Finitely axiomatized theories lack self-comprehension

In this paper, we prove that no consistent finitely axiomatized theory one-dimensionally interprets its own extension with predicative comprehension. This constitutes a result with the flavor of the Second Incompleteness Theorem whose formulation is completely arithmetic-free. Probably the most important novel feature that distinguishes our result from the previous results of this kind is that it is applicable to arbitrary weak theories, rather than to extensions of some base theory. The methods used in the proof of the main result yield a new perspective on the notion of sequential theory, in the setting of forcing-interpretations

Scholars in Action (2 vols)

In Scholars in Action, an international group of 40 authors open up new perspectives on the eighteenth-century culture of knowledge, with a particular focus on scholars and their various practices.; Readership: All interested in the Republic of Letters, the history of Enlightenment and the history of early modern knowledge, scholarship and science

Short history of Biology from the origins to the 20th Century

The book tells the story of the development of both knowledge and theories about the living organisms since Antiquity until the beginning of the 20th century. It also endeavours to link the advances in sciences and the events in the life of scientists with the historical and social framework within which they lived. When possible some hints have been provided about the personalities of the scientists themselves. It is especially meant both for biologists and naturalists, but an attempt has been made to make it interesting reading also for any layman with an interest in history and sciences

Correspondence of Leonhard Euler with Christian Goldbach

When Leonhard Euler first arrived at the Russian Academy of Sciences, at the age of 20, his career was supported and promoted by the Academy’s secretary, the Prussian jurist and amateur mathematician Christian Goldbach (1690-1764). Their encounter would grow into a lifelong friendship, as evinced by nearly 200 letters sent over 35 years. This exchange – Euler’s most substantial long-term correspondence – has now been edited for the first time with an English translation, ample commentary and documentary indices. These present an overview of 18th-century number theory, its sources and repercussions, many details of the protagonists’ biographies, and a wealth of insights into academic life in St. Petersburg and Berlin between 1725 and 1765. Part I includes an introduction and the original texts of the Euler-Goldbach letters, while Part II presents the English translations and documentary indices

Incapacity

In this highly original study of the nature of performance, Spencer Golub uses the insights of Ludwig Wittgenstein into the way language works to analyze the relationship between the linguistic and the visual in the work of a broad range of dramatists, novelists, and filmmakers, among them Richard Foreman, Mac Wellman, Peter Handke, David Mamet, and Alfred Hitchcock. Like Wittgenstein, these artists are concerned with the limits of language’s representational capacity. For Golub, it is these limits that give Wittgenstein’s thought a further, very personal significance—its therapeutic quality with respect to the Obsessive Compulsive Disorder from which he suffers. Underlying what Golub calls “performance behavior” is Wittgenstein’s notion of “pain behavior”—that which gives public expression to private experience. Golub charts new directions for exploring the relationship between theater and philosophy, and even for scholarly criticism itself

Destined or Doomed? Hungarian Dissidents and Their Western Friends, 1973-1998

Through the lens of Hungarian dissidents and their supporters in the West, the following study analyzes the motivations of intellectuals from East and West to engage in an open East-West dialogue, their efforts to change the social and political structure of the Cold War, and their contributions to the peaceful revolutions of 1989. It investigates the alliance of intellectuals from either side of the Iron Curtain, their formative experiences and mutual influences. To understand the origins, functions, and legacy of this network, the study investigates the period from the 1960s to the late 1990s, focusing on the years 1973 to 1998. Findings suggest that the motivations that would bring intellectuals from either side of the Iron Curtain together in the 1980s originated in similarly formative experiences in the 1960s, which shattered their youthful convictions and initiated a search for a new intellectual identity that would bring Easterners and Westerners together by the late 1970s. In response to the encounter, the participants developed a distinct set of political and historical convictions that rooted in cultural liberalism, their commitment to free, open and democratic societies, and the acceptance of universal human rights. This case study touches upon developments throughout Eastern Europe and evaluates the history of the Cold War as interplay between East and West. It indicates a retreat from authoritarian rule in the East as early as 1987, and highlights the problematic, one-sided perception of the Hungarian Democratic Opposition in the West. It discusses the achievements of the former dissidents, and their struggle to adjust to the situation in post-1989 Europe. The project is based on archival research in six different countries; findings are based on documents found in private collections, national libraries, institutional, national and state security archives. Additionally, over forty eyewitnesses and experts shared their experiences and views in interviews conducted between 2009 and 2012

A genealogy of the balance of power

The Balance of Power is one of the foundational concepts for the academic discipline of International Relations. Most treat it as a theoretical or analytical concept – a tool that scholars use to investigate the workings of world politics. However, there is a gap in the literature on the balance of power; it is also a concept used by political practitioners and diplomats in concrete debates and disputes throughout centuries. No one has systematically investigated the concept as a ‘category of practice’, and I seek to redress this omission. I ask, how, why, and with what effects has the balance of power concept been deployed across different contexts? This is important, because the discipline needs to investigate the histories of its dominant concepts – the balance of power deserves attention as an object of analysis in its own right. I combine a genealogical reading (by what accidents of history did we end up here?) with conceptual history (how was the balance used then as a rhetorical resource in making arguments?). The result is a history of practical international thought. I trace the trajectory of the balance of power concept empirically and concretely – from its emergence in England based on a domestic republican tradition, to its elaboration at the British-founded University of Göttingen in Hanover, on to Prussia and Germany, before finally ending up in the USA with the emergence of IR as a discipline. Throughout this trajectory, the concept of the balance of power has been centrally linked to what historical actors took to be European polities and their relations. In this trajectory, ‘shifts’ in the balance of power, is governed more by how the concept itself is deployed, than any material or territorial assessment of power alone, or by any deliberate refinement of the concept. It has affected and constituted international politics and foreign policies across time, as well as our own discipline of IR

CARDINAL ARITHMETIC IN THE STYLE OF Baron Von Münchhausen

In this paper we show how to interpret Robinson’s Arithmetic Q and the theory R of Tarski, Mostowski and Robinson as theories of cardinals in very weak theories of relations over a domain