Tobias 12,10

“But they that commit sin and iniquity, are enemies to their own soul. “

Socrates prayer in Phaedrus dialogue

 i just read this briliant piece:

 ”…..Dear Pan, and all you other gods who live here, grant that I may become beautiful within, and that whatever outward things I have may be in harmony with the spirit inside me. May I understand that it is only the wise who are rich, and may I have only as much money as a temperate person needs. — Is there anything else that we can ask for, Phaedrus? For me, that prayer is enough”

Do the Impossible: Know Thyself by Theodore Dalrymple

http://www.newenglishreview.org/custpage.cfm?frm=5863&sec_id=5863

this is the classic. On one hand you find neuroscientisc, who present themselves as a modern Prometheus meets LaMettrie.  Theese guys are just pathetic and so naive. And on the other you have got honest intellectuall (Dalrymple) , so tied up in modernity, that  altough he seeks , he cant his way out of it.  He resigns in the face of it.

This is a true “El tema de nuestro tiempo”  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Ortega_y_Gasset

i dont pretend to have an answer  (yet ) , but one thing i know both of them are going in th wrong direction

Nonlinearity

This article describes the use of the term nonlinearity in mathematics. For other meanings, see nonlinearity (disambiguation).

In mathematics, nonlinear systems represent systems whose behavior is not expressible as a sum of the behaviors of its descriptors. In particular, the behavior of nonlinear systems is not subject to the principle of superposition, as linear systems are. Crudely, a nonlinear system is one whose behavior is not simply the sum of its parts or their multiples.

Linearity of a system allows investigators to make certain mathematical assumptions and approximations, allowing for simple computation of results. In nonlinear systems these assumptions cannot be made. Since nonlinear systems are not equal to the sum of their parts, they are often difficult (or impossible) to model, and their behavior with respect to a given variable (for example, time) is extremely difficult to predict. When modeling non-linear systems, therefore, it is common to approximate them as linear, where possible.

Some nonlinear systems are exactly solvable or integrable, while others are known to be chaotic, and thus have no simple or closed form solution. A possible example is that of freak waves. Whilst some nonlinear systems and equations of general interest have been extensively studied, the general theory is poorly understood.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonlinear

Marcus Aurelius Meditations …excerpts

me, our minds being both extracted from the Deity; since no man can do me a real injury because no man can force me to misbehave myself

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a world without gods or Providence is not worth a man’s while to live in

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Think upon nothing but what you could willingly tell about, so that if your soul were laid open there would appear nothing but what was sincere, good-natured and public-spirited. A man thus qualified is a sort of priest and minister of the gods, and makes a right use of the divinity within him.

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 in the whole compass of human life, you find anything preferable to justice and truth, temperance and fortitude, or to a mind self-satisfied with its own rational conduct and entirely resigned to fate, then turn to it as to your supreme happiness. But if there be nothing more valuable than the divinity within you, if all things are trifles in comparison with this, then do not divide your allegiance. Let your choice run all one way, and be resolute for that which is best. As for other speculations, throw them once for all out of your head.

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 One’s own heart is a place the most free from crowd and noise in the world if only one’s thoughts are serene and the mind well ordered

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If understanding be common to us all, then reason, its cause, must be common, too. And so also must the reason which governs conduct by commands and prohibitions be common to us all. Mankind is therefore under one common law

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action is the end of your being….Shall not a man act like a man?

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Some men, when they do you a kindness, ask for the payment of gratitude; others, more modest, remember the favour and look upon you as their debtor. But there are yet other benefactors who forget their good deeds; and these are like the vine, which is satisfied by being fruitful in its kind and bears a bunch of grapes without expecting any thanks for it. A truly kind man never talks of a good turn that he has done, but does another as soon as he can, just like a vine that bears again the next season.
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Throw me into what climate or state your please, for all that I will keep my soul content

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 How fulsome and hollow does that man seem who cries: ‘I’m resolved to deal sincerely with you!’ Hark you, friend, what need of all this flourish? Let your actions speak. Your face ought to vouch for you. I would have virtue look out of the eye no less apparently than love does. A man of integrity and good nature can never be concealed, for his character is wrought into his countenance.
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I have often wondered how it is that everyone should love himself best and yet value his neighbour’s opinion of him more than his own

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Meditations

Marcus Aurelius
http://www.btinternet.com/~glynhughes/squashed/marcusa.htm

More on definitions of energy

It is important to realize that in physics today, we have no knowledge of what energy “is.” We do not have a picture that energy comes in little blobs of a definite amount. It is not that way. It is an abstract thing in that it does not tell us the mechanism or the reason for the various formulas.

http://www.phy.davidson.edu/FacHome/swp/courses/PHY110/Feynman.html

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Source: Thermodynamics, by Virgil Moring Faires, and Clifford Max Simmang, MacMillan Publishing Co., Inc. (a college text book)Quote: “Energy is inherent in all matter. Energy is something that appears in many different forms which are related to each other by the fact that conversion can be made from one form of energy to another (comment from DW – see my pages on Energy Changes and the First Law of Thermodynamics). Although no simple definition can be given to the general term energy, E, except that it is the capacity to produce an effect (comment from DW – “Hey that’s like my definition!”), the various forms in which it appears can be defined with precision.”

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Source: (A good ol’ Schaum’s Outline for gosh sakes!) Theory and Problems of Thermodynamics, by M.M. Abbott, H.C. Van Ness, Schaum’s Outline Series in Engineering, McGraw-Hill Book Company
 

Quote: “Energy is a mathematical abstraction that has no existence apart from its functional relationship to other variables or coordinates that do have a physical interpretation and which can be measured. For example, the kinetic energy of a given mass of material is a function of its velocity, and it has no other reality.”
(comment from DW – Phew! I guess that’s kind of a mystic thing going there. And that’s the first paragraph! How many people would keep reading after that? Well, me for one. I couldn’t resist, here’s the next paragraph:)
More Quote (2nd paragraph in book): “The first law of thermodynamics is merely a formal statement asserting that energy is conserved. Thus it represents a primitive statement about a primitive concept. Moreover, energy and the first law are coupled: The first law depends on the concept of energy, but it is equally true that energy is an essential thermodynamic function precisely because it allows formulation of the first law.”