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Topic Review
Relations
Relations are ways in which things, the relata, stand to each other. Relations are in many ways similar to properties in that both characterize the things they apply to. Properties are sometimes treated as a special case of relations involving only one relatum. In philosophy (especially metaphysics), theories of relations are typically introduced to account for repetitions of how several things stand to each other.
  • 476
  • 22 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Relational Theory
In physics and philosophy, a relational theory (or relationism) is a framework to understand reality or a physical system in such a way that the positions and other properties of objects are only meaningful relative to other objects. In a relational spacetime theory, space does not exist unless there are objects in it; nor does time exist without events. The relational view proposes that space is contained in objects and that an object represents within itself relationships to other objects. Space can be defined through the relations among the objects that it contains considering their variations through time. The alternative spatial theory is an absolute theory in which the space exists independently of any objects that can be immersed in it. The relational point of view was advocated in physics by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and Ernst Mach (in his Mach's principle). It was rejected by Isaac Newton in his successful description of classical physics. Although Albert Einstein was impressed by Mach's principle, he did not fully incorporate it into his general theory of relativity. Several attempts have been made to formulate a full Machian theory, but most physicists think that none have so far succeeded. For example, see Brans–Dicke theory. Relational quantum mechanics and a relational approach to quantum physics have been independently developed, in analogy with Einstein's special relativity of space and time. Relationist physicists such as John Baez and Carlo Rovelli have criticised the leading unified theory of gravity and quantum mechanics, string theory, as retaining absolute space. Some prefer a developing theory of gravity, loop quantum gravity for its 'backgroundlessness'. A recent synthesis of relational theory, called R-theory, continuing the work of the mathematical biologist Robert Rosen (who developed "relational biology" and "relational complexity" as theories of life) takes a position between the above views. Rosen's theory differed from other relational views in defining fundamental relations in nature (as opposed to merely epistemic relations we might discuss) as information transfers between natural systems and their organization (as expressed in models). R-theory extends the idea of organizational models to nature generally. As interpreted by R-theory, such "modeling relations" describe reality in terms of information relations (encoding and decoding) between measurable existence (expressed as material states and established by efficient behavior) and implicate organization or identity (expressed as formal potential and established by final exemplar), thus capturing all four of Aristotle's causalities within nature (Aristotle defined final cause as immanent from outside of nature). Applied to space-time physics, it claims that space-time is real but established only in relation to existing events, as a formal cause or model for the location of events relative to each other; and in reverse a system of space-time events establishes a template for space-time. R-theory is thus a form of model-dependent realism. It claims to more closely follow the views of Mach, Leibniz, Wheeler and Bohm, suggesting that natural law itself is system-dependent.
  • 2.4K
  • 21 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Relational Approach to Quantum Physics
The relational approach to quantum physics is an alternative approach to and interpretation of quantum mechanics. It asserts that the physical world can only be studied accurately in terms of relationships between systems, as all experimentally verifiable facts about the world result explicitly from interactions (such as the interaction between a light field and a detector). According to the relational approach, the assumption that objects possess absolute properties (such as an absolute particle, independent of any detection frame) inevitably leads to ambiguities and paradoxes when these objects are studied closely. The approach was adopted, in a time span of 1992-1996, by Q. Zheng, S. Hughes, and T. Kobayashi in the University of Tokyo. As early as in 1985, S. Kochen suggested that the paradoxes of quantum physics could be overcome by developing a relational approach, which was needed at one time to solve the paradoxes of relativistic physics of space and time. It is also hoped that this entry will serve as a complement to Rovelli’s relational quantum mechanics (RQM). Historically, the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics were intertwined with each other and the compatibility between both theories was a main theme throughout the Bohr-Einstein debate. In both theories the physicists emphasized that only measurable quantities, that is, observables, belong in a theory. Bohr compared his approach to Einstein’s theory of relativity and asserted that in the treatment of quantum processes the complementarity of the measuring results cannot be ignored, just as in high-speed phenomena the relativity of observation cannot be neglected when the simultaneity comes into question. But Einstein replied: “A good joke should not be repeated too often.” The debate continued in connection with Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) paradox, and Bohr proposed the relational conception of quantum states. Through their analysis Bohm and Schumacher concluded that the characteristic feature of this debate is the failure to communicate due to the absence of a full harmony of quantum mechanics with relativity. Modern attempts to embrace a relational approach with interpretations of quantum mechanics have been tried many times, ranging from Everett's relative-state interpretation (Everett, 1957), sigma algebra of interactive properties (Kochen, 1979), quantum reference systems (Bene, 1992), quantum theory of the universe (Smolin, 1995), to relational quantum mechanics (Rovelli, 1996). They more or less emphasize the relational nature of quantum states. For more information, please refer to the further reading list.
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  • 21 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Relation (History of Concept)
The concept of relation as a term used in general philosophy has a long and complicated history. One of the interests for the Greek philosophers lay in the number of ways in which a particular thing might be described, and the establishment of a relation between one thing and another was one of these. A second interest lay in the difference between these relations and the things themselves. This was to culminate in the view that the things in themselves could not be known except through their relations. Debates similar to these continue into modern philosophy and include further investigations into types of relation and whether relations exist only in the mind or the real world or both. An understanding of types of relation is important to an understanding of relations between many things including those between people, communities and the wider world. Most of these are complex relations but of the simpler, analytical relations out of which they are formed there are generally held to be three types, although opinion on the number may differ. The three types are spatial relations which include geometry and number, relations of cause and effect, and the classificatory relations of similarity and difference that underlie knowledge. Going by different names in the sciences, mathematics, and the arts they can be thought of as three large families and it is the history of these that will be dealt with here.
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  • 27 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Rejuvenation (Aging)
Rejuvenation is the procedure of reversing the aging process, thus regaining youth. As people get older, their health worsens, strength and intelligence are thought to diminish, beauty is thought by many to go away. Historically, people in all societies have looked for a way to regain the qualities of youth. In the future however, rejuvenation may become reality through stem cells, biochemical repair or nanotechnology.
  • 389
  • 24 Oct 2022
Biography
Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange
Réginald Marie Garrigou-Lagrange OP (French: [gaʁigu lagʁɑ̃ʒ]; 21 February 1877 – 15 February 1964) was a French Catholic theologian and Dominican friar. He has been noted as a leading neo-Thomist of the 20th century, along with Jacobus Ramírez, Édouard Hugon, and Martin Grabmann.[1] He taught at the Dominican Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, the Angelicum, in Rome from 19
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  • 28 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Reformist Left
The Reformist Left is a political term coined by Richard Rorty in his 1998 book Achieving Our Country, in reference to the mainstream Left in the United States (though the term may be applied elsewhere) in the first two thirds of the 20th century: I propose to use the term reformist Left to cover all those Americans who, between 1900 and 1964, struggled within the framework of constitutional democracy to protect the weak from the strong. … I think that the Left should get back into the business of piecemeal reform within the framework of a market economy. This was the business the American Left was in during the first two-thirds of the century. … Emphasizing the continuity between Herbert Croly and Lyndon Johnson, between John Dewey and Martin Luther King, between Eugene Debs and Walter Reuther, would help us to recall a reformist Left which deserves not only respect but imitation—the best model available for the American Left in the coming century.
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  • 25 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Reformed Fundamentalism
Reformed fundamentalism arose in some conservative Presbyterian, Reformed Baptist, and other Reformed churches, which agreed with the motives and aims of broader evangelical Protestant fundamentalism. The fundamentalism of the movement is defined by a rejection of liberal and modernist theology, and the legacy of The Fundamentals, published at the start of the twentieth century. The Fundamentalist–Modernist controversy, and the Downgrade Controversy in the United Kingdom, shaped reformed fundamentalism in the United States and United Kingdom. Some of the better known leaders who have described themselves as both Calvinist and fundamentalist have been Carl McIntire of the American Bible Presbyterian Church, D. James Kennedy of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, Ian Paisley of the Northern Irish Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster and J. Oliver Buswell of Wheaton College. J. Gresham Machen, Cornelius Van Til, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, J. I. Packer and John Stott were Protestant theologians with moderate associations to the movement. Those in the reformed fundamentalist tradition draw upon the lives and works of Protestant ministers, particularly from the Anglosphere, of sundry centuries. John Calvin, Martin Luther, John Gill, Matthew Henry, Charles Spurgeon, J. C. Ryle, John Wesley, George Whitefield, John Knox, Jonathan Edwards, John Bunyan, G. Campbell Morgan, were evangelical inspirations for McIntire, Paisley and others.
  • 1.1K
  • 04 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Reflective Façades
Reflection and transparency are two valuable properties associated with the use of glass as an architectural material. While proponents of modernism favored transparency over reflection, whether in its physical or conceptual implications, to justify the designs of façades of Modernist buildings and in architectural criticism, contemporary architects are revisiting the neglected trait of ‘reflection’.
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  • 14 Nov 2023
Topic Review
Recipe
A recipe is a set of instructions that describes how to prepare or make something, especially a dish of prepared food.
  • 1.3K
  • 20 Oct 2022
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