David Bostock
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- May 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780199286867
- eISBN:
- 9780191603532
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199286868.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Ancient Philosophy
The book features a collection of ten essays on themes from Aristotle’s Physics. Six of these have been previously published, and four are newly written for this volume. The first five essays are ...
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The book features a collection of ten essays on themes from Aristotle’s Physics. Six of these have been previously published, and four are newly written for this volume. The first five essays are based on single theme, namely Aristotle’s conception of substance as it appears in his physical works. The basic texts here are Physics I-II, but the essays also range quite widely over Aristotle’s other physical works, where these are relevant to his understanding of the notions of substance, matter, and form. The general view of these five essays is that Aristotle’s idea of matter was a winner, but his idea of form certainly was not. The remaining five essays are on various topics from Physics III-VI, with each confined to the text of the Physics itself. The topics covered fall broadly under the headings: space, time, and infinity.Less
The book features a collection of ten essays on themes from Aristotle’s Physics. Six of these have been previously published, and four are newly written for this volume. The first five essays are based on single theme, namely Aristotle’s conception of substance as it appears in his physical works. The basic texts here are Physics I-II, but the essays also range quite widely over Aristotle’s other physical works, where these are relevant to his understanding of the notions of substance, matter, and form. The general view of these five essays is that Aristotle’s idea of matter was a winner, but his idea of form certainly was not. The remaining five essays are on various topics from Physics III-VI, with each confined to the text of the Physics itself. The topics covered fall broadly under the headings: space, time, and infinity.
Louis A. Girifalco
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199228966
- eISBN:
- 9780191711183
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199228966.003.0019
- Subject:
- Physics, History of Physics
Gravity is responsible not only for the existence of stars and planets; it also creates the weirdest objects imaginable. A body with mass greater than 1.4 solar masses cannot remain a white dwarf and ...
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Gravity is responsible not only for the existence of stars and planets; it also creates the weirdest objects imaginable. A body with mass greater than 1.4 solar masses cannot remain a white dwarf and will collapse into a neutron star. But if the mass is greater than about two and a half solar masses, the collapse will continue until it becomes a black hole. This is the strangest object in the universe. Its gravity is so strong that even light cannot get out of it. Anything near it is sucked in, crushed to a point, and approaches infinite density. The laws of physics as now known do not apply at the centre of a black hole and the very meaning of its existence is in doubt.Less
Gravity is responsible not only for the existence of stars and planets; it also creates the weirdest objects imaginable. A body with mass greater than 1.4 solar masses cannot remain a white dwarf and will collapse into a neutron star. But if the mass is greater than about two and a half solar masses, the collapse will continue until it becomes a black hole. This is the strangest object in the universe. Its gravity is so strong that even light cannot get out of it. Anything near it is sucked in, crushed to a point, and approaches infinite density. The laws of physics as now known do not apply at the centre of a black hole and the very meaning of its existence is in doubt.
Peter Adamson
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195181425
- eISBN:
- 9780199785087
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195181425.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
This chapter surveys the Greek background in Plato’s Timaeus, Aristotle’s Physics and De Caelo, and the dispute between late Greek thinkers, especially Proclus and Philoponus. Against this ...
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This chapter surveys the Greek background in Plato’s Timaeus, Aristotle’s Physics and De Caelo, and the dispute between late Greek thinkers, especially Proclus and Philoponus. Against this background, al-Kindī’s arguments that only God can be eternal and that creation must be finite in time as well as space are explored. It is suggested that al-Kindī’s interest in this topic can be explained in terms of the contemporary ’Abbāsid dogma that the Koran is not eternal, but created.Less
This chapter surveys the Greek background in Plato’s Timaeus, Aristotle’s Physics and De Caelo, and the dispute between late Greek thinkers, especially Proclus and Philoponus. Against this background, al-Kindī’s arguments that only God can be eternal and that creation must be finite in time as well as space are explored. It is suggested that al-Kindī’s interest in this topic can be explained in terms of the contemporary ’Abbāsid dogma that the Koran is not eternal, but created.
David Bostock
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- May 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780199286867
- eISBN:
- 9780191603532
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199286868.003.0007
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Ancient Philosophy
This essay argues that Aristotle misdescribes his own position when he sums it up as the claim that infinity can only be potential and never actual. He readily accepts that there are processes which ...
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This essay argues that Aristotle misdescribes his own position when he sums it up as the claim that infinity can only be potential and never actual. He readily accepts that there are processes which are actually infinite, that is, never-ending. But he denies that there can ever be a time when an infinite process has been completed. This means that he has to find some fault with Zeno’s well-known argument of Achilles and the tortoise, which he does by introducing the idea that points do not exist until they are ‘actualized’. It is argued that this idea, though ingenious and certainly appropriate to the problem, does not work out in the end.Less
This essay argues that Aristotle misdescribes his own position when he sums it up as the claim that infinity can only be potential and never actual. He readily accepts that there are processes which are actually infinite, that is, never-ending. But he denies that there can ever be a time when an infinite process has been completed. This means that he has to find some fault with Zeno’s well-known argument of Achilles and the tortoise, which he does by introducing the idea that points do not exist until they are ‘actualized’. It is argued that this idea, though ingenious and certainly appropriate to the problem, does not work out in the end.
Andrew Moutu
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780197264454
- eISBN:
- 9780191760501
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264454.003.0006
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Asian Cultural Anthropology
This chapter examines some aspects of totemic names and the connection to kinship and marriage practices. It attempts to conceptualise relationships in ontological terms by identifying and employing ...
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This chapter examines some aspects of totemic names and the connection to kinship and marriage practices. It attempts to conceptualise relationships in ontological terms by identifying and employing four Western philosophical concepts — immanence and transcendence, necessity and contingency — and concretizes the nature of this conceptual approach by introducing further ethnographic material from neighbouring societies. The chapter opens with a discussion of Iqwaye and Iatmul, showing how the ontological issues of immanence and transcendence are located in social relations. It then considers the issues of necessity and contingency as they appear in the context of kinship and clan organization amongst the Iatmul and the Manambu. A theoretical dimension of this discussion concerns the manner in which time and relationships function in affecting and coordinating the behaviour of ownership. Since Iatmul names are generally considered as abundant in stock, and since they serve as vectors of integral relationships, another theoretical interest of the chapter relates to the question of the connection between relationships and infinity.Less
This chapter examines some aspects of totemic names and the connection to kinship and marriage practices. It attempts to conceptualise relationships in ontological terms by identifying and employing four Western philosophical concepts — immanence and transcendence, necessity and contingency — and concretizes the nature of this conceptual approach by introducing further ethnographic material from neighbouring societies. The chapter opens with a discussion of Iqwaye and Iatmul, showing how the ontological issues of immanence and transcendence are located in social relations. It then considers the issues of necessity and contingency as they appear in the context of kinship and clan organization amongst the Iatmul and the Manambu. A theoretical dimension of this discussion concerns the manner in which time and relationships function in affecting and coordinating the behaviour of ownership. Since Iatmul names are generally considered as abundant in stock, and since they serve as vectors of integral relationships, another theoretical interest of the chapter relates to the question of the connection between relationships and infinity.
Michael Potter
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- May 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199252619
- eISBN:
- 9780191712647
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199252619.003.0007
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Logic/Philosophy of Mathematics
Ludwig Wittgenstein studied with Russell in Cambridge from 1911 to 1913, and wrote the Tractatus while on active service in the Austrian army during the First World War. Large parts of the book are ...
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Ludwig Wittgenstein studied with Russell in Cambridge from 1911 to 1913, and wrote the Tractatus while on active service in the Austrian army during the First World War. Large parts of the book are devoted to explaining and correcting errors in the conception of logic to be found in Principia. Wittgenstein did not, as is sometimes suggested, reject the idea of a hierarchy of types, but he did reject the notion that mathematics (and in particular arithmetic) could be based, as in Principia, on classes. For this reason although the account of arithmetic given in the Tractatus is in a sense logicist, it is very different from Russell's.Less
Ludwig Wittgenstein studied with Russell in Cambridge from 1911 to 1913, and wrote the Tractatus while on active service in the Austrian army during the First World War. Large parts of the book are devoted to explaining and correcting errors in the conception of logic to be found in Principia. Wittgenstein did not, as is sometimes suggested, reject the idea of a hierarchy of types, but he did reject the notion that mathematics (and in particular arithmetic) could be based, as in Principia, on classes. For this reason although the account of arithmetic given in the Tractatus is in a sense logicist, it is very different from Russell's.
Michael Potter
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- May 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199252619
- eISBN:
- 9780191712647
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199252619.003.0009
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Logic/Philosophy of Mathematics
Frank Ramsey was involved in preparing the English translation of the Tractatus as an undergraduate at Cambridge. He developed an account of the theory of types which avoided the difficulties ...
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Frank Ramsey was involved in preparing the English translation of the Tractatus as an undergraduate at Cambridge. He developed an account of the theory of types which avoided the difficulties associated with the axiom of reducibility by following what he took to be Wittgensteinian principles. In December 1924, he wrote an essay which was eventually published under the title ‘The foundations of mathematics’. The material in the essay that is relevant here falls into three distinct parts: in the first Ramsey showed how to develop a theory of types on Wittgensteinian principles that had no need of the problematic axiom of reducibility; in the second he dealt with the derivation of the theory of classes from the theory of types; and in the third he addressed the problematic dependence of the theory on the axiom of infinity.Less
Frank Ramsey was involved in preparing the English translation of the Tractatus as an undergraduate at Cambridge. He developed an account of the theory of types which avoided the difficulties associated with the axiom of reducibility by following what he took to be Wittgensteinian principles. In December 1924, he wrote an essay which was eventually published under the title ‘The foundations of mathematics’. The material in the essay that is relevant here falls into three distinct parts: in the first Ramsey showed how to develop a theory of types on Wittgensteinian principles that had no need of the problematic axiom of reducibility; in the second he dealt with the derivation of the theory of classes from the theory of types; and in the third he addressed the problematic dependence of the theory on the axiom of infinity.
Jon McGinnis
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195331479
- eISBN:
- 9780199868032
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195331479.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, Islam
After a quick survey of the positions prior to Avicenna concerning the age of the universe, the chapter focuses on Avicenna’s unique arguments for the eternity of the world. To this end, it presents ...
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After a quick survey of the positions prior to Avicenna concerning the age of the universe, the chapter focuses on Avicenna’s unique arguments for the eternity of the world. To this end, it presents his conception of possibility as well as considering how Avicenna envisions the most basic modes of possible existence, namely, substances and accidents, with a particular emphasis on forms and matter. There is then a general discussion of Avicenna’s notion of metaphysical causality. Upon completing the investigation of possible existence, one will be in a position to appreciate Avicenna’s new modal arguments for the world’s eternity and his response to earlier criticisms against that thesis. The chapter, then, concludes with a section on the Necessary Existent’s relation to possible existence as exemplified in Avicenna’s unique twist on the Neoplatonic theory of emanation.Less
After a quick survey of the positions prior to Avicenna concerning the age of the universe, the chapter focuses on Avicenna’s unique arguments for the eternity of the world. To this end, it presents his conception of possibility as well as considering how Avicenna envisions the most basic modes of possible existence, namely, substances and accidents, with a particular emphasis on forms and matter. There is then a general discussion of Avicenna’s notion of metaphysical causality. Upon completing the investigation of possible existence, one will be in a position to appreciate Avicenna’s new modal arguments for the world’s eternity and his response to earlier criticisms against that thesis. The chapter, then, concludes with a section on the Necessary Existent’s relation to possible existence as exemplified in Avicenna’s unique twist on the Neoplatonic theory of emanation.
Hsueh-Man Shen
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780197265277
- eISBN:
- 9780191754203
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197265277.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
Modern art history practice often treats Buddhist icons or ritual objects as unique objects, focusing on their originality and uniqueness. This text investigates how the paradoxical Buddhist doctrine ...
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Modern art history practice often treats Buddhist icons or ritual objects as unique objects, focusing on their originality and uniqueness. This text investigates how the paradoxical Buddhist doctrine of ‘the one and the many’ was translated into visual language through manipulation of the relationship between copies and the original. It analyses the different tactics and strategies formulated around given socio-historical frameworks to visualise the notion of infinity, and ultimately the structure of the universe, and suggests that multiple copies of a single design were more potent a vehicle than single objects in expressing ideas related to the Buddhist metaphysics.Less
Modern art history practice often treats Buddhist icons or ritual objects as unique objects, focusing on their originality and uniqueness. This text investigates how the paradoxical Buddhist doctrine of ‘the one and the many’ was translated into visual language through manipulation of the relationship between copies and the original. It analyses the different tactics and strategies formulated around given socio-historical frameworks to visualise the notion of infinity, and ultimately the structure of the universe, and suggests that multiple copies of a single design were more potent a vehicle than single objects in expressing ideas related to the Buddhist metaphysics.
Paul Crowther
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199579976
- eISBN:
- 9780191722615
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199579976.003.0008
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Aesthetics, History of Philosophy
This chapter rectifies shortcomings in the author's previous sustained treatment of this subject in his book The Kantian Sublime: From Morality to Art. The structure of Kant's account of the ...
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This chapter rectifies shortcomings in the author's previous sustained treatment of this subject in his book The Kantian Sublime: From Morality to Art. The structure of Kant's account of the mathematical sublime is analyzed, suggesting that the role played by infinity should be regarded as contingent rather than necessary, and that an austere reconstruction of his theory is to be preferred over Kant's own rather baroque account. A similar exposition is performed in relation to Kant's account of the dynamical sublime. In revising Kant's theory, special attention is paid to the hitherto neglected question of the specific perceptual cues that trigger experiences of both varieties of the sublime. The theory is also extended to cover artworks, including some of an avant-garde nature.Less
This chapter rectifies shortcomings in the author's previous sustained treatment of this subject in his book The Kantian Sublime: From Morality to Art. The structure of Kant's account of the mathematical sublime is analyzed, suggesting that the role played by infinity should be regarded as contingent rather than necessary, and that an austere reconstruction of his theory is to be preferred over Kant's own rather baroque account. A similar exposition is performed in relation to Kant's account of the dynamical sublime. In revising Kant's theory, special attention is paid to the hitherto neglected question of the specific perceptual cues that trigger experiences of both varieties of the sublime. The theory is also extended to cover artworks, including some of an avant-garde nature.
