A Metaphysics of the "logos" in S.T. Thomas Aquinas: creation and knowledge

En este artículo intento mostrar cómo en el pensamiento de Santo Tomás de Aquino la creación expresa o manifiesta a la divinidad, posibilitando así nuestro conocimiento de Dios sin recurrir a la fe. El Aquinate insiste en que la creación de todas las cosas es por el Verbo o el Logos, cuyo ser luminoso hace que todo sea inteligible y participe en la luz del Verbo. Esta luz divina es además la fuente de la luz del conocimiento natural –luz en la que participan todos los hombres–. Dada esta participación en el hombre, la razón natural no sólo es capax entis, sino también capax Dei.In this article I seek to show how in the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas creation expresses or manifests the divine, making possible our knowledge of God without recourse to faith. Aquinas insists that the creation of all things is through the Word or Logos, whose luminous being makes everything intelligible and renders all a participant in the light of the Word. This divine light is also the source of the light of natural knowledge participated in by all men. Given this participation in man, natural reason is not only capax entis but also capax Dei.peerReviewe

Anselmo sobre la verdad y el bien

San Anselmo desarrolla una metafísica del Logos, mediante la cual las cosas son verdaderas por su relación con el Intelecto divino, que es a su vez la primera Verdad. Esta metafísica tiene implicaciones éticas, ya que la verdad de la esencia de la criatura racional debe llegar a su plenitud a través de la acción recta. La rectitud de la voluntad es necesaria para que el hombre haga la verdad o se mantenga en la verdad. La actualización de la esencia del hombre sólo puede realizarse a través del retorno a la Verdad Divina, que es su causa ejemplar y causa final.St. Anselm provides us with a metaphysics of the Logos, whereby things are true in relation to the Divine Intellect, or by the one first truth. This type of metaphysics has ethical implications, for the truth of man’s essence needs to be brought to completion through right action. rectitude of the rational creature’s will is necessary for man’s doing the truth or standing in the truth. This paper shows that the actualization of man’s essence can only be achieved through the return of the rational creature to the divine Truth, which is its exemplary and final cause

Technologies of the Self: Truth, Asceticism, and Autonomy

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La causalidad del bien en Santo Tomás

This paper examines the influence of the Neoplatonic tradition on the thought of St. Thomas with respect to the causality of God’s goodness. The maxim “bonum est diffusivum sui,” generally attributed to Pseudo-Dionysius, will be discussed and interpreted in terms of final causality

TRANSPIRATION AND CROP COEFFICIENTS FOR IRRIGATED OLIVES WITH PREDICTIVE EQUATIONS DERIVED FROM MODIS REMOTELY SENSED VEGETATION INDICES AND GROUND-BASED TEMPERATURE DATA

Olive transpiration T can be predicted by combining MODIS remotely sensed vegetation indices (EVI* and NDVI*), tree ground-based transpiration derived from sap flow measurements and maximum daily air temperature ta. The feasibility of developing a single predictive equation of olive orchard transpiration through the relationship between sap flow based transpiration (T) and remotely sensed Enhanced and Normalized Difference Vegetation Indexes (EVI and NDVI) of an irrigated orchard in southern Portugal was tested. A correlation matrix relating T as the dependent variable to VIs and micrometeorological data as independent variables was constructed. Regression equations were then developed from the micrometeorological variable that most closely correlated with ground transpiration T data, and finally predictive multivariate equations were derived from EVI*- ta and NDVI*- ta, being the maximum air temperature ta the ground-measured micrometeorological variable found most closely correlated with field T. Such predictive responses were validated with olive sap flow ground based transpiration data, being the measured and predicted T based on EVI*-Ta within 11% of the 1:1 line. The robustness of the method is attributed to spectral vegetation indices being able to describe well vegetation amount and condition and strongly correlate with micrometeorological variables that drive olive transpiration. The predictive responses were used here to calculate and propose crop coefficients that can be made routinely operational and available to guide irrigation. The modeling study also shows that the method can offer a reliable way for verification and scaling up of sap flow measurements to wider olive growing areas, and for providing data for other applications

Predicting Opposition towards Immigration: Economic Resources, Social Resources and Moral Principles

This study analyses the predictors of opposition towards immigrants of “different ethnic groups” and “poor countries” in 5 European countries (Portugal, Germany, Netherlands, France and United Kingdom), using data from the European Social Survey 1 (Jowell & the Central Coordinating Team, 2003). Besides Portugal, a country that has moved from being one of net emigration to being a new host country for immigrants, the other countries were selected according to their main policies of immigrants’ integration. Opposition towards immigration (OTI) is analysed using three theoretical models: a) the economic self-interest model that proposes that opposition towards immigration may be due to economic factors; b) the social capital model according to which social trust and self-reliance on political and social system may shape peoples’ opinions on the benefits of immigration; c) Schwartz’s human values model, based on which it is possible to predict that some values facilitate OTI, whereas others facilitate openness to immigration. The hypotheses tested are: a) there is a negative correlation between economic well-being and OTI; b) a negative correlation between social capital and OTI; c) a positive correlation between both conservation and self-enhancement values and OTI, and a negative correlation between both self-transcendence and openness to change values and OTI; d) the social values model will further predict opposition towards immigration over and above the other models. Results globally support the formulated hypotheses

Decomposing the site frequency spectrum: the impact of tree topology on neutrality tests

We investigate the dependence of the site frequency spectrum (SFS) on the topological structure of genealogical trees. We show that basic population genetic statistics - for instance estimators of $\theta$ or neutrality tests such as Tajima's $D$ - can be decomposed into components of waiting times between coalescent events and of tree topology. Our results clarify the relative impact of the two components on these statistics. We provide a rigorous interpretation of positive or negative values of an important class of neutrality tests in terms of the underlying tree shape. In particular, we show that values of Tajima's $D$ and Fay and Wu's $H$ depend in a direct way on a peculiar measure of tree balance which is mostly determined by the root balance of the tree. We present a new test for selection in the same class as Fay and Wu's $H$ and discuss its interpretation and power. Finally, we determine the trees corresponding to extreme expected values of these neutrality tests and present formulae for these extreme values as a function of sample size and number of segregating sites.Comment: 23 pages, 8 figure

Yield and olive oil characteristics of a low-density orchard (cv. Cordovil) subjected to different irrigation regimes

Abstract The impact of different irrigation scheduling regimes on the quantity and quality of olive oil from a low-density olive grove in southern Portugal was assessed during the irrigation seasons of 2006 and 2007. Olive trees were subjected to one of the following treatments: A—full irrigation; B—sustained deficit irrigation (SDI) with 60% of ETc water applied with irrigation; C—regulated deficit irrigation (RDI) with irrigation water applied at three critical phases: before flowering, at the beginning of pit hardening and before crop harvesting and D—rain-fed treatment. Olive oil yield was significantly higher than rain-fed conditions in 2006, an “on year” of significant rainfall during summer. No significant yield differences were observed in the following “off year”. Among the irrigated treatments, olive oil production of treatment B was 32.5% and 40.1% higher in 2006 and 2007, respectively than the fully irrigated treatment A, despite receiving 49% less irrigation water. Such strategy could allow for an efficient use of water in the region, of very limited available resources, and for modest but important oil yield increase. Nonetheless, on the “on year” of 2006 treatment C used 13.9% of the water applied to treatment B and produced only 23.9% less olive fruits which could also make it illegible as the next possible strategy to use for irrigating olive trees in the region, provided that water is secured latter in the summer, a period of vital importance for oil accumulation and very sensitive to water stress as the poor results of 2007 revealed. The different treatment water regimes did not impact on the chemical characteristics of olive oils that were within the set threshold limits. Similarly, the sensory characteristics of the olive oils as well as bitterness and pungency were negligible for all treatments allowing them to be assessed as of “superior quality”.Overall, irrigation treatments had no influence on the commercial value of produced oils, being all classified as “extra virgin”. Such funding may be of vital importance to farmers willing to further their irrigation area, save water and still retain the protected designation of origin (PDO) seal of quality for their oil

Water use, transpiration, and crop coefficients for olives (cv. Cordovil), grown in orchards in Southern Portugal

To improve the scheduling of irrigation for low-density olive trees (Olea europaea L.) grown in a typical Mediterranean environment of Southern Portugal, and to clarify the mechanisms of water uptake by trees, transpiration, soil water status and stomatal response to water deficit were measured in an olive orchard. Olive trees of cv. Cordovil were subject to three irrigation treatments: full-rate irrigation, sustained deficit irrigation (SDI) providing for approximately 60% of water applied at full-rate irrigation, and a regulated deficit irrigation (RDI) with water applied at periods during three critical phases: before-flowering, at beginning of pit-hardening, before crop-harvesting to replenish soil moisture to field capacity. There was also a dry-farming treatment. Trees responded differently to summer rainfall and irrigation water: full-rate irrigation, which received 880 mm of irrigation and 240 mm of rainfall, used 704 mm for transpiration; SDI, which received the same amount of rainfall and 448 mm of irrigation water, used 745 mm of water for transpiration; RDI, which received 69 mm of irrigation water and 240 mm of rainfall, used 638 mm of water for tree transpiration; dry-farming, which received no irrigation, benefited from 240 mm of summer and early autumn rain and used 404 mm of water for transpiration. The results support the hypothesis that trees under RDI and dry-farming satisfy most of their early atmospheric evaporative demand by extracting water from outside of the area wetted by drip irrigation. Scaled-up orchard transpiration was used to define orchard crop and water stress coefficients. With full-rate irrigation and SDI the results showed that during summer droughts olive trees slow down their physiological mechanisms to conserve water, regardless of amount applied. The derived crop coefficient results also indicated that SDI was the most appropriate for scheduling the irrigation of cv. Cordovil orchards in Southern Portugal although applying RDI helped sustain orchard transpiration and yields. Irrigation accounted for 11% of total water used in transpiration, with the balance extracted by roots in the large volume of soil lying in the areas between the trees. However, using the RDI scheme to schedule irrigation appears to be appropriate only in wet years with well distributed late summer rainfall or where there is a shortage of farm irrigation water. In general, and particularly in years with no summer and early autumn rains as can often occur in this region, the SDI regime appears to be more appropriate for scheduling irrigation