Weinhold'length in an isochoric thermodynamic system at constant heat capacity

The purpose of this paper is to study thermodynamic length of an isochoric two dimensional thermodynamic system with constant heat capacity. We find that length is related to the heat flow into the substance. We give examples of Ideal gas and Van der Waals gas

Light Out of Plenitude: Towards an Epistemology of Mystical Inclusivism

In this paper I argue that from the point of view of a theist, inclusivism with respect to the issue whether adherents of different religious traditions can have veridical experience of God (or Ultimate Reality) now, is more plausible than the Alstonian exclusivism. I suggest that mystical inclusivism of the kind I imply in this paper may contribute to the development of cross-cultural philosophy of religion, as well as to the theoretical framework for inter-religious dialogue, because (1) it allows for the possibility of veridical experience of God in a variety of religious traditions, but (2) it avoids the radical revisionist postulates of Hickian pluralism and (3) it leaves open the question whether the creed of any specific tradition is a better approximation to the truth about God than the creeds of other traditions. (edited

Atheism and Agatheism in the Global Ethical Discourse: Reply to Millican and Thornhill-Miller

Peter Millican and Branden Thornhill-Miller have recently argued that contradictions between different religious belief systems, in conjunction with the host of defeaters based on empirical research concerning alleged sources of evidence for ‘perceived supernatural agency’, render all ‘first-order’, that is actual, religious traditions positively irrational, and a source of discord on a global scale. However, since the authors recognise that the ‘secularisation thesis’ appears to be incorrect, and that empirical research provides evidence that religious belief also has beneficial individual and social effects, they put forward a hypothesis of a ‘second-order religious belief ’, with Universalist overtones and thus free of intergroup conflict, and free of irrationality, since supported (solely) by the Fine-Tuning Argument. While granting most of their arguments based on empirical research and embracing the new paradigm of the atheism/religion debate implicit in their paper, I contend that Millican’s and Thornhill-Miller’s proposal is unlikely to appeal to religious believers, because it misconstrues the nature and grounds of religious belief. I suggest that their hypothesis may be refined by taking into account a view of axiologically grounded religious belief that I refer to as ‘agatheism’, since it identifies God or the Ultimate Reality with the ultimate good (to agathon)

Complex structures on nilpotent Lie algebras

We classify real 6-dimensional nilpotent Lie algebras for which the corresponding Lie group has a left-invariant complex structure, and estimate the dimensions of moduli spaces of such structures.Comment: Improved section 4, 20 pages, to appear in J Pure Appl Algebr

The twistor transform of a Verlinde formula

The topology of the smooth moduli space of stable rank 2 bundles over a Riemann surface of genus 3 is related to that of the real Grassmannian Gr_4(R^8).Comment: AMSLaTeX, 14 page

Cohomology of Kaehler manifolds with c_1=0

A linear constraint is given on the Betti numbers of a compact hyper-Kaehler manifold, using an index formula for c_1c_{n-1} on an almost complex manifold. The topology of some other manifolds with reduced holonomy is also discussed briefly

The New Governance and the Tools of Public Action: An Introduction

A fundamental re-thinking is currently underway throughout the world about how to cope with public problems. Stimulated by popular frustrations with the cost and effectiveness of government programs and by a new-found faith in liberal economic theories, serious questions are being raised about the capabilities, and even the motivations, of public-sector institutions. This type of questioning has spread beyond American political discourse to other parts of the world. Underlying much of this reform surge is a set of theories that portrays government agencies as tightly structured hierarchies insulated from market forces and from effective citizen pressure and therefore free to serve the personal and institutional interests of bureaucrats instead. The heart of this revolution has been a fundamental transformation not just in the scope and scale of government action, but in its basic forms. Instead of relying exclusively on government to solve public problems, a host of other actors is being mobilized as well, sometimes are their own initiative but often in complex partnerships with the state

The Poverty of Growth with Interdependent Utility Functions

We argue that with interdependent utility functions growth can lead to a decline in total welfare of a society if the gains from growth are sufficiently unequally distributed in the presence of negative externalities, i.e., envy