18,504 research outputs found
ADAM SMITH'S OPTIMISTIC TELEOLOGICAL VIEW OF HISTORY
Full text linkAdam Smith's four-stage theory provides the framework for his writings on history. The fourth stage is the commercial epoch; the culmination of history in this stage is a key component in the conventional interpretation of Adam Smith as a prophet of commercialism. In two historical case studies Smith shows the capacity of commercial society to regenerate itself. This potent capacity suggests that commercial society is inevitable. At a certain point in time it also overcomes the major obstacles to its permanence. Smith's philosophy of history anticipates the end of history views of Kant and Hegel.Political Economy,
How Might Adam Smith Pay Professors Today?
Full text linkAdam Smith’s proposal for paying professors was intended to induce increased faculty knowledge. If students have imperfect information about what they learn, and universities can only imperfectly measure the input of faculty time in student learning, publications may be used to measure faculty knowledge. If professors’ ability to publish is positively related to their ability to produce student learning, which universities can imperfectly measure, publications may be necessary to attract more able professors. Since research signals faculty knowledge, schools that do not value publications per se could require higher publication standards and pay higher wages than schools that value only publications.
ADAM SMITH'S VIEW OF HISTORY: CONSISTENT OR PARADOXICAL?
Full text linkThe conventional interpretation of Adam Smith is that he is a prophet of commercialism. The liberal capitalist reading of Smith is consistent with the view that history culminates in commercial society. The first part of the article develops this optimistic interpretation of Smith's view of history. Smith implies that commercial society is the end of history because 1) it supplies the ends of nature that he identifies; 2) it is inevitable; and 3) it is permanent. The second part of the article shows that Smith has some dark moments in his writings where he seems to reject completely such teleological notions. In this more civic humanist mood he confesses that commercial society does not supply the ends of nature, nor is it inevitable, nor is it permanent. Both views exist in Smith and the commentator is forced to choose between passages in Smith's work in order to support a particular interpretation of the former's view of history.Political Economy,
Adam Smith and Roman Servitudes
Full text linkThis essay is a preprint of an article that appeared at: Tijdschrift voor Rechstsgeschiedenis, 72 (2004), 327–57.This essay discusses Adam Smith historical jurisprudence and his use of Roman law materials in his Lectures on Jurisprudence. It argues that Smith found it difficult to maintain his theory of legal development in the face of a highly developed body of Roman law literature
Mechanochemical processes in energetic materials: a computational and experimental investigation
Full text linkEnergetic materials (explosives, propellants and pyrotechnics; EMs)
encompass a broad range of materials. These materials are used across a
wide spectrum of applications, including civil and defence. For example, HMX,
RDX and TNT are well known EMs with defence applications. Silver fulminate
is instead used in house-hold Christmas crackers and ammonium nitrate is
used for numerous industrial applications. Common to all EMs is their
propensity to rapidly release energy upon external perturbation. The amount
and type of energy that is required to initiate an EM can vary across orders of
magnitude. Some materials (e.g. triaminotriperoxide, TATP) initiate with < 1 J
of impact energy, while others (e.g. triaminotrinitrobenzene, TATB) cannot be
initiated without > 100 J of impact energy. Understanding which materials can
be handled safely is therefore of critical importance for maintaining the safe
use of EMs across all sectors.
Current trends in EM research include a drive to develop new materials with
decreased sensitivities. While it is relatively straightforward to selectively
modify some properties (e.g. environmental impact), very little is understood
about what constitutes a sensitive material. At present, a new EM must be
synthesised and its sensitivity tested. However, with no a priori knowledge of
the potential sensitivity of a novel EM, synthesis is accompanied by substantial
hazard, as well as time and financial costs. It is therefore pressing to develop
a fundamental understanding of what dictates a sensitive material, and hence
develop a mechanism to predict these properties. A particularly promising
model to explore impact sensitivity of EMs is based on vibrational up-pumping,
i.e. the up-conversion of vibrational energy. This thesis explores the
application of this model to a set of azide, organic molecular and polymorphic
materials.
Azide-based EMs share the common N3− explosophore. The electronic
structure of this anion was followed as a function of its normal modes of
vibration. It was found that excitation of the bending mode is sufficient to induce
athermal electronic excitation of the molecule, and spontaneous
decomposition. This is valid both in the gas and solid states. It is therefore
suggested that this vibrational mode is largely responsible for decomposition
of the azide materials. Based on calculations of the complete phonon
dispersion curves, the various pathways to vibrational energy up-pumping
were explored, namely via overtone and combination pathways. In particular,
the relative rates of up-pumping into the N3
− bending mode were investigated.
Remarkable agreement is found between these up-pumping rates and the
relative ordering of the impact sensitivity of these azides.
The calculated vibrational structures of organic molecular EMs were first
compared with experimental inelastic neutron scattering spectra and found to
provide accurate representation of the low temperature vibrational structure of
these complex crystals. The decomposition pathways for organic EMs are not
known and hence no target frequency could be unambiguously identified.
Instead, the up-pumping model was developed for these materials by
investigating the total rate of energy conversion into the internal vibrational
manifold. A number of qualitative trends were identified, which may provide a
mechanism for the rapid classification of EMs from limited vibrational
information. The overtone pathways were found to offer a good agreement with
experimental impact sensitivities of these compounds. However, the increased
complexity of the vibrational structure of the organic EMs as compared to the
azides required a more thorough treatment of the up-pumping mechanism to
correctly reflect experimental sensitivities. The effects of temperature on up-pumping
were also explored.
The sensitivity of organic EMs is known to differ across polymorphic forms.
Most notable are the HMX polymorphs. The calculated vibrational structure of
two HMX polymorphs was confirmed by inelastic neutron scattering
spectroscopy. The up-pumping model developed for molecular organic EMs
was therefore extended to a comparison of these two HMX polymorphs. The
polymorphic forms of FOX-7 were also investigated under the premise of the
up-pumping model. Upon heating, FOX-7 undergoes two polymorphic
transformations, which increases the layering of the materials. It therefore
offered an opportunity to explore the widely-held hypothesis that layered
materials are less sensitive than non-layered materials. The metastable γ-form
was successfully recovered, and its experimental impact sensitivity
investigated by BAM drop-hammer method. However, upon impact, the γ-
polymorph appeared to convert to the α-form and initiate at the same input
energy. Hence a considerable deficiency of experimental methods is identified
when studying polymorphic materials. FOX-7 was therefore explored within the
framework of the up-pumping model. The inelastic neutron scattering spectrum
was collected for γ-FOX-7, which confirmed the calculated vibrational structure.
It was shown that within the up-pumping model, the layered γ-polymorph is
predicted to be less sensitive than the α-form, and results from a decrease in
the maximum phonon-bath frequency. Hence a new mechanism is proposed
to describe the insensitivity of layered compounds.
The work presented in this thesis explores the applications of vibrational up-pumping
to rationalise and predict the relative impact sensitivities of a range
of EMs. Despite the approximations employed in construction of the model, it
leads to excellent correlation with experimental results in all cases. This work
therefore opens the door to a new fully ab initio approach to designing new
EMs based solely on knowledge of the solid-state structure
THE THEOLOGICAL FOUNDATION OF ADAM SMITH'S WORK
Full text linkThe paper will discuss the theological foundation to Smith's writings. Teleology, final causes and divine design were initially seen as central to understanding Smith's writings. Over time, this view fell out of fashion. In the period after World War II, with the rise of positivism, commentators tended to overlook or downplay this interpretation. In the last decade, or so, teleology has started to be restored to its former position as an essential element in understanding Smith. After spelling out Smith's teleology and his view of final causes, divine design and the ends of nature, we try to explain the Panglossian nature of the 'new theistic view' of Smith. While our view differs somewhat, we agree with the essence of the 'new view' claim: a theological view exists in Smith which underpins his moral and economic theories.Political Economy,
Interview. Matthew Joseph with Adam Gussow, musician and author
Full text linkInterview in which Adam Gussow discusses hill country blues musi
Książę Adam Jerzy Czartoryski i jego stronnicy w świetle historiografii ukraińskiej
Full text linkIn 1937, the Warsaw historian Marceli Handelsman published a work entitled Ukraińska polityka
ks. Adama Czartoryskiego przed wojną krymską [Ukrainian politics of Prince Adam Czartoryski
before the Crimean War]. So far, this book has been used by historians as the primary source of
information on the Ukrainian issue in the views of the Hotel Lambert’s leader. The author of this
text has decided to collect Ukrainian works referring to the topic inaugurated by Handelsman. Unfortunately, no larger study has been prepared on the Ukrainian side. However, a number of articles
and encyclopaedic notes showing Prince Adam and his Eastern policy (especially during his stay
at the court of Tsar Alexander I Romanov) has been published. Ukrainian authors paid much more
attention to Czartoryski’s associates, who tried to put his ideas into practice. Ukrainian researchers
wrote mainly about Michał Czaykowski (Sadyk Pasha) organizing the Cossack troops in the Ottoman Empire, about Hipolit Terlecki striving for the union of the Orthodox and Roman Catholic
Churches, and finally about the ethnographer and writer Franciszek Duchiński clearly separating
Ukraine from Russia in his writings
Adam smith and the Church of Scotland
Full text linkIn contrast to the French Enlightenment, the Scottish Enlightenment was neither anticlerical nor anti-religious. Intellectuals such as William Robertson, a historian, Hugh Blair, professor of rhetoric and belles letters, Adam Ferguson, professor of natural and later moral philosophy, John Home, playwright, Alexander Carlyle, author of numerous pamphlets were all ministers in the Church of Scotland and belonged to the Moderate party. Adam Smith shared the culture of intellectuals of this party. They had a love of learning, faith in reason and science, a preference for social order and stability and a commitment to religious tolerance and freedom of expression. Smith was one of the founding members of the Select Society and one of contributors of Edinburgh Review with William Robertson and others. In Wealth of Nations Smith had mentioned on the Church of Scotland. He praised ministers as ‘a learned, decent, independent and respectable sets of men’ and that they maintained ‘the uniformity of faith, the spirit of order, regularity, and austere morals in the great body of the people’.departmental bulletin pape
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