Proper Function, Natural Reason, and Evils as Extrinsic Goods

This is a paper about God, evil, and the soul-making theodicy. Too often we pair together this theodicy with various liberal philosophical theologians (e.g. John Hick), and miss the importance of the rich resources that we find in the theodicy itself. I would like to propose that we not overlook the continuing importance of this theodical method, for this method or approach to theodicy seems squarely in line, in its essential parts, with the New Testament conception of the development of Christian character and the theological virtue of hope. Consider Paul\u27s sentiment in the Book of Romans

On Behalf of the Fool: G.E. Moore and Our Knowledge of the Existence of Material Objects

In this paper I argue that G.E. Moore’s naturalism (combined with his sense-data theory) falls prey to the charge, leveled recently by Plantinga, that Moore doesn’t know whether his belief-forming mechanisms are functioning properly when he says he knows a pencil (or his hand) exists. Help from Alston may be sought in response to criticisms, but these are not sufficient to vindicate Moore’s form of naturalism

Stuck Between ‘the Rock’ and a Hard Place: Re-imagining Rural Newfoundland Feminine Subjectivities Beyond the Global Imaginary and Rural Crisis

There has been a growing body of research exploring the mobility experiences of rural youth as they migrate in search of work, education and leisure. In this paper we contribute to this body of knowledge by examining the mobility experiences of young women (16-24 years) living on the southwest coast of Newfoundland, Canada. In contrast to dominant constructions of rural crisis that position out of the way places as in decline, dying or dead, we argue that the young women in our study articulated complex, affective relations to place. In so doing they negotiated localized histories, prevailing social relations, broader discursive constructions and embodied affective connections in forging their emplaced feminine subjectivities. We argue that foregrounding the complex and at times contradictory relationships that the young women articulated with their rural homes is an important step in prying open dominant albeit constraining constructions of the rural, thereby allowing for alternative and more inhabitable imaginings of out of the way places

Phase Structure of Kerr-AdS Black Hole

We study the critical phenomena of Kerr-AdS black hole. Phase structures are observed at different temperatures, $T_{L}$, $T_{c1}$ and $T_{c2}$ with various features. We discuss the thermal stability considering the isothermal compressibility and how phase transitions related to each other. The asymptotic value of the angular momentum also has an implication on separating stable and unstable part. Near critical temperature $T_{c1}$, the order parameter is determined to calculate the critical exponents. All the critical exponents ($\alpha$,$\beta$,$\gamma$,$\delta$)=(0,1/2,1,3) are identical to that of mean field systems. We plot the phase diagram near this critical point, and discuss the scaling symmetry of the free energy.Comment: 21 pages, 6 figures, contents revise

Superhumps in Cataclysmic Binaries. XXII. 1RXS J232953.9+062814

We report photometry of 1RXS J232953.9+062814, a recently discovered dwarf nova with a remarkably short 64.2-minute orbital period. In quiescence, the star's light curve is that of a double sinusoid, arising from the "ellipsoidal" distortion of the Roche-lobe-filling secondary. During superoutburst, common superhumps develop with a period 3-4% longer than P_orb. This indicates a mass ratio M_2/M_1=0.19+-0.02, a surprisingly large value in so compact a binary. This implies that the secondary star has a density 2-3 times higher than that of other short-period dwarf novae, suggesting a secondary enriched by H-burning prior to the common-envelope phase of evolution. We estimate i=50+-5 deg, M_1=0.63 (+0.12, -0.09) M_sol, M_2=0.12 (+0.03, -0.02) M_sol, R_2=0.121 (+0.010, -0.007) R_sol, and a distance to the binary of 180+-40 pc.Comment: PDF, 17 pages, 3 tables, 5 figures; accepted, in press, to appear June 2002, PASP; more info at http://cba.phys.columbia.edu