:00.000+02:00

Any Questions?

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Italo

Gauguin & Tate Modern (30 September 2010 – 16 January 2011)

2010-09-17T16:00:00.001+02:00

About the exhibition

'We have to wait until September for the event of the year: the first important Gauguin exhibition in Britain for 50 years… Be prepared for stunning impressionism, brilliant symbolism, inventive sculpture and pioneering ceramics' – The Sunday Times

Gauguin is one of the world's most famous and best-loved artists from the early 20^th century. For the first time in the UK in over 50 years, Tate Modern presents an exhibition dedicated to this master French Post-Impressionist, featuring paintings and drawings from around the world. His sumptuous, colourful images of women in Tahiti and beautiful landscape images of Brittany in France are some of the most popular images in Modern art.

Gauguin was the ultimate global traveller, sailing the South Seas, and living in Peru, Martinique, and Paris among other places. This exhibition explores the role of the myths around the man – Gauguin as storyteller, painting himself as a Christ-like figure or even a demon in his own paintings, religious and mythical symbols in his work, and the manipulation of his own artistic identity.

It features many of his iconic paintings, including those showing daily village life from the artist's colony of Pont-Aven in Brittany, nude bathers and haystacks in the Breton landscape, and decorative works such as the carved wooden door panels around Gauguin's hut in the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia.
Gauguin sought to escape European civilisation in the South Seas. Inspired by Tahiti's tropical flora, fauna and island life, he immersed himself in its fast-disappearing local culture to invest his art with deeper meaning, ritual and myth.

Source: Tate Modern Gallery London UK

Post-Impressionism is the term coined by the British artist and art critic Roger Fry in 1910 to describe the development of French art since Manet. Fry used the term when he organized the 1910 exhibition Manet and Post-Impressionism. Post-Impressionists extended Impressionism while rejecting its limitations: they continued using vivid colours, thick application of paint, distinctive brush strokes, and real-life subject matter, but they were more inclined to emphasize geometric forms, to distort form for expressive effect, and to use unnatural or arbitrary colour.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Italo

Carlo Crivelli (book)

2010-07-11T15:43:00.002+02:00

Biography:

Crivelli was born around 1430–35 in Venice to a family of painters, and received his artistic formation there and in Padua. After a century's work in Italian archives, the details of Crivelli's career are still sparse: the only dates that can with certainty be given about his life as a painter are his first appearance, already a master of his own shop, in 1457, in a matter of adultery for which he was imprisoned for six months; and the earliest and the latest years signed on his pictures, 1468 on an altarpiece in the church of San Silvestro at Massa Fermana, near Fermo, and 1493 on The Dead Christ between St John, the Virgin and Mary Magdalene (Brera Gallery, Milan).

The Virgin Annunciate (Stadel - Frankfurt/Main Germany)

Though the artist advertised his Venetian origin in his constant signatures varying upon Carolus Crivellus Venetos ("Carlo Crivelli of Venice"),[3] Crivelli seems to have worked chiefly in Le Marche of Ancona, and especially in and near Ascoli Piceno; there are only two pictures remaining in Venice, in the church of San Sebastiano. He is said to have studied under Jacobello del Fiore, who was painting as late at any rate as 1436; at that time Crivelli was probably only a boy.

He also studied at the school of Vivarini in Venice, then left Venice, initially, it is generally believed, for Padua, where he is believed to have worked in the workshop of Francesco Squarcione and then for Zara in Dalmatia (now part of Croatia, but then a Venetian territory) in 1459, following legal trouble after he was sentenced to prison for six months for having an affair with a married woman, Tarsia Cortese, the wife of a sailor.

He painted in tempera only, despite the increasing popularity of oil painting during his life-time, and on panels, though some of his paintings have been transferred to canvas. His predilection for decoratively punched gilded backgrounds is one of the marks of the conservative taste, in part imposed by his patrons. He was a vegetarian. Of his early polyptychs, only one, the altarpiece from Ascoli Piceno, survives complete in its original frame; all the others have been disassembled and their panels and predella scenes are divided among the world's museums.

An amorphous band of contemporaries and followers, termed Crivelleschi, show to varying degrees aspects of his style.

Source: Wikipedia

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Italo

Fractio Panis (Q&A)

2010-02-18T20:39:00.003+01:00

Definition: Fractio Panis (Latin: Breaking of Bread) is the name given to a fresco in the Greek Chapel (Capella Greca) in the Catacomb of Priscilla, situated on the Via Salaria Nova in Rome. The fresco depicts seven persons at a table, six men and a woman.

Like the whole of the decorations of the chapel, the fresco dates from the first half of the second century. The painting is found upon the face of the arch immediately over the altar tomb, upon which the sacrament of the Eucharist was performed.

Source: Wikipedia

Do you believe any changes have been made during its restoration? if so, what effect do you think these changes may have had on our later interpretation of Marian Art?

Yes I do, the Christian art is an interpretation, a message , an icon, a dogma of "anthropogenic art" for instance:

" When Constantia, sister of Constantine the Great, requested an icon of Christ for her use, Bishop Eusebius expressed his disapproval in no uncertain terms, saying "these are excluded from churches all over the world" At the same time, Eusebius admits that when a woman brought him an icon of St. Paul and Christ clad as philosophers, he did not destroy the work but confiscated it and kept it in his own house to prevent its improper use by the woman”.
(Source: The Clash of Gods, a reinterpretation of early Christian Art, page 177)

Another proof of this reinterpretation of art, is the famous programme “Women’s ordination: The Hidden Tradition”.

In conclusion the philosophical message is that there are different interpretations, for example as
agnostic, I think that this is a recycled message, a reinterpretation of Marian art.

Think about the possible problems inappropriate restoration and forgeries cause for our interpretations of Christian art. Perhaps we can also add the controversial "Fractio Panis"

A criminal behaviour is when a deteriorated image has recreated, replaced the original message, this is not restoration but simply a serious violation, against the human thought.

On this fresco, there is a huge debate, because it represents a liturgical and theological dogma
(the breaking of the bread and the miraculous multiplications of breads) performed by Christ, where him is represented as a symbol.

According to the Catholic encyclopedia, the female figure is interpreted as the “joys of heaven”
indeed there are seven men and one woman.

Other interpretation says that there are seven women (Dorothy Irvin, have viewed the fresco as
archaeological evidence that women presided over the Eucharist in the early Church).

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Italo

Social Darwinism Q&A

2010-02-02T15:46:00.004+01:00

1)To what extent does the desire to spread freedom and democracy act as intellectual window dressing for American expansionism?

The American expansionism (freedom and democracy) is essential to maintaining its superpower status, in other word the “Competition of Life ”is a great competition between plutocrats (US) and China, in order to maintain and impose the western model.

2)Can war be conducted for purely humanitarian reasons?

Obviously this is a pure and simple utopia, the synonymous of war is petroleum, and other natural resources but fortunately there is the “invisible hand” of Adam Smith.

3)What promotes periodic fits of “aberrant” behavior on behalf of the US?

The application of psychological techniques to historical interpretation.

4)Is America’s rise to globalism during the twentieth century more of a matter of accident than design?

In my opinion this is a matter of a design (globalization) runned and implemented by the G7, under the supervision of the US.

5)What comparisons can be made between the British and American empires?

I would like to do a philosophical comparisons, were the main actor are Herbert Spencer and his idea of evolution (before Darwin) i.e. the centrality of
individuals, and the idea that the governments intervention must be minimal in social and political life, supported in various measures by the ideologies
of Hofstadter and Sumner.

6)To what extent may America’s manifest destiny be construed as an ideology of capitalism and/or of white racial superiority?

Because the US and the western society, in order to maintain their leadership, must continue to exploit, the natural resourced of the south of the world.

7)How far did – or still do – Darwin’s theories legitimise both these concept?

First of all, it must be clear that the ideologies of Darwin and Nietzsche were not absolutely linked to Nazism, their ideologies had been exploited and
used, by others, in order to justify their eugenics programs.

Unfortunately the so called “Application of Social Darwinism” had been used for the colonialism during the Victorian era and for military action.

Fortunately in the homogenization of the laissez faire of business as usual ideology or more commonly as Social Darwinism, there had been a positive
sphere his name is Andrew Carneige a philanthropist who was able to combine philanthropy with Social Darwinism constructing numerous libraries and
public buildings.

Darwin & Literature

2010-01-28T21:59:00.004+01:00

Thomas Hardy, OM (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet of the naturalist movement, although in several poems he displays elements of the previous romantic and enlightenment periods of literature, such as his fascination with the supernatural.

While he regarded himself primarily as a poet who composed novels mainly for financial gain, during his lifetime he was much better known for his novels which earned him a reputation as a great novelist.

The bulk of his fictional works, initially published as serials in magazines, were set in the semi-fictional land of Wessex (based on the Dorchester region where he grew up) and explored tragic characters struggling against their passions and social circumstances.

Hardy's poetry, first published in his 50s, has come to be as well-regarded as his novels and has had a significant influence over modern English poetry, especially after The Movement poets of the 1950s and 1960s cited Hardy as a major figure.

Naturalism was a literary movement taking place from 1865 to 1900 that used detailed realism to suggest that social conditions, heredity, and environment had inescapable force in shaping human character.

It was depicted as a literary movement that seeks to replicate a believable everyday reality, as opposed to such movements as Romanticism or Surrealism, in which subjects may receive highly symbolic, idealistic, or even supernatural treatment.

Naturalism is the outgrowth of Realism, a prominent literary movement in mid-19th-century France and elsewhere. Naturalistic writers were influenced by the evolution theory of Charles Darwin.

They believed that one's heredity and social environment determine one's character. Whereas realism seeks only to describe subjects as they really are, naturalism also attempts to determine "scientifically" the underlying forces (e.g. the environment or heredity) influencing the actions of its subjects. Naturalistic works often include uncouth or sordid subject matter; for example, Émile Zola's works had a frankness about sexuality along with a pervasive pessimism.

Naturalistic works exposed the dark harshness of life, including poverty, racism, sex, prejudice, disease, prostitution, and filth.

As a result, naturalistic writers were frequently criticized for being too blunt

Source: Wikipedia

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Italo

Newton & Gravitation

2010-01-04T14:22:00.000+01:00

In 1679, Newton returned to his work on mechanics, i.e., gravitation and its effect on the orbits of planets, with reference to Kepler's laws of planetary motion, after stimulation by a brief exchange of letters in 1679-80 with Hooke, who had been appointed to manage the Royal Society's correspondence, and who opened up a correspondence intended to elicit contributions from Newton to Royal Society transactions.

Newton's reawakening interest in astronomical matters received further stimulus by the appearance of a comet in the winter of 1680/1681, on which he corresponded with John Flamsteed.

After the exchanges with Hooke, Newton worked out a proof that the elliptical form of planetary orbits would result from a centripetal force inversely proportional to the square of the radius vector (see Newton's law of universal gravitation - History and De motu corporum in gyrum).

Newton communicated his results to Edmond Halley and to the Royal Society in De motu corporum in gyrum, a tract written on about 9 sheets which was copied into the Royal Society's Register Book in December 1684.[39] This tract contained the nucleus that Newton developed and expanded to form the Principia.

Source: Wikipedia

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Italo

Darwin & Malthus on the Theory of Natural Selection

2009-11-30T14:48:00.001+01:00

This often quoted passage reflects the significance Darwin affords Malthus in formulating his theory of Natural Selection. What "struck" Darwin in Essay on the Principle of Population (1798) was Malthus's observation that in nature plants and animals produce far more offspring than can survive, and that Man too is capable of overproducing if left unchecked.

Malthus concluded that unless family size was regulated, man's misery of famine would become globally epidemic and eventually consume Man.

Malthus' view that poverty and famine were natural outcomes of population growth and food supply was not popular among social reformers who believed that with proper social structures, all ills of man could be eradicated.

Although Malthus thought famine and poverty natural outcomes, the ultimate reason for those outcomes was divine institution.

He believed that such natural outcomes were God's way of preventing man from being lazy.

Both Darwin and Wallace independantly arrived at similar theories of Natural Selection after reading Malthus. Unlike Malthus, they framed his principle in purely natural terms both in outcome and in ultimate reason. By so doing, they extended Malthus' logic further than Malthus himself could ever take it.

They realized that producing more offspring than can survive establishes a competitive environment among siblings, and that the variation among siblings would produce some individuals with a slightly greater chance of survival.

Source: Berkley University

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Italo

The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood

2009-09-07T13:45:00.000+02:00

Between 1825 and 1860, life in England underwent profound changes as a result of the Industrial Revolution.

In a country soon to be transformed by coal and steel production and its peripheral side effects of poverty and pollution, the luminous, sharply focused paintings of the Pre-Raphaelites provided a form of escape.

The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was formed in 1848 by William Holman Hunt (1827-1910), Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-82), and John Everett Millais (1829-96). They were later joined by others, including Ford Madox Brown (1821-93) and Edward Coley Burne-Jones (1833-98).

They initially signed their works with the initials PRB, causing much controversy and scandal. The champion of the movement, however, was writer and critic John Ruskin (1819-1900). who. in addition to promoting the Gothic style, helped to reinforce the group's sense of moral commitment and social awareness.

He envisaged art as a means of saving the human race and fulfilling the most important human aspirations. In contrast to the pretence and artifice of academic painting, Pre-Raphaelite art looked afresh at techniques used by artists before the time of Raphael.

Studying nature in detail to rediscover its inner meaning, the Brotherhood sought to communicate with the forgotten sources of spirituality. However, the early purity of spirit was later lost.

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Italo

Boticelli - The Birth of Venus

2009-09-07T01:50:00.004+02:00

Alessandro Botticelli depicts the pagan goddess of love - Venus - as the harbinger of spring and owes his inspiration to the Classical ideals of ancient Greek art.

Source: Suite 101

His Biography
Sandro Botticelli or Il Botticello (March 1, 1445 – May 17, 1510)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boticelli

Source: Wikipedia

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Italo

Pulsar Star (Lecture)

2009-08-21T15:09:00.003+02:00

About this Video

Jocelyn Bell Burnell, the President of the UKs Institute of Physics, talks about her discovery of pulsars.

The lecture took place at the Opening Ceremony of the International Year of Astronomy 2009.

About this Video

Professor Bailyn begins with a summary of the four post-Newtonian effects of general relativity that were introduced and explained last time: precession of the perihelion, the deflection of light, the gravitational redshift, and gravitational waves.

The concept of gravitational lensing is discussed as predicted by Einstein's general relativity theory.

The formation of a gravitational lens can be observed when light from a bright distant source bends around a massive object between the source (such as a quasar) and the observer.

Professor Bailyn then offers a slideshow of gravitational lenses.

The issue of finding suitable astronomical objects that lend the opportunity to observe post-Newtonian relativistic effects is addressed. The lecture ends with Jocelyn Bell and the discovery of pulsars.

Einstein @ Home Project

According to Albert Einstein, we live in a universe full of gravitational waves.

He suggested that the movements of heavy objects, such as black holes and dense stars, create waves that change space and time.

We have a chance to detect these waves, but we need your help to do it!

Einstein@Home uses computer time donated by computer owners all over the world to process data from gravitational wave detectors. Participants in Einstein@Home download software to their computers, which process gravitational wave data when not being used for other computer applications, like word processors or games. Einstein@Home doesn’t affect the performance of computers and greatly speeds up this exciting research.

http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/

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Italo

Perseid meteor shower live onTwitter

2009-08-12T00:45:00.007+02:00

July 31, 2009: Earth is entering a stream of dusty debris from Comet Swift-Tuttle, the source of the annual Perseid meteor shower. Although the shower won't peak until August 11th and 12th, the show is already getting underway.

Source: Science @ Nasa

Comet Swift-Tuttle

Shortly after its discovery appearance, Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli noticed that the orbit of Comet Swift-Tuttle was remarkably similar to the orbit of the dust particles responsible for the Perseid meteor shower each August.

During the peak of meteor showers, upwards of hundreds (and occasionally thousands) of meteors an hour can be seen (as compared to a few per hour visible on a normal night from a dark location).

Schiaparelli's connection established comets as the originators of meteor showers -- as comets move close to the Sun, solar heat turns their ice to gas, which explodes away from the surface of the comet in ``jets'' of gas that pull some of the comet's dust out with them.

The dust is left behind in the comet's orbit. When the Earth crosses the orbit, at the same time each year, it plows through the dust, unleashing a meteor shower.

Source by Sally Stephens, Astronomical Society of the Pacific

http://www.as.wvu.edu/~jel/skywatch/swfttle.html

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Italo

A Darwinian Perspective on Religions

2009-08-08T01:21:00.002+02:00

19 March 2009. World famous philosopher and humanist Daniel Dennett speaks at Conway Hall, providing "A Darwinian Perspective on Religions: Past, Present and Future"

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Italo

Darwin's literary works

2009-08-08T01:21:00.001+02:00

December 1, 2008 lecture by George Levine for the Stanford Continuing Studies course on Darwin's Legacy (DAR 200).

Dr. Levine discusses through analysis of Darwin's literary works, ways of seeing and being enchanted by the world as well as the poetic eloquence of Darwin's prose. The lecture is concluded with a discussion between Dr. Levine and Rob Polhemus.

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Italo

Darwin and on how social behavior changes the brains of fish, animals, and humans

2009-08-08T01:19:00.000+02:00

November 17, 2008 lecture by Russell Fernald for the Stanford Continuing Studies course on Darwin's Legacy (DAR 200).

Dr. Fernald discusses how social behavior changes the brains of fish, animals, and humans to adapt to situations typically involving mating behaviors.

The lecture is concluded with a panel discussion with Eric Knudsen and Charles Junkerman.

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Italo

Darwin and Medicine

2009-08-08T01:18:00.000+02:00

November 10, 2008 lecture by Paul Ewald for the Stanford Continuing Studies course on Darwin's Legacy (DAR 200).

Dr. Ewald speaks about how several pathogenic viruses have evolved over time to break down the cell's barriers to several types of cancer.

He suggests that further research will aid in the discovery of additional viruses linked to the causation of cancer. The lecture is concluded with a panel discussion with Gary Schoolnik and Stanley Falkow.

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Italo

History and consequences of social Darwinism

2009-08-08T01:17:00.000+02:00

November 3, 2008 lecture by Professor Melissa Brown for the Stanford Continuing Studies course on Darwin's Legacy (DAR 200).

Professor Brown speaks about the history and consequences of social Darwinism, and offers insight into new ways of thinking about social evolution.

Cheers

Italo

Darwin's life and work

2009-08-08T01:16:00.000+02:00

October 27, 2008 lecture by Niles Eldredge for the Stanford Continuing Studies course on Darwin's Legacy (DAR 200).

Dr. Eldredge discusses Darwin's life and work. The lecture is concluded with a panel discussion with Ward Watt and Liz Hadly.

Cheers

Italo

Darwin on how and why species multiply

2009-08-08T01:15:00.000+02:00

October 20, 2008 lecture by Peter and Rosemary Grant for the Stanford Continuing Studies course on Darwin's Legacy (DAR 200).

The Grants discuss how and why species multiply. The lecture is concluded with a panel discussion with Carol Boggs and Rodolfo Dirzo.

Cheers

Italo

The philosophical importance of Darwin's theory of evolution

2009-08-08T01:14:00.000+02:00

October 13, 2008 lecture by Daniel Dennett for the Stanford Continuing Studies course on Darwin's Legacy (DAR 200).

Dr. Dennett presents the philosophical importance of Darwin's theory of evolution. The lecture is concluded with a panel discussion with Hank Greely and Chris Bobonich.

Cheers

Italo

Darwin's Origin of Species

2009-08-08T01:12:00.000+02:00

October 6, 2008 lecture by Janet Browne for the Stanford Continuing Studies course on Darwin's Legacy (DAR 200).

Dr. Browne presents a biography on Charles Darwin and explores Darwin's Origin of Species. The lecture is concluded with a panel discussion with Craig Heller and Robert Proctor.

Cheers

Italo

Darwin: Evolution vs. Creationism

2009-08-08T01:11:00.000+02:00

September 29, 2008 lecture by Eugenie Scott for the Stanford Continuing Studies course on Darwin's Legacy (DAR 200).

Dr. Scott explores the evolution vs. creationism debate and provides an argument for evolution. The lecture is concluded with a panel discussion with Brent Sockness and Jeff Wine.

Cheers

Italo

Darwin's Own Evolution

2009-08-08T01:09:00.000+02:00

September 22, 2008 introductory lecture by William Durham for the Stanford Continuing Studies course on Darwin's Legacy (DAR 200).

Professor Durham provides an overview of the course; Professor Robert Siegel touches upon "Darwin's Own Evolution;" Professor Durham returns for a talk on "Darwin's Data;" and the lecture concludes with a panel discussion moderated by Dr. Lynn Rothschild.

Cheers

Italo

The Theory of Evolution

2009-07-01T23:16:00.006+02:00

Dear Readers

How is it possible that only 8% of the people believe in evolution?

You might think that, this interview, had been commissioned in a remote corner of our planet, unfortunately this is not true, the panel concerned, nations like US, UK,China and Spain

Source. the Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2009/jul/01/evolution

As Librarian my moral duty is to give detailed information about this theory, with the support of you tube and Wiki

About this Video

In this video Charles Darwin delivers his famous lecture on the origin of the species by means of natural selection. Evolutionary Geneticist, Professor John Brookfield, helps to bring the biological genius to life.

Charles Darwin (Biography)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_darwin

The Complete Works of Charles Darwin Online

http://darwin-online.org.uk/audio_darwin.html

Cheers

Italo

The Picenes’ Civilisation (IX-VIII BC)

2009-06-25T17:28:00.000+02:00

In the Picenes’ civilisation the agriculture was important because
the settlements were distributed in fertile areas and in some
villages were found bones of cattle, millstones and stone pestles.
We can only assume the use of wooden plough, because none
agricultural instrument is documented.

Major must have been the breeding of sheep, resulting in the
producing of milk, but to date has not been identified none of the
Picenes’ workshops, we can say that among the craft, was the
considerable metal-technical, that during the 7th and 6th century
B.C. produced many valuable items, original and imitation; from
the 7th century is documented that the iron had been worked, for
the manufacture of weapons and tools.

A specialised workforce must also be trained for working amber.
Threading and weaving are certified by reeled fictile.

As for the ceramic production, we must note that the jars of
Picenes were shaped by hand and can therefore be considered as
products of domestic activities, those of orientalising trousseaus,
were worked with the lathe by hand, reaching levels so high to
assumed a work of craftsmen specialised.

During the VI century B.C., spreads the use of the lathe and forms
become more accurate probably it was the first shape of shops of
potters.

According to archaeological documents, had been documented the
use of fast lathe, which allows a more precise machining and
production in series to meet the demands of market.

Source: U.T.E.S. “Le Fasi della Civiltà Picena”

Translated into English by Italo Perazzoli

The Multiverse and Theories of Everything

2009-06-12T17:57:00.000+02:00

About this Video:

Professor Bailyn begins the class with a discussion of a recent New York Times article about the discovery of a new, earth-like planet. He then discusses concepts such as epicycles, dark energy and dark matter; imaginary ideas invented to explain 96% of the universe. The Anthropic Principle is introduced and the possibility of the multiverse is addressed. Finally, biological arguments are put forth for how complexity occurs on a cosmological scale. The lecture and course conclude with a discussion on the fine differences between science and philosophy.

And now is time for an astral voyage, with Beethoven through our wonderful Universe

Cheers

Italo

Nebulae ( Lecture)

2008-12-31T17:31:00.000+01:00

1 of 5

2of5

3of5

4of5

5of5

Cheers

Italo

Main sequence Stars (Lecture)

2008-12-30T22:56:00.008+01:00

A star is a massive, luminous ball of plasma that is held together by its own gravity.

The nearest star to Earth is the Sun, which is the source of most of the energy on Earth.

Other stars are visible in the night sky, when they are not outshone by the Sun. For most of its life, a star shines due to thermonuclear fusion in its core releasing energy that traverses the star's interior and then radiates into outer space. Almost all elements heavier than hydrogen and helium were created by fusion processes in stars.

Source: Wikipedia

HR Diagram

The Hertzsprung-Russell diagram (usually referred to by the abbreviation H-R diagram or HRD, also known as a colour-magnitude diagram, or CMD) shows the relationship between absolute magnitude, luminosity, classification, and effective temperature of stars.

The diagram was created circa 1910 by Ejnar Hertzsprung and Henry Norris Russell, and represented a huge leap forward in understanding stellar evolution, or the 'lives of stars'.

Source: Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HR_diagram

More info (Lectures)

http://video.google.it/videoplay?docid=-5550124087565365883&ei=v5paSYSsGpfE2AKnr6yhCw&q=stars+lecture

http://video.google.it/videoplay?docid=34657059692228603&ei=G5taSd-PJ6Xy2wK5mv3LAQ&q=stars+lecture

Planets Everywhere

http://video.google.it/videoplay?docid=7990127496839639144&q=source%3A013409331060793068280&hl=it

Cheers

Italo

The Nativity in the days of Byzantine Art

2008-12-22T00:11:00.007+01:00

Description

AN IMPORTANT ICON OF THE NATIVITY OF CHRIST
BYZANTINE, 1400-1425

The main event of the composition, the Birth of Christ, surrounded by a number of related episodes; the rocky cliffs functioning as natural dividers between the scenes; the serpentine figure of the Mother of God reclining on a couch placed on a barren plateau, gazing at the onlooker while turning her back to the swaddled Child in the sarcophagus-shaped manger;

at the mouth of the grotto, against its dark interior, the ox and ass warming the Infant with their breath; to the far left the Three Magi on horseback, wearing distinct Phrygian caps, pointing to the star issuing forth from the heavenly segment at the top of the image; a group of angels to the left of the central mount directing the viewer's attention to the star, opposite a second assembly of angels with veiled hands leaning forward in veneration of the Child;

to the right another angel blessing the shepherds while delivering the Divine news; the same two shepherds shown again in the foreground conveying the angel's message to St. Joseph, the latter portrayed in a pensive mood; between the two appearances of the shepherds, a shepherd-boy with a short tunic, seated on a low rock playing the flute; to his back a flock munching the tree-leaves, some sheep at the lower right watering themselves and a sheepdog sleeping adjacently;

the lower left side illustrating the Infant's first bath, with one maid pouring water into the basin and the other holding Christ; the saturated and bright colours of the figures accentuated by white or gold brushstrokes, standing out against the muted, pastel tones of the landscape and the gold skies of the rhythmically structured composition

16 x 13 7/8 in. (40.7 x 35.3 cm)

Source: Christies
http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?pos=2&intObjectID=5152413&sid=

Nativity of Jesus in Art

The Nativity of Jesus has been a major subject of Christian art since the 4th century. The artistic depictions of the Nativity or birth of Jesus, celebrated at Christmas, are based on the narratives in the Bible, in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, and further elaborated by written, oral and artistic tradition.

Christian art includes a great many representations of the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child. Such works are generally referred to as the "Madonna and Child" or "Virgin and Child". They are not usually representations of the Nativity specifically, but are often devotional objects representing a particular aspect or attribute of the Virgin Mary, or Jesus. Nativity pictures, on the other hand, are specifically illustrative, and include many narrative details.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nativity_of_Jesus_in_art

Kontakion on the Nativity of Christ

Kontakion (Greek: κοντάκιον) is a form of hymn performed in the Eastern Orthodox Church. The word derives from the Greek word kontax (κόνταξ) meaning pole, specifically the pole around which a scroll is wound.

The term describes the way in which the words on a scroll unfurl as it is read.

The word was originally used to describe an early Byzantine poetic form, whose origins date back certainly as far as the 6th century AD, and possibly earlier.

Sacred Tradition ascribes the origin of the Kontakion to St. Romanos the Melodist during the 6th century. Certainly, Romanos' inspired compositions represent the apex of the Golden Age of Byzantine hymnography. His masterpiece is the Kontakion for the Nativity of Christ. Up until the twelfth century, it was sung every year at the imperial banquet on that feast by the joint choirs of Hagia Sophia and of the Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople. Most of the poem takes the form of a dialogue between the Mother of God and the Magi, whose visit to the newborn Child is celebrated in the Orthodox Church on the 25th of December, rather than on the 6th of January (the Feast of the Theophany on January 6 celebrates the Baptism of Christ in the Orthodox Church).

Source: Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kontakion

A brief essay on Kontakion

http://dce.oca.org/assets/files/resources/romanos_nativity.pdf

Nativity of Christ (musics)

http://www.byzantines.net/feasts/christmas/music.htm

Merry Xmas

Cheers

Italo

The Basilica of Summer Snows (St.Mary Major)

2008-11-10T13:56:00.002+01:00

The Papal Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore

"The Patriarchal Basilica of St. Mary Major reigns as an authentic jewel in the crown of Roman churches. Its beautiful treasures are of inestimable value, and represent the Church's role as the cradle of Christian artistic civilization in Rome. For nearly sixteen centuries, St. Mary Major has held its position as a Marian shrine par excellence and has been a magnet for pilgrims from all over the world who have come to the Eternal City to experience the beauty, grandeur and holiness of the basilica."

Source: Vatican

Father Albert visits the Basilica of Saint Mary Major.
The most important church in the city of Rome dedicated to Our Lady is the Basilica of Saint Mary Major, erected around the year 352, during the reign of Pope Liberius. ( 352-366 )

According to legend, a member of an aristocratic family, John and his wife were childless and prayed that the Blessed Mother might designate an heir to bequeath their wealth.

They were favored with a dream in which Our Lady appeared to them on the night of August 4-5. She requested that they build a church in her honor on the Esquiline hill and the sign to accompany this dream is that the exact location would be marked out in snow.

During that hot summer evening, a miraculous snowfall traced the form of the basilica on the hill. Our Lady also appeared to Pope Liberius in a dream that same night so that he too could arrive at the location to see the miraculous snowfall.

Many people gathered to see the unusual event of snow glistening in the August sun. Upon awakening, John and his wife rushed to the site and Pope Liberius arrived in solemn procession

Realizing that the snow marked the exact location of the church, the people staked off the area before the snow melted. The basilica was completed within two years and consecrated by Pope Liberius.

Father Albert Cutié has the special privilege of entering millions of homes throughout the world each day with his television and radio talk shows, newspaper advice columns, and self-help books.

Father Albert is a priest of the Archdiocese of Miami, where he is the General Director of Pax Catholic Communications (home of Radio Peace in Miami) -- a media organization dedicated to using the latest technologies in bringing a message of faith, hope and love to today's world.

Source: Wikipedia

The Basilica of Summer Snows

"Widely believed to be the most important church dedicated to
Mary in Western Christendom"--Santa Maria Maria Maggiore

by June Hager

Source: EWTN

http://www.ewtn.com/library/CHRIST/MAGGIORE.TXT

Cheers

Italo

Wetter Mars

2008-10-29T20:40:00.004+01:00

"This is an exciting discovery because it extends the time range for liquid water on Mars, and the places where it might have supported life," said Scott Murchie

"What's important is that the longer liquid water existed on Mars, the longer the window during which Mars may have supported life," says Milliken.

"The opaline silica deposits would be good places to explore to assess the potential for habitability on Mars, especially in these younger terrains."

Flowing Water on Mars (Dec 2006)

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has observed a new category of minerals spread across large regions of Mars. This discovery suggests that liquid water remained on the planet's surface a billion years later than scientists believed, and it played an important role in shaping the planet's surface and possibly hosting life.

Source: Nasa

New Minerals point to wetter Mars (BBC News)

The newly discovered "opaline silicates" are the youngest of the three types of hydrated minerals.

Source: BBC News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7696669.stm

Hydrated Minerals (def)

HM is an inorganic chemical reaction where water is added to the crystal structure of a mineral, usually creating a new mineral, usually called a hydrate. (Wikipedia)

Cheers

Italo

Astrobiology and the Origins of Life

2008-10-29T16:13:00.005+01:00

"In this episode of Cosmos, "Astrobiology and the Origins of Life" are explored to see the relationship between stars, planets, life on earth and life elsewhere. Series: "COSMOS Discovery Lecture"

Source: UCTV

"Terrestrial Planet Finder"

"The Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF) concept, currently under study by NASA, comprises a suite of two complementary observatories that would study all aspects of planets outside our solar system: from their formation and development in disks of dust and gas around newly forming stars to the presence and features of those planets orbiting the nearest stars; from the numbers at various sizes and places to their suitability as an abode for life."

Source: Nasa

"Star and Planet"

Is a newsletter intended primarily for scientists and engineers interested in scientific and technical developments related to the detection of light from extrasolar.

http://exep.jpl.nasa.gov/library/tpf_newsletter.cfm

Source: Nasa

Nasa's TPF and Astrophisics (PDF)

http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/documents/GenAst28b.pdf

Cheers

Italo

Earth Like Planets

2008-10-24T20:54:00.005+02:00

Photo: Science News

NEARBY STAR SYSTEM HAS TWO ASTEROID BELTS (26th October 2008)

"Epsilon Eridani just got more fabulous: Researchers have discovered that the star, only 10.5 light-years from the sun, spots two inner asteroid belts in addition to the icy ring on the outskirts of the Epsilon Eridani system."

Source: Science News

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/38105/title/Double_the_rubble_Nearby_star_system_has_two_asteroid_belts

Eso Planets 1 of 2

Eso Planet 2 of 2

ESO Official web site
(Languages available: German, French, Italian)
http://www.eso.org/public/archives/video/

Earth Like Planet in Habitable Zone

Cheers

Italo

Stellar Seismology

2008-10-24T20:39:00.004+02:00

Dear Readers

This is a new technological innovation, now I am doing a DL on Stars at the LJMU, when I'll touch this argument, I'll post my opinions based on scientific point of views, in particular the so called "Pulsar Stars"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulsar

"This is a completely new way to look at the stars compared with what has been available for the past 50 years. It is very exciting."

Professor Eric Michel said.

Source:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7687286.stm

The Sound of Jupiter

What is Electromagnetism?

Electric and magnetic forces can be detected in regions called electric and magnetic fields. These fields are fundamental in nature and can exist in space far from the charge or current that generated them.

Source & Link Britannica

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/183324/electromagnetism

David Guenther on this argument:

http://www.ap.smu.ca/~guenther/Level01/seismology/seismology.html

Dr O'Brien has collected his favourite space sounds in the Jodrell Bank podcast, known as the Jodcast.

http://www.jodcast.net/archive/200808Extra/

Cheers

Italo

Giotto di Bondone

2008-10-23T22:37:00.006+02:00

Dear Mates

I decided to post these videos for many reasons, the first one concerns the "artistic link" between the Byzantine Art and the Renaissance.

Another reason, is that my uni was close to St. Francis Church in Assisi, where I admired his masterpieces for three year.

Art History Introduction

This boy and Geri (my tutor) have a great passion for art, as newcomer I've a first orientation, of this new cute world.

Giotto & Cimabue

Byzantine Art and the West (Pdf)

http://www.euroculturemaster.org/pdf/stefanov.pdf

Arte Bizantina e collezioni Romane nel XIX Secolo

http://www.byzantinecongress.org.uk/paper/VIII/VIII.3_Moretti.pdf

Giotto & St. Francis

Cimabue

Cenni di Pepo (Giovanni) Cimabue (c. 1240 — c. 1302) also known as Bencivieni di Pepo or in modern Italian, Benvenuto di Giuseppe, was an Italian painter and creator of mosaics from Florence.

He is also well known for his student Giotto, considered the first great artist of the Italian Renaissance. Cimabue is generally regarded as the last great painter working in the Byzantine tradition.

The art of this period comprised scenes and forms that appeared relatively flat and highly stylized. Cimabue was a pioneer in the move towards naturalism, as his figures were depicted with rather more life-like proportions and shading.

Source: Wiki

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cimabue

Giotto Final

Giotto di Bondone

Giotto di Bondone (c. 1267–January 8, 1337), better known simply as Giotto, was an Italian painter and architect from Florence. He is generally considered the first in a line of great artists who contributed to the Italian Renaissance.

Source: Wiki

Cheers

Italo

Renaissance

2008-10-23T00:06:00.002+02:00

Literally “rebirth,” the period in European civilization immediately following the Middle Ages, conventionally held to have been characterized by a surge of interest in classical learning and values.

The Renaissance also witnessed the discovery and exploration of new continents, the substitution of the Copernican for the Ptolemaic system of astronomy, the decline of the feudal system and the growth of commerce, and the invention or application of such potentially powerful innovations as paper, printing, the mariner’s compass, and gunpowder.

To the scholars and thinkers of the day, however, it was primarily a time of the revival of classical learning and wisdom after a long period of cultural decline and stagnation.

Source Britannica

MasterPiece of the Renaissance

Leaf through this masterpiece and magnify the detail....online

http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/ttp/ttpbooks.html

Sforza

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/537354/Ludovico-Sforza#tab=active~checked%2Citems~checked&title=Ludovico%20Sforza%20--%20Britannica%20Online%20Encyclopedia

Cheers

Italo

Early Christian use of Pagan Imagery

2008-10-20T23:48:00.007+02:00

John Romer tells of how pagan imagery was adopted by the early Christian church, and how these ancient symbols and icons were used by the empire's leaders to position themselves conveniently between the people they ruled and their God.

For example an image of Jesus in Constantinople was copied from a statue of Zeus(Jupiter) which was one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

Icon > Stylistic Development

At this time the manner of depicting Jesus was not yet uniform, and there was some controversy over which of the two most common icons was to be favoured.

The first or “Semitic” form showed Jesus with short and “frizzy” hair; the second showed a bearded Jesus with hair parted in the middle, the manner in which the god Zeus was depicted.

Theodorus Lector remarked that of the two, the one with short and frizzy hair was “more authentic.”

To support his assertion, he relates a story (excerpted by John of Damascus) that a pagan commissioned to paint an image of Jesus used the “Zeus” form instead of the “Semitic” form, and that as punishment his hands withered.

Source Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icon

Semitic Language (Britannica)

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/534171/Semitic-languages

Semitic Language (Wiki)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semitic

The Art of Constantinople An Intro to Byzantine Art

http://www.archive.org/stream/artofconstantino006094mbp/artofconstantino006094mbp_djvu.txt

Cheers

Italo

Byzantine Empire and Art

2008-10-13T23:32:00.005+02:00

The most famous of the surviving Byzantine mosaics of the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople - the image of Christ Pantocrator on the walls of the upper southern gallery. Christ is flanked by the Virgin Mary and John the Baptist. The mosaics were made in the 12th century.

Photo: Wikipedia

Byzantine Art

"Byzantine art is almost entirely concerned with religious expression and, more specifically, with the impersonal translation of carefully controlled church theology into artistic terms.

Its forms of architecture and painting grew out of these concerns and remained uniform and anonymous, perfected within a rigid tradition rather than varied according to personal whim; the result was a sophistication of style and a spirituality of expression rarely paralleled in Western art.

Byzantine art is almost entirely concerned with religious expression and, more specifically, with the impersonal translation of carefully controlled church theology into artistic terms. Its forms of architecture and painting grew out of these concerns and remained uniform and anonymous, perfected within a rigid tradition rather than varied according to personal whim; the result was a sophistication of style and a spirituality of expression rarely paralleled in Western art."

Source: Britannica Encyclopedia, Byzantine Empire and Byzantine Art

Byzantine Live

Royal Academy

http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibitions/byzantium/

BBC Radio 4 Byzantium Unearthed

"Historian Bettany Hughes presents a series that uses the latest archaeological evidence to learn more about the empire of Byzantium and the people who ruled it.

Bettany examines the public and private life of the Byzantines. Women had unprecedented power in the Empire, as did the mysterious 'third sex' of eunuchs. But, in this part Roman, part fundamentalist Christian state, dangerous political factions would keep the blood of political dynasties flowing."

Source: BBC Radio 4

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/byzantiumunearthed/pip/0q9b8/

Byzantine Empire (474-1453)

"The eastern half of the Roman Empire, which survived for a thousand years after the western half had crumbled into various feudal kingdoms and which finally fell to Ottoman Turkish onslaughts in 1453.

The very name Byzantine illustrates the misconceptions to which the empire’s history has often been subject, for its inhabitants would hardly have considered the term appropriate to themselves or to their state.

Theirs was, in their view, none other than the Roman Empire, founded shortly before the beginning of the Christian Era by God’s grace to unify his people in preparation for the coming of his Son. Proud of that Christian and Roman heritage, convinced that their earthly empire so nearly resembled the heavenly pattern that it could never change, they called themselves Romaioi, or Romans"

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/87186/Byzantine-Empire

Cheers

Italo

2008-10-06T22:19:00.002+02:00

About This Video: A revolution is now underway in Astronomy and Astrophysics.
The next decade will witness the completion of massive, wide-area, multicolor imaging and spectroscopic surveys of the local and distant Universe.

With its strong legacy of public outreach, Hubble's Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) has been responsible for how most of the world views our universe.
We recognize that, given the coming flood of information, the next step of this task is to allow users to actively explore the cosmos themselves. In this talk we hope to show some of the potential explorations of this wealth of data to help us all better...

Carl Sagan - God, the Universe, & Everything Else

About This Video: Stephen Hawking - God, the Universe, & Everything Else / Carl Sagan, Arthur C. Clarke (1988)

British journalist and TV host Magnus Magnusson tackles big questions about our universe in this educational colloquium that brings together three of the 20th century's leading scientific thinkers: theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, astronomer Carl Sagan and author Arthur C. Clarke.
They explore everything from the Big Bang Theory to the expansion of the universe, black holes, extraterrestrial life and the origins of creativity.

Source: YouTube (Texts)

Cheers

Italo

Kepler's Laws

2008-10-03T23:30:00.007+02:00

1st Law

The orbit of a planet about the sun is an ellipse, with the sun at the focus

2nd Law

A line joining a planet and the sun sweeps out equal areas in equal intervals

3rd Law

The Square of the sideral period of a planet is directly proportional to the cube of the semimajor axis of the orbit.

...Thus, not only does the length of the orbit increase with distance, the orbital speed decreases, so that the increase of the orbital period is more than proportional.

Source: Wiki

Infact

Mercury

Orbital period = 87.969 days

Average Orbital Speed = 47.9 km/s

Venus

Orbital period = 224.70 days

Average Orbital Speed = 35.0 km/s

Earth

Orbital period = 365.256 days

Average Orbital Speed = 29.79 km/s

Mars

Orbital period = 686.98 days

Average Orbital Speed = 24.1 km/s

Jupiter

Orbital period = 11.86 years

Average Orbital Speed = 13.1 km/s

Saturn

Orbital period = 29.37 years

Average Orbital Speed = 9.64 km/s

Uranus

Orbital period = 84.099 years

Average Orbital Speed = 6.83 km/s

Neptune

Orbital period = 164.86 years

Average Orbital Speed = 5.5 km/s

Sources

Photo: Nasa

Textes: Universe

Cheers

Italo

The Hubble Deep Field: The Most Important Image Ever Taken

2008-10-03T11:34:00.000+02:00

In 2003, the Hubble Space Telescope took the image of a millenium, an image that shows our place in the universe. Anyone who understands what this image represents, is forever changed by it.

Cheers

Italo

Drake Equation and Neutrino Beam

2008-10-02T11:31:00.005+02:00

Tray Drake Equation Yourself

http://www.activemind.com/Mysterious/Topics/SETI/drake_equation.html

Haunting For Neutrino

Neutrino (Def)

Neutrinos are created as a result of certain types of radioactive decay or nuclear reactions such as those that take place in the Sun, in nuclear reactors, or when cosmic rays hit atoms.

There are three types, or "flavors", of neutrinos: electron neutrinos, muon neutrinos and tau neutrinos; each type also has an antimatter partner, called an antineutrino.

Electron neutrinos or antineutrinos are generated whenever neutrons change into protons or vice versa, the two forms of beta decay. Interactions involving neutrinos are generally mediated by the weak force.

Most neutrinos passing through the Earth emanate from the sun, and more than 50 trillion solar electron neutrinos pass through the human body every second.

Source: Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutrino#Supernovae

IceCube Neutrino (Neutrino Beam)

Cheers Italo

Whormholes, Blackholes, Whiteholes

2008-09-27T15:09:00.004+02:00

Part I of V

Wormhole (Def)

A conjecture connection between different regions of spacetime made possible by the gravitational effects of a Black Hole

Source: Universe

Part II ov V

Whitehole (Def)

In quantum mechanics, the black hole emits Hawking radiation, and so can come to thermal equilibrium with a gas of radiation. Since a thermal equilibrium state is time reversal invariant, Hawking argued that the time reverse of a black hole in thermal equilibrium is again a black hole in thermal equilibrium.

This implies that black holes and white holes are the same object.

The Hawking radiation from an ordinary black hole is then identified with the white hole emission. Hawking's semi-classical argument is reproduced in a quantum mechanical AdS/CFT treatment, where a black hole in anti-de Sitter space is described by a thermal gas in a gauge theory, whose time reversal is the same as itself.

Source: Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_hole

Part III of V

Blackholes (Def)

An object whose gravity is so strong that the escape speed exceeds the speed of light*

Source: Universe

* Problem:

Is it possibel to overcome the speed of light?

"Why is it that nothing may go faster than the speed of light? I have also heard that they once got an electron to travel faster than the speed of light in a particle accelerator. Can you confirm or deny this?

Our current understanding of the laws of physics say that nothing can go faster than the speed of light, and that objects with mass cannot even get up to the speed of light (it requires an infinite amount of energy).

They have never gotten an electron to go faster than the speed of light (see above). The fastest electrons from an accelerator go about .999999 times the speed of light"

Source: Dr. Eric Christian/Nasa

http://helios.gsfc.nasa.gov/qa_gp_sl.html#speedlight

Part IV of V

Hawking radiation (also known as Bekenstein-Hawking radiation)

Is a thermal radiation with a black body spectrum predicted to be emitted by black holes due to quantum effects. It is named after the physicist Stephen Hawking who provided the theoretical argument for its existence in 1974, and sometimes also after the physicist Jacob Bekenstein who predicted that black holes should have a finite, non-zero temperature and entropy.

Hawking's work followed his visit to Moscow in 1973 where Soviet scientists Yakov Zeldovich and Alexander Starobinsky showed him that according to the quantum mechanical uncertainty principle, rotating black holes should create and emit particles.

The Hawking radiation process reduces the mass of the black hole and is therefore also known as black hole evaporation.

Because Hawking radiation allows black holes to lose mass, black holes that lose more matter than they gain through other means are expected to dissipate, shrink, and ultimately vanish. Smaller micro black holes (MBHs) are currently predicted by theory to be larger net emitters of radiation than larger black holes, and to shrink and dissipate faster.

Hawking's analysis became the first convincing insight into a possible theory of quantum gravity. However, the existence of Hawking radiation has never been observed, although the Large Hadron Collider may produce mini black holes, which would provide some evidence for Hawking radiation.

In June 2008, NASA launched the GLAST satellite, which will search for the terminal gamma-ray flashes expected from evaporating primordial black holes. In speculative large extra dimension theories, CERN's Large Hadron Collider may be able to create micro black holes and observe their evaporation.

Ground based observatories, such as the Pierre Auger (a research partner of The University of Utah Telescope array), might also be capable of detecting evaporating MBHs that would form in the upper atmosphere by the impact of high-speed protons, also known as cosmic rays.

Recent results from the Pierre Auger now suggest that the highest energy protons (with energies of 1020 eV or higher) originate from nearby active galactic nuclei (AGN) where they are accelerated and travel to earth for hundreds of millions of years at nearly the speed of light, and upon impact might create MBHs, allowing for observation of their evaporation.

Source: Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawking_radiation

Part V of V

Cheers

Italo

Super Massive Black Holes (BBC World)

2008-09-27T14:34:00.003+02:00

II of V

III of V

IV of V

V of V

Cheers

Italo

Neutron star

2008-09-25T14:07:00.003+02:00

A neutron star is about 20 km in diameter and has the mass of about 1.4 times that of our Sun. This means that a neutron star is so dense that on Earth, one teaspoonful would weigh a billion tons! Because of its small size and high density, a neutron star possesses a surface gravitational field about 2 x 1011 times that of Earth. Neutron stars can also have magnetic fields a million times stronger than the strongest magnetic fields produced on Earth"

Source Nasa

http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/science/know_l1/neutron_stars.html

http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/science/know_l1/pulsars.html

Neutron Star (by Carl Sagan)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldyRllVk2rE

Cheers

Italo

General Relativity and Worm Holes

2008-09-25T13:33:00.004+02:00

"Einstein overthrew many assumptions underlying earlier physical theories, redefining in the process the fundamental concepts of space, time, matter, energy, and gravity. Along with quantum mechanics, relativity is central to modern physics. In particular, relativity provides the basis for understanding cosmic processes and the geometry of the universe itself."

Special relativity” is limited to objects that are moving at constant speed in a straight line, which is called inertial motion. Beginning with the behaviour of light (and all other electromagnetic radiation), the theory of special relativity draws conclusions that are contrary to everyday experience but fully confirmed by experiments.

Special relativity revealed that the speed of light is a limit that can be approached but not reached by any material object; it is the origin of the most famous equation in science, E = mc2; and it has led to other tantalizing outcomes, such as the “twin paradox.”

“General relativity” is concerned with gravity, one of the fundamental forces in the universe. (The others are electricity and magnetism, which have been unified as electromagnetism, the strong force, and the weak force.) Gravity defines macroscopic behaviour, and so general relativity describes large-scale physical phenomena such as planetary dynamics, the birth and death of stars, black holes, and the evolution of the universe"

Source: Britannica.com

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/496904/relativity/252889/General-relativity#ref=ref399068

Wormhole (Def)

"In physics, a wormhole is a hypothetical topological feature of spacetime that is basically a 'shortcut' through space and time. Spacetime can be viewed as a 2D surface, and when 'folded' over, a wormhole bridge can be formed.

A wormhole has at least two mouths which are connected to a single throat or tube. If the wormhole is traversable, matter can 'travel' from one mouth to the other by passing through the throat. While there is no observational evidence for wormholes, spacetimes-containing wormholes are known to be valid solutions in general relativity."

Source: Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wormholes

Negative Mass & Exotic Matter

"Ever since Newton first formulated his theory of gravity, there have been at least three conceptually distinct quantities called mass: inertial mass, "active" gravitational mass (that is, the source of the gravitational field), and "passive" gravitational mass

(that is, the amount of force produced in response to gravity).

The Einstein equivalence principle postulates that inertial mass must equal passive gravitational mass; while the law of conservation of momentum requires that active and passive gravitational mass must be identical.

All experimental evidence to date has found these are indeed always the same. In considering hypothetical particles with negative mass, it is important to consider which of these concepts of mass are negative; however, in most analysis of negative mass, it is assumed that the equivalence principle and conservation of momentum continue to apply.

In 1957, Hermann Bondi suggested in a paper in Reviews of Modern Physics that mass might be negative as well as positive [1]. He pointed out that this does not entail a logical contradiction, as long as all three forms of mass are all negative, but that the assumption of negative mass involves some counter-intuitive form of motion."

Source. Wikipedia.org

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exotic_matter

Einstein's Relativity

Cheers

Italo

An Introduction to the Big Bang (video)

2008-09-18T10:49:00.001+02:00

An Introduction to the Big Bang (1 of 2)

An Introduction to the Big Bang (2 of 2)

Cheers

Italo

LHC and Dark Matter Problem

2008-09-10T11:07:00.011+02:00

Science Weekly podcast: The Cerncast

Alok Jha presents our guide to the biggest science experiment of our lifetime: the Large Hadron Collider at Cern. Featuring interviews with Brian Cox, Jim Al-Khalili, and Lawrence Kraus

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/audio/2008/jun/30/science.weekly.podcast.cerncast

Our World won’t be absorbed by a black hole in Geneva, for instance the LHC’s Velocities is less than c = 2,9979x10^8 m/s, and also because is natural to receive cosmic rays (subatomic particles) from the space.

· Dark Matter: Non luminous matter that is the dominant form of matter in galaxies and throughout universe.

· Dark Matter Problem: The enigma that most matter in the universe seems not to emit radiation of any kind and is detectable by its gravity alone.

· Black Holes: An object whose gravity is so strong that the escape speed exceeds the speed of light.

Source: Universe – Glossary G-2

Unfortunately this is not enough according to Hawking’s Radiation, this experiment won’t reach its target Why? For more information have a look at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawking_radiation

http://www.math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/Relativity/BlackHoles/hawking.html

Hawking’s Radiation FAQ

http://www.lhcfacts.org/?p=15

Cern Rap

Cheers

Italo

Higss Boson

2008-09-07T21:35:00.006+02:00

Hi Mates

My nephew asked me: What is it the Higgs Boson?, and what is it an elementary particle, well well this is quite complicated isn't it?

My idea is that this is an important field for The Science of Sci-Fi: to explain what is , using simple concepts through literature, soaps, You Tube, Facebook.

For these reasons I made a selection of definitions and articles more or less simple.

A hypothetical, massive subatomic particle with zero electric charge whose existence would explain the masses of the elementary particles.

Source: Answers

Elementary Particle (Def)

"In particle physics, an elementary particle or fundamental particle is a particle not known to have substructure; that is, it is not known to be made up of smaller particles.

If an elementary particle truly has no substructure, then it is one of the basic building blocks of the universe from which all other particles are made.

In the Standard Model, the quarks, leptons, and gauge bosons are elementary particles."

Source: Wikipedia.org

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elementary_particles

Subatomic particle (Def)

"A subatomic particle is an elementary or composite particle smaller than an atom. Particle physics and nuclear physics are concerned with the study of these particles, their interactions, and non-atomic matter"

Source: Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subatomic_particle

Mass (Def)

"Mass is a fundamental concept in physics, roughly corresponding to the intuitive idea of how much matter there is in an object.

Mass is a central concept of classical mechanics and related subjects, and there are several definitions of mass within the framework of relativistic kinematics (see mass in special relativity and mass in General Relativity).

In the theory of relativity, the quantity invariant mass, which in concept is close to the classical idea of mass, does not vary between single observers in different reference frames"

Source: Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass

The God Particle

"The Higgs boson or BEH Mechanism, popularised as the "God Particle", is a hypothetical massive scalar elementary particle predicted to exist by the Standard Model of particle physics; it is the only Standard Model particle not yet observed.

Experimental observation would elucidate how otherwise massless elementary particles nevertheless manage to construct mass in matter. More specifically, the Higgs boson would explain the difference between the massless photon and the relatively massive W and Z bosons.

Elementary particle masses, and the differences between electromagnetism (caused by the photon) and the weak force (caused by the W and Z bosons), are critical to many aspects of the structure of microscopic (and hence macroscopic) matter; thus, if it exists, the Higgs boson is an integral and pervasive component of the material world."

Source: Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higgs_boson

The God Particle (Article)

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/03/god-particle/achenbach-text

Why is it so important to scientists and how are they planning to find it?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/inourtime/inourtime_20041118.shtml

Race for the Higgs;the search for the elusive Higgs Boson particle

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/

Cheers

Italo

Visual Arts (Lecture by Ernest Silva)

2008-08-27T17:47:00.006+02:00

Mathematic & Painting (Essay)

"Mathematics and painting are interrelated in many ways.

At a technical level mathematics can be used to enhance our appreciation of paintings.

This was recently demonstrated beautifully by Taylor, Micolich, and Jones in their analysis of Jackson Pollock’s drip paintings, which led them to the conclusion that Pollock’s paintings are in a
way, gurative pictures.

Relations also exist at a more basic level.

Painting and mathematics can share subject matter, as is illustrated here by a discussion of the mathematical concepts ‘open’ and ‘closed’, which are related topaintings by Pollock, Kandinsky, Turner, and van Gogh.

It is suggested in conclusion that mathematics and painting are so closely related and have so many similarities that it is reasonable to consider them simply as two diVerent but complementary ways of visualising aspects of the concrete or abstract reality in which we are embedded."

Source & Link:

http://www.ma.ic.ac.uk/~hjjens/Math_Paint.pdf

Timeline of Art History

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/splash.htm

Art Dictionary

http://www.artlex.com/

Cheers

Italo

Astrophisics: General Relativity (Lecture)

2008-08-25T21:09:00.001+02:00

Time: 1:26:00

Introduction To General Relativity (Easy)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Introduction_to_general_relativity

General Relativity (Difficult)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_relativity

Cheers

Italo

Morality and Religion (by ALJazeera)

2008-08-14T16:45:00.002+02:00

Dear Mates

As agnostic, this argument is extremely important, at the end of a distance learning course at the University of Oxford, I wrote an essay on this dilemma, (see My Papers Section) in particular if Morality and Religion is a single thing or must be separated.

Please tell me your personal opinion, because this is philosophy.

Thank You

(Part 1 of 2)

Are Morality and Religion interwined? Or can humans be pious without being religous? Riz Khan and his guests take on one of the most famous questions in ethics.

The Definition of Morality

The term “morality” can be used either

"Descriptively to refer to a code of conduct put forward by a society or, some other group, such as a religion, or accepted by an individual for her own behavior or normatively to refer to a code of conduct that, given specified conditions, would be put forward by all rational persons."

Source: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/morality-definition/

(Part 2 0f 2)

Philosophy of Religion

"Philosophy of religion is the philosophical examination of the central themes and concepts involved in religious traditions.

It involves all the main areas of philosophy: metaphysics, epistemology, logic, ethics and value theory, the philosophy of language, philosophy of science, law, sociology, politics, history, and so on.

Philosophy of religion also includes an investigation into the religious significance of historical events (e.g., the Holocaust) and general features of the cosmos (e.g., laws of nature, the emergence of conscious life, widespread testimony of religious significance, and so on).

Section one offers an overview of the field and its significance, with subsequent sections covering developments in the field since the mid-twentieth century. These sections will address philosophy of religion as studied primarily in analytic departments of philosophy and religious studies in English speaking countries"

Source: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/philosophy-religion/

Cheers

Italo

Martin Heidegger (B. 1889 D.1976)

2008-07-13T17:23:00.002+02:00

"He was one of the most original and important philosophers of the 20th century, but also the most controversial. His thinking has contributed to such diverse fields as phenomenology (Merleau-Ponty), existentialism (Sartre, Ortega y Gasset), hermeneutics (Gadamer, Ricoeur), political theory (Arendt, Marcuse), psychology (Boss, Binswanger, Rollo May), theology (Bultmann, Rahner, Tillich),
and postmodernism (Derrida).

His main concern was ontology or the study of being. In his fundamental treatise, Being and Time, he attempted to access being (Sein) by means of phenomenological analysis of human existence (Dasein) in respect to its temporal and historical character.

In his later works Heidegger had stressed the nihilism of modern technological society, and attempted to win Western philosophical tradition back to the question of being. He placed an emphasis on language as the vehicle through which the question of being could be unfolded, and on the special role of poetry. His writings are notoriously difficult. Being and Time remains still his most influential work"

Source: The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Heidegger Speaks

Heidegger's Philosophical Works

Overcoming The Metaphysics of Conciousness

http://ses.library.usyd.edu.au/bitstream/2123/2527/1/ADSA2006_Johnston.pdf

Heidegger's Radical Environmentalism
http://www.keepandshare.com/doc/view.php?id=548734&da=y

Design without casualty: Heidegger's Impossible challenge for Ecologically Sustainable Architeture

http://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/ocs/index.php/AASA/2007/paper/viewFile/38/19

Stopping the Anthropological Machine: Agamnen with Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty

http://www.phaenex.uwindsor.ca/ojs/leddy/index.php/phaenex/article/viewFile/236/396

Heidegger's Fundamental Ontology and the Problem of Animal Life

http://www.phaenex.uwindsor.ca/ojs/leddy/index.php/phaenex/article/viewFile/244/370

Précis of Heidegger, Language and World - disclosure

http://www.philosophy.northwestern.edu/people/facDocuments/Lafont/Lafont%20Precis.pdf

Enjoy

Italo

Ludwig Wittgenstein (B.1889 D.1951)

2008-07-13T14:28:00.001+02:00

Photo: Wikipedia

"is one of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century, and regarded by some as the most important since Immanuel Kant. His early work was influenced by that of Arthur Schopenhauer and, especially, by his teacher Bertrand Russell and by Gottlob Frege, who became something of a friend.

This work culminated in the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, the only philosophy book that Wittgenstein published during his lifetime. It claimed to solve all the major problems of philosophy and was held in especially high esteem by the anti-metaphysical logical positivists.

The Tractatus is based on the idea that philosophical problems arise from misunderstandings of the logic of language, and it tries to show what this logic is. Wittgenstein's later work, principally his Philosophical Investigations, shares this concern with logic and language, but takes a different, less technical, approach to philosophical problems. This book helped to inspire so-called ordinary language philosophy.

This style of doing philosophy has fallen somewhat out of favor, but Wittgenstein's work on rule-following and private language is still considered important, and his later philosophy is influential in a growing number of fields outside philosophy. "

Source: Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

John Searle on Ludwig Wittgenstein

Wittgenstein on Philosophical Investigations

"Philosophical Investigations was published posthumously in 1953. ù

It comprises two parts. Part I, consisting of 693 numbered paragraphs, was ready for printing in 1946, but rescinded from the publisher by Wittgenstein. Part II was added on by the editors, trustees of his Nachlass.

In the Preface to PI, Wittgenstein states that his new thoughts would be better understood by contrast with and against the background of his old thoughts, those in the Tractatus; and indeed, most of Part I of PI is essentially critical.

Its new insights can be understood as primarily exposing fallacies in the traditional way of thinking about language, truth, thought, intentionality, and, perhaps mainly, philosophy. In this sense, it is conceived of as a therapeutical work, conceiving of philosophy itself as it should be — as therapy.

Part II, focusing on philosophical psychology, perception etc., is not as critical. Rather, it points to new perspectives (which, undoubtedly, are not disconnected from the earlier critique) in addressing specific philosophical issues. It is, therefore, more easily read alongside Wittgenstein's other writings of the later period."

Source: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Link:

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/wittgenstein/#Phi

Enjoy

Italo

Bertrand Russell (B.1872 D.1970)

2008-07-12T21:12:00.006+02:00

"The person who has no tincture of philosophy goes through life imprisoned in the prejudices derived from common sense, from the habitual beliefs of his age of his nation, and from convictions which have grown up in his mind without the co-operation or consent of his deliberate reason...While diminishing our feeling or certainty as to what thing are, (philosophy) greatly increases our knowledge as to what they may be; it removes the somewhat arrogant dogmatism of those who have never traveled into the region of liberating doubt, and it keeps alive the sense of wonder by showing familiar things in an unfamiliar light." Bertrand Russell

Photo: by Larry Burrows

Bertrand Arthur William Russell was a British philosopher, logician, essayist, and social critic, best known for his work in mathematical logic and analytic philosophy. His most influential contributions include his defense of logicism (the view that mathematics is in some important sense reducible to logic), and his theories of definite descriptions and logical atomism.

Along with G.E. Moore, Russell is generally recognized as one of the founders of analytic philosophy. Along with Kurt Gödel, he is also regularly credited with being one of the two most important logicians of the twentieth century.

Over the course of his long career, Russell made significant contributions, not just to logic and philosophy, but to a broad range of other subjects including education, history, political theory and religious studies.

In addition, many of his writings on a wide variety of topics in both the sciences and the humanities have influenced generations of general readers. After a life marked by controversy (including dismissals from both Trinity College, Cambridge, and City College, New York), Russell was awarded the Order of Merit in 1949 and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1950. Also noted for his many spirited anti-war and anti-nuclear protests, Russell remained a prominent public figure until his death at the age of 97.

Source: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Frege and Russell

Bertrand's Philosophical Works

The Elements of Ethics
http://fair-use.org/bertrand-russell/the-elements-of-ethics

The Ethics of War
http://fair-use.org/international-journal-of-ethics/1915/01/the-ethics-of-war

Why I am not a Christian
http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/russell0.htm

What is an Agnostic?
http://www.control-z.com/pages/agnosticism.html

Am I an Atheist or an Agnostic?
http://www.luminary.us/russell/atheist_agnostic.html

Has Religion Made Useful Contribution to Philosophy?
http://www.solstice.us/russell/religionciv.html

The Problem of Philosophy
http://www.ditext.com/russell/russell.html

Introduction to mathematical philosophy
http://ia331305.us.archive.org/0/items/introductiontoma00russuoft/introductiontoma00russuoft.pdf

Enjoy

Italo

Max Weber (B.1864 D.1920)

2008-07-12T15:04:00.003+02:00

Photo: Wikipedia

"Arguably the foremost social theorist of the twentieth century, Max Weber is also known as a principal architect of modern social science along with Karl Marx and Emil Durkheim.

Weber's wide-ranging contributions gave critical impetus to the birth of new academic disciplines such as sociology and public administration as well as to the significant reorientation in law, economics, political science, and religious studies.

His methodological writings were instrumental in establishing the self-identity of modern social science as a distinct field of inquiry; he is still claimed as the source of inspiration by empirical positivists and their hermeneutic detractors alike.

More substantively, Weber's two most celebrated contributions were the “rationalization thesis,” a grand meta-historical analysis of the dominance of the west in modern times, and the “Protestant Ethic thesis,” a non-Marxist genealogy of modern capitalism.

Together, these two theses helped launch his reputation as one of the founding theorists of modernity. In addition, his avid interest and participation in politics led to a unique strand of political realism comparable to that of Machiavelli and Hobbes.

As such, Max Weber's influence was far-reaching across the vast array of disciplinary, methodological, ideological and philosophical reflections that are still our own and increasingly more so."

Source: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Lecture on Mark Weber

Methodological Individualism

This doctrine was introduced as a methodological precept for the social sciences by Max Weber, most importantly in the first chapter of Economy and Society (1968 [1922]). It amounts to the claim that social phenomena must be explained by showing how they result from individual actions, which in turn must be explained through reference to the intentional states that motivate the individual actors.

It involves, in other words, a commitment to the primacy of what Talcott Parsons would later call “the action frame of reference” (Parsons 1937: 43-51) in social-scientific explanation. It is also sometimes described as the claim that explanations of “macro” social phenomena must be supplied with “micro” foundations, ones that specify an action-theoretic mechanism (Alexander, 1987).

Source: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Link:
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/methodological-individualism/

The Protestan Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (book online)

http://www.ne.jp/asahi/moriyuki/abukuma/weber/world/ethic/pro_eth_frame.html

Enjoy

Italo

John Dewey (B.1859 D. 1952)

2008-07-11T21:18:00.003+02:00

Photo: Wikipedia

"John Dewey was a leading proponent of the American school of thought known as pragmatism, a view that rejected the dualistic epistemology and metaphysics of modern philosophy in favor of a naturalistic approach that viewed knowledge as arising from an active adaptation of the human organism to its environment.

On this view, inquiry should not be understood as consisting of a mind passively observing the world and drawing from this ideas that if true correspond to reality, but rather as a process which initiates with a check or obstacle to successful human action, proceeds to active manipulation of the environment to test hypotheses, and issues in a re-adaptation of organism to environment that allows once again for human action to proceed.

With this view as his starting point, Dewey developed a broad body of work encompassing virtually all of the main areas of philosophical concern in his day. He also wrote extensively on social issues in such popular publications as the New Republic, thereby gaining a reputation as a leading social commentator of his time."

Source: Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Dewey's Moral Philosophy

"Dewey believed that neither traditional moral norms nor traditional philosophical ethics were up to the task of coping with the problems raised by these dramatic transformations. Traditional morality was adapted to conditions that no longer existed. Hidebound and unreflective, it was incapable of changing so as to effectively address the problems raised by new circumstances.

Traditional philosophical ethics sought to discover and justify fixed moral goals and principles by dogmatic methods. Its preoccupation with reducing the diverse sources of moral insight to a single fixed principle subordinated practical service to ordinary people to the futile search for certainty, stability, and simplicity. In practice, both traditional morality and philosophical ethics served the interests of elites at the expense of most people.

To address the problems raised by social change, moral practice needed to be thoroughly reconstructed, so that it contained within itself the disposition to respond intelligently to new circumstances. Dewey saw his reconstruction of philosophical ethics as a means to effect this practical reconstruction."

Source: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Link:

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/dewey-moral/

Sidney Morgenbesser on the American Pragmatists: Section 1

Sidney Morgenbesser on the American Pragmatists: Section 2

Dewey's Experience and Nature

http://www.erzwiss.uni-hamburg.de/sonstiges/dewey/DewExpNa.pdf

Enjoy

Italo

Henri Bergson (B.1859 D.1941)

2008-07-11T18:32:00.001+02:00

Photo: Wikipedia

"was one of the most famous and influential French philosophers of the late 19th century-early 20th century. Although his international fame reached cult-like heights during his lifetime, his influence decreased notably after the second World War. While such French thinkers as Merleau-Ponty, Sartre, and Lévinas explicitly acknowledged his influence on their thought, it is generally agreed that it was Gilles Deleuze's 1966 Bergsonism that marked the reawakening of a wide and growing interest in Bergson's work. Deleuze realized that Bergson's most enduring contribution to philosophical thinking is his concept of multiplicity. Therefore, due to Deleuze's realization, a kind of revitalization of Bergsonism has been going on since around 1990."

Source: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Bergson's Philosophical Work Matter and Memory

http://ia311516.us.archive.org/1/items/matterandmemory00berguoft/matterandmemory00berguoft.pdf

Enjoy

Italo

Edmund Husserl (B.1859 D.1938)

2008-07-11T17:40:00.002+02:00

Photo: Wikipedia

"Edmund Husserl (1859-1938), is the "father" of the philosophical movement known as phenomenology. Phenomenology can be roughly described as the sustained attempt to describe experiences (and the "things themselves") without metaphysical and theoretical speculations.

Husserl suggested that only by suspending or bracketing away the "natural attitude" could philosophy becomes its own distinctive and rigorous science, and he insisted that phenomenology is a science of consciousness rather than of empirical things. Indeed, in Husserl’s hands phenomenology began as a critique of both psychologism and naturalism.

Naturalism is the thesis that everything belongs to the world of nature and can be studied by the methods appropriate to studying that world (that is, the methods of the hard sciences).

Husserl argued that the study of consciousness must actually be very different from the study of nature. For him, phenomenology does not proceed from the collection of large amounts of data and to a general theory beyond the data itself, as in the scientific method of induction. Rather, it aims to look at particular examples without theoretical presuppositions (such as the phenomena of intentionality, of love, of two hands touching each other, and so forth), before then discerning what is essential and necessary to these experiences.

Although all of the key, subsequent phenomenologists (Heidegger, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, Gadamer, Levinas, Derrida) have contested aspects of Husserl’s characterization of phenomenology, they have nonetheless been heavily indebted to him. As such, he is arguably one of the most important and influential philosophers of the twentieth century. The key features of his work, and his understanding of the phenomenological method, are considered in what follows"

Source: Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Ontologists of the 20th century: Logic and Formal Ontology in the Work of Edmund Husserl A Selection of Critical Judgments

http://www.formalontology.it/husserle.htm

The Leuven Philosophy Newsletter (2007-2008)

http://www.hiw.kuleuven.be/eng/alumni/newslet16.pdf

Enjoy

Italo

Søren Kierkegaard (B. 1813 D. 1855)

2008-07-11T17:11:00.003+02:00

Photo: Wikipedia

"was a profound and prolific writer in the Danish "golden age" of intellectual and artistic activity. His work crosses the boundaries of philosophy, theology, psychology, literary criticism, devotional literature and fiction.

Kierkegaard brought this potent mixture of discourses to bear as social critique and for the purpose of renewing Christian faith within Christendom. At the same time he made many original conceptual contributions to each of the disciplines he employed.

He is known as the "father of existentialism", but at least as important are his critiques of Hegel and of the German romantics, his contributions to the development of modernism, his literary experimentation, his vivid re-presentation of biblical figures to bring out their modern relevance, his invention of key concepts which have been explored and redeployed by thinkers ever since, his interventions in contemporary Danish church politics, and his fervent attempts to analyse and revitalise Christian faith.

Kierkegaard burned with the passion of a religious poet, was armed with extraordinary dialectical talent, and drew on vast resources of erudition.

Source: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Philosophy of Love

"The philosophical treatment of love transcends a variety of sub-disciplines including epistemology, metaphysics, religion, human nature, politics and ethics. Often statements or arguments concerning love, its nature and role in human life for example, connect to one or all the central theories of philosophy, and is often compared with, or examined in the context of, the philosophies of sex and gender. The task of a philosophy of love is to present the appropriate issues in a cogent manner, drawing on relevant theories of human nature, desire, ethics, and so on. This brief introduction examines the nature of love and some of the ethical and political ramifications. "

Source: Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Link:

http://www.iep.utm.edu/l/love.htm

The Journals Of Kierkegaard (1958)

http://ia331340.us.archive.org/1/items/journalsofkierke002379mbp/journalsofkierke002379mbp.pdf

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Alexis de Tocqueville (B. 1805 D. 1859)

2008-07-11T16:44:00.003+02:00

Photo: Wikipedia

"was a French political thinker and historian best known for his Democracy in America (appearing in two volumes: 1835 and 1840) and The Old Regime and the Revolution (1856). In both of these works, he explored the effects of the rising equality of social conditions on the individual and the state in western societies.

Democracy in America (1835), his major work, published after his travels in the United States, is today considered an early work of sociology. An eminent representative of the liberal political tradition, Tocqueville was an active participant in French politics, first under the July Monarchy (1830–1848) and then during the Second Republic (1849–1851) which succeeded to the February 1848 Revolution.

He retired from political life after Louis Napoléon Bonaparte's December 2, 1851 coup, and thereafter began work on The Old Regime and the Revolution, Volume I. After obtaining a law degree, Alexis de Tocqueville was named auditor-magistrate at the court of Versailles. There, he met Gustave de Beaumont, a prosecutor substitute, who collaborated with him on various literary works. Both were sent to the United States to study the penitentiary system.

During this trip, they wrote Du système pénitentiaire aux Etats-Unis et de son application (1832). Back in France, Tocqueville became a lawyer. He met the English economist Nassau William Senior in 1833, and they became good friends and corresponded for many years.[1] He published his master-work, De la démocratie en Amérique, in 1835. The success of this work, an early model for the science that would become known as sociology, led him to be named chevalier de la Légion d'honneur (Knight of the Legion of Honour) in 1837, and to be elected the next year to the Académie des sciences morales et politiques. In 1841 he was elected to the Académie française."

Source: Wikipedia. org

Tocqueville's Philosophical Works

L’Ancien Régime et la Révolution

http://oll.libertyfund.org/files/2024/Tocqueville_1361_Bk.pdf

De la Démocratie en Amérique, vol. 1

http://oll.libertyfund.org/files/1204/0712-01_Bk.pdf

De la Démocratie en Amérique, vol. 2

http://oll.libertyfund.org/files/1205/0712-02_Bk.pdf

De la Démocratie en Amérique, vol. 3

http://oll.libertyfund.org/files/1206/0712-03_Bk.pdf
De la Démocratie en Amérique, vol. 4

http://oll.libertyfund.org/files/1207/0712-04_Bk.pdf

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Arthur Schopenhauer (B. 1788 D. 1860)

2008-07-11T16:27:00.002+02:00

Photo: Wikipedia

"Among 19th century philosophers, Arthur Schopenhauer was among the first to contend that at its core, the universe is not a rational place. Inspired by Plato and Kant, both of whom regarded the world as being more amenable to reason, Schopenhauer developed their philosophies into an instinct-recognizing and ultimately ascetic outlook, emphasizing that in the face of a world filled with endless strife, we ought to minimize our natural desires to achieve a more tranquil frame of mind and a disposition towards universal beneficence.

Often considered to be a thoroughgoing pessimist, Schopenhauer in fact advocated ways — via artistic, moral and ascetic forms of awareness — to overcome a frustration-filled and fundamentally painful human condition. Since his death in 1860, his philosophy has had a special attraction for those who wonder about life's meaning, along with those engaged in music, literature, and the visual arts."

Source: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Schopenhauer's Philosophy (Article)

"In The World as Will and Representation, Arthur Schopenhauer spoke as a Teutonic philosopher, with mighty prose and thunderous proclamations from the lofty heights of classic Sophia and utterly uninfected by the pretentious delusions of grandeur that afflicted his German contemporaries. His distinctiveness among the early 19th century thinkers inspired Nietzsche to call him the "un-German to the point of genius," (Beyond Good and Evil, p 204) and Thomas Mann in turn called him the "most rational philosopher of the irrational."

Source & Link

http://www.galilean-library.org/manuscript.php?postid=43800

ON THE SUFFERINGS OF THE WORLD - Arthur Schopenhauer

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Karl Marx (B.1818 D. 1883)

2008-07-10T21:45:00.004+02:00

Photo: Wikipedia

"Karl Marx,is best known not as a philosopher but as a revolutionary communist, whose works inspired the foundation of many communist regimes in the twentieth century. It is hard to think of many who have had as much influence in the creation of the modern world. Trained as a philosopher, Marx turned away from philosophy in his mid-twenties, towards economics and politics.

However, in addition to his overtly philosophical early work, his later writings have many points of contact with contemporary philosophical debates, especially in the philosophy of history and the social sciences, and in moral and political philosophy. Historical materialism — Marx's theory of history — is centered around the idea that forms of society rise and fall as they further and then impede the development of human productive power.

Marx sees the historical process as proceeding through a necessary series of modes of production, culminating in communism. Marx's economic analysis of capitalism is based on his version of the labour theory of value, and includes the analysis of capitalist profit as the extraction of surplus value from the exploited proletariat. The analysis of history and economics come together in Marx's prediction of the inevitable economic breakdown of capitalism, to be replaced by communism.

However Marx refused to speculate in detail about the nature of communism, arguing that it would arise through historical processes, and was not the realisation of a pre-determined moral ideal."

Source: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Marx' Philosophical Works

Capital: A Critique of Political Economy

http://oll.libertyfund.org/files/965/0445-01_Bk.pdf

A Critique of Political Economy. Volume II

http://oll.libertyfund.org/files/966/0445-02_Bk.pdf

Capital: A Critique of Political Economy. Volume III

http://oll.libertyfund.org/files/967/0445-03_Bk.pdf

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Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (B.1770 D. 1831)

2008-07-10T17:41:00.005+02:00

Photo: Wikipedia

Along with J. G. Fichte and F. W. J. von Schelling, Hegel (1770-1831) belongs to the period of “German idealism” in the decades following Kant. The most systematic of the post-Kantian idealists, Hegel attempted, throughout his published writings as well as in his lectures, to elaborate a comprehensive and systematic ontology from a “logical” starting point.

He is perhaps most well-known for his teleological account of history, an account which was later taken over by Marx and “inverted” into a materialist theory of an historical development culminating in communism. For most of the twentieth century, the “logical” side of Hegel's thought had been largely forgotten, but his political and social philosophy continued to find interest and support. However, since the 1970s, a degree of more general philosophical interest in Hegel's systematic thought has also been revived.

Peter Singer on Hegel and Marx: Section 1 of 5

Peter Singer on Hegel and Marx: Section 2 0f 5

Peter Singer on Hegel and Marx: Section 3 of 5

Peter Singer on Hegel and Marx: Section 4 of 5

Peter Singer on Hegel and Marx: Section 5 of 5

Hegel's Philosophical Works

Philosophy of History Introduction

http://www.class.uidaho.edu/mickelsen/texts/Hegel%20-%20Philosophy%20of%20History.htm

The Philosophy of Right

http://libcom.org/files/Philosophy_of_Right.pdf

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Immanuel Kant (B.1724 D. 1804)

2008-07-10T16:53:00.007+02:00

Photo: Wikipedia

"Immanuel Kant is often said to have been the greatest philosopher since the Greeks. Certainly, he dominates the last two hundred years in the sense that - although few philosophers today are strictly speaking Kantians - his influence is everywhere. Moreover, that influence extends over a number of different philosophical regions: epistemology, metaphysics, aesthetics, ethics, politics, religion. Because of Kant's huge importance, and the variety of his contributions and influences, this encyclopedia entry is divided into a number of subsections.

What follows here will be a brief account of Kant's life and works, followed by an overview of those themes that Kant felt bridged his philosophical works, and made them into one 'critical philosophy'."

Source: Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Kant and Hume on Morality

"The ethics of Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) is often contrasted with that of David Hume (1711–1776). Hume's method of moral philosophy is experimental and empirical; Kant emphasizes the necessity of grounding morality in a priori principles.

Hume says that reason is properly a “slave to the passions,” while Kant bases morality in his conception of a reason that is practical in itself. Hume identifies such feelings as benevolence and generosity as proper moral motivations; Kant sees the motive of duty—a motive that Hume usually views as a second best or fall back motive—as uniquely expressing an agent's commitment to morality and thus as conveying a special moral worth to actions.

Although there are many points at which Kant's and Hume's ethics stand in opposition to each other, there are also important connections between the two. Kant shared some important assumptions about morality and motivation with Hume, and had, early in his career, been attracted and influenced by the sentimentalism of Hume and other British moralists."

Source: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/kant-hume-morality/

Kant's Moral Philosophy

"Kant argued that moral requirements are based on a standard of rationality he dubbed the “Categorical Imperative” (CI). Immorality thus involves a violation of the CI and is thereby irrational. Other philosophers, such as Locke and Hobbes, had also argued that moral requirements are based on standards of rationality.

However, these standards were either desire-based instrumental principles of rationality or based on sui generis rational intuitions. Kant agreed with many of his predecessors that an analysis of practical reason will reveal only the requirement that rational agents must conform to instrumental principles. Yet he argued that conformity to the CI (a non-instrumental principle) and hence to moral requirements themselves, can nevertheless be shown to be essential to rational agency.

This argument was based on his striking doctrine that a rational will must be regarded as autonomous, or free in the sense of being the author of the law that binds it. The fundamental principle of morality — the CI — is none other than the law of an autonomous will. Thus, at the heart of Kant's moral philosophy is a conception of reason whose reach in practical affairs goes well beyond that of a Humean ‘slave’ to the passions. Moreover, it is the presence of this self-governing reason in each person that Kant thought offered decisive grounds for viewing each as possessed of equal worth and deserving of equal respect."

Source: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/kant-moral/

Kant's Philosophical Works

Kant’s Critique of Practical Reason and Other Works on the Theory of Ethics
http://oll.libertyfund.org/files/360/0212_Bk.pdf

Kant on Education
http://oll.libertyfund.org/files/356/0235_Bk.pdf

Kant’s Principles of Politics, including his essay on Perpetual Peace.
http://oll.libertyfund.org/files/358/0056_Bk.pdf

Prolegomena and Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science.
http://oll.libertyfund.org/files/361/0352_Bk.pdf

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Jean - Jacques Rousseau (B.1712 D. 1778)

2008-07-10T16:37:00.002+02:00

Photo: Wikipedia

"...was a major philosopher, literary figure, and composer of the Enlightenment whose political philosophy influenced the French Revolution and the development of liberal and socialist theory. With his Confessions, Reveries of a Solitary Walker and other writings, he invented modern autobiography and encouraged a new focus on the building of subjectivity that bore fruit in the work of thinkers as diverse as Hegel and Freud. His novel Julie, ou la nouvelle Héloïse was one of the best-selling fictional works of the eighteenth century[citation needed] and was important to the development of romanticism. Rousseau made important contributions to music as a theorist and a composer. He was buried in Paris Pantheon in 1794."

Source: Wikipedia

Rousseau's Philosophical Works

The Political Writings of Jean Jacques Rousseau vol. 1
http://oll.libertyfund.org/files/710/0065-01_Bk.pdf

The Political Writings of Jean Jacques Rousseau vol. 2
http://oll.libertyfund.org/files/711/0065-02_Bk.pdf

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Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (B.1646 D. 1716)

2008-07-10T16:19:00.005+02:00

Photo: Wikipedia

"German philosopher, mathematician, and political adviser, important both as a metaphysician and as a logician and distinguished also for his independent invention of the differential and integral calculus."

Source: Britannica

Leibniz's Ethics

"It is often remarked that Leibniz never wrote a systematic ethical treatise. However, in his view theology is a sort of jurisprudence, a type of science of law (NE, p. 526). And Leibniz contributed a systematic work to the field of theology, namely, the Theodicy (1710), the only large-scale philosophical work that he published during his lifetime. Given that Leibniz the natural theologian and metaphysician is, at the same time, a moral theorist, ethics has a central place in his philosophical system. No divisions exist among the nominally different fields.

Thus the complaint that he never wrote a systematic ethical treatise by and large misses the point. Moreover, the fact that he views theology as a science of law provides some insight into the character and structure of his ethics. He offers a natural law theory, and, like other such theories, its basic structure consists of a theory of the good and a theory of law. Compliance with the principles spelled out in the latter is necessary and sufficient to achieve the good. Since, according to Leibniz, God is the measure of the good, the primary directive of his ethics is that one ought to imitate divinity as far as possible."

Source: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

More info on Leibniz's Ethics
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/leibniz-ethics/

Leibniz's Philosophy of Mind
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/leibniz-mind/

Leibniz on the Problem of Evil
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/leibniz-evil/

Leibniz on Causation
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/leibniz-causation/

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Isaac Newton (B.1642 D.1727)

2008-07-10T14:57:00.003+02:00

Photo: Wikipedia

"....is best known for having invented the calculus in the mid to late 1660s (most of a decade before Leibniz did so independently, and ultimately more influentially) and for having formulated the theory of universal gravity — the latter in his Principia, the single most important work in the transformation of early modern natural philosophy into modern physical science. Yet he also made major discoveries in optics beginning in the mid-1660s and reaching across four decades; and during the course of his 60 years of intense intellectual activity he put no less effort into chemical and alchemical research and into theology and biblical studies than he put into mathematics and physics.

He became a dominant figure in Britain almost immediately following publication of his Principia in 1687, with the consequence that “Newtonianism” of one form or another had become firmly rooted there within the first decade of the eighteenth century. His influence on the continent, however, was delayed by the strong opposition to his theory of gravity expressed by such leading figures as Christiaan Huygens and Leibniz, both of whom saw the theory as invoking an occult power of action at a distance in the absence of Newton's having proposed a contact mechanism by means of which forces of gravity could act.

As the promise of the theory of gravity became increasingly substantiated, starting in the late 1730s but especially during the 1740s and 1750s, Newton became an equally dominant figure on the continent, and “Newtonianism,” though perhaps in more guarded forms, flourished there as well. What physics textbooks now refer to as “Newtonian mechanics” and “Newtonian science” consists mostly of results achieved on the continent between 1740 and 1800"

Source: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Newton Philosophy

"Since Isaac Newton never wrote a philosophical treatise such as Spinoza's Ethics or Descartes's Meditations — although he studied a number of such treatises — his status as a figure with philosophical views of significance merits comment. Fully understanding Newton means avoiding anachronistically substituting our conception of philosophy in the twenty-first century for what the early moderns called “natural philosophy.” To be sure, the latter includes much that we now call “science,” and yet it clearly includes much else besides.

This remains true despite the fact that Newton's work in the Principia bequeathed to us a conception of science in which discussions of broad metaphysical questions play little if any role (cf. Cohen and Smith 2002, 1-4). If we interpret Newton solely as a “scientist” whose work spawned discussion by canonical philosophical figures, we run the risk of ignoring his own contributions to the philosophical conversation in England and the Continent in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century.

These contributions, in part, reflected the state of natural philosophy in Newton's era. We might put this point by considering Kuhn's well-known understanding of the development of a science: although Newton may have provided physics with its paradigm, he himself worked largely within its pre-paradigmatic context, and the latter, according to Kuhn, is typically characterized by extensive epistemological debates and controversies over the “foundations” or “first principles” of the science (Kuhn 1996, 88).

Newton engaged in “foundational” discussions in his optical work from the 1670s, in the Principia, in his correspondence with numerous influential figures, and in the now famous — but only posthumously published — De Gravitatione, an untitled manuscript now known by its first line (Hall and Hall 1962).

Much of this discussion involved Newton's attempt to loosen what he took to be the pernicious grip of Cartesian notions within natural philosophy (Stein 2002). Newton's scientific achievement was in part to have vanquished both Cartesian and Leibnizian physics; in the eighteenth century, and indeed much of the nineteenth, physics was largely a Newtonian enterprise. But this achievement also involved an extensive series of foundational debates"

Source & Link: Stanford encyclopedia of Philosophy

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/newton-philosophy/

Newton's Philosophical Works

Principia mathematica
http://oll.libertyfund.org/files/1254/0741_Bk.pdf

John Ramsay McCulloch, A Select Collection of Scarce and Valuable Tracts on Money
http://oll.libertyfund.org/files/2060/McCulloch_1372_Bk.pdf

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Baruch Spinoza (B.1632 D.1677)

2008-07-10T14:40:00.002+02:00

Photo: Wikipedia

"Baruch (or Benedictus) Spinoza is one of the most important philosophers -- and certainly the most radical -- of the early modern period. His thought combines a commitment to Cartesian metaphysical and epistemological principles with elements from ancient Stoicism and medieval Jewish rationalism into a nonetheless highly original system.

His extremely naturalistic views on God, the world, the human being and knowledge serve to ground a moral philosophy centered on the control of the passions leading to virtue and happiness. They also lay the foundations for a strongly democratic political thought and a deep critique of the pretensions of Scripture and sectarian religion. Of all the philosophers of the seventeenth-century, perhaps none have more relevance today than Spinoza"

Source: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Spinoza's Philosophical Works

The Chief Works of Benedict de Spinoza, vol 1
http://oll.libertyfund.org/files/1710/1321.01_Bk.pdf

The Chief Works of Benedict de Spinoza
http://oll.libertyfund.org/files/1711/1321.02_Bk_Sm.pdf

Professor Allan Nadler Introduces Spinoza Conference

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Réné Descartes (B.1596 D.1650)

2008-07-10T11:54:00.003+02:00

Photo: Wikipedia

"Descartes has been heralded as the first modern philosopher. He is famous for having made an important connection between geometry and algebra, which allowed for the solving of geometrical problems by way of algebraic equations. He is also famous for having promoted a new conception of matter, which allowed for the accounting of physical phenomena by way of mechanical explanations. However, he is most famous for having written a relatively short work, Meditationes de Prima Philosophia (Meditations On First Philosophy), published in 1641, in which he provides a philosophical groundwork for the possibility of the sciences. "

Source: Stanford University - Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Descartes' Philosophical Works

The Method, Meditations and Philosophy of Descartes

http://oll.libertyfund.org/files/1698/1325_Bk.pdf

Descartes' Ethics

"Descartes is not well known for his contributions to ethics. Some have charged that it is a fundamental weakness of his philosophy that it focuses exclusively on metaphysics and epistemology to the exclusion of moral and political philosophy. Such criticisms rest on a misunderstanding of the broader framework of Descartes' philosophy. Evidence of Descartes' concern for the practical import of philosophy can be traced to his earliest writings. In agreement with the ancients, he identifies the goal of philosophy with the attainment of a wisdom that is sufficient for happiness. The details of this position are developed most fully in writings from the latter part of Descartes' career: his correspondence with Princess Elisabeth, The Passions of the Soul, and the preface to the French translation of the Principles of Philosophy, where he presents his famous image of the tree of philosophy, whose uppermost branch is "the highest and most perfect moral system, which presupposes a complete knowledge of the other sciences and is the ultimate level of wisdom."

Source&Link: Stanford University - Encyclopedia of Philosophy

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/descartes-ethics/

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Blaise Pascal ( B.1623 D. 1662)

2008-07-10T11:33:00.003+02:00

Photo: Wikipedia

"Blaise Pascal was a French mathematician, physicist, and religious philosopher. He was a child prodigy who was educated by his father. Pascal's earliest work was in the natural and applied sciences where he made important contributions to the construction of mechanical calculators, the study of fluids, and clarified the concepts of pressure and vacuum by generalizing the work of Evangelista Torricelli. Pascal also wrote in defense of the scientific method."

Source: Wikipedia

Philosophy of Mathematics

Pascal's major contribution to the philosophy of mathematics came with his De l'Esprit géométrique ("On the Geometrical Spirit"), originally written as a preface to a geometry textbook for one of the famous "Little Schools of Port-Royal" (Les Petites-Ecoles de Port-Royal).

The work was unpublished until over a century after his death. Here, Pascal looked into the issue of discovering truths, arguing that the ideal of such a method would be to found all propositions on already established truths. At the same time, however, he claimed this was impossible because such established truths would require other truths to back them up—first principles, therefore, cannot be reached. Based on this, Pascal argued that the procedure used in geometry was as perfect as possible, with certain principles assumed and other propositions developed from them. Nevertheless, there was no way to know the assumed principles to be true.

Pascal also used De l'Esprit géométrique to develop a theory of definition. He distinguished between definitions which are conventional labels defined by the writer and definitions which are within the language and understood by everyone because they naturally designate their referent. The second type would be characteristic of the philosophy of essentialism. Pascal claimed that only definitions of the first type were important to science and mathematics, arguing that those fields should adopt the philosophy of formalism as formulated by Descartes.

In De l'Art de persuader ("On the Art of Persuasion"), Pascal looked deeper into geometry's axiomatic method, specifically the question of how people come to be convinced of the axioms upon which later conclusions are based. Pascal agreed with Montaigne that achieving certainty in these axioms and conclusions through human methods is impossible. He asserted that these principles can only be grasped through intuition, and that this fact underscored the necessity for submission to God in searching out truths."

Source: Wikipedia

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Francis Bacon (B.1561 D.1626)

2008-07-10T11:18:00.003+02:00

"Francis Bacon was one of the leading figures in natural philosophy and in the field of scientific methodology in the period of transition from the Renaissance to the early modern era. As a lawyer, member of Parliament, and Queen's Counsel, Bacon wrote on questions of law, state and religion, as well as on contemporary politics; but he also published texts in which he speculated on possible conceptions of society, and he pondered questions of ethics (Essays) even in his works on natural philosophy (The Advancement of Learning).

After his studies at Trinity College, Cambridge and Gray's Inn, London, Bacon did not take up a post at a university, but instead tried to start a political career. Although his efforts were not crowned with success during the era of Queen Elizabeth, under James I he rose to the highest political office, Lord Chancellor. Bacon's international fame and influence spread during his last years, when he was able to focus his energies exclusively on his philosophical work, and even more so after his death, when English scientists of the Boyle circle (Invisible College) took up his idea of a cooperative research institution in their plans and preparations for establishing the Royal Society.

To the present day Bacon is well known for his treatises on empiricist natural philosophy (The Advancement of Learning, Novum Organum Scientiarum) and for his doctrine of the idols, which he put forward in his early writings, as well as for the idea of a modern research institute, which he described in Nova Atlantis."

Source: Stanford University - Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Bacon's Philosophical Works

The Advancement of Learning

http://oll.libertyfund.org/files/1433/0414_Bk_Sm.pdf

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Ideal Empires and Republics. Rousseau’s Social Contract, More’s Utopia, Bacon’s New Atlantis, Campanella’s City of the Sun

http://oll.libertyfund.org/files/2039/More_1414_Bk.pdf

Novum Organum

http://oll.libertyfund.org/files/1432/0415_Bk.pdf

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David Hume (B.1711 D.1776)

2008-07-09T21:09:00.004+02:00

Photo: Wikipedia

"The most important philosopher ever to write in English, David Hume (1711-1776) — the last of the great triumvirate of “British empiricists” — was also well-known in his own time as an historian and essayist.

A master stylist in any genre, Hume's major philosophical works — A Treatise of Human Nature (1739-1740), the Enquiries concerning Human Understanding (1748) and concerning the Principles of Morals (1751), as well as the posthumously published Dialogues concerning Natural Religion (1779) — remain widely and deeply influential. Although many of Hume's contemporaries denounced his writings as works of scepticism and atheism, his influence is evident in the moral philosophy and economic writings of his close friend Adam Smith.

Hume also awakened Immanuel Kant from his “dogmatic slumbers” and “caused the scales to fall” from Jeremy Bentham's eyes. Charles Darwin counted Hume as a central influence, as did “Darwin's bulldog,” Thomas Henry Huxley. The diverse directions in which these writers took what they gleaned from reading Hume reflect not only the richness of their sources but also the wide range of his empiricism.

Today, philosophers recognize Hume as a precursor of contemporary cognitive science, as well as one of the most thoroughgoing exponents of philosophical naturalism."

Source: Stanford University - Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Hume on Religion

"There are many questions in philosophy to which no satisfactory answer has yet been given. But the question of the nature of the gods is the darkest and most difficult of all…."

Source: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hume-religion/

Hume's Aesthetics

"David Hume's views on aesthetic theory and the philosophy of art are to be found in his work on moral theory and in several essays. Although there is a tendency to emphasize the two essays devoted to art, “Of the Standard of Taste” and “Of Tragedy,” his views on art and aesthetic ..."

Source: Encyclopedia of Philosophy

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hume-aesthetics/

The Philosophical Works of David Hume, vol 1

http://oll.libertyfund.org/files/1481/0221-01.pdf

The Philosophical Works of David Hume, vol 2

http://oll.libertyfund.org/files/1482/0221-02_Bk.pdf

The Philosophical Works of David Hume, vol. 3

http://oll.libertyfund.org/files/1483/0221-03_Bk.pdf

The Philosophical Works of David Hume, vol. 4

http://oll.libertyfund.org/files/1484/0221-04_Bk.pdf

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Adam Smith (B. 1723 D. 1790)

2008-07-09T11:05:00.006+02:00

Photo: Wikipedia org

"Scottish social philosopher and political economist. After two centuries, Adam Smith remains a towering figure in the history of economic thought. Known primarily for a single work—An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776), the first comprehensive system of political economy—Smith is more properly regarded as a social philosopher whose economic writings constitute only the capstone to an overarching view of political and social evolution. If his masterwork is viewed in relation to his earlier lectures on moral philosophy and government, as well as to allusions in The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) to a work he hoped to write on “the general principles of law and government, and of the different revolutions they have undergone in the different ages and periods of society,” then The Wealth of Nations may be seen not merely as a treatise on economics but also as a partial exposition of a much larger scheme of historical evolution."

Source: Britannica

Writings

Adam Smith, Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence Vol. 1 The Theory of Moral Sentiments [1759]

http://oll.libertyfund.org/files/192/0141-01_Bk.pdf

Adam Smith, Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence Vol. 2a An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. 1 [1776]

http://oll.libertyfund.org/files/220/0141-02_Bk.pdf

Adam Smith, Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence Vol. 2b An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. 2 [1776]

http://oll.libertyfund.org/files/200/0141-03_Bk.pdf

Adam Smith, Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence Vol. 3 Essays on Philosophical Subjects [1795]

http://oll.libertyfund.org/files/201/0141-04_Bk.pdf

Adam Smith, Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence Vol. 4 Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres [1762]

http://oll.libertyfund.org/files/202/0141-05_Bk.pdf

Adam Smith, Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence Vol. 5 Lectures On Jurisprudence [1762]

http://oll.libertyfund.org/files/196/0141-06_Bk.pdf

Adam Smith, Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence Vol. 6 Correspondence of Adam Smith [1740]

http://oll.libertyfund.org/files/203/0141-07_BK.pdf

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Friedrich Nietzsche (B.1844 D.1900)

2008-07-07T21:46:00.008+02:00

"Friedrich Nietzsche was a German philosopher of the late 19th century who challenged the foundations of Christianity and traditional morality. He believed in life, creativity, health, and the realities of the world we live in, rather than those situated in a world beyond. Central to his philosophy is the idea of "life-affirmation," which involves an honest questioning of all doctrines that drain life's energies, however socially prevalent those views might be. Often referred to as one of the first existentialist philosophers, Nietzsche's revitalizing philosophy has inspired leading figures in all walks of cultural life, including dancers, poets, novelists, painters, psychologists, philosophers, sociologists and social revolutionaries"

Source: Stanford University - Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Human, All Too Human (BBC) - Friedrich Nietzsche: Part 1 of 6

Human, All Too Human (BBC) - Friedrich Nietzsche: Part 2 of 6

Human, All Too Human (BBC) - Friedrich Nietzsche: Part 3 of 6

Human, All Too Human (BBC) - Friedrich Nietzsche: Part 4 of 6

Human, All Too Human (BBC) - Friedrich Nietzsche: Part 5 of 6

Human, All Too Human (BBC) - Friedrich Nietzsche: Part 6 of 6

Nietzsche on Moral & Political Philosophy

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/nietzsche-moral-political/

Nietzsche on Postmodernism

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/postmodernism/

Enjoy

Italo

John Locke (B 1632 D 1704)

2008-07-03T11:21:00.007+02:00

"John Locke (b. 1632, d. 1704) was a British philosopher, Oxford academic and medical researcher, whose association with Anthony Ashley Cooper (later the First Earl of Shaftesbury) led him to become successively a government official charged with collecting information about trade and colonies, economic writer, opposition political activist, and finally a revolutionary whose cause ultimately triumphed in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. Much of Locke's work is characterized by opposition to authoritarianism.

This opposition is both on the level of the individual person and on the level of institutions such as government and church. For the individual, Locke wants each of us to use reason to search after truth rather than simply accept the opinion of authorities or be subject to superstition. He wants us to proportion assent to propositions to the evidence for them. On the level of institutions it becomes important to distinguish the legitimate from the illegitimate functions of institutions and to make the corresponding distinction for the uses of force by these institutions.

The positive side of Locke's anti-authoritarianism is that he believes that using reason to try to grasp the truth, and determining the legitimate functions of institutions will optimize human flourishing for the individual and society both in respect to its material and spiritual welfare. This in turn, amounts to following natural law and the fulfillment of the divine purpose for humanity. Locke's monumental An Essay Concerning Human Understanding concerns itself with determining the limits of human understanding in respect to God, the self, natural kinds and artifacts, as well as a variety of different kinds of ideas. It thus tells us in some detail what one can legitimately claim to know and what one cannot.

Locke also wrote a variety of important political, religious and educational works including the Two Treatises of Government, the Letters Concerning Toleration, The Reasonableness of Christianity and Some Thoughts Concerning Education."

Source: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Locke's Argument Against Innate ideas

Locke's Works

Michel de Montaigne

2008-05-19T17:34:00.003+02:00

Source: Britannica

Born: February 28, 1533
Died: September 23, 1592

"The sense of immense human possibilities, stemming from the discoveries of the New World travelers, from the rediscovery of classical antiquity, and from the opening of scholarly horizons through the works of the humanists, was shattered in France when the advent of the Calvinistic Reformation was followed closely by religious persecution and by the Wars of Religion (1562–98)"

Source: Britannica

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/390476/Michel-de-Montaigne

Montaigne on Self Esteem (Videos 1 0f 3)

2 of 3

3 of 3

Essay of Montaigne Vol 1 0f 10

http://oll.libertyfund.org/files/107/0963-01_Bk.pdf

2 of 10

http://oll.libertyfund.org/files/108/0963-02_Bk.pdf

3 of 10

http://oll.libertyfund.org/files/108/0963-02_Bk.pdf

4 of 10

http://oll.libertyfund.org/files/108/0963-02_Bk.pdf

5 of 10

http://oll.libertyfund.org/files/1746/0963-05_Bk.pdf

6 of 10

http://oll.libertyfund.org/files/1747/0963-06_Bk.pdf

7 of 10

http://oll.libertyfund.org/files/1748/0963-07_Bk.pdf

8 of 10
http://oll.libertyfund.org/files/1749/0963-08_Bk.pdf

9 of 10
http://oll.libertyfund.org/files/1750/0963-09_Bk.pdf
10 of 10
http://oll.libertyfund.org/files/1751/0963-10_Bk.pdf

Cheers

Italo

Before the Big Ban, there was..What?

2008-01-23T13:55:00.000+01:00

Hi Mates

The article named " Before the Big Ban, there was...what?" is difficult, because there are some notions of physic, astronomy, and of course philosophy, for this reason I posted some definitions.

A little taste of this article: "What was God doing before he created the world? The philosopher and writer (and later saint) Augustine posed the question in his ''Confessions'' in the fourth century, and then came up with a strikingly modern answer: before God created the world there was no time and thus no ''before.'' To paraphrase Gertrude Stein, there was no ''then'' then. "

Source New York Times (US) By DENNIS OVERBYE
Published: May 22, 2001

Introduction to Quantum Mechanics

Quantum mechanics (QM, or quantum theory) is a physical science dealing with the behaviour of matter and energy on the scale of atoms and subatomic particles / waves.[1] QM also forms the basis for the contemporary understanding of how very large objects such as stars and galaxies, and cosmological events such as the Big Bang, can be analyzed and explained. Quantum mechanics is the foundation of several related disciplines including nanotechnology, condensed matter physics, quantum chemistry, structural biology, particle physics, and electronics.

The term "quantum mechanics" was first coined by Max Born in 1924. The acceptance by the general physics community of quantum mechanics is due to its accurate prediction of the physical behaviour of systems, including systems where Newtonian mechanics fails. Even general relativity is limited—in ways quantum mechanics is not—for describing systems at the atomic scale or smaller, at very low or very high energies, or at the lowest temperatures. Through a century of experimentation and applied science, quantum mechanical theory has proven to be very successful and practical.

Source: Wikipedia

Theory of Relativity (Special & General)

Special Relativity (Def)

Is a fundamental physics theory about space and time that was developed by Albert Einstein in 1905[1] as a modification of Newtonian physics. It was created to deal with some pressing theoretical and experimental issues in the physics of the time involving light and electrodynamics (see History of special relativity for a detailed account). The predictions of special relativity correspond closely to those of Newtonian physics at speeds which are low in comparison to that of light, but diverge rapidly for speeds which are a significant fraction of the speed of light. Special relativity has been experimentally tested on numerous occasions since its inception, and its predictions have been verified by those tests.

Einstein postulated that the speed of light is the same for all observers, irrespective of their motion relative to the light source. This was in total contradiction to classical mechanics, which had been accepted for centuries. Einstein's approach was based on thought experiments and calculations. In 1908, Hermann Minkowski reformulated the theory based on different postulates of a more geometrical nature [2]. His approach depended on the existence of certain inter-relations between space and time, which were considered completely separate in classical physics. This reformulation set the stage for further developments of physics.

Special relativity makes numerous predictions which are incompatible with Newtonian physics (and everyday intuition). The first such prediction described by Einstein is called the relativity of simultaneity, under which observers who are in motion with respect to each other may disagree on whether two events occurred at the same time or one occurred before the other. The other major predictions of special relativity are time dilation (under which a moving clock ticks more slowly than when it is at rest with respect to the observer), length contraction (under which a moving rod may be found to be shorter than when it is at rest with respect to the observer), and the equivalence of mass and energy (written as E=mc2). Special relativity predicts a non-linear velocity addition formula which prevents speeds greater than that of light from being observed. Special relativity also explains why Maxwell's equations of electromagnetism are correct in any frame of reference, and how electric field and magnetic field are two aspects of the same thing.

Special relativity has been tested in many ways, and so far has been proved to be far more accurate than Newtonian mechanics. The most famous of these tests is the Michelson-Morley experiment, the failure of which was one of the things which motivated the creation of special relativity. Other significant tests are the Fizeau experiment (which was first done decades before special relativity was proposed), the detection of the transverse Doppler effect, and the Haefele-Keating experiment. Today, scientists are so comfortable with the idea that the speed of light is always the same that the meter is now defined as being the distance traveled by light in 1/299,792,458th of a second. This means that the speed of light is now defined as being 299,792,458 m/s.

Source: Wikipedia

High-precision test of general relativity by the Cassini space probe (artist's impression): radio delayed by the warping of space and time (blue lines) due to the Sun's mass.
signals sent between the Earth and the probe (green wave) are delayed by the warping of space and time (blue lines) due to the Sun's mass.

General Relativity

General relativity (GR) is a theory of gravitation that was developed by Albert Einstein between 1907 and 1915. According to general relativity, the observed gravitational attraction between masses results from those masses warping nearby space and time. Previously, Newton's law of universal gravitation (1686) had described gravity as a force between masses, but experiments have shown that Einstein's description is more accurate. What is more, general relativity predicts interesting new phenomena such as gravitational waves.

General relativity accounts for several effects that are unexplained by Newton's law, such as minute anomalies in the orbits of Mercury and other planets, and it makes numerous predictions – since confirmed – for novel effects of gravity, such as the bending of light and the slowing of time. Although general relativity is not the only relativistic theory of gravity, it is the simplest such theory that is consistent with the experimental data. However, a number of open questions remain: the most fundamental is how general relativity can be reconciled with the laws of quantum physics to produce a complete and self-consistent theory of quantum gravity.

The theory has developed into an essential tool for modern astrophysics. It provides the foundation for our current understanding of black holes; these are regions of space where gravitational attraction is so strong that not even light can escape. Their strong gravity is thought to be responsible for the intense radiation emitted by certain types of astronomical objects (such as active galactic nuclei or microquasars).

The bending of light by gravity can lead to the curious phenomenon of multiple images of one and the same astronomical object being visible in the sky. This effect is called gravitational lensing, and its study is an active branch of astronomy. Direct evidence of gravitational waves is being sought by several teams of scientists, as in the LIGO and GEO 600 projects; success should allow scientists to study a variety of interesting phenomena, from black holes to the early universe, by analyzing the gravitational waves they produce. General relativity is also the basis of the standard Big Bang model of cosmology.

Source Wikipedia

Have a good reading

Italo

Cosmology Quest- A Critique of Modern Cosmology (Videos)

2008-01-21T14:21:00.000+01:00

About This Video:

A critical look at Big Bang and Redshift based cosmology. Featuring many top academics, experts and nobel laureates from all areas of cosmology, astrophysics and astronomy.

FAQ in Cosmology (Web)

http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~wright/cosmology_faq.html

One Big Bang, or were there many? (article)

· New theory tries to solve problem Einstein raised
· Universe may be much older, say cosmologists

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2006/may/05/spaceexploration.universe

A Critique of Modern Cosmology (2 of 4)

A Critique of Modern Cosmology (3 of 4)

A Critique of Modern Cosmology (4 of 4)

Cheers

Italo

Thomas Aquinas

2008-01-16T13:57:00.000+01:00

Birth: c. 28 January 1225 (Castle of Roccasecca, near Aquino, Italy)

Death: 7 March 1274 (Fossanova Abbey, Lazio, Italy)

School &tradition: Scholasticism, Founder of Thomism

Main interests: Metaphysics (incl. Theology), Logic, Mind, Epistemology, Ethics, Politics

Notable ideas: Five Proofs for God's Existence, Principle of double effect

Influenced by: Aristotle, Albertus Magnus, Paul the Apostle, Boethius, Eriugena, Anselm, Averroes, Maimonides, St. Augustine, Algazel, Avicenna, John of Damascus,Giles of Rome, Godfrey of Fontaines, Jacques Maritain, G. E. M. Anscombe, Meister Eckhart, John Locke, Dante, G. K. Chesterton

Bio

Thomas Aquinas, O.P.(also Saint Thomas Aquinas, Thomas of Aquin, or Aquino; c. 1225 – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Catholic priest in the Order of Preachers (more commonly known as the Dominican Order), a philosopher and theologian in the scholastic tradition, known as Doctor Angelicus, Doctor Universalis and Doctor Communis. He was the foremost classical proponent of natural theology, and the father of the Thomistic school of philosophy and theology.

Aquinas is held in the Catholic Church to be the model teacher for those studying for the priesthood (Code of Canon Law, Can. 252, §3). The works for which he is best-known are the Summa Theologica and the Summa Contra Gentiles. One of the 33 Doctors of the Church, he is considered by many Catholics to be the Catholic Church's greatest theologian and philosopher. Consequently, many institutions of learning have been named after him.

Source: Wikipedia

St. Thomas Aquinas' Works

The Summa Theologica of St. Thomas Aquinas Part I QQ I - XXVI.

http://oll.libertyfund.org/files/1979/0961-01_Bk.pdf

The Summa Theological of St. Thomas Aquinas Part I QQ XXVII-XLIX

http://oll.libertyfund.org/files/1980/0961-02_Bk.pdf

The Summa Theological of St. Thomas Aquinas Part I QQL. - LXXIV

http://oll.libertyfund.org/files/1981/0961-03_Bk.pdf

St. Thomas Aquinas, The Summa Theologica QQLXXV CII

http://oll.libertyfund.org/files/1982/0961-04_Bk.pdf

The Image of God and the Sacraments of the Church (Domenican Order)

Secrets of Archaeology - Knossus & Atlantis (video)

2008-01-15T13:07:00.000+01:00

Secrets of Archaeology - Knossus & Atlantis 2/2

Archaeology (Definition):

Archaeology, archeology, or archæology (from Greek: αρχαίος, archaios, combining form in Latin archae-, "ancient"; and λόγος, logos, "knowledge") is the science that studies human cultures through the recovery, documentation, analysis and interpretation of material remains and environmental data, including architecture, artifacts, features, biofacts, and landscapes. Because archaeology's aim is to understand mankind, it is a humanistic endeavor[1].

The goals of archaeology vary, and there is debate as to what its aims, and responsibilities are. Some goals include the documentation and explanation of the origins and development of human cultures, understanding culture history, chronicling cultural evolution, and studying human behavior and ecology, for both prehistoric and historic societies[citation needed]. Archaeologists are also concerned with the study of methods used in the discipline, and the theoretical and philosophical underpinnings underlying the questions archaeologists ask of the past. The tasks of surveying areas in order to find new sites, excavating sites in order to recover cultural remains, classification, analysis, and preservation are all important phases of the archaeological process. These are all important sources of information. Given the broad scope of the discipline there is a great deal of cross-disciplinary research in archaeology. It draws upon history, art history, classics, geography[2], geology[3][4][5], physics, information sciences, chemistry, statistics, paleoecology, paleontology, paleozoology, paleoethnobotany, paleobotany .

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaeology

Cheers

Italo

Nasa spacecraft in Mercury pass (Article)

2008-01-14T22:33:00.000+01:00

Hi Mates

Fresh news from Nasa.

"The first spacecraft to visit Mercury in more than 30 years is passing the planet at a distance of just 200km"

Mercury Fact sheet

Closest planet to the Sun

Diameter: 4,800km

Mercurian year: 88 days

Has global magnetic field

Source: BBC News

Cheers

Italo

Huge gas cloud will hit Milky Way (article)

2008-01-13T23:14:00.000+01:00

The cosmic cloud is heading for us at more than 240km/s

Hi Readers

Well this is an interesting news, If you're an astronomer or a supporter of this fantastic science, please click on "The Astronomical Journal" where you'll find papers on galaxies, they are short, "simple" and well written.

Huge gas cloud will hit Milky Way (BBC's Article)

"A giant cloud of hydrogen gas is racing towards a collision with the Milky Way, astronomers have announced.

Dubbed "Smith's Cloud", it may set off spectacular fireworks when it smacks into our galaxy in 20-40 million years.

It contains enough hydrogen to produce a million stars like our Sun, researchers believe."

By Paul Rincon
Science reporter, BBC News, Austin

US National Radio Astronomy Observatory

http://www.nrao.edu/

The Astronomical Journal

http://www.iop.org/EJ/journal/aj

Cheers Italo

Hubble Finds Double Einstein Ring

2008-01-10T20:27:00.000+01:00

"NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has revealed a never-before-seen optical alignment in space: a pair of glowing rings, one nestled inside the other like a bull's-eye pattern. The double-ring pattern is caused by the complex bending of light from two distant galaxies strung directly behind a foreground massive galaxy, like three beads on a string."

Source: Hubble Site

Cheers

Italo