Palaeo-Philosophy: Archaic Ideas about Space and Time

This paper argues that efforts to understand historically remote patterns of thought are driven away from their original meaning if the investigation focuses on reconstruction of concepts, instead of cognitive complexes. My paper draws on research by Jan Assmann, Jean-Jacques Glassner, Keimpe Algra, Alex Purves, Nicholas Wyatt, and others on the cultures of Ancient Greece, Israel, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Etruria through comparative analyses of the semantic fields of spatial and temporal terms, and how these terms are shaped by their relation to the sphere of the sacred. It shows that there are three super-ordinate timeframes - the cyclical, the linear and the static - each of which is composed of lower-order cycles (days, lunar months, and seasons). These timeframes reflect their cultures ideas about the nature, scope and power of the gods, and structure the common point-of-view about the present, the past and eternity. There are also super-ordinate spatial frames which reflect their cultures ideas about the heavens and which structure both the sacred precinct and the profane field of action and exchange. Close analysis of texts that use words such as eternity, forever, past, present, and future, for example, do not reveal that there is anything like a general abstract concept of time in virtue of which some thing or event can be said to be in time or to have its own time. Archaic patterns of thought do not differ from our modern patterns in having different concepts, but in not having anything like concepts at all

Husserl’s Preemptive Responses to Existentialist Critiques

Existentialist thinkers often publicly acknowledged Husserl’s phenomenology as one of their main points of departure for treatment of such themes as intentionality, comportment, transcendence, and the lifeworld. Several central elements of Husserl’s approach were adopted by the Existentialists, but equal to their gratitude were vigorous declamations of Husserl’s mistakes, dead-ends and failures. Many of the Existentialists’ criticisms of Husserl’s project are well-known and have been rehearsed in various surveys of 20th century thought, but less well-remarked are the discrepancies between their complaints about Husserl’s aborted achievements and what Husserl actually delivered. This paper attempts to uncover the accuracy of some of their assessments of Husserl’s alleged failures and mistakes, whether or not Husserl actually held the position they claim he did, and especially whether or not Husserl was himself aware of some deficiency in his thematic analysis, and thus would have been able to offer a cogent response to critique. In doing so, a good case can be made that Heidegger, for example, quietly adopted some of Husserl’s main insights without credit, slanted his picture of Husserl’s work so that his own reversals had better purchase, or overlooked evidence that Husserl had already moved beyond that position. At least on some key topics, Husserl emerges as an exceptionally self-critical philosopher who had already gained the perspective more usually associated with an Existentialist orientation.Indo-Pacific Journal of Phenomenology, Volume 1, Edition 1 April 200

Palaeo-philosophy: Complex and Concept in Archaic Patterns of Thought

This paper argues that efforts to understand historically remote patterns of thought are driven away from their original meaning if the investigation focuses on reconstruction of concepts. It is simply not appropriate to be looking for an archaic concept of soul, name or dream, for example, when considering the earliest documents which attest to their writers' (and others') beliefs about certain types of phenomena. Instead, we propose to employ the notion of cognitive complex (as elaborated in the work of Piaget, Vygotsky, and Hallpike) in order to investigate some important philosophical themes in Ancient Egyptian, Ancient Iranian, and Ancient Near Eastern documents. Our principal theoretical claim is that archaic thought does not work with concepts but with complexes whose salient features are an over-abundance of properties, an over-production of connections, and weakness in abstraction. The basic level of complex formation may be the most inclusive level at which it is possible to form a mental image. Specific studies are focused on ancient texts which exhibit archaic patterns of thought. In Egyptian texts, "manifestation” (kheperu) seems to convey something which all categories of beings are capable of becoming, being and having, assuming and leaving; the "name” (ren) was considered to be an essential component of the individual's survival; symbolic representations, such as images and words, are causally connected to the ‘objects' the image or word signifies. In ANE records the human etemmu was plainly the corpse or skeleton of the dead person; on the other hand it was also the shadowy, volatile image of what he was during life. In ANE records the baffling idea of the divine me referred to an entire cultural area, an acquisition of civilized life; but at the same time it is also the result of an invention, a divine decision. The complexes involved in these archaic ideas about soul, name and dream are ideas fused with their ‘objects'; they have unstable traits and prototypical instances; and are thought at the most abstract level which have concrete images

Descartes, Husserl and radical conversion

Phenomenology has been one of the most influential and far-reaching developments in 20th Century Philosophy and has had a great impact on the disciplines of philosophy of logic and math, theory of knowledge, and theory of meaning. The most profound influence on Edmund Husserl (1859 - 1938), the founder of phenomenology, was Rene Descartes (1596 - 1650), whose radical rethinking of philosophy’s overall project provided Husserl with both the historical and conceptual point of departure for his foundation of prima philosophia. Despite this explicit and well-known influence, there is no book- length study of their thematic parallels; numerous Journal articles focus almost entirely on the phenomenological reduction and, aside from this, are fairly unsatisfactory. The purpose of the present work is to elucidate systematic convergences (and divergences) between Descartes and Husserl throughout their respective philosophical developments. This comprises explication of several central topics: 1. The parallel between 17th C. skepticism, which Descartes attempted to overthrow, and 19th C. psychologism and relativism, which Husserl reacted against. 2. The striking similarity at the level of formal ontology between Descartes' simple and complex natures and Husserl's part-whole theory. 3. A clarification of the Cartesian sense of methodical doubt and how Husserl's mistaking of this shaped the initial formulation of the reduction. 4. Convergence in the maturation of the primitive notion of intuition as "clear and distinct seeing" and "seeing of essences" for both thinkers. 5. An analysis of the modes of methodical doubt, in terms of steps in the cognitive act of doubting, and not merely in the content of that which is doubted. 6. Far-reaching divergences in that Descartes was motivated to establish with scientific certainly an entirely new world of being, whereas Husserl was concerned to disclose an entirely new sense of the world. As such, thematic convergences between Descartes and Husserl are not due to accidental intersections of interest, nor are they curiosities of the comparative method in historical research. These parallels are intrinsic and systematic due to an overarching congruence in their visions of the starting point, methodological procedures, and reaction to pseudo-scientific matters-of-fact in the founding of a genuine philosophical project

Markers of cognitive function in individuals with metabolic disease: Morquio Syndrome and Tyrosinemia Type III

We characterized cognitive function in two metabolic diseases. MPS–IVa (mucopolysaccharidosis IVa, Morquio) and tyrosinemia type III individuals were assessed using tasks of attention, language and oculomotor function. MPS–IVa individuals were slower in visual search, but the display size effects were normal, and slowing was not due to long reaction times (ruling out slow item processing or distraction). Maintaining gaze in an oculomotor task was difficult. Results implicated sustained attention and task initiation or response processing. Shifting attention, accumulating evidence and selecting targets were unaffected. Visual search was also slowed in tyrosinemia type III, and patterns in visual search and fixation tasks pointed to sustained attention impairments, although there were differences from MPS–IVa. Language was impaired in tyrosinemia type III but not MPS–IVa. Metabolic diseases produced selective cognitive effects. Our results, incorporating new methods for developmental data and model selection, illustrate how cognitive data can contribute to understanding function in biochemical brain systems

Eigenvalue Separation in Some Random Matrix Models

The eigenvalue density for members of the Gaussian orthogonal and unitary ensembles follows the Wigner semi-circle law. If the Gaussian entries are all shifted by a constant amount c/Sqrt(2N), where N is the size of the matrix, in the large N limit a single eigenvalue will separate from the support of the Wigner semi-circle provided c > 1. In this study, using an asymptotic analysis of the secular equation for the eigenvalue condition, we compare this effect to analogous effects occurring in general variance Wishart matrices and matrices from the shifted mean chiral ensemble. We undertake an analogous comparative study of eigenvalue separation properties when the size of the matrices are fixed and c goes to infinity, and higher rank analogues of this setting. This is done using exact expressions for eigenvalue probability densities in terms of generalized hypergeometric functions, and using the interpretation of the latter as a Green function in the Dyson Brownian motion model. For the shifted mean Gaussian unitary ensemble and its analogues an alternative approach is to use exact expressions for the correlation functions in terms of classical orthogonal polynomials and associated multiple generalizations. By using these exact expressions to compute and plot the eigenvalue density, illustrations of the various eigenvalue separation effects are obtained.Comment: 25 pages, 9 figures include

Total Hip Arthroplasty When Utilised in Young Adults Is a Cost-Effective Procedure:A 10-Year and Lifetime Cost-Utility Analysis

Purpose The primary aim of this study was to determine the cost-effectiveness of total hip arthroplasty (THA) in patients aged 25 years and under by calculating the cost per quality-adjusted life year (QALY) gained at 10 years post-operatively, and over the course of a lifetime. Secondary aims were to describe the change in health-related quality of life (HRQoL), Oxford hip score (OHS), and satisfaction in these patients. Methods From 2000 to 2016, 33 patients undergoing THA aged 25 and under had pre-operative and one-year post-operative EuroQol five-dimensions (EQ-5D) scores and OHS recorded prospectively. Post-operative change in EQ-5D allowed calculation of a health-utility score, which, when combined with life expectancy, gave total QALYs gained. Results The mean age was 20 years (range 13.3-24.9), with 23 females (72.7%). Mean number of QALYs gained was 21.1 (95% CI 14.1-28.2). Total lifetime cost per patient was £14641, giving a mean cost per QALY of £4183 at 10 years post-operatively, and £694 over the total remaining lifetime. Discounting total QALYs gained at a rate of 3.5% and 5% per remaining year of life expectancy increased the mean cost per QALY to £1652 and £2187, respectively. Mean pre- and post-operative EQ-5D index were 0.27 (SD 0.27) and 0.63 (SD 0.29), respectively (p=0.0001). Mean pre-operative and post-operative OHS was 37.5 (SD 7.9) and 19.7 (SD 6.94), respectively (p<0.00001). Conclusion THA remains a cost-effective intervention for patients aged 25 years and under. It is also associated with significant improvement in HRQoL, OHS, and high levels of patient satisfaction in this unique patient group

Understanding decision making in a food-caching predator using hidden Markov models

Financial support was provided by the People’s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES), Zoologische Gesellschaft für Arten- und Populationsschutz (ZGAP), Quagga Conservation Fund and IdeaWild.Background Tackling behavioural questions often requires identifying points in space and time where animals make decisions and linking these to environmental variables. State-space modeling is useful for analysing movement trajectories, particularly with hidden Markov models (HMM). Yet importantly, the ontogeny of underlying (unobservable) behavioural states revealed by the HMMs has rarely been verified in the field. Methods Using hidden Markov models of individual movement from animal location, biotelemetry, and environmental data, we explored multistate behaviour and the effect of associated intrinsic and extrinsic drivers across life stages. We also decomposed the activity budgets of different movement states at two general and caching phases. The latter - defined as the period following a kill which likely involves the caching of uneaten prey - was subsequently confirmed by field inspections. We applied this method to GPS relocation data of a caching predator, Persian leopard Panthera pardus saxicolor in northeastern Iran. Results Multistate modeling provided strong evidence for an effect of life stage on the behavioural states and their associated time budget. Although environmental covariates (ambient temperature and diel period) and ecological outcomes (predation) affected behavioural states in non-resident leopards, the response in resident leopards was not clear, except that temporal patterns were consistent with a crepuscular and nocturnal movement pattern. Resident leopards adopt an energetically more costly mobile behaviour for most of their time while non-residents shift their behavioural states from high energetic expenditure states to energetically less costly encamped behaviour for most of their time, which is likely to be a risk avoidance strategy against conspecifics or humans. Conclusions This study demonstrates that plasticity in predator behaviour depending on life stage may tackle a trade-off between successful predation and avoiding the risks associated with conspecifics, human presence and maintaining home range. Range residency in territorial predators is energetically demanding and can outweigh the predator’s response to intrinsic and extrinsic variables such as thermoregulation or foraging needs. Our approach provides an insight into spatial behavior and decision making of leopards, and other large felids in rugged landscapes through the application of the HMMs in movement ecology.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Silicon isotopes in an Archaean migmatite confirm seawater silicification of TTG sources

Funding: This work was made possible by PhD funding to MM by the University of St Andrews School of Earth and Environmental Sciences and the Handsel scheme, in addition to NERC grant NE/R002134/1 to PS.Unraveling ancient melting processes is key to understanding how the earliest, tonalite-trondhjemite-granodiorite (TTG)-dominated continental crust formed from partial melting of amphibolite. Application of silicon isotope analysis to ancient crust reveals that Archaean TTGs exhibit consistently high Si isotope values (δ30Si) compared to modern granitoids, attributed to seawater-derived silica introduced by either (a) partial melting of variably silicified basalts or (b) assimilation of authigenic silica-rich marine lithologies in the melt source. However, both mechanisms can introduce highly variable δ30Si, conflicting with the strikingly consistent δ30Si compositions of Archaean TTGs. This study investigates an alternative model, whereby the distinct mineralogy and chemistry of TTG melt sources impart a distinct silicon isotope composition to the melt, compared with “modern” granitoids. We measured δ30Si in component parts (melanosome and leucosome) of an Archaean (2.7 Ga) mafic migmatite and coeval amphibolites and mafic granulites from the Kapuskasing uplift, Canada, to explore how Si isotopes fractionate during incipient TTG melt formation. Our data reveal leucosome (i.e., melt) exhibits consistently high δ30Si values compared to a relatively isotopically lighter melanosome (i.e., residuum). We also derive inter-mineral silicon isotope fractionation factors for mineral separates that agree well with those of ab initio estimates for the same minerals and show that the magnitude of equilibrium fractionation between TTG source rock and melt replicates that in Phanerozoic granitoids. We conclude the effects of magmatic differentiation on δ30Si have remained consistent throughout Earth history, meaning that Archaean TTGs must require a source isotopically heavier than unaltered basalt, as reflected by our amphibolites and mafic migmatite components. The consistently heavy δ30Si of seawater through Earth history, and the high SiO2 content of amphibolites relative to coeval leucosome-free granulites in our study area, imply seawater silicification is the source of the observed high δ30Si. Thus, the consistently heavy Si isotope compositions measured in Archaean melt products define a unique aspect of ancient crust formation: that of the silicification of TTG source rock, implying the intrinsic involvement of a primeval hydrosphere.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Double-Layer Systems at Zero Magnetic Field

We investigate theoretically the effects of intralayer and interlayer exchange in biased double-layer electron and hole systems, in the absence of a magnetic field. We use a variational Hartree-Fock-like approximation to analyze the effects of layer separation, layer density, tunneling, and applied gate voltages on the layer densities and on interlayer phase coherence. In agreement with earlier work, we find that for very small layer separations and low layer densities, an interlayer-correlated ground state possessing spontaneous interlayer coherence (SILC) is obtained, even in the absence of interlayer tunneling. In contrast to earlier work, we find that as a function of total density, there exist four, rather than three, distinct noncrystalline phases for balanced double-layer systems without interlayer tunneling. The newly identified phase exists for a narrow range of densities and has three components and slightly unequal layer densities, with one layer being spin polarized, and the other unpolarized. An additional two-component phase is also possible in the presence of sufficiently strong bias or tunneling. The lowest-density SILC phase is the fully spin- and pseudospin-polarized ``one-component'' phase discussed by Zheng {\it et al.} [Phys. Rev. B {\bf 55}, 4506 (1997)]. We argue that this phase will produce a finite interlayer Coulomb drag at zero temperature due to the SILC. We calculate the particle densities in each layer as a function of the gate voltage and total particle density, and find that interlayer exchange can reduce or prevent abrupt transfers of charge between the two layers. We also calculate the effect of interlayer exchange on the interlayer capacitance.Comment: 35 pages, 19 figures included. To appear in PR