We summarize the essential ingredients, which enabled us to derive the path-integral for a system of harmonically interacting spin-polarized identical particles in a parabolic confining potential, including both the statistics (Bose–Einstein or Fermi–Dirac) and the harmonic interaction between the particles. This quadratic model, giving rise to repetitive Gaussian integrals, allows to derive an analytical expression for the generating function of the partition function. The calculation of this generating function circumvents the constraints on the summation over the cycles of the permutation (...) group. Moreover, it allows one to calculate the canonical partition function recursively for the system with harmonic two-body interactions. Also, static one-point and two-point correlation functions can be obtained using the same technique, which make the model a powerful trial system for further variational treatments of realistic interactions. (shrink)

Joachim Schulte’s introduction provides a distinctive and masterful account of the full range of Wittgenstein’s thought. It is concise but not compressed, substantive but not overloaded with developmental or technical detail, informed by the latest scholarship but not pedantic. Beginners will find it accessible and seasoned students of Wittgenstein will appreciate it for the illuminating overview it provides.

The passivity is for many the key of Michel Henry’s phenomenology. Ricoeur, ‘Soi-même comme un autre’, recognizes that, in Henry’s work, passivity is a witness to alterity taking this concept out of ties of the speculative speech. On the other side, Marion being, however, aware of it, as stated in his essay ‘La chair ou la donation de soi’ argues that essence ‘sentante’ is prior to ‘l’épreuve de soi’. I’ll try to disclose further in this work that essence ‘sentante’ is (...) the passivity itself. Thus more than witnessing (Ricoeur) or appropriating (Marion), the others and the limits are data of affective life in three passivity levels, ranging from sensations, feelings and affections. (shrink)

Breastfeeding advocates and global health agencies have been sounding alarms about the dangers of digital marketing practices of the formula-feeding industry. This study comprised a feminist discourse analysis of materials produced (blog, social media posts, comments) in a paid partnership between baby formula brand Enfamil and an influencer, Marilou Bourdon from Trois fois par jour. Our analysis reveals a sophisticated marketing campaign that co-opts feminist critiques of breastfeeding promotion discourse while carefully avoiding explicitly violating the International Code of Marketing of (...) Breast-milk Substitutes. Underlying this campaign is a rhetoric reliant on pathos to assuage maternal guilt and shame for feeding formula. (shrink)

IntroductionThe identity thesis asserts that for every psychological state P there is a neural state N such that P=N. In the hope of rendering IT clear and plausible many identity theorists have compared psycho-neural identity claims to such theoretical identities as temperature is identical with molecular mean kinetic energy. However such a comparison admits a weak and a strong interpretation. According to the weak interpretation, psycho-neural identities are said to be like theoretical identities in the sense that the former are (...) contingent claims just as the latter are presumed to be. Identity theorists have appealed to the contingent status of IT in order to meet prima facie objections of the following sort. We can imagine ourselves undergoing a pain, although we are not undergoing the neural process which the identity theorist claims is identical with the pain. Indeed we can imagine ourselves being in pain and yet not having a brain at all. Hence IT is false. Identity theorists have replied by arguing that this objection merely shows that IT is not a necessary truth, or that psychological and neurological terms do not have the same meaning. (shrink)

This essay sketches out key features of the religious philosophy of the thirteenth- century Japanese Buddhist figure Nichiren 日蓮, and considers his worldview and teaching in the context of the contemporary global scene. Nichiren’s Buddhist worldview can be understood as manifesting a fourfold structure, with a 1) view of the problematic of the human condition, 2) a teaching on ultimate reality and human ultimate destiny, 3) a prescription for the attainment of this ultimate reality/destiny, and 4) social expressions of this (...) ultimate way. Examining Nichiren’s authenticated writings, this essay will lay out the elements of that fourfold structure and offer reflections on how these relate to contemporary issues. (shrink)

In the anthropology of Gregory of Elvira there converge different lines of thought. On the one hand he is very dependent on Origen, on the other there is to be found in him the mental framework of Irenaeus and he quotes word for word long passages from Tertullian. The article attempts to determine to what extent, starting from those influences he encountered, Gregory has developed a personal vision of the relationship between Adam and Christ along the double line of the (...) Pauline parallel : sin and grace, initial creation and eschatological fulfilment. If some characteristic passages stress much this second aspect, the majority of the texts analyzed concentrate primarily on the theme of redemption. The reason for the prefiguration of Christ in the creation of Adam, so important for Irenaeus and Tertullian, does not have in Gregory the prominent place which one might have expected to find. (shrink)

The relation between Jesus and the Spirit appears in diverse occasions and in different contexts in Gregory. Jesus has sanctified the waters in his baptism, from his body springs the Spirit whom he has received in the Jordan, he is the «anointed», the «Christ» par excellence who gives the Holy Spirit to people at Pentecost. The theology of the baptism of the Lord calls for special attention; it takes place at an interesting moment of transition. On the one hand, the (...) effusion of the Spirit on the humanity of Jesus does not create any problem for Gregory who distinguishes it clearly from the incarnation of the Son. On the other hand, the initiative of the Father in this unction is not paid special attention to, nor does it seem that it has a special significance for Jesus himself and the beginning of his mission in the world. However, much stress is given to the ecclesiological dimension of the descent of the Spirit in the baptism of Christ. On him comes the Spirit in fullness, as he will also abide in fullness in the whole Church which is his Body. Each of the Christians receives only a partial gift which must contribute to the perfection of the whole. (shrink)