Use of the Internet at Major Life Moments

Presents findings from a survey conducted in January 2002. Looks at the role the Internet played at fifteen different types of milestones or major events in the lives of Internet users during a two-year period

The massless Thirring model in spherical field theory

We use the massless Thirring model to demonstrate a new approach to non-perturbative fermion calculations based on the spherical field formalism. The methods we present are free from the problems of fermion doubling and difficulties associated with integrating out massless fermions. Using a non-perturbative regularization, we compute the two-point correlator and find agreement with the known analytic solution.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures, journal versio

Renormalization in spherical field theory

We derive several results concerning non-perturbative renormalization in the spherical field formalism. Using a small set of local counterterms, we are able to remove all ultraviolet divergences in a manner such that the renormalized theory is finite and translationally invariant. As an explicit example we consider massless phi^4 theory in four dimensions.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figure

Ideological diversity, hostility, and discrimination in philosophy

Members of the field of philosophy have, just as other people, political convictions or, as psychologists call them, ideologies. How are different ideologies distributed and perceived in the field? Using the familiar distinction between the political left and right, we surveyed an international sample of 794 subjects in philosophy. We found that survey participants clearly leaned left (75%), while right-leaning individuals (14%) and moderates (11%) were underrepresented. Moreover, and strikingly, across the political spectrum, from very left-leaning individuals and moderates to very right-leaning individuals, participants reported experiencing ideological hostility in the field, occasionally even from those from their own side of the political spectrum. Finally, while about half of the subjects believed that discrimination against left- or right-leaning individuals in the field is not justified, a significant minority displayed an explicit willingness to discriminate against colleagues with the opposite ideology. Our findings are both surprising and important, because a commitment to tolerance and equality is widespread in philosophy, and there is reason to think that ideological similarity, hostility, and discrimination undermine reliable belief formation in many areas of the discipline