Heterodox master of liberal arts and theirs discussions with Thomas Aquinas Mgr. Miroslav Severa Summary: The proposed thesis deals with two important issues discussed by Tomas Aquinas in connection with the averroistic controversy that occurred in the second half of the thirteenth century in Paris. The topics are On the eternity of the world and On the unity of intellect. Its author defends the position that concerning the problem On the eternity of the Word is the solution proposed by Thomas Aquinas closer to the position of heterodox masters of liberal arts then to the attitude of some orthodox theologians. The heterodox teaching On the unity of intellect is by Thomas sufficiently disproven. The doctrine of Thomas Aquinas doesn't need to always constitute an irreconcilable antithesis against the attitude of heterodox masters as it is described by some authors. The thesis also deals the two topics on the historical background of the condemnations issued by the Parisian bishop Stephan Tempier in the years 1270 and 1277. Although the heterodox masters of liberal arts are in their philosophizing strongly influenced by the Arab philosopher Averroes theirs position concerning the relationship between fides and ratio is different. Averroes says that when the conflict between reason and revelation occurs than...

<div>Stoichiometric air-fuel ratio (AFR) and air/EGR flow control are essential control problems in today’s advanced spark-ignited (SI) engines to enable effective application of the three-way-catalyst (TWC) and generation of required torque. External exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) can be used in SI engines to help mitigate knock, reduce enrichment and improve efficiency[1 ]. However, the introduction of the EGR system increases the complexity of stoichiometric engine-out lambda and torque management, particularly for high BMEP commercial vehicle applications. This thesis develops advanced frameworks for sensing and control architecture designs to enable robust air handling system management, stoichiometric cylinder air-fuel ratio (AFR) control and three-way-catalyst emission control.</div><div><br></div><div><div>The first work in this thesis derives a physically-based, control-oriented model for turbocharged SI engines utilizing cooled EGR and flexible VVA systems. The model includes the impacts of modulation to any combination of 11 actuators, including the throttle valve, bypass valve, fuel injection rate, waste-gate, high-pressure (HP) EGR, low-pressure (LP) EGR, number of firing cylinders, intake and exhaust valve opening and closing timings. A new cylinder-out gas composition estimation method, based on the inputs’ information of cylinder charge flow, injected fuel amount, residual gas mass and intake gas compositions, is proposed in this model. This method can be implemented in the control-oriented model as a critical input for estimating the exhaust manifold gas compositions. A new flow-based turbine-out pressure modeling strategy is also proposed in this thesis as a necessary input to estimate the LP EGR flow rate. Incorporated with these two sub-models, the control-oriented model is capable to capture the dynamics of pressure, temperature and gas compositions in manifolds and the cylinder. Thirteen physical parameters, including intake, boost and exhaust manifolds’ pressures, temperatures, unburnt and burnt mass fractions as well as the turbocharger speed, are defined as state variables. The outputs such as flow rates and AFR are modeled as functions of selected states and inputs. The control-oriented model is validated with a high fidelity SI engine GT-Power model for different operating conditions. The novelty in this physical modeling work includes the development and incorporation of the cylinder-out gas composition estimation method and the turbine-out pressure model in the control-oriented model.</div></div><div><br></div><div><div>The second part of the work outlines a novel sensor selection and observer design algorithm for linear time-invariant systems with both process and measurement noise based on <i>H</i>2 optimization to optimize the tradeoff between the observer error and the number of required sensors. The optimization problem is relaxed to a sequence of convex optimization problems that minimize the cost function consisting of the <i>H</i>2 norm of the observer error and the weighted <i>l</i>1 norm of the observer gain. An LMI formulation allows for efficient solution via semi-definite programing. The approach is applied here, for the first time, to a turbo-charged spark-ignited (SI) engine using exhaust gas recirculation to determine the optimal sensor sets for real-time intake manifold burnt gas mass fraction estimation. Simulation with the candidate estimator embedded in a high fidelity engine GT-Power model demonstrates that the optimal sensor sets selected using this algorithm have the best <i>H</i>2 estimation performance. Sensor redundancy is also analyzed based on the algorithm results. This algorithm is applicable for any type of modern internal combustion engines to reduce system design time and experimental efforts typically required for selecting optimal sensor sets.</div></div><div><br></div><div><div>The third study develops a model-based sensor selection and controller design framework for robust control of air-fuel-ratio (AFR), air flow and EGR flow for turbocharged stoichiometric engines using low pressure EGR, waste-gate turbo-charging, intake throttling and variable valve timing. Model uncertainties, disturbances, transport delays, sensor and actuator characteristics are considered in this framework. Based on the required control performance and candidate sensor sets, the framework synthesizes an H1 feedback controller and evaluates the viability of the candidate sensor set through analysis of the structured</div><div>singular value μ of the closed-loop system in the frequency domain. The framework can also be used to understand if relaxing the controller performance requirements enables the use of a simpler (less costly) sensor set. The sensor selection and controller co-design approach is applied here, for the first time, to turbo-charged engines using exhaust gas circulation. High fidelity GT-Power simulations are used to validate the approach. The novelty of the work in this part can be summarized as follows: (1) A novel control strategy is proposed for the stoichiometric SI engines using low pressure EGR to simultaneously satisfy both the AFR and air/EGR-path control performance requirements; (2) A parametrical method to simultaneously select the sensors and design the controller is first proposed for the internal combustion engines.</div></div><div><br></div><div><div>In the fourth part of the work, a novel two-loop estimation and control strategy is proposed to reduce the emission of the three-way-catalyst (TWC). In the outer loop, an FOS estimator consisting of a TWC model and an extended Kalman-filter is used to estimate the current TWC fractional oxygen state (FOS) and a robust controller is used to control the TWC FOS by manipulating the desired engine λ. The outer loop estimator and controller are combined with an existing inner loop controller. The inner loop controller controls the engine λ based on the desired λ value and the control inaccuracies are considered and compensated by the outer loop robust controller. This control strategy achieves good emission reduction performance and has advantages over the constant λ control strategy and the conventional two-loop switch-type control strategy.</div></div>

<p>This dissertation is concerned with two of the largest questions that we can ask about the nature of physical reality: first, whether physical reality begin to exist and, second, what criteria would physical reality have to fulfill in order to have had a beginning? Philosophers of religion and theologians have previously addressed whether physical reality began to exist in the context of defending the Kal{\'a}m Cosmological Argument (KCA) for theism, that is, (P1) everything that begins to exist has a cause for its beginning to exist, (P2) physical reality began to exist, and, therefore, (C) physical reality has a cause for its beginning to exist. While the KCA has traditionally been used to argue for God's existence, the KCA does not mention God, has been rejected by historically significant Christian theologians such as Thomas Aquinas, and raises perennial philosophical questions -- about the nature and history of physical reality, the nature of time, the nature of causation, and so on -- that should be of interest to all philosophers and, perhaps, all humans. While I am not a religious person, I am interested in the questions raised by the KCA. In this dissertation, I articulate three necessary conditions that physical reality would need to fulfill in order to have had a beginning and argue that, given the current state of philosophical and scientific inquiry, we cannot determine whether physical reality began to exist.</p>

本文嘗試以和平問題與暴力問題為焦點，重新理解列維納斯道德形上學之梗概，並解決其政治蘊義所造成的疑難。列維納斯的哲學基本上是一種和平哲學，其所論之和平乃被界定為對暴力的非暴力抵抗，並在其前期作品中具體展現為倫理學對政治學的抵抗。但此一抵抗關係隨著列維納斯的思想進程而逐漸呈現出一種兩歧性，從而引發其思想是否前後不一致的批判，亦產生對和平之純粹性的質疑。筆者的努力即在於說明此一疑難的成因並構想一調和方案。筆者主張，應將列維納斯的思想進程視為一條闡發其倫理學之政治蘊義的思路，但這條從倫理學走到政治學的和平之路，須途經社會學的迂迴方才可能，而如此一種中介性的社會學之建構，惟在列維納斯的他勒目詮釋中獲得。因此，本文綜觀列維納斯的哲學作品與宗教作品，先是闡述責任倫理學的和平蘊義，再從其宗教詮釋學對以色列社群的刻畫得到那基於倫理學之社會學的基本模式，最後參照解構主義的批判，在對質疑政治學與回答社會學的構想中，統括列維納斯的倫理思想與政治思想。 / Peace, as the non-violence resistance to violence, is one of the main topics of Levinas's philosophy. In this dissertation, I attempt to summarize Levinas's moral metaphysics and reflect its political implications by investigating the relation of peace and violence. The relation which in Levinas's early works could be seen as an opposition between ethics and politics has some ambiguity in his later works that emerges in a dialectical way: ethics both opposes and demands politics. My opinion is that this problem can be solved by referring to his religious works, especially his interpretations of the Talmud. In brief, the path of argument is from ethics to politics through sociology. First, I describe the basic principles of Levinas's ethical metaphysics by illustrating the typology of the other and the genealogy of the same, i.e. the phenomenology of the face of the other and the transformation from the same in itself to the same for the other. Second, I find the basic political model in terms of the hermeneutics of Talmud, especially the texts about the people of Israel. Final, I try to appeal to the postmodern thoughts in order to reconcile the risk of violence in Levinas's religious works, and integrate Levinas's ethical thoughts and political thoughts by constructing the politics of questioning and the sociology of response.

The meaning of loss is love. I know this through attention to experience. Whether loss or love is experienced in abundance or in absence, the meaning is mystical with an opening of body, mind, heart and soul to spirit. And so, in the style of a memoir, in the way of contemplative prayer, I contemplate and share my soul as a promise kept in the mystical reach through loss. With the first, initiating loss, the loss of my nine-year-old nephew, Caleb, I experience an epiphany that gives me spiritual instructions that will not be ignored. I experience loss as an abundance of meaning that comes to me as gnosis, as “knowledge of the heart” according to Elaine Pagels or divine revelation in what Evelyn Underhill calls mystical illumination in the experience of “losing-to-find” in union with the divine. Then, with gnostic import, in leaving the ordinary for the extraordinary, I enter the empty room in the painful yet liberating experience of the loss of my self. In the embrace of emptiness, I proceed to the first wall, the second wall, the third wall, the dark corner of denial, the return to centre, and, finally, to breaking the fourth wall in the empty room so as to keep my promise to you. Who are “you”? You are God. You are Caleb. You are spirit. You are my higher soul or self. And, you are the reader. You are my dear companion in silence. And then, through a series of broken promises and more loss, within what John of the Cross calls, “the dark night of the soul,” I am stopped by the ineffability of the dark corner of denial, the horror of separation and the absence of meaning, which is depicted as the grueling gap between the spiritual abyss and the breakthrough. What does it mean to keep going through a solemn succession of losses? I don’t know. In going into the empty room, I simply put pain to work in order to reach you. Through loss, though there are infinite manifestations, there is only one way: keep going. And so, in a triumph of the spirit, I keep going so as to be: a promise kept in the mystical reach through loss. As for you, through my illumined and dark experiences of loss, what is my promise to you? I keep going to reach the unreachable you. In the loss of self, with embodied emptiness, in going into the dark corner of denial, with a return to the divine centre of my emptied self, in an invitation to you, I give my soul to you in union with you. / Graduate / 2020-06-25