What Makes a Thing What It Is? Aristotle and Hegel on Identity

The notion of identity is investigated through Aristotle and Hegel as supporters of two different ontological conceptions: pluralism of substances and relational holism. Through Aristotle, I examine both the thesis according to which the identity of an object is constituted by its properties and the difficulties which this thesis encounters (e.g., those raised by Max Black). Aristotle easily defines the identity in species, in genus, and in number; some problems arise regarding the identity of individuals: for these, it is not enough to indicate the definition and the proper qualities, but matter is needed. Matter cannot, however, be a criterion for identifying duplicate objects: in this case, it plays at most the role of a “weak individuator.” A weak individuator involves relations with other entities. The use of relations in determining the identity of an entity is extensively treated by Hegel, according to whom, in order to define the identity of an object a multiplicity of particular objects is required and, therefore, relations among entities. I conclude by proposing a notion of the object understood not as an independent, separate, and autonomous item, but as a portion of the world, which is given in a phenomenological context and identifies a dialectical context.     

Moral responsibility—What is all the fuss about?

Examination of several accounts regarding the nature of moral responsibility allows the extraction of a conceptual core common to all of them. Relying on that core conception of moral responsibility, the paper explores what human life without moral responsibility would be like. That exploration establishes that many robust forms of human relationship and nonmoral normativity could continue, absent moral responsibility, even if moral responsibility were abandoned on incompatibilist grounds. Much more importantly, it also establishes, contra Waller and Pereboom, that only some forms of morality—so-called “behavioral” forms—remain possible without moral responsibility. The paper argues that normative moral approaches that take into account agent intentions in order to assess the moral status of action cannot be applied without moral responsibility of agents. Thus, morality without responsibility needs to be behavioral, not consequentialist, as has often been thought.     

What is the Limit of a Function in Intuitive Way?

In AP Calculus,if you want to learn the course,you will be able to work with the four waysof representation-graphically,numerically,analytically,and verbally.It is important to em-phasize and connect the relationship among these representations as you learn the course success     

Dynamical Properties of a Perceptron Learning Process: Structural Stability Under Numerics and?Shadowing

In this paper two aspects of numerical dynamics are used for an artificial neural network (ANN) analysis. It is shown that topological conjugacy of gradient dynamical systems and both the shadowing and inverse shadowing properties have nontrivial implications in the analysis of a perceptron learning process. The main result is that, generically, any such process is stable under numerics and robust. Implementation aspects are discussed as well. The analysis is based on the theorem concerning global topological conjugacy of cascades generated by a gradient flow on a compact manifold without a boundary.     

Dirichlet and Neumann boundary conditions: What is in between?

Given an admissible measure μ on where is an open set, we define a realization of the Laplacian in with general Robin boundary conditions and we show that generates a holomorphic C ₀ -semigroup on which is sandwiched by the Dirichlet Laplacian and the Neumann Laplacian semigroups. Moreover, under a locality and a regularity assumption, the generator of each sandwiched semigroup is of the form . We also show that if contains smooth functions, then μ is of the form (where σ is the (n-1)-dimensional Hausdorff measure and β a positive measurable bounded function on ); i.e. we have the classical Robin boundary conditions. RID="h1" ID="h1"Dédié à Philippe Bénilan RID="*" ID="h1"This work is part of the DGF-Project: "Regularit?t und Asymptotik für elliptische und parabolische Probleme".     

What Is the Object of the Encapsulation of a Process?

Several theories have been proposed to describe the transition from process to object in mathematical thinking. Yet, what is the nature of this “object” produced by the “encapsulation” of a process? Here, we outline the development of some of the theories (including Piaget, Dienes, Davis, Greeno, Dubinsky, Sfard, Gray, and Tall) and consider the nature of the mental objects (apparently) produced through encapsulation and their role in the wider development of mathematical thinking. Does the same developmental route occur in geometry as in arithmetic and algebra? Is the same development used in axiomatic mathematics? What is the role played by imagery?     

What is the smallest possible constant in Céa’s lemma?

We consider finite element approximations of a second order elliptic problem on a bounded polytopic domain in ℝ^d with d ∈ {1, 2, 3, ...} The constant C ⩾ 1 appearing in Céa’s lemma and coming from its standard proof can be very large when the coefficients of an elliptic operator attain considerably different values. We restrict ourselves to regular families of uniform partitions and linear simplicial elements. Using a lower bound of the interpolation error and the supercloseness between the finite element solution and the Lagrange interpolant of the exact solution, we show that the ratio between discretization and interpolation errors is equal to as the discretization parameter h tends to zero. Numerical results in one and two-dimensional case illustrating this phenomenon are presented. This research was supported by Shandong Province Young Scientists Foundation of China 2005BS01008, Institutional Research Plan AV02 101 90503, and by Grant No A 1019201 of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic.     

What is the Rees algebra of a module?

In this paper we show that the Rees algebra can be made into a functor on modules over a ring in a way that extends its classical definition for ideals. The Rees algebra of a module may be computed in terms of a ``maximal' map from to a free module as the image of the map induced by on symmetric algebras. We show that the analytic spread and reductions of can be determined from any embedding of into a free module, and in characteristic 0--but not in positive characteristic!--the Rees algebra itself can be computed from any such embedding.

     

Existence and Blow-up for a Parabolic System from?Combustion Theory

We study the stability of the Solid Fuel Model, which represents a thermal reaction of a solid material. This model corresponds to a nonlinear eigenvalue problem of two strongly coupled nonlinear reaction–diffusion equations, with different boundary conditions on each unknown. We obtain a strong bifurcation criterion for the steady problem and estimates for the blow-up time in the unsteady case. In addition, numerical solutions of both the steady and unsteady problem are presented to illustrate the results.     

Perturbation Theory and the Analytic Approach in the Context of the Inclusive τ-Lepton Decay

We perform a comparative analysis of different forms of pertubative expansions in spacelike and timelike regions. In the context of the inclusive -lepton decay, we compare the results obtained using the standard perturbation theory and the Shirkov–Solovtsov analytic approach, which modifies the perturbative expansions such that the new approximations reflect basic principles of the theory, such as renormalization invariance, spectrality, and causality. We show the advantages and self-consistency of the analytic approach in describing the -lepton decay.     

Spaces over a Category and Assembly Maps in Isomorphism Conjectures in K‐ and L‐Theory

We give a unified approach to the Isomorphism Conjecture of Farrell and Jones on the algebraicKandLtheory of integral group rings and to the Baum–Connes Conjecture on the topologicalKtheory of reducedC*algebras of groups. The approach is through spectra over the orbit category of a discrete groupG.We give several points of view on the assembly map for a family of subgroups and characterize such assembly maps by a universal property generalizing the results of Weiss and Williams to the equivariant setting. The main tools are spaces and spectra over a category and their associated generalized homology and cohomology theories, and homotopy limits.     

Operational Research in the U.K. in 1977: The Causes and Consequences of a Myth?

Instead of maintaining the original ideal of having a broad scientific basis for practical Operational Research, it is suggested that the O.R. community has uncritically accepted a myth which views O.R. as a "Hard" (Physical or even Mathematical) Science. It is argued that this has had profound consequences which explain the present difficulties O.R. workers have with problems involving major Social or Behavioural features. It is concluded that the "Hard" Science myth must be replaced, and a return made to the original conception of O.R., if we are to assist effectively in the complex social issues we face today.     

When all trajectories in the Liénard plane cross the vertical isocline?

In this paper we study the problem whether all trajectories of the system =y–F(x) and =–g(x) cross the vertical isocline which is very important for the existence of periodic solutions and oscillation theory. The problem has not been solved for the critical case:

What do the arithmetic,geometric and harmonic means tell us in length-biased sampling?

Properties of the A.M., G.M. and H.M. for length-biased distributions are studied in a nonparametric fashion. Unbiased estimation of the coefficient of variation is considered, and a characterization of length-biased distributions is also made in this light.     

What did Gauss read in the Appendix?

In a clear analogy with spherical geometry, Lambert states that in an “imaginary sphere” the sum of the angles of a triangle would be less than π$\pi$. In this paper we analyze the role played by this imaginary sphere in the development of non-Euclidean geometry, and how it served Gauss as a guide. More precisely, we analyze Gauss’s reading of Bolyai’s Appendix in 1832, five years after the publication of Disquisitiones generales circa superficies curvas, on the assumption that his investigations into the foundations of geometry were aimed at finding, among the surfaces in space, Lambert’s hypothetical imaginary sphere. We also wish to show that the close relation between differential geometry and non-Euclidean geometry is already present in János Bolyai’s Appendix, that is, well before its appearance in Beltrami’s Saggio. From this point of view, one is able to answer certain natural questions about the history of non-Euclidean geometry; for instance, why Gauss decided not to write further on the subject after reading the Appendix.     

What is the smallest number of dicycles in a dicycle decomposition of an eulerian digraph?

A digraph D with n vertices is said to be decomposable into a set S of dicycles if every arc of D is contained in exactly one member of S. Counterexamples are given to the following conjectures which are generalizations of three well-known conjectures by G. Hajós, P. Erd?s, and P.J. Kelly: (1) [B. Jackson] Every eulerian-oriented graph is decomposable into at most \documentclass{article}\pagestyle{empty}\begin{document}$ \frac{n}{2} $\end{document} dicycles. (2) [W. Bienia & H. Meyniel] Every eulerian digraph is decomposable into at most n dicycles. Certain observations lead us to make three other conjectures: (a) Every eulerian-oriented graph is decomposable into at most \documentclass{article}\pagestyle{empty}\begin{document}$ \frac{{2n}}{3} $\end{document} dicycles. (b) Every symmetric digraph with n > 1 is decomposable into at most 2n – 3 dicycles. (c) Every eulerian digraph with n > 1 is decomposable into at most \documentclass{article}\pagestyle{empty}\begin{document}$ \frac{{8n}}{3} $\end{document} – 3 dicycles.     

What is the role and contribution of models to management and research in the health services? A view from Europe

Modelling in different forms has long been regarded as a cornerstone of health OR as in other fields of application. Models are now tending to become a standard tool in health services management and research. What are the lessons we as operational researchers have learnt during this development? How can health care managers and health service researchers benefit from modelling — with or without OR-analysts to guide them between the pitfalls? After an introductory overview concerning the nature and objectives of modelling, examples will be given of modelling applications from different health service areas in order to illustrate the versatility of the method. Further, the choice of methods and models is discussed with special attention to the problems of interpretation and implementation of results. From this overview some conclusions are drawn with regards to advantages and disadvantages of modelling as tools for policy planning and decision-making in the health area. Finally some observations are made concercing the conditions for the future development in the field.     

What is the probability an automorphism fixes a group element?

Extending the notion of probability to the automorphisms of a group, we find the probability of an arbitrarily chosen automorphism of a group fixing an arbitrary element of the group.