655 research outputs found
Joseph Priestley and the intellectual culture of rational dissent, 1752-1796
No full textPhDRecent scholarship on the eighteenth-century polymath Joseph Priestley (1733-1804) has
focused on his work as a pioneering scientist, a controversial Unitarian polemicist, and a
radical political theorist. This thesis provides an extensive analysis of his comparatively
neglected philosophical writings. It situates Priestley’s philosophy in the theological
context of eighteenth-century rational dissent, and argues that his ideas on ethics,
materialism, and determinism came to provide a philosophical foundation for the
Socinian theology which came to prominence among Presbyterian congregations in the
last decades of the century.
Throughout the thesis I stress the importance of rational debate to the development of
Priestley’s ideas. The chapters are thus structured around a series of Priestley’s
engagements with contemporary figures: chapter 1 traces his intellectual development in
the context of the debates over moral philosophy and the freedom of the will at the
Daventry and Warrington dissenting academies; chapter 2 examines his response to the
Scottish ‘common sense’ philosophers, Thomas Reid, James Beattie, and James Oswald;
chapter 3 examines his writings on materialism and philosophical necessity and his
debates with Richard Price, John Palmer, Benjamin Dawson, and Joseph Berington;
chapter 4 focuses on his attempt to develop a rational defence of Christianity in
opposition to the ideas of David Hume; chapter 5 traces the diffusion of his ideas through
the syllabuses at the liberal dissenting academies at Warrington, Daventry, and New
College, Hackney. The thesis illustrates the process by which Priestley’s theology and
philosophy defeated a number of rival traditions to become the predominant intellectual
position within rational dissent in the late eighteenth century. In the course of doing so, it
illuminates some of the complex interconnections between philosophical and theological
discourses in the period
The design and fabrication of a meso scale minimally invasive surgical robot
No full textMinimally invasive robotic Single Port Laparoscopic Surgery (SPLS) is of high importance, due to its ability to reduce operation times, recovery times, postoperative infection rates and improve cosmesis while providing surgeons with greater dexterity and precision than traditional SPLS techniques. Previous approaches to robotic SPLS rely on modifications to devices meant for multi-port procedures. These approaches suffer from larger port sizes and triangulation problems. Here, we propose a scheme for SPLS involving 6 degree-of-freedom robot manipulators and lumen design that translates the dexterity and triangulation capabilities of the human arm to the internal operating field using an insertion scheme where four 9 mm tools can be passed through a single 18 mm lumen.Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'U of I Access', the embargo will last until 2018-12-01The student, Nicholas Toombs, accepted the attached license on 2016-12-08 at 13:08.The student, Nicholas Toombs, submitted this Thesis for approval on 2016-12-08 at 15:40.This Thesis was approved for publication on 2016-12-09 at 16:23.DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #10492 on 2018-08-14 at 15:56:57Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-14T21:36:03Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2
TOOMBS-THESIS-2016.pdf: 2746701 bytes, checksum: 9cc8e52eedcc97569be79fd91f66ef80 (MD5)
LICENSE.txt: 4212 bytes, checksum: f4bd634668140179361664b91a9c6e7e (MD5)
Previous issue date: 2016-12-09Embargo set by: Seth Robbins for item 106493
Lift date: 2020-08-14T21:36:09Z
Reason: Author requested U of Illinois access only (OA after 2yrs) in Vireo ETD systemU of I Only Restriction Lifted for Item 106493 on 2020-08-15T09:15:22Z
Theory of Optimal Taxation and Current Tax Policy in Pakistan’s Agriculture
No full textpublic finance into the mould of classical welfare economics by emphasising minimisation of dead weight losses resulting from the imposition of a tax or faulty tax structure. As such, these modern theories have much in common with the traditional approach in terms of efficiency and equity. In spite of this, however, the differences remain. For example, the former theories adhere strictly to the norms of classical welfare economics which treats individual consumers as utility maximisers where improvements in welfare involve change that makes one individual better-off without making someone else worse-off [Stern (1987)]. In contrast to the emphasis of traditional theories on lump-sum taxes, the optimum tax literature is concerned with the implication of using non-lump-sum taxes which have a wider range and therefore more useful to the policy-maker. The recent work on normative tax theory looks at the impact of taxation on individual decisions and the trade off between raising revenues or redistributing tax burdens and the efficiency losses [Atkinson (1987)]. Finally, the optimal tax literature may be more pragmatic in its approach than traditional works as it realistically deals with government objectives and constraints and combines them into models that are sufficiently rich to allow for differences between people regarding income and expenditure patterns.
A visionary among the radicals: William Blake and the circle of Joseph Johnson, 1790-95
No full textBlake’s critics have never attempted to illustrate in a systematic manner how Blake used information he learned from writings published by members of the circle of Joseph Johnson in his own works during the period 1790-95. Although Blake was a peripheral figure in the Johnson circle – known to them through his profession of engraving and marginalized on account of his social position and lack of university education – his works reveal a continuing engagement with topics addressed in the writings of authors associated with Johnson, perhaps signifying Blake’s desire to be recognized as an author participating, like them, in the literary deliberations of the public sphere. Chapter 1, ‘Blake, Priestley and Swedenborg’, examines Blake’s treatment in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell of body and soul, the natures of God and Jesus Christ, and Swedenborgianism in relation to Joseph Priestley’s History of the Corruptions of Christianity (1782) and Letters to the Members of The New Jerusalem Church (1791). Chapter 2, ‘The Voice of a Devil and the Printing House in Hell’, considers The Marriage as an attempt to join the Revolution controversy and compares this work with writings by Richard Price, Mary Wollstonecraft and Thomas Paine. Chapter 2 also assesses the relationship between The Marriage and radical diabolism and Blake’s engagement with ‘energy’ as a distinctively radical concept in the work of Erasmus Darwin, Henry Fuseli, William Godwin, Priestley and Mary Wollstonecraft. Chapter 3, ‘Topical Representations in The French Revolution’, considers Blake’s engagement with Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790) and the Bastille in relation to responses to Reflections by Wollstonecraft, Paine and other authors published by Johnson. Chapter 3 concludes with an analysis of the response The French Revolution might have elicited from the Analytical Review. Chapter 4, ‘The French Revolution and Three Contemporary Discourses’, approaches this poem in terms of the discourses of ancient liberty, nature and the sublime, once again in comparison with responses to Reflections by members of the Johnson circle. My discussion of the sublime considers the possible influence on The French Revolution of Burke’s Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (1757) and Bishop Robert Lowth’s Lectures on the Sacred Poetry of the Hebrews (1787). Chapter 5, ‘The Continental Prophecies: Prophetic Form and Contemporary Prophecy’, examines America, Europe and The Song of Los in relation to writings concerning prophecy published by Johnson (with special emphasis on Lowth’s Lectures and Priestley’s 1793 and 1794 Fast Day sermons). The second part of Chapter 5 compares aspects of the works of Blake and Richard Brothers with Priestley’s Fast Day sermons, suggesting that Priestley and Blake’s works of 1793 and 1794 are rather less dissimilar than traditionally assumed. Chapter 6, ‘Blake’s “Bible of Hell” and Contemporary Critics of the Bible’, discusses Urizen, The Book of Ahania and The Book of Los in light of biblical criticism from the 1780s and 1790s (with particular reference to the Analytical and the writings of Alexander Geddes, Priestley and Paine). The final section of Chapter 6 reads Ahania in terms of the contemporary debate regarding the doctrine of the Atonement. The Conclusion, ‘ “melting apparent surfaces away”: Continuities in the Thought of Priestley and Blake’, revisits my discussion in Chapter 5 of similarities between Priestley and Blake and proposes that they are not so far apart in ideas and the content of their works as modern scholars usually argue
Big Data, Big Libraries, Big Problems?: the 2014 LibTech Anti-talk?
No full textThe desire to create automatons is a familiar theme in human history, and during the age of the Enlightenment mechanical automatons became not only an “emblem of the cosmos”, but a symbol of man’s confidence that he would unlock nature’s greatest mysteries and fully harness her power. And yet only a century later, automatons had begun to represent human repression and servitude, a theme later picked up by writers of science fiction. Man’s confidence undeterred, the endgame of the modern scientific and technological mindset, or MSTM, seems to be increasingly coming into view with the rise of “information technology” in general and “Big data” in particular. Along with those who wield them, these can be seen as functioning together as a “mechanical muse” of sorts – surprisingly alluring – and, like a physical automaton can serve as a symbol – a microcosm – of what the MSTM sees (at the very least in practice) as the cosmic machine, our “final frontier”. And yet, individuals who unreflectively participate in these things – giving themselves over to them and seeking the powers afforded by the technology apart from technology’s rightful purposes – in fact yield to the same pragmatism and reductionism those wielding them are captive to. Thus, they ultimately nullify themselves philosophically, politically, and economically – their value increasingly being only the data concerning their persons, and its perceived usefulness. Likewise libraries, the time-honored place of, and symbol for, the intellectual flowering of the individual, will, insofar as they spurn the classical liberal arts (with the idea that things are intrinsically good, and in the case of humans, special as well) in favor of the alluring embrace of MSTM-driven “information technology” and Big data - unwittingly contribute to their irrelevance and demise as they find themselves increasingly less needed, valued, wanted. Likewise for the liberal arts as a whole, and in fact history itself, if the acid of a “science” untethered from what is, in fact, good (intrinsically), continues to gain strengt
Recommended from our members
Mozart and the Enlightenment: Truth, Virtue and Beauty in Mozart's Operas
No full textIn this fascinating study of Mozart's operas, Nicholas Till shows that the composer was not a "divine idiot" but an artist whose work was informed by the ideas and discoveries of the Enlightenment. Examining the dramatic emergence of a modern society in eighteenth-century Austria, the author draws on such famous writers and thinkers of the time as Richardson, Voltaire, Rousseau, Kant, Goethe, Schiller, and Blake to reappraise the history and meaning of the Enlightenment and of Mozart's role within it. He evokes for us the Vienna of the 1780s, a world of intense intellectual argument, political debate, and religious inquiry, which deeply influenced the philosophical content of Mozart's operas. From the early La Finta Giardiniera, based on Richardson's Pamela, to Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail, designed to support the political aims of Emperor Joseph II; from Le nozze di Figaro, a profound exploration of marriage as a human and social institution, to the post-Enlightenment Zauberflote, the operas bear witness to the era's changing views and to Mozart's own quest for personal and artistic identity
Addendum to the Joseph Braunstein Collection /
No full textCollection of short articles written by friends about how Joseph Braunstein influenced their lives.Contributions by Aubort, Marc; Baldwin, Dagmar; Barry, Nancy P.; Marunas, Carol; Mowrey, Tom; Musgrave, Michael; Poor, Harris ; Poor, La Vonne ; Ritt, Morey; Saunders, Nicholas; Schauffler, Nancy; Spencer, Ruth Albert; Violand-Hobi, Heidi E.Joseph Braunstein, affectionately known as Sassobruno (Italian for brown stone), was born on February 9, 1892 in Vienna, Austria. He began his study of the violin as a child, and became an avid chamber music player as a teenager. He went on to study under the auspices of Guido Adler and Arnold Schonberg at the University of Vienna, but WWI interrupted his studies. After serving in the military from 1915-1918, he returned to his academic pursuits and received his doctorate in Music and History from Vienna University in 1920. From 1919 to 1925, Braunstein performed as a violinist and violist in several orchestras, among them the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and the Staatsoper, where he had the honor of working with famous conductors such as Richard Strauss, Felix Weingarten, Bruno Walter, Wilhelm Furtwangler and Otto Klemperer.Braunstein was also a prolific author and published several monographs as well as hundreds of articles in newspapers, magazines. From 1928-1938 he wrote for the official “Radio-Wien” and lectured extensively. He has supplied record liner notes for Vox, Vanguard, RCA, Book of the Month Club, Decca Records, and was the program note annotator for inter alia the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.In addition to his love of music, Braunstein was an avid mountaineer and loved the Alpine regions of his native Austria. In fact, he was never able to attend performances at Bayreuth because of scheduling conflicts with his mountaineering expeditions. He climbed over 60 peaks in Europe above the 13,000 ft elevation mark, among them Mount Blanc and Matterhorn. He also published articles on mountaineering in Alpine Club magazines, such as the Oesterreiche Bergzeitung, and contributed to the Der Grosse Brockhaus encyclopedia’s entry on Alpinismus.In 1940 Mr. Braunstein fled the Nazis with his wife Emma (nee Gross). Their first stop was Italy, from whence they continued on to New York, were they settled in 1940. Joseph became the reference librarian at the music division of the New York Public Library, and in the 1950s he began teaching music history at Julliard School, the Mannes School for Music, and the Manhattan School of Music. In 1961 he began a 20-year association with Frederic Waldman, the founder of the chamber orchestra Musica Aeterna, assembling programs that often included rarely heard works. His wife Emma, who suffered from Multiple Sclerosis, died in 1966.Braunstein passed away in 1996 at the age of 104.See also the Joseph Braunstein Collection, AR 25072
An Attributional Life Cycle Assessment of Hemcrete
No full textHemcrete is an alternative, environmentally‐friendly building material gaining adherents in Great Britain
and other European countries. It is an attractive choice as a building material because it is made from a renewable
resource, hemp, a hardy plant that is a close, but non‐hallucinogenic relative of marijuana. This plant is relatively
easy to cultivate, requires little in the way of pesticides or fertilizers, and almost all parts can be used for various
products from paper to textiles to food.
Hemcrete is made from a mixture of lime, water, and the fibrous outer portion of the hemp plant called
the “hurd” or “shive”. When mixed, it is worked and placed much like conventional concrete ‐ hence the name.
However, that is where the similarities with concrete end. Hemcrete is not comparable to concrete on a strength
basis, and is better described as an alternative insulation product. When built into walls of sufficient thickness,
Hemcrete offers high thermal efficiency, and has strong claims to being carbon negative. The purpose of this study
was to evaluate this claim of carbon negativity, and to compare these environmentally friendly qualities against
conventional fiberglass batt insulation. Our model was constructed using two identically sized “walls” measuring
eight feet square by one foot in depth, one insulated using Hemcrete, and the other using fiberglass.
Our study focused on three areas: water usage, cost, and carbon dioxide emissions. We chose water
usage because we wanted to determine the feasibility of using Hemcrete in the Phoenix metropolitan region,
where water is a troubled resource. Secondly, we wished to evaluate the claim on carbon negativity, so CO2
equivalents throughout the production process were measured. Finally, we wished to know whether Hemcrete
could compete on a cost basis with more conventional insulation methods, so we also built in a price comparison.
Since the cultivation of hemp is currently unlawful in the United States, this study can help determine whether
these restrictions should be relaxed in order to allow the construction of buildings insulated with Hemcrete
Human obesity and its influence on muscle protein synthesis
No full textImproving skeletal muscle health is an important component of obesity treatment. Apart from locomotion, skeletal muscle tissue is fundamental for the regulation of macronutrient metabolism during the postprandial period, which is precisely where metabolic derangements are most often observed. In order for the skeletal muscle to adapt and retain its capacity for high throughput of macronutrients, damaged proteins must be degraded and replaced on a continual basis. Moreover, amino acids from meals are crucial for the muscle to replace those lost for other needs (e.g. gluconeogenesis and oxidation). Skeletal muscle appears to be more responsive to amino acid replacement in normal-weight than the muscle of obese individuals. However, no studies have assessed the impact of obesity on the muscle protein synthetic response to the fundamental anabolic stimuli (muscle contraction, protein ingestion) to human skeletal muscle tissue. Previous studies of obesity and muscle protein metabolism have employed intravenous amino acid infusions, which do not accurately reflect meal conditions. Therefore, this thesis details investigations that assessed muscle protein synthetic responses in both the myofibrillar and sarcoplasmic protein pools under a typical meal setting where a protein-dense food is consumed orally either at rest or after exercise. In study 1, we showed that the postprandial myofibrillar protein synthetic response to protein-dense food ingestion is blunted in overweight and obese compared with normal-weight adults. This finding was related to altered mTORC1 signaling in those groups. In study 2, we demonstrated that basal and postprandial mitochondrial protein synthesis rates are similar in young adults across a wide range of body mass indices. We also showed that muscle inflammatory protein content (e.g. TLR4 and MyD88) increases in response to protein-dense food ingestion in obese, but not normal-weight and overweight young adults. In study 3, we demonstrated that the resistance exercise-induced potentiation of postprandial myofibrillar protein synthesis rates is diminished in obesity young compared with normal-weight adults. However, resistance exercise blunts the obesity-related increase in TLR protein after protein-dense food ingestion. The studies contained in this dissertation show an anabolic resistance to protein-dense food ingestion in obese adults that appears to be limited to the myofibrillar protein sub-fraction of skeletal muscle. Our findings suggest that contractile protein remodeling is a primary impairment in muscles of people with obesity and that exercise strategies to overcome this anabolic resistance are needed.Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'Closed Access', the embargo will last until 2020-05-01The student, Joseph Beals, accepted the attached license on 2018-04-16 at 16:25.The student, Joseph Beals, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2018-04-16 at 16:33.This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2018-04-17 at 11:07.DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #12286 on 2018-08-31 at 17:29:19Made available in DSpace on 2018-09-04T20:47:17Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2
BEALS-DISSERTATION-2018.pdf: 14238385 bytes, checksum: db8a81e916dab8e605cfcb1f6dd44918 (MD5)
LICENSE.txt: 4209 bytes, checksum: 621e9a35b7fa459e7a7965505d58f3ee (MD5)
Previous issue date: 2018-04-17Embargo set by: Seth Robbins for item 107411
Lift date: 2020-09-04T20:47:38Z
Reason: Author requested closed access (OA after 2yrs) in Vireo ETD systemEmbargo set by: Seth Robbins for item 107411
Lift date: 2020-09-04T20:50:11Z
Reason: Author requested closed access (OA after 2yrs) in Vireo ETD systemLimited Restriction Lifted for Item 107411 on 2020-09-05T09:15:20Z
- …
