In this paper we look at the escape velocity for subatomic particles. We suggest a new and simple interpretation of what exactly the escape velocity represents at the quantum level. At the quantum level, the escape velocity leads to an escape probability that is likely to be more useful at the subatomic scale than the escape velocity itself. The es...
Je m’intéresse dans cet article au concept de matière tel qu’il est construit par Du Châtelet dans les Institutions de physique (1740). En partant de l’étude de la correspondance avec Maupertuis, je montre que l’acceptation du principe leibnizien de conservation de la force, ainsi que son évaluation par mv2, ne s’accordent pas avec l’atomisme reven...
Published in Philologus
This paper intends to offer a new supplement to a corrupt passage of the Epicurean inscription of Oenoanda. Smith, in the lacuna of Fr. 6, uses the phrasal term πρῶτα σώματα to indicate the atoms. The supplement is not satisfying as it is based solely on evidence drawn from non-Epicurean texts and Lucretius, who writes in Latin and is not always re...
Published in Science in context
The purpose of this paper is to provide an analysis of Giordano Bruno's conception of mathematics. Specifically, it intends to highlight two aspects of this conception that have been neglected in previous studies. First, Bruno's conception of mathematics changed over time and in parallel with another concept that was central to his thought: the con...
Published in Rhizomata
I argue that Democritus presents a theory of colour in which the predominance of atomic shapes and microstructural arrangements are necessary but not sufficient for colour vision. Focusing primarily on Democritus’ basic colours, I analyse his microstructural account, providing a new analysis of the natural and technological underpinnings of his met...
Complexity, as investigated in biology, chemistry, mathematics, physics and the humanities requires new modes of thinking, beyond the mechanistic and reductionist standards. We investigate it mostly from a philosophical point of view, tracing back some of the relevant questions to Greek philosophers. Examples are taken from probability, economics a...
Published in The British journal of sociology
The paper ethnographically explores the cultural embedding of atomistic indifference in online, global financial markets: arenas that have been digitally designed according to economic ideals and that demand an extreme form of relational and social dissociation from the partners to exchange and from those affected by the transactions. Its case-stud...
International audience
Published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Exciting advances have been made in artificial intelligence (AI) during recent decades. Among them, applications of machine learning (ML) and deep learning techniques brought human-competitive performances in various tasks of fields, including image recognition, speech recognition, and natural language understanding. Even in Go, the ancient game of...
Bodies Atomic: Lucretian Poetics in the Renaissance reveals a forgotten atomist genealogy at the heart of the lyric tradition. Today, Lucretius is well known as a source of materialist thinking in the Renaissance, but I argue that Renaissance poets read De rerum natura (DRN) as a meditation on the imagination, generating a line of atomist thought i...
