By William Poundstone
John von Neumann invented the electronic laptop, performed a key function within the improvement of the atom bomb, built a department of arithmetic referred to as video game conception, and have become a defender of a circulation to bomb the Russians sooner than they can bomb us. Now comes a biography of this arguable genius and an exploration of his maximum idea--one that just about brought on a nuclear conflict in 1950. images.
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63 However, the question of whether or not the ancient skeptic’s equivocations over his arch[ and telos are successful or not is less to the point than is the insight that lies behind it: the realization that the motivations of the philosopher are a key component of any doctrine. This highlights again the reflexivity that is at the core of ancient skepticism, and which distinguishes it (according to Hegel) from its modern counterpart. Understood in a broader context, the problems of arch[ and telos press also on more fundamental matters.
Nussbaum describes the process as follows: Ataraxia just comes by chance, tuchikos, as a result of a process [the skeptic] is following out of some non-dogmatic motivation – say, because it is his trade. He does not seek it out, he does not believe in it: it just happens to him. Since it happens as an unexpected result, we do not have to attribute any commitment to him in order to explain his actions. Apelles did not have a desire to make a certain sort of effect by tossing the sponge. He just threw it out of frustration, and 32 Skepticism, Modernity and Critical Theory the effect came by lucky coincidence.
Idealism, Metacritique and Ancient Skepticism 19 Hegel issues this challenge in various places and in various ways. In the Introduction to the Phenomenology, Hegel notes that empiricism, in common with other modes of philosophy, proceeds with an instrumental model of the relationship between reflection and experience. ”21 In the 1801 essay, this same criticism is made directly in relation to Schulze’s claim in Aenesidemus, that the existence of what is given within the compass of our consciousness has undeniable certainty; for since it is present in consciousness, we can doubt the certainty of it no more than we can doubt consciousness … .
