The Machines Of Evolution And The Scope Of Meaning

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The Machines of Evolution and the Scope of Meaning

Author : Gary Tomlinson
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 1942130805
Total Pages : 211 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (421 download)

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Book Synopsis The Machines of Evolution and the Scope of Meaning by : Gary Tomlinson

Download or read book The Machines of Evolution and the Scope of Meaning written by Gary Tomlinson and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2023-02-28 with total page 211 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A groundbreaking account of the origin and place of meaning in the earthly biosphere What is meaning? How does it arise? Where is it found in the world? In recent years, philosophers and scientists have answered these questions in different ways. Some see meaning as a uniquely human achievement, others extend it to trees, microbes, and even to the bonding of DNA and RNA molecules. In this groundbreaking book, Gary Tomlinson defines a middle path. Combining emergent thinking about evolution, new research on animal behaviors, and theories of information and signs, he tracks meaning far out into the animal world. At the same time he discerns limits to its scope and identifies innumerable life forms, including many animals and all other organisms, that make no meanings at all. Tomlinson’s map of meaning starts from signs, the fundamental units of reference or aboutness. Where signs are at work they shape meaning-laden lifeways, offering possibilities for distinctive organism/niche interactions and sometimes leading to technology and culture. The emergence of meaning does not, however, monopolize complexity in the living world. Countless organisms generate awe-inspiring behavioral intricacies without meaning. The Machines of Evolution and the Scope of Meaning offers a revaluation of both meaning and meaninglessness, uncovering a foundational difference in animal solutions to the hard problem of life.

On the Origins of Cognitive Science

Author : Jean-Pierre Dupuy
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262512394
Total Pages : 239 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (625 download)

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Book Synopsis On the Origins of Cognitive Science by : Jean-Pierre Dupuy

Download or read book On the Origins of Cognitive Science written by Jean-Pierre Dupuy and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2009-04-17 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An examination of the fundamental role cybernetics played in the birth of cognitive science and the light this sheds on current controversies. The conceptual history of cognitive science remains for the most part unwritten. In this groundbreaking book, Jean-Pierre Dupuy—one of the principal architects of cognitive science in France—provides an important chapter: the legacy of cybernetics. Contrary to popular belief, Dupuy argues, cybernetics represented not the anthropomorphization of the machine but the mechanization of the human. The founding fathers of cybernetics—some of the greatest minds of the twentieth century, including John von Neumann, Norbert Wiener, Warren McCulloch, and Walter Pitts—intended to construct a materialist and mechanistic science of mental behavior that would make it possible at last to resolve the ancient philosophical problem of mind and matter. The importance of cybernetics to cognitive science, Dupuy argues, lies not in its daring conception of the human mind in terms of the functioning of a machine but in the way the strengths and weaknesses of the cybernetics approach can illuminate controversies that rage today—between cognitivists and connectionists, eliminative materialists and Wittgensteinians, functionalists and anti-reductionists. Dupuy brings to life the intellectual excitement that attended the birth of cognitive science sixty years ago. He separates the promise of cybernetic ideas from the disappointment that followed as cybernetics was rejected and consigned to intellectual oblivion. The mechanization of the mind has reemerged today as an all-encompassing paradigm in the convergence of nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology, and cognitive science. The tensions, contradictions, paradoxes, and confusions Dupuy discerns in cybernetics offer a cautionary tale for future developments in cognitive science.

The Science-Music Borderlands

Author : Elizabeth H. Margulis
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262047640
Total Pages : 429 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (62 download)

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Book Synopsis The Science-Music Borderlands by : Elizabeth H. Margulis

Download or read book The Science-Music Borderlands written by Elizabeth H. Margulis and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2023-05-02 with total page 429 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Interdisciplinary essays on music psychology that integrate scientific, humanistic, and artistic ways of knowing in transformative ways. Researchers using scientific methods and approaches to advance our understanding of music and musicality have not yet grappled with some of the perils that humanistic fields concentrating on music have long articulated. In this edited volume, established and emerging researchers—neuroscientists and cognitive scientists, musicians, historical musicologists, and ethnomusicologists—build bridges between humanistic and scientific approaches to music studies, particularly music psychology. Deftly edited by Elizabeth H. Margulis, Psyche Loui, and Deirdre Loughridge, The Science-Music Borderlands embodies how sustained interaction among disciplines can lead to a richer understanding of musical life. The essays in this volume provide the scientific study of music with its first major reckoning, exploring the intellectual history of the field and its central debates, while charting a path forward. The Science-Music Borderlands is essential reading for music scholars from any disciplinary background. It will also interest those working at the intersection of music and science, such as music teachers, performers, composers, and music therapists. Contributors: Manuel Anglada-Tort, Salwa El-Sawan Castelo-Branco, Hu Chuan-Peng, Laura K. Cirelli, Alexander W. Cowan, Jonathan De Souza, Diana Deutsch, Diandra Duengen, Sarah Faber, Steven Feld, Shinya Fujii, Assal Habibi, Erin. E. Hannon, Shantala Hegde, Beatriz Ilari, Jason Jabbour, Nori Jacoby, Haley E. Kragness, Grace Leslie, Casey Lew-Williams, Deirdre Loughridge, Psyche Loui, Diana Mangalagiu, Elizabeth H. Margulis, Randy McIntosh, Rita McNamara, Eduardo Reck Miranda, Daniel Müllensiefen, Rachel Mundy, Florence Ewomazino Nweke, Patricia Opondo, Aniruddh D. Patel, Andrea Ravignani, Carmel Raz, Matthew Sachs, Marianne Sarfati, Patrick E. Savage, Huib Schippers, Jim Sykes, Gary Tomlinson, Jamal Williams, Maria A. G. Witek, Pamela Z

Thomas Kuhn

Author : Alexander Bird
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317490134
Total Pages : 321 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (174 download)

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Book Synopsis Thomas Kuhn by : Alexander Bird

Download or read book Thomas Kuhn written by Alexander Bird and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-12-18 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thomas Kuhn (1922-96) transformed the philosophy of science. His seminal 1962 work "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" introduced the term 'paradigm shift' into the vernacular and remains a fundamental text in the study of the history and philosophy of science. This introduction to Kuhn's ideas covers the breadth of his philosophical work, situating "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" within Kuhn's wider thought and drawing attention to the development of his ideas over time. Kuhn's work is assessed within the context of other philosophies of science notably logical empiricism and recent developments in naturalized epistemology. The author argues that Kuhn's thinking betrays a residual commitment to many theses characteristic of the empiricists he set out to challenge. Kuhn's influence on the history and philosophy of science is assessed and where the field may be heading in the wake of Kuhn's ideas is explored.

Atom and Void

Author : J. Robert Oppenheimer
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 1400860288
Total Pages : 170 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (8 download)

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Book Synopsis Atom and Void by : J. Robert Oppenheimer

Download or read book Atom and Void written by J. Robert Oppenheimer and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2014-07-14 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: J. Robert Oppenheimer was one of the outstanding physicists of his generation. He was also an immensely gifted writer and speaker, who thought deeply about the way that scientific discoveries have changed the way people live and think. Displaying his subtlety of thought and expression as do few other documents, this book of his lectures discusses the moral and cultural implications of developments in modern physics. Originally published in 1989. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

The Secret Life of Science

Author : Jeremy J. Baumberg
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691174350
Total Pages : 248 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (911 download)

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Book Synopsis The Secret Life of Science by : Jeremy J. Baumberg

Download or read book The Secret Life of Science written by Jeremy J. Baumberg and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2018-05-15 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A revealing and provocative look at the current state of global science We take the advance of science as given. But how does science really work? Is it truly as healthy as we tend to think? How does the system itself shape what scientists do? The Secret Life of Science takes a clear-eyed and provocative look at the current state of global science, shedding light on a cutthroat and tightly tensioned enterprise that even scientists themselves often don't fully understand. The Secret Life of Science is a dispatch from the front lines of modern science. It paints a startling picture of a complex scientific ecosystem that has become the most competitive free-market environment on the planet. It reveals how big this ecosystem really is, what motivates its participants, and who reaps the rewards. Are there too few scientists in the world or too many? Are some fields expanding at the expense of others? What science is shared or published, and who determines what the public gets to hear about? What is the future of science? Answering these and other questions, this controversial book explains why globalization is not necessarily good for science, nor is the continued growth in the number of scientists. It portrays a scientific community engaged in a race for limited resources that determines whether careers are lost or won, whose research visions become the mainstream, and whose vested interests end up in control. The Secret Life of Science explains why this hypercompetitive environment is stifling the diversity of research and the resiliency of science itself, and why new ideas are needed to ensure that the scientific enterprise remains healthy and vibrant.

Kant's Theory of Science

Author : Gordon G. Brittan Jr.
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 1400867487
Total Pages : 229 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (8 download)

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Book Synopsis Kant's Theory of Science by : Gordon G. Brittan Jr.

Download or read book Kant's Theory of Science written by Gordon G. Brittan Jr. and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2015-03-08 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While interest in Kant's philosophy has increased in recent years, very little of it has focused on his theory of science. This book gives a general account of that theory, of its motives and implications, and of the way it brought forth a new conception of the nature of philosophical thought. To reconstruct Kant's theory of science, the author identifies unifying themes of his philosophy of mathematics and philosophy of physics, both undergirded by his distinctive logical doctrines, and shows how they come together to form a relatively consistent system of ideas. A new analysis of the structure of central arguments in the Critique of Pure Reason and the Prolegomena draws on recent developments in logic and the philosophy of science. Professor Brittan's unified account of the philosophies of mathematics and physics explores the nature of Kant's commitment to Euclidean geometry and Newtonian mechanics as well as providing an integrated reading of the Critique of Pure Reason and the Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science. Contemporary ideas help both to illuminate Kant's position and to show how that position, in turn, illuminates contemporary problems in the philosophy of science. Originally published in 1978. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Minds, Machines and Evolution

Author : Christopher Hookway
Publisher : CUP Archive
ISBN 13 : 9780521338288
Total Pages : 196 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (382 download)

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Book Synopsis Minds, Machines and Evolution by : Christopher Hookway

Download or read book Minds, Machines and Evolution written by Christopher Hookway and published by CUP Archive. This book was released on 1986-07-31 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Original essays written by philosophers and scientists and dealing with philosophical questions arising from work in evolutionary biology and artificial intelligence.

Why Trust Science?

Author : Naomi Oreskes
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691212260
Total Pages : 386 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (912 download)

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Book Synopsis Why Trust Science? by : Naomi Oreskes

Download or read book Why Trust Science? written by Naomi Oreskes and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2021-04-06 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why the social character of scientific knowledge makes it trustworthy Are doctors right when they tell us vaccines are safe? Should we take climate experts at their word when they warn us about the perils of global warming? Why should we trust science when so many of our political leaders don't? Naomi Oreskes offers a bold and compelling defense of science, revealing why the social character of scientific knowledge is its greatest strength—and the greatest reason we can trust it. Tracing the history and philosophy of science from the late nineteenth century to today, this timely and provocative book features a new preface by Oreskes and critical responses by climate experts Ottmar Edenhofer and Martin Kowarsch, political scientist Jon Krosnick, philosopher of science Marc Lange, and science historian Susan Lindee, as well as a foreword by political theorist Stephen Macedo.

Metaphysical Song

Author : Gary Tomlinson
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780691004099
Total Pages : 206 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (4 download)

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Book Synopsis Metaphysical Song by : Gary Tomlinson

Download or read book Metaphysical Song written by Gary Tomlinson and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 1999-02-21 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author "connects opera to shifting visions of metaphysics and selfhood across the last four hundred years."--Cover.

Philosophy of Biology

Author : Peter Godfrey-Smith
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691174679
Total Pages : 200 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (911 download)

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Book Synopsis Philosophy of Biology by : Peter Godfrey-Smith

Download or read book Philosophy of Biology written by Peter Godfrey-Smith and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2016-09-06 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An essential introduction to the philosophy of biology This is a concise, comprehensive, and accessible introduction to the philosophy of biology written by a leading authority on the subject. Geared to philosophers, biologists, and students of both, the book provides sophisticated and innovative coverage of the central topics and many of the latest developments in the field. Emphasizing connections between biological theories and other areas of philosophy, and carefully explaining both philosophical and biological terms, Peter Godfrey-Smith discusses the relation between philosophy and science; examines the role of laws, mechanistic explanation, and idealized models in biological theories; describes evolution by natural selection; and assesses attempts to extend Darwin's mechanism to explain changes in ideas, culture, and other phenomena. Further topics include functions and teleology, individuality and organisms, species, the tree of life, and human nature. The book closes with detailed, cutting-edge treatments of the evolution of cooperation, of information in biology, and of the role of communication in living systems at all scales. Authoritative and up-to-date, this is an essential guide for anyone interested in the important philosophical issues raised by the biological sciences.

What Science Is and How It Really Works

Author : James C. Zimring
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1108476856
Total Pages : 407 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (84 download)

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Book Synopsis What Science Is and How It Really Works by : James C. Zimring

Download or read book What Science Is and How It Really Works written by James C. Zimring and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2019-07-18 with total page 407 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A timely and accessible synthesis of the strengths, weaknesses and reality of science through the eyes of a practicing scientist.

Forgetting Machines: Knowledge Management Evolution in Early Modern Europe

Author : Alberto Cevolini
Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 9004325255
Total Pages : 401 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (43 download)

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Book Synopsis Forgetting Machines: Knowledge Management Evolution in Early Modern Europe by : Alberto Cevolini

Download or read book Forgetting Machines: Knowledge Management Evolution in Early Modern Europe written by Alberto Cevolini and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2016-10-11 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Forgetting Machines. Knowledge Management Evolution in Early Modern Europe investigates the evolution of scholarly practices and the transformation of cognitive habits in the early modern age, focussing on the development of note-taking systems and data storage devices.

Pathways to the Origin and Evolution of Meanings in the Universe

Author : Alexei A. Sharov
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
ISBN 13 : 1119865093
Total Pages : 516 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (198 download)

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Book Synopsis Pathways to the Origin and Evolution of Meanings in the Universe by : Alexei A. Sharov

Download or read book Pathways to the Origin and Evolution of Meanings in the Universe written by Alexei A. Sharov and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2024-04-02 with total page 516 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pathways to the Origin and Evolition of Meanings in the Universe The book explains why meaning is a part of the universe populated by life, and how organisms generate meanings and then use them for creative transformation of the environment and themselves. This book focuses on interdisciplinary research at the intersection of biology, semiotics, philosophy, ethology, information theory, and the theory of evolution. Such a broad approach provides a rich context for the study of organisms and other semiotic agents in their environments. This methodology can be applied to robotics and artificial intelligence for developing robust, adaptable learning devices. In this book, leading interdisciplinary scholars reveal their vision on how to integrate natural sciences with semiotics, a theory of meaning-making and signification. Developments in biology indicate that the capacity to create and understand signs is not limited to humans or vertebrate animals, but exists in all living organisms - the fact that inspired the integration of biology and semiotics into biosemiotics. The authors discuss the nature of semiotic agents (organisms and other autonomous goal-directed units), meaning, signs, information, memory, evolution, and consciousness. Also discussed are issues including the origin of life, potential meaning and its actualization, top-down causality in physics and biology, capacity of organisms to encode their functions, the strategy of organisms to combine homeostasis with direct adaptation to new life-cycle phases or new environments, multi-level memory systems, increase of freedom via enabling constraints, creative modeling in evolution and learning, communication in animals and humans, the origin and function of language, and the distribution and transfer of life in space. This is the first book on biosemiotics in its global conceptual and spatial scope. Biosemiotics is presented using the language of natural sciences, which supports the scientific grounding of semiotic terms. Finally, the cosmic dimension of life and meaning-making leads to a reconsideration of ethical principles and ecological mentality here on earth and in space exploration. Audience Theoretical biologists, ethologists, astrobiologists, ecologists, evolutionary biologists, philosophers, phenomenologists, semioticians, biosemioticians, molecular biologists, linguists, system scientists and engineers.

The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge

Author : Abraham Flexner
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691174768
Total Pages : 104 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (911 download)

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Book Synopsis The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge by : Abraham Flexner

Download or read book The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge written by Abraham Flexner and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2017-02-21 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A short, provocative book about why "useless" science often leads to humanity's greatest technological breakthroughs A forty-year tightening of funding for scientific research has meant that resources are increasingly directed toward applied or practical outcomes, with the intent of creating products of immediate value. In such a scenario, it makes sense to focus on the most identifiable and urgent problems, right? Actually, it doesn't. In his classic essay "The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge," Abraham Flexner, the founding director of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and the man who helped bring Albert Einstein to the United States, describes a great paradox of scientific research. The search for answers to deep questions, motivated solely by curiosity and without concern for applications, often leads not only to the greatest scientific discoveries but also to the most revolutionary technological breakthroughs. In short, no quantum mechanics, no computer chips. This brief book includes Flexner's timeless 1939 essay alongside a new companion essay by Robbert Dijkgraaf, the Institute's current director, in which he shows that Flexner's defense of the value of "the unobstructed pursuit of useless knowledge" may be even more relevant today than it was in the early twentieth century. Dijkgraaf describes how basic research has led to major transformations in the past century and explains why it is an essential precondition of innovation and the first step in social and cultural change. He makes the case that society can achieve deeper understanding and practical progress today and tomorrow only by truly valuing and substantially funding the curiosity-driven "pursuit of useless knowledge" in both the sciences and the humanities.

Out Of Control

Author : Kevin Kelly
Publisher : Basic Books
ISBN 13 : 078674703X
Total Pages : 528 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (867 download)

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Book Synopsis Out Of Control by : Kevin Kelly

Download or read book Out Of Control written by Kevin Kelly and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2009-04-30 with total page 528 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Out of Control chronicles the dawn of a new era in which the machines and systems that drive our economy are so complex and autonomous as to be indistinguishable from living things.

Ptolemy's Philosophy

Author : Jacqueline Feke
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 069121039X
Total Pages : 250 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (912 download)

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Book Synopsis Ptolemy's Philosophy by : Jacqueline Feke

Download or read book Ptolemy's Philosophy written by Jacqueline Feke and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-10-13 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A stimulating intellectual history of Ptolemy's philosophy and his conception of a world in which mathematics reigns supreme The Greco-Roman mathematician Claudius Ptolemy is one of the most significant figures in the history of science. He is remembered today for his astronomy, but his philosophy is almost entirely lost to history. This groundbreaking book is the first to reconstruct Ptolemy’s general philosophical system—including his metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics—and to explore its relationship to astronomy, harmonics, element theory, astrology, cosmology, psychology, and theology. In this stimulating intellectual history, Jacqueline Feke uncovers references to a complex and sophisticated philosophical agenda scattered among Ptolemy’s technical studies in the physical and mathematical sciences. She shows how he developed a philosophy that was radical and even subversive, appropriating ideas and turning them against the very philosophers from whom he drew influence. Feke reveals how Ptolemy’s unique system is at once a critique of prevailing philosophical trends and a conception of the world in which mathematics reigns supreme. A compelling work of scholarship, Ptolemy’s Philosophy demonstrates how Ptolemy situated mathematics at the very foundation of all philosophy—theoretical and practical—and advanced the mathematical way of life as the true path to human perfection.