Watsujiō Tetsur's Rinrigaku


Book Description

Watsuji Tetsuro's Rinrigaku (literally, the principles that allow us to live in friendly community) has been regarded as the definitive study of Japanese ethics for half a century. In Japan, ethics is the study of human being or ningen. As an ethical being, one negates individuality by abandoning one's independence from others. This selflessness is the true meaning of goodness.




On Infinity


Book Description




Infinite Radius


Book Description

RISD announced the publication of Infinite Radius: Founding Rhode Island School of Design, the first anthology about the establishment of America's best-known college of art and design in 1877. "Infinite Radius" presents a handsome compendium of rare archival photographs, scholarly essays, previously unpublished manuscripts and reproductions of early acquisitions in its impressive collection of art and design. Together, this written and visual material provides invaluable insight into the social and cultural context in which both the academic programs of the School and the broader educational mission of the RISD Museum of Art took root. Infinite Radius takes its title from a RISD founder, the 19th-century educator and activist Sarah Elizabeth Doyle, who was known to remark that the "sphere" of so-called women's work was one with an "infinite radius." From the beginning, co-editors Dawn Barrett, RISD's dean of Architecture and Design, and Andrew Martinez, RISD's archivist, conceived of the book in a similar, all-encompassing way. The book is intended to inspire further research into the many areas it broaches, from the initial seed funding for the school from the Rhode Island Women's Centennial Commission, to its early successes thanks to the direction, governance and support of the Metcalf family, to its growing strength in the early 20th century.




Metaphysics of Infinity


Book Description

Since the time of the Greek philosopher Zeno (fifth century BCE), our faculty of analytic understanding has failed to comprehend motion through the ages. The reason is the paradox or contradiction associated with motion. One fundamental contradiction is the conflict between the finite body and the infinite divisibility of the unit distance ab. Indeed, how is it possible to move from a to b if we must first pass through an infinite series of sub-distances in one instant? How can we traverse an unlimited series—a series without limit—yet reach its limit? Because the heart of the problem is the conflict between the finite and the infinite, its solution depends on reconciling this contradiction and transforming this reconciliation into the founding principle of motion. Having accomplished these two things, this work investigates the sweeping consequences they have regarding the geometric form of the physical universe, the Aristotelian ontology of the physical body, the nature of our finite brain, the finite analytic paradigm of empirical science and the meaning of our technological acceleration. This book will appeal to a wide range of readers with interests in the logical mechanics of the physical universe, the hidden powers of our finite brain, and the utility of robots in the future. Although some of the presentation requires the understanding of elementary mathematical equations, the argument is conducted at the deepest level: that of principles. This approach enables readers to follow the book’s reasoning without technical training on the subject.







Aristotle's Physics and its Reception in the Arabic World


Book Description

Aristotle's Physics and Its Reception in the Arabic World presents a survey of what Arabic philosophers, as commentators of Aristotle's Physics, have contributed to philosophy and science in the Middle Ages. It investigates to what extent they influenced one another and to what extent they were influenced by previous Greek commentators. Besides Ibn Bājja's commentary on the Physics, which had up to now only partially been edited, the commentaries of Ibn as-Samḥ, Abū Bišr Mattā, Abū l-Faraj ibn aṭ-ṭayyib and Ibn Rušd are surveyed and discussed. The book also contains an account of an Arabic paraphrase of Philoponus' commentary on the Physics, which is of special interest because this commentary was partly lost. A special feature of the book is the edition of the unpublished parts of Ibn Bājja's commentary.




Diffusion-Wave Fields


Book Description

Develops a unified mathematical framework for treating a wide variety of diffusion-related periodic phenomena in such areas as heat transfer, electrical conduction, and light scattering. Deriving and using Green functions in one and higher dimensions to provide a unified approach, the author develops the properties of diffusion-wave fields first for the well-studied case of thermal-wave fields and then applies the methods to nonthermal fields.







Hawking on the Big Bang and Black Holes


Book Description

Stephen Hawking, the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University, has made important theoretical contributions to gravitational theory and has played a major role in the development of cosmology and black hole physics. Hawking's early work, partly in collaboration with Roger Penrose, showed the significance of spacetime singularities for the big bang and black holes. His later work has been concerned with a deeper understanding of these two issues. The work required extensive use of the two great intellectual achievements of the first half of the Twentieth Century: general relativity and quantum mechanics; and these are reflected in the reprinted articles. Hawking's key contributions on black hole radiation and the no-boundary condition on the origin of the universe are included. The present compilation of Stephen Hawking's most important work also includes an introduction by him, which guides the reader though the major highlights of the volume. This volume is thus an essentialitem in any library and will be an important reference source for those interested in theoretical physics and applied mathematics. It is an excellent thing to have so many of Professor Hawking's most important contributions to the theory of black holes and space-time singularities all collected together in one handy volume. I am very glad to have them". Roger Penrose (Oxford) "This was an excellent idea to put the best papers by Stephen Hawking together. Even his papers written many years ago remain extremely useful for those who study classical and quantum gravity. By watching the evolution of his ideas one can get a very clear picture of the development of quantum cosmology during thelast quarter of this century". Andrei Linde (Stanford) "This review could have been quite short: 'The book contains a selection of 21 of Stephen Hawking's most significant papers with an overview written by the author'. This w