On Two Socratic Questions

The most famous Socratic question—ti esti touto?—is often pre- ceded by a far less famous, but more fundamental question—esti touto ti? Though this question is posed in many dialogues with re- spect to myriad topics, in every instance it receives but one answer: it is something, namely something that is. The dialogue devoted to why this question always meets with an affirmative answer would appear to be the Parmenides, for there Parmenides throws into question whether the eidē are, only to establish that, if we have opinions that there is some unity in being, such unity must be. Nevertheless, the dramatic setting of the Parmenides is the quarreling of the Pre-Socratic schools, and the popular dismissal of philosophy that their quarreling engendered. For a dialogue that establishes that the object of inquiry is simply because we have opinions about it, we must, as I hope to show, turn to the Euthyphro

... Going Further on down the Road..

Praised for its reliance on observation rather than myth, the Milesian school signals the dawn of science in the West. Whereas Hesiod appeals to the long ago and far away to explain the here and now, Thales and his cohorts do the reverse. In this reversal, we are their thankful, even faithful heirs. But with Hesiod not everything is myth and hearsay. Indeed, Hesiod singles himself out by name as the bearer of a powerfully poetic and distinctly human wisdom that he consistently contrasts with Zeus’ divine wisdom. In this article, the author argues that the Milesians attempt to gain access to divine wisdom, and thus disregard the ambiguities characteristic of human wisdom. One sees this especially in a tension between Thales’ political wisdom and natural philosophy, and later between Anaximander’s cosmology and cosmogony. The author concludes that Heraclitus appears to have been the first thinker to confront the Hesiodic worldview on its own terms, inasmuch as his attempt to bridge the divide between divine and human wisdom always keeps one eye on the ambiguities that pervade human experience

Hesiod: Man, Law and Cosmos

In his two chief works, the Theogony and Works and Days, Hesiod treats the possibility of providence. In the former poem, he considers what sort of god could claim to gives human beings guidance. After arriving at Zeus as the only consistent possibility, Hesiod presents Zeus’ rule as both cosmic and legalistic. In the latter poem, how- ever, Hesiod shows that so long as Zeus is legalistic, his rule is limited cosmically to the human being. Ultimately, Zeus’ rule emerges as more human than cosmic, and thus unable to fulfill the cosmic demands of piety. Hesiod’s presentation thus begs, without thematically posing, the question of how human beings ought to live. Accordingly, Hesiod’s theological analysis, and not his theogony (or, implicit cosmogony or cosmology), sets the stage for the inquiries of the early Greek philosophers, and so political philosophy as a whole

Nonaxisymmetric Neutral Modes in Rotating Relativistic Stars

We study nonaxisymmetric perturbations of rotating relativistic stars. modeled as perfect-fluid equilibria. Instability to a mode with angular dependence $\exp(im\phi)$ sets in when the frequency of the mode vanishes. The locations of these zero-frequency modes along sequences of rotating stars are computed in the framework of general relativity. We consider models of uniformly rotating stars with polytropic equations of state, finding that the relativistic models are unstable to nonaxisymmetric modes at significantly smaller values of rotation than in the Newtonian limit. Most strikingly, the m=2 bar mode can become unstable even for soft polytropes of index $N \leq 1.3$, while in Newtonian theory it becomes unstable only for stiff polytropes of index $N \leq 0.808$. If rapidly rotating neutron stars are formed by the accretion-induced collapse of white dwarfs, instability associated with these nonaxisymmetric, gravitational-wave driven modes may set an upper limit on neutron-star rotation. Consideration is restricted to perturbations that correspond to polar perturbations of a spherical star. A study of axial perturbations is in progress.Comment: 57 pages, 9 figure

Comparative analysis of molecular biomarkers in the sediments of two artificial urban lakes in Orléans, France

International audienceThe onset of the Anthropocene, a new geological Era characterized by human activities being the dominant geological process affecting the Earth surface, will soon be defined by the International Commission on Stratigraphy in 1950 AD (Zalasiewicz, 2015). For palaeoenvironmentalists, the Anthropocene opens a new and very exciting challenge: decrypt geological archives by using various tracers over unusual time scales (days, seasons, years, decades) and take into account the major forcing factor: human activities. As for longer time periods and more natural contexts, organic geochemistry will have to contribute and will be confronted to emerging issues: (1) to which extent organic tracers and proxies developed for longer time scales, in more natural ecosystems, can be transferred and applied in hyper-anthropized socio-ecosystems such as urban areas?; (2) human activities produce novel materials and organic compounds such as emerging pollutants that could be readily considered as novel tracers for a large set of socioeconomic concerns, thus establishing new connections between paleoenvironmentalists and researchers engaged into pollution studies. We have analysed molecular biomarkers preserved in the sediments of two artificial lakes of Orléans: Lac de l'Université (LU) and Lac de l'Orée de Sologne (LOS) in order to determine their potential as sedimentary archives, through the presence of both sedimentary accumulations and specific tracers in order to reconstruct the recent history of their surroundings, and evaluate to which extent molecular imprints reflect local environmental conditions. Those two lakes collect local rainwaters and were clean out around 1990. Only few centimetres could be collected in LOS whereas LU afforded 30 cm constituted by 6 cm of sand with gravels (TOC400°C), then 16 cm of black organic clay and finally 8 cm of greenish organic clay (TOC> 5%, IH>400 mgHC/COT, IO~150 mgO2/COT, Tmax>400°C). The strong contribution of vascular plants to the sediment is not only attested by Rock-Eval values but also by the distribution of n-alkanes that maximize at n-C27 with a strong odd/even predominance. In LOS minor amounts of short-chain n-alkanes attest to a bacterial/algal contribution. The ketone fraction afforded a large diversity of compounds such as pentacyclic triterpenones (taraxerone, β-and α-amyrenones, germanicone, lupanone, glutinone and friedelin). In addition, LOS sample displayed abietic acid and a series of four methoxy-serratenes (two dimethoxy and two keto-methoxy; LeMilbeau et al., 2013). LOS sample was also characterized by the presence of four compounds of which the mass spectra displayed M + at m/z 378 or 392 and intense m/z at 199 and 225 that are interpreted as diagenetic derivatives of pentacyclic triterpenes bearing a ketone function (Tris-nor-olea-trien-2-one, Tris-nor-ursa-trien-2-one, Bis-nor-olea-trien-2-one and Bis-nor-ursa-trien-2-one). The alcohol fraction contained the alcohol equivalent to triterpene ketones such as taraxerol, β-, δ-and α-amyrins, germanicol and glutinol, as well as a keto-methoxy-serratene and a hydroxy-methoxy-serratenes in LOS. Again, LOS displayed original pentacyclic triterpenes constituted by diketo Δ 12 (Bandaranayake, 1980) and

Microparticles and vascular dysfunction in obstructive sleep apnoea

Obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) is independently associated with various cardiovascular diseases, including myocardial infarction and stroke. OSA may promote atherosclerosis risk factors such as hypertension, diabetes and dyslipidaemia, and may have direct proatherogenic effects on the vascular wall. A growing number of studies have recently focused on the role of microparticles (MPs) in the atherogenic process. MPs are small plasma membrane vesicles that can be released by a variety of vascular or blood cells, and contain both membrane and cytosolic elements. Case–control studies have shown that platelet-, endothelium- and leukocyte-derived MP levels are increased in OSA. Experimental evidence has demonstrated that MPs from OSA patients induce endothelial dysfunction, inflammation and vascular hyperreactivity when injected into mice. In this review, we provide an overview of the main characteristics of MPs, their expression in OSA and their potential role in the atherogenic process associated with OSA

Hypochloremia and hyponatremia as the initial presentation of cystic fibrosis in three adults

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is caused by mutations in the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) gene. Most diagnoses of CF are made during infancy or childhood, and are based on respiratory or digestive involvement. Initial extracellular dehydration leading to the diagnosis of CF is usual in infants but has only exceptionally been reported in adults. We describe three new adult cases of CF initially presenting with depletive hyponatremia and hypochloremia following exposure to heat. At first consultation, these patients had no symptoms suggestive of CF. One patient presented with a seizure induced by hyponatremia. The two other patients were siblings carrying a novel c.4434insA mutation in exon 24 of CFTR. Acute dehydration is a very rare initial manifestation of CF but may be life-threatening. The possibility of CF should not be ignored in cases of depletive hyponatremia, hypochloremia or hypokalemic metabolic alkalosis, even in otherwise healthy patients

Relativistic models for Superconducting-Superfluid Mixtures

The material below the crust of a neutron star is understood to be describable in terms of three principal independently moving constituents, identifiable as neutrons, protons, and electrons, of which the first two are believed to form mutually coupled bosonic condensates. The large scale comportment of such a system will be that of a positively charged superconducting superfluid in a negatively charged ``normal'' fluid background. As a contribution to the development of the theory of such a system, the present work shows how, subject to neglect of dissipative effects, it is possible to set up an elegant category of simplified but fully relativistic three-constituent superconducting superfluid models whose purpose is to provide realistic approximations for cases in which a strictly conservative treatment is sufficient. A "mesoscopic" model, describing the fluid between the vortices, is constructed, as well as a "macroscopic" model taking into account the average effect of quantised vortices.Comment: 28 pages, LaTeX, no figure; to appear in Nuclear Physics