Snell's law of refraction did not affect the study of optics until twenty‐five years after its publication in 1637 and by then its universality threatened to break down already. Two optical phenomena—colour dispersion and strange refraction—were discovered that did not conform to the sine law. In the early 1670s, Isaac Newton and Christiaan Huygens respectively investigated these phenomena. They tried to describe the irregular behaviour of light rays mathematically and to reconcile it with ordinary refraction. This paper discusses their investigations (...) and aims at throwing new light on the history of seventeenth‐century optics. Both initially approached the problem in a mathematical way in which they built on Descartes' analysis of refraction. This is surprising because it contradicts their earlier dismissal of Descartes' account and it does not fit our picture of them as mathematical physicists. By looking more closely at their early investigations it becomes clear that Newton and Huygens first had to develop the approach to optics of their later writings. After Descartes placed the issue of the physical nature of light rays on the scientific agenda in 1637, they recognized its purport in their struggles with colour dispersion and strange refraction. It was at this point that their physical optics evolved from the traditional geometrical optics with which they had started. (shrink)

Isaac Beeckman was a master craftsman from the Zeeland town Middelburg who studied to become schoolmaster in the Holland towns of Rotterdam and Dordrecht. He was a strict Calvinist and a tireless observer and contemplator of natural phenomena. Foremost, he was the first mechanical philosopher in Europe who played a key role in the intellectual development of René Descartes and inspired pioneers of mechanistic thinking Marin Mersenne and Pierre Gassendi . We know this because Beeckman kept a journal throughout his (...) life in which he recorded his observations and ideas. The journal is a treasure trove of early modern knowing. Beeckman had a keen eye for the world around him and responded to what he saw, as well as the reflections of others, with a highly original mind. The journal was discovered in 1905 by Cornelis de Waard , who subsequently edited and published it between 1939 and 1953 . Although some acquainta .. (shrink)

Robert Smith’s A Compleat System of Opticks (1738) was the most prominent eighteenth-century text-book account of Newton’s optics. By rearranging the findings and conclusions of Opticks, it made them accessible to a wider public and at the same time refashioned Newton’s optics into a renewed science of optics. In this process, the optical parts of Principia were integrated, thus blending the experimental inferences and mechanistic hypotheses that Newton had carefully separated. The Compleat System was not isolated in its refashioning of (...) Newton’s optics. Dutch and English promoters of the new philosophy had preceded Smith by giving Opticks a text-book treatment, and they too integrated experimental and mechanistic inferences. In this way eighteenth-century text-books produced a natural philosophical discourse of light, colors and matter. This paper traces the refashioning of Newton’s optics in Dutch and English text-books of natural philosophy during the first half of the eighteenth century. It concludes with the Dutch translation of A Compleat System of Opticks and its reception among innovators of telescope manufacture. (shrink)

In the first decade of the eighteenth century, the Danish astronomer Ole Rømer (1644–1710) set out on a truly visionary project. In 1704, on a family property just outside his hometown Copenhagen,...

Book review of John Schuster: Descartes-agonistes: Physico-mathematics, method and corpuscular-mechanism 1618-33. (Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, Volume 27.) Dordrecht: Springer, 2013, xix + 631pp. Descartes-Agonistes is the magnum opus of John Schuster, formerly of the University of New South Wales, honorary fellow at the University of Sydney. Its roots go back to the dissertation he wrote 35 years ago under Thomas Kuhn at Princeton University. As Schuster correctly remarks, some regard his dissertation as an underground classic. I count (...) myself among them: Schuster’s work has been directional in my work on the history of early modern science. Schuster himself prefers to regard his dissertation as ‘a vestige’ of a history of science of the 1970s that he has since gone beyond. In the 1980s, he elaborated and published on some central insights in a series of seminal articles, but his work on Descartes really got into its stride again around the turn of the millennium (Schuster 1980, 1990; Gaukroger et al. 2000). This book is the acme of this work, and grand it is: clocking 600 pages (excluding appendices) it extends, deepens and reinforces his analysis of Descartes into a dense and .. (shrink)

In two experiments and two different research paradigms, we tested the hypothesis that Zen meditation increases access to accessible but unconscious information. Zen practitioners who meditated in the lab performed better on the Remote Associate Test than Zen practitioners who did not meditate. In a new, second task, it was observed that Zen practitioners who meditated used subliminally primed words more than Zen practitioners who did not meditate. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.

When talking about decisionmaking for children with a life-threatening condition, the death of children with brain tumors deserves special attention. The last days of the lives of these children can be particularly harsh for bystanders, and raise questions about the suffering of these children themselves. In the Netherlands, these children are part of the group for whom a wide range of end-of-life decisions are discussed, and questions raised. What does the end-of-life for these children look like, and what motivates physicians (...) and parents to make decisions that may affect the life and death of these children? This article highlights the story of the parents of the sisters Roos and Noor. When both their daughters were diagnosed with a hereditary brain tumor, they had to make similar decisions twice. Their story sheds light on the suffering of children in the terminal phase, and how this suffering may motivate parents and physicians to make decisions that influence the end of life of these children’s lives.We argue that complete knowledge about suffering in the terminal phase of children with brain tumors is impossible. However, by collecting experiences like those of Roos and Noor, we can move toward an experienced-based understanding and better guide parents and physicians through these hardest of decisions. (shrink)

In three experiments, the relation between different modes of thought and the generation of “creative” and original ideas was investigated. Participants were asked to generate items according to a specific instruction . They either did so immediately after receiving the instruction, or after a few minutes of conscious thought, or after a few minutes of distraction during which “unconscious thought” was hypothesized to take place. Throughout the experiments, the items participants listed under “unconscious thought” conditions were more original. It was (...) concluded that whereas conscious thought may be focused and convergent, unconscious thought may be more associative and divergent. (shrink)

Excerpt from Geschichte der Deutschen Philosophie Seit Leibniz Die präftabilirte @armonie 124. Demeiß be? Dafeinß (öotteß 125. (öotteäbegriff 128. Die befie 28elt unb ihre 92othroenbigteit 128. Determinifmuß 132; Dollfommenheit ber qbelt 133; Dheobicee 134; baß Döfe 140. Dranfcenbeng (R)otteä 143. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original (...) format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works. (shrink)

The book makes a direct contribution to the connection between phenomenology and cognitive science.

Probleme der Psychologie.--Proaktive Psychologie kontra reaktive Psychologie.

First published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

HEINRICH SCHIPPERGES vollendete am 17. Marz 1983 sein 65. Lebensjahr. Urn ihm eine Freude zu machen, ja urn ihm die gebiihrende Referenz zu erweisen, hatte sich am 19. Marz im Auditorium der Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften ein Kreis von Gratulanten eingefun­ den. Die Sprecher brachten ihre Gabe, je einen Beitrag aus dem eigenen Arbeitsgebiet, zum Vortrag, und der lubilar selbst griff in die Speichen. Er zeigte, was er unter "An­ thropologie" versteht. Nicht aIle Beitdige zu diesem Buche konnten miindlich ausgebreitet (...) werden, aus auBeren Grunden. Nicht alles, was gesagt wurde, konnte gedruckt werden, aus ganz verschiedenen sachlichen Grunden. Es ist nur natiirlich, daB in unserem Buche die historischen Aspekte iiberwiegen. Andererseits geht es gewiI3 nicht nur urn "Geschichte" und "Problemgeschichte", sondern urn klarende und kritische Untersuchungen zum Stand der "Hildegard-Forschung", zum Krankheits-, zum ModeIlbe­ griff, urn Gestalttheorie und Krankheitsforschung, - urn nur einiges zu nennen. Die Darstellung unserer "Aspekte" bringt, wie ich denke, zwei Kostbarkeiten: den Bericht der ehrwiirdigen Frau Sr. ADELGUNDIS FUHRKOTIER OSB iiber die Frage, was ist gesichert im literarischen Nachlaj3 der hI. Hildegard von Bingen, und die bezaubernde Geschichte der Vorwor­ ter der Dedikationsliteratur des 12. bis 17. sc. durch einen der besten Kenner des Prooemium, den lubilar selbst. Unser Buch enthalt elf wissenschaftliche Beitrage und eine bibliographische Materialsammlung zur Medizinischen Anthropologie. Dieser Beitrag will dem, der sich orientie­ ren muB, was diese Anthropologie darstellt und wie sie ge­ worden ist, einen "Handapparat" geben. (shrink)

Stephenson (2022) has argued that Kant’s thesis that all transcendental truths are transcendentally a priori knowable leads to omniscience of all transcendental truths. His arguments depend on luminosity principles and closure principles for transcendental knowability. We will argue that one pair of a luminosity and a closure principle should not be used, because the closure principle is too strong, while the other pair of a luminosity and a closure principle should not be used, because the luminosity principle is too strong. (...) Stephenson’s argument also depends on a factivity principle for transcendental knowability, which we will argue to be false. (shrink)

1. Die erste Hälfte des Kommentars, mit Ausnahme der Kapitel über die Weltseele.

'What is real?' has been one of the key questions of philosophy since its beginning in antiquity. But it is not just a question that philosophers ask. This Very Short Introduction discusses what reality is by looking at a variety of arguments, theories, and thought-experiments from philosophy, physics, and cognitive science.