This paper argues that despite recent tendencies to minimize the differences between Posidonius and the Early Stoics, there are some important aspects of Stoic ethics in which Posidonius deviated from the orthodox doctrine. According to two passages in Diogenes Laertius, Posidonius counted health and wealth among the goods and held that virtue alone is insufficient for happiness. While Kidd in his commentary dismissed this report as spurious, there are good reasons to take Diogenes’ remarks seriously. Through a careful analysis of (...) the sources, in particular of Galen's De placitis Hippocratis et Platonis, this article offers a new interpretation of Posidonius’ ethics. It sheds light on Posidonius’ theory of virtues and shows that Posidonius must have granted a special status to things like health and wealth even if he did not regard them as genuine goods. (shrink)

The experiments reported herein probe the visual cortical mechanisms that control near–far percepts in response to two-dimensional stimuli. Figural contrast is found to be a principal factor for the emergence of percepts of near versus far in pictorial stimuli, especially when stimulus duration is brief. Pictorial factors such as interposition (Experiment 1) and partial occlusion Experiments 2 and 3) may cooperate, as generally predicted by cue combination models, or compete with contrast factors in the manner predicted by the FACADE model. (...) In particular, if the geometrical conŽ guration of an image favors activation of cortical bipole grouping cells, as at the top of a T-junction, then this advantage can cooperate with the contrast of the conŽ guration to facilitate a near–far percept at a lower contrast than at an X-junction. Varying the exposure duration of the stimuli shows that the more balanced bipole competition in the X-junction case takes longer exposure times to resolve than the bipole competition in the T-junction case (Experiment 3). (shrink)

The heavy water plant was established under the name of Combinatul Chimic Drobeta, by Decree 400/16.11.1979, under the Inorganic Products Industrial Center (CIPA) Râmnicu Vâlcea. The thermo-electric plant for supplying the heavy water factory with steam was decided to be located in Halânga village, three kilometers from the factory. The process water required for the factory was brought from the Danube, and the hydrogen sulphide used in the process was produced in the plant, through a specific technology, and then compressed, (...) liquefied and stored in special tanks. The works on the heavy water factory at Drobeta Turnu Severin started in 1979, based on a derogatory HCM. The equipment for the heavy water plant was purchased through the Industrial Center for Chemical and Refinery Equipment (CIUTCR). All equipment and facilities that transported hydrogen sulphide had to meet strict quality assurance conditions. (shrink)

Due to the special working conditions in the heavy water plant, an extensive research and program has been developed for the operational safety of the installations, based on specific action methodologies and in situ experimental programs for the evaluation of the long-term behavior of materials and installations. After December 1989, the operation of the modules was stopped for about three years, for the modernization of the technological equipment and the surveillance and environmental protection systems. In September 2015, the production of (...) heavy water was stopped and the plant staff was laid off. (shrink)

"CONSOLATIONE PHILOSOPHIAE" BY SEVERIN BOETHIUS The paper examines the literature basic of Severin Boethius work «The Consolation of Philosophy». The author starts with the historical context of the appearance of the text and then goes to consider its variety of literary genres and forms. Main of them are satura Menippea, consolation, protreptic, soliloquy, and dialogue. Textual and conceptual analyses have relieved the connection between Boethius’s «The Consolation» and the works of other famous authors of Antiquity among them there are Plato, (...) Aristotle, Seneca, Cicero, and St. Augustine. As a connoisseur of Antiquity, Boethius uses literature to explain his philosophical ideas. In addition, the author of the article suggests an analytical review of the image of the Lade Philosophy in «Consolation». The genealogy of this literary character refers to the Greek mythology, Plato’s «Symposium» and «Crito» dialogues, Martianus Capella’s work «On the Marriage of Philology and Mercury» and Augustine’s the literary image of St. Monika. The article reconstructs an epistemological methodology of Boethius’s Neoplatonic dialogue that consists of five stages and describes a therapeutic role of philosophy in the traditions of Plato and Stoics. The essence of this role is a mind therapy. Philosophy teaches us to see the world as a whole, to describe it in clear notions and judgments. According to the text of «Consolation», Boethius takes us to make an intellectual Neoplatonic climbing from practical (ethic) to theoretical (metaphysic) philosophy – from vita activa to vita speculativa. The main aim or the top of this Neoplatonic meditation is a contemplative life or reminding own Ego. The great ideas of this work have the significant influence on Medieval andRenaissance philosophy and literature. Keywords: Lady Philosophy, Neoplatonic. (shrink)

The objective of this paper is twofold. First, it aims to contribute to the debate about the normativity of meaning not by means of providing and defending new arguments, but by analysing and reflecting on some of the presuppositions and seemingly irresolvable dialectical points of disagreement. Second, it seeks to achieve the first aim by critically engaging with some of the objections raised against semantic normativity by anti-normativists like Kathrin Glüer, Anandi Hattiangadi and Åsa Wikforss as well as discussing some (...) of the ideas defended by normativists like Hans-Johann Glock, Severin Schroeder and Daniel Whiting. The upshot of the discussion is meant to provide a clearer representation of some of the arguments and concepts that guide the debate, though the proposed analysis, if correct, should also add some support for the normativist’s case. (shrink)

Fotografiile acestui album s-au adunat, neprogramatic și fără pretenții artistice, în timpul recentei vizite pe care am făcut-o în România, în vara anului 2023. O vizită cu inima îngreunată de dor. Drumurile mele s-au întins mai mult pe Dunăre și pe Olt, de-a stânga și de-a dreapta acestor ape care au desenat și determinat o bună parte din istoria românilor. Instanțele foto sunt surprinse în și împrejurul Orșovei, Drobetei Turnu Severin, Cazanelor Dunării, Craiovei și Bălceștilor natali. Textele însoțitoare sunt eboșe (...) cu tentă poetică, așa cum le-au inspirat, instant, locurile văzute, oamenii (re)întâlniți și sentimentele prezente/trezite/reamintite în sufletul autorului. (shrink)

Revista Cunoașterea Științifică este o publicație trimestrială din domeniile științei și filosofiei, și domenii conexe de studiu și practică. -/- Cuprins: -/- EDITORIAL Cunoașterea științifică – Metodologii, de Nicolae Sfetcu -/- ȘTIINȚE NATURALE Drobeta Turnu Severin Heavy Water Plant: Functioning and Shutting Down, de Nicolae Sfetcu Pandemia: Women and Policewomen, de Albert Torma -/- ȘTIINȚE SOCIALE Poziția statelor emergente în raport cu politica externă şi de securitate comună a Uniunii Europene, de Alexandru Cristian Parohia în textul sfintelor canoane și în (...) practică bisericească, de Dumitru Mazilu Abandonul școlar în România, de Alexandra Mocanu Despre calitatea de paroh-administrator în funcționarea unei unități parohiale moderne, de Dumitru Mazilu Anime culture in Romania, de Alexandra Mocanu -/- ȘTIINȚE FORMALE Identity and Artificial Intelligence in The Adventures of Pinocchio, de Nicolae Sfetcu -/- FILOSOFIE Teorii cauzale ale referinței, de Nicolae Sfetcu -/- RECENZII CĂRȚI Reconstrucția rațională a științei prin programe de cercetare, de Nicolae Sfetcu -/- ISSN 2821– 8086 ISSN – L 2821 – 8086, DOI: 10.58679/CS33642. (shrink)

Venus im Pelz is not just a book on masochism, love or the conflict of the sexes, but is also, in its own way, a work that aims to ridicule the philosophy par excellence, that in particular of Kant and Hegel, the great Fathers-Masters of philosophy, capable with their systems to rationalize the theme of voluntary submission, restoring the threatened order. In this direction, the same masochistic subversion, which with Severin had attempted to symbolically depose the Father, as the historical-political-cultural (...) antecedent of Law and power, nevertheless appears destined to recompose, thanks to philosophy and its history, the product themselves of patriarchal speculations, always prompted to cage any singulariity prone to deviate from the trajectory traced by civilization. It is within this patrolling infrastructure that Severin, after «that cruel catastrophe of my life», will continue his existence, converted, from «rebelled by submission», into a new reactionary Father who now uses the whip with women, and that, now healed with its «moral steadiness [...] I learned to work, to fulfill duties» - tamed «with the Kantian ethics of the dignity of moral value that tunes with the Hegelian ethics of the redemption of the servant through the objectification of labor», does not realize that he has become himself an object of power, so that one day he may peacefully die in a rational and productive way. (shrink)

From the position of a simple employee of the Drobeta Turnu Severin Heavy Water Plant, as a quality assurance inspector, the head of the destructive and non-destructive control laboratories, and finally the head of the quality assurance service, I had the honor to participate, between 1983 and 1993, in the largest technical-scientific project in Romania at that time, which involved universities, countless research institutes, design institutes, factories and construction-assembly companies, which, forced to use exclusively Romanian materials and solutions, had to (...) research, innovate and implement, on a daily basis, unique technologies for Romania, and specific solutions for their improvement. In this paper I highlight the close collaboration between all these entities, which allowed the development of an important component of the Romanian nuclear program, and laid the foundations of scientific and technological knowledge for the entire further evolution of activities in the nuclear field, and not only. Although there are many books and articles on the history of heavy water in Romania, in this paper I approach this subject from a new point of view, emphasizing the close collaboration between universities, scientific and technological research institutes, design institutes, production factories of machinery and equipment, construction-assembly enterprises, and heavy water plant specialists, thus creating an informal community, even a school within which an unprecedented scientific and technological discipline was developed, and a special emulation for research and innovation . For this purpose, I also analyzed documents that have not been used in such studies until now. And all these aspects are discussed through the lens of a direct and active participant in the construction, putting into operation, and operation of the heavy water plant. In the case of heavy water produced in Romania, I will demonstrate in this paper that it corresponds to a paradigm in the sense of Thomas Kuhn from The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, having the specific characteristics and passing through all the phases specified by him in the case of a paradigm. -/- DOI: 10.58679/TW21689. (shrink)