The book is a historical investigation of the problem of infinity in Greek ontology and physics - more specifically, the problem of the infinite size of the world and of its eternal existence, the problem of the infinity of worlds, of infinite divisibility of matter, of infinity of attributes or attribute modes (e.g., infinity of atom shapes), and the problem of infinity of nonphysical entities such as mathematical constructs. The view espoused here is that infinity was of paramount importance for (...) Greek philosophers even if it was not explicitly discussed by them. It served as an unspoken assumption without which Greek philosophy could hardly be possible. (shrink)

Steady technological and economic progress gives science and the scientific method a distinguished position in today's culture. Therefore, there may be an impression that areas not belonging to science may hamper this progress of humanity. The views of Dean E. Wooldridge exemplify this position. The only hope is seen in the rational dimension of man in which there is no room for ethical considerations. This rational dimension is also the sole representation of man in the image created by artificial intelligence. (...) Before, AI was at least interested in philosophical issues concerning a model of man, now, AI has no interest in them; it has become an applied science trying to produce workable systems for military and industrial application. However, the model of rational man remained, and because of the prestige of computer science, the model is the most widely recognized as an official model of our epoch.There are three possible ways of improving the situation with regard to the moral dimension of man: saturating knowledge bases with moral values, carefully choosing the sponsor of each project, and saturating education with ethics by making it a part of each major on the undergraduate, and, in particular, the graduate levels. (shrink)

The question whether or not computers can think was first asked in print by Alan Turing in his seminal 1950 article. In order to avoid defining what a computer is or what thinking is, Turing resorts to “the imitation game” which is a test that allows us to determine whether or not a machine can think. That is, if an interrogator is unable to tell whether responses to his questions come from a human being or from a machine, the machine (...) is imitating a human being so well that it has to be acknowledged that these responses result from its thinking. However, then as now, it is not an indisputable claim that machines could think, and an unceasing stream of papers discussing the validity of the test proves this point. There are many arguments in favour of, as well as against, the claims borne by the test, and Turing himself discusses some of them. In his view, there are mice possible objections to the concept of a thinking machine, which he eventually dismisses as weak, irrelevant, or plain false. However, as he admits, he can present “no very convincing arguments of a positive nature to support my views. If I had I should not have taken such pains to point out the fallacies in contrary views”. (shrink)

In Anaxagoras’ system, cosmic Mind is one, indivisible and immutable and thus cannot be divided into parts, into individual minds residing in living beings. The same Mind is in one living being as it is in another. Also, the soul is an individual entity, one soul in one living being. Mind does manifest itself in a living being, not as the soul, but through the soul. Mind must be constantly present in the individual soul for the soul to be capable (...) of thought. Only in this sense could the soul’s dormant cognitive ability be called an individual mind. However, for man, only this life remains, although man is highest in the hierarchy among existing beings. Mind seems to make man alive and rational so that man can admire its handiwork, the order and harmony of the world. But this is where man’s cosmic role ends. (shrink)

Nikolai Bugaev was a mathematician keenly interested in philosophy. He stressed the role of discontinuity in his mathematical research that he called arithmology. He also emphasized the importance of discontinuity in nature which he embodied in his version of monadology. The article discusses the viability of his philosophical investigations.

In his _Studies of nature_ and _Harmonies of nature_ Saint-Pierre presented a panoramic view of nature as the work of omnipotent and benevolent God, whose providential care about His creation is everywhere visible. In this way, he wanted to call people to the life worthy of God, the life to be rewarded after death. The article discusses the nature of the universalist reward envisioned by Saint-Pierre in the light of his discussion of the spiritual nature of the human being. His (...) view of this nature evolved and was not presented in entirely coherent fashion. (shrink)

There seems to exist an indirect link between computer science and theology via psychology, which is founded on dualism. First, these theories from psychology, computer science and theology are considered that acknowledge the existence of (at least) two different kinds of reality, or, possibly, two different realms of the same reality. In order to express a root of incompatibility of science and theology, a distinction is drawn between ontological and epistemological dualism. It seems that computer science combines ontological monism with (...) epistemological monism, theology combines ontological and epistemological dualism, and psychologytakes a position of epistemological monism and is quite hesitant about the ontological status of the phenomena it analyzes. A direct transition from the computer metaphor to theology is almost impossible: there is no overlap of platforms between these domains. (shrink)

There seems to exist an indirect link between computer science and theology via psychology, which is founded on dualism. First, these theories from psychology, computer science and theology are considered that acknowledge the existence of (at least) two different kinds of reality, or, possibly, two different realms of the same reality. In order to express a root of incompatibility of science and theology, a distinction is drawn between ontological and epistemological dualism. It seems that computer science combines ontological monism with (...) epistemological monism, theology combines ontological and epistemological dualism, and psychologytakes a position of epistemological monism and is quite hesitant about the ontological status of the phenomena it analyzes. A direct transition from the computer metaphor to theology is almost impossible: there is no overlap of platforms between these domains. (shrink)

Logic and theology were two domains of great importance to Bolzano. His attempt to reconcile the demands of these two domains led Bolzano to very strong logical realism, or, objectivism, whereby theology could be put on a firm ground. The paper analyzes the problem of objective concepts, propositions, and truths, with an attempt to give an interpretation of these entities, to account for their puzzling ontological status in Bolzano’s system.

Reason has very often been seen as the highest faculty of man and, therefore, a strong tendency to attempt to analyze man mainly in terms of the rational dimension exists. This tendency was strong in antiquity and was given renewed attention in the seventeenth century.

In this paper, a lesson is drawn from the way class definitions are provided in object-oriented programming. The distinction is introduced between the visible structure given in a class definition and the hidden structure, and then possible connections are indicated between these two structures and the structure of an entity modeled by the class definition.