Quantum Transfiguration of Kruskal Black Holes

We present a new effective description of macroscopic Kruskal black holes that incorporates corrections due to quantum geometry effects of loop quantum gravity. It encompasses both the `interior' region that contains classical singularities and the `exterior' asymptotic region. Singularities are naturally resolved by the quantum geometry effects of loop quantum gravity, and the resulting quantum extension of the full Kruskal space-time is free of all the known limitations of previous investigations [1-11] of the Schwarzschild interior. We compare and contrast our results with these investigations and also with the expectations based on the AdS/CFT duality [12].Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, minor changes, version to appear in PR

Individual Style After The End Of Art

In The Transfiguration of the Commonplace (1981)1 Arthur Danto construes individual style as something “given” that belongs to the artist “essentially” and “inseparably.” By contrast, his theory of the end of art, set forth in After the End of Art (1997) and elsewhere,2 suggests the liberation of artists from any stylistic commitments. How do these two theories go together? Can there be individual styles after the end of art? Examining the compatibility between Danto’s end of art thesis and his essentialist conception of individual style, this paper tries to approach an answer to these questions

The Divine Liturgy as Mystical Experience

Most characterizations of mystical experience emphasize its private, esoteric, and non-sensory nature. Such an understanding is far removed from the original meaning of the term mystikos. For the ancient Greeks, the ”mystical’ was that which led participants into the awareness of a higher reality, as in the initiatory rites of the ancient mystery cults. This usage was taken over by the early Church, which similarly designated the Christian sacraments and their rites as ”mystical’ because they draw participants into a higher level of reality. I argue that the Divine Liturgy is a form of ”mystical experience’ in this sense, and that philosophers have missed a great deal by excluding such communal acts from the scope of mystical experience

Body and space: discovering the compositions of Paul Burman

Article 2 of 7 in an issue devoted to the visual culture of Poland and Eastern EuropePreviously in the University eprints HAIRST pilot service at http://eprints.st-andrews.ac.uk/archive/00000386/This article will discuss some aspects of Paul Burman's compositions. The creative endeavour of Paul Burman (1888-1934) belongs to the earliest period of Estonian art history. Born into a Baltic-German family, living mainly in Estonia, he received his art education in the Art Academies of Russia. Burman therefore belonged simultaneously to the Baltic-German, Estonian and Russian culture spheres and connected them in his art. Burman's creation reveals a complicated, many-faceted art concept. The article applies phenomenological and visual theories to Burman's work, discussing the role of body and space in his compositions of nude riders which develop from the creative imagination. Burman's compositions can be interpreted as an expression of an inner Ulysses, a constant wandering on horseback, passing through the rectangular space of the picture. The beholder is only witnessing a pause on this inner journey, painted with the suggestivity of a reverie.This issue was sponsored by The Sikorski Polish Club and the Scottish Polish Cultural Association.Postprin