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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Review: Robert H. Nelson, The New Holy Wars: Economic Religion Vs. Environmental Religion In Contemporary America, Andre Wakefield
Review: Robert H. Nelson, The New Holy Wars: Economic Religion Vs. Environmental Religion In Contemporary America, Andre Wakefield
Pitzer Faculty Publications and Research
This is a book review of Robert H. Nelson's The New Holy Wars: Economic Religion vs. Environmental Religion in Contemporary America. Nelson argues that environmentalism and economics represent competing religious worldviews. Within this framework, debates over issues like global warming and acid rain become veiled theological disputes between these two “secular religions.” Nelson paints with a broad, aggressive brush. This is both the strength and weakness of his book, as he conjures a world of epic battles between the economic faithful, who worship material progress, and the environmentally pious, who bemoan the corruption visited by humans upon the natural world. …
The Quantum Dialectic, Logan Kelley
The Quantum Dialectic, Logan Kelley
Pitzer Senior Theses
A philosophic account of quantum physics. The thesis is divided into two parts. Part I is dedicated to laying the groundwork of quantum physics, and explaining some of the primary difficulties. Subjects of interest will include the principle of locality, the quantum uncertainty principle, and Einstein's criterion for reality. Quantum dilemmas discussed include the double-slit experiment, observations of spin and polarization, EPR, and Bell's theorem. The first part will argue that mathematical-physical descriptions of the world fall short of explaining the experimental observations of quantum phenomenon. The problem, as will be argued, is framework of the physical descriptive schema. Part …
Finding The Beat In Music: Using Adaptive Oscillators, Kate M. Burgers
Finding The Beat In Music: Using Adaptive Oscillators, Kate M. Burgers
HMC Senior Theses
The task of finding the beat in music is simple for most people, but surprisingly difficult to replicate in a robot. Progress in this problem has been made using various preprocessing techniques (Hitz 2008; Tomic and Janata 2008). However, a real-time method is not yet available. Methods using a class of oscillators called relay relaxation oscillators are promising. In particular, systems of forced Hopf oscillators (Large 2000; Righetti et al. 2006) have been used with relative success. This work describes current methods of beat tracking and develops a new method that incorporates the best ideas from each existing method and …
Aesthetic Considerations In Mathematics, Nathalie Sinclair
Aesthetic Considerations In Mathematics, Nathalie Sinclair
Journal of Humanistic Mathematics
Drawing on some of the principles of humanistic mathematics first outlined by Alvin White, this paper seeks to examine the way in which value judgments are implicated in the growth of the mathematics discipline. After a short overview of some of the roles ascribed to the mathematical aesthetic historically, I turn to more contemporary positioning of the aesthetic in order to develop a framework that offers insight into the particular values, assumptions and desires that constrain what is done in mathematics, how it is done and why. My goal, at least in part, is to bring together under one umbrella …
Welcome To The Journal Of Humanistic Mathematics, Mark Huber, Gizem Karaali
Welcome To The Journal Of Humanistic Mathematics, Mark Huber, Gizem Karaali
Journal of Humanistic Mathematics
No abstract provided.