Being Good with Money: Economic Bearings in George Eliot's Ethical and Social Thought

In a world of material needs and wants, economics and ethics are inextricably linked. George Eliot recognised this seminal inter-relationship and sought to unravel its intricacies and complexities through her writing. My thesis explores this contention by reference to two principal questions: how did Eliot conceptualise economic value within her broader individual and social ethics? And how was the integration of economic and wider concepts of the “good” explored and tested within the novels? I frame these questions against the great changes in how economics was theorised over her writing career and, by tracing intellectual connections with Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill and later writers attempting to define and secure the moral underpinnings of political economy, I argue that Eliot was better informed and engaged with that process than most criticism has acknowledged. I also re-examine the equally remarkable developments in Eliot’s life and material circumstances, particularly after the success of her first novels. Her wealth and management of financial capital brought a particular focus to all questions of valuation, not least in relation to her own work and intellectual property. I contend that an inability fully to reconcile the moral and aesthetic core of her art and the high financial rewards it was generating gave the economic ethics she tested in the novels an extraordinary urgency and complexity. In my readings of, in particular, the later novels, I argue that the crucial motivations and actions by which her characters attempt to manage economic choice simultaneously parallel and are contained within competing contemporary moral philosophical systems. I conclude that her dissatisfaction with any rule-based system, whether of outcome or duty, led her to consider an essentially Aristotelian ethics of virtue in relation to economic ethics. My final chapters look out beyond individual ethical choice to consider how Eliot’s social and political vision accommodated the economic and its attendant institutions and to suggest a connection with the new liberalism which was starting to emerge in the final years of her life

Review of George Eliot and Money: Economics, Ethics and Literature

This is an important book which fills a gap in George Eliot studies by exploring with impressive authority the novelist\u27s handling of money and economics in her life and work, on the premise that, for her, the economic was an essential constituent of a \u27comprehensive ethical understanding\u27 (p. 8). The author is unusually well-qualified for an analysis of economic theory and practice, having co-founded a hedge fund in the late 1990s and retired from the business of investment management shortly before the financial crisis of 2008. He modestly disclaims any foreknowledge of that crisis but points out that his knowledge of Victorian history and culture could have given him a prophetic edge if he had paid more attention to the banking crisis of 1857; and he cites an 1859 study of the causes of that crisis which is applicable in every particular to the recent crash. The world of the mid-nineteenth century is recognizably ours, which may account in part for the enduring appeal of the nineteenth-century realist novel, which, as Coleman maintains, \u27had a unique and central role as a critical interrogator of the developing money economy\u27 (p. 2)

Investigating nano-structuring within imidazolium ionic liquids: A thermodynamic study using photochromic molecular probes

Following previous studies involving the thermal relaxation of spirocyclic compounds we extended our studies to investigate the formation of nano-structured domains in ionic liquids (ILs). Two compounds, spiropyran (BSP) and spirooxazine (SO) were added to imidazolium cation based ionic liquids with increasing chain lenghts (C2 –C12). Increasing side-chain length was found to have only minor effects on the rate of thermal relaxation of BSP and SO. BSP was found to be a suitable probe molecule as linear correlations in parameters were observed for this compound. This is believed to be due to the fact that BSP-IL interactions were based on hydrogen bonding between MCBSP and the cation compared to MCSO which is limited to electrostatic interactions thus enhancing the sensitivity of MCBSP to the charged polar regions. Increasing the side-chain of the cation resulted in slight increases in MC-BSP activation energy from 96.93 kJ.mol-1 in [C4mIm][NTf2] to 105.27 kJ.mol-1 in [C12mIm][NTf2]. MC-BSP S‡ and H‡ values also increased with increasing side-chain. Expansion and dispersion of polar regions due to increasing non-polar interactions may be enhanced by introduction of the bulky probe molecule. The resulting reorganisation of the system produced positive entropies of activation, 13.79 J.K- 1.mol-1 for C4mIm to 46.15 J.K-1.mol-1 for C12mIm, following an increase in disorder due to probe dye closure from MC to BSP and migration of dye to regions of preferential solvation. The ability for spirocyclic compounds to form both polar and non-polar isomers resulted in the ability to analyse both solvent regions using a single probe dye. Ground state equilibrium, Ke, examined non-polar regions of the IL while equilibrium of activation, K‡, examined the polar regions. A linear response to side chain length to equilibrium of activation was believed to be due to the fact that polar regions were possibly expanding due to increasing influence of non-polar side chain interactions upon the over solvent structure. The result of such reordering and dispersion of polar regions reduces solvent-solute interactions which increases rate of MC-BSP relaxation

Bridging worlds: from macro and micro scale to prototype and product

Existing platforms for monitoring of nutrient levels (e.g.; phosphates, nitrates) and pathogens such as E. coli in water bodies are often prohibitively expensive (>€20k) due to the use of conventional sample/liquid handling which results in bulky, power hungry and labour intensive (servicing and maintenance) devices. As a consequence, this results in monitoring strategies that suffer from a lack of sampling frequency and deployment scale and thus a decrease in the overall effectiveness of such platforms. To address these challenges, the NAPES project intends to develop a low cost, autonomous system for environmental sensing in the aqueous environment. Additionally, this project will act as a hub for the development of advances in materials science, chemical and biological analysis and detection systems while revolutionizing the current design of deployable environmental sensing platforms. The eventual goal is to create a commercially viable system, implementing new technologies that not only improve the sensitivity and efficiency of the platform but also drive down their unit cost by orders of magnitude so that such technology becomes accessible to wider markets and demographics (e.g developing countries, non-commercial entities). To achieve this, the project brings together 8 partners with unique strengths that, when combined, will result in an innovative commercial platform. Our project’s core research strategies involve implementation of novel materials science to develop advanced fluid handling and microscale mechanics such as polymer valves and channel coatings (Dublin City University and Technical University Eindhoven) and their microfluidic applications (CIC Microgune) as well as the use of microfluidic platforms for size/cost reduction of analytical devices and integration of electronics. Advances in analytical platforms will be addressed using cutting edge detection methods based upon antibody functionalised magnetic beads and spot/film coated refractive index matched polymer surfaces (Aquila Biosciences, Insitiut Curie and University of Milan) for highly specific detection of pathogens and other non-desirable contaminants (e.g surfactants). With design and innovation in mind, the NAPES project uniquely addresses the often-overlooked challenge of bridging the macro and microscale environments. The ability to gain a truly representative sample from large water bodies can present a problem as quite often the volume difference of the sample source and the analytical sample can be orders of magnitude different. Through the design and implementation of a specialised pre-concentration and filtration process, the ability to sample vastly greater sample volumes and convert them into volumes compatible with microscale sensing is being developed and as such are a unique aspect to our platform. The commercial exploitation and business development aspects of the platform will be illustrated by describing the prototype development, deployment and subsequent productisation and upscaling of final platform design with two of our commercial partners TE Laboratories and Williams Industrial Services. A very important aspect of success of this project is the combination of novel research advances in chemistry, biology and engineering for the development of a real product with marketable potential

Physico-chemical properties of ionic-liquid water mixtures

In order for Ionic Liquids (ILs) to be utilized to their full potential, it is necessary to have a complete understanding of their physical properties, including phase transitions temperatures1. We have previously reported into the extent of structuring of ILs using photochromic molecular probes, and investigated the appropriate IL water content to yield hydrated IL systems for analysis of polarity and to create environments suitable for effective enzyme activity 1,2,3. In this study we investigated interactions in hydrated ILs containing variable hydrophobic and hydrophilic regions through optical and thermal analysis. The enthalpies and phase transitions of the systems were compared, between the temperature range -50°C to +30°C for the ILs with varying degrees of hydration. Reichardtʼs dye was used as a molecular probe to monitor changes in interactions in the ILs as a function of temperature. Comparisons were made between ILs and for ILs with varying degrees of hydration. Spectroscopic studies were performed using Perkin Elmer UV-Visible Spectrometer and phase transitions monitored using a Perkin Elmer Differential Scanning Calorimeter. The ILs examined are; Trihexyltetradecylphosphonium Chloride [P6,6,6,14 Cl] Tributyl-tetradecylphosphonium Chloride, [P4,4,4,14 Cl], 1-Ethyl-methyl-3-imidazolium-ethyl Sulfate [Emim][EtSO4] and Trihexyltetradecylphosphonium Dicyanamide [P6,6,6,14 DCA]. 1. Robert Byrne, Simon Coleman, Simon Gallagher, and Dermot Diamond. Designer Molecular Probes for Phosphonium Ionic Liquids. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 2010. 2. Kyoko Fujita, Douglas R. MacFarlane, Maria Forsyth, Masahiro Yoshizawa-Fujita, Kenichi Murata,† Nobuhumi Nakamura, and Hiroyuki Ohno*,Solubility and Stability of Cytochrome c in Hydrated Ionic Liquids: Effect of Oxo Acid Residues and Kosmotropicity, 2007. 3. SergeiV.DzyubaandRichardA.Bartsch,Expandingthepolarityrange of ionic liquids, Tetrehedron Letters, 2002