The manuscript tradition of Seneca'sDialoguesconsists of one eleventhcentury manuscript, Ambrosianus C 90 inf., which is the main source for the text, and a ruck of later manuscripts of lesser and disputed worth. There are over a hundred of these, far more than has been supposed.

Context: A tension exists between the needs and desires of the institutions providing the funding for academics to attend conferences and the potential for transforming the knowledge and understanding of conference participants - than in advancing their own careers and celebrity. Approaches to the problem can recognize the importance of funding and career-building in the current society, while still experimenting in ways that could generate new ideas. Method: Ideas from second-order cybernetics are used to derive design principles that might alleviate (...) the tension and encourage deep conversations, idea generation and experimentation. The author draws on experiences with designing, organizing and participating in cybernetics conferences over a period of 34 years. Results: An academic conference designed to a set of broad, second-order cybernetic principles, where participants are informed of the design intent before they decide to attend, can open an opportunity for learning, understanding and the creation of new ideas in ways that would not otherwise be available. Although there are no guarantees, such designs can attenuate the tension, often experienced at traditionally designed conferences, between advancing individual careers/celebrity and building new knowledge together. Implications: The design principles derived, already exhibited in some conferences, could be useful to organizers wishing to foster incompatible and opposing ideas and facilitate dialogue among conference participants. These same principles have implications for the design of other social systems and point to the possibility of a new and more humane society. Constructivist content: A feature of second-order cybernetics is that knowledge is continually changing as our desires change, and we must take responsibility for the consequences of the ideas we construct and use to satisfy our desires. Key Words: Design by constraint, dynamics of interaction, asynchronicity, tyranny of the clock, times of truth, moments of art. (shrink)

Provability logics with many modal operators for progressions of theories obtained by iterating their consistency statements are introduced. The corresponding arithmetical completeness theorem is proved.

Neoclassical economic theory in its pretensions to scientific status is founded on one of the variants of a now discredited positivism. Neoclassical economic theory claims that there are two distinct areas of economic research: positive economics and normative economics. The former is assumed to deal with the cognitive as scientific content of economics while the later focuses on welfare or equity issues. I argue that the reliance of the whole theoretical structure of economics on the normative postulate of rationality renders (...) neoclassical economics a normative discipline. I also argue that neoclassical economics should thus be viewed as an instance of applied ethics rather than as applied mathematics, say. Finally, it is suggested that neoclassical economics, if its scientific pretensions are to be taken seriously, should be absorbed theoretically into general anthropology. (shrink)

L. D. Harris; IV*—Solving the “Naval Battle”, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Volume 78, Issue 1, 1 June 1978, Pages 45–62, https://doi.org/10.1093/ari.

A general equation is derived describing the concentration of all possible complexes of a central molecule with a set of ligands bound to the central molecule. This deduction allows the reaction rate constants for the binding of a given molecule to the central molecule to depend on the species of molecules already bound and the location of the molecules already bound. The model thus allows for structural alteration of the central molecule by binding. Functions describing the concentration dependence of any (...) effect whatever depending on the distribution of complexes are deduced. Possible applications and methods of application are indicated.II est dérivé une équation qui décrit la concentration des toutes les complexes d'une molécule centrale avec une collection de ligands connectés à la molécule centrale. La déduction montre comme les coefficients de la rapidité de reaction entre la molécule centrale et les molécules de la collection dépend de l'espèce et de la location des molécules déjà connectées.La modèle dérivée de l'équation montre les changements structurelles par la connection. Les functions qui décrivent la dependence de chaque effet à la concentration, sont dérivés. Ces effects dépendent aussi à la distribution des complexes. Des applications et des méthodes sont indiqués.Eine allgemeine Vergleichung hat man bekommen welche die Konzentration aller möglichen Komplexen eines zentralen Moleküles mit einer Reihe von „Ligands” verbunden mit dem zentralen Molekül beschreibt. Diese Folgerung gestattet dass die Reaktiongeschwindigkeit Konstanten für die Bindung eines gegebenen Moleküles mit dem zentralen Molekül abhÄngt von den Arten schon gegebenen Molekülen und die Ortsbestimmung der schon gebundenen Molekülen. Das Model zeigt die strukturelle Änderungen des zentralen Moleküls durch Bindung. Funktionen, die die Konzentrationband jedes Effektes beschreiben dass abhÄngt von der Distribution der Komplexen, sind abgeleitet.Mögliche Anwendungen und Methoden von Anwendung sind dargelegt. (shrink)

Clocks and Rulers Play Tricks. 6. Work Changes Mass. 7. Summing Up. Index. Unabridged republication of the edition published by Basic Books, Inc.

Much of the mathematics with which Felix Klein and Sophus Lie are now associated (Klein’s Erlangen Program and Lie’s theory of transformation groups) is rooted in ideas they developed in their early work: the consideration of geometric objects or properties preserved by systems of transformations. As early as 1870, Lie studied particular examples of what he later called contact transformations, which preserve tangency and which came to play a crucial role in his systematic study of transformation groups and differential equations. (...) This note examines Klein’s efforts in the 1870s to interpret contact transformations in terms of connexes and traces that interpretation (which included a false assumption) over the decades that follow. The analysis passes from Klein’s letters to Lie through Lindemann’s edition of Clebsch’s lectures on geometry in 1876, Lie’s criticism of it in his treatise on transformation groups in 1893, and the careful development of that interpretation by Dohmen, a student of Engel, in his 1905 dissertation. The now-obscure notion of connexes and its relation to Lie’s line elements and surface elements are discussed here in some detail. (shrink)

Although education in the responsible conduct of research is considered necessary, evidence bearing on the effectiveness of these programs in improving research ethics has indicated that, although some programs are successful, many fail. Accordingly, there is a need for systematic evaluation of ethics education programs. In the present effort, we examine procedures for evaluation of ethics education programs from a multilevel perspective: examining both within-program evaluation and cross-program evaluation. With regard to within-program evaluation, we note requisite designs and measures for (...) conducting systematic program evaluation have been developed and multiple measures should be applied in program evaluation. With regard to cross-program evaluation, we argue that a meta-analytic framework should be employed where analyses are used to identify best practices in ethics education. The implications of this multilevel approach for improving responsible conduct of research educational programs are discussed. (shrink)

Open peer commentary on the article “A Cybernetic Approach to Contextual Teaching and Learning” by Philip Baron. Upshot: The idea of personal, customized education has been around for a while, and few disagree that it would be superior to what we have now in most public education systems worldwide. So, the questions are: Why has it not been more broadly implemented? And what would it take to make it the dominant approach to education?

Open peer commentary on the article ““Black Box” Theatre: Second-Order Cybernetics and Naturalism in Rehearsal and Performance” by Tom Scholte. Upshot: Scholte proposes using the theatre as a laboratory for experimenting with ideas in second-order cybernetics, adding to the repertoire of approaches for advancing this way of thinking. Second-order cybernetics, as art, science and craft, raises questions about the forms of experimentation most useful in such a laboratory. Theatre provides an opportunity to “play” with the dynamics of human interactions and (...) relations and possibly demonstrate value in second-order cybernetic thinking. (shrink)