Philosophy Today

This paper presents a study of the linearizability of AlGaN/GaN HEMT based RF power amplifiers, RFPAs, and its relation with the active device trap activation energy. Based on the theory of thermally activated traps and on the experimental determination of the trap activation energy, we could show that despite different devices may exhibit traps with the same emission timeconstant at room temperature, their characteristic frequency may change significantly under nominal operation because of their temperature rise. And this was found to be key to explain the distinct linearizability performance of the tested devices because different stimulus dynamics excite the long-term memory effects imposed by traps with sensible different levels.

I shall organize my presentation in terms of three assertions that relate to the topic of hermeneutics and the philosophy of history in the work of Paul Ricoeur. The first of these assertions is that the philosophy of history has been an almost constant presence in Paul Ricoeur's philosophy even if it has seldom been the primary focus of this thought. This is particularly true once he had adopted the approach of following detours suggested by his earlier work rather than the systematic goal announced as the raison d'etre of the earlier Philosophy of the Will project. My second claim is that the topic of philosophy of history is in an important way latently present in much of the work produced following what we can call Ricoeur's hermeneutic turn, albeit without being explicitly foregrounded. Third, and this will be the more constructive contribution of my remarks, there is a hint of something new regarding thought about the philosophy of history in Ricoeur's recent work. This may be something he himself has not really noticed, although I know from working with him over the years that one should never assume one has seen something he hasn't at least begun to reflect on, even if he has not yet devoted any really sustained public reflection to it. Let us say therefore that my third point will be addressed to a detour Ricoeur has opened but not yet followed up on, although this is a detour that once recognized as a possible path to pursue does look worth pursuing. Whether it actually leads somewhere important is a question I shall close with. Early Indications of Concern for the Philosophy of History In his early collection of essays, History and Truth, Ricoeur sets out his task as twofold: to reflect upon the possibility and conditions for a philosophical history of philosophy and to seek to apply this reflection to the elaboration of what he calls a "political pedagogy" (3-4), that is, one guided by an ethical intention. Minimally, I take it this means doing something more than simply producing scholarship for its own sake about the history of philosophy, such a history must also have some application in the present. Of course, such a history must take seriously what we can call the professional historian's history, but it is further specified by a philosophical awareness whose contours are worth sketching, in that this awareness or consciousness is both cognitive and affective at the same time. It is both because it is based on a "passion for unity" where the unity in question is meant to encompass the unity of truth. As a passion, it is a regulative feeling "that all philosophies are ultimately within the same truth of being" (6), hence there is also an ontological horizon involved, even if like all horizons this one tends always to withdraw when we try to draw near to it. Still we can say that this feeling of being within truth or being can be further characterized as one of hope. This is a hope that is nourished and wagered on because of our occasional experience of the "harmony of diverse philosophical systems" (6), at the same time that we recognize that this feeling cannot be expressed by any single coherent discourse. We see here the tension of the one and the many,1 one of the defining questions that lie at the origin of all philosophy for Ricoeur. This is a tension that I believe could be shown to run through all this thought. But to stay for the moment with the problem of a philosophical history of history, the next thing that must be said is that this undertaking has to be characterized by a certain modesty. A philosopher, according to Ricoeur, has a fundamental conviction that truth is ultimately one, but also is someone who acknowledges that it is impossible to demonstrate this. The result for the practice of doing and teaching the history of philosophy-and I would generalize here to all kinds of historical research-is that while a critical perspective is required, this enterprise is also always guided by a kind of eschatological expectation that somehow it all comes together in the end. …

The active adoption of virtualization methods in existing IT infrastructures and the transition to the useof GRID and cloud computing requires new personnel who own these technologies. The articleproposes an approach for creating a training ground using new methods of virtualization of computingresources. Using the proposed approach on the basis of existing computer technology, it is possible tocreate a failover cluster, inside which already configured virtual environments are launched in thecorresponding containers for various computing tasks, as well as for organizing the training process.

The paper proposes design and circuitry solutions for the implementation of high-performance next generation computers. They are based on self-timed circuit design methodology and provide an increase in the tolerance of computing systems to soft errors resulting from induced noises and radiation exposure.

2 Ярославский госуниверситет, г. Ярославль 3 Университет штата Канзас, г. Манхэттэн, США Работа выполнена при финансовой поддержке гранта CRDF (АФГИР), №RU-P1-2600-YA-04. Предложен новый метод самообучаемого кинетического Монте-Карло для компьютерного моделирования диффузионных процессов на поверхности металлов. Новизна метода состоит в возможности пополнения списка разрешенных атомных смещений (включая многочастичные) в процессе моделирования. Это усиливает реалистичность модели и обеспечивает высокую скорость расчетов. Для моделирования межатомных сил использованы многочастичные потенциалы в рамках модели «погруженного иона» (EAM). В качестве иллюстрации возможностей данного метода представлены результаты исследования кинетики различных диффузионных процессов на поверхности Cu(111).

Nachrichten können auf unterschiedliche Weise ein Licht auf die Bedrohungen werfen, unter denen die Menschen des Landes seit Jahrzehnten leiden. Alle Katastrophen haben gemeinsam, dass in der Berichterstattung über die Unglücke das Schicksal der Opfer hinter der Auseinandersetzung um die Verantwortung für die Katastrophen und ihre Folgen zu verschwinden droht.

"Back to the Pre-Socratics" was the title of a lecture that Karl Popper gave in London to the members of the Aristotelian Society on October 13, 1958. On that particular occasion, although he declared that he would speak only "as an amateur, as a lover of the beautiful story of the Pre-Socratics" he put forth a few interpretations to which Geoffrey Stephen Kirk and Geoffrey Lloyd, Cambridge University experts on Greek classical culture, reacted quite strongly.It was especially the concept of "science" applied by the Austrian author to the Pre-Socratics that led to a powerful and lasting controversy.

In this essay I argue in favor of a connection between Kant's view of the kind of skeptical procedure that is useful for critical philosophy and the skepticism -also considered a sort of fallibilism- of the hellenistic New Platonic Academy.

The claim in this essay-that rabbinic Judaism provides a platform from which to explore spatial motility, religious iconicity, and non-realist, plastic expression-is itself only a recent scholarly possibility with which to stretch philosophy. Our attention goes in particular to holy space, though not for any religious reason per se. God will make no appearance, nor will any of God's surrogates in recent postmodern theology (event, gift, the face of the Other). Without recourse to any point of absolute transcendence, holiness will be understood as the phenomenal space opened out by special rules negotiating the difference between inside/outside, pure/ impure.

IntroductionPolitics is the process to organise how we live together in a society."1 And however a society is organized, it is "established with a view to some good,"2 for "this is certainly the chief end, both of individuals and of states."3 John Locke echoes this Aristotelian idea when he says that men "unite into a community, so as to live together comfortably, safely, and peaceably, in a secure enjoyment of their properties and a greater security against outsiders."4 Aristotle, therefore, reckons that the best political community is the one that best realizes the ideal of a good life.5 These thoughts of Aristotle move Ricoeur to argue that "the concept of the 'good life' mutually implicates politics and ethics."6In contemporary political theory, democracy is deemed to have embodied these ideals of Aristotle. It has been drummed up as the ideal political system. It is also almost universally commended in contemporary politics and sometimes related to anything humanly good.7 This ideal political system is anchored on the projection that in a democracy actual institutions are organized at different decision-making sites so that participants are encouraged or even required to deliberate with others about what is for the good of all.8 Most importantly, the optimism about democracy lies in its noble task, which, Kaplan says, makes sure that "power in the good sense controls power in the bad sense."9 Hence for Ricoeur, democracy is the "definition of good government."10Nevertheless, these musings remotely reflect the political uncertainty of a fledgling democracy confronted with low productivity growth, a fragile macro- economy, widening social inequality and a frayed social fabric, not to mention weak institutions.11 Thus, what is at stake here is that the formal definition of the democratic system is in itself insufficient to provide the substantive and material conditions for a society to'live well,' for if democracy is deemed to be the epitome of good government, how is it possible that these abominable conditions happen in a democracy?Paul Ricoeur thinks that the problem in these situations has to do with the "essential dissymmetry between the one who acts and the one who undergoes, culminating in the violence of the powerful agent."12 Thus, understanding and effecting a possible alternative to address this problem need the revisiting of the very idea of politics and political process. Understanding the nature of politics is helpful in the conceptualization of an effective democratic governance, one that can take place even under the conditions of a fragile democratic state. Paul Ricoeur, I believe, is in the best position to help us in this quest as he understands politics to be eminently prone to evil because of its reference to the violent dimension of power;13 yet he argues that it must be curbed.I. Politics as a ParadoxBasically, Ricoeur views politics as a paradox due to "the two-sided nature of po- litical power"14-rationality and violence. Though the state's being governed by a constitution essentially expresses its rationality, its violent inception hounds it as well.15 He explains that this statement is based on the belief that "there is prob- ably no state that was not born out of violence, whether by conquest, usurpation, forced marriage, or the wartime exploits of some great assembler of territories."16 Nevertheless, Ricoeur believes that rationality will gradually eliminate if not reduce to a minimum the violence that goes with the exercise of political power. Ricoeur expounds this point citing the numerous implications of this rationality:[F]irst of all, the fact of ensuring territorial unity, in other words the geographi- cal unity of jurisdiction of the apparatus of laws; next, ensuring a time-span greater than that of the ephemeral existence of a human being . . . accom- plishing the deferral of mortality; finally, of permitting . . . intergenerational integration, that is to say, meshing a received tradition with projects engaging the future of the historical community considered as a whole. …

Post–World War Two philosophy in America has been divided into the mainstream of analytic philosophy and a family of nonanalytic schools of thought, for example, continental philosophy and American pragmatism. The current balance of power among these perspectives reflects an event that occurred forty years ago: the “Pluralist Revolt” at the 1979 APA Eastern Division Meetings. What follows is a progress report on the Revolt’s hopes. The tale has something to do with the recent history of philosophy, Richard Rorty, truth, and with the New York Christmas of 1979. It also has to do with recent politics. For while, as the Pluralists hoped, nonanalytic philosophy is today more prominent, and mainstream analytic philosophy more pluralist, than in the 1970s, political trends of recent decades have differently affected analytic and nonanalytic philosophers. The result may be a new version of what C. P. Snow called “The Two Cultures.”