This paper examines the expression of being from the syntactic perspective in the framework of Cassirer＇s philosophy of language in his Philosophy of Symbolic Forms. It first introduces the debate about the validity ...This paper examines the expression of being from the syntactic perspective in the framework of Cassirer＇s philosophy of language in his Philosophy of Symbolic Forms. It first introduces the debate about the validity of the question of being between the logical and ontological perspectives, represented by J. S. Mill＇s attempt to annul the question and Heidegger＇s counter argument. It then moves to the syntactic perspective by using Aquinas＇ statement that in every apprehension being should be present, and then reconsiders the function of copula in a sentence. The main part of this article follows Cassirer＇s argument by picking up the so-called ＂war of the giants＂ between the Heraclitean flux and the Parmenidean immovable being in the context of language in Plato＇s three dialogues, namely Cratylus, Theaetetus, and Sophist. It then moves on to Cassirer＇s Kantian scheme of analysis to handle the Platonic question, and argues that words and sentences are different moments of unit formation in our consciousness. It concludes with Cassirer＇s argument of the priority of sentence over words, and that the concentration merely on the copula is a limited approach to the question. The purpose of this paper is to show Cassirer＇s contribution to the problem of being by shifting the attention from semantics to the syntax and by breaking new ground from neo-Kantianism, and offers an approach to understand the role of language in our knowledge of the objective world which is neither purely nominal nor realist.展开更多
The sphere is a common object in uncountable engineering problems, which not only appears in structural elements like domes but also in thousands of mechanisms normally used in diverse kinds of machines. To design, ca...The sphere is a common object in uncountable engineering problems, which not only appears in structural elements like domes but also in thousands of mechanisms normally used in diverse kinds of machines. To design, calculate and analyze the behaviour on service of spherical elements, it is essential to have a good method to create an ordered group of discrete points of the spherical surface from the parametric equations commonly used to define the sphere continuously. One of the best known and widely used in high-level programming environment is MATLAB. The programming language has thousands of functions, lots of them specially designed for engineering processes. One of these functions generates a sphere knowing a given radius and shows the result. Nevertheless, this function is really imprecise because it is based on parallels and meridians besides the obtained vertices do not keep a constant distance each other. This causes the fact that it would be appropriate to design a new function to generate accurate discrete approximations of the sphere. The objective of this paper is to create a low-level function in MATLAB to obtain a discrete sphere with high regularity and high approximation in order to provide a good base to solve sphere-based engineering problems. To ensure a perfect symmetry and high regularity platonic bodies, MATLAB will be used as a base to divide the continuous spherical surface in a finite number of regular triangles. The obtained results for the different seed bodies will be represented graphically and compared to each other. The accuracy of each method will be evaluated and compared too.展开更多
Art composed of categories of the scale of beauty transmutes the aesthetic into eroticism, such that as an element of life it may be displayed as a love relationship between beauty and eros, the knowledge of which is ...Art composed of categories of the scale of beauty transmutes the aesthetic into eroticism, such that as an element of life it may be displayed as a love relationship between beauty and eros, the knowledge of which is referenced as early as Plato＇s philosophical contemplations. Plato characterizes eros in the Symposium and the Phaedrus as an invincible psychic force, capable, taking into account the fallibility of man, of compelling him toward the acquisition of that which will entail his completion. Eros, considered thusly, contributes to human ontogeny. Plotinus, who experiences beauty as eros and terror accompanied by pleasure, to the same degree will characterize it as the outcome and consequence of an intellectually and morally superior human soul. By this definition, the greatness of art lies in the fact that it compels the souls of men to eros for its spiritual content, the true nature of a work of art being the idea. As such, as long as it is not easy to know if this beauty exists as an ontologically, gnoseologically, and aesthetically idealized entity, so much the more we consider that we cannot entirely prove Freud＇s erotic theory of primordial and desirable phantasms, which seems to differ only slightly from the Platonic theory, or from Jung＇s theory of archetypes, as it seems not to recognize to an appropriate degree individual human experience. On the contrary and in agreement with the Lacanian theory on eros, in the environment of which eros is directed towards the other, so like it, it emerges in the life of the other, rupturing and reformulating it, we consider that each of us, in reality, in the erotic phenomenon, meets the other, and, behind him, our own self, which, enchanted by all that we sense that the other represents, rates all his characteristics as charmingly beautiful, because they have the privilege of coinciding, or at least of converging towards the aesthetic, entirely unique foundation of our self.展开更多
Plato＇s lifelong confrontation with Parmenides and his metaphysical mire of believing that nothing （το μη ǒν） does not actually exist, gradually in the Sophist comes into finish, insofar as the philosopher a...Plato＇s lifelong confrontation with Parmenides and his metaphysical mire of believing that nothing （το μη ǒν） does not actually exist, gradually in the Sophist comes into finish, insofar as the philosopher after facing the foe and having the last laugh simmers down. In this paper after giving an interpretation of what Parmenides says, I shall present an analysis of Plato＇s drastic answer to him （Sophist, 259 e4-6） to see how Plato opens the impasse way created by the Eleatic philosopher. Here the intercommunion of Forms is regarded as the final answer by which Plato devastates Parmenides infamous thesis. Since hitherto no in-depth analysis is given by the scholars who are puzzled with the subject, I have tried to analyze the intercommunion of Forms philosophically. Plato＇s Eleatic challenge has always been crucial in Plato himself and philosophical development after him. As while as Parmenides thesis （Sph., 238 a8-9） provides the sophists opportunity to reject the falsehood, Plato＇s theory of Forms in contrast in order to cross off the extremely sly sophists tries to make Parmenides come down. In my opinion, the intercommunion of Forms, as the last step of the theory of Forms, basically determines Plato＇s late ontology tightly knitted with logic. Vindicating this proposal depends on true understanding of the intercommunion of Forms. Since Plato＇s late ontology, in my opinion, is closed to Frege＇s ontology and discussion of language, we are armed to interpret the intercommunion of Forms with recent recent logico-philosophicus achievements, I think. In this respect, this is what I have done in my paper： analyzing sentence from Plato＇s logico-metaphysical point of view. Ultimately, I have tried to show how the aim of the intercommunion of Forms, which Plato himself states, is demonstrating the possibility of dialogue and discourse. This statement explicitly sets forward that the discussion is bound up with several logical approaches, according to which finally full bright light is shed on different implications of the subject such as universals.展开更多
Mereology （from the Greek μεpoζ） is the branch of ontology which studies the relations of part to whole and the relations of part to part within a whole. The roots of mereology can be traced back to the earliest ...Mereology （from the Greek μεpoζ） is the branch of ontology which studies the relations of part to whole and the relations of part to part within a whole. The roots of mereology can be traced back to the earliest ancient Greek philosophers （the Presocratics）, Plato, and Aristotle. The mereological approach of the Stoic philosophers in the 1 Roman Empire, however, has been neglected. In this paper, the author offers a sketch of how the Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius Antoninus used mereology in the collection of brief, occasionally cryptic memoranda and self-exhortations which tradition has dubbed the Meditations. The thesis is that Marcus＇ account of parts and wholes is such a prevalent theme throughout this work because mereological analyses provide him an understanding of what he is, what the cosmos is and how it works, and the purposes of all rational beings, both as agents in the social community and as citizens of the state. That is, the conceptual power and explanatory flexibility of mereology enable Marcus to reason to conclusions about ontology, the nature of a human person, ethical ideals, and a political worldview. As a consequence, a good grasp of Marcus＇ mereology provides a clear and detailed overview of a wide swath of the philosophical terrain in his Meditations.展开更多
My purpose here is to offer a critical self-reflection and meditation on Deng Zhenglai＇s unexpected and tragic passing. Drawing from the classical and critical Western traditions, with intermingled references to the ...My purpose here is to offer a critical self-reflection and meditation on Deng Zhenglai＇s unexpected and tragic passing. Drawing from the classical and critical Western traditions, with intermingled references to the Heraclitus, Plato, Aristotle, Hegel, Marx, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Freud, Benjamin, and Foucault, among others,I consider Deng＇s death as a personal death and as well as the death of everyman, while also humbling myself in consideration of his many achievements and sacrifices. The passing of a person like Deng offers a moment of sobriety and pause, when the best among us lays face up under a thin white sheet. Such people attract both supporters and critics and the only certainty between them is that death is that final, terrible cure, the one that settles all scores. Sometimes, such moments of sobriety produce their opposite, whether a modicum of panic or outright hysteria, when emotional responses overwhelm rational ones. When that happens it is helpful for the secular mind to return to philosophy, albeit like a penitent seeking both mercy and a few moments more within and without the Mystery and eternal pity.展开更多
文摘This paper examines the expression of being from the syntactic perspective in the framework of Cassirer＇s philosophy of language in his Philosophy of Symbolic Forms. It first introduces the debate about the validity of the question of being between the logical and ontological perspectives, represented by J. S. Mill＇s attempt to annul the question and Heidegger＇s counter argument. It then moves to the syntactic perspective by using Aquinas＇ statement that in every apprehension being should be present, and then reconsiders the function of copula in a sentence. The main part of this article follows Cassirer＇s argument by picking up the so-called ＂war of the giants＂ between the Heraclitean flux and the Parmenidean immovable being in the context of language in Plato＇s three dialogues, namely Cratylus, Theaetetus, and Sophist. It then moves on to Cassirer＇s Kantian scheme of analysis to handle the Platonic question, and argues that words and sentences are different moments of unit formation in our consciousness. It concludes with Cassirer＇s argument of the priority of sentence over words, and that the concentration merely on the copula is a limited approach to the question. The purpose of this paper is to show Cassirer＇s contribution to the problem of being by shifting the attention from semantics to the syntax and by breaking new ground from neo-Kantianism, and offers an approach to understand the role of language in our knowledge of the objective world which is neither purely nominal nor realist.
文摘The sphere is a common object in uncountable engineering problems, which not only appears in structural elements like domes but also in thousands of mechanisms normally used in diverse kinds of machines. To design, calculate and analyze the behaviour on service of spherical elements, it is essential to have a good method to create an ordered group of discrete points of the spherical surface from the parametric equations commonly used to define the sphere continuously. One of the best known and widely used in high-level programming environment is MATLAB. The programming language has thousands of functions, lots of them specially designed for engineering processes. One of these functions generates a sphere knowing a given radius and shows the result. Nevertheless, this function is really imprecise because it is based on parallels and meridians besides the obtained vertices do not keep a constant distance each other. This causes the fact that it would be appropriate to design a new function to generate accurate discrete approximations of the sphere. The objective of this paper is to create a low-level function in MATLAB to obtain a discrete sphere with high regularity and high approximation in order to provide a good base to solve sphere-based engineering problems. To ensure a perfect symmetry and high regularity platonic bodies, MATLAB will be used as a base to divide the continuous spherical surface in a finite number of regular triangles. The obtained results for the different seed bodies will be represented graphically and compared to each other. The accuracy of each method will be evaluated and compared too.
文摘Art composed of categories of the scale of beauty transmutes the aesthetic into eroticism, such that as an element of life it may be displayed as a love relationship between beauty and eros, the knowledge of which is referenced as early as Plato＇s philosophical contemplations. Plato characterizes eros in the Symposium and the Phaedrus as an invincible psychic force, capable, taking into account the fallibility of man, of compelling him toward the acquisition of that which will entail his completion. Eros, considered thusly, contributes to human ontogeny. Plotinus, who experiences beauty as eros and terror accompanied by pleasure, to the same degree will characterize it as the outcome and consequence of an intellectually and morally superior human soul. By this definition, the greatness of art lies in the fact that it compels the souls of men to eros for its spiritual content, the true nature of a work of art being the idea. As such, as long as it is not easy to know if this beauty exists as an ontologically, gnoseologically, and aesthetically idealized entity, so much the more we consider that we cannot entirely prove Freud＇s erotic theory of primordial and desirable phantasms, which seems to differ only slightly from the Platonic theory, or from Jung＇s theory of archetypes, as it seems not to recognize to an appropriate degree individual human experience. On the contrary and in agreement with the Lacanian theory on eros, in the environment of which eros is directed towards the other, so like it, it emerges in the life of the other, rupturing and reformulating it, we consider that each of us, in reality, in the erotic phenomenon, meets the other, and, behind him, our own self, which, enchanted by all that we sense that the other represents, rates all his characteristics as charmingly beautiful, because they have the privilege of coinciding, or at least of converging towards the aesthetic, entirely unique foundation of our self.
文摘Plato＇s lifelong confrontation with Parmenides and his metaphysical mire of believing that nothing （το μη ǒν） does not actually exist, gradually in the Sophist comes into finish, insofar as the philosopher after facing the foe and having the last laugh simmers down. In this paper after giving an interpretation of what Parmenides says, I shall present an analysis of Plato＇s drastic answer to him （Sophist, 259 e4-6） to see how Plato opens the impasse way created by the Eleatic philosopher. Here the intercommunion of Forms is regarded as the final answer by which Plato devastates Parmenides infamous thesis. Since hitherto no in-depth analysis is given by the scholars who are puzzled with the subject, I have tried to analyze the intercommunion of Forms philosophically. Plato＇s Eleatic challenge has always been crucial in Plato himself and philosophical development after him. As while as Parmenides thesis （Sph., 238 a8-9） provides the sophists opportunity to reject the falsehood, Plato＇s theory of Forms in contrast in order to cross off the extremely sly sophists tries to make Parmenides come down. In my opinion, the intercommunion of Forms, as the last step of the theory of Forms, basically determines Plato＇s late ontology tightly knitted with logic. Vindicating this proposal depends on true understanding of the intercommunion of Forms. Since Plato＇s late ontology, in my opinion, is closed to Frege＇s ontology and discussion of language, we are armed to interpret the intercommunion of Forms with recent recent logico-philosophicus achievements, I think. In this respect, this is what I have done in my paper： analyzing sentence from Plato＇s logico-metaphysical point of view. Ultimately, I have tried to show how the aim of the intercommunion of Forms, which Plato himself states, is demonstrating the possibility of dialogue and discourse. This statement explicitly sets forward that the discussion is bound up with several logical approaches, according to which finally full bright light is shed on different implications of the subject such as universals.
文摘Mereology （from the Greek μεpoζ） is the branch of ontology which studies the relations of part to whole and the relations of part to part within a whole. The roots of mereology can be traced back to the earliest ancient Greek philosophers （the Presocratics）, Plato, and Aristotle. The mereological approach of the Stoic philosophers in the 1 Roman Empire, however, has been neglected. In this paper, the author offers a sketch of how the Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius Antoninus used mereology in the collection of brief, occasionally cryptic memoranda and self-exhortations which tradition has dubbed the Meditations. The thesis is that Marcus＇ account of parts and wholes is such a prevalent theme throughout this work because mereological analyses provide him an understanding of what he is, what the cosmos is and how it works, and the purposes of all rational beings, both as agents in the social community and as citizens of the state. That is, the conceptual power and explanatory flexibility of mereology enable Marcus to reason to conclusions about ontology, the nature of a human person, ethical ideals, and a political worldview. As a consequence, a good grasp of Marcus＇ mereology provides a clear and detailed overview of a wide swath of the philosophical terrain in his Meditations.
文摘My purpose here is to offer a critical self-reflection and meditation on Deng Zhenglai＇s unexpected and tragic passing. Drawing from the classical and critical Western traditions, with intermingled references to the Heraclitus, Plato, Aristotle, Hegel, Marx, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Freud, Benjamin, and Foucault, among others,I consider Deng＇s death as a personal death and as well as the death of everyman, while also humbling myself in consideration of his many achievements and sacrifices. The passing of a person like Deng offers a moment of sobriety and pause, when the best among us lays face up under a thin white sheet. Such people attract both supporters and critics and the only certainty between them is that death is that final, terrible cure, the one that settles all scores. Sometimes, such moments of sobriety produce their opposite, whether a modicum of panic or outright hysteria, when emotional responses overwhelm rational ones. When that happens it is helpful for the secular mind to return to philosophy, albeit like a penitent seeking both mercy and a few moments more within and without the Mystery and eternal pity.
