Radial Velocity Studies of Close Binary Stars.VIII

Radial-velocity measurements and sine-curve fits to the orbital velocity variations are presented for the seventh set of ten close binary systems: V410 Aur, V523 Cas, QW Gem, V921 Her, V2357 Oph, V1130 Tau, HN UMa, HX UMa, HD 93917, NSV 223. All systems, but three (V523 Cas, HD 93917, NSV 223), were discovered photometrically by the Hipparcos mission. All systems are double-lined (SB2) binaries and all, but the detached, very close system V1130 Tau, are contact binaries. The broadening-function permitted improvement of the orbital elements for V523 Cas, which was the only system observed before for radial velocity variations. Spectroscopic/visual companions were detected for V410 Aur and HX UMa.Comment: AASTeX5, 4 figures, 3 tables, to appear AJ, June 200

High Speed Photometry of SDSS J013701.06-091234.9

We present high speed photometry of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey cataclysmic variable SDSS J013701.06-091234.9 in quiescence and during its 2003 December superoutburst. The orbital modulation at 79.71\pm0.01 min is double humped; the superhump period is 81.702\pm0.007 min. Towards the end of the outburst late superhumps with a period of 81.29\pm0.01 min were observed. We argue that this is a system of very low mass transfer rate, and that it probably has a long outburst interval.Comment: 5 pages, 8 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA

Kryzys w kulturze, wartości estetyczne i teatralizacja życia politycznego według Hannah Arendt

The text concerns the issue of aesthetic values in Hannah Arendt’s Lectures of Kant’s Political Philosophy. Arendt considered the power of judgement a political ability. Her diagnosis of the state of crisis in European culture is the background for this statement. Her response to this is the postulate to develop our power of judgement as the basis of political community. This is possible thanks to a number of similarities between political activity and fine art. The problem is that Arendt, in her reflections on beauty as a political value, got entangled in contradictions and treated Kant’s Critique with carelessness. One of them, discussed in this essay, was the failure to take into account the importance of the sublime as an aesthetic value of key importance for politics and judgements about it. If politics were considered through the concept of the sublime, most problems the reader can find in Arendt’s Lectures would disappear, especially thenegligence of moral dimension of Kant’s political philosophy. Moreover, Arendt’s remarks concerning mass culture, expressed in the text The Crisis in Culture, seem to be fundamentally inaccurate. Taking into account Kant's concept of the sublime allows a more correct recognition ofmass culture, its functioning and critical potential

Hannah Arendt a ekonomia polityczna Jean-Jaquesa Rousseau

The text is a critical analysis of the objections made by Hannah Arendt against Rousseau. It shows how Rousseau’s concept of political economy fits into Arendt’s understanding of society. From this perspective, Rousseau turns out to be an ideologue of society. It manifests in the belief that it is not people but societies that inhabit the Earth. Arendt did not notice or at least did not consider Rousseau’s shift in perception of politics. Unlike the ancient Greeks, he did not regard man as a political being, but a natural one. Therefore, according to him politics requires external legitimization, that is given to it by morality and elementary biological needs. Nature, in turn, provides morality and politics with standards of law. Here, the general will proves to be a kind of social substitute in the context of natural laws’ absence.Tekst jest krytyczną analizą zarzutów wysuwanych przez Hannah Arendt przeciwko Rousseau. Pokazuje, w jaki sposób Rousseau’owska koncepcja ekonomii politycznej wpisuje się w rozumienie społeczeństwa Arendt. Rousseau z tej perspektywy okazuje się jego ideologiem, i to z dobrodziejstwem inwentarza, a mianowicie przekonaniem, że nie ludzie, ale społeczeństwa zamieszkują Ziemię. Arendt nie dostrzegła zmienionej perspektywy postrzegania polityki u Rousseau. W przeciwieństwie do starożytnych Greków, Rousseau nie traktuje człowieka jako istoty politycznej z definicji, ale naturalną, toteż polityka wymaga dla niego legitymizacji zewnętrznej ze strony moralności oraz elementarnych potrzeb biologicznych. Natura dostarcza tak polityce jak i moralności wzorca prawa. Wola powszechna okazuje się rodzajem społecznego substytutu w warunkach nieobecności praw natury.&nbsp

Wstęp do badań nad estetyzacją polityki. O Kondycji ludzkiej według Hannah Arendt

The text is an interpretation of Human Condition by Hannah Arendt in respect of the process of the aestheticization of politics. The issue is strictly connected with the social phenomenon of consumption. Arendt explains the historical changes leading to emergence of the consumer society quite well, but she fails in her understanding of the consumption itself – she treats it in the Marxist way, i.e. as an exploitation of the use value of the good. As a consequence, she is unable to grasp the influence of consumerism on politics adequately. This is why in analysis of the phenomenon of the aestheticization of politics I had to reach for the Baudrillardian concept of consumption as the realization of the sign value of the good. Intertwining of both stances provides foundations for clarification of the origin and concept of the aestheticization of politics.Tekst jest interpretacją Kondycji ludzkiej Hannah Arendt w kontekście procesu estetyzacji polityki. Samo zjawisko jest ściśle powiązane ze społecznym fenomenem konsumpcji. Arendt całkiem trafnie wyjaśnia historyczne przemiany, które wiodły do wyłonienia się społeczeństwa konsumenckiego, ale jednoczenie zawodzi jeśli chodzi o rozumienie samej konsumpcji. Traktuje ją na sposób marksistowski, tj. jako wyzyskanie wartości użytkowej towaru. W konsekwencji nie jest w stanie właściwie uchwycić wpływu konsumpcjonizmu na politykę. Dlatego w analizie zjawiska estetyzacji polityki zmuszony byłem sięgnąć po Baudrillardowskie pojęcie konsumpcji jako realizacji wartości znakowej towaru. Powiązanie obu stanowisk dostarcza podstaw do wstępnej klaryfikacji genezy oraz pojęcia estetyzacji polityki.&nbsp

Fenomenologia wartości estetycznych w Analysis of Knowledge and Valuation Clarence’a Irvinga Lewisa

Der Artikel legt die Theorie der ästhetischen Werte von C. I. Lewis in ihrer Beziehung zur Ästhetik von I. Kant dar. Ich zeige grundsätzliche Wechselbeziehungen zwischen dem konzeptuellen Pragmatismus und dem Transzendentalismus von Kant. Die Basisthese ist die Feststellung, dass die Theorie der ästhetischen Werte von Lewis eine Anpassung der grundsätzlichen Voraussetzungen der Kantischen Ästhetik an die Erfordernisse des konzeptuellen Pragmatismus bildet. Der Artikel umfasst: 1) eine allgemeine Einführung in die Axiologie von Lewis mit Hervorhebung der Rolle des pragmatischen A-Priori in seinem Gedanken, 2) die Charakteristik und Klassifizierung der Werte mit der Akzentuierung der Eigenart der ästhetischen Werte in Lewis’ Theorie der Werte, 3) die Charakteristik der ästhetischen Erfahrung - hier wird der Akzent auf ihren besonderen Präsentationscharakter gelegt, 4) die Betrachtung der ästhetischen Kriterien nach Lewis, 5) die Gegenüberstellung der Theorie der ästhetischen Werte von Lewis mit der Ästhetik von Kant.The text is a presentation of the theory of aesthetic values by Clarence Irving Lewis’ in relation to I. Kant’s aesthetics. Its main contention that the Lewisian theory of the aesthetic is an attempt of adaptation and interpretation of the basic assumptions of Kantian aesthetics in the light of the requirements of conceptual pragmatism. The essay involves: (1) the general introduction to the axiology of C. I. Lewis with accentuation of the role of pragmatic a priori in his thought; (2) characteristics and classification of values, with emphasis on the specificity of aesthetic values in Lewisian theory of values; (3) characteristics of aesthetic values as they are presented in AKV – here the accent is put on its particularly presentational character, (4) consideration of the criteria of aestheticity in Lewisian axiology, (5) juxtaposition of Lewis’ theory of values with Kantian aesthetics. Artykuł prezentuje teorię wartości estetycznych C. I. Lewisa w jej relacji do estetyki I. Kanta. Wskazuję podstawowe zależności między konceptualnym pragmatyzmem a transcendentalizmem Kanta. Bazową tezą jest stwierdzenie, że teoria wartości estetycznych Lewisa stanowi przystosowanie podstawowych założeń estetyki Kanta do wymogów pragmatyzmu konceptualnego. Artykuł obejmuje: (1) ogólne wprowadzenie do aksjologii Lewisa, z podkreśleniem roli a priori pragmatycznego w myśli Lewisa, (2) charakterystykę i klasyfikację wartości, z zaakcentowaniem specyfiki wartości estetycznych w Lewisowskiej teorii wartości, (3) charakterystykę doświadczenia estetycznego – tu akcent pada na jego szczególnie prezentacjonistyczny charakter, (4) rozważenie kryteriów estetyczności wedle Lewisa, (5) zestawienie teorii wartości estetycznych Lewisa z estetyką Kanta.   

Dwarf novae in the Hamburg quasar survey : rarer than expected

Aims. We report the discovery of five new dwarf novae that were spectroscopically identified in the Hamburg Quasar Survey (HQS),and discuss the properties of the sample of new dwarf novae from the HQS. Methods. Follow-up time-resolved spectroscopy and photometry have been obtained to characterise the new systems. Results. The orbital periods determined from analyses of the radial velocity variations and/or orbital photometric variability are Porb 105.1min or Porb 109.9min for HS 0417+7445, Porb = 114.3 ± 2.7min for HS 1016+3412, Porb = 92.66 ± 0.17 min for HS 1340+1524, Porb = 272.317 ± 0.001 min for HS 1857+7127, and Porb = 258.02 ± 0.56 min for HS 2214+2845. HS 1857+7127 is found to be partially eclipsing. In HS 2214+2845 the secondary star of spectral type M3 ± 1 is clearly detected, and we estimate the distance to the system to be d = 390 ± 40 pc. We recorded one superoutburst of HS 0417+7445, identifying the system as a SUUMatype dwarf nova. HS 1016+3412 and HS 1340+1524 have rare outbursts, and their subtype is yet undetermined. HS 1857+7127 frequently varies in brightness and may be a ZCam-type dwarf nova. HS 2214+2845 is a UGem-type dwarf nova with a most likely cycle length of 71 d. Conclusions. To date, 14 new dwarf novae have been identified in the HQS. The ratio of short-period (3 h)systems of this sample is 1.3, much smaller compared to the ratio of 2.7 found for all known dwarf novae. The HQS dwarf novae display typically infrequent or low-amplitude outburst activity, underlining the strength of spectroscopic selection in identifying new CVs independently of their variability. The spectroscopic properties of short-period CVs in the HQS, newly identified and previously known, suggest that most, or possibly all of them are still evolving towards the minimum period. Their total number agrees with the predictions of population models within an order of magnitude. However, the bulk of all CVs is predicted to have evolved past the minimum period, and those systems remain unidentified. This suggests that those post-bounce systems have markedly weaker Hβ emission lines compared to the average known short-period CVs, and undergo no or extremely rare outbursts

Radial Velocity Studies of Close Binary Stars. IX

Radial-velocity measurements and sine-curve fits to the orbital velocity variations are presented for the eighth set of ten close binary systems: AB And, V402 Aur, V445 Cep, V2082 Cyg, BX Dra, V918 Her, V502 Oph, V1363 Ori, KP Peg, V335 Peg. Half of the systems (V445 Cep, V2082 Cyg, V918 Her, V1363 Ori, V335 Peg) were discovered photometrically by the Hipparcos mission and all systems are double-lined (SB2) contact binaries. The broadening function method permitted improvement of the orbital elements for AB And and V502 Oph. The other systems have been observed for radial velocity variations for the first time; in this group are five bright (V<7.5) binaries: V445 Cep, V2082 Cyg, V918 Her, KP Peg and V335 Peg. Several of the studied systems are prime candidates for combined light and radial-velocity synthesis solutions.Comment: 17+ pages, 2 tables, 4 figure

SDSS J161033.64-010223.3: A second Cataclysmic Variable with a Non-radially Pulsating Primary

We find from high speed photometry of the Sloan Digital Survey cataclysmic variable candidate SDSS J161033.64-010223.3 that it has a double humped modulation, which is probably orbital, with a period of 80.52 minutes, and shows strong ZZ Cet type pulsations. The largest amplitude oscillations have periods near 607, 345, 304 and 221 s. The amplitudes of some of the oscillations are seen to vary on time scales of hours, indicating modes with unresolved multiplets in which the splittings are ~1 d^-1. This is only the second dwarf nova found to have non-radial pulsations of its white dwarf primary.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures; Accepted for publication in MNRA