text: Adolf Hitler believed that the Polish elites might inspire the Poles to disobey their new German masters so he decreed that they had to be eliminated beforehand. The aim was the elimination of Polish society's elite, which was very broadly defined as: Polish nobles, intelligentsia, teachers, entrepreneurs, social workers, military veterans, members of national organizations, priests, judges, political activists, and anyone who had attended secondary school. It was continued by the German AB-Aktion operation in Poland in the spring and summer of 1940, which saw the massacre of Lwów professors and the execution of about 1,700 Poles in the Palmiry forest. Several thousand civilians were executed or imprisoned. The "Einsatzgruppen" were also responsible for the indiscriminate murder of Poles during the 1941 German invasion of the Soviet Union (which itself had invaded a sizeable portion of pre-WWII Polish territory, murdering dozens of thousands of imprisoned Poles in turn).Our strength is our quickness and our brutality... I have given the order—and will have everyone shot who utters but one word of criticism—that the aim of this war does not consist in reaching certain geographical lines, but in the enemies' physical elimination. Thus, for the time being only in the east, I put ready my Death's Head units, with the order to kill without pity or mercy all men, women, and children of the Polish race or language... Adolf Hitler, Obersalzberg Speech, given on 22 August 1939, a week before the invasion


title: Genocides in history (World War I through World War II)

text: The massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia were part of an ethnic cleansing operation carried out by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) West in the Nazi-occupied regions of Eastern Galicia (Nazi created Distrikt Galizien in General Government), and UPA North in Volhynia (in Nazi created Reichskommissariat Ukraine), from March 1943 until the end of 1944. The peak took place in July/August 1943 when a senior UPA commander, Dmytro Klyachkivsky, ordered the liquidation of the entire male Polish population between 16 and 60 years of age. Despite this, most were women and children. The UPA murdered 40,000–60,000 Polish civilians in Volhynia, from 25,000 to 30,000–40,000 in Eastern Galicia. The murders were directly linked with the policies of the Bandera fraction of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, whose goal, specified at the Second Conference of the OUN-B, was to remove non-Ukrainians from a future Ukrainian state.


text: The massacres are recognized in Poland as ethnic cleansing with "marks of genocide". According to IPN prosecutor Piotr Zając, the crimes have a "character of genocide".


text: On 22 July 2016, the Parliament of Poland passed a resolution declaring 11 July a National Day of Remembrance to honor the Polish victims murdered by Ukrainian nationalists, and formally calling the massacres a "Genocide."


text: After the Nazi invasion of Yugoslavia on 6 April 1941, Croatian Nazis and fascists who were known as the Ustašhe established a clerical fascist regime which was known as the "Nezavisna Država Hrvatska" (Independent State of Croatia) or the NDH. Immediately afterwards, the Ustashe launched a genocidal campaign against Serbs, Jews and Romani people who lived inside the borders of the NDH. The Ustaše's view of national and racial identity, as well as the theory that the Serbs constituted an inferior race, was influenced by anti-Eastern Orthodox sentiment, anti-Serb sentiment and the works of Croatian nationalists and intellectuals which were written from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century. The Ustaše enacted a policy which called for a solution to the "Serbian problem" in Croatia. The solution, as it was promulgated by Mile Budak, was to "kill one-third of the Serbs, expel one-third, and convert one-third (to Roman Catholicism)." Historian Michael Phayer explained that the Nazis' decision to murder all of Europe's Jews is estimated by some to have begun in the latter half of 1941, specifically in late June, which, if correct, would mean that the genocide in Croatia began before the Final Solution.


text: From 1941 to 1945, the Ustaše regime killed at least 200,000 to 500,000 Serbs, It is estimated that in the infamous Jasenovac concentration camp alone, which was notorious for its high mortality rate (higher than the mortality rate at Auschwitz) and the barbaric practices which occurred in it, approximately 100,000 people were murdered. The Independent State of Croatia was the only Axis installed puppet state which erected children's concentration camps. Serbs who lived in the NDH suffered one of the highest casualty rates in Europe during World War II, while the NDH was one of the most lethal regimes which existed during the 20th century. Historian Stanley G. Payne claimed that the direct and indirect executions which were carried out by the NDH regime were an "extraordinary mass crime", which in proportionate terms exceeded the crimes which were committed by any other European regime besides Hitler's Third Reich, while Jonathan Steinberg stated that the crimes which were committed against Serbs who lived in the NDH were the "earliest total genocide to be attempted during World War II." Payne added that the crimes which were committed in the NDH were only proportionately surpassed by the crimes which were committed by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia and the crimes which were committed by several of the extremely genocidal African regimes.


text: The mass-killings which were committed against non-Serbs by the Chetniks, a Yugoslav Royalist and Serbian nationalist movement and guerrilla force, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Sandžak constituted a genocide, according to some historians. This can be seen through the mass-killings of ethnic Croats and Muslims that conformed to the Moljević plan ("On Our State and Its Borders") and the 1941 'Instructions' which were issued by the Chetnik leader, Draža Mihailović, concerning the cleansing of non-Serbs on the basis of creating a post-war Greater Serbia. The number of victims by ethnicity includes between 18,000 and 32,000 Croats and 29,000 to 33,000 Bosnian Muslims.


text: Between 1939 and 1941, 80,000 to 100,000 mentally ill adults in institutions were murdered; 5,000 children in institutions; and 1,000 Jews in institutions. Outside the mental health institutions, the figures are estimated to number 20,000 (according to Dr. Georg Renno, the deputy director of Schloss Hartheim, one of the killing faciiities known as "euthanasia" centers) or 400,000 (according to Franz Ziereis, the commandant of Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp). Another 300,000 were forcibly sterilized. Overall it has been estimated that over 270,000 individuals with mental disorders of all kinds were murdered, although their mass murder has received relatively little historical attention. Along with the physically disabled, people suffering from dwarfism were persecuted as well. Many were put on display in cages and experimented on by the Nazis. Despite not being formally ordered to take part, psychiatrists and psychiatric institutions were at the center of justifying, planning and carrying out the atrocities at every stage, and "constituted the connection" to the later annihilation of Jews and other "undesirables" in the Holocaust. After strong protests by the German Catholic and Protestant churches on 24 August 1941 Hitler ordered the cancellation of the T4 program.


text: The program was named after Tiergartenstraße 4, the address of a villa in the Berlin borough of Tiergarten, the headquarters of the General Foundation for Welfare and Institutional Care, led by Philipp Bouhler, head of Hitler's private chancellery ("Kanzlei des Führer der NSDAP") and Karl Brandt, Hitler's personal physician.


text: Brandt was tried in December 1946 at Nuremberg, along with 22 others, in a case known as "United States of America vs. Karl Brandt et al.", also known as the Doctors' Trial. He was hanged at Landsberg Prison on 2 June 1948.


title: Larian Studios

text: Larian Studios is a Belgian video game developer and publisher founded in 1996 by Swen Vincke. It focuses on developing role-playing video games and has previously worked on educational games and a number of casino games. It is best known for developing the "Divinity" series, and Baldur's Gate III.


title: Larian Studios

text: Swen Vincke founded Larian Studios in 1996. As a lead designer in the company, he contributed to all of Larian's early game projects, including the award-winning role-playing game "Divine Divinity" (2002) and its sequel "Beyond Divinity" (2004).


title: Larian Studios

text: He was later also responsible for the design of , a virtual world for children developed for Flemish children's channel Ketnet. This virtual world has later seen licensed implementations by several other children's channels, such as the British channel CBBC (titled Adventure Rock), French channel Jeunesse TV (titled Gulliland), and Norwegian channel NRK.


title: Larian Studios

text: Larian's first project was called "The Lady, the Mage and the Knight". During that time they also developed "LED Wars", a strategy game that was developed within 5 months and published by Ionos in 1997. As a result, "The Lady, the Mage and the Knight" soon evolved into a collaborative project between Larian Studios and Attic Entertainment Software. Due to various problems between the two development studios and its publisher, the project was abandoned in 1999.


title: Larian Studios

text: In 2002, Larian completed work on "Divinity: Sword of Lies" which was published under the name "Divine Divinity" by CDV. In 2004, "Beyond Divinity", the sequel to "Divine Divinity", was published in two editions: the standard version by Ubisoft Entertainment GmbH and the deluxe version by MediaMix Benelux which contained "Divine Divinity", "Beyond Divinity" and a novella by Rhianna Pratchett called "Son of Chaos".


title: Larian Studios

text: Also in 2004, "KetnetKick", an educational game, was developed for Ketnet and released by Transposia. In 2006, "Beyond Divinity" was re-released under Gold Games 9 by Ubisoft Entertainment which was a set of 10 games on 6 DVDs.


title: Larian Studios

text: In March 2008, "Adventure Rock", an online virtual world was completed and released. This was followed by the release of "KetnetKick 2" in October 2008 by VRT, the national broadcaster in Flanders. In March 2009, "GulliLand" was published by Jeunesse TV, a French national broadcasting channel. In January 2010, Larian released "Divinity II: Ego Draconis" - the sequel to "Divine Divinity" - to the U.S. market on Xbox 360 and Windows simultaneously, after releases in Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Poland, Russia and Benelux. Larian has also produced "Divinity II: Flames of Vengeance", and built a Gold Deluxe version that holds all "Divinity II" episodes, called "Divinity II: The Dragon Knight Saga".


title: Larian Studios

text: In August 2013 Larian released "", a game mixing strategy and role-playing elements in the "Divinity" universe, before the events of "Divine Divinity". The game has received an overall positive reception and gained attention thanks to its novel approach to strategy.


title: Larian Studios

text: Larian released "", a turn-based role-playing game set between "Dragon Commander" and "Divine Divinity", in June 2014 after several delays. The game was funded partly thanks to a Kickstarter campaign which pulled in $944,282, more than double its goal of $400,000. "Original Sin" was originally budgeted at €3 million, twice the amount of cash Larian had on hand, but by the time the game released Larian spent a total of €4.5 million on it; according to Swen Vincke, Larian delayed tax payments and pulled resources from "Dragon Commander"'s development in order to fully fund and complete "Original Sin", and the company would have gone bankrupt if the game had not been a success. Upon its release, "Original Sin" became the fastest-selling game in Larian's history. An enhanced edition was launched the 27 October 2015, including all formerly published downloadable content and several improvements.


title: Larian Studios

text: "", a sequel to "Divinity: Original Sin", was funded through Kickstarter as well, raising the necessary amount to create the game within hours, and reaching all of its stretch goals. The game takes place 1200 years after the events in "Divinity: Original Sin" and retains many of the gameplay elements that were present in first "Original Sin". The game was released into Steam Early Access on 15 September 2016, with its full Version 1.0 release taking place just under one year later on 14 September 2017.


title: Larian Studios

text: Larian Studios are currently developing "Baldur's Gate III", which is an upcoming role-playing video game for Microsoft Windows and macOS. It is the third main game in the "Baldur's Gate" series, itself based on the "Dungeons & Dragons" tabletop role-playing system. It released in early access format across all three platforms on 6 October 2020, with a full release scheduled for August 2023.


title: Yma Sumac

text: Zoila Augusta Emperatriz Chávarri del Castillo (September 13, 1922 (birth certificate) or September 10, 1922 (later documents) – November 1, 2008), known professionally as Yma Sumac (), was a Peruvian-American coloratura soprano. She was one of the most famous exponents of exotica music during the 1950s.


title: Yma Sumac

text: Sumac became an international success based on her vocal range. She had five octaves according to some reports, but other reports (and recordings) document four-and-a-half at the peak of her singing career. (A typical trained singer has a range of about three octaves.) Yma Sumac sold more than 40 million records which makes her one of the best-selling Latin Americans in history and the best-selling Peruvian in history.


title: Yma Sumac

text: In one live recording of "Chuncho", she sang a range of over four and a half octaves, from B to G. She sang notes in the low baritone register as well as notes above the range of an ordinary soprano. Both low and high extremes can be heard in the song "Chuncho (The Forest Creatures)" (1953).


title: Yma Sumac

text: In 1954, composer and music critic Virgil Thomson described Sumac's voice as "very low and warm, very high and birdlike", noting that her range "is very close to five octaves, but is in no way inhuman or outlandish in sound." In 2012, audio recording restoration expert John H. Haley favorably compared Sumac's tone to opera singers Isabella Colbran, Maria Malibran, and Pauline Viardot.


title: Yma Sumac

text: Sumac was born Zoila Augusta Emperatriz Chávarri del Castillo on September 10, 1922. Various places have been cited as her birthplace, with none confirmed. Her parents were Sixto Chávarri and Emilia del Castillo. Her father was born in Cajamarca and her mother was born in Pallasca, both mestizos. She was the youngest of six children. Her mother was a schoolteacher and her father a civic leader.


title: Yma Sumac

text: Stories published in the 1950s claimed that she was an Incan princess, directly descended from Atahualpa. The government of Peru in 1946 formally supported her claim to be descended from Atahualpa, the last Incan emperor. However, her biographer, Nicholas E. Limansky, claimed that her Incan royal origin was not true. "Hollywood took this nice girl who wanted to be a folk singer, dressed her up and said she was a princess. And she acted like it," according to Limansky.


title: Yma Sumac

text: She adopted the stage name of Imma Sumack (also spelled Yma Sumack and Ima Sumack) before leaving South America for the United States. Her stage name was based on her mother's name, which was derived from "ima shumaq", Quechua for "how beautiful!", although in interviews at the beginning of her career she claimed it meant "beautiful flower" or "beautiful girl".


title: Yma Sumac

text: Sumac first appeared on radio in 1942. She recorded at least 18 tracks of Peruvian folk songs in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1943. These early recordings for the Odeon label featured composer Moisés Vivanco's troupe "Compañía Peruana de Arte", of 16 Peruvian dancers, singers, and musicians.


title: Yma Sumac

text: She was discovered by Les Baxter and signed by Capitol Records in 1950, at which time her stage name became Yma Sumac. Her first album, "Voice of the Xtabay", launched a period of fame that included performances at the Hollywood Bowl and Carnegie Hall.


title: Yma Sumac

text: In 1950, she made her first tour to Europe and Africa, and debuted at the Royal Albert Hall in London and the Royal Festival Hall before the future Queen of England. She presented more than 80 concerts in London and 16 concerts in Paris. A second tour took her to the Far East: Persia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Burma, Thailand, Sumatra, the Philippines, and Australia. Her fame in countries like Greece, Israel and Russia made her change her two-week stay to six months. During the 1950s, she produced a series of best-selling recordings of lounge music featuring Hollywood-style arrangements of Incan and South American folk songs, working with Les Baxter and Billy May. The combination of her extraordinary voice, exotic looks, and stage personality made her a hit with American audiences. Sumac appeared in a Broadway musical, "Flahooley", in 1951, as a foreign princess who brings Aladdin's lamp to an American toy factory to have it repaired. The show's score was by Sammy Fain and Yip Harburg, but her three numbers were the work of Vivanco, with one co-written by Vivanco and Fain. "Flahooley" closed quickly, but the Capitol recording of the show continues to sell well as a cult classic, in part because it also marked the Broadway debut of Barbara Cook.


title: Yma Sumac

text: The 1950s were the years of Sumac's greatest popularity; She played Carnegie Hall, the Roxy Theatre with Danny Kaye, Las Vegas nightclubs and concert tours of South America and Europe. She put out a number of hit albums for Capitol Records, such as "Mambo!" (1954) and "Fuego del Ande" (1959). During the height of Sumac's popularity, she appeared in the films "Secret of the Incas" (1954) with Charlton Heston and Robert Young, and "Omar Khayyam" (1957).


title: Yma Sumac

text: She became a U.S. citizen on July 22, 1955. In 1959, she performed Jorge Bravo de Rueda's classic song "Vírgenes del Sol" on her album "Fuego del Ande". In 1957 Sumac and Vivanco divorced, after Vivanco sired twins with another woman. They remarried that same year, but a second divorce followed in 1965. Apparently due to financial difficulties, Sumac and the original Inka Taky Trio went on a world tour in 1960, which lasted for five years. They performed in 40 cities in the Soviet Union for over six months, and a film was shot recording some moments of the tour, and afterward throughout Europe, Asia and Latin America. Their performance in Bucharest, Romania, was recorded as the album "Recital", her only live in concert record. Sumac spent the rest of the 1960s performing sporadically.


title: Yma Sumac

text: She married Moisés Vivanco on June 6, 1942. After this date, Moisés and Yma toured South America and Mexico as a group of fourteen musicians called Imma Sumack and the Conjunto Folklorico Peruano. Some people in Peru did not appreciate her style of singing, most notably the writer Jose Maria Arguedas (La Prensa, 1944). In 1946, Sumac and Vivanco moved to New York City where they performed as the Inka Taqui Trio, Sumac singing soprano, Vivanco on guitar, and her cousin, Cholita Rivero, singing contralto and dancing. The group was unable to attain any success; however, their participation in the South American Music Festival in Carnegie Hall was reviewed positively. In 1949, Yma gave birth to their only child Carlos.


title: Yma Sumac

text: Sumac could emit notes from above a coloratura soprano to the low notes of a bass and had one of the widest vocal ranges. She was able to emit notes from the "tessitura" of sopranino, soprano, mezzo-soprano, contralto, tenor, baritone and bass, and was the only person able to do the triple coloratura or the trill of the birds. Her singing voice ranged from B to G.


title: Yma Sumac

text: One source claims that in the song "K'arawi", she reached D (at 00:26). If true this would extend her vocal range to over five octaves, perhaps even six.


title: Yma Sumac

text: In 1971, Sumac released a rock album, "Miracles". She performed in concert from time to time during the 1970s in Peru and later in New York at the Chateau Madrid and Town Hall. In the 1980s, she resumed her career under the management of Alan Eichler, and had a number of concerts both in the United States and abroad, including the Hollywood Roosevelt Cinegrill, New York's Ballroom in 1987 (where she was held over for seven weeks to SRO crowds) and several San Francisco shows at the Theatre on the Square among others.


title: Yma Sumac

text: In 1987, she recorded "I Wonder" from the Disney film "Sleeping Beauty" for "", an album of songs from Disney movies, produced by Hal Willner. She sang "Ataypura" during a March 19, 1987, appearance on "Late Night with David Letterman". She recorded a new German "techno" dance record, "Mambo ConFusion".


title: Yma Sumac

text: In 1989, she sang again at the Ballroom in New York and returned to Europe for the first time in 30 years to headline the BRT's "Gala van de Gouden Bertjes" New Year's Eve TV special in Brussels as well as the "Etoile Palace" program in Paris hosted by Frederic Mitterrand. In March 1990, she played the role of Heidi in Stephen Sondheim's "Follies", in Long Beach, California, her first attempt at serious theater since "Flahooley" in 1951.


title: Yma Sumac

text: She also gave several concerts in the summer of 1996 in San Francisco and Hollywood as well as two more in Montreal, Canada, in July 1997 as part of the Montreal International Jazz Festival. In 1992, she declined to appear in a documentary for German television entitled "Yma Sumac – Hollywoods Inkaprinzessin" ("Yma Sumac – Hollywood's Inca Princess"). With the resurgence of lounge music in the late 1990s, Sumac's profile rose again when the song "Ataypura" was featured in the Coen Brothers film "The Big Lebowski".


title: Yma Sumac

text: Her song "Bo Mambo" appeared in a commercial for Kahlúa liquor and was sampled for the song "Hands Up" by The Black Eyed Peas. The song "Gopher Mambo" was used in the films "Ordinary Decent Criminal", "Happy Texas", "Spy Games", and "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind", among others. "Gopher Mambo" was used in an act of the Cirque Du Soleil show "Quidam", as a musical motif in the Russian show "Kukhnya"(along with "Bo Mambo" and "Taki Rari"), and in an iPhone commercial in 2020. The songs "Goomba Boomba" and "Malambo No. 1" appeared in "Death to Smoochy". A sample from "Malambo No.1" was used in Robin Thicke's "Everything I Can't Have". Sumac is also mentioned in the lyrics of the 1980s song "Joe le taxi" by Vanessa Paradis, and her album "Mambo!" is the record that Belinda Carlisle pulls out of its jacket in the video for "Mad About You". "Gopher Mambo" is used as the opening song in the British version of the television series "Ten Percent."


title: Yma Sumac

text: On May 6, 2006, Sumac flew to Lima, where she was presented the "Orden del Sol" award by Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo and the Jorge Basadre medal by the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos.


title: Yma Sumac

text: Sumac died on November 1, 2008, aged 86, at an assisted living home in Los Angeles, California, nine months after being diagnosed with colon cancer. She was interred at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in the "Sanctuary of Memories" section.


title: Yma Sumac

text: September 20, 2022 a new memorial bust statue was unveiled at her final resting place, at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, in honor of Yma Sumac's 100th anniversary of her birth.


title: Yma Sumac

text: A 1943 recording session in Argentina included 23 songs, released on 78 rpm Odeon Records. Sumac's 1952 album "Legend of the Sun Virgin" was reissued in 2020 (digitally and on vinyl records) by Madrid label "Ellas Rugen (Ladies Who Roar) Records", dedicated to the greatest female Latin American singers of the second half of the 20th century.


title: Thomism

text: Thomism is the philosophical and theological school that arose as a legacy of the work and thought of Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), the Dominican philosopher, theologian, and Doctor of the Church. In philosophy, Aquinas' disputed questions and commentaries on Aristotle are perhaps his best-known works.


title: Thomism

text: In theology, his "Summa Theologica" is amongst the most influential documents in medieval theology and continues to be the central point of reference for the philosophy and theology of the Catholic Church. In the 1914 motu proprio "Doctoris Angelici", Pope Pius X cautioned that the teachings of the Church cannot be understood without the basic philosophical underpinnings of Aquinas' major theses:


title: Thomism

text: Thomas Aquinas held and practiced the principle that truth is to be accepted no matter where it is found. His doctrines drew from Greek, Roman, Islamic and Jewish philosophers. Specifically, he was a realist (i.e. unlike skeptics, he believed that the world can be known as it is). He often affirmed Aristotle's views with independent arguments, and largely followed Aristotelian terminology and metaphysics. He wrote comprehensive commentaries on Aristotle, and respectfully referred to him simply as "the Philosopher".


title: Thomism

text: He also adhered to some neoplatonic principles, for example that "it is absolutely true that there is first something which is essentially being and essentially good, which we call God, [...] [and that] everything can be called good and a being, inasmuch as it "participates" in it by way of a certain assimilation".


title: Thomism

text: Aquinas says that the fundamental axioms of ontology are the principle of non-contradiction and the principle of causality. Therefore, any being that does not contradict these two laws could theoretically exist, even if said being were incorporeal.


title: Thomism

text: Aquinas noted three forms of descriptive language when predicating: univocal, analogical, and equivocal.


title: Thomism

text: Further, the usage of "definition" that Aquinas gives is the genus of the being, plus a difference that sets it apart from the genus itself. For instance, the Aristotelian definition of "man" is "rational animal"; its genus being animal, and what sets apart man from other animals is his rationality.


title: Thomism

text: In Thomist philosophy, the definition of a being is "that which is," a principle with two parts: "that which" refers to its "quiddity" (literally "whatness"), and "is" refers to its "esse" (Latin "to be"). "Quiddity" means an essence, form, or nature which may or may not exist; whereas "esse" refers to existence or reality. That is, a being is "an essence that exists."


title: Thomism

text: Being is divided in two ways: that which is "in itself" (substances), and that which is "in another" (accidents). Substances are things which exist "per se" or in their own right. Accidents are qualities that apply to other things, such as shape or color: "[A]ccidents must include in their definition a subject which is outside their genus." Because they only exist in other things, Aquinas holds that metaphysics is primarily the study of substances, as they are the primary mode of being.


title: Thomism

text: "The Catholic Encyclopedia" pinpoints Aquinas' definition of "quiddity" as "that which is expressed by its definition." The "quiddity" or form of a thing is what makes the object what it is: "[T]hrough the form, which is the actuality of matter, matter becomes something actual and something individual," and also, "the form causes matter to be." Thus, it consists of two parts: "prime matter" (matter without form), and substantial form, which is what causes a substance to have its characteristics. For instance, an animal can be said to be a being whose matter is its body, and whose soul is its substantial form. Together, these constitute its "quiddity"/essence.


title: Thomism

text: All real things have the transcendental properties of being: oneness, truth, goodness (that is, all things have a final cause and therefore a purpose), etc.


title: Thomism

text: Aristotle categorized causality into four subsets in the "Metaphysics", which is an integral part of Thomism:


title: Thomism

text: Unlike many ancient Greeks, who thought that an infinite regress of causality is possible (and thus held that the universe is uncaused), Aquinas argues that an infinite chain never accomplishes its objective and is thus impossible. Hence, a first cause is necessary for the existence of anything to be possible. Further, the First Cause must continuously be in action (similar to how there must always be a first chain in a chain link), otherwise the series collapses:


title: Thomism

text: Thus, both Aristotle and Aquinas conclude that there must be an uncaused Primary Mover, because an infinite regress is impossible.


title: Thomism

text: However, the First Cause does not necessarily have to be temporally the first. Thus, the question of whether or not the universe can be imagined as eternal was fiercely debated in the Middle Ages. The University of Paris's condemnation of 1270 denounced the belief that the world is eternal. Aquinas' intellectual rival, Bonaventure, held that the temporality of the universe is demonstrable by reason. Aquinas' position was that the temporality of the world is an article of faith, and not demonstrable by reason; one could reasonably conclude either that the universe is temporal or that it is eternal.


title: Thomism

text: As per the "Nicomachean Ethics" of Aristotle, Aquinas defines "the good" as what all things strive for. E.g., a cutting knife is said to be good if it is effective at its function, cutting. As all things have a function/final cause, all real things are good. Consequently, evil is nothing but "privatio boni", or "lack of good", as Augustine of Hippo defined it.


title: Thomism

text: Commentating on the aforementioned, Aquinas says that "there is no problem from the fact that some men desire evil. For they desire evil only under the aspect of good, that is, insofar as they think it good. Hence their intention primarily aims at the good and only incidentally touches on the evil."


title: Thomism

text: As God is the ultimate end of all things, God is by essence goodness itself. Furthermore, since love is "to wish the good of another," true love in Thomism is to lead another to God. Hence why John the Evangelist says, "Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love."


title: Thomism

text: Thomas Aquinas holds that the existence of God can be demonstrated by reason, a view that is taught by the Catholic Church. The "quinque viae" (Latin: five ways) found in the "Summa Theologica" (I, Q.2, art.3) are five possible ways of demonstrating the existence of God, which today are categorized as:


title: Thomism

text: Despite this, Aquinas also thought that sacred mysteries such as the Trinity could only be obtained through revelation; though these truths cannot contradict reason:


title: Thomism

text: Aquinas responds to the problem of evil by saying that God allows evil to exist that good may come of it, (for goodness done out of free will is superior than goodness done from biological imperative) but does not personally cause evil Himself.


title: Thomism

text: Aquinas articulated and defended, both as a philosopher and a theologian, the orthodox Christian view of God. God is the sole being whose existence is the same as His essence: "what subsists in God is His existence." (Hence why God names himself "I Am that I Am" in Exodus 3:14.) Consequently, God cannot be a body (that is, He cannot be composed of matter), He cannot have any accidents, and He must be simple (that is, not separated into parts; the Trinity is one substance in three persons). Further, He is goodness itself, perfect, infinite, omnipotent, omniscient, happiness itself, knowledge itself, love itself, omnipresent, immutable, and eternal. Summing up these properties, Aquinas offers the term "actus purus" (Latin: "pure actuality").


title: Thomism

text: Aquinas held that not only does God have knowledge of everything, but that God has "the most perfect knowledge," and that it is also true to say that God "is" His understanding.


title: Thomism

text: Aquinas also understands God as the transcendent cause of the universe, the "first Cause of all things, exceeding all things caused by Him," the source of all creaturely being and the cause of every other cause. Consequently, God's causality is not like the causality of any other causes (all other causes are "secondary causes"), because He is the transcendent source of all being, causing and sustaining every other existing thing at every instant. Consequently, God's causality is never in competition with the causality of creatures; rather, God even causes some things through the causality of creatures.


title: Thomism

text: Aquinas was an advocate of the "analogical way", which says that because God is infinite, people can only speak of God by analogy, for some of the aspects of the divine nature are hidden ("Deus absconditus") and others revealed ("Deus revelatus") to finite human minds. Thomist philosophy holds that we can know "about" God through his creation (general revelation), but only in an analogous manner. For instance, we can speak of God's goodness only by understanding that goodness as applied to humans is similar to, but not identical with, the goodness of God. Further, he argues that sacred scripture employs figurative language: "Now it is natural to man to attain to intellectual truths through sensible objects, because all our knowledge originates from sense. Hence in Holy Writ, spiritual truths are fittingly taught under the "likeness" of material things."


title: Thomism

text: In order to demonstrate God's creative power, Aquinas says: "If a being participates, to a certain degree, in an 'accident,' this accidental property must have been communicated to it by a cause which possesses it essentially. Thus iron becomes incandescent by the action of fire. Now, God is His own power which subsists by itself. The being which subsists by itself is necessarily one."


title: Thomism

text: In addition to agreeing with the Aristotelian definition of man as "the rational animal," Aquinas also held various other beliefs about the substance of man. For instance, as the essence (nature) of all men are the same, and the definition of being is "an essence that exists," humans that are real therefore only differ by their specific qualities. More generally speaking, all beings of the same genus have the same essence, and so long as they exist, only differ by accidents and substantial form.


title: Thomism

text: Thomists define the soul as the substantial form of living beings. Thus, plants have "vegetative souls," animals have "sensitive souls," while human beings alone have "intellectual" – rational and immortal – souls.


title: Thomism

text: The appetite of man has two parts, rational and irrational. The rational part is called the will, and the irrational part is called passion.


title: Thomism

text: Aquinas affirms Aristotle's definition of happiness as "an operation according to perfect virtue", and that "happiness is called man's supreme good, because it is the attainment or enjoyment of the supreme good." Aquinas defines virtue as a good habit, which is a good quality of a person demonstrated by his actions and reactions over a substantial period of time. He writes:


title: Thomism

text: Aquinas ascertained the cardinal virtues to be prudence, temperance, justice, and fortitude. The cardinal virtues are natural and revealed in nature, and they are binding on everyone. There are, however, three theological virtues: faith, hope, and charity (which is used interchangeably with love in the sense of "agape"). These are supernatural and are distinct from other virtues in their object, namely, God.


title: Thomism

text: In accordance with Roman Catholic theology, Aquinas argues that humans can neither wish nor do good without divine grace. However, "doing good" here refers to doing good per se: man "can" do, moved by God even then but "only" in the sense in which even his nature depends on God's moving, things that happen to be good in some respect, and are not sinful, though if he has not grace, it will be without merit, and he will not succeed in it all the time. Therefore, happiness is attained through the perseverance of virtue given by the Grace of God, which is not fully attained on earth; only at the beatific vision. Notably, man cannot attain true happiness without God.


title: Thomism

text: Regarding emotion (used synonymously with the word "passion" in this context), which, following John Damascene, Aquinas defines as "a movement of the sensitive appetite when we imagine good or evil," Thomism repudiates both the Epicurean view that happiness consists in pleasure (sensual experiences that invoke positive emotion), and the Stoic view that emotions are vices by nature. Aquinas takes a moderate view of emotion, quoting Augustine: "They are evil if our love is evil; good if our love is good." While most emotions are morally neutral, some are inherently virtuous (e.g. pity) and some are inherently vicious (e.g. envy).


title: Thomism

text: Thomist ethics hold that it is necessary to observe both circumstances and intention to determine an action's moral value, and therefore Aquinas cannot be said to be strictly either a deontologicalist or a consequentialist. Rather, he would say that an action is morally good if it fulfills God's antecedent will.


title: Thomism

text: Of note is the principle of double effect, formulated in the "Summa", II-II, Q.64, art.7, which is a justification of homicide in self-defense. Previously experiencing difficulties in the world of Christian philosophy, the doctrine of Just War was expounded by Aquinas with this principle. He says:


title: Thomism

text: Thomism recognizes four different species of law, which he defines as "an ordinance of reason for the common good, made by him who has care of the community, and promulgated":


title: Thomism

text: The development of natural law is one of the most influential parts of Thomist philosophy. Aquinas says that "[the law of nature] is nothing other than the light of the intellect planted in us by God, by which we know what should be done and what should be avoided. God gave this light and this law in creation... For no one is ignorant that what he would not like to be done to himself he should not do to others, and similar norms."


title: Thomism

text: Aquinas argues that the Mosaic covenant was divine, though rightfully only given to the Jews before Christ; whereas the New Covenant replaces the Old Covenant and is meant for all humans.


title: Thomism

text: Aquinas argues that God offers man both a prevenient grace to enable him to perform supernaturally good works, and cooperative grace within the same. The relation of prevenient grace to voluntariness has been the subject of further debate; the position known here as "Thomist" was originated by Domingo Báñez and says that God gives an additional grace (the "efficient grace") to the predestined which makes them accept, while Luis de Molina held that God distributes grace according to a middle knowledge, and man can accept it without a different grace. Molinism is a school that is part of Thomism in the general sense (it originated in commentaries to Aquinas), yet it must be borne in mind that, here, Thomism and Molinism oppose each other. (The question has been declared undecided by the Holy See.)


title: Thomism

text: Aquinas preceded the existence of the discipline of epistemology, which began among modern thinkers whose positions, following in the wake of Descartes, are fundamentally opposed to Aquinas'. Nonetheless, Aquinas' thought is more measured than the crowd that requires epistemology. A Thomistic theory of knowledge can be derived from a mixture of Aquinas' logical, psychological, metaphysical, and even Theological doctrines. Aquinas' thought is an instance of the correspondence theory of truth, which says that something is true "when it conforms to the external reality." Therefore, any being that exists can be said to be true insofar that it participates in the world.


title: Thomism

text: Aristotle's "De anima" ("On the Soul") divides the mind into three parts: sensation, imagination and intellection. When one perceives an object, his mind composites a sense-image. When he remembers the object he previously sensed, he is imagining its form (the image of the imagination is often translated as "phantasm"). When he extracts information from this phantasm, he is using his intellect. Consequently, all human knowledge concerning universals (such as species and properties) are derived from the phantasm ("the received is in the receiver according to the mode of the receiver"), which itself is a recollection of an experience. Concerning the question of "Whether the intellect can actually understand through the intelligible species of which it is possessed, without turning to the phantasms?" in the "Summa Theologica", Aquinas quotes Aristotle in the "sed contra": "the soul understands nothing without a phantasm." Hence the peripatetic axiom. (Another theorem to be drawn from this is that error is a result of drawing false conclusions based on our sensations.)


title: Thomism

text: Aquinas' epistemological theory would later be classified as empiricism, for holding that sensations are a necessary step in acquiring knowledge, and that deductions cannot be made from pure reason.


title: Thomism

text: Aquinas shifted Scholasticism away from neoplatonism and towards Aristotle. The ensuing school of thought, through its influence on Catholicism and the ethics of the Catholic school, is one of the most influential philosophies of all time, also significant due to the number of people living by its teachings.


title: Thomism

text: Before Aquinas' death, Stephen Tempier, Bishop of Paris, forbade certain positions associated with Aquinas (especially his denial of both universal "hylomorphism" and a plurality of substantial forms in a single substance) to be taught in the Faculty of Arts at Paris. Through the influence of traditional Augustinian theologians, some theses of Aquinas were condemned in 1277 by the ecclesiastical authorities of Paris and Oxford (the most important theological schools in the Middle Ages). The Franciscan Order opposed the ideas of the Dominican Aquinas, while the Dominicans institutionally took up the defense of his work (1286), and thereafter adopted it as an official philosophy of the order to be taught in their "studia". Early opponents of Aquinas include William de la Mare, Henry of Ghent, Giles of Rome, and Jon Duns Scotus.


title: Thomism

text: Early and noteworthy defenders of Aquinas were his former teacher Albertus Magnus, the ill-fated Richard Knapwell, William Macclesfeld, Giles of Lessines, John of Quidort, Bernard of Auvergne and Thomas of Sutton.


title: Thomism

text: The canonization of Aquinas in 1323 led to a revocation of the condemnation of 1277. Later, Aquinas and his school would find a formidable opponent in the "via moderna", particularly in William of Ockham and his adherents.


title: Thomism

text: Thomism remained a doctrine held principally by Dominican theologians, such as Giovanni Capreolo (1380–1444) or Tommaso de Vio (1468–1534). Eventually, in the 16th century, Thomism found a stronghold on the Iberian Peninsula, through for example the Dominicans Francisco de Vitoria (particularly noteworthy for his work in natural law theory), Domingo de Soto (notable for his work on economic theory), John of St. Thomas, and Domingo Báñez; the Carmelites of Salamanca (i.e., the Salmanticenses); and even, in a way, the newly formed Jesuits, particularly Francisco Suárez, and Luis de Molina.


title: Thomism

text: Pope Leo XIII attempted a Thomistic revival, particularly with his 1879 encyclical "Aeterni Patris" and his establishment of the Leonine Commission, established to produce critical editions of Aquinas' "opera omnia". This encyclical served as the impetus for the rise of Neothomism, which brought an emphasis on the ethical parts of Thomism, as well as a large part of its views on life, humans, and theology, are found in the various schools of Neothomism. Neothomism held sway as the dominant philosophy of the Roman Catholic Church until the Second Vatican Council, which seemed to confirm the significance of Ressourcement theology. Thomism remains a school of philosophy today, and influential in Catholicism, though "The Church has no philosophy of her own nor does she canonize any one particular philosophy in preference to others."


title: Thomism

text: In recent years, the cognitive neuroscientist Walter Freeman proposes that Thomism is the philosophical system explaining cognition that is most compatible with neurodynamics, in a 2008 article in the journal "Mind and Matter" entitled "Nonlinear Brain Dynamics and Intention According to Aquinas."


title: Thomism

text: Aquinas did not disdain to draw upon Jewish philosophical sources. His main work, the "Summa Theologica", shows a profound knowledge not only of the writings of Avicebron (Ibn Gabirol), whose name he mentions, but also of most Jewish philosophical works then existing.


title: Thomism

text: Aquinas pronounces himself energetically against the hypothesis of the eternity of the world, in agreement with both Christian and Jewish theology. But as this theory is attributed to Aristotle, he seeks to demonstrate that the latter did not express himself categorically on this subject. "The argument," said he, "which Aristotle presents to support this thesis is not properly called a demonstration, but is only a reply to the theories of those ancients who supposed that this world had a beginning and who gave only impossible proofs. There are three reasons for believing that Aristotle himself attached only a relative value to this reasoning..." In this, Aquinas paraphrases Maimonides' "Guide for the Perplexed", where those reasons are given.


title: Thomism

text: Thomism began to decline in popularity in the modern period, which was inaugurated by René Descartes' works "Discourse on the Method" in 1637 and "Meditations on First Philosophy" in 1641. The Cartesian doctrines of mind–body dualism and the fallibility of the senses implicitly contradicted Aristotle and Aquinas:


title: Thomism

text: J. A. Weisheipl emphasizes that within the Dominican Order the history of Thomism has been continuous since the time of Aquinas:


title: Thomism

text: An idea of the longstanding historic continuity of Dominican Thomism may be derived from the list of people associated with the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas.


title: Thomism

text: Outside the Dominican Order Thomism has had varying fortunes leading some to periodize it historically or thematically. Weisheipl distinguishes "wide" Thomism, which includes those who claim to follow the spirit and basic insights of Aquinas and manifest an evident dependence on his texts, from "eclectic" Thomism which includes those with a willingness to allow the influence of other philosophical and theological systems in order to relativize the principles and conclusions of traditional Thomism. John Haldane gives an historic division of Thomism including 1) the period of Aquinas and his first followers from the 13th to 15th centuries, a second Thomism from the 16th to 18th centuries, and a Neo-Thomism from the 19th to 20th centuries.


title: Thomism

text: One might justifiably articulate other historical divisions on the basis of shifts in perspective on Aquinas' work including the period immediately following Aquinas' canonization in 1325, the period following the Council of Trent, and the period after the Second Vatican Council. Romanus Cessario thinks it better not to identify intervals of time or periods within the larger history of Thomism because Thomists have addressed such a broad variety of issues and in too many geographical areas to permit such divisions.


title: Thomism

text: The first period of Thomism stretches from Aquinas' teaching activity beginning in 1256 at Paris to Cologne, Orvieto, Viterbo, Rome, and Naples until his canonization in 1325. In this period his doctrines "were both attacked and defended" as for example after his death (1274) the condemnations of 1277, 1284 and 1286 were counteracted by the General Chapters of the Dominican Order and other disciples who came to Aquinas' defense.


title: Thomism

text: After Aquinas' canonisation, commentaries on Aquinas increased, especially at Cologne which had previously been a stronghold of Albert the Great's thought. Henry of Gorkum (1386-1431) wrote what may well be the earliest commentary on the Summa Theologiae, followed in due course by his student Denis the Carthusian.


title: Thomism

text: Responding to prevailing philosophical rationalism during the Enlightenment Salvatore Roselli, professor of theology at the College of St. Thomas, the future Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, "Angelicum" in Rome, published a six volume "Summa philosophica" (1777) giving an Aristotelian interpretation of Aquinas validating the senses as a source of knowledge. While teaching at the College Roselli is considered to have laid the foundation for Neothomism in the nineteenth century. According to historian J.A. Weisheipl in the late 18th and early 19th centuries "everyone who had anything to do with the revival of Thomism in Italy, Spain and France was directly influenced by Roselli’s monumental work.


title: Thomism

text: The Thomist revival that began in the mid-19th century, sometimes called "neo-scholasticism" or "neo-Thomism," can be traced to figures such as "Angelicum" professor Tommaso Maria Zigliara, Jesuits Josef Kleutgen, and Giovanni Maria Cornoldi, and secular priest Gaetano Sanseverino. This movement received impetus from Pope Leo XIII's encyclical "Aeterni Patris" of 1879. Generally the revival accepts the interpretative tradition of Aquinas' great commentators such as Capréolus, Cajetan, and John of St. Thomas. Its focus, however, is less exegetical and more concerned with carrying out the program of deploying a rigorously worked out system of Thomistic metaphysics in a wholesale critique of modern philosophy. Other seminal figures in the early part of the century include Martin Grabmann (1875-1949) and Amato Masnovo (1880-1955). The movement's core philosophical commitments are summarized in "Twenty-Four Thomistic Theses" approved by Pope Pius X.


title: Thomism

text: In the first half of the twentieth century "Angelicum" professors Edouard Hugon, Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange among others, carried on Leo's call for a Thomist revival. Their approach is reflected in many of the manuals and textbooks widely in use in Roman Catholic colleges and seminaries before Vatican II.


title: Thomism

text: While the Second Vatican Council took place from 1962 to 1965 Cornelio Fabro was already able to write in 1949 that the century of revival with its urgency to provide a synthetic systematization and defense of Aquinas' thought was coming to an end. Fabro looked forward to a more constructive period in which the original context of Aquinas' thought would be explored.


title: Thomism

text: A summary of some recent and current schools and interpretations of Thomism can be found, among other places, in "La Metafisica di san Tommaso d'Aquino e i suoi interpreti" (2002), by Battista Mondin, "Being and Some 20th Century Thomists" (2003), by John F. X. Knasas as well as in the writing of Edward Feser.


title: Thomism

text: Neo-Scholastic Thomism identifies with the philosophical and theological tradition stretching back to the time of St. Thomas. In the nineteenth century authors such as Tommaso Maria Zigliara focused not only on exegesis of the historical Aquinas but also on the articulation of a rigorous system of orthodox Thomism to be used as an instrument of critique of contemporary thought.


title: Thomism

text: Due to its suspicion of attempts to harmonize Aquinas with non-Thomistic categories and assumptions, Neo-Scholastic Thomism has sometimes been called "strict observance Thomism." A discussion of recent and current Neo-Scholastic Thomism can be found in "La Metafisica di san Tommaso d'Aquino e i suoi interpreti" (2002) by Battista Mondin, which includes such figures as Martin Grabmann, Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, Sofia Vanni Rovighi (1908–1990), Cornelio Fabro (1911–1995), Carlo Giacon (1900–1984), Tomáš Týn (1950–1990), Abelardo Lobato (1925–2012), Leo Elders (1926–2019) and Giovanni Ventimiglia (b. 1964) among others. Fabro in particular emphasizes Aquinas' originality, especially with respect to the "actus essendi" or act of existence of finite beings by participating in being itself. Other scholars such as those involved with the "Progetto Tommaso" seek to establish an objective and universal reading of Aquinas' texts.


title: Thomism

text: Cracow Circle Thomism (named after Cracow) has been called "the most significant expression of Catholic thought between the two World Wars." The Circle was founded by a group of philosophers and theologians that in distinction to more traditional Neo-Scholastic Thomism embraced modern formal logic as an analytical tool for traditional Thomist philosophy and theology.


title: Thomism

text: Inspired by the logical clarity of Aquinas, members of the Circle held both philosophy and theology to contain "propositions with truth-values…a structured body of propositions connected in meaning and subject matter, and linked by logical relations of compatibility and incompatibility, entailment etc." "The Cracow Circle set about investigating and where possible improving this logical structure with the most advanced logical tools available at the time, namely those of modern mathematical logic, then called 'logistic'."


title: Thomism

text: Étienne Gilson (1884–1978), the key proponent of existential Thomism, tended to emphasize the importance of historical exegesis but also to deemphasize Aquinas's continuity with the Aristotelian tradition, and like Cornelio Fabro of the Neo-scholastic school, to highlight the originality of Aquinas's doctrine of being as existence. He was also critical of the Neo-Scholastics' focus on the tradition of the commentators, and given what he regarded as their insufficient emphasis on being or existence accused them of "essentialism" (to allude to the other half of Aquinas's distinction between being and essence). Gilson's reading of Aquinas as putting forward a distinctively "Christian philosophy" tended, at least in the view of his critics, to blur Aquinas's distinction between philosophy and theology. Jacques Maritain (1882–1973) introduced into Thomistic metaphysics the notion that philosophical reflection begins with an "intuition of being," and in ethics and social philosophy sought to harmonize Thomism with personalism and pluralistic democracy. Though "existential Thomism" was sometimes presented as a counterpoint to modern existentialism, the main reason for the label is the emphasis this approach puts on Aquinas's doctrine of existence. Contemporary proponents include Joseph Owens and John F. X. Knasas.


title: Thomism

text: According to River Forest Thomism (named after River Forest, Illinois), the natural sciences are epistemologically prior to metaphysics, preferably called -->metascience. This approach emphasizes the Aristotelian foundations of Aquinas's philosophy, and in particular the idea that the construction of a sound metaphysics must be preceded by a sound understanding of natural science, as interpreted in light of an Aristotelian philosophy of nature. Accordingly, it is keen to show that modern physical science can and should be given such an interpretation. Charles De Koninck, Raymond Jude Nogar, James A. Weisheipl, William A. Wallace, and Benedict Ashley, are among its representatives. It is sometimes called "Laval Thomism" after the University of Laval in Quebec, where De Koninck was a professor. The alternative label "River Forest Thomism" derives from a suburb of Chicago, the location of the Albertus Magnus Lyceum for Natural Science, whose members have been associated with this approach. It is also sometimes called "Aristotelian Thomism" (to highlight its contrast with Gilson's brand of existential Thomism) though since Neo-Scholastic Thomism also emphasizes Aquinas's continuity with Aristotle, this label seems a bit too proprietary. (There are writers, like the contemporary Thomist Ralph McInerny who have exhibited both Neo-Scholastic and Laval/River Forest influences, and the approaches are not necessarily incompatible.)


title: Thomism

text: Unlike the first three schools mentioned above, transcendental Thomism, associated with Joseph Maréchal (1878–1944), Karl Rahner (1904–84), and Bernard Lonergan (1904–84), does not oppose modern philosophy wholesale, but seeks to reconcile Thomism with a Cartesian subject-centered approach to knowledge in general, and Kantian transcendental philosophy in particular. It seems fair to say that most Thomists otherwise tolerant of diverse approaches to Aquinas's thought tend to regard transcendental Thomism as having conceded too much to modern philosophy genuinely to count as a variety of Thomism, strictly speaking, and this school of thought has in any event been far more influential among theologians than among philosophers.


title: Thomism

text: Lublin Thomism, which derives its name from the Catholic University of Lublin in Poland where it is centered, is also sometimes called "phenomenological Thomism." Like transcendental Thomism, it seeks to combine Thomism with certain elements of modern philosophy. In particular, it seeks to make use of the phenomenological method of philosophical analysis associated with Edmund Husserl and the ethical personalism of writers like Max Scheler in articulating the Thomist conception of the human person. Its best-known proponent is Karol Wojtyla (1920–2005), who went on to become Pope John Paul II.


title: Thomism

text: However, unlike transcendental Thomism, the metaphysics of Lublin Thomism places priority on existence (as opposed to essence), making it an existential Thomism that demonstrates consonance with the Thomism of Étienne Gilson. The phenomenological concerns of the Lublin school are not metaphysical in nature as this would constitute idealism. Rather, they are considerations which are brought into relation with central positions of the school, such as when dealing with modern science, its epistemological value, and its relation to metaphysics.


title: Thomism

text: Analytical Thomism described by John Haldane, its key proponent, as "a broad philosophical approach that brings into mutual relationship the styles and preoccupations of recent English-speaking philosophy and the concepts and concerns shared by Aquinas and his followers" (from the article on "analytical Thomism" in "The Oxford Companion to Philosophy", edited by Ted Honderich). By "recent English-speaking philosophy" Haldane means the analytical tradition founded by thinkers like Gottlob Frege, Bertrand Russell, G. E. Moore, and Ludwig Wittgenstein, which tends to dominate academic philosophy in the English-speaking world. Elizabeth Anscombe (1919–2001) and her husband Peter Geach are sometimes considered the first "analytical Thomists," though (like most writers to whom this label has been applied) they did not describe themselves in these terms, and as Haldane's somewhat vague expression "mutual relationship" indicates, there does not seem to be any set of doctrines held in common by all analytical Thomists. What they do have in common seems to be that they are philosophers trained in the analytic tradition who happen to be interested in Aquinas in some way; and the character of their "analytical Thomism" is determined by whether it tends to stress the "analytical" side of analytical Thomism, or the "Thomism" side, or, alternatively, attempts to emphasize both sides equally.


title: Thomism

text: With the decree "Postquam sanctissimus" of 27 July 1914, Pope Pius X stated that 24 theses formulated by "teachers from various institutions [...] clearly contain the principles and more important thoughts" of Aquinas.


title: Thomism

text: In his "Against Henry, King of the English", Luther criticized the use of the proof by assertion and a reliance on style over substance in the Thomist form of disputation, which he alleged as being, "It seems so to me. I think so. I believe so." Luther also argued that the Thomist method led to shallowness among theological debates in England at the time.


title: Thomism

text: Thomism was criticized by Bertrand Russell in "A History of Western Philosophy" (1946). Besides this, neo-scholasticism in general, including Thomism, is criticized by some Catholics.


title: States of emergency in India

text: A state of emergency in India refers to a period of governance under an altered constitutional setup that can be proclaimed by the President of India, when the consultant group perceives and warns against grave threats to the nation from internal and external sources or from financial situations of crisis. Under Article 352 of the Indian constitution, upon the advice of the cabinet of ministers, the President can overrule many provisions of the constitution, which guarantee fundamental rights to the citizens of India and acts governing devolution of powers to the states which form the federation. In the history of independent India, such a state of emergency has been declared three times.


title: States of emergency in India

text: The phrase "Emergency period" used loosely, when referring to the political history of India, often refers to this third and the most controversial of the three occasions.


title: States of emergency in India

text: In 1978, the Forty-fourth Amendment of the Constitution of India, substituted the words "internal disturbance" for "armed rebellion" in Article 352, making the term more specific and less subject to interpretations.


title: States of emergency in India

text: The President can declare three types of emergencies — national, state and financial emergency in a state.


title: States of emergency in India

text: Originally at the beginning, a National emergency could be declared on the basis of "external aggression or war" and "internal disturbance" in the whole of India or a part of its territory under Article 352. Such an emergency was declared in India in the 1962 war (China war), 1971 war (Pakistan war), and 1975 internal disturbance (declared by Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed ). But after the 44th amendment act 1978, National Emergency can only be declared on grounds of "External aggression or war", also called as External Emergency & on the ground of "armed rebellion", also called as Internal Emergency.


title: States of emergency in India

text: The President can declare such an emergency only on the basis of a written request by the Cabinet headed by the Prime Minister. Such a proclamation must be laid before both houses of Parliament and the state of emergency expires after one month unless approved within that time by both houses sitting and voting separately. However, if the Lok Sabha (the lower house) has been dissolved or dissolution takes place in the state of emergency, and the Rajya Sabha approves of the state of emergency, the deadline for the Lok Sabha is extended until thirty days after that house reconstituted. According to Article 352(6), approval by either house requires a special majority: those in favour of the motion must be two-thirds of those present and voting, and amount to a majority of the entire membership of that house. A Parliamentary resolution extends the state of emergency for up to six months, and it can be extended indefinitely by further resolutions in six-monthly increments.


title: States of emergency in India

text: During a national emergency, many Fundamental Rights of Indian citizens can be suspended. The six freedoms under Right to Freedom are automatically suspended. By contrast, the Right to Life and Personal Liberty cannot be suspended according to the original Constitution. In January 1977, during the emergency declared controversially by Indira Gandhi, the government decided to suspend even the Right to Life and Personal Liberty by dispensing with Habeas corpus. Justice Hans Raj Khanna defended the Right to Life and asked: "Life is also mentioned in Article 21 and would Government argument extend to it also?". The Attorney General observed: "Even if life was taken away illegally, courts are helpless".


title: States of emergency in India

text: A national emergency modifies the federal system of government to a unitary one by granting Parliament the power to make laws on the 66 subjects of the State List (which contains subjects on which the state governments can make laws). Also, all state money bills are referred to the Parliament for its approval.


title: States of emergency in India

text: During an emergency, the term of the Lok Sabha can be successively extended by intervals of up to one year, but not beyond six months after the state of emergency has been revoked.


title: States of emergency in India

text: It had been declared for the first time in the State of Punjab in 1951. A state of emergency can be declared in any state of India under article 356 on the recommendation of the governor of the state. Every state in India except two states, Chhattisgarh and Telangana has been under a state of emergency at some point of time or the other. The state of emergency is commonly known as 'President's Rule' and is usually not referred to as 'State Emergency' for a number of reasons.


title: States of emergency in India

text: If the President is satisfied, based on the report of the Governor of the concerned state or from other sources, that the governance in a state cannot be carried out according to the provisions in the Constitution, the governor may declare an emergency in the state. Such an emergency must be approved by the Parliament within a period of two months.


title: States of emergency in India

text: It is imposed for an initial period of six months and can last for a maximum period of three years with repeated parliamentary approval every six months. The 42nd amendment act of 1976 extended the initial time duration of President Rule from 6 months to 1 year. Subsequently, 44th CAA 1978 restored the 1-year period back to 6 months. Originally, the maximum period of operation of President Rule was 3 years. This 3-year period was divided into 1 year of ordinary period and 2 years of extra ordinary period for which certain conditions are to be fulfilled. Therefore, from now on after every 1 year Parliament needs to approve the same. If the emergency has to be extended for more than three years, it can only be done by a constitutional amendment, as has happened in Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir.


title: States of emergency in India

text: During such emergency, the President can take over the entire work of the executive, and the Governor administers the state in the name of the President. The Legislative Assembly can be dissolved or may remain in suspended animation. The Parliament makes laws on the 66 subjects of the state list (see National emergency for explanation). All money bills have to be referred to the Parliament for approval. In this occasion ministers of state legislature do not perform actions in state.


title: Nipple piercing

text: A nipple piercing is a type of body piercing, centered usually at the base of the nipple. It can be pierced at any angle but is usually done horizontally or, less often, vertically. It is also possible to place multiple piercings on top of one another.


title: Nipple piercing

text: The perforation of the nipple to apply jewelry has been practiced by various people throughout history. Male nipple piercing was reported to be done by the Karankawa Native Americans, female nipple piercing is practiced by the Kabyle people in Algeria.


title: Nipple piercing

text: In the western world it potentially dates back to the 14th century. The anthropologist Hans Peter Duerr traces the earliest known practice of female nipple piercing as a fashion statement to the Court of Isabeau of Bavaria (1370 to 1435), queen consort of France, quoting Eduard Fuchs he describes that: However, these sources are difficult to verify.


title: Nipple piercing

text: There are also references to a fashion for nipple piercing among society women during the Victorian period around 1890. However, the historian Lesley Hall has commented that these can be traced to a few letters published in the magazine "Society" during 1899, and can be judged as erotic fantasies rather than descriptions of actual activity.


title: Nipple piercing

text: In the late 1970s, the practice was revived by Jim Ward and it was adopted by the BDSM and leather subcultures of the gay community. During the 1980s and early 1990s, the modern primitive movement embraced nipple piercings among other forms of body modification. With its roots in the West Coast of the United States, the modern primitive movement was intrigued by indigenous, so-called "primitive" cultures and adopted various forms of body modification. The mainstream popularity of nipple piercing is partly due to certain 1990s celebrities such as Tommy Lee, Corey Taylor and Lenny Kravitz who publicly displayed their piercings or said that they had them.


title: Nipple piercing

text: Nipple piercing has gained in popularity in the 21st century with a number of celebrities and fashion models having this type of piercing. In addition, many people are motivated to have nipple piercings for personal reasons including self-expression and a desire to feel unique. At least one study has shown that people spend, on average, 1–2 years making the decision to have a piercing.


title: Nipple piercing

text: Some people have noted that they can take up to a year and a half to heal fully. It is recommended that if stretching a nipple piercing, the piercee waits at least the healing time of their piercings between stretches.


title: Nipple piercing

text: Sexual arousal created by areola and nipple stimulation is reported to be enhanced by piercing of the nipple. Most women claim an increase in sensitivity and arousal after having their nipples pierced. As a result of a surge of information claiming sexual enhancement with a pierced nipple, there has been a reported increase of men and women requesting this procedure.


title: Nipple piercing

text: A common question among women who consider nipple piercings is how it may affect breastfeeding. There is no evidence to suggest that proper nipple piercings can cause any complications with lactation. A letter in the "Journal of the American Medical Association" suggests improperly pierced nipples and scarring may result in blocked ducts.


title: Nipple piercing

text: It is recommended that good care be taken to prevent infection by using a piercing professional and good body piercing aftercare. Frequent re-piercings can also damage the nipple and cause complications. It is also recommended that the piercing be healed before breastfeeding. Most body piercing professionals will refuse to pierce a pregnant woman for this reason and because piercing causes stress on the body that could potentially complicate a pregnancy.


title: Nipple piercing

text: Several complications have been noted involving breastfeeding with a piercing present, so it is recommended to remove nipple jewelry before nursing. Several complications resulting from nursing with nipple jewelry inserted can include poor latch, slurping, gagging, and milk leaking from the baby's mouth.


title: Nipple piercing

text: It can also be a potential choking hazard for the baby. As the baby sucks, the ends on a barbell (if worn) may come loose and could possibly lodge in the baby's throat (a captive bead ring, properly inserted, would lessen the risk of anything becoming loose, falling out, and lodging in the throat). The baby's gums and tongue as well as the soft and hard palate could be injured by the jewelry.


title: Nipple piercing

text: Whilst there are some arguments made against having a nipple piercing and breastfeeding, some experts state it is okay to pierce nipples.


title: Nipple piercing

text: Inverted nipples are primarily a cosmetic problem but might interfere with breastfeeding. Nipples that are inverted can be pierced; in fact, it has been proposed as a corrective strategy to protract the nipple.


title: Nipple piercing

text: The nipple is fleshy enough to pierce securely behind plenty of skin to prevent rejection. However, if the jewelry gauge is too thin or the piercing is not deep enough to begin with, there is a risk of rejection. Metal allergies, infections, or excessive pulling/tugging can also cause the piercing to be rejected.


title: Nipple piercing

text: Death due to complications resulting from nipple piercings may have occurred, as have serious infections resulting in the removal of a breast after getting a nipple ring, but typically, a nipple piercing will take at least six months to a year for women or two to four months for men to heal fully.


title: Nipple piercing

text: A nipple piercing gained considerable media attention after Super Bowl XXXVIII, during which Justin Timberlake accidentally exposed Janet Jackson's right breast on which she had a nipple shield applied to a piercing. This incident is humorously called Nipplegate. Nicole Richie set off an alarm at the Reno-Tahoe International Airport as she passed a metal detector with her nipple piercing. Pink had her nipple pierced backstage after a concert she was giving in Germany in the presence of her mother. The whole scene was filmed and later published on her DVD "". Christina Aguilera had all her piercings removed except for her right nipple piercing. Also, R&B singer Cassie has both of her nipples pierced. Pictures of her breasts were posted on the Internet when someone hacked into her private photographs. Pop singer Rihanna had her nipple piercing exposed first in the same way and later in a "Lui" magazine pictorial.


title: Never for Ever

text: Never for Ever is the third studio album by English art rock singer Kate Bush, released on 7 September 1980 by EMI Records, it was Bush's first No. 1 album and was also the first album by a British female solo artist to top the UK Albums Chart, as well as being the first album by any female solo artist to enter the chart at No. 1. It has since been certified Gold by the BPI. It features the UK Top 20 singles "Breathing", "Army Dreamers" and "Babooshka", the latter being one of Bush's biggest hits. Bush co-produced the album with Jon Kelly.


title: Never for Ever

text: Beginning production after her 1979 tour, "Never for Ever" was Bush's second foray into production (her first was for the "On Stage" EP the previous year), aided by the engineer of "Lionheart" (1978), Jon Kelly. Bush was keen to start producing her work and felt that this was the first album she was happy with, since it was more personal.


title: Never for Ever

text: The first two albums had resulted in a particular sound, which was evident in every track, with lush orchestral arrangements supporting the live band sound. The range of styles on "Never for Ever" is much more diverse, veering from the straightforward rocker "Violin" to the wistful waltz of hit single "Army Dreamers". "Never for Ever" was the first Kate Bush album to feature digital synthesizers and drum machines, in particular the Fairlight CMI, which was programmed by Richard James Burgess and John L. Walters of synth-pop band Landscape. Like her previous two albums, it was initially composed on piano.


title: Never for Ever

text: Bush's literary and cinematic influences were again to the fore. "The Infant Kiss", the story of a governess who is frightened by the adult feelings she has for her young male charge (who is possessed by the spirit of a grown man), was inspired by the 1961 film "The Innocents", which in turn had been inspired by "The Turn of the Screw" by Henry James. "The Wedding List" drew from François Truffaut's 1968 film "The Bride Wore Black". "Delius (Song of Summer)" was inspired by the 1968 Ken Russell television film "Song of Summer", which portrays the last six years of the life of English composer Frederick Delius, when Eric Fenby acted as his amanuensis. Fenby is mentioned in the lyrics ("in B, Fenby"). "Blow Away (for Bill)" commemorates her lighting director Bill Duffield, killed in an accident at Poole Arts Centre during her 1979 tour. The song links his name to those of several music stars who died in the previous decade—Minnie Riperton, Keith Moon, Sandy Denny, Sid Vicious, Marc Bolan—and one earlier icon, Buddy Holly.


title: Never for Ever

text: "Never for Ever" is the only studio album by Bush up to "Director's Cut" (2011) not to have a title track. According to Bush, the title alluded to conflicting emotions, good and bad, which pass, as she stated: "we must tell our hearts that it is 'never for ever', and be happy that it's like that".


title: Never for Ever

text: The album cover is an illustration (in pencil) by artist Nick Price, who had also designed the cover for the programme for her 1979 tour. Bush was pleased with the results (it depicts a multitude of animals and monsters emerging from under her skirt). Of the concept, Bush said that it reflects the title, depicting good and bad things that emerge from one's self. The album was released on compact disc in Japan in 1987 with the cover art modified. A section of the original cover art was enlarged, creating two different booklet covers: the outer one modified; and underneath the original. The album's cover was voted 'Greatest Album Cover of 1980' by "Record Mirror".


title: Never for Ever

text: "Violin" and "Egypt" were also performed live during The Tour of Life in April-May 1979. "The Wedding List" was also aired at BBC "Christmas Special" on December 28, 1979.


title: Never for Ever

text: With work on the album completed in May, "Never for Ever" was released on 7 September 1980. Over the following week, Bush undertook a record signing tour of the UK including London, which resulted in lengthy queues down Oxford Street. During October she also undertook promotional appearances for the album throughout Europe, most prominently in Germany and France. In the US, the album was initially unreleased following the failure of her debut. As Bush gained a cult following over the coming years, however, "Never for Ever" was belatedly released in 1984 following the entry into the charts of her fourth album "The Dreaming".


title: Never for Ever

text: "Never for Ever" entered the UK Albums Chart on (week-ending) 20 September 1980 at No. 1. It remained there for one week, staying in the top 75 for a total of 23 weeks. The album became Bush's first record to reach the top position on the UK Albums Chart, also making her the first female British solo artist to achieve that status. Technically, "Never for Ever" is the first "studio" album (i.e. not a greatest hits compilation) by "any" solo female artist to reach number 1 in the UK as only Barbra Streisand and Connie Francis had achieved the feat prior to 1980 but with compilation albums (Diana Ross had also achieved three UK number 1 albums by then but these were also compilations and were credited to Diana Ross & The Supremes, and were therefore not solo albums).


title: Never for Ever

text: Three singles were released from the album—all of which fared well in the charts. The first, "Breathing", reached No. 16 in the UK, as did the third, "Army Dreamers". The second single, "Babooshka", became one of Bush's biggest hits, peaking at No. 5 in the summer of 1980 in the UK and faring even better in Australia, where it reached No. 2 and was the 20th best-selling single of the year.


title: Never for Ever

text: The album was favourably received by music critics at the time, save for a curiously critical review in "Record Mirror", which appears to criticise the album (and Bush herself), while complimenting a number of tracks. Based largely on this album, Bush was voted "Best female artist of 1980" in polls taken in "Melody Maker", "Sounds", the "Sunday Telegraph", and Capital Radio. Bush herself has said that it was her favourite album to date. More recently, AllMusic gave the album a favourable review, complimenting the three singles most highly but said that Bush would improve on the formula on later albums. In 2020, "Rolling Stone" included "Never for Ever" in their "80 Greatest albums of 1980" list, praising Bush for her songwriting and her imagination.


title: Parameter

text: A parameter (), generally, is any characteristic that can help in defining or classifying a particular system (meaning an event, project, object, situation, etc.). That is, a parameter is an element of a system that is useful, or critical, when identifying the system, or when evaluating its performance, status, condition, etc.


title: Parameter

text: "Parameter" has more specific meanings within various disciplines, including mathematics, computer programming, engineering, statistics, logic, linguistics, and electronic musical composition.


title: Parameter

text: In addition to its technical uses, there are also extended uses, especially in non-scientific contexts, where it is used to mean defining characteristics or boundaries, as in the phrases 'test parameters' or 'game play parameters'.


title: Parameter

text: When a system is modeled by equations, the values that describe the system are called "parameters". For example, in mechanics, the masses, the dimensions and shapes (for solid bodies), the densities and the viscosities (for fluids), appear as parameters in the equations modeling movements. There are often several choices for the parameters, and choosing a convenient set of parameters is called "parametrization".


title: Parameter

text: For example, if one were considering the movement of an object on the surface of a sphere much larger than the object (e.g. the Earth), there are two commonly used parametrizations of its position: angular coordinates (like latitude/longitude), which neatly describe large movements along circles on the sphere, and directional distance from a known point (e.g. "10km NNW of Toronto" or equivalently "8km due North, and then 6km due West, from Toronto" ), which are often simpler for movement confined to a (relatively) small area, like within a particular country or region. Such parametrizations are also relevant to the modelization of geographic areas (i.e. map drawing).


title: Parameter

text: Mathematical functions have one or more arguments that are designated in the definition by variables. A function definition can also contain parameters, but unlike variables, parameters are not listed among the arguments that the function takes. When parameters are present, the definition actually defines a whole family of functions, one for every valid set of values of the parameters. For instance, one could define a general quadratic function by declaring


title: Parameter

text: Here, the variable "x" designates the function's argument, but "a", "b", and "c" are parameters that determine which particular quadratic function is being considered. A parameter could be incorporated into the function name to indicate its dependence on the parameter. For instance, one may define the base-"b" logarithm by the formula


title: Parameter

text: where "b" is a parameter that indicates which logarithmic function is being used. It is not an argument of the function, and will, for instance, be a constant when considering the derivative formula_3.


title: Parameter

text: In some informal situations it is a matter of convention (or historical accident) whether some or all of the symbols in a function definition are called parameters. However, changing the status of symbols between parameter and variable changes the function as a mathematical object. For instance, the notation for the falling factorial power


title: Parameter

text: defines a polynomial function of "n" (when "k" is considered a parameter), but is not a polynomial function of "k" (when "n" is considered a parameter). Indeed, in the latter case, it is only defined for non-negative integer arguments. More formal presentations of such situations typically start out with a function of several variables (including all those that might sometimes be called "parameters") such as


title: Parameter

text: as the most fundamental object being considered, then defining functions with fewer variables from the main one by means of currying.


title: Parameter

text: Sometimes it is useful to consider all functions with certain parameters as "parametric family", i.e. as an indexed family of functions. Examples from probability theory are given further below.


title: Parameter

text: W.M. Woods ... a mathematician ... writes ... "... a variable is one of the many things a "parameter" is not." ... The dependent variable, the speed of the car, depends on the independent variable, the position of the gas pedal.


title: Parameter

text: [Kilpatrick quoting Woods] "Now ... the engineers ... change the lever arms of the linkage ... the speed of the car ... will still depend on the pedal position ..." but in a ... different manner". You have changed a parameter"


title: Parameter

text: In the context of a mathematical model, such as a probability distribution, the distinction between variables and parameters was described by Bard as follows:


title: Parameter

text: In analytic geometry, a curve can be described as the image of a function whose argument, typically called the "parameter", lies in a real interval.


title: Parameter

text: In mathematical analysis, integrals dependent on a parameter are often considered. These are of the form


title: Parameter

text: In this formula, "t" is the argument of the function "F", and on the right-hand side the "parameter" on which the integral depends. When evaluating the integral, "t" is held constant, and so it is considered to be a parameter. If we are interested in the value of "F" for different values of "t", we then consider "t" to be a variable. The quantity "x" is a "dummy variable" or "variable of integration" (confusingly, also sometimes called a "parameter of integration").


title: Parameter

text: In statistics and econometrics, the probability framework above still holds, but attention shifts to estimating the parameters of a distribution based on observed data, or testing hypotheses about them. In frequentist estimation parameters are considered "fixed but unknown", whereas in Bayesian estimation they are treated as random variables, and their uncertainty is described as a distribution.


title: Parameter

text: In estimation theory of statistics, "statistic" or estimator refers to samples, whereas "parameter" or estimand refers to populations, where the samples are taken from. A statistic is a numerical characteristic of a sample that can be used as an estimate of the corresponding parameter, the numerical characteristic of the population from which the sample was drawn.


title: Parameter

text: For example, the sample mean (estimator), denoted formula_11, can be used as an estimate of the "mean" parameter (estimand), denoted "μ", of the population from which the sample was drawn. Similarly, the sample variance (estimator), denoted "S", can be used to estimate the "variance" parameter (estimand), denoted "σ", of the population from which the sample was drawn. (Note that the sample standard deviation ("S") is not an unbiased estimate of the population standard deviation ("σ"): see Unbiased estimation of standard deviation.)


title: Parameter

text: It is possible to make statistical inferences without assuming a particular parametric family of probability distributions. In that case, one speaks of "non-parametric statistics" as opposed to the parametric statistics just described. For example, a test based on Spearman's rank correlation coefficient would be called non-parametric since the statistic is computed from the rank-order of the data disregarding their actual values (and thus regardless of the distribution they were sampled from), whereas those based on the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient are parametric tests since it is computed directly from the data values and thus estimates the parameter known as the population correlation.


title: Parameter

text: In probability theory, one may describe the distribution of a random variable as belonging to a "family" of probability distributions, distinguished from each other by the values of a finite number of "parameters". For example, one talks about "a Poisson distribution with mean value λ". The function defining the distribution (the probability mass function) is:


title: Parameter

text: This example nicely illustrates the distinction between constants, parameters, and variables. "e" is Euler's number, a fundamental mathematical constant. The parameter λ is the mean number of observations of some phenomenon in question, a property characteristic of the system. "k" is a variable, in this case the number of occurrences of the phenomenon actually observed from a particular sample. If we want to know the probability of observing "k" occurrences, we plug it into the function to get formula_13. Without altering the system, we can take multiple samples, which will have a range of values of "k", but the system is always characterized by the same λ.


title: Parameter

text: For instance, suppose we have a radioactive sample that emits, on average, five particles every ten minutes. We take measurements of how many particles the sample emits over ten-minute periods. The measurements exhibit different values of "k", and if the sample behaves according to Poisson statistics, then each value of "k" will come up in a proportion given by the probability mass function above. From measurement to measurement, however, λ remains constant at 5. If we do not alter the system, then the parameter λ is unchanged from measurement to measurement; if, on the other hand, we modulate the system by replacing the sample with a more radioactive one, then the parameter λ would increase.


title: Parameter

text: Another common distribution is the normal distribution, which has as parameters the mean μ and the variance σ².


title: Parameter

text: In these above examples, the distributions of the random variables are completely specified by the type of distribution, i.e. Poisson or normal, and the parameter values, i.e. mean and variance. In such a case, we have a parameterized distribution.


title: Parameter

text: It is possible to use the sequence of moments (mean, mean square, ...) or cumulants (mean, variance, ...) as parameters for a probability distribution: see Statistical parameter.


title: Parameter

text: In computer programming, two notions of parameter are commonly used, and are referred to as parameters and arguments—or more formally as a formal parameter and an actual parameter.


title: Parameter

text: 3 is the "actual parameter" (the "argument") for evaluation by the defined function; it is a given value (actual value) that is substituted for the "formal parameter" of the defined function. (In casual usage the terms "parameter" and "argument" might inadvertently be interchanged, and thereby used incorrectly.)


title: Parameter

text: These concepts are discussed in a more precise way in functional programming and its foundational disciplines, lambda calculus and combinatory logic. Terminology varies between languages; some computer languages such as C define parameter and argument as given here, while Eiffel uses an alternative convention.


title: Parameter

text: In artificial intelligence, a model describes the probability that something will occur. Parameters in a model are the weight of the various probabilities. Tiernan Ray, in an article on GPT-3, described parameters this way:


title: Parameter

text: In engineering (especially involving data acquisition) the term "parameter" sometimes loosely refers to an individual measured item. This usage isn't consistent, as sometimes the term "channel" refers to an individual measured item, with "parameter" referring to the setup information about that channel.


title: Parameter

text: "Speaking generally, properties are those physical quantities which directly describe the physical attributes of the system; parameters are those combinations of the properties which suffice to determine the response of the system. Properties can have all sorts of dimensions, depending upon the system being considered; parameters are dimensionless, or have the dimension of time or its reciprocal."


title: Parameter

text: The term can also be used in engineering contexts, however, as it is typically used in the physical sciences.


title: Parameter

text: In environmental science and particularly in chemistry and microbiology, a parameter is used to describe a discrete chemical or microbiological entity that can be assigned a value: commonly a concentration, but may also be a logical entity (present or absent), a statistical result such as a 95 percentile value or in some cases a subjective value.


title: Parameter

text: Within linguistics, the word "parameter" is almost exclusively used to denote a binary switch in a Universal Grammar within a Principles and Parameters framework.


title: Parameter

text: In logic, the parameters passed to (or operated on by) an "open predicate" are called "parameters" by some authors (e.g., Prawitz, "Natural Deduction"; Paulson, "Designing a theorem prover"). Parameters locally defined within the predicate are called "variables". This extra distinction pays off when defining substitution (without this distinction special provision must be made to avoid variable capture). Others (maybe most) just call parameters passed to (or operated on by) an open predicate "variables", and when defining substitution have to distinguish between "free variables" and "bound variables".


title: Parameter

text: In music theory, a parameter denotes an element which may be manipulated (composed), separately from the other elements. The term is used particularly for pitch, loudness, duration, and timbre, though theorists or composers have sometimes considered other musical aspects as parameters. The term is particularly used in serial music, where each parameter may follow some specified series. Paul Lansky and George Perle criticized the extension of the word "parameter" to this sense, since it is not closely related to its mathematical sense, but it remains common. The term is also common in music production, as the functions of audio processing units (such as the attack, release, ratio, threshold, and other variables on a compressor) are defined by parameters specific to the type of unit (compressor, equalizer, delay, etc.).


title: Eugene Palmer (criminal)

text: Eugene K. Palmer (born April 4, 1939) is an American fugitive wanted for allegedly killing his daughter-in-law, Tammy Palmer, in Stony Point, New York, on September 24, 2012. On May 29, 2019, he was named by the FBI as the 523rd fugitive to be placed on its Ten Most Wanted list. On July 20, 2022, Palmer was removed from the FBI's Most Wanted Fugitives List. Despite his removal from the Top Ten List, Palmer remains a wanted fugitive.


title: Eugene Palmer (criminal)

text: Eugene Palmer's son, John Palmer, was married to Tammy Palmer, and the couple lived together with their two children at a property owned by Eugene in Stony Point, New York. Eugene lived next door to the couple. The relationship between John and Tammy began to deteriorate, and they eventually started seeing other people. Tammy filed for a restraining order against John, and this enraged Eugene. Tammy also threatened to file for divorce and sue for the land belonging to Eugene. Authorities say this started a feud between Eugene and Tammy that would culminate in a heated confrontation several days before the murder of Tammy.


title: Eugene Palmer (criminal)

text: On the morning of Monday, September 24, 2012, Tammy walked her two children to the school bus. It is believed that Eugene Palmer hid in the woods, lying in wait to ambush her on her return home. When Tammy walked back toward her home, Palmer allegedly began firing his shotgun at her from a distance. The first shot struck her in the arm, the second missed; but the third shot, delivered at close range, hit her in the chest and proved fatal. After the shooting, Palmer fled the scene in a green Dodge Ram pickup; the truck would later be found abandoned outside Harriman State Park in Rockland County. Apparently Palmer ditched the truck and fled into the park on foot. When police called in search dogs, they followed Palmer's scent to a campground in the woods. Despite multiple searches, no further trace of Palmer has been found since.


title: Eugene Palmer (criminal)

text: In September 2014, a New York Supreme Court judge awarded Tammy's children $2.15 million (equivalent to $ million in ) — the estimated value of Palmer's entire estate — after determining by a preponderance of the evidence that Palmer killed their mother.


title: Eugene Palmer (criminal)

text: A federal arrest warrant was issued for Eugene Palmer on June 10, 2013. Family members of his have expressed their belief that he died in the park; however, according to Haverstraw police, no body was ever discovered after multiple searches of the area. Palmer depends on medications for a heart condition and diabetes. Eugene Palmer is an outdoorsman—an experienced hunter, angler, and hiker—and is also described as a car enthusiast. He has a deformed left thumb. Authorities believe he may be hiding in Florida or Upstate New York, where he has relatives.


title: Eugene Palmer (criminal)

text: On August 17, 2021, acting on a tip, the FBI searched the home of one of Palmer's granddaughters in Warwick, New York but ultimately found nothing.


title: Eugene Palmer (criminal)

text: On July 20, 2022, Palmer was removed from the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list for unknown reasons and was replaced by Omar Alexander Cardenas. Despite his removal, he remains a wanted fugitive.


title: Eugene Palmer (criminal)

text: On March 25, 2020, Palmer was the focus of an episode of "In Pursuit with John Walsh". On March 15, 2021, he was featured on the first episode of the revival of "America's Most Wanted". On August 25, 2021, Palmer was the subject of an episode of the "Unsolved Mysteries" podcast.