Transcendental Aspects, Ontological Commitments and Naturalistic Elements in Nietzsche's Thought

Nietzsche's views on knowledge have been interpreted in at least three incompatible ways - as transcendental, naturalistic or proto-deconstructionist. While the first two share a commitment to the possibility of objective truth, the third reading denies this by highlighting Nietzsche's claims about the necessarily falsifying character of human knowledge (his so-called error theory). This paper examines the ways in which his work can be construed as seeking ways of overcoming the strict opposition between naturalism and transcendental philosophy whilst fully taking into account the error theory (interpreted non-literally, as a hyperbolic warning against uncritical forms of realism). In doing so, it clarifies the nature of Nietzsche's ontological commitments, both in the early and the later work, and shows that his relation to transcendental idealism is more subtle than is allowed by naturalistic interpreters while conversely accounting for the impossibility of conceiving the conditions of the possibility of knowledge as genuinely a priori

The Analytic of Finitude and the History of Subjectivity

In one of his last texts, Foucault defined his philosophical enterprise as an ?analysis of the conditions in which certain relations between subject and object are formed or modified, insofar as they are constitutive of a possible knowledge,? or again as ?the manner in which the emergence of games of truth constituted, for a particular time and place and certain individuals, the historical a priori of a possible experience.? Despite its eclipse during the genealogical period, the notion of the historical a priori is thus reaffirmed as central by later Foucault. There is, however, an essential modification with respect to its archaeological problematisation: In The Order of Things, the various historical a priori were characterized by specific relations between being and language, relations in which the subject of knowledge did not always or necessarily have a place. The Renaissance episteme was defined by the homogeneity of words and things, and its Classical counterpart by the transparent distance between being and representation, which excluded any positioning for the subject (the missing ?place of the king?). Within the archaeological configuration, only the contemporary historical a priori was characterized by the invention of a new position for the subject of knowledge, that of Man, which according to Foucault generated the Analytic of Finitude and ultimately resulted in the ?anthropological sleep? criticised at the end of The Order of Things. So although later Foucault refocuses his work around the notion of the historical a priori, he gives the notion a considerable twist whereby the conditions of truth saying are no longer referred back to an implicit connection between being and language, but to the various relations historically established between ?modes of subjectivation? and ?modes of objectification.

Is early Foucault a historian? History, history and the analytic of finitude

This paper is an exploration of the theme of history in The Order of Things, with a view to clarifying the relation between history and philosophy in Foucault?s early work. I argue that Foucault introduces, beyond the Hegelian distinction between res gestae (past deeds) and historia rerum gestarum(the history of past deeds), a third meaning for the notion: History (capitalized) as our current historical a priori or �pist�m�, succeeding Order in the Classical age. I show that methodologically speaking, this commits early Foucault to a revised form of transcendental idealism. I then examine the complex relation between History and Man, established by chapters VII and IX as the ground of our current �pist�m�. This involves an analysis of the theme of the origin in chapter IX, which in turn allows the core of this relation to be formally identified as the possibility of shifting from the empirical to the transcendental in order to distinguish between two forms of temporality, primordial and derived. I then argue that because Foucault still belongs to the very �pist�m� he is trying to describe, the content of this distinction is and must remain obscure. However, I also show that his liminary position allows him a unique insight into the problems generated by the grounding of History in Man, and examine the impact of his criticism of anthropology on his characterization of History. Finally, I draw out the consequences of these analyses for Foucault?s methodology by arguing that the latter is best characterized as a form of ?transcendental history?, meant to de-anthropomorphize the analytic of finitude while retaining its demand for a shift from the post hoc to the a priori (in a revised sense)

Isolation of Flow and Nonflow Correlations by Two- and Four-Particle Cumulant Measurements of Azimuthal Harmonics in sNN=\sqrt{s_{_{\rm NN}}} = 200 GeV Au+Au Collisions

A data-driven method was applied to measurements of Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{\rm NN}}} =$ 200 GeV made with the STAR detector at RHIC to isolate pseudorapidity distance $\Delta\eta$-dependent and $\Delta\eta$-independent correlations by using two- and four-particle azimuthal cumulant measurements. We identified a component of the correlation that is $\Delta\eta$-independent, which is likely dominated by anisotropic flow and flow fluctuations. It was also found to be independent of $\eta$ within the measured range of pseudorapidity $|\eta|<1$. The relative flow fluctuation was found to be $34\% \pm 2\% (stat.) \pm 3\% (sys.)$ for particles of transverse momentum $p_{T}$ less than $2$ GeV/$c$. The $\Delta\eta$-dependent part may be attributed to nonflow correlations, and is found to be $5\% \pm 2\% (sys.)$ relative to the flow of the measured second harmonic cumulant at $|\Delta\eta| > 0.7$

Charged-to-neutral correlation at forward rapidity in Au+Au collisions at sNN\sqrt{s_{NN}}=200 GeV

Event-by-event fluctuations of the ratio of inclusive charged to photon multiplicities at forward rapidity in Au+Au collision at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$=200 GeV have been studied. Dominant contribution to such fluctuations is expected to come from correlated production of charged and neutral pions. We search for evidences of dynamical fluctuations of different physical origins. Observables constructed out of moments of multiplicities are used as measures of fluctuations. Mixed events and model calculations are used as baselines. Results are compared to the dynamical net-charge fluctuations measured in the same acceptance. A non-zero statistically significant signal of dynamical fluctuations is observed in excess to the model prediction when charged particles and photons are measured in the same acceptance. We find that, unlike dynamical net-charge fluctuation, charge-neutral fluctuation is not dominated by correlation due to particle decay. Results are compared to the expectations based on the generic production mechanism of pions due to isospin symmetry, for which no significant (<1%) deviation is observed.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figure

An Experimental Exploration of the QCD Phase Diagram: The Search for the Critical Point and the Onset of De-confinement

The QCD phase diagram lies at the heart of what the RHIC Physics Program is all about. While RHIC has been operating very successfully at or close to its maximum energy for almost a decade, it has become clear that this collider can also be operated at lower energies down to 5 GeV without extensive upgrades. An exploration of the full region of beam energies available at the RHIC facility is imperative. The STAR detector, due to its large uniform acceptance and excellent particle identification capabilities, is uniquely positioned to carry out this program in depth and detail. The first exploratory beam energy scan (BES) run at RHIC took place in 2010 (Run 10), since several STAR upgrades, most importantly a full barrel Time of Flight detector, are now completed which add new capabilities important for the interesting physics at BES energies. In this document we discuss current proposed measurements, with estimations of the accuracy of the measurements given an assumed event count at each beam energy.Comment: 59 pages, 78 figure

Measurements of D0D^{0} and D∗D^{*} Production in pp + pp Collisions at s\sqrt{s} = 200 GeV

We report measurements of charmed-hadron ($D^{0}$, $D^{*}$) production cross sections at mid-rapidity in $p$ + $p$ collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 200 GeV by the STAR experiment. Charmed hadrons were reconstructed via the hadronic decays $D^{0}\rightarrow K^{-}\pi^{+}$, $D^{*+}\rightarrow D^{0}\pi^{+}\rightarrow K^{-}\pi^{+}\pi^{+}$ and their charge conjugates, covering the $p_T$ range of 0.6$-$2.0 GeV/$c$ and 2.0$-$6.0 GeV/$c$ for $D^{0}$ and $D^{*+}$, respectively. From this analysis, the charm-pair production cross section at mid-rapidity is $d\sigma/dy|_{y=0}^{c\bar{c}}$ = 170 $\pm$ 45 (stat.) $^{+38}_{-59}$ (sys.) $\mu$b. The extracted charm-pair cross section is compared to perturbative QCD calculations. The transverse momentum differential cross section is found to be consistent with the upper bound of a Fixed-Order Next-to-Leading Logarithm calculation.Comment: 15 pages, 16 figures. Revised version submitted to Phys. Rev.