God's Nature and Attributes

In Western theism, different attributes have classically been ascribed to God, such as omnipotence, omniscience, wisdom, goodness, freedom and so on. But these ascriptions have also raised many conceptual difficulties: are these attributes internally coherent? Are they really compossible? Are they compatible with what we know about the world (e.g. the existence of evil, human freedom, the laws of nature etc.). These traditional questions are part of the inquiry on God’s nature as it is carried out in contemporary philosophy of religion. Another part of this inquiry is constituted by theological and philosophical questions raised by more precise or particular religious conceptions of God – e.g. the doctrine of Trinity in Christianity, or other specific credentials about the right way to understand God’s perfection and absolute transcendence in Judaism, Christianity or Islam. In this issue, we propose to follow these two directions of the inquiry about God’s nature and attributes through historical and systematic studies, in the perspective of contemporary philosophy of religion and analytical theology. While the three papers specifically dedicated to the problem of the Trinity pertain mainly to the second part of the examination (the conceptual analysis of specific credentials and theological doctrines), the three others offer new perspectives and arguments on traditional questions about God, like the problem of evil, perfect goodness, or the problem of divine perfection and God’s freedom

Policy Debates on Public Finance between the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Japan from 1930 to 1936

To appropriate additional sources of fiscal revenue, the Bank of Japan (BOJ) started direct underwriting of new deficit-financing government bond, (GBs) (BOJ underwriting) on November 25, 1932. This paper examines the BOJ's underwriting policymaking process through the use of newly available archived documents from the BOJ and the Ministry of Finance (MOF). Evidence from these documents contradicts conventional arguments that the BOJ was forced to underwrite GBs due to Finance Minister Korekiyo Takahashi's firm request and that it regarded the policy measure as temporary. Instead, the BOJ was confident it could exert monetary control through the market operation of selling underwritten GBs (selling operations). In addition, the BOJ willingly accepted the underwriting, expecting it to reinforce its influence over financial institutions. BOJ policymakers partly forecasted the course of events. First, the BOJ started underwriting during the Takahashi economic policy period (1931-36). Once it started, it was difficult for the BOJ to stop underwriting bonds. The BOJ was forced to continue underwriting deficit-financing bonds because of expanding financial demand. Second the MOF used very complex and irregular budgeting methods beginning with the budget process of fiscal 1936. This created a large deferred fiscal burden that concealed the realities of fiscal deficits.

Optimal cloning of single photon polarization by coherent feedback of beam splitter losses

Light fields can be amplified by measuring the field amplitude reflected at a beam splitter of reflectivity R and adding a coherent amplitude proportional to the measurement result to the transmitted field. By applying the quantum optical realization of this amplification scheme to single photon inputs, it is possible to clone the polarization states of photons. We show that optimal cloning of single photon polarization is possible when the gain factor of the amplification is equal to the inverse squareroot of 1-R.Comment: 10 pages, including 1 figure, extended from letter to full paper, to be published in New Journal of Physic

Liquid water content and droplet size calibration of the NASA Lewis Icing Research Tunnel

The icing research tunnel at the NASA Lewis Research Center underwent a major rehabilitation in 1986 to 1987, necessitating recalibration of the icing cloud. The methods used in the recalibration, including the procedure used to establish a uniform icing cloud and the use of a standard icing blade technique for measurement of liquid water content are described. PMS Forward Scattering Spectrometer and Optical Array probes were used for measurement of droplet size. Examples of droplet size distributions are shown for several median volumetric diameters. Finally, the liquid water content/droplet size operating envelopes of the icing tunnel are shown for a range of airspeeds and are compared to the FAA icing certification criteria