An overview is provided of how the concept of the thought experiment has developed and changed for the natural sciences in the course of the 20th century. First, we discuss the existing definitions of the term 'thought experiment' and the origin of the thought experimentation method, identifying it in Greek Presocratics epoch. Second, only in the end of the 19th century showed up the first systematic enquiry on thought experiments by Ernst Mach's work. After the Mach's work, a negative attitude (...) towards thought experiments came in the beginning of the 20th century, which went on until the Thomas Kuhn's and Karl Popper's work on thought experiments. Only from the mid-1980s did thought experiments begin to be considered relevant to scientific enterprise. Finally, we show the existing empirical and 'functional' theories which have developed about the nature and purpose of thought experiments. (shrink)

La foi est un héritage des apôtres, transmis par leurs successeurs dans l'Eglise, et dont le contenu doit être sauvegardé intègre. Le devoir, devant cette tradition de la foi, fait dire à saint Maxime: " Avant tout et pour tout, soyons sobres et vigilants, surveillant les attaques des voleurs, afin que nous ne soyons pas dépouillés par eux; gardons surtout le grand et le premier remède de notre salut, je veux dire l'excellent héritage de la foi, la confessant ouvertement dans (...) le corps et dans l'âme, comme les Pères nous ont instruits " (Lettre 12, PG 91, 4651). Cette exhortation constitue le principe sur lequel saint Maxime base toute son attitude face aux dangers des attaques hérétiques contre la foi. Prévoit-il de manière prophétique son cheminement vers la confession de la foi? (shrink)

Human-Computer Interaction and games set a new domain in understanding people’s motivations in gaming, behavioral implications of game play, game adaptation to player preferences and needs for increased engaging experiences in the context of HCI serious games. When the latter relate with people’s health status, they can become a part of their daily life as assistive health status monitoring/enhancement systems. Co-designing HCI-SGs can be seen as a combination of art and science that involves a meticulous collaborative process. The design elements (...) in assistive HCI-SGs for Parkinson’s Disease patients, in particular, are explored in the present work. Within this context, the Game-Based Learning design framework is adopted here and its main game-design parameters are explored for the Exergames, Dietarygames, Emotional games, Handwriting games, and Voice games design, drawn from the PD-related i-PROGNOSIS Personalized Game Suite holistic approach. Two main data sources were involved in the study. In particular, the first one includes qualitative data from semi-structured interviews, involving 10 PD patients and four clinicians in the co-creation process of the game design, whereas the second one relates with data from an online questionnaire addressed by 104 participants spanning the whole related spectrum, i.e., PD patients, physicians, software/game developers. Linear regression analysis was employed to identify an adapted GBL framework with the most significant game-design parameters, which efficiently predict the transferability of the PGS beneficial effect to real-life, addressing functional PD symptoms. The findings of this work can assist HCI-SG designers for designing PD-related HCI-SGs, as the most significant game-design factors were identified, in terms of adding value to the role of HCI-SGs in increasing PD patients’ quality of life, optimizing the interaction with personalized HCI-SGs and, hence, fostering a collaborative human-computer symbiosis. (shrink)

Οι γεωμορφολογικές και παλυνολογικές έρευνες γύρω από την τούμπα Ντικιλί Τας βοηθούν στην καλύτερη κατανόηση των χαρακτηριστικών της χωροθέτησης του προϊστορικού οικισμού και της εξέλιξης των παλαιοπεριβαλλοντων από τη Νεότερη Νεολιθική έως το τέλος της Εποχής του Χαλκού. Ο οικισμός βρίσκεται μεταξύ των παρυφών της οροσειράς της Λεκάνης και του παλαιού έλους των Φιλίππων. Σε μεγάλη κλίμακα, η γεωμορφολογική κατάσταση εμφανίζεται πολυσύνθετη : ο σχηματισμός μιας γλώσσας στο περίγραμμα του παλαιού έλους και ένα μικρό κοίλωμα του εδάφους στους πρόποδες της (...) τούμπας επιτείνουν την πολυμορφία του τοπίου και την πολυπλοκότητα της εξέλιξης του. Οι παλυνολογικές έρευνες, παρά το υδρομορφολογικό περιβάλλον που δεν ευνόησε πάντοτε τη διατήρηση της γύρης, φωτίζουν το συσχετισμό μεταξύ τοπικής απογύμνωσης της χλωρίδας και σχετικής σταθερότητας της βλάστησης στην ευρύτερη περιοχή. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Onitsura's Makoto and the Daoist Concept of the NaturalPeipei QiuIn haikai history, Uejima Onitsura (1661-1738) is famous for the following statement concerning the nature of comic linked verse: "Without makoto, there would be no haikai."1 The two Japanese terms used in this statement, haikai and makoto, present an obvious semantic conflict. Makoto in Japanese basically means "truth," "faithfulness," and "genuineness."2haikai, on the other hand, literally means "facetiousness" or "humor." (...) The term is used to refer to facetious poems in Japan since the first imperial poetic anthology, the Kokin wakashū (905). When haikai no renga (comic linked verse) became a popular genre during the later medieval and early Edo periods, it was conceived basically as a playful and facetious poem. By saying that "without makoto there would be no haikai," Onitsura declared a revolutionary change in the nature of the comic linked verse, a reform carried out by the joint effort of a number of haikai poets during the last two decades of the seventeenth century. Before this change took place, haikai had been characterized as a poem of "free exaggerations" and "the most deluding falsehoods."3 The shift of the critical emphasis from falsehood to truthfulness transformed the genre from an entertaining pastime to a serious literary form.An important notion in haikai poetics, Onitsura's makoto has garnered wide scholarly attention. But, because of the lack of a clear definition by the author himself, over the years scholars have been debating the precise meaning of Onitsura's makoto and trying to discover its derivation through various sources. The filiation of makoto has been traced to Zen Buddhist doctrine,4 traditional waka poetics,5 and Confucian teaching.6 The assumption that Onitsura's makoto originates in Zen doctrine is based on the preface that Onitsura wrote to Haidō Enō roku (The Way of haikai: Notes on Huineng's teaching) (1680). The preface begins with the following lines:Printed poetry books are not trees; the paper on which a poem is written also has no stand. "From the beginning not a thing is"—this is the key to my haikai.7Peculiar at first glance, these lines are derived from the legendary gatha of Huineng (Enō), the Sixth Patriarch of Zen Buddhism. Huineng's gatha appears in section 8 of Liuzu fabao tanjing (The Platform Sūtra of the Sixth Patriarch):Bodhi originally has no tree,The mirror also has no stand.From the beginning not a thing is,Where is there room for dust?8 [End Page 232]The third line of the verse, "From the beginning not a thing is", is regarded by some scholars, especially some Japanese writers, as the most important doctrine Huineng contributed to Zen Buddhism.9 It is believed that the focus on the original nothingness, or original purity, of Buddha nature distinguishes Huineng's doctrine of sudden enlightenment from those of his predecessors. Okada argues that the Zen notion of original nothingness was the major source that awakened Onitsura to the necessity of haikai reform and led him to the conclusion that "without makoto there would be no haikai."10Okada's study is enlightening in examining Onitsura's early views of poetry. It is not, however, very convincing to say that this Zen verse alone was responsible for the formation of Onitsura's makoto. For one thing, the poet's own writings suggest that Onitsura realized the significance of Huineng's words after he had become aware of the true way of haikai. In the same preface cited above, Onitsura writes:Only after I became awakened to the true way of haikai did I begin to understand the significance of Master Huineng's words "not a thing is." I see [that] many poets in the haikai circles nowadays have ignored the true way of haikai while arguing endlessly over the old and new styles. I feel sorry for them.11It is clear from Onitsura's words here that he borrowed the Zen term mainly to criticize the mannerism among the haikai poets of his time. He was calling for the haikai poets to put aside their prejudice about the stylistic differences and open their minds... (shrink)