Hans Christian Ørsted and the Romantic Legacy in Science : Ideas, Disciplines, Practices
This volume owes its origin to the perception of a puzzling paradox. Hans Christian Ørsted, the great Danish scientist and philosopher, was one of the founders of modern physics through his experimental discovery in 1820 of the interaction of electricity and magnetism—a key step and model for the further unification of the forces of nature. Followers such as Maxwell and Einstein were, and today searchers worldwide are, enchanted by the hope for a completion of that grand program. In addition to Ørsted’s discovery of electromagnetism, his work in science included other fields, chiefly high-pressure physics and acoustics.
Global History and New Polycentric Approaches : Europe, Asia and the Americas in a World Network System
Examines how the discipline had evolved in various historiographies, from Anglo Saxon to southern European, and its emergence in Asia with the rapid development of the Chinese economy motivation to legitimate the current uniqueness of the history and economy of the nation. It contributes to the revitalization of the field of global history in Chinese historiography, which have been dominated by national narratives and promotes a debate to open new venues in which important features such as scholarly mobility, diversity and internationalization are firmly rooted, putting aside national specificities.
Forms of List-Making : Epistemic, Literary, and Visual Enumeration
This book attempts to show that an examination of the list’s formal features has the potential to produce genuine insights into the production of knowledge, the poetics of literature and the composition of visual art. Following a conceptual introduction, the twelve single-authored chapters place the list in a variety of well-researched contexts, including ancient Roman historiography, medieval painting, Enlightenment periodicals, nineteenth-century botanical geography, American Beat poetry and contemporary photobooks.
Forming the mind : Essays on the internal senses and the Mind/Body problem from avicenna to the medical enlightenment
The book collects essays from some of the foremost scholars in a relatively new and very promising field of research. It stresses how important and fruitful it is to see the time period between 1100 and 1700 as one continuous tradition, and brings together scholars working on the same issues in the Arabic, Jewish and Western philosophical traditions. In this respect, this collection opens up several new and interesting perspectives on the history of the philosophy of mind.
Cognitive Wireless Networks : Concepts, Methodologies and Visions Inspiring the Age of Enlightenment of Wireless Communications
Cognition, a continuous process involving sensing, reasoning, understanding and reacting, can be applied to wireless networks in order to adapt the system to the highly dynamic wireless ecosystem. The ultimate goals are to enhance the efficiency in the use of radio resources as well as to improve both link and network performance. This book presents a detailed overview of a rapidly emerging topic in modern communications: cognitive wireless networks. The key aspects of cognitive and cooperative principles in wireless networks are discussed in this book. Furthermore, Cognitive Wireless Networks advocates the concept of breaking up the cellular communication architecture by introducing cooperative strategies among wireless devices. Cognitive wireless networking is the key to success in handling the upcoming dynamic network configurations and exploiting this cross-over to the fullest extent.
Mathematical Modelling for Sustainable Development
Mathematics needs Sustainable Development. When science was gradually reinvented in European medieval societies, it was legitimised as contributing to the disclosure of God’s divine creation. The conflicts that emerged became well known as a result of the clash between Galileo and the Church. Science found a new legitimacy through recognition that it was a powerful force against superstition. In the Enlightenment the argument was pushed forward by attributing Progress to the advancement of science: science could produce a better world by promoting rationality. In our modern society, science has become intimately linked to technology. Science for its own sake unfortunately rarely has positive outcomes in terms of research grant applications. Meanwhile, science and technology, and the progress they are supposed to produce, meet with wide scale scepticism. We all know of the current global problems: climate change, resource depletion, a thinning ozone layer, space debris, declining biodiversity, malnutrition, dying ecosystems, global inequity, and the risk of unprecedented nuclear wars
A Rosicrucian Utopia in Eighteenth-Century Russia : The Masonic Circle of N.I. Novikov
The author undertakes an investigation into the history of Russian Freemasonry that has not been attempted previously. Her premise is that the Russian Enlightenment shows peculiar features, which prevent the application of the interpretative framework commonly used for the history of western thought. The author deals with the development of early Russian masonry, the formation of the Novikov circle in Moscow, the ‘programme’ of Rosicrucianism and the character of its Russian variant and, finally, the clash between the Rosicrucians and the State. The author concludes that the defenders of the Ancien Régime were not wrong. In fact the democratic behaviour, the critical attitude, the practice of participation, the freedom of thought, the tolerance for the diversity, the search for a direct communication with the divinity.






