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The essays in this volume all originated at the 2001 conference of the International Society for the Study of Time. The theme 'Time and Uncertainty' sounds redundant, but the contributions try to come to terms with the irreducible openness of time and the impermanence of life. The essays from various disciplines have been grouped around 'fracture and rupture' (grappling with time and uncertainty as a breach) and 'rapture and structure (solving uncertainty into pattern).
The nature of time has haunted humankind through the ages. Some conception of time has always entered into our ideas about mortality and immortality, and permanence and change, so that concepts of time are of fundamental importance in the study of religion, philosophy, literature, history, and mythology. On one aspect or another, the study of time cuts across all disciplines. The International Society for the Study of Time has as its goal the interdisciplinary and comparative study of time. This volume presents selected essays from the 12th triennial conference of the International Society for the Study of Time at Clare College, Cambridge. The essays are clustered around themes that pertain to the constructive and destructive nature of memory in representations and manipulations of time. The volume is divided into three sections Inscribing and Forgetting, Inventing, and Commemoration wherein the authors grapple with the nature of memory as a medium that reflects the passage of time.
Lifting the Scientific Veil has been written to afford the nonscience student the same meaningful opportunity to explore germane scientific topics as is generally given the science student to learn about the humanities and social sciences. Since nonscientists are generally responsible for making laws, financing research, or, at the very least, for voting, it is essential that they understand the significant impact that science has on everyday life. The book is designed to introduce nonscientists in an informative and comprehensible manner to four of the most significant scientific theories of the twentieth century: the big bang, quantum physics, relativity, and evolution. After each theory is explained informally, the book shows how that theory and related technology impact upon one's personal life. Legal and political aspects of these theories are explored as well as philosophical and theological implications.
The present volume of Time and Science series is devoted to Physical Sciences and Cosmology. Today more than ever, the question 'is Time an ontological property, a necessary ingredient for the physical description of the world, or a purely epistemological element, relative to our situation in the world?' worry physicists and cosmologists alike. For many of them, Relativity (and particularly General Relativity), as well as its reconciliation with quantum mechanics in the elaboration of a quantum theory of gravitation, points to a negative answer to the first alternative, and leads them to deny the objective reality of time. For others, the answer is nuanced by the evidence of an emerging temporal property when one climbs the scales of the complexity of systems and/or the applicability of the statistical laws of thermodynamics. But for some, the illusion of the unreality of time comes from certain confusions that they denounce, and plead for the re-establishment of time at the heart of physical theories.
Directory of foreign diplomatic officers in Washington.
This thirteenth volume in the interdisciplinary Study of Time series explores the way in which limits and constraints impact upon our understanding of time.
In this volume, 12 eminent scientists and philosophers engage in fundamental, perennial questions about time: Does time exist? Is 'time' a single or multiple entity? Is it possible to reconcile contradictory notions of time, such as subjective and objective, metaphysics and physics, McTaggart's A series and B series, or presentism and eternalism? Does the Special Theory of Relativity dictate a static, deterministic account of reality ('block universe') or does it allow for 'free will'? How did the concept of geologic time originate and what are the limits of its knowledge? How is the Anthropocene defined? Each author examines these questions from the point of view of their own specialties, but without ignoring the metaphysical importance of the issue, nor the possibility that scientific advances might enforce revisions of our brain intuitive judgments.
This volume explores the ontological, epistemic, and political implications of rethinking time as a dynamic and irreversible force. Its authors seek to stimulate research in the sciences and humanities which highlight the temporal foundations.
Prominent scientists and philosophers of science address contemporary debates on the nature of Time. Their contributions freely discuss its unity and reality, its compatibility with the orders of classical philosophy (present, past and future) and with the disputed idea of free will (Volume 1). They also present a detailed and updated state of the role of Time in the so-called exact sciences: biology — or more precisely genetics, evolution, neurosciences, natural and artificial intelligence (Volume 2) , and physics — relativity, quantum mechanics and quantum gravity, and cosmology (Volume 3).
Aging is an almost universal process within biological systems, one which leads to a decline in functional capacity, disease onset, and eventually death. There has been much interest in recent years to elucidate the molecular mec- nisms that underlie the aging process. Many theories have been proposed since the last century that aim to explain the causes of aging. There is no one theory that completely satisfies the phenotype of aging, but genetics and environm- tal factors play an important role in the etiology of age-related pathologies and the aging process. However, there is still much to be learned about the aging process which has been termed one of the last great frontiers in biology....