Saturday, January 03, 2009

Links for Thinking

* A charming comic strip explaining interactive proof systems.

* The Max Planck Institute recently ran a Chinese physics issue, on the cover of which they wanted to place a classical Chinese poem. The Chinese that they actually put on the cover, however, turned out to be a handbill for a strip club.

* Pierre Duhem's Concept of Good Sense (PDF), by Milena Ivanova

Did the Republic of Letters Ever Exist? (PDF), by Jean Boutier

Closed Circles or Open Networks?: Communications at a Distance During the Scientific Revolution (PDF), by David Lux and Harold Cook

Reframing Sacred Values (PDF), by Scott Atran and Robert Axelrod (This is related to research recently discussed at Not Exactly Rocket Science)

* Will Thomas at "Ether Wave Propagation" discusses a responsibility of historical work, which he calls 'consolidation of gains':

By consolidation, I mean the retention of pertinent facts and arguments, the leaving behind of details, and the use of references to indicate the existence of those details. The consolidation of gains is necessary, simply because the weight of primary material and the proliferation of secondary material has changed the nature of scholarship.


* A calendar of twelve theorems by women mathematicians.

* Some SSRN finds:
Eric Schliesser, Philosophy and a Scientific Future of the History of Economics
Robert I. Mochrie, Justice in Exchange: The Economic Philosophy of John Duns Scotus
Georges Brugues, Toward an Economic Theory of Philosophy: An Interpretation of Lucian's Satire on Philosophy
James Halteman, Is Adam Smith's Moral Philosophy an Adequate Foundation for the Market Economy?
Carlos Hoevel, The Fiscal and Tributary Philosophy of Antonio Rosmini

* Volapük lessons. And the New Testament in the same. And Johann Martin Schleyer's original text on it.

* Google Book find: Books and Their Makers During the Middle Ages, by George Haven Putnam (1896)
La théorie physique, by Pierre Duhem (1906)

* Ken Miller discusses blood clotting in some guest posts at "The Loom": Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

* Hermann Dooyeweerd's A New Critique of Theoretical Thought has been put online in PDF, in two parts: Volumes I-II, Volumes III-IV. The first part is a fairly large file. (ht)

* Enigman muses on the philosophy of mathematics.