In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:116 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY Der Begriff des Lebens bei Plotin. By Grigorios Ph. Kostaras. (Hamburg: Felix Meiner Verlag, 1969. Pp. ix+139. DM 36) In his excellent book, The Concept of Life in Plotinus, Mr. Grigorios Ph. Kostaras presents the thesis that it is the problem of life which lies at the center of the thought of Plotinus, that it permeates it in its entirety and (...) that he views all other philosophical problems from its perspective. The two main metaphysical questions of Greek philosophy, "Why is there something rather than nothing?" and "What then is man?" appear in a new light when seen from this central concept. The result is a universe which is like a living organism, a unity in its multiplicity whose many forms of life are held together by one life principle, the soul. Human life, the human soul is part of this organism and therefore able to find in it its greatest bliss. The soul, for Plotinus, is the necessary condition that there be life. It is the ground of all macrocosmic and microcosmic entities, being essentially movement, it is the creative and formgiving principle of all that is, it is the law of life. The reduction of the many to the one seemed to Plotinus a logical necessity if man is to grasp the origin and continuity of the cosmos. His new reality, "The One," fills this logical need. Out of its perfection and fullness emanates Mind (Nous) "like light from the sun." This gives rise to the soul as its logos and substance. The physical universe is the result of the soul's movement towards "the Other," matter on which it imprints the forms of the intelligible world.thus shaping and ordering the world as we know it. In this activiO/ the soul remains one and whole; the "many," the concrete life forms of reproduction and perception appear as a result of its relation to matter. What makes for this creative, formgiving activity which is its movement away from the One and lqous, from identity towards diversity, from eternity to time? The Plotinian answer, as Mr. Kostaras sees it, is both exuberant and tragic. The soul becomes the shaper of all there is through its striving towards freedom and independence and its joy in the manifold appearances which its relation to matter brings about. The soul's biological movement then is an affirmation and celebration of temporal life as one of its manifestations. Yet, at the same time, this movement is unfree since it follows a need the soul cannot avoid. Thus it means estrangement from its true life of the logos. The soul is isolated and "sick" of which the incessant movement of becoming, of changing from one form of life to another is the result. It leads a negative or pseudo life. Suffering, then, must be inextricably joined to the beauty of temporal life. True life, therefore, is the life of the mind. It is life as the soul's movement toward itself rather than the outer world, life become conscious of itself, leading out of the sensible world, back to identity with Nous and ultimately with the One. In this, its highest movement, the soul severs itself from time. In it there is no past nor future but an eternal Now, no moving image but reality itself. Such is the ground and explanation of the universe, the metaphysical framework within which man may choose his being. As microcosm within the macrocosm, he is a composite of Nous, soul-substance and bodily nature. The relation between these three principles forms the ground of human life; the manner in which man chooses to link them to one another makes for the differences between the modes of life of human beings. The movement of the human soul towards the outer world and its absorption in becoming means the realization of man as bodily being only. His life is ruled by perceptions and the beliefs based upon them. His feelings are uncontrolled, his mind inactive. He lives the life of the fleeting moment, a mere shadow of its reality. Just as the soul or life principle of the cosmos links the intelligible to the sensible... (shrink)

The structure which is generally taken to underlie the composition of the plays of Aristophanes is made up of a number of quantitative parts which have been abstracted by dividing the comedies into broad sections. It roughly corresponds to the quantitative division of tragedy offered by the twelfth chapter of Aristotle'sPoetics, and includes prologue,parodos, ‘proagon’or ‘battle scene,’ ‘epirrhematicagon,’ parabasis, iambic scenes, choral songs orstasimo, exodos.

Wenn man beim Nachschlagen in LSJ wegen des Wortes ϕωτοϕάνεια die Angabe “Anon. apud Suid. s.v.ἐϰπλαγεῖς” liest, denkt man daran, daß es für einen Byzantinisten von gewißem Interesse wäre, diesen “Anonymus” (und eventuell auch andere) zu identifizieren. Im Suidas-Lexikon ist beim Lemma ε 574 Ἐϰπλαγεῖς folgendes (anonymes) Zitat zu lesen: ποιμένες ἀγϱαυλοῦντες ἐϰπλαγοῦς ϕωτοϕανείας ἔτυχον. Die Herkunft dieses Textes war A. Adler bekannt (derer Ausgabe den früheren Redaktoren von LSJ nicht zur Verfügung stand). Letztere teilt im app. font. richtig mit, (...) daß der oben zitierte Text aus dem Weihnachtskanon des Kosmas Hierosolymites (vv. 126–127 = ξ1) stammt. Wie steht es aber mit anderen “interessanten” Wörtern, die der byzantinische Lexikograph aus den Kanones des Kosmas (oder auch anderer Dichter) “geschöpft” und bei denen er eventuell auch wertvolle Zitate beigegeben hat? Hat die Herausgeberin diese auch erkannt? Um darauf zu antworten, schien mir eine Untersuchung des Suidas-Lexikons – zunächst gezielt (mit Hilfe des TLG) – nach seltenen bzw. sprachlich interessanten Wörtern, Komposita usw., die in den Kanones – in erster Linie des Kosmas und des Ioannes von Damaskus – vorkommen, angebracht. (shrink)

Την αфοϱμή για τις παϱαϰάτω σϰέψεις μού έδωσαν δημοσιεύματα: α) G. SCHIRÒ, La seconda leggenda di Cassia, Δίπτυχα 1 (1979) 300–315 ϰαι β) Θ. ΔЕΤОРАКΗΣ, Кοσμας ο Мελωδóς, Вίος ϰαι εϱγο. Άνάλεϰτα Вλατάδων, 28. Θεσσαλονίϰη 1979, ϰυϱίως σελ. 169–177. Оι δύο εϱευνητές (την ίδια εποχή ϰαι, υποθέτω, ανεξάϱτητα ο ένας απó τον άλλο) διατυπώνουν την άποψη óτι οι ειϱμοί Кύματι θαλάσσης, Σε τòν επι υδάτων, Την εν Σταυϱω σου θείαν ϰένωσιν ϰαι Θεοфανείας σου, Хϱιστέ δεν είναι έϱγα της ποιήτϱιας Кασίας, (...) óπως πιστευóταν, αλλά μποϱούν (σχεδóν με βεβαιóτητα) να αποδοθούν στον Кοσμά τον Мελωδó. Аλλά ας συνοψίσω πϱώτα τα δεδομένα για τους λιγóτεϱο ενήμεϱους επί του θώματος. (shrink)

(1968). L'ENCYCLIQUE HUMANAE VITAE ET L'ENSEIGNEMENT DE VATICAN II SUR LE MARIAGE ET LA FAMILLE (GAUDIUM ET SPES) Bijdragen: Vol. 29, No. 4, pp. 351-368.

Le propos de cette étude est d’explorer l’interface entre religion traditionnelle africaine et christianisme à l’aide d’une catégorie particulière de sources: les témoignages oraux d’un groupe de femmes chrétiennes de Sobantu, un township sud-africain. Peut-on adhérer à la religion chrétienne sans trahir son identité africaine? Souvent, mais pas toujours, en référence à la position de leur Église respective, chacune de ces femmes se forme une opinion sur cette question difficile.

We investigate two formalizations of Optimality Theory, a successful paradigm in linguistics.We first give an order-theoretic counterpart for the data and processinvolved in candidate evaluation.Basically, we represent each constraint as a function that assigns every candidate a degree of violation.As for the second formalization, we define (after Samek-Lodovici and Prince) constraints as operations that select the best candidates out of a set of candidates.We prove that these two formalizations are equivalent (accordingly, there is no loss of generality with using violation (...) marks and dispensing with them is only apparent).Importantly, we show that the second formalization is equivalent with a class of operations over sets of formulas in a given logical language.As a result, we prove that Optimality Theory can be characterized by certain cumulative logics.So, applying Optimality Theory is shown to be reasoning by the rules of cumulative logics. (shrink)

Standard quantum theory is inadequate to explain the mechanisms by which potential becomes actual. It is inadequate and therefore unable to describe generation of events. Niels Bohr emphasized long ago that the classical part of the world is necessary. John Bell stressed the same point: that “measurement≓ cannot even be defined within the standard quantum theory, and he sought a solution within hidden variable theories and his concept of “beables.≓Today it is customary to try to explain emergence of the classical (...) world through a decoherence mechanism due to “environment.≓ But, we believe, as it was with the concept of measurement, “environment≓ itself cannot be defined within the standard quantum theory.We have proposed a semiphenomenological solution to this problem by introducing explicitly, from the very beginning, classical degrees of freedom, and by coupling these degrees of freedom, through a Lindblad type coupling, to the quantum world. The resulting theory, we call “event-enhanced quantum theory.≓ EEQT allows us to describe an event-generating mechanism for individual quantum systems under continuous observation. The objections of John Bell are met and precise definitions of an “experiment≓ and of a “measurement≓ have been given within EEQT. However EEQT is, essentially, a nonrelativistic theory.In the present paper we extend the ideas of L. P. Horwitz and C. Piron and we propose a relativistic version of EEQT, with an event-generating algorithm for spin one-half particle detectors. The algorithm is based on proper time formulation of the relalivistic quantum theory. Although we use indefinite metric, all the probabilities controlling the random process of the detector clicks are nonnegative. (shrink)

Technology and Ethics. A European Quest for Responsible Engineering, edited by B. Heriard Dubreuil and his team (University Lille) is in many regards an innovative publication. It is the first fully European contribution to the field of engineering ethics and the result of an intensive cooperation between ethicists and engineers from all the member countries of the European Union. The basic structure of the book is both the distinction and interaction between three levels of analysis: personal responsibility of engineers, the (...) institutional level (business organisations) and the impact of technology on society and culture. On the personal level, the book deals with problems such as the role of professional codes and the fact that engineers must cope with flexibility, shorter lines of decision and erosion of the boundaries between private and professional life. On the meso level, the book deals with different aspects of decision making in the context of business organizations, such as quality management, technology assessment procedures, business ethics committees etc... On the macro level, the authors focus on the power of technology. Together with the influences from other social, economic and political actors, the decisions of engineers change the world in a way which is of moral significance. (shrink)

Trees architectural study shows gradients in the meristematic activity. This activity is described by the number of internodes per growth unit, which is considered as the output of a dynamic random process. Several species were observed, which led us to propose and then estimate some mathematical models. Computing the functioning of a tree in a given environment therefore involves finding the probability function of the meristems and following the evolution of the parameters of this law along the botanical gradients (order, (...) trend, acrotony) within its architecture. (shrink)

Dogmatic Metaphysics and Tschirnhaus's M ethodology MARTIN SCHONFELD ACCORDING TO STANDARD COMMENTARIES, Tschirnhaus's main work, Medicina mentis, ~ supposedly furnished the methodological basis for the Leibnizian-Wolffian metaphysics. ~ Christian Wolff and his disciples, at any rate, preferred to think so. Wolff taught classes on Tschirnhaus and claimed that he had developed his own tenets on the basis of Tschirnhaus's ideas; Johann Christoph Gottsched praised the Medicina mentis as the basic methodology of the Wolffian enlightenment.3 Mirroring these views, W. Wundt and (...) H. J. de Vleeschauwer saw in Tschirnhaus the inventor of the "geometric method" adopted by the School Philosophers.4 According to M. ' Medicina Mentis, sive Tentamen genuinae Logicae, in qua disseritur de Methodo detegendi incoKaitas veritates, Amsterdam, 1687. Second and revised edition, Medicina Mentis, sive Artis inveniendi Praecepta generalia, Leipzig, 1695. ~For example, cf. Wilhelm Windelband, Geschichte der Philosophie, 3~o-33 and 356; Friedrich Ueberweg, Grundriss der Geschichte der Philosophie, III: ~95-97, 3 x~ 34o-43; A. Robert Caponigri, A History of Western Philosophy (Notre Dame/London: University of Notre Dame.. (shrink)