‘The long-lost truth’: Sir Isaac Newton and the Newtonian pursuit of ancient knowledge

In the 1720s the antiquary and Newtonian scholar Dr. William Stukeley (1687-1765) described his friend Isaac Newton as ‘the Great Restorer of True Philosophy’. Newton himself in his posthumously published Observations upon the prophecies of Daniel, and the Apocalypse of St. John (1733) predicted that the imminent fulfilment of Scripture prophecy would see ‘a recovery and re-establishment of the long-lost truth’. In this paper I examine the background to Newton’s interest in ancient philosophy and theology, and how it related to modern natural philosophical discovery. I look at the way in which the idea of a ‘long-lost truth’ interested others within Newton’s immediate circle, and in particular how it was carried forward by Stukeley’s researches into ancient British antiquities. I show how an interest in and respect for ancient philosophical knowledge remained strong within the first half of the eighteenth century.     

艾丽丝·默多克小说《钟》里的“无上帝神学”思想

试图通过艾丽丝·默多克的长篇小说<钟>里的重要人物形象朵拉的"反叛"、大宅邸里禁欲的后果、以及"钟"的意象这三个方面切入进行剖析,认为这部小说所传达出的宗教思想与她在20世纪90年代提出的"无上帝神学"思想有所呼应.     

《荒原》和《四个四重奏》的对照分析

本文从神话学与神学的运用、非个性化与个性化的语言以及意象性结构与音乐性结构等三个方面对T．S．艾略特的代表作《荒原》和《四个四重奏》进行对照分析,从中进一步了解艾略特皈依宗教前后两个时期在诗歌创作的风格和理念上的变化。     

Athanasius Kircher’s magical instruments: an essay on ‘science’, ‘religion’ and applied metaphysics

In this paper I endeavour to bridge the gap between the history of material culture and the history of ideas. I do this by focussing on the intersection between metaphysics and technology—what I call ‘applied metaphysics’—in the oeuvre of the Jesuit scholar Athanasius Kircher. By scrutinising the interplay between texts, objects and images in Kircher’s work, it becomes possible to describe the multiplicity of meanings related to his artefacts. I unearth as yet overlooked metaphysical and religious meanings of the camera obscura, for instance, as well as of various other optical and magnetic devices. Today, instruments and artefacts are almost exclusively seen in the light of a narrow economic and technical concept. Historically, the ‘use’ of artefacts is much more diverse, however, and I argue that it is time to historicize the concept of ‘utility’.     

成层软粘土地基非线性流变固结理论研究

研究了具有非线性流变特性的成层地基一维固结问题,并考虑了土的自重、渗透性变化和变荷载。基于多层地基一维线弹性固结解析解和迭代法,建立了求解该复杂问题的半解析算法,并编制了相应的计算程序AODNRCLS;此工作使固结理论更趋完善。     

含蜡原油再启动过程流型分析

为研究含蜡原油管道再启动过程,分析了压力沿管道的传播、原油的屈服、黏度由初始状态裂降至平衡状态和管道的清管四过程。根据流体连续性方程、运动方程及流变性方程,建立压力、流变性及剪切力相互耦合的再启动数学模型。该模型考虑含蜡原油的压缩性、屈服应力及沿管道位置和时间变化的流变性影响。停输后原油的流变性方程采用宾汉模型,并考虑屈服应力的逐时变化。模型分析中考虑了层流和紊流的变化,通过数值模拟给出计算结果,此模型更接近于含蜡原油再启动的真实情况。     

怎么了，构造地质学

构造地质学是地质学中的一个重要分支学科,近来显得不大景气。探究其原因,笔者认为：此学科在学术思想、研究方法、学术气氛和适应社会需求等方面存在一些问题,值得探讨。笔者拟在构造变形的年代学、变形机制,大地构造演化问题,流变学与流体的作用问题,过多的术语创新问题,以及大力发展应用构造地质学推进基础理论研究等方面,抛砖引玉,进行讨论。     

The rhetorical strategy of William Paley’s Natural theology (1802): Part 1, William Paley’s Natural theology in context

This article reconstructs the historical and philosophical contexts of William Paley’s Natural theology (1802). In the wake of the French Revolution, widely believed to be the embodiment of an atheistic political credo, the refutation of the transmutational biological theories of Buffon and Erasmus Darwin was naturally high on Paley’s agenda. But he was also responding to challenges arising from his own moral philosophy, principally the psychological quandary of how men were to be kept in mind of the Creator. It is argued here that Natural theology was the culmination of a complex rhetorical scheme for instilling religious impressions that would increase both the virtue and happiness of mankind. Philosophy formed an integral part of this strategy, but it did not comprise the whole of it. Equally vital were those purely rhetorical aspects of the discourse which, according to Paley, were more concerned with creating ‘impression’. This facet of his writing is explored in part one of this two-part article. Turning to the argumentative side of the scheme, part two examines Paley’s responses to David Hume and Erasmus Darwin in the light of the wider strategy of inculcation at work throughout all his writings.     

汉语生命伦理学的后现代反省

汉语生命伦理学正在经历危机.生命伦理学应是这样一门学科:对人的生命状态进行道德追问;对生命的终极问题进行伦理研究;对生命科学技术进行伦理裁判与反省;对生命、特别是人的生命的本质、价值与意义的道德哲学解读.汉语生命伦理学的学术知识生产,已深深地和各种社会权力、利益体制相互交缠,其学术体制的内部组织、学科发展、学术行动和开拓的规划,都受制于社会权力和利益的关系,加之学科门类的顽固偏见,使其始终处于政治伦理、制度伦理或政策边缘,始终处于医学、哲学与社会科学专门化的边缘.生命伦理学至今没有建立完整而融贯的理论传统和科学的方法学训练机制,并由少数人操控学术体制使之成为学术偏见的生产地,以服务于局部利益,建立虚假的权威之虞.     

论斯宾诺莎的神学观

该文从斯宾诺莎对保留宗教是否必要的态度入手,通过分析斯氏的神的概念和其哲学思想体系中关于神的观点推出斯氏的神的特征,最后归纳总结出斯宾诺莎的神学观及其对人类认识世界的意义。