Seduced by Logic

Seduced by Logic PDF Author: Robyn Arianrhod
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780702237386
Category : Mathematicians
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
From the acclaimed author of Einstein's Heroes, comes the gripping story of two of the most glamorous and influential women of mathematics Issac Newton's Principia changed forever humanity's understanding of its place in the universe - not with the traditional tools of theology or philosophy but with the seductive logic of mathematics. But it was feisty French aristocratic Émilie du Châtelet who played a key role in bring Newton's revolutionary opus to a Continental audience. Together with her lover Voltaire, Émilie - a largely self taught scholar - personified the exciting mix of science, literature, politics and philosophy that defined the Enlightenment. A century later, In Scotland, Mary Somerville taught herself mathematics and rose from genteel poverty to become a world authority on Newtonian physics. Mary's many books, and her charm, made her a legend in her own lifetime. Connected by their passion for mathematics, Mary and Émilie bring to life a defining period in science and politics, revealing the intimate links between the unfolding Newtonian revolution and the origins of intellectual and political liberty. Seduced by Logic is a thrilling foray into the lives of these extraordinary women - and the fascinating ideas that seduced them both. PRAISE FOR ROBYN ARIANRHOD'S EINSTEIN'S HEROES 'Robyn Arianrhod's passion for mathematics is so infectious, you'll scream 'Eureka' when you read her book.' HERALD-SUN 'I read this exhilarating book as I would a novel. Arianrhod combines a passion for her subject with an erudition that is rate for a storyteller' Robyn Williams, ABC'S THE SCIENCE SHOW

Seduced by Logic

Seduced by Logic PDF Author: Robyn Arianrhod
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780702237386
Category : Mathematicians
Languages : en
Pages : 352

Get Book Here

Book Description
From the acclaimed author of Einstein's Heroes, comes the gripping story of two of the most glamorous and influential women of mathematics Issac Newton's Principia changed forever humanity's understanding of its place in the universe - not with the traditional tools of theology or philosophy but with the seductive logic of mathematics. But it was feisty French aristocratic Émilie du Châtelet who played a key role in bring Newton's revolutionary opus to a Continental audience. Together with her lover Voltaire, Émilie - a largely self taught scholar - personified the exciting mix of science, literature, politics and philosophy that defined the Enlightenment. A century later, In Scotland, Mary Somerville taught herself mathematics and rose from genteel poverty to become a world authority on Newtonian physics. Mary's many books, and her charm, made her a legend in her own lifetime. Connected by their passion for mathematics, Mary and Émilie bring to life a defining period in science and politics, revealing the intimate links between the unfolding Newtonian revolution and the origins of intellectual and political liberty. Seduced by Logic is a thrilling foray into the lives of these extraordinary women - and the fascinating ideas that seduced them both. PRAISE FOR ROBYN ARIANRHOD'S EINSTEIN'S HEROES 'Robyn Arianrhod's passion for mathematics is so infectious, you'll scream 'Eureka' when you read her book.' HERALD-SUN 'I read this exhilarating book as I would a novel. Arianrhod combines a passion for her subject with an erudition that is rate for a storyteller' Robyn Williams, ABC'S THE SCIENCE SHOW

Seduced by Logic

Seduced by Logic PDF Author: Robyn Arianrhod
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199931615
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 345

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Book Description
Du Chatelet translated Newton's Principia into French (it is still the accepted translation), and Somerville (100 years later) translated LaPlace's Celestial mechanics into English, where her translation served as an advanced textbook for many years.

Damned by Logic

Damned by Logic PDF Author: Jeffrey Ashford
Publisher: Severn House Publishers Ltd
ISBN: 1780104111
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 175

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Book Description
On-board the MV Helios, cruising around the Mediterranean, copywriter David Ansell is seeking inspiration to write a glowing account of his voyage for the ship’s owner, Rex Cruising Company. His inspiration comes in the form of the blonde and beautiful Melanie Caine and they are inseparable for the rest of the cruise. Back home in suburbia with his wife, Ansell is pining for Melanie, so is delighted to get a call from her summoning him to meet her – along with the toy monkey she asked him to take through customs for her. When she doesn’t turn up, he assumes she’s got cold feet and no longer wants to pursue their relationship. However, when reports of a woman’s body being found, horrifically tortured, are aired on the news – and Ansell’s home is broken into with tragic consequences – it seems there’s something that Ansell may have that someone will do anything to find . . .

Neurosis

Neurosis PDF Author: Wolfgang Giegerich
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000062384
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 387

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Book Description
Psychoanalysis began over a century ago as a treatment for neurosis. Rooted in the positivistic mindset of the medicine from which it stemmed, it trained its empiricist gaze directly upon the symptoms of the malaise, only to be seduced into attributing it to causes as numerous as there are aspects of human experience. Edifying as this was for our understanding of the life of the psyche, it left the sickness of the soul that was its actual subject matter, the neurosis which it was supposed to be about, out of its purview. The crux of this problem was of a conceptual nature. As psychology increasingly gave up on its constituting concept, its concept of soul, it succumbed to the same extent to treating its patients without an adequate concept of what both it and neurosis were about. Attention was paid to mishaps and traumas, the vicissitudes of development, and the Oedipus complex. But neurosis, according to the thesis of this ground-breaking book, comes from the soul, even is soul; the soul in its untruth. Indeed, both it and the modern field of psychology are successors of the soul-forms that preceded them, religion and metaphysics, with the difference that psychology's reluctance to recognize and take responsibility for its status as such has been matched by the neurotic soul's clinging to obsolete metaphysical categories even as the often quite ordinary life disappointments of its patients are inflated with absolute importance. The folie à deux has been on a massive scale. Owing their provenance to the supplement they each provide the other, psychology and neurosis are entwined in a Gordian knot, the cutting of which requires insight into the logic that pervades both. Taking up this sword, Giegerich exposes and critiques the metaphysics that neurosis indulges in even as he returns psychology to the soul, not, of course, to the soul as some no longer credible metaphysical hypostasis, but as the logically negative life of the mind and power of thought. Using several fairy tales as models for the logic of neurosis, he brilliantly analyses its enchanting background processes, exposing thereby, in a most lively and thoroughgoing manner, the spiteful cunning by which the neurotic soul, against its already existing better judgement, betrays its own truth. Topics include the historicity of neurosis, its soulful purpose as a general cultural phenomenon, its internal logic, functioning, and enabling conditions, as well as the Sacred Festival drama character of symptomatic suffering, the theology of neurosis, and ‘the neurotic’ as the figure of modernity's exemplary man. A collection of vignettes descriptive of various kinds of neurotic presentation routinely met with in the consulting room is also included in an appendix under the heading, ‘Neurotic Traps.’

Einstein's Heroes

Einstein's Heroes PDF Author: Robyn Arianrhod
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780195308907
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 340

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Book Description
Blending science, history, and biography, this book reveals the mysteries of mathematics, focusing on the life and work of three of Albert Einstein's heroes: Isaac Newton, Michael Faraday, and James Clerk Maxwell.

Emilie Du Chatelet

Emilie Du Chatelet PDF Author: Judith P. Zinsser
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101201843
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 404

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Book Description
The captivating biography of the French aristocrat who balanced the demands of her society with passionate affairs of the heart and a brilliant life of the mind Although today she is best known for her fifteen-year liaison with Voltaire, Gabrielle Emilie le Tonnelier de Breteuil, Marquise Du Châtelet (1706-1749) was more than a great man's mistress. After marrying a marquis at the age of eighteen, she proceeded to fulfill the prescribed-and delightfully frivolous-role of a French noblewoman of her time. But she also challenged it, conducting a highly visible affair with a commoner, writing philosophical works, and translating Newton's Principia while pregnant by a younger lover. With the sweep of Galileo's Daughter, Emilie Du Châtelet captures the charm, glamour, and brilliance of this magnetic woman.

Lean Logic

Lean Logic PDF Author: David Fleming
Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing
ISBN: 1603586482
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 658

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Book Description
Lean Logic is David Fleming's masterpiece, the product of more than thirty years' work and a testament to the creative brilliance of one of Britain's most important intellectuals. A dictionary unlike any other, it leads readers through Fleming's stimulating exploration of fields as diverse as culture, history, science, art, logic, ethics, myth, economics, and anthropology, being made up of four hundred and four engaging essay-entries covering topics such as Boredom, Community, Debt, Growth, Harmless Lunatics, Land, Lean Thinking, Nanotechnology, Play, Religion, Spirit, Trust, and Utopia. The threads running through every entry are Fleming's deft and original analysis of how our present market-based economy is destroying the very foundations--ecological, economic, and cultural-- on which it depends, and his core focus: a compelling, grounded vision for a cohesive society that might weather the consequences. A society that provides a satisfying, culturally-rich context for lives well lived, in an economy not reliant on the impossible promise of eternal economic growth. A society worth living in. Worth fighting for. Worth contributing to. The beauty of the dictionary format is that it allows Fleming to draw connections without detracting from his in-depth exploration of each topic. Each entry carries intriguing links to other entries, inviting the enchanted reader to break free of the imposed order of a conventional book, starting where she will and following the links in the order of her choosing. In combination with Fleming's refreshing writing style and good-natured humor, it also creates a book perfectly suited to dipping in and out. The decades Fleming spent honing his life's work are evident in the lightness and mastery with which Lean Logic draws on an incredible wealth of cultural and historical learning--from Whitman to Whitefield, Dickens to Daly, Kropotkin to Kafka, Keats to Kuhn, Oakeshott to Ostrom, Jung to Jensen, Machiavelli to Mumford, Mauss to Mandelbrot, Leopold to Lakatos, Polanyi to Putnam, Nietzsche to Næss, Keynes to Kumar, Scruton to Shiva, Thoreau to Toynbee, Rabelais to Rogers, Shakespeare to Schumacher, Locke to Lovelock, Homer to Homer-Dixon--in demonstrating that many of the principles it commends have a track-record of success long pre-dating our current society. Fleming acknowledges, with honesty, the challenges ahead, but rather than inducing despair, Lean Logic is rare in its ability to inspire optimism in the creativity and intelligence of humans to nurse our ecology back to health; to rediscover the importance of place and play, of reciprocity and resilience, and of community and culture. ------ Recognizing that Lean Logic's sheer size and unusual structure could be daunting, Fleming's long-time collaborator Shaun Chamberlin has also selected and edited one of the potential pathways through the dictionary to create a second, stand-alone volume, Surviving the Future: Culture, Carnival and Capital in the Aftermath of the Market Economy. The content, rare insights, and uniquely enjoyable writing style remain Fleming's, but presented at a more accessible paperback-length and in conventional read-it-front-to-back format.

Seduced by Logic

Seduced by Logic PDF Author: Robyn Arianrhod
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199986924
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 345

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Book Description
Newton's explanation of the natural law of universal gravity shattered the way mankind perceived the universe, and hence it was not immediately embraced. After all, how can anyone warm to a force that cannot be seen or touched? But for two women, separated by time and space but joined in their passion for Newtonian physics, the intellectual power of that force drove them to great achievements. Brilliant, determined, and almost entirely self-taught, they dedicated their lives to explaining and disseminating Newton's discoveries. Robyn Arianrhod's Seduced by Logic tells the story of Emilie du Chatelet and Mary Somerville, who, despite living a century apart, were connected by their love for mathematics and their places at the heart of the most advanced scientific society of their age. When Newton published his revolutionary theory of gravity, in his monumental Principia of 1687, most of his Continental peers rejected it for its reliance on physical observation and mathematical insight instead of religious or metaphysical hypotheses. But the brilliant French aristocrat and intellectual Emilie du Chatelet and some of her early eighteenth-century Enlightenment colleagues--including her lover, Voltaire--realized the Principia had changed everything, marking the beginning of theoretical science as a predictive, quantitative, and secular discipline. Emilie devoted herself to furthering Newton's ideas in France, and her translation of the Principia is still the accepted French version of this groundbreaking work. Almost a century later, in Scotland, Mary Somerville taught herself mathematics and rose from genteel poverty to become a world authority on Newtonian physics. She was fêted by the famous French Newtonian, Pierre Simon Laplace, whose six-volume Celestial Mechanics was considered the greatest intellectual achievement since the Principia. Laplace's work was the basis of Mary's first book, Mechanism of the Heavens; it is a bittersweet irony that this book, written by a woman denied entry to university because of her gender, remained an advanced university astronomy text for the next century. Combining biography, history, and popular science, Seduced by Logic not only reveals the fascinating story of two incredibly talented women, but also brings to life a period of dramatic political and scientific change. With lucidity and skill, Arianrhod explains the science behind the story, and explores - through the lives of her protagonists - the intimate links between the unfolding Newtonian revolution and the development of intellectual and political liberty.

Seducing Augustine

Seducing Augustine PDF Author: Virginia Burrus
Publisher: Fordham Univ Press
ISBN: 0823231933
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 189

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Book Description
Augustine's Confessions is a text that seduces. But how often do its readers respond in kind? Here three scholars who share a longstanding fascination with sexuality and Christian discourse attempt to do just that. Where prior interpreters have been inclined either to defend or to criticize Augustine's views, Virginia Burrus, Mark Jordan, and Karmen MacKendrick set out both to seduce and to be seduced by his text. Often ambivalent but always passionately engaged, their readings of the Confessions center on four sets of intertwined themes--secrecy and confession, asceticism and eroticism, constraint and freedom, and time and eternity. Rather than expose Augustine's sexual history, they explore how the Confessions conjoins the erotic with the hidden, the imaginary, and the fictional. Rather than bemoan the repressiveness of his text, they uncover the complex relationship between seductive flesh and persuasive words that pervades all of its books. Rather than struggle to escape the control of the author, they embrace the painful pleasure of willed submission that lies at the erotic heart not only of the Confessions but also of Augustine's broader understanding of sin and salvation. Rather than mourn the fateful otherworldliness of his theological vision, they plumb the bottomless depths of beauty that Augustine discovers within creation, thereby extending desire precisely by refusing satisfaction. In unfolding their readings, the authors draw upon other works in Augustine's corpus while building on prior Augustinian scholarship in their own overlapping fields of history, theology, and philosophy. They also press well beyond the conventional boundaries of scholarly disciplines, conversing with such wide-ranging theorists of eroticism as Barthes, Baudrillard, Klossowski, Foucault, and Harpham. In the end, they offer not only a fresh interpretation of Augustine's famous work but also a multivocal literary-philosophical meditation on the seductive elusiveness of desire, bodies, language, and God.

The Logic of Care

The Logic of Care PDF Author: Annemarie Mol
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134053177
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 142

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Book Description
What is ‘good care’ and does more choice lead to better care? This innovative and compelling work investigates good care and argues that the often touted ideal of ‘patient choice’ will not improve healthcare in the ways hoped for by its advocates.