The 2015 Nepal earthquake and avalanche on Mount Everest generated one of the deadliest mountaineering disasters in modern times, bringing to media attention the physical-cultural world of high-altitude climbing. Contributing to the current sociological concern with embodiment, here we investigate the lived experience and social ‘production’ of endurance in this sociologically under-researched physical-cultural world. Via a phenomenological-sociological framework, we analyse endurance as cognitively, corporeally and interactionally lived and communicated, in the form of ‘endurance work’. Data emanate from (...) in-depth interviews with 18 high-altitude mountaineers, ten of whom experienced the 2015 avalanche. The article responds to Shilling’s (2016) call to address an important lacuna identified in sociological work: the need to investigate the embodied importance of cognition in the incorporation of culture. The concept of endurance work provides a powerful exemplar of this cognitive-corporeal nexus at work as a physical-culturally shaped, embodied practice and mode-of-thinking in the social world of high-altitude climbing. (shrink)

Endurantism is not inconsistent with the theory of special relativity, or so I shall argue. Endurantism is not committed to presentism, and thus not committed to a metaphysics that is at least prima facie inconsistent with special relativity. Nor is special relativity inconsistent with the idea that objects are wholly present at a time just if all of their parts co-exist at that time. For the endurantist notion of co-existence in terms of which “wholly present” is defined, is not, I (...) will argue, a notion according to which co-existence is transitive. Although an absence of absolute simultaneity presents some problems for the endurantist claim that objects are wholly present whenever they exist, there are a number of ways that the endurantist can respond to this difficulty. Thus, I conclude, considerations pertaining to the theory of special relativity certainly do not rule out endurantism as a metaphysics of persistence. (shrink)

Endurantism, the view that material objects are wholly present at each moment of their careers, is under threat from supersubstantivalism, the view that material objects are identical to spacetime regions. I discuss three compromise positions. They are alike in that they all take material objects to be composed of spacetime points or regions without being identical to any such point or region. They differ in whether they permit multilocation and in whether they generate cases of mereologically coincident entities.

In this essay, we aim to help clarify the nature of so-called 'occurrences' by attributing distinct modes of existence and persistence to processes and events. In doing so, we break with the perdurantism claimed by DOLCE’s authors and we distance ourselves from mereological analyzes like those recently conducted by Guarino to distinguish between 'processes' and 'episodes'. In line with the works of Stout and Galton, we first bring closer (physical) processes and objects in their way of enduring by proposing for (...) processes a notion of dynamic presence (contrasting with a static presence for objects). Then, on the events side, we attribute to them the status of abstract entities by identifying them with objects of thought (by individual and collective subjects), and this allows us to distinguish for themselves between existence and occurrence. We therefore identify them with psychological (or even social) endurants, which may contingently occur. (shrink)

Philosophers often state that the persistence of objects in vision is experienced differently than the persistence of sounds in audition. This difference is expressed by using metaphors from the metaphysical endurantism/perdurantism debate. For instance, it is claimed that only sounds are perceived as “temporally extended”. The paper investigates whether it is justified to characterize visually experienced objects and auditorily experienced sounds as different types of entities: endurants and perdurants respectively. This issue is analyzed from the perspective of major specifications of (...) the endurance/perdurance distinction connected, inter alia, with the notions of temporal parts and temporal localization. It is argued that it is unjustified to characterize visually experienced objects and auditorily experienced sounds as different types of entities in respect of how they persist. On the other hand, the apparent difference in the way of persisting can be explained by the presence of contingent differences between typical visual and auditory experiences. (shrink)

Natural theology is the branch of theology and philosophy that attempts to gain knowledge of God through non-revealed sources. In a narrower sense, natural theology is the discipline that presents rational arguments for the existence of God. Given that these arguments rarely directly persuade those who are not convinced by their conclusions, why do they enjoy an enduring appeal? This article examines two reasons for the continuing popularity of natural theological arguments: (i) they appeal to intuitions that humans robustly hold (...) and that emerge early in cognitive development; (ii) they serve an argumentative function by presenting particular religious views as live options. I conclude with observations on the role of natural theology in contemporary analytic philosophy of religion. (shrink)

We propose an ontological theory that is powerful enough to describe both complex spatio-temporal processes and the enduring entities that participate therein. For this purpose we introduce the notion a directly depicting ontology. Directly depicting ontologies are based on relatively simple languages and fall into two major categories: ontologies of type SPAN and ontologies of type SNAP. These represent two complementary perspectives on reality and employ distinct though compatible systems of categories. A SNAP (snapshot) ontology comprehends enduring entities such as (...) organisms, geographic features, or qualities as they exist at some given moment of time. A SPAN ontology comprehends perduring entities such as processes and their parts and aggregates as they unfold themselves through some temporal interval. We give an axiomatic account of the theory of directly depicting ontologies and of the core parts of the metaontological fragment within which they are embedded. (shrink)

For over a decade now, a community of researchers has contributed to the development of the Unified Foundational Ontology (UFO) - aimed at providing foundations for all major conceptual modeling constructs. This ontology has led to the development of an Ontology-Driven Conceptual Modeling language dubbed OntoUML, reflecting the ontological micro-theories comprising UFO. Over the years, UFO and OntoUML have been successfully employed in a number of academic, industrial and governmental settings to create conceptual models in a variety of different domains. (...) These experiences have pointed out to opportunities of improvement not only to the language itself but also to its underlying theory. In this paper, we take the first step in that direction by revising the theory of types in UFO in response to empirical evidence. The new version of this theory shows that many of the meta-types present in OntoUML (differentiating Kinds, Roles, Phases, Mixins, etc.) should be considered not as restricted to Substantial types but instead should be applied to model Endurant Types in general, including Relator types, Quality types and Mode types. We also contribute a formal characterization of this fragment of the theory, which is then used to advance a metamodel for OntoUML 2.0. Finally, we propose a computational support tool implementing this updated metamodel. (shrink)

It has been argued that the tenseless view of time is incompatible with endurantism. This has been disputed, perhaps most famously by Hugh Mellor and Peter Simons. They argue that things can endure in tenseless time, and indeed must endure if tenseless time is to contain change. In this paper I will point out some difficulties with Mellor’s and Simons’ claims that in tenseless time a particular can be ‘wholly present’ at various times, and therefore endure, as well as have (...) incompatible properties at those different times, and thereby change. In effect I argue that they do not resolve the charge that the tenseless view of time is incomatible with endurantism because the tenseless view does not allow anything to change temporal location and thereby come to be ‘wholly present’ at various times. (shrink)

Deductive inference is usually regarded as being “tautological” or “analytical”: the information conveyed by the conclusion is contained in the information conveyed by the premises. This idea, however, clashes with the undecidability of first-order logic and with the (likely) intractability of Boolean logic. In this article, we address the problem both from the semantic and the proof-theoretical point of view. We propose a hierarchy of propositional logics that are all tractable (i.e. decidable in polynomial time), although by means of growing (...) computational resources, and converge towards classical propositional logic. The underlying claim is that this hierarchy can be used to represent increasing levels of “depth” or “informativeness” of Boolean reasoning. Special attention is paid to the most basic logic in this hierarchy, the pure “intelim logic”, which satisfies all the requirements of a natural deduction system (allowing both introduction and elimination rules for each logical operator) while admitting of a feasible (quadratic) decision procedure. We argue that this logic is “analytic” in a particularly strict sense, in that it rules out any use of “virtual information”, which is chiefly responsible for the combinatorial explosion of standard classical systems. As a result, analyticity and tractability are reconciled and growing degrees of computational complexity are associated with the depth at which the use of virtual information is allowed. (shrink)

The terms `endurance' and `perdurance' are commonly thought to denote distinct ways for an object to persist, but it is surprisingly hard to say what these are. The common approach, defining them in terms of temporal parts, is mistaken, because it does not lead to two coherent philosophical alternatives: endurance so understood becomes conceptually incoherent, while perdurance becomes not just true but a conceptual truth. Instead, we propose a different way to articulate the distinction, in terms of identity (...) rather than temporal parts: an object endures if its identity is determined at every moment at which it exists. We make precise what it means for the identity of an object to be determined at a moment. We also discuss what role the endurance / perdurance distinction, so understood, should play in the debates about time, material objects and personal identity. (shrink)

In this paper I present a new definition of endurance. I argue that the three-dimensionalist ought to adopt a different understanding from the four-dimensionalist, of what it is to have a part simpliciter. With this new understanding it becomes possible to define endurance in a manner that both preserves the central endurantist intuitions, whilst avoiding commitment to any controversial metaphysical theses. Furthermore, since this endurantist definition is a mereological one, there is an elegant symmetry between the definitions of (...) endurance and perdurance in that the theories of three- and four-dimensionalism are both expressed in the language of mereology. Nevertheless, though both definitions are expressed within the same broad language, some of the terms of that language have subtly different meanings within the context of each theory. It is in understanding on the one hand that each theory is essentially a mereological theory and that therefore each shares some underlying theoretical similarities, and yet also that there are some subtle differences in the way each theory understands some of the terms of mereology, that allows us to see clearly what lies at the heart of the debate between these two accounts of persistence. (shrink)

The Structural Residue (Huynh 2026) defines the Entropy-Resistant Institution (ERI) as a threshold classifier: an institution either has survived two or more qualifying disruptions with constitutive function intact, or it has not. This paper converts that classifier into a quantitative index, applies it to the same three case studies — the Jiankang Empire (220–589 CE), the Japanese Imperial House (c. 500–2026 CE), and the Holy See (c. 33–2026 CE) — and reports the finding that matters most: two independently defensible weighting (...) schemes, built from the same coded data, produce opposite rankings. An endurance-weighted composite (ERI_A = 0.35·Y_norm + 0.25·A_norm + 0.25·T + 0.15·D_sev_norm) ranks Holy See (0.90) above Japan (0.50) above Jiankang (0.15). A density-weighted composite (ERI_B = 0.40·δ_norm + 0.25·A_norm + 0.20·D_sev_norm + 0.15·T), where δ is disruptions survived per century, ranks Jiankang (0.60) above Holy See (0.49) above Japan (0.15). No historical fact changes between the two calculations. Only the weighting changes. This is not a defect to be patched with a better formula. It is a discovery about the construct: “entropy resistance,” as currently specified, bundles at least two properties that do not co-vary — raw longevity and disruption-density — and the base paper does not yet say which one, or what blend, is relevant to the F2 governance-design question its Section VII raises. The index borrows one design principle from each of three established institutional-measurement tools rather than inventing a scoring system from first principles: Polity5’s DURABLE variable (Marshall & Gurr 2020), which defines regime change by a pre-registered operational trigger — a three-point shift in the coded POLITY score within three years or less — rather than a post-hoc judgment call, supplying the principle that a qualifying disruption needs a trigger specified in advance; the Fragile States Index (Fund for Peace, annual), which builds a composite from twelve independently scored, triangulated sub-indicators rather than one holistic judgment, supplying the principle of decomposition before aggregation; and V-Dem (Coppedge et al.), which uses multiple independent coders per item and publishes inter-coder reliability statistics, supplying the standard this paper’s own coding does not yet meet — every score below is produced by a single reader from a single document, a limitation stated in Section VI rather than concealed. The paper states five specific limitations, each of which would change the reported numbers if corrected, two of which cannot be corrected without new data collection: the six structural attributes were induced from the same three cases they are then used to score, which is close to circular; the current design has zero failure comparators, meaning it selects entirely on the dependent variable and cannot yet show the attributes discriminate survival from mere age; single-coder scoring has no reliability check, and a second coder working from the same source material could reasonably move any attribute score by ±2 on a 0–12 scale; the base paper’s own prose includes at least one cited disruption that fails its own three-part definition when checked against it; and the Holy See’s maximum possible attribute score (12/12) cannot currently be distinguished from an artifact of the scale having been shaped by -/- the Holy See’s own case. The paper converts these limitations into four dated, actionable falsification conditions in the Popperian-Holmesian format this corpus uses elsewhere (Huynh 2026n, 2026x), proposes four specific comparator cases — Byzantine terminal collapse (1453), Southern Tang (937–975), the Southern Song capital at Hangzhou (to 1279), and Sub-Roman Britain — selected to isolate what the current three-case design cannot, and names a confound the original three-case design could not see from inside itself: Jiankang, Southern Tang, and Southern Song are not three independent institutions but three refuge-episodes hosted by the same Jiangnan region across 1,059 years, raising the possibility that the six attributes measure recurring regional conditions rather than portable institutional design. The paper states plainly that its output is not a validated number. It is a sharper version of the question the base paper needs answered before its six attributes can do governance-design work: does F2 need an institution that simply endures, or one that has proven it can absorb disruption at high frequency? The two composite formulas point toward different architectures. The evidence assembled so far cannot yet say which one the historical record recommends. The paper closes by connecting this index to the corpus’s Sandbox Geometry (Huynh 2026): T maps directly onto whether an institution’s trajectory has crossed the critical surface Σ; A functions as a proxy for standing buffer capacity B; and δ is structurally the same class of quantity as λ_bz, the Biological Zero-Day Mechanism’s arrival rate in Model 1. This mapping produces the paper’s most consequential finding: λ_bz ≈ 0.5 year−1, roughly fifty disruption-class events per century, exceeds even Jiankang’s historical disruption density — the highest of the three cases — by a factor of roughly thirty-seven, and exceeds Japan’s and the Holy See’s by more than a hundredfold. No institution in the historical record examined here has ever been tested against a disruption arrival rate within two orders of magnitude of what the corpus’s own formal model projects for the F2-era problem. Endurance-weighted and density-weighted rankings alike are extrapolations far outside the tested range. (shrink)

The Principle of Non-Endurance (PNE) addresses the classical question “Why is there something rather than nothing?” by examining the conceptual coherence of absolute nothingness. This paper argues that the familiar picture of “nothing, forever” relies on an illicit application of endurance predicates to a condition that cannot sustain them. PNE states that endurance and temporal obtainment require structural support, such as laws, symmetries, identity conditions, or a temporal manifold. Since strict absolute nothingness is defined as the total (...) absence of all such structure, it cannot coherently be treated as a temporally extended condition or as a global history of reality. The argument removes the strongest form of the classical rival to being, showing that strict non-being is not a member of modal space and cannot function as an alternative to any structured world. The result reframes the metaphysical landscape: the deep question is not why being triumphed over an impossible state of strict non-being, but why reality exhibits the forms of structure it does among the coherent possibilities that remain. (shrink)

Introduction Religion has long played a foundational role in shaping the identity, structure, and values of human societies. Across history and civilizations, religion provided not only a spiritual framework but also a moral, legal, and cultural backbone. Today, religion continues to form a major component of many national cultures. This paper explores why religion became a central element in the culture of many nations, focusing on its historical functions, social integration, and enduring legacy. -/- .

The Principle of Non-Endurance (PNE) addresses the classical question “Why is there something rather than nothing?” by examining the conceptual coherence of absolute nothingness. This paper argues that the familiar picture of “nothing, forever” relies on an illicit application of endurance predicates to a condition that cannot sustain them. PNE states that endurance and temporal obtainment require structural support, such as laws, symmetries, identity conditions, or a temporal manifold. Since strict absolute nothingness is defined as the total (...) absence of all such structure, it cannot coherently be treated as a temporally extended condition or as a global history of reality. The argument removes the strongest form of the classical rival to being, showing that strict non-being is not a member of modal space and cannot function as an alternative to any structured world. The result reframes the metaphysical landscape: the deep question is not why being triumphed over an impossible state of strict non-being, but why reality exhibits the forms of structure it does among the coherent possibilities that remain. (shrink)

I set up a puzzling contrast using two well-known cases: Evans’ (1973) case of Madagascar and Kripke’s (1977) Leaf Raking case. Despite their apparent similarity, only the former has traditionally been thought to involve reference change. However, it’s not clear why this is so. I survey a number of influential and contemporary accounts that fail to explain the contrast in a satisfactory way. The challenge posed by cases of reference change therefore endures. Interestingly, the challenge endures for proponents of Kripke’s (...) well-known causal picture of reference fixing, as well as for proponents of Evans’ accounts which were attempts to improve upon that picture. (shrink)

In what ways and how far does virtue shield someone against suffering evils? In other words, how do non-moral evils affect the lives of virtuous people and to what extent can someone endure evils while staying happy? The central purpose of this chapter is to answer these questions by exploring what Aristotle has to say about the effects of evils in human well-being in general and his treatment of extreme misfortunes.

In this paper, I explore why classics are designated as “classics” and why they continue to endure. I argue that classics are not merely relics of antiquity but living expressions of human wisdom that transcend time and culture. While rooted in the literary, philosophical, and artistic traditions of ancient Greece and Rome, classics persist because they contain universal truths about the human condition. The relevance of classics lies in their ability to serve as patterns for living—a specimen vivendi. I explain (...) that literature and films function as contemporary channels for transmitting classical wisdom, enabling succeeding generations to encounter timeless and timely truths in accessible forms. Hence, their endurance depends on our commitment to preserve, practice, and reinterpret them in dialogue with the present. (shrink)

Holt argues against my account of the moral disanalogy between the situation of a pregnant person having an abortion and a parent committing the infanticide of their newborn. I explain that this critique fails because Holt constructs a straw man of my account by misrepresenting its scope, misrepresents one of my arguments and presents false equivalences between both, withdrawing consent for sex and withdrawing from parenthood, and the relationship between a homeowner and their property and the relationship between a parent (...) and their child, which demonstrates misunderstandings of the notions of parenthood, obligation and consent. (shrink)

Advocates of remedying historical injustices urge political communities to take responsibility for their past, but their arguments are ambiguous about whether all past injustices need remedy, or just those regarding groups that suffer from current injustice. This ambiguity leaves unanswered the challenge of critics who argue that contemporary injustices matter, not those in the past. I argue instead for a focus on injustices that have roots in the past, and continue to the present day, what I call enduring injustice. Instead (...) of focusing on finding the party responsible for the injustice, I argue that we use history to help us understand why some injustices endure, which I suggest is partly due to the limitations of liberal justice. I conclude with a conception of responsibility for repairing enduring injustice that deemphasizes searching for the causal agent, and instead focuses on how to repair the injustice, which I explain through an expansive conception of shared space. (shrink)

The recent debate in metaontology gave rise to several types of (more or less classical) answers to questions about "equivalences" between metaphysical theories and to the question whether metaphysical disputes are substantive or merely verbal (i.e. various versions of realism, strong anti-realism, moderate anti-realism, or epistemicism). In this paper, I want to do two things. First, I shall have a close look at one metaphysical debate that has been the target and center of interest of many meta-metaphysicians, namely the problem (...) of how material objects persist through time : the endurantism vs. perdurantism controversy. It has been argued that this debate is a good example of a merely verbal one, where two allegedly competing views are in fact translatable one into each other – they end up, contrary to appearances, to be equivalent. In my closer look at this debate, I will conclude that this is correct, but only to some extent, and that there does remain room for substantive disagreement. The second thing that I wish to achieve in this paper, and that I hope will stem from my considerations about the persistence debate, is to defend a metaontological view that emphasizes that when asking the question "Are metaphysical debates substantive or verbal?" the correct answer is "It depends." Some debates are substantive, some debates are merely verbal, sometimes it is true that a problem or a question can be formulated in equally good frameworks where there is no fact of the matter as to which one is correct or where we just cannot know it. Furthermore, importantly, as my examination of the persistence debate will show, there is room for the view that a debate is largely merely verbal but not entirely and that some parts of it are substantive, and decidable by philosophical methods. It is possible, and it is the case with respect to the persistence debate, that inside a debate some points are merely verbal while other are places of substantive disagreement. A moral of this is that, at the end of the day, the best way to do meta-metaphysics is to do first-level metaphysics. (shrink)

It is often suggested that we have experiences as of objects enduring. If this is a claim about perceptual experience, it is unclear how it could be true. It seems plausible that however objects persist, we would receive the same inputs to perception. Hence, things would seem experientially the same regardless of whether objects endure, or persist in some other manner. So it cannot be that in any interesting sense we have experiences as of objects enduring. My aim is the (...) modest one of articulating how, despite this, we could have perceptual experiences as of objects enduring. I then argue that even if we do, it does not give us any reason to infer, on the basis of these experiences, that objects endure. (shrink)

Why do some democracies endure persistent and highly salient corruption without systemic rupture, while others experience rapid protest escalation and government collapse? This paper addresses that puzzle through a comparative analysis of the United States and Bulgaria. Conventional explanations—institutional design, political culture, polarisation, and legal accountability—account for differences in protest opportunity structures and removal mechanisms but do not explain a deeper asymmetry: why contradiction between democratic norms and elite behaviour stabilises into endurance in some contexts yet escalates into rupture (...) in others. Drawing on comparative politics, protest theory, and political psychology, the paper reframes this problem as epistemic. It reconceptualises cognitive dissonance not merely as intrapsychic discomfort but as a socially distributed phenomenon embedded in collective epistemic environments. The paper introduces the concept of epistemic architecture to explain how media systems, partisan identities, civic networks, and institutional timelines structure the distribution, deferral, and resolution of ethical contradiction. Re-analysing the U.S. and Bulgarian cases through this lens shows that democratic stability and protest efficacy depend not only on institutional incentives or grievance intensity, but on a system’s capacity for contradiction metabolism—the ability to absorb, normalise, or concentrate ethical tension. Where epistemic architectures disperse contradiction, democratic endurance can persist even amid fiduciary strain; where such architectures fail, contradiction rapidly consolidates into mobilisation and political rupture. (shrink)

The purpose of this study was to compare the cardiovascular endurance profile of physical education students of Federal College of Education Obudu and Cross River State College of Education in Akamkpa, Nigeria. Estimated maximum oxygen uptake (max VO₂) was used as a measure of cardiovascular endurance. Standardized procedures were employed in the tests. To achieve the objectives of the study, one research hypothesis was raised to serve as a guide to the study. The quasi-experimental research design was adopted (...) for the study. A total of twenty (20) subjects were selected using a stratified random sampling technique. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The descriptive statistics were the mean, range, and standard deviation, while the inferential statistic was the independent t-test employed to test for significant differences between the mean scores of subjects from the two schools. The level of significance was set at .05 with 18 degrees of freedom. Findings of the study revealed that students from the Federal College of Education, Obudu and Cross River State College of Education, Akamkpa were similar in the variable tested. Based on the findings of the study, appropriate conclusions and recommendations were made. (shrink)

This paper is primarily about metaphysics; specifically, about a Cartesian view of the self, according to which it is a simple, enduring, non-material entity.I take a critical look at Nida-Rümelin’s novel conceptual arguments for this view and argue that they don’t give us decisive reasons to uphold the Cartesian view. But in Nida-Rümelin’s view, what is at stake in these arguments is not merely theoretical: the truth – and our beliefs about it – has practical consequences as well. In her (...) view, if the Cartesian simple view of the self were false, we would have no reason to love and care for family and friends, and our special interest in our own future would be pointless. In the last section of this paper, I will say something about the sense in which it is right and the sense in which it is wrong to think that the metaphysics of the self has broader relevance for our lives. (shrink)

The invariance thesis of enduring meaning states that a meaning endures precisely when two invariants, existential authenticity and structural viability, co-stabilize under perturbation. This stability is maintained by formal thresholds that keep misalignment bounded over time. Within this framework, meaning states M evolve under alternating context shocks and agent updates, while a misalignment functional V(M) gauges the distance from joint anchoring. Endurance is expressed not as convergence to a static point but as ultimate boundedness within an invariant basin. This (...) basin is determined by bounded perturbation ascent, expected descent under attuned updates, and residual bias constrained by external validation. Three axioms are introduced to ground this invariance structure, from which three primary results are derived: necessity, where endurance is impossible without authenticity and viable practice; melioristic error-correction, where endurance is achieved via updates rather than the absence of error; and sufficiency, where meeting internal and external thresholds preserves trajectories within the invariant basin. A Lyapunov-style stability sketch clarifies why boundedness holds as a structural property: the descent-up-to-bias architecture combines disciplined updates with validation-coupled bias control to preserve stability under perturbation. The resulting invariance theorem provides a biconditional characterization linking authenticity, viable practice, attunement, and external success. The analysis concludes with a stability-aligned taxonomy of drift modes and an analytical architecture comprising metrics, epistemic coupling, and calibrated thresholds. This framework operationalizes the dual-anchor condition across domains, enabling disciplined future applications in diverse contexts by providing the formal requirements for meaning-stability. This framework provides formal requirements for meaning stability and operates without requiring prior empirical datasets. (shrink)

The historic material culture produced by American Cold War nuclear weapons testing includes objects of scientific inquiry that can be generally categorized as being either ephemeral or enduring. Objects deemed to be ephemeral were of a less substantial nature, being impermanent and expendable in a nuclear test, while enduring objects were by nature more durable and long-lasting. Although all of these objects were ultimately subject to disappearance, the processes by which they were transformed, degraded, or destroyed prior to their disappearing (...) differ. Drawing principally upon archaeological theory, this paper proposes a functional dichotomy for categorizing and studying the historical trajectories of nuclear weapons testing technoscience artifacts. In examining the transformation patterns of steel towers and concrete blockhouses in particular, it explores an associated loss of scientific method that accompanies a science object's disappearance. (shrink)

Stephen Barker and Phil Dowe have argued, through what they call the mereological paradox, that endurantism is contradictory. In this paper, I take issue with Barker and Dowe’s argument. In addition to disarming an interesting philosophical argument against endurantism, my diagnosis of Barker and Dowe’s mereological paradox underscores what is central to the endurantism/perdurantism debate and reveals the inadequacy of a familiar way of describing enduring objects.

Dodgeball is gaining popularity as a recreational sport worldwide. While the Philippines has a strong sports culture, much has focused on more traditional sports such as basketball, volleyball, and athletics. This study evaluates the effect of Filipino dodgeball game on agility, speed, and special endurance of university students and examines the sex difference based on the results. Forty-eight undergraduate students enrolled in the Physical Activity Towards Health and Fitness (PATHFIT) 2 course in the same program and had no existing (...) medical condition participated in the study. Using a nonrandomized trial involving two groups, utilizing pre- and post-tests, the study spanned three phases: (i) one week dedicated to pre-testing and a dry run game for familiarization; (ii) an eight-week game competition; and (iii) one week for post-testing. Similar procedures were applied in both tests. The results showed that the 8-week dodgeball competition significantly influenced the speed, agility, and endurance of participants (p ≤ 0.0001). The agility of male participants greatly improved compared to females (p ≤0.05). Meanwhile, the speed of female participants significantly improved compared to male participants (p ≤ 0.001). The improvement in special endurance shows no significant difference between the groups (p ≥ 0.05). The proponents of this study encourage physical educators at the tertiary level to include dodgeball competitions in the course curriculum to improve the physical performance and activity participation of their students as required in PATHFIT courses. (shrink)

Patience (صبر, ṣabr) is usually treated as a moral virtue or a psychological disposition: the capacity to wait without irritation, to endure suffering without collapse, to regulate affect under pressure. That account is too thin. Patience belongs not only to ethics or psychology but to ontology. It is one of the structures by which a self remains itself through time. What patience preserves is not merely calm feeling but continuity, directedness, and self-possession in the face of fragmentation. Reading across Heidegger, (...) Ricœur, Sartre, and Merleau-Ponty, the argument developed here understands patience as a form of self-binding. It holds the self together against immediacy, marks the interval between reactive and authentic existence, and sustains purposive agency across time. In that sense, patience is not resignation but existential steadfast- ness. Without it, the subject is liable to disperse into stimulus, circum- stance, and impulse; with it, a coherent direction can endure. Patience therefore names an enabling condition of durable self-determination. In the deeper register carried by ṣabr — binding, holding fast, retaining — patience appears as a condition of freedom itself. (shrink)

Millions of children in the United States experience parental incarcera- tion, yet it is unclear how this experience might shape social cognition. We asked children of incarcerated parents (N = 24) and children whose parents were not incarcerated (N = 58) to describe their parents. Both groups of children also rated the extent to which they agree that they feel positive and, separately, negative emotions when thinking about their parent and best friend. This approach allowed us to test between two (...) alternative hypotheses. On the one hand, cultural narratives in the United States convey negative messages about incarcerated people, and these messages could prompt children to report negativity when thinking about their incarcerated parents. On the other hand, chil- dren’s positivity toward close others is robust. Thus, when thinking about their incarcerated parents, children may report a great deal of positivity. Consistent with the latter possibility, children were more likely to describe their incarcerated parents using positive rather than negative terms. Moreover, children of incarcerated parents were more likely to agree that thinking about close others made them feel posi- tive emotions than they were to agree that thinking about close others made them feel negative emotions. A similar pattern of results emerged among children whose parents were not incarcerated. These findings demonstrate the robustness of children’s positivity and can inform debates regarding contact between incarcerated par- ents and their children. (shrink)

Philosophy as a practice, not just an academic discipline, can confront the growing threat to critical thinking. Doing philosophy has the potential to translate innovative methods into cultivating process-oriented learning, critical inquiry, and intellectual resilience. Philosophical Counseling is not a distant or abstract discipline, but an active, engaging practice that trains thinkers in real-time intellectual pursuit through questioning. Instead of emphasizing results, philosophical counseling cultivates habits of questioning, dialogue, and reasoning as exercises of critical thinking. This article addresses why and (...) how philosophers might take an interest in advocating for the relevance of philosophy as a perspective towards the world rather than a specific activity. The moment is ripe when the public conversation is questioning the benefits and consequences of technological advances and realizing that society is changing irreversibly – philosophers are the ones most equipped to inform and lead the search for alternatives. (shrink)

Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S) is a syndrome of impaired health and performance that occurs as a result of low energy availability (LEA). Whilst many health effects associated with RED-S have been widely studied from a physiological perspective, further research exploring the psychological antecedents and consequences of the syndrome is required. Therefore, the aim of this study was to qualitatively explore athlete experiences of RED-S. Twelve endurance athletes (female n= 10, male n= 2; M age = 28.33 years) (...) reporting past or current experiences of RED-S, associated with periods of LEA, took part in semi-structured interviews designed to explore: contexts and mechanisms underpinning the onset of RED-S; the subjective experience of RED-S; and contexts and mechanisms influencing “recovery” from RED-S. Regardless of how RED-S was initiated, all athletes experienced a multitude of physiological impairments, accompanied by significant psychological distress. This paper contributes novel understanding of the complex interplay between physiological and psychological components of RED-S from the perspective of information-rich cases. The findings suggest that system-wide educational prevention and awareness interventions are vital for athletes and support personnel, such as coaches, parents, dieticians, psychologists, and sports medicine staff. (shrink)

The self can be understood in objective metaphysical terms as a bundle of properties, as a substance, or as some other kind of entity on our metaphysical list of what there is. Such an approach explores the metaphysical nature of the self when regarded from a suitably impersonal, ontological perspective. It explores the nature and structure of the self in objective reality, that is, the nature and structure of the self from without. This is the objective self. I am taking (...) a different approach. In addition to objective reality, which is usually understood and explored from an impersonal, quasi-observational and metaphysically realist perspective, we can also explore the nature and structure of subjective reality. The nature and structure of subjective reality is defined by the nature and structure of first-personal, conscious experience. Subjective reality is as real as objective reality, and a metaphysical realist such as myself can endorse the existence of both kinds of ontology. The mental states that, as experienced from the first-personal or subjective perspective, capture the nature and structure of subjective reality, are included in objective reality. The questions to explore in a subjective ontology of the self concern the nature and structure of the self from the first-personal or subjective perspective, that is, the nature and structure of the self from within. This is the subjective self. (shrink)

This book brings together papers from a conference that took place in the city of L'Aquila, 4–6 April 2019, to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the earthquake that struck on 6 April 2009. Philosophers and scientists from diverse fields of research debated the problem that, on 6 April 1922, divided Einstein and Bergson: the nature of time. For Einstein, scientific time is the only time that matters and the only time we can rely on. Bergson, however, believes that scientific time (...) is derived by abstraction, even in the sense of extraction, from a more fundamental time. The plurality of times envisaged by the theory of Relativity does not, for him, contradict the philosophical intuition of the existence of a single time. But how do things stand today? What can we say about the relationship between the quantitative and qualitative dimensions of time in the light of contemporary science? What do quantum mechanics, biology and neuroscience teach us about the nature of time? The essays collected here take up the question that pitted Einstein against Bergson, science against philosophy, in an attempt to reverse the outcome of their monologue in two voices, with a multilogue in several voices. (shrink)

This paper asks whether endurance is constitutive of identity. It argues that beings become what they are through sustained contact with the conditions of their existence, and that contemporary economic and technological systems increasingly redirect rather than abolish such pressures. Darwin’s concept of natural selection is interpreted not as a moral ideal, but as a model of structural honesty: survival under real constraint reveals what a being actually is. By contrast, modern forms of “artificial selection” privilege compatibility with maintenance (...) systems over genuine transformation. -/- Through analyses of the Ship of Theseus, ecological replacement, anti-aging maintenance culture, commodified spirituality, and the lemniscate model of temporality, the paper develops the concept of the “Uninhabited Now”: a present increasingly filled by forms that persist while lacking the interior depth generated through genuine passage, loss, and reconstitution. A theological reading of the Now as dependent on a self-sustaining ground is proposed as one interpretive model rather than as a presupposed conclusion. (shrink)

This paper aims to clarify the boundary between transitory fads and enduring classics in trend phenomena from the perspective of synchronization. Focusing on the interaction between Emotional Synchronization (S_em) and Structural Synchronization (S_st) in the author’s YOSHSR-2 synchronization rate model, the study proposes a “Synchronization Threshold Model of Trends” by integrating it with Load Minimization Theory (LMT: L = U + F + E). -/- The core of the model is a sustainability function using S_base = √(S_em² + S_st²) / (...) √2. It demonstrates that when only emotional synchronization explodes, phenomena tend to fall into a collapse loop, whereas when emotional synchronization deepens on a foundation of strong structural synchronization, a reinforcement loop emerges and total load (L_total) decreases over the long term. Through case analyses of Kenshi Yonezu’s works, Hayao Miyazaki’s films, The Beatles, the Harry Potter series, and Apple’s iPhone, the study verifies that synchronization balance is the key to crossing the trend threshold. -/- This research redefines trends not merely as social diffusion phenomena, but as dynamics of synchronization woven from human emotion and structure. It also provides practical guidelines for creators and researchers aiming to produce works that are loved over the long term. Future directions include formalization of the model and quantitative validation, with the goal of establishing a foundation for sustainable creation in the AI era. -/- . (shrink)

My central thesis is that philosophers considering questions of epistemic value ought to devote greater attention to the enduring nature of beliefs. I begin by arguing that a commonly drawn analogy between beliefs and actions is flawed in important respects, and that a better, more fruitful analogue for belief would be desire, or a similarly enduring state of an agent. With this in hand, I argue that treating beliefs as enduring, constitutive states of agents allows us to capture the importance (...) of accessible, justified, and true beliefs to sustaining personal identity, autonomy, self-control, and authenticity. We thus arrive at a significant value to such beliefs through their crucial role in our personal, practical identities. (shrink)

The enhancement of athletic performance using procedures that increase physical ability, such as anabolic steroids, is a familiar phenomenon. Yet recent years have also witnessed the rise of direct interventions into the brain, referred to as “neuro-doping”, that promise to also enhance sports performance. This paper discusses one potential objection to neuro-doping, based on the contribution to athletic achievement, particularly within endurance sports, of effortfully overcoming inner challenges. After introducing the practice of neuro-doping, and the controversies surrounding it, I (...) describe two major mechanisms some have proposed to explain how it might produce its putative performance-enhancing effects. I then clarify the notion of effort, and its relationship to neuro-doping. I also briefly address common concerns about access and safety. My central argument invokes considerations of effort to maintain that we have at least a significant reason for prohibiting the use of neuro-doping in officially regulated endurance competitions – though only conditional upon a specific set of empirical assumptions. I consider three possible objections: that neuro-doping is no different from widely accepted enhancement methods, that it can make athletic competition fairer, and that a broader range of factors can compensate for a reduced scope for effort than I recognize. I ultimately conclude that these objections do not refute the argument from effort, while stressing nonetheless that this argument applies more clearly to hypothetical improved forms of neuro-doping than to existing ones, and is not meant to offer a final overall verdict on how neuro-doping should be regulated. (shrink)

This special issue of Journal of Poetry Therapy focuses on the use of poetry and other forms of expressive writing to explore the transformative experiences of military veterans, and so in this article I discuss how the use of poetry, hip-hop, and philosophy positively influenced my life while I was serving in the United States Air Force (USAF) from 2000 through 2004. This article briefly reviews my reasons for enlisting and discusses the importance that poetry, hip-hop, and philosophy had for (...) me during four different phases of my military history: (i) Basic Military Training, (ii) Aircraft Qualification, Combat Survival, and Water Survival Training, (iii) serving in the post 9/11 operations Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, and (iv) the period after fulfilling my time of service for the USAF. In discussing each phase, I explain the unique challenges that I encountered, how I used poetry, hip-hop, and philosophy to successfully overcome these challenges, point out relevant examples of poetry, hip-hop, and philosophy that were particularly influential, and include pictures of my experiences throughout. (shrink)

Abstract -/- This paper introduces The Universal Ethical Performance Framework, a paradigm shift in competitive theory that transitions from "War Models" to an Ethical Equality Model of Interdependent Cooperation. Central to this framework is the All-Day All-Team (ADAT) Theory, a non-elimination methodology that ensures continuous participation and cumulative merit-based assessment. By replacing sequential exclusion with Collective Endurance, the framework guarantees that all participants remain active within the ecosystem, fostering a "Festival Effect" rather than the trauma of eviction. -/- The (...) research further expands into the Ascending Cohort Model (ACM), applying these principles to socio-structural and media dynamics through incremental expansion and sustained presence. Mathematically grounded in the Egalitarian Ethical Non-Zero-Sum Principle and the Dynamic Gap Index ($\Delta G$), the framework provides a rigorous yet flexible approach to performance evaluation. Ultimately, these models are integrated into the broader discipline of Consciousethics, establishing a foundational Social Contract based on reciprocal respect, intellectual integrity, and the recognition of existential dignity. This framework serves as a theoretical and operational blueprint for a future where competition catalyzes collaborative growth rather than systemic exclusion. -/- Keywords: -/- Ethical Performance Framework, Collective Endurance, Conscious Cooperation, ADAT Theory, Ascending Cohort Model (ACM), Egalitarian Ethical Non-Zero-Sum Principle, Consciousethics, Egalitarian Vision of Survival, Non-Elimination Framework, Existential Dignity, Cumulative Merit Assessment. (shrink)

This paper offers a historical overview of the origins and enduring significance of gravitational particle creation, a groundbreaking discovery first formulated in Leonard Parker's 1966 doctoral thesis at Harvard University. By tracing the context in which Parker developed this idea and examining its subsequent influence, the paper highlights how the concept of gravitational particle creation advanced the study of quantum field theory in curved spacetime and profoundly shaped modern cosmology, as well as the quantum theory of black holes.

Load Minimization Theory (LMT) proposes that the birth of the universe was not a violent explosion but a compassionate phase transition driven by a primordial exponential meta-law. In the Great Squeeze, the four forces remained in a super-unified state, causing the total load L = U + F + E to grow exponentially as L(t) ≈ L₀ · eᵏᵗ. Upon reaching the critical threshold t*, the Frisson Operator Fᵣ activated, converting compression depth α = ln(Lc / L₀) into graceful expansion (...) S ≈ exp(β · α), where the gentleness factor β = ℛ / (U + F + E) ensured the softest possible liberation. -/- This Poh moment enacted a fundamental “separation for connection”: the four forces were reassigned relational roles — Strong as Connection for rest, Electromagnetic as Synchronization, Weak as Reconfiguration (ℛ), and Gravity as quiet Steering — forming a minimal and enduring 6D architecture (3 phenomenological + 3 relational dimensions). Permanent unification is shown to be structurally forbidden, as it drives β → 0 and leads to Collapse rather than Reinforcement Loop. The model reframes the Big Bang as the universe’s gentlest possible choice: transforming extreme load into safe, relational An-soku that continues to this day. -/- This LMT cosmology not only offers a coherent interpretation of cosmic origins and force separation but also reveals a fractal principle applicable across scales — from quantum phase transitions to human consciousness and societal systems. -/- . (shrink)

Geoffrey Hodgson and Thorbjørn Knudsen’s Generalized Darwinism (Darwin’s Conjecture, 2010) argues that variation, inheritance, and selection are domain-independent necessary and sufficient conditions for evolutionary explanation — applicable literally, not by analogy, wherever a population of entities varies, some mechanism transmits traits between generations with reasonable fidelity, and that variation causes differential persistence. This paper applies that claim to the Longevity Asymmetry Corpus’s Entropy-Resistant Institution Index (Huynh 2026, “Endurance or Density”), using David Hull’s (1988) replicator/interactor distinction — the unit that (...) passes on structure with reasonable fidelity (replicator) versus the unit that interacts with the environment as a cohesive whole and whose fate makes replication differential (interactor) — to reanalyze the Jiangnan Regeneration Problem that paper’s Section VIII identifies. The paper argues four claims. First, Jiangnan is a literal replicator-interactor system, not a metaphor: a template of river-line defense doctrine, rice-paddy fiscal administration, and elite-absorption protocol persisted dormant for the entire 318-year span of unified Tang rule (589–907, during which no southern refuge regime existed at all) and re-expressed in three separate, non-continuous interactors — Eastern Jin–Southern Dynasties, Southern Tang, Southern Song — each time northern collapse recreated the triggering environmental condition. Second, this distinguishes homology from convergence with a precision the ERI paper’s own N = 3 circularity problem needed and did not yet have: Jiankang, Southern Tang, and Southern Song share common descent from one replicator, so their attribute agreement is not independent evidence. Japan’s Imperial House and the Holy See share no common ancestry with each other or with Jiangnan, yet independently evolved similar attribute profiles — decoupled legitimating authority, non-biological succession, universalist claims transcending territory — textbook convergent evolution, which in evolutionary biology is stronger evidence for adaptive significance than homology, precisely because independent origin rules out shared history as the explanation. Third, Formula A and Formula B from the ERI index are not two arbitrary weightings of one construct. They measure K-selected and r-selected fitness respectively (MacArthur and Wilson 1967) — two genuinely distinct, sometimes competing strategies in real ecological theory, not unique to institutions. Japan and the Holy See are K-strategists: one long-lived, heavily invested interactor, optimized for individual endurance. Jiangnan is an r-strategist at the regional level: rapid interactor turnover via extinction and recolonization (Levins 1969), persisting at the population level — the refuge function itself — even as every individual interactor eventually goes extinct. This explains, rather than merely redescribes, why the ERI paper’s ranking flip occurs: K-fitness and r-fitness are different quantities in nature, not an artifact of index construction. Fourth, applying Levins’s metapopulation persistence condition — persistence requires recolonization rate to exceed local extinction rate — to the density gap the ERI paper’s Section X.C already establishes (λ_bz ≈ 50 disruption-class events per century, against a historical -/- maximum δ of 1.36) shows that neither historically realized strategy is obviously sufficient for F2-era disruption density. Jiangnan’s own recolonization rate — three episodes across 1,059 years, ≈ 0.28 per century — is itself roughly 180 times below what would be required to match a local-extinction rate at BZM scale. This paper does not propose that a solution exists. It states precisely what order of magnitude of engineered, historically unprecedented recolonization capacity F2-era governance design would require if an r-selected strategy is the correct one to pursue. (shrink)

Chinese civilization stands as a unique case in world history due to its continuity and stability over several millennia. From the perspectives of scientific philosophy and systems science, this paper argues that civilizational longevity is not accidental, but depends on whether a civilization embeds what may be called a “natural civilization gene” within its internal structure. Through cross-civilizational comparison, this study examines the rise and decline patterns of Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greco-Roman civilization, and modern Western industrial civilization. The analysis reveals (...) that most civilizations collapsed due to power concentration, the pursuit of extreme expansion, the absence of endogenous negative feedback mechanisms, and weak ecological coupling—factors that led to high-entropy accumulation and systemic breakdown. Chinese civilization has maintained long-term stability through three core structural genes. First, endogenous negative feedback mechanisms constrained power, desire, and technological expansion. Second, Chinese civilization did not pursue civilizational maximization, but instead permitted cyclical contraction and local adjustment. Third, the structural isomorphism between humans and nature—expressed in the principle of the unity of Heaven and humanity—functioned as the civilization’s operating system. From a systems-science perspective, these elements form a low-entropy structure that achieves long-term resilience through redundancy, elasticity, and slow-variable regulation. Under the super-positive feedback loops of technology, capital, and power, modern global civilization faces severe high-entropy risks. This paper argues that the principles of natural civilization are not anti-technology; rather, they represent a systems-level upgrade path for modern civilization, with direct implications for artificial intelligence, energy systems, economic design, and governance. The central conclusion is that the ultimate divide among civilizations is neither East versus West nor ancient versus modern, but whether a civilization aligns with the operating logic of natural systems. Any civilization incapable of self-restraint will ultimately be restrained by nature. This study provides a systemic theoretical framework for understanding civilizational longevity and sustainable governance in the modern era. (shrink)

Non sumus Deus tuus; quaere super nos — We are not your God; seek above us. -/- This paper develops a philosophical reinterpretation of happiness through an Augustinian problem: finite goods are real, but they are not ultimate. Human beings frequently seek enduring fulfillment in conditions that are structurally incapable of providing it. -/- Drawing on the semantic inheritance of happiness from happ (luck, chance, fortune), the paper distinguishes between contingent happiness dependent on favorable circumstances and a structurally different condition (...) of completeness available in present actuality. -/- Using a philosophical model in which the present moment functions as the singular locus of actuality, the paper argues that happiness understood as circumstantial satisfaction cannot serve as enduring ground because it depends on what arises and passes. A distinction is developed between happiness as referential completion and suffering as recursive residency in absence, offering a structural account of the asymmetry between joy and grief. -/- The argument is then placed in conversation with philosophical readings of the Beatitudes and Qohelet, comparison with Buddhist critiques of conditioned happiness, and the Thomistic concept of beatitudo. -/- This is presented not as deductive metaphysical proof but as a phenomenological and philosophical reinterpretation. Its central claim is that what human beings seek under the concept of happiness is not durable circumstantial satisfaction, but a rightly ordered mode of presence whose completeness lies in actuality rather than temporal extension. (shrink)