The science of man and the invention of usable traditions

In this paper I scrutinize three sets of passages by David Hume. The first is from the Introduction to A Treatise of Human Nature; the second is from the ‘An Abstract of a Book lately Published, entitled, A Treatise of Human Nature,’; the third is really a collection of widely scattered vignettes from The History of England from the Invasion of Julius Caesar to the Revolution in 1688 (1754-1762). I argue that in these works Hume creates several distinct intellectual traditions leading up to him. I argue that the changes among them reflect, in part, tactical moves in response to changed circumstances and, in part, Hume’s changed understanding of the epistemic virtues underlying his project’s relationship to the ‘system’ of science. For example, I trace how high praise for Bacon and Locke gets replaced by praise for Galileo, Boyle, and Newton. While this little noticed aspect of Hume’s thought has independent interest, focusing on Hume’s historiographical strategy also helps illuminate Hume’s evolving understanding of the ‘science of man’ within the system of sciences

Toland and Adam Smith's posthumous work

In this paper I offer a speculative answer to the question why Adam Smith, who burned nearly all of his papers, arranged for posthumous publication for a number of his essays. I rely on a number of hints in those essays and put them in the context of eighteenth century natural philosophy. I argue that those hints trace back to John Toland and Spinozism

‘Abraham Did not "Doubt” in Unbelief' (rom. 4:20): Faith, Doubt, and Dispute in Paul's Letter to the Romans

This article offers an exegetical-theological analysis of Rom. 4:20: ‘No distrust made him waver (διακρίνεσθαι) concerning the promise of God' (NRSV). It challenges the common assumption that our customary descriptions and definitions of ‘doubt' may be applied—via negativa—to the attitude or disposition of Abraham. When Paul uses the word διακρίνεσθαι in this context, he does not intend to say that Abraham's disposition was free from doubt, uncertainty, or hesitation. Rather, Paul had in mind that Abraham did not oppose God in a presumptuous attitude, offend him through conceited enquiries, or question him in order to overturn his word. This interpretation counters the exegetical communis opinio, but has veritable precursors—John Chrysostom, John Calvin, and Markus Barth—and, at the same time, conforms well to the line of thought of Paul's letter. The object of Paul's accusation against Greeks and Jews (Romans 1-3) is less an intrapersonal contradiction or inconsistency rather than an interpersonal conflict between God and human being. Significantly, the contextual argument is supported by a lexicographical fact: The meaning ‘to doubt' for διακρίνεσθαι is unattested prior to the New Testament; in classical/Hellenistic Greek the verb comprises, inter alia, the notions of ‘separation' and ‘dispute

On optical forces in spherical whispering gallery mode resonators

In this paper we discuss the force exerted by the field of an optical cavity on a polarizable dipole. We show that the modification of the cavity modes due to interaction with the dipole significantly alters the properties of the force. In particular, all components of the force are found to be non-conservative, and cannot, therefore, be derived from a potential energy. We also suggest a simple generalization of the standard formulas for the optical force on the dipole, which reproduces the results of calculations based on the Maxwell stress tensor.Comment: To pe published in Optics Express Focus Issue: "Collective phenomena in photonic, plasmonic and hybrid structures

Observing and Verifying the Quantum Trajectory of a Mechanical Resonator

Continuous weak measurement allows localizing open quantum systems in state space, and tracing out their quantum trajectory as they evolve in time. Efficient quantum measurement schemes have previously enabled recording quantum trajectories of microwave photon and qubit states. We apply these concepts to a macroscopic mechanical resonator, and follow the quantum trajectory of its motional state conditioned on a continuous optical measurement record. Starting with a thermal mixture, we eventually obtain coherent states of 78% purity--comparable to a displaced thermal state of occupation 0.14. We introduce a retrodictive measurement protocol to directly verify state purity along the trajectory, and furthermore observe state collapse and decoherence. This opens the door to measurement-based creation of advanced quantum states, and potential tests of gravitational decoherence models.Comment: 20 pages, 4 figure