John Stewart Bell was a notable physicist, best known for his work in quantum mechanics and for formulating Bell's Theorem. Born on June 28, 1928, in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and passing away on October 25, 1990, Bell made significant contributions to understanding the foundations of quantum physics, particularly regarding the concept of entanglement.
Jan Terlouw is a Dutch author and politician, born on 15 February 1931. He is well-known for his literary works, particularly children's and young adult literature, and has written several popular books in the Netherlands. His notable works include "Oorlogswinter" (Winter in Wartime), which tells the story of a young boy during World War II, and has become a classic in Dutch literature. In addition to his writing career, Terlouw served as a politician.
Val Logsdon Fitch (1923-2022) was an American physicist best known for his groundbreaking work in the field of particle physics, particularly in the study of the violation of parity symmetry. In 1956, he and his collaborator, James Cronin, conducted experiments that demonstrated that certain weak interactions do not conserve parity, which was a significant finding in the understanding of fundamental forces in physics.
The 100 prisoners problem is a famous thought experiment in probability and strategy. The scenario is as follows: 100 prisoners are each assigned a unique number from 1 to 100. They are told that there are 100 boxes, each containing a piece of paper with one prisoner's number on it.
In pragmatics, "felicity" refers to the appropriateness or effectiveness of a speech act in a given context. It is based on the idea that certain utterances or actions are considered successfully performed only if certain conditions are met. The concept of felicity is often associated with the work of philosopher J.L. Austin, who introduced speech act theory, and further developed by John Searle.
In the philosophy of language, "concepts" refer to the mental representations or abstract ideas that we use to understand and categorize our experiences and the world around us. They play a crucial role in how we communicate, interpret meaning, and engage with various linguistic expressions. Here are some key aspects of concepts in this context: 1. **Meaning and Reference**: Concepts are often tied to the meanings of words and phrases.
Linguistic modality refers to the way language expresses the speaker's attitude toward the likelihood, necessity, or desirability of a proposition. It provides information about the speaker's perspective on the truth of the statement being made, often indicating how probable, possible, necessary, or intended an action or event is.
The term "opaque context" can refer to various concepts depending on the field of study or application. However, it is commonly used in both computer science and many discussions about philosophy or linguistics. Here are two interpretations based on these fields: 1. **In Computer Science (specifically in programming languages and software design)**: An opaque context generally refers to a situation where a particular data type or object is used without exposing its internal details or structure.
Double articulation, also known as dual articulation, is a concept primarily used in linguistics to describe the two levels at which language operates. The term refers to the structure of language that allows it to convey meaning through the combination of smaller units. Here’s a brief overview of the two levels: 1. **First Articulation (Phonological Level)**: This level involves the phonemes, or the smallest units of sound in a language that can differentiate meaning.
The indeterminacy of translation is a concept primarily associated with the philosopher Willard Van Orman Quine. It refers to the idea that there can be multiple, equally valid translations of a sentence or expression from one language to another, and that there is no objective way to determine which translation is the 'correct' one. This challenges the notion that languages correspond to a specific set of meanings or that there is a one-to-one mapping between words and concepts across different languages.
Level of detail in writing refers to the degree of specificity and elaboration in the content that an author provides. It can vary significantly depending on the purpose of the writing, the audience's needs, and the context of the subject matter. Here are a few aspects to consider: 1. **General vs. Specific**: Writing can range from general overviews with minimal detail to highly specific descriptions with extensive elaboration.
Philosophy of mind is a branch of philosophical inquiry that explores the nature of the mind, consciousness, and their relationship to the body, particularly the brain. This field seeks to answer fundamental questions about the nature of mental states, consciousness, perception, thought, emotions, and the self.
Theory of mind (ToM) refers to the cognitive ability to understand that others have thoughts, beliefs, desires, intentions, and perspectives that may differ from one’s own. This concept is crucial for social interaction, as it allows individuals to predict and interpret the behavior of others, engage in empathy, and navigate complex social situations. Typically, the development of theory of mind occurs in early childhood.
Ontological commitment refers to the philosophical idea concerning the entities that a particular theory, statement, or worldview implies must exist for it to be considered true or valid. In simpler terms, it's about identifying what assumptions or beliefs regarding existence are inherent in a given theoretical framework. The concept is often discussed in the context of metaphysics and philosophy of language, particularly within the works of philosophers like Willard Van Orman Quine.
Universal Grammar (UG) is a theoretical framework in linguistics proposed by Noam Chomsky in the 1960s. It refers to the innate structure that underlies all human languages, suggesting that the ability to acquire language is a fundamental aspect of the human brain. According to this theory, all human languages share a common set of principles and rules, despite their surface-level differences.
In philosophy, a "proper name" refers to a specific kind of noun that is used to denote a particular individual, entity, or object. Proper names are contrasted with common names or common nouns, which refer to general classes of entities. For example, "Alice" is a proper name that refers to a specific individual, while "woman" is a common noun that refers to any individual that falls under that category.
In formal semantics, "scope" refers to the context or range in which a particular linguistic expression (such as a quantifier, variable, or operator) has its meaning or impact within a sentence. The scope of an expression determines how it interacts with other expressions, especially in relation to quantifiers, negation, and modal operators. Scope can often be understood in terms of hierarchical structures in a sentence.

Pinned article: Introduction to the OurBigBook Project

Welcome to the OurBigBook Project! Our goal is to create the perfect publishing platform for STEM subjects, and get university-level students to write the best free STEM tutorials ever.
Everyone is welcome to create an account and play with the site: ourbigbook.com/go/register. We belive that students themselves can write amazing tutorials, but teachers are welcome too. You can write about anything you want, it doesn't have to be STEM or even educational. Silly test content is very welcome and you won't be penalized in any way. Just keep it legal!
We have two killer features:
  1. topics: topics group articles by different users with the same title, e.g. here is the topic for the "Fundamental Theorem of Calculus" ourbigbook.com/go/topic/fundamental-theorem-of-calculus
    Articles of different users are sorted by upvote within each article page. This feature is a bit like:
    • a Wikipedia where each user can have their own version of each article
    • a Q&A website like Stack Overflow, where multiple people can give their views on a given topic, and the best ones are sorted by upvote. Except you don't need to wait for someone to ask first, and any topic goes, no matter how narrow or broad
    This feature makes it possible for readers to find better explanations of any topic created by other writers. And it allows writers to create an explanation in a place that readers might actually find it.
    Figure 1.
    Screenshot of the "Derivative" topic page
    . View it live at: ourbigbook.com/go/topic/derivative
  2. local editing: you can store all your personal knowledge base content locally in a plaintext markup format that can be edited locally and published either:
    This way you can be sure that even if OurBigBook.com were to go down one day (which we have no plans to do as it is quite cheap to host!), your content will still be perfectly readable as a static site.
    Figure 2.
    You can publish local OurBigBook lightweight markup files to either https://OurBigBook.com or as a static website
    .
    Figure 3.
    Visual Studio Code extension installation
    .
    Figure 4.
    Visual Studio Code extension tree navigation
    .
    Figure 5.
    Web editor
    . You can also edit articles on the Web editor without installing anything locally.
    Video 3.
    Edit locally and publish demo
    . Source. This shows editing OurBigBook Markup and publishing it using the Visual Studio Code extension.
    Video 4.
    OurBigBook Visual Studio Code extension editing and navigation demo
    . Source.
  3. https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ourbigbook/ourbigbook-media/master/feature/x/hilbert-space-arrow.png
  4. Infinitely deep tables of contents:
    Figure 6.
    Dynamic article tree with infinitely deep table of contents
    .
    Descendant pages can also show up as toplevel e.g.: ourbigbook.com/cirosantilli/chordate-subclade
All our software is open source and hosted at: github.com/ourbigbook/ourbigbook
Further documentation can be found at: docs.ourbigbook.com
Feel free to reach our to us for any help or suggestions: docs.ourbigbook.com/#contact