How far can it be argued that rationality of modernity creates a dehumanised and disenchanted self?

This essay seeks to discover just how far it can be argued that rationality of modernity can do so by focusing on various theorists and their position on the subject. Max Weber is a key philosopher whose perspective is considered throughout the discourse of the essay on topics such as secularisation, capitalism, formal rationality, bureaucracy and ‘iron cages’ which imprison the self. Ritzer’s theory of ‘McDonaldization’ is also considered, arguing that his specific tenets of control and efficiency lead to dehumanisation. This is concurred by Bryman and his postulations of ‘emotional labour’. Marxist theory is also accounted for, around the subject of reification; the transformation of the consciousness of a human into an object. The extreme depths of the argument surrounding the rationality of modernity are presented through applying the theories to the nature of the Nazi Holocaust. Finally, consideration is given as to how to re-humanise and re-enchant the self through postmodernist observation and a case study on the power of community

Policy paper on freedom of expression in Tajikistan

Nigina Zaripov

Confinement and Quantization Effects in Mesoscopic Superconducting Structures

We have studied quantization and confinement effects in nanostructured superconductors. Three different types of nanostructured samples were investigated: individual structures (line, loop, dot), 1-dimensional (1D) clusters of loops and 2D clusters of antidots, and finally large lattices of antidots. Hereby, a crossover from individual elementary "plaquettes", via clusters, to huge arrays of these elements, is realized. The main idea of our study was to vary the boundary conditions for confinement of the superconducting condensate by taking samples of different topology and, through that, modifying the lowest Landau level E_LLL(H). Since the critical temperature versus applied magnetic field T_c(H) is, in fact, E_LLL(H) measured in temperature units, it is varied as well when the sample topology is changed through nanostructuring. We demonstrate that in all studied nanostructured superconductors the shape of the T_c(H) phase boundary is determined by the confinement topology in a unique way.Comment: 28 pages, 19 EPS figures, uses LaTeX's aipproc.sty, contribution to Euroschool on "Superconductivity in Networks and Mesoscopic Systems", held in Siena, Italy (8-20 september 1997

The Diamond Net: Metaphysics, Grammar, Ontologies

In the introduction to his Philosophy of Nature, Hegel speaks of metaphysics as “the entire range of the universal determinations of thought, as it were the diamond net into which everything is brought and thereby first made intelligible. Every educated consciousness has its metaphysics, an instinctive way of thinking”. Both Wittgenstein and Hegel see our many languages and forms of life as constituted by different diamond nets of categories/grammars. I argue that both Wittgenstein and Hegel take a non-reductive attitude toward this plurality of local ontologies, but that they disagree about what that plurality implies for history and philosophy. Their disagreements come in part from their differing choice of examples, influenced by atomism and holism. Even more, their disagreements stem from divergent notions about the structure and mode of being of those diamond nets. During the discussion, I distinguish three uses of the word “ontology”, and I ask each thinker about what might improve the other’s philosophical project