145 research outputs found
Thought and Political Judgment
Hannah Arendtâs claim that thinking is the last defense against the moral outrages of criminal political regimes sets the problematic of good and evil in relief. Human freedom, Paul RicĆur reminds us, is responsible for evil. The avowal of the evil of violence is thus the condition of our consciousness of the freedom to act anew.Aesthetic experienceâs lateral transposition onto the planes of ethics and politics highlights our capacity to respond to exigencies in apposite ways. Exemplary representations of the good, the right, and the justexpress a desire for being. Eros is accordingly the law of every work, word, deed, or act that answers to a difficulty, challenge, or crisis. Bound to living experiences, thought attains its true height through interrogating, demystifying, and vacating frozen norms, standards, and mores. Judgment actualizes thoughtâs liberating effects in answer to the demands of the situations in which we find ourselves.Lâaffirmation dâHannah Arendt selon laquelle la pensĂ©e est la derniĂšre dĂ©fense contre les outrages moraux des rĂ©gimes politiques criminels met en relief la problĂ©matique du bien et du mal. La libertĂ© humaine, nous rappelle Paul RicĆur, est responsable du mal. Lâaveu du mal causĂ© par la violence est donc la condition de la prise de conscience de notre libertĂ© dâagir Ă nouveau.La transposition latĂ©rale de lâexpĂ©rience esthĂ©tique sur les plans de lâĂ©thique et de la politique met en Ă©vidence notre capacitĂ© Ă rĂ©pondre aux exigences de maniĂšre appropriĂ©e. Les reprĂ©sentations exemplaires du bien, du droit et du juste expriment un dĂ©sir dâĂȘtre. Eros est donc la loi de toute Ćuvre, parole, action ou acte qui rĂ©pond Ă une difficultĂ©, un dĂ©fi ou une crise. LiĂ©e aux expĂ©riences vĂ©cues, la pensĂ©e atteint sa vĂ©ritable hauteur en interrogeant, dĂ©mystifiant et rejetant les normes, les standards et les mĆurs figĂ©s. Le jugement actualise les effets libĂ©rateurs de la pensĂ©e en rĂ©ponse aux exigences des situations dans lesquelles nous nous trouvons
Exemplarity and the âLaw of Superabundanceâ
Paul Ricoeurâs critique of social emancipatory projects that claim to be absolutely radical sets the stage for my investigation into the exemplary value of esteemed moral and political acts. Like works of art, such acts reform or revolutionize praxis through refashioning the world from within. By placing textual hermeneutics under the theme of the increase in being evinced by the work of art, Ricoeurâs analysis on the way that metaphor as a work in miniature iconically augments reality forges a link between the imaginationâs productive power and the âlaw of superabundance.â This law inheres in the logic of hope. The hope of the ânot yetâ and the âmuch moreâ thus draws support from exemplary acts that bear the mark of the future through testifying to the reign of goodness, generosity, courage and love. However, Ricoeurâs claim that an eschatology of nonviolence constitutes the critique of ideologyâs ultimate philosophical horizon raises a question concerning this eschatologyâs theological equivalent. Ricoeur maintains that the projection of the task of actualizing freedom is the philosophical equivalent of a theology of hope. This theology draws its meaning from the âhope of things to comeâ based on the eschatological event. Correlatively, this taskâs ethico-political impulse takes root in hopeâs practical and existential necessity, which inheres in the structure of action. The hope of as yet unfulfilled expectations and demands ignites the passion for the possible and fuels the will and the desire to intervene in the worldâs course. In contrast to the contagion of violence and evil, moral and political actsâ exemplary value stands as a demonstration and proof of hope. The theme of the increase in being that rules over textual hermeneutics consequently has a practical counterpart in the task that an eschatology of nonviolence adopts as its own, namely, the task of actualizing freedom within the historical reality of humankind
Space of Experience, Horizon of Expectation. Spatiotemporal Metaphors, Philosophical Anthropology, and the Flesh
Paul RicĆurâs recourse to the metahistorical categories, space of experience and horizon of expectation, invites an inquiry into geographyâs role as the guarantor of history. The ontology of the flesh provides the first indication of how oneâs body is implicated in the sense of oneâs place in the world. In turn, narrative inscriptions of events on the landscape transform the physical topography of a place into an array of sites where memories of ancestral wisdom and historical traumas endure. By anchoring historiansâ representations of the past in the places and locales in which events took place, geography constructs a third space analogous to the third time of history. The aporias engendered by the phenomenology of time, however, have no equivalent in the phenomenology of space. The dissymmetry between the dialectic that informs the discourse of space and the one that informs the discourse of time thus keeps in place the  reciprocal relation between geography and historiography.Le recours de Paul RicĆur aux catĂ©gories mĂ©tahistoriques dâespace dâexpĂ©rience et dâhorizon dâattente invite Ă sâinterroger sur le rĂŽle de la gĂ©ographie en tant que garante de lâhistoire. Lâontologie de la chair fournit la premiĂšre indication concernant la maniĂšre dont le corps de lâindividu est impliquĂ© Ă travers la place quâil occupe dans le monde. Ă leur tour, les inscriptions narratives des Ă©vĂ©nements dans le paysage transforment la topographie physique dâun lieu en un ensemble de sites oĂč perdurent les souvenirs de la sagesse ancestrale et les traumatismes historiques. En ancrant les reprĂ©sentations du passĂ© des historiens dans les lieux et localitĂ©s oĂč les Ă©vĂ©nements prennent place, la gĂ©ographie construit un troisiĂšme espace analogue au troisiĂšme temps de lâhistoire. Les apories engendrĂ©es par la phĂ©nomĂ©nologie du temps nâont cependant pas dâĂ©quivalent dans la phĂ©nomĂ©nologie de lâespace. La dissymĂ©trie entre la dialectique que sous-tend le discours de lâespace et celle qui est sous-tendue par le discours du temps maintient ainsi en place la relation rĂ©ciproque entre gĂ©ographie et historiographie
Aesthetic Experience, Mimesis and Testimony
In this article, I relate the demand that Paul Ricoeur suggests mimesis places on the way we think about truth to the idea that the work of art is a model for thinking about testimony. By attributing a workâs epochĂ© of reality to the work of imagination, I resolve the impasse that arises from attributing music, literature, and artâs distance from the real to their social emancipation. Examining the conjunction, in aesthetic experience, of the communicability and the exemplarity of a work reveals how Ricoeurâs definition of mimesis as refiguration relates to the âruleâ that the work summons. This âruleâ constitutes the solution to a problem or question for which the work is the answer. In conclusion, as a model for thinking about testimony, the claims that works make have a counterpart in the injunctions that issue from exemplary moral and political acts. Dans cet article, jâĂ©tablis un lien entre lâexigence que, selon Paul RicĆur,la mimĂšsis place dans notre façon de penser la vĂ©ritĂ©, et lâidĂ©e que lâĆuvre dâart est un modĂšle pour penser le tĂ©moignage. Appliquant lâĂ©pochĂ© de la rĂ©alitĂ©Â Ă lâoeuvre dâimagination, jâĂ©vite lâimpasse qui se dresse lorsquâon attribue la musique, la littĂ©rature et la distance artistique du rĂ©el Ă leur Ă©mancipation sociale. LâĂ©tude de la conjonction du caractĂšre communicable et exemplaire dâune Ćuvre â dans lâexpĂ©rience esthĂ©tique - met en lumiĂšre la relation que la dĂ©finition par RicĆur de la mimĂ©sis comme refiguration établit avec la ârĂšgleâ que lâĆuvre convoque. Cette rĂšgle est la solution au problĂšme auquel lâoeuvre apporte une rĂ©ponse. Finalement, un modĂšle pour penser le tĂ©moignage peut ĂȘtre trouvĂ© dans des oeuvres qui trouvent leur contrepartie dans les injonctions produites par les actions morales et politiques exemplaires.
Search for Fractional Charges in Water
Results are presented from a search for fractional charges in water from a variety of natural sources. About 30 000 water drops have been measured, comprising 51 ÎŒg of water and dissolved materials. No evidence for fractional charge was seen
Search for Fractional Charges Produced in Heavy-Ion Collisions at 1.9 GeV/nucleon
An experiment was performed to capture fractionally charged particles produced in heavy-ion collisions and to concentrate them in samples suitable for analysis by various techniques. Two of the samples so produced have been searched, with use of an automated version of Millikan\u27s oil-drop apparatus. The beam was 56Fe at 1.9 GeV/nucleon, incident on a lead target. Less than one fractional charge per 1.0Ă 104 Fe-Pb collisions was found to be produced, and, with further assumptions, less than one per 2.0Ă 106 collisions
Comment on Spracklandus Hoser, 2009 (Reptilia, Serpentes, ELAPIDAE): request for confirmation of the availability of the generic name and for the nomenclatural validation of the journal in which it was published (Case 3601; see BZN 70: 234â237; 71: 30â38, 133â135, 181â182, 252â253)
Allaeochelys libyca, a new carettochelyine turtle from the middle miocene (Langhian) of Libya
Fossil carettochelyine turtles are well known from the Paleogene of Europe (Allaeochelys), North America and Asia (Anosteira); however, the previously known Neogene fossil record is highly fragmentary and was therefore unsuitable for taxonomic analysis. In this work, we present a new carettochelyine taxon, Allaeochelys libyca, from the Middle Miocene (Langhian) of Gebel Zelten (Libya) based on an incomplete skull and disarticulated postcranial elements. The new taxon is diagnosed relative to the extant Carettochelys insculpta based on the placement of the foramen posterius canalis carotici interni close to the fenestra postotica, the horizontal orientation of the tubercula basioccipitalis, the substantial contribution of the opisthotic to the base of the tubercula basioccipitalis, the presence of a triangular pterygoid fossa, the arrangement of the mandibular condyles along a plane and the presence of an extremely well-developed fossa at the base of the processus mandibularis. A phylogenetic analysis of pancarettochelyids confirms the monophyly of Carettochelyidae and Carettochelyinae but resulted in a paraphyletic taxon, Allaeochelys. For the sake of nomenclatural stability, we provisionally retain the genus Allaeochelys as paraphyletic relative to the extant Carettochelys insculpta
Keck Planet Finder: design updates
The Keck Planet Finder (KPF) is a fiber-fed, high-resolution, high-stability spectrometer in development at the UC Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory for the W.M. Keck Observatory. KPF is designed to characterize exoplanets via Doppler spectroscopy with a goal of a single measurement precision of 0.3 m s-1 or better, however its resolution and stability will enable a wide variety of astrophysical pursuits. Here we provide post-preliminary design review design updates for several subsystems, including: the main spectrometer, the fabrication of the Zerodur optical bench; the data reduction pipeline; fiber agitator; fiber cable design; fiber scrambler; VPH testing results and the exposure meter
Keck Planet Finder: design updates
The Keck Planet Finder (KPF) is a fiber-fed, high-resolution, high-stability spectrometer in development at the UC Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory for the W.M. Keck Observatory. KPF is designed to characterize exoplanets via Doppler spectroscopy with a goal of a single measurement precision of 0.3 m s-1 or better, however its resolution and stability will enable a wide variety of astrophysical pursuits. Here we provide post-preliminary design review design updates for several subsystems, including: the main spectrometer, the fabrication of the Zerodur optical bench; the data reduction pipeline; fiber agitator; fiber cable design; fiber scrambler; VPH testing results and the exposure meter
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