Wittgenstein and Maimonides on God and the Limits of Language

The purpose of this paper is to bring together two thinkers that are concerned with the limits of what can be said, Wittgenstein and Maimonides, and to explore the sense of the good life and of the mystical to which their therapeutic linguistic work gives rise. I argue that despite the similarities, two different senses of the "mystical" are brought to light and two different "forms of life" are explicated and recommended. The paper has three parts. In the first part, I discuss certain key components in Wittgenstein’s early philosophy and the sense of the mystical to which they give rise. In the second part, I discuss Maimonides’ negative theology and its implications for his conception of the ’via mystica’. I end, with a discussion of the relation between the two ideals and its significanc

Solitonic and Non-Solitonic Q-Stars

The properties of several types of Q-stars are studied and compared with their flat space analogues, i.e. Q-balls. The analysis is based on calculating the mass, global U(1) charge and binding energy for families of solutions parametrized by the central value of the scalar field. The two most frequently used Q-star models (differing by their potential term) are studied. Although there are general similarities between both Q-star types, there are important differences as well as new features with respect to the non-gravitating systems. We find non-solitonic solutions which do not have a flat space limit, in the weak (scalar) field region as well as in the opposite region of strong central scalar field for which there does not exist Q-ball solutions at all.Comment: To appear in the proceedings of 11th Marcel Grossmann Meeting, Berlin, July 200

Cylindrically-Symmetric Solutions in Conformal Gravity

Cylindrically-symmetric solutions in Conformal Gravity are investigated and several new solutions are presented and discussed. Among them, a family of vacuum solutions, generalizations of the Melvin solution and cosmic strings of the Abelian Higgs model. The Melvin-like solutions have finite energy per unit length, while the string-like solutions do not.Comment: 22 pages, revised version, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.