Gouache, above: Rithika Merchant | Doctrine of Signatures, 2013 | 65 x 45 cms | Gouache and Ink on Paper.  See: The elegant art of Rithika Merchant at rithikamerchant.com.

For the late Medieval viewer, the natural world was vibrant with images of the Deity: 'as above, so below,' a Hermetic principle expressed as the relation between macrocosm and microcosm; the principle is rendered sicut in terra. Michel Foucault expressed the wider usage of the doctrine of signatures, which rendered allegory more real and more cogent than it appears to a modern eye:

"Up to the end of the sixteenth century, resemblance played a constructive role in the knowledge of Western culture. It was resemblance that largely guided exegesis and the interpretation of texts; it was resemblance that organized the play of symbols, made possible knowledge of things visible and invisible, and controlled the art of representing them." (The Order of Things , p. 17)    See Hour 4, Blocks A and B, The Language of Plants: A Guide to the Doctrine of Signatures by Julia Graves.

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW

Hour One

Sunday 31 August 2014  / Hour 1, Block A: The Grand Design by Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow (1 of 4)

Sunday 31 August 2014  / Hour 1, Block B: The Grand Design by Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow (2 of 4)

Sunday 31 August 2014  / Hour 1, Block C: The Grand Design by Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow (3 of 4)

Sunday 31 August 2014  / Hour 1, Block D: The Grand Design by Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow (4 of 4)

Hour Two

Sunday 31 August 2014  / Hour 2, Block A: A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather than Nothing by Lawrence M. Krauss and Richard Dawkins (1 of 2)

Sunday 31 August 2014  / Hour 2, Block B: A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather than Nothing by Lawrence M. Krauss and Richard Dawkins (2 of 2)

Sunday 31 August 2014  / Hour 2, Block C: The Quantum Universe: (And Why Anything That Can Happen, Does) by Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw (1 of 2)

Sunday 31 August 2014  / Hour 2, Block D: The Quantum Universe: (And Why Anything That Can Happen, Does) by Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw (2 of 2)

Hour Three

Sunday 31 August 2014  / Hour 3, Block A: Cycles of Time: An Extraordinary New View of the Universe by Roger Penrose (1 of 4)

Sunday 31 August 2014  / Hour 3, Block B: Cycles of Time: An Extraordinary New View of the Universe by Roger Penrose (2 of 4)

Sunday 31 August 2014  / Hour 3, Block C: Cycles of Time: An Extraordinary New View of the Universe by Roger Penrose (3 of 4)

Sunday 31 August 2014  / Hour 3, Block D: Cycles of Time: An Extraordinary New View of the Universe by Roger Penrose (4 of 4)

Hour Four

Sunday 31 August 2014  / Hour 4, Block A: The Language of Plants: A Guide to the Doctrine of Signatures by Julia Graves (1 of 2)

Sunday 31 August 2014  / Hour 4, Block B: The Language of Plants: A Guide to the Doctrine of Signatures by Julia Graves (2 of 2)

Sunday 31 August 2014  / Hour 4, Block C: Chinese Aerospace Power: Evolving Maritime Roles by Andrew S. Erickson, Lyle J. Goldstein, Andew S. Erickson and Lyle J, Goldstein (1 of 2)

(from July 2011) China’s aircraft carrier program is already making major waves well before the first ship has even been completed. Undoubtedly, this development heralds a new era in Chinese national security policy. While Chinese Aerospace Power presents substantial new insight on that particular question, its main focus is decidedly broader in scope. This book offers a comprehensive survey of Chinese aerospace developments, with a concentration on areas of potential strategic significance previously unexplored in Western scholarship. It also links these developments to the vast maritime battlespace of the Asia-Pacific region and highlights the consequent implications for the U.S. military, particularly the U.S. Navy.

The possibility of a future Chinese expeditionary force operating off Africa under the protective umbrella of carrier aircraft is not without consequence for the global strategic balance. However, a simpler set of aerospace systems, from microsatellites to unmanned aerial vehicles to ballistic and cruise missiles are already challenging U.S. maritime dominance in East Asia. Cumulatively, progress in all major aerospace dimensions by various elements of the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) signifies a new period in which Chinese forces are now decisively altering the complexion of the military balance in the East Asian littoral.

While many articles and books have previously been written on Chinese aerospace development and many more discuss future U.S. naval strategy in the Asia-Pacific region, no other book connects the two issues, simultaneously evaluating the Chinese aerospace challenge and its implications for U.S. naval strategy.

Chinese Aerospace Power offers both broad strategic context for the lay reader and considerable insights for even the most well-informed specialists, with no fewer than five chapters devoting coverage to significant aspects of China’s development of a “carrier killer” anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM).

Sunday 31 August 2014  / Hour 4, Block D: Chinese Aerospace Power: Evolving Maritime Roles by Andrew S. Erickson, Lyle J. Goldstein, Andew S. Erickson and Lyle J, Goldstein (2 of 2)

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