Measuring neuronal activity with electrophysiological methods may be useful in detecting neurological dysfunctions, such as mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). This approach may be particularly valuable for rapid detection in at-risk populations including military service members and athletes. Electrophysiological methods, such as quantitative electroencephalography (qEEG) and recording event-related potentials (ERPs) may be promising; however, the field is nascent and significant controversy exists on the efficacy and accuracy of the approaches as diagnostic tools. For example, the specific measures derived from an (...) electroencephalogram (EEG) that are most suitable as markers of dysfunction have not been clearly established. A study was conducted to summarize and evaluate the statistical rigor of evidence on the overall utility of qEEG as an mTBI detection tool. The analysis evaluated qEEG measures/parameters that may be most suitable as fieldable diagnostic tools, identified other types of EEG measures and analysis methods of promise, recommended specific measures and analysis methods for further development as mTBI detection tools, identified research gaps in the field, and recommended future research and development thrust areas. The qEEG study group formed the following conclusions: 1. Individual qEEG measures provide limited diagnostic utility for mTBI. However, many measures can be important features of qEEG discriminant functions, which do show significant promise as mTBI detection tools. 2. ERPs offer utility in mTBI detection. In fact, evidence indicates that ERPs can identify abnormalities in cases where EEGs alone are nondisclosing. 3. The standard mathematical procedures used in the characterization of mTBI EEGs should be expanded to incorporate newer methods of analysis including nonlinear dynamical analysis, complexity measures, analysis of causal interactions, graph theory and information dynamics. 4. and 5. are too long to include here. (shrink)

In summary we have as follows, leaving aside here the complex and important cometary theories of the pre-socratics, Aristotle, and the Stoics. First, ca. 145-35 B.C.E. Nechepso-Petosiris wrote a book of astrology including a passage on cometary prognosis based on heavenly region of appearance. He assumed that comets were fiery without further ado. His view of comets seems to be that they appear in, move toward, or pause in, any quadrant of the sky. Their descriptions are irrelevant to their nature, (...) serving only to identify them. Within the next century five further books were written. Epigenes refined the standard theory with details about whirl-winds and the like, referred to the Chaldaians, was also an astrologer, and has the simplest view of the planets 82). Although fundamentally Epigenes' theory is simple, it seems to have involved a detailed reworking of Aristotle's theory 83), perhaps making use of Hipparchos or of Hipparchos' Babylonian sources. First, the three outer planets by their conjunctions generate thunder and lightning. Then the events called trabes and faces are formed from. (shrink)

Biton’s Construction of Machines of War and Catapults describes six machines by five engineers or inventors; the fourth machine is a rolling elevatable scaling ladder, named sambukē, designed by one Damis of Kolophōn. The first sambukē was invented by Herakleides of Taras, in 214 BCE, for the Roman siege of Syracuse. Biton is often dismissed as incomprehensible or preposterous. I here argue that the account of Damis’ device is largely coherent and shows that Biton understood that Damis had built a (...) machine that embodied Archimedean principles. The machine embodies three such principles: (1) the proportionate balancing of the torques on a lever (from Plane Equilibria, an early work); (2) the concept of specific gravity or density (from Floating Bodies, a late work); and (3) the κοχλίας, i.e., a worm drive (invented ca 240 BCE), with the toothed wheel functioning as the horizontal axis of rotation of the elevated ladder. Moreover, the stone-thrower of Isidoros of Abydos (the second machine in Biton) also embodies the κοχλίας. (shrink)

In this wide-ranging volume of papers on Greek and Roman philosophy, a group of distinguished scholars has come together to honor Phillip Mitsis as a teacher, scholar, and colleague. Apart from examining a range of topics and philosophers that covers most areas of Classical philosophy and even beyond, the volume is particularly noteworthy for the variety of critical and philosophical methodologies it embraces. This reflects the honorand's belief that our understanding of philosophy and its relation to its own history must (...) be continually re-examined and that such examinations inevitably benefit from the mutual engagement of different traditions and styles of philosophical argument, even when they seem to conflict. While not explicitly setting up methodological debates, the volume manages to intimate the benefits of more polyphonic discussions by showing eminent practitioners of various approaches going about their craft and presenting their arguments in the spirit of a friendly gift, or philodorema. Edited by David Konstan and David Sider, the volume collects essays in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy by Pietro Pucci, Gerasimos Santas, David Sider, Darren Gardner, Nathaniel Nicol, Heather L. Reid, Carlo DaVia, Theodore Scaltsas, David O. Brink, Fred D. Miller, Jr., Paul Schollmeier, Enrico Piergiacomi, David Konstan, Jean-Philippe Ranger, Paul A. Vander Waerdt, Joseph G. DeFilippo, Jon Miller, Brad Inwood, Paul T. Keyser, Christos C. Evangeliou, David Robertson, Michael Erler, and Alain Gigandet. (shrink)

This book has been written for our time of need. It is an affirmative declaration of human values at a time of crisis in what the author regards as the great moral revolution of our age. It began when Paul Kurtz published the four-page Humanist Manifesto II in The Humanist magazine. The reaction was volcanic. The New York Times carried an extensive front-page story on it, as did hundreds of newspapers throughout the United States and abroad. The controversy is (...) unabated. Theologians throughout the country continue to attack and defend the Manifesto. In Russia, Andrei Sakharov, one of the signers of the Manifesto, was given a warning about his collaboration with Western liberals, and then subjected to a large-scale attack in the Soviet Press. The generative ideas presented in the controversial Manifesto are fully developed in this powerful book. In Part I, Kurtz takes us on a tour of the chief religious and moral philosophies available to Western man at this time. He gives detailed critiques of Christian theism and of Marxism. He shows how the original humanism of Marx has been betrayed in the Communist nations. "The crux of the tragedy of modern Communist societies is that they have abandoned these fundamental human rights . . ." In Part II, "The Humanist Alternative," Kurtz brilliantly develops a positive viewpoint, a dynamic presentation of the elements of "the good life" in which we may realize "the human potential and the fullness of being." The author here describes the virtues of the sensual life, the joys and benefits of physical pleasure, and the various ways by which we achieve true self-realization. This section concludes with chapters on libertarianism, the principle of equality, and the democratic ethic inherent in the humanist philosophy. In Part III the author provides an arresting exposition of international problems and their intelligent solution. He stresses the global consciousness of the humanist outlook and its allegiance to all humanity, and demonstrates how the methods of reason can be applied in our personal lives and in world affairs. (shrink)

Bien que Hegel occupe dans les préoccupations philosophiques d'aujourd'hui une place prépondérante, nos contemporains sont peu enclins à accepter, et même à comprendre, ses audaces métaphysiques et systématiques. Tout aussi inacceptable paraît, à première vue, sa prétention d'être l'héritier légitime de Kant, le couronnement nécessaire de l'idéalisme allemand. L'auteur du présent article ne s'attaque pas au problème de la valeur du système et de la méthode de Hegel. C'est en historien qu'il essaie de dégager leur allure propre, en les étudiant (...) à la lumière de l'évolution de l'idéalisme allemand à partir de Kant. Il montre combien les prétentions métaphysiques de Hegel, vues dans cette perspective, sont naturelles. Ce n'est pas, pourtant, que son analyse confirme l'idée d'une connexion nécessaire entre les systèmes. Il souligne l'originalité profonde des grandes idéalistes, dont chacun cherche sans doute son inspiration dans la problématique de son prédécesseur, mais plutôt sous la forme d'un schéma de pensée, qu'il étoffe d'une manière très personnelle. Chez les idéalistes, l'enthousiasme messianique de l'Aufklärung prend une allure presque eschatologique ; ce trait explique pour une part l'ardeur qu'ils ont mise à édifier leur système, ainsi que la tendance de Hegel à présenter sa philosophie comme le sommet de l'histoire. Dans son interprétation de Hegel, l'auteur s'appuie surtout sur la Préface et l'Introduction de la Phénoménologie de l'Esprit. Pour éclairer celles ci à la lumière de l'histoire de l'idéalisme, il suit l'itinéraire dressé par Hegel lui-même dans son premier essai philosophique, sur la différence entre le système de Fichte et celui de Schelling. Il décrit l'évolution de la philosophie depuis Kant jusqu'à Hegel comme une réalisation progressive de l'idée d'identité absolue, que Hegel hérite de Schelling mais qu'il interprète d'une manière différente. Cette analyse permet à l'auteur de préciser la méthode de Hegel, les relations entre la Phénoménologie et le système, ainsi que les concepts de vérité, de sujet, d'esprit, d'en soi et de pour soi, dont Hegel se sert pour définir l'Absolu. Par la force même des choses, elle trace également l'évolution de l'idée de Dieu dans l'idéalisme. La conception hégélienne de Dieu est susceptible d'interprétations diverses. Tout en ne cachant pas ses préférences personnelles, l'auteur estime que l'état des études hégéliennes ne permet pas encore de se prononcer avec certitude. C'est sur cette invitation au travail qu'il termine son article. (shrink)

Comparative studies demonstrate that homologous neural structures differ in function and that neural mechanisms underlying behavior evolved independently. A neural structure does not serve a particular function so much as it executes an algorithm on its inputs though its dynamics. Neural dynamics are altered by a neuromodulation, and species-differences in neuromodulation can account for behavioral differences.

The social sciences contribute in important ways to our understanding of current Christian realities, especially ‘newer’ or ‘emerging’ Christianities. Recent research by social scientists on contemporary Christian groups – in historical anthropology and more recently in the anthropology of Christianity – has yielded important insights into modes of Christian agency and identity. Those interested in the spread of Christianity today – including missiologists – should familiarize themselves with such anthropological and sociological research. For their part, those engaged in social-scientific research (...) on newer Christianities should attend more closely to Christianity in its historical and communal dimensions by developing an historical sociology. (shrink)

In this rejoinder to Eric Scerri's response to my first comment on his paper on the reduction of chemistry to physics, the main point concerns laws in chemistry. But other themes touched upon include the assumptions involved in ab initio calculations, the question of what is reduced to what on Scerri's view, and the significance he attaches to the term "naturalism".

This volume brings together insights from religion (represented by Buddhism and Christianity) and science to address the question, What can we know about ...

'[T]he good man should be a lover of self.' Aristotle wrote. 'For he will both himself profit by doing noble acts, and will benefit his fellows … '. Yet in much of contemporary moral philosophy, concern for one's own interests is considered a non-moral issue, while concern for the interests of others is paradigmatically moral. Indeed, a central issue in ethical theory involves the proper balance to be struck between prudence and morality, between the pursuit of one's own good and (...) the pursuit of the good of others. When deliberating over what action to take, should one weigh one's own interests more heavily than those of others? Or is it possible to accommodate both self-interest and regard for others, to show that we have self-regarding reasons for helping others? The twelve essays in this volume - written from a range of perspectives - address these questions and examine related issues. (shrink)

Three general problems in self-regulation theory and research are discussed in terms of their application to the model of biofunctional cognition. The three problems are: the development of a tractable conceptual foundation and consistent nomenclature for discussing self-regulation, clarification of the structures or components of self-regulation, and clarification of the processes of self-regulation. These issues are discussed in terms of how they apply to the model of dynamic self-regulation as represented in the articles for this special issue. It is suggested (...) that the model of dynamic self-regulation, as well as all models of self-regulation, can be improved by serious theoretical and empirical attention to these issues. (shrink)