The Importance of Being Beautiful in Mathematics

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M. Heidegger, what is philosophy?

In the first lecture he gave in France in 1955 Heidegger discusses the question “what is philosophy?” Discussing Greek and modern answers from Heraclitus to Nietzsche to that question Heidegger also develops his own philosophy in this relatively short text. Of the highest importance are the relations between being and language and being and Dasein. Philosophy is only possible if it answers the call of being. The lecture offers a beautiful introduction into Heidegger’s later philosophy.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tec

The Initiation of the Beautiful Uncanny

In recent years, there has been a movement in arts and one of the interests was in the uncanny where it was relating to surrealism. Previous artwork has addressed the Freudian uncanny concept as an unfamiliar, frightened emotion that is negatively disturbing. However, the concept of Nicholas Royal that uncanny can be strangely beautiful has opened up a new sight that been followed in this thesis. The artwork and art exhibition on fine art are mostly descriptive on creating acceptable uncanny artwork with a sense of beauty. To address the uncanny differently than what used to be and shed the light into the site of beauty to respond, a practice-based research has been carried out to highlight that uncanny can be perceived as beautiful in art. The fundamental aim of this research is to characterise a clear understanding of uncanny beauty. The three research exhibitions of this work were targeting the understanding of what I call“ beautiful uncanny”, as there is a reflective process in the relationship between the imagination of beauty with the uncanny feelings in a body of visual work. In the light of previous literature, related artwork and my understanding, a creation of human figures, hybrid with insects, through sculpture, based on photography have supported the theory of uncanny as being beautiful with further validation based on testing the responses of the viewers who attend the research exhibitions. The qualitative research has been used in this study to conduct the data of the questionnaire and semi-structured interview. The findings of the study have revealed that the importance of classifying uncanny as being beautiful without any rejection is to establish an artwork that increases attraction and curiosity toward knowledge through understanding the actual feelings of the presented artwork. Therefore, that has proposed an original contribution to the knowledge of the perspective of "The Beautiful Uncanny”

Can SMEs in developing countries resist crisis? An analysis on Turkish and Albanian cases

SMEs have an important role in terms of their economic share in developedand developing economies, though there are different definitions of SMEamong various organizations and countries. Today, instead of giantindustries, SMEs having gained importance in the developing economies,become advantageous being economic enterprises having the capability ofquick adjudication, working with less capital but more intense labor andhaving low cost of management and thus having cheap production. In short,the concept of small is beautiful becomes important in the current economic conjuncture with giant firms.In this context, SME definition and SME's role in Turkish and Albanianeconomies will be dealt with. It will be also questioned whether SMEs indeveloping countries resist crisis or not

The challenges, potentials, and experts’ opinions on developing a Malaysian garden identity

As well as generally being considered as symbols of national and country identity, gardens fulfill various functions within society such as being aesthetically beautiful, satisfying human needs, and also functioning as places for various activities. In accordance with this, the Malaysian government in her newly launched National Landscape Policy put forth a vision to achieve “The Most Beautiful Garden Nation” by the year 2020, reflecting a desire to develop a distinctive landscape identity for the country. Due to this, the National Landscape Department of Malaysia suggested developing a garden identity as an indispensable part of this vision because even though the country has great potential in the development of parks and gardens, an exclusive garden identity is still lacking. This paper aims to justify that the development of a garden identity could enhance national and landscape identities for the country. It is also presumed that such development faces several challenges. Moreover, the study intends to highlight Malaysia’s great potential for developing its gardens. A review of existing literature along with Malaysia’s new landscape policy was thus undertaken, and findings were then triangulated by conducting face-to-face interviews with Malaysian local landscape architects. Consequently, the importance of creating a unique garden identity corresponding with Malaysia’s new landscape policy was confirmed. Furthermore, challenges (which mainly relate to political, social, cultural, and economic viewpoints) and potentials for such development were recognised. The results can ultimately be utilised to contribute to the formation of gardens with distinct Malaysian identities

Metaphysics and Contemporary Science: Why the question of the synthetic a priori shouldn’t not be abandoned prematurely

The problem of synthetic judgements touches on the question of whether philosophy can draw independent statements about reality in the first place. For Kant, the synthetic judgements a priori formulate the conditions of the possibility for objectively valid knowledge. Despite the principle fallibility of its statements, modern science aims for objective knowledge. This gives the topic of synthetic a priori unbroken currency. This paper aims to show that a modernized version of transcendental philosophy, if it is to be feasible at all, must “bid farewell” to the concept of being “free of empiricism” or the “purity” of the a priori. Approaches to this end can already been found in Kant’s reflections on non-pure synthetic knowledge. Moreover, the a priori validity of knowledge does not exclude the possibility that it can be discovered empirically. In keeping with Kant, Fries and Nelson anticipated this separation (usually first attributed to Reichenbach) between the validity and discovery context of knowledge and pointed out that the a priori could be discovered empirically, but never proven. There are currently still good reasons why transcendental philosophical concepts are of fundamental importance for modern science, although it must not be overlooked that even within the framework of a modernized transcendental philosophy, several unsolved problems remain or are raised. For example, the irredeemability of the universal validity and necessary claims of the a priori, the problem of a clear demarcation between the phenomenal and noumenal world. Moreover, the “beautiful structure” or the Kantian system, which constituted its persuasive power, is lost

Self-Compassion: Stop Beating Yourself Up and Leave Insecurity Behind By: Dr. Kristen Neff (review)

In her book, Dr. Neff helps the reader understand self-compassion and its importance. She clarifies the essential components which make up compassion, as much of this is also discussed throughout her research. In addition, she explains benefits and constructive reasons to consider self-compassion and applies it to various life domains to which we all can relate due to our being human. Finally, Dr. Neff ends her book with a beautiful illustration of the ways we can emerge ‘for the better’ when we are on the other side of our difficult times and when we have incorporated self-compassion into our lives as a means of coping with ‘life on life’s terms.

Setting the stage for criteria and indicators for Malaysia Garden Cities: Putrajaya Green City as a case study

Malaysian Government has embarked greening initiative to urban landscapes by planting trees and shrubs. This is in line with ultimate moves to transform the country into a Garden Nation by the year 2020. The policy on landscape was focused to planting of trees and shrubs along roads, sidewalks, highways and rivers together with establishment of many nurseries. The image of garden nation would be materialized when all cities in the country become green cities that portray the garden image in their design and visual dimensions. For Malaysia, however, there are no criteria and indicators to be based on as fundamental basis for green cities. A study was conducted to develop a reliable set of criteria and indicators for an ideal, green city or garden city. Delphi method was adopted to solicit the opinion from 30 experts through a series of questionnaires. As a result, it was able to generate and identified 8 criteria and 42 indicators for an ideal Malaysian green city where the top three criteria selected were: (i) safe, healthy and beautiful living working environment, functional; (ii) integrated landscapes, and (iii) need for a physical master plan to include network of high quality plants, open spaces, parks and green areas throughout the city. Following this, stakeholders’ perceptions on the importance of the selected criteria for the Malaysian green city were assessed using the Importance Performance Analysis Procedure. When compared to the earlier results produced by the expert panels, consensus were achieved including the primary stakeholders, domestic tourists and foreign tourists. The stakeholders’ perceptions upon the performance of Putrajaya as one of Malaysian garden city were also assessed by using Importance Performance Analysis. A “Safe and Healthy” including the “Beautiful Living Working Environment” were found to be consistently in to keep up the good work quadrant. Meanwhile, adequate funding to support garden city program was consistently shown a low performance level. It being perceives that the status of Putrajaya as the administrative centre for Malaysian where public funding by design will always be allocated to support garden city related activities. The study also revealed that beautiful landscapes, gardens, parks and nature are the most important attractions in Putrajaya. Visitors placed green attraction more important than other attractions in their decision to visit Putrajaya. This indicated that green areas particularly her garden and park are considered as the brand that able to attract tourists to visit the city. Hence, Putrajaya could definitely be considered having achieved her objective as a green garden city. The generated criteria and indicators should be used as a standard or condition to be met and recognized as a green or garden city

The Art of Science

The Art of Science focuses on the truly beautiful nature of science. The research being conducted on the University of Iowa campus is astounding and highly relevant to many aspects of society. However, the community lacks information on the science being conducted, and is generally not aware of how awe-inspiring science can be. To help remedy this lack of interaction and knowledge, The Art of Science campaign set out to disseminate eye-catching and vibrant images from scientific research to the Eastern Iowa community. Research figures and journal covers were curated from a number of departments at the University of Iowa with the goal of showcasing the natural beauty of scientific work. These images were annotated in easily-accessible language which described the importance and impact of the findings which were being depicted. Posters were printed with the pictures and displayed in multiple locations in Iowa City/Coralville and Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Additionally, social media sites were founded and operated to extend the reach and impact of the project. The Art of Science campaign was conducted with the assistance of the Latham Science Engagement Initiative and is slated to continue through to the Fall of 2017

“Yes! I Had Cosmetic Surgery”: Celebrities\u27 Comsmetic Surgery Confessions in the Media and Their Impact on Korean Female College Students\u27 Perceptions.

This paper analyzes celebrities’ cosmetic surgery confessions in the media and explores the impact of the confessions on non-celebrities. Based on the analysis of talk shows and online news in Korea today, I argue that celebrities’ confessions are the result of the interaction between celebrities and the media, and the confessions serve as an atonement ritual to make a new start for celebrities themselves. The confessions also have the effect of trivializing cosmetic surgery. My analysis of Korean female college students’ self-accounts about the confessions confirms these arguments and shows the students’ strong endorsement of cosmetic surgery as well as their tendency to view cosmetic surgery as a means of upward mobility, given the success of surgical celebrities. The survey questionnaire developed for this study, completed by 217 female college students, reveals that more exposure to such confessions predicts greater normalization and trivialization of cosmetic surgery in the respondents’ everyday lives