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The classical theories of Linear Elasticity and Newtonian Fluids,
though trium phantly elegant as mathematical structures, do not
adequately describe the defor mation and flow of most real
materials. Attempts to characterize the behaviour of real materials
under the action of external forces gave rise to the science of
Rheology. Early rheological studies isolated the phenomena now
labelled as viscoelastic. Weber (1835, 1841), researching the
behaviour of silk threats under load, noted an instantaneous
extension, followed by a further extension over a long period of
time. On removal of the load, the original length was eventually
recovered. He also deduced that the phenomena of stress relaxation
and damping of vibrations should occur. Later investigators showed
that similar effects may be observed in other materials. The German
school referred to these as "Elastische Nachwirkung" or "the
elastic aftereffect" while the British school, including Lord
Kelvin, spoke ofthe "viscosityofsolids." The universal adoption of
the term "Viscoelasticity," intended to convey behaviour combining
proper ties both of a viscous liquid and an elastic solid, is of
recent origin, not being used for example by Love (1934), though
Alfrey (1948) uses it in the context of polymers. The earliest
attempts at mathematically modelling viscoelastic behaviour were
those of Maxwell (1867) (actually in the context of his work on
gases; he used this model for calculating the viscosity of a gas)
and Meyer (1874)."
The Inner Chapters are the oldest pieces of the larger collection
of writings by several fourth, third, and second century B.C.
authors that constitute the classic of Taoism, the Chuang-Tzu (or
Zhuangzi). It is this core of ancient writings that is ascribed to
Chuang-Tzu himself.
Classical Chinese poetry reached its pinnacle during the T'ang
Dynasty (618-907 A.D.), and the poets of the late T'ang-a period of
growing political turmoil and violence-are especially notable for
combining striking formal innovation with raw emotional intensity.
A. C. Graham's anthology of T'ang poetry begins with Tu Fu,
commonly recognized as the greatest Chinese poet of all, whose
final poems and sequences lament the pains of exile in images of
crystalline strangeness. It continues with the work of six other
masters, including the "cold poet" Meng Chiao, who wrote of retreat
from civilization to the remoteness of the high mountains; the
troubled and haunting Li Ho, the Chinese master of the uncanny,
who, as Graham writes, cultivates a "wholly personal imagery of
ghosts, blood, dying animals, weeping statues, whirlwinds, the
will-o'-the-wisp"; and the shimmeringly strange poems of illicit
love and Taoist initiation of the enigmatic Li Shang-yin. Offering
the largest selection of these poets' work available in English in
a translation that is a classic in its own right, Poems of the Late
T'ang also includes Graham's searching essay "The Translation of
Chinese Poetry," as well as helpful notes on each of the poets and
on many of the individual poems.
The Lieh-Tzu ranks with the Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu as one of the
most eloquent and influential expositions of Taoist philosophy.
This definitive translation by Professor Graham does full justice
to the subtlety of thought and literary effectiveness of the text.
A. C. Graham is one of the most distinguished Sinologists working
today.
"A history of Chinese philosophy in the so-called Axial Period (the
period of classical Greek and Indian philosophy), during which time
China evolved the characteristic ways of thought that sustained
both its empire and its culture for over 2000 years. It is
comprehensive, lucid, almost simple in its presentation, yet backed
up with incomparable authority amid a well-honed discretion that
unerringly picks out the core of any theme. Garlanded with tributes
even before publication, it has redrawn the map of its subject and
will be the one essential guide for any future exploration. For
anyone interested in the affinities between ancient Chinese and
modern Western philosophy, there is no better introduction."
--Contemporary Review
The Western tradition has tended to identify thinking with the
purely logical, excluding other kinds of thinking (such as thinking
by analogy, correlation, imaginative simulation) from philosophy,
without denying their indispensability in the conduct of life. The
central argument of "Unreason Within Reason" is that it is this
endeavour to detach the logical from other kinds of thinking which
has led to the present crisis of rationality, in which reason seems
everywhere to be undermining its own foundations. The concepts from
which logical thinking starts are inescapably rooted in the
spontaneous correlation of the similar/contrasting and
contiguous/remote which, according to Jakobsonian linguistics,
structures the sentences analysed by logic. Logical thinking can
turn back on itself to criticise the correlations, but cannot
detach itself to replace them by logically impregnable foundations.
The still-viable type of rationalism is a variant on Popper's
"critical rationalism" which does not, like Popper's, relegate the
non-logical element in thought to the psychology of knowledge. No
mode of thinking - poetic, mythic, mystical - is inherently
irrational; the function of the logical is not to replace them but
to test them. Graham finds this approach relevant to the fact/value
and egoism/altruism problems in moral philosophy and to the
epistemological problem of conflicting conceptual schemes, as well
as to situating myth and mysticism in relation to philosophy and to
the development of a variety of perspectivism clearly
distinguishable from relativism. Special attention is paid to
Nietzsche and Bataille, as representative critics of rationalism,
and to Chinese philosophy, as a tradition which has not isolated
the logical from other kinds of thinking.
The Inner Chapters are the oldest pieces of the larger collection
of writings by several fourth, third, and second century B.C.
authors that constitute the classic of Taoism, the Chuang-Tzu (or
Zhuangzi). It is this core of ancient writings that is ascribed to
Chuang-Tzu himself.
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