The paper questions some of the premises in studying academic spin-offs in developed countries, claiming that when taken as characteristics of ‘academic spin-offs per se,’ they are of little help in understanding the phenomenon in the Eastern European countries during the transitional and post-transitional periods after 1989. It argues for the necessity of adopting a path-dependent approach, which takes into consideration the institutional and organisational specificities of local economies and research systems and their evolution, which strongly influence the patterns of (...) spin-off activity. The paper provides new findings and original arguments in support of Balazs’ seminal theses (Balazs 1995, 1996) about the emergence of academic spin-offs during the early transition. It reveals key economic and policy mechanisms bearing on academic entrepreneurship in Eastern Europe, such as the tensions between economic and political nomenclatures of former Communist Parties, where the dismantling or preservation of the power of political nomenclature resulted in different patterns of development—rapid reforms in the ‘first wave’ of EU accession countries or the establishment of rent-seeking and assets-stripping economies in countries like Bulgaria and Romania, making the transition period especially difficult. In the latter, a specific economic environment emerged, unknown in Western Europe and in the ‘champions’ of transition—such as suppression of the authentic entrepreneurship in a number of economic sectors, disintegration of corporate structures, etc. Thus, the paper reveals the common ground behind the two conflicting tendencies in post-socialist academic spin-offs, partially outlined in other research (Simeonova 1995; Pavlova 2000): as an authentic form of academic entrepreneurship grasping the opportunities opened up by the economic crisis and compensating failures in science and technology policy on the one hand, and as specific rent-seeking strategy draining valuable public assets on the other (the latter, in turn, boosting the negative attitudes in local scientific communities). The paper provides new findings about the evolution of the academic spin-offs in Bulgaria along the two polar trends and their positive and negative repercussions on parent research institutions. The results were achieved in the PROKNOW Project, EC 6th Framework Program. (shrink)

We are demonstrating that the Luttinger model with short range interaction can be treated as a type of Fermi liquid. In line with the main dogma of Landau’s theory one can define a fermion excitation renormalized by interaction and show that in terms of these fermions any excited state of the system is described by free particles. The fermions are a mixture of renormalized right and left electrons. The electric charge and chirality of the Landau quasi-particle is discussed.

Artificial intelligence research connected with learning theory ("deep learning," “machine learning,” analysis of the quality of learning, etc.) has existed for many years; however, there have been few investigations in that area conducted from a robust philosophical methodological basis.

In this book we attempted to gather together a set of chapters that describe new ways of approaching questions about aesthetics and innovation. Rather than going over old ground, the chapters describe attempts to break out in new directions. The book begins with a description of von Ehrenfels development of a Gestalt theory of aesthetics so evocative of the Vienna of 1900 that readers will wish that they had been there to experience the intellectual excitement and ends with a survey (...) the very latest research on brain scan research on perception of art. In between, we encounter chapters as diverse as a description of cognitive effects on art perception and on the analogies between oscillations in art history and waves in the physical world. About half of the book contains chapters by well known western psychological aestheticians and half chapters by Russian scholars many of whom will be new to western readers. As well as describing new methods and results, the chapters by Russian scholars will be novel to most western readers, because the Russian perspective on aesthetics and innovation is rather different than the traditional western perspectives. Looking at phenomena from new viewpoints never hurts and very often helps in science. (shrink)

Alfred North Whitehead's (1861-1947) 'Philosophy of Organism' offers an important, indeed fundamental, metaphysical doctrine. It is the product of a long adventure of ideas and has many complementary aspects. The present book does not claim to achieve a complete description of all the aspects of the late Whitehead's worldview. Its aim is rather to stress some specific features of his teachings, such as his views concerning rationality, dynamic holism, things and objects, events, anticipation, creativity, nature, organism, and life. This book (...) should be useful not only for process philosophers, but also for all scholars who are interested in the development of process philosophical ideas"--Introduction, page 7. (shrink)

It is expedient, timely and even urgent to question again Whitehead's approach to education and learning. It is expedient, because education remains (one of) the most important cultural factors. It is timely, because of the need to investigate the efficacy of the process philosophical approach in the context of the growing influence of artificial intelligence. It is urgent, because artificial intelligence gains traction in the context of a global systemic crisis."--Page 4 of cover.

The systematic mapping of the interplay of ontology and epistemology in the context of present day philosophy of mathematics constitutes an important heuristic goal. In order to achieve it, we must analyze and reinterpret the position of mathematics in philosophy." -- Back cover.

In the last decades ontology has been successfully developed in many directions and has fostered various approaches for depicting the contemporary ontological landscapes. An important task is to outline recent thought on the conceptual interfaces between science and philosophy. The present volume opens up a view onto the plurality of different ontological schemes. The papers collected here discuss the interfaces between ontology and empirical research that are created by the notions of a whole, a thought, a number, a quality, an (...) ability, a kind, notions of causation, dynamicity, and social objects, the application of relevant logical tools for the reconsideration of ontological paradigms, as well as the investigation of the consequences in cognitive sciences on the development of ontology. (shrink)

The subject of the present exposition is namely the discussion of the question when and how process philosophy has entered into the European cultural tradition. We could approach this question in two ways: the philosophical and the historical perspective. We shall focus of our attention on both perspectives, which concern the return of process philosophy in Europe after its original moulding as a contemporary philosophical trend by Whitehead and his immediate followers. If we trace and systematize chronologically the acts of (...) influence of Whitehead’s works on eminent scientists and philosophers in Europe, we can provisionally outline three stages. The paper evaluates the manner in which process philosophy became so attractive for the European philosophical thought. At the present time we can definitely conclude that it is confirmed the existence of “a school” of representatives of process philosophy in Europe. (shrink)