In the Self's Place: The Approach of Saint Augustine presents Jean-Luc Marion's rethinking of the modern notion of the self by way of an original reading of Saint Augustine through the lens of a phenomenology of givenness. Here he tests the hermeneutic validity of concepts forged in his previous works. His goal is to show that the Confessiones are inscribed within the confessio, that love is an underlying epistemic condition of truth, and that God's call and our response to God (...) are both gifts. Ultimately, Marion points us toward a conception of the self that is at once postmodern and very Augustinian. (shrink)

Agriculture in Australia isacknowledged as having serious environmentalimpacts. Since the Brundtland Report in 1987, aNational Strategy for Ecologically SustainableDevelopment (ESD) has charted a course for aneconomically, environmentally, and sociallysustainable agriculture. Numerous extensioninitiatives, such as catchment management,Landcare, property management plans, and, morerecently, environmental management systems, aredriving business education programs for farmersin most states in an attempt to address theissues of ESD. Innovative accounting techniquesand models exist, particularly developmentsthat recognize and value biodiversity, monitorenvironmental impacts, and show that renewableresources are indeed ``renewable,'' which (...) couldbe the focus of integrated extensioninitiatives supportive of ecologicallysustainable development. Empirical researchconducted during 1996 that exploredenvironmental concern and actions of farmersindicated that farmwomen were better educatedand more likely to be environmentallyconcerned. In addition they were more likely tosupport that concern with actions that indicatethat the farm is being managed for sustainableoutcomes. This paper explores these issues,concluding that there is a need to reconsiderthe focus of business and natural resourcemanagement education for farmers in Australia. (shrink)

The contemporary operating environment for deployed United States military operations largely focuses on deployments to predominantly Islamic countries. The differences in cultural values between d...

Automatic Generation Control in modern power systems is getting complex, due to intermittency in the output power of multiple sources along with considerable digressions in the loads and system parameters. To address this problem, this paper proposes an approach to calculate Power System Restoration Indices of a 2-area thermal-hydro restructured power system. This study also highlights the necessary ancillary service requirements for the system under a deregulated environment to cater to large-scale power failures and entire system outages. An abrupt change (...) in consumer load demands and disturbances in any control region of a multiarea system causes severe fluctuations in frequency and interarea power exchanges. However, simple Proportional and Integral controllers are most prevalent in the literature to effectively resolve AGC issues, while its integral gain is smaller due to the larger overshoot in transient performance. Therefore, an attempt has been made with a novel control strategy, known as the pseudoderivative feedforward with feedback controller, is developed to keep the interarea power exchanges and the frequency to the specified limits after load changes. A PDFF controller is designed and implemented using the flower pollination algorithm to obtain optimal dynamic performance for different types of potential power flows in a restructured power system under investigation. The proposed PDFF controller localizes the zero at an optimal place that reduces the rise time of the step-response to reduce the excessive overshoot and gives much better dynamic performances as compared to the PI control structure. The Integral Square Error is considered as a performance criterion to derive the optimized gain of the PDFF control structure using FPA. Different PSRI are computed based on the transient response of the 2-area deregulated multisource system and different restoration measures to be taken are also discussed. The simulation results clearly show that the proposed approach is very powerful in decreasing the frequency and tie-power digressions under different load perturbations. (shrink)

English translates ‘genos’ as kind and ‘eidos’ as form, which differ in meaning as much as ‘herd’ and ‘brand’ do. But there are hard passages where ‘genos’ and ‘eidos’ have appeared to be synonyms, usually given the new meaning class. We show that, although ‘genos’ and ‘eidos’ are never synonyms and continue to mean kind and form, the word ‘eidos’ can be used figuratively, as a metonym, for a genos.

This chapter discusses translators’ efforts to render the grammatical gender of Plato’s Greek in passages of the Republic, and to translate his terms noting differences between men and women with terms associated with the identity-defining concepts of sex and gender. It argues that the translation of 'genos' as 'sex' reveals less about the source text than about the role of the concept of sex in the translating culture. A discussion of a similar controversy in contemporary translation shows how debates (...) over the French translation of 'gender' as genre are embroiled in issues of national identity. The chapter demonstrates how translation and its analysis may simultaneously express and contest cultural assumptions about sex and gender. (shrink)

Over twenty years since the influential revisionist studies of Roussel and Bourriot, agreement on a satisfactory theory of the Attic genos seems as elusive as ever. Although they differed on details, these two scholars were agreed in their rejection of the old monolithic account of the genos as aristocratic family whose institutionalized control over state cults and phratry admissions in the historical period was a relic of a wider political dominance. Roussel and Bourriot instead proposed a tripartite model (...) according to which the formal genos-kome—a more or less localized community similar to the later deme, with hereditary but socio-economically diverse membership, and enjoying, as a tighter community well placed to regulate its own admissions, automatic access to the wider phratry—was distinguishable both from aristocratic families, such as the Peisistratidai or Alkmeonidai, and priestly houses, such as the Kerykes and Eumolpidai of Eleusis. Subsequent discussion has moved in several directions. My analysis of the relationship between phratry and genos followed a broadly revisionist line. I found no good evidence for gene controlling the access to phratries of persons who were not genos members and presented a new interpretation of the crucial Demotionidai decrees in which, contrary to prevailing theories, neither of the two groups mentioned in them—the Demotionidai and the House of the Dekeleieis—was a privileged subgroup dominating the whole. Rather, I suggested that the Demotionidai were a phratry in process of fission, the Dekelean House a product of this process. Others, however, have taken the debate in the other direction, as it were reprivileging the genos. (shrink)

Pre-existing mathematical formulations are generally used for the treatment of new scientific problems. In this note we show that the construction of mathematical structures from open physical, chemical, and biological problems leads to new intriguing mathematics of increasing complexity called iso-, geno-, and hyper-mathematics for the treatment of matter in reversible, irreversible, and multi-valued conditions, respectively, plus anti-isomorphic images called isodual mathematics for the treatment of antimatter. These novel mathematics are based on the lifting of the multiplicative unit of ordinary (...) fields (with characteristic zero) from its traditional value +1 into: (1) invertible, Hermitean, and single-valued units for isomathematics; (2) invertible, non-Hermitean, and single-valued units for genomathematics; and (3) invertible, non-Hermitean, and multi-valued units for hypermathematics; with corresponding liftings of the conventional associative product and consequential lifting of all branches of mathematics admitting a (left and right) multiplicative unit. An anti-Hermitean conjugation applied to the totality of quantities and their operation of the preceding mathematics characterizes the isodual mathematics. Intriguingly, the emerging formulations preserve the abstract axioms of conventional mathematics (that based on the unit +1). As such, the new formulations result to be new realizations of existing abstract mathematical axioms. We then show that the above mathematical advances permit corresponding liftings of conventional classical and quantum theories with a resolution of basic open problems in physics, chemistry, and biology, numerous experimental verifications, as well as new industrial applications. (shrink)

Introduction -- The common hellenic meaning of "genus" -- The Pollaxos legomena or things said in many ways -- Genus in the explanation of change : the subject and substratum principles -- To what is Aristotle's theory of change a response? : the pre-socratic and platonic background -- Change : the principles of nature in physics I -- A first mention of matter and form -- Genus in the explanation of change : the definition of change -- Aristotle's definition of (...) change : physics III -- The circularity objections -- The advantages of Aristotle's theory -- The use of genus in change -- Genus in the explanation of change generation, "for man begets man" (1032-24) -- Generation -- Change and genus -- The generation of animals as organic substances -- Animal generation and the mule -- Genus in definitions : the Aristotelian and platonic division of a genus -- "What is definition?" -- Platonic division and definition -- Aristotle's use of genus and animal taxonomy -- The use of "genus" in Pa I -- Analogy vs. the more and the less -- Taxonomy : the megista gene -- Genus in definitions : why Aristotle was a realist -- Division and definition in Aristotle -- Causal definitions , substantial definitions, and definitions by matter and form -- The unity of definition and division -- The use of genus in definition -- Case study I : the definition of the psyche -- On matter as substratum -- On matter : the domain problem -- On matter : is it substance? -- On matter : potentiality -- The elements : is ontological reduction possible? -- Proper matter and generation revisited -- The indeterminacy vs. nature problem -- On genus as matter -- The analogy interpretation : Aristotle's mention of genus as matter -- The literal interpretation : Aristotle's use of genus as matter -- The principal unity of Aristotle's thought. (shrink)

El decir que todos y todas hemos nacido de mujer parece una perogrullada. Esta es, como lo expresa Rich, la única experiencia unificadora, innegable, compartida por mujeres y hombres: aquellos meses que pasamos dentro del cuerpo de una mujer, desarrollándonos. Sin embargo, es usual encontrar en el discurso cívico de las ciudades griegas, la idea de que la mujer no tiene relación alguna con el origen de la especie. Las mujeres son con frecuencia representadas como un grupo separado y cerrado (...) sobre sí mismo, el genos gynaikon, que viene a agregarse al anthropos genos una vez que este ya existe. La hipótesis del presente escrito sostiene que hay dos aspectos conceptuales que acompañan la narrativa del genos gynaikon: (i) la ambigüedad en la clasificación del grupo de las mujeres y (ii) el lugar secundario que se les asigna respecto del origen de la humanidad. Como objetivo general propongo mostrar que el tópico del genos gynaikon está presente, a través de estos aspectos conceptuales, en la concepción platónica y aristotélica de la reproducción y la diferencia sexual. (shrink)

Bioethics tends to be dominated by discourses concerned with the ethical dimension of medical practice, the organization of medical care, and the integrity of biomedical research involving human subjects and animal testing. Jacques Derrida has explored the fundamental question of the “limit” that identifies and differentiates the human animal from the nonhuman animal. However, to date his work has not received any reception in the field of biomedical ethics. In this paper, I examine what Derrida’s thought about this limit might (...) mean for the use/misuse/abuse of animals in contemporary biomedical research. For this, I review Derrida’s analysis and examine what it implies for scientific responsibility, introducing what I have coined the “Incompleteness Theorem of Bioethics.”. (shrink)

In his booklet "Contributions to a better founded presentation of mathematics" of 1810 Bernard Bolzano made his first serious attempt to explain the notion of a rigorous proof. Although the system of logic he employed at that stage is in various respects far below the level of the achievements in his later Wissenschaftslehre, there is a striking continuity between his earlier and later work as regards the methodological constraints on rigorous proofs. This paper tries to give a perspicuous and critical (...) account of the fragmentary logic of Beyträge, and it shows that there is a tension between that logic and Bolzano's methodological ban on ?kind crossing? (shrink)

In his booklet ‘Contributions to a better founded presentation of mathematics’ of 1810 Bernard Bolzano made his first serious attempt to explain the notion of a rigorous proof. Although the system of logic he employed at that stage is in various respects far below the level of the achievements in his later Wissenschaftslehre, there is a striking continuity between his earlier and later work as regards the methodological constraints on rigorous proofs. This paper tries to give a perspicuous and critical (...) account of the fragmentary logic of Beyträge, and it shows that there is a tension between that logic and Bolzano's methodological ban on ‘kind crossing’. (shrink)

Parmi les activités indispensables à la survie et à l’équilibre de Callipolis, la cité décrite dans la _République_, les fonctions politiques et militaires occupent une place prépondérante. Dans cette mesure, leur exercice est conditionné à la possession d’un certain nombre de qualités physiques, morales et intellectuelles parmi lesquelles un mélange proportionné de deux traits de caractère opposées : la douceur et l’agressivité. Pour confirmer la coexistence de ce curieux mélange chez un individu, Socrate évoque l'image d'un chien de race, chez (...) qui la coexistence de ces deux qualités s’exprime dans sa docilité envers ses maîtres et son hostilité envers les étrangers. L’image du chien joue un roll décisif dans la _République _en ce qu’elle permet à Socrate de démontrer le caractère naturel de son projet et de justifier la radicalité des méthodes destinées au perfectionnement du _génos_ affecté aux fonctions politiques et militaires. L’objectif de cet article est d’analyser les incidences théoriques de l’emploi de cette image comme modèle de l’ordre politique et du genre de vie des gardiens de la _République_ et la manière dont cette image intervient dans la construction d’une conception de la _phusis _qui, loin d’être univoque, varie selon les besoins de l’argumentation socratique. (shrink)

Scheinerman (2023) proposes that at the Human Genome Editing Initiative international summit (held in March 2023) there should have been a parallel, separate Citizens’ Jury, and that the Human Geno...

I discuss the issue whether Aristotle's philosophy of science allows the use of mathematical premises or mathematical tools in general for explanaing phenomena in the natural sciences. I thereby discuss the concept of "metabasis eis allo genos" as it appears in Posterior Analytics I.7.

This paper differentiates between two readings of Aristotle’s argument that unity and being are not “genē” (UBANG for short). On the first reading – proposed by commentators such as Ackrill, Shields, Loux, and McDaniel – UBANG entails the proposition that there are no features that characterise all beings insofar as they are, referred to by its contemporary proponents, including McDaniel, as ‘ontological pluralism’. On the second reading – proposed here – UBANG does not entail this proposition. The paper argues that (...) only on the second reading does Aristotle’s argument secure its conclusion, that the second reading is, in fact, the correct reading of UBANG, and that anyone who thinks that UBANG succeeds and entails ontological pluralism probably equivocates between two different senses of ‘genos’. (shrink)

Стаття являє собою дослідження у сфері природної мови (та мови поетичної) і репрезентує певні спільні аспекти, які містяться у працях Франсуа Реканаті та Юлії Крістєвої, не зважаючи на наявні методологічні розбіжності. Зазвичай, дослідження з поетики відокремлюють власний предмет від предмета аналізу лінгвістичного, зокрема, та – природної мови загалом, оскільки поетичній мові притаманні особливі властивості. Проте автор виходить із переконання, що між дослідженнями текстів художніх творів, попри їхню складну семантику, та виразів природної мови є можливим плідний консенсус. Подібне переконання, що випливає (...) зі співставлення певних фрагментів вчень та понять Крістєвої і Реканаті, дає можливість вгледіти парадоксальну подібність предметів їхніх досліджень або специфіки їхнього опису. Так, розгляд Реканаті, приміром, індексальних виразів не лише не суперечить концепту наративної темпоральності Крістєвої, а й відсилає до єдиного осередку (чи то зазнаваного впливу) підходів, що зумовлює цікавість не так до тексту або виразу, як до фігури мовця. У даному випадку за спільне впливове джерело покладається вчення Ж. Лакана, хоча автор і не вдається до розгорнутого розгляду такої думки, що потребує окремого ґрунтовного дослідження. Проте згадувані у статті теоретичні положення (принаймні, щодо статусу мовця) названих авторів можуть мати сенс у випадку спільного використання як у річищі поетики, так і відносно аналізу виразів природної мови. У цьому сенсі наголос ставиться на використанні теоретичних розробок Крістєвої та Реканаті з погляду зв’язку між ними, що дає можливість обопільно розширити горизонти дослідження мови як такої поза конкретних форм її репрезентації. (shrink)

Arguments against essentialism in biology rely strongly on a claim that modern biology abandoned Aristotle's notion of a species as a class of necessary and sufficient properties. However, neither his theory of essentialism, nor his logical definition of species and genus (eidos and genos) play much of a role in biological research and taxonomy, including his own. The objections to natural kinds thinking by early twentieth century biologists wrestling with the new genetics overlooked the fact that species have typical (...) developmental cycles and most have a large shared genetic component. These are the "what-it-is-to-be" members of that species. An intrinsic biological essentialism does not commit us to Aristotelian notions, nor even modern notions, of essence. There is a long-standing definition of "species" and its precursor notions that goes back to the Greeks, and which Darwin and pretty well all biologists since him share, that I call the Generative Conception of Species. It relies on there being a shared generative power that makes progeny resemble parents. The "what-it-is-to-be" a member of that species is that developmental type, mistakes in development notwithstanding. Moreover, such "essences" have always been understood to include deviations from the type. Finally, I shall examine some implications of the collapse of the narrative about essences in biology. (shrink)

ZusammenfassungVom Konzept ›Menschenwürde‹ machte die ethisch geprägte Philosophie Robert Spaemanns weniger und vorsichtiger Gebrauch, als man – angesichts der Positionen, die sie verteidigen möchte – vermuten würde. Dies liegt vor allem an einem in den Begriff einmontierten und von Spaemann in einer Abhandlung von 1987 hervorgehobenen »Trugschluss«, den auszuräumen der von ihm anschließend in mehreren Büchern entwickelte Personenbegriff dienen soll. Der Trugschluss verbindet und begründet auf der einen Seite die Würde mit der Kompetenz personaler Selbstbestimmung, auf der anderen Seite möchte (...) er allen und nur den Mitgliedern der menschlichen Spezies die Menschenwürde zubilligen. Doch handelt es sich hier – ohne starke metaphysische Hintergrundannahmen – um eine metabasis eis allo genos, da ein natürlicher Sortalbegriff mit dem Vernunftkonzept ›Person‹ mir nichts dir nichts identifiziert werden müsste – was aber insbesondere die zeitgenössisch führende analytische Philosophie mit recht kritisierte. Im Aufsatz wird gezeigt, wie Spaemanns Philosophie diesen Trugschluss durch sein neues Verständnis dessen, was Personen eigentlich sind, tatsächlich zur Auflösung zu bringen vermag. Zugleich wird deutlich gemacht, dass Spaemann auch in diesem Verständnis noch an gewissen, unter dem Verdacht religiöser Parteilichkeit stehende Auffassungen festhält – von denen aber auch vollkommen abgesehen werden kann, ohne den Kern von Spaemanns Verständnis der Person aufgeben zu müssen. (shrink)

Die Vielfalt der mittelalterlichen Epik bietet ein fruchtbares Feld für gattungstheoretische Bestimmungen, das bislang in keiner Hinsicht ausgeschöpft ist. Da die mittelalterlichen Poetiken Gattungszuordnungen nicht zwingend festschreiben, bietet sich die Möglichkeit, auf der Basis einer induktiven Poetik mittelalterliche Werke in ihren generischen Verwandschaftsverhältnissen neu zu bestimmen. Entgegen dem Trend der älteren Forschung, Beschreibungspassagen in der mittelalterlichen Erzählliteratur eher negativ zu bewerten, soll in dem vorliegenden Beitrag die Bedeutung der Ekphrasis für Gattungsbestimmungen mittelalterlicher Erzähltexte herausgearbeitet und mit dem Begriff des „ekphrastischen (...) Romans“ ein neuer, auch die Antike und die Neuzeit umfassender Gattungstypus kreiert werden. Wer sich zünftig vorwiegend mit der modernen Literatur befasst, weiß um die gattungsbildende Funktion der Beschreibung im neoavantgardistischen Nouveau Roman, doch ist die generische Relevanz von ekphrastischen Passagen im mittelalterlichen Versroman noch weithin unerforscht und den Mediävisten unbekannt. Dass gerade der Beschreibung von Kunstwerken, auf die in letzter Zeit immer mehr der Begriff der Ekphrasis eingeschränkt wird, eine große poetische Relevanz zukommt, dokumentiert nicht nur ihre häufige Positionierung am Werkeingang oder ihre motivische Verknüpfung mit Passageriten des Protagonisten, sondern auch ihre besondere digressive Stellung im Erzählkontinuum mit komplexen Rahmen- und Binnenstrukturen, vor allem aber ihre für das ganze Werk repräsentative und quasi gattungsgenerierende Funktion als mise en abyme. Zudem sind die Beschreibungen von Kunstwerken in der Erzählliteratur des Hochmittelalters Zeichen einer neuen materiellen Sachkultur sowie symbolisch-diagrammatische Spiegelungen zeitgenössischer Weltbilder. Durch Partizipation an Formen der Visualität und Intermedialität sind die Ekphrasen auch mediengeschichtlich attraktiv und fungieren außerdem als Vehikel nicht nur einer werkimmanenten Poetik, sondern auch einer intrinsischen, Kunst wie auch Technik umgreifenden und universellen Ästhetik. Das hier rekonstruierte Genos des „ekphrastischen Romans“, das sich bis auf Homers,Ilias' zurückverfolgen lässt, die mit der Beschreibung von Achills Schild einen Prototypen liefert, zeigt bei aller Kontinuität einen besonderen Schub im Hochmittelalter, der neben byzantinischen Einflüssen u. a. mit einer ausgebildeten Exkurstheorie sowie Innovationen in der Erzähltechnik zusammenhängt, wie man z. B. aus dem,Erec' Hartmanns von Aue ersehen kann. Der „ekphrastische Roman“ zielt nicht auf einen nur an Aktionen interessierten Leser ab, der im Extremfall Haltepunkte im Erzählfluss überspringt, sondern auf einen Rezipienten, der sich geduldig mit der Dekodierung imaginärer Bildwelten befasst und bereit ist, sich in poetologische und kunstästhetische Reflexionen zu vertiefen, die eine eigene Ebene der Werkdeutung konstituieren. (shrink)

In this dissertation, I investigate the role of Aristotle's theory of science, and specifically the homogeneity criterion, for the set-up of Aristotle's metaphysics project as sketched in Met. IV, 1--3 and VI, 1. I argue that Aristotelian metaphysics takes shape through a dialectical argument stretching from Met. I to VI, 1. Along this path, both Aristotle's theory of science , and the Platonist competitor in metaphysics are constantly kept in view. They propel the argument at crucial stages. The resulting metaphysics (...) is compatible with Aristotle's theory of science, though it is not a direct application of it. Rather, metaphysics is a content-neutral complement to the content-specific sciences. The Platonist competitor remains refuted. Some of its central ideas and tools are nevertheless assimilated into Aristotelian metaphysics. ;Aristotle's postulate of a universal science of being seems to contradict a central requirement for a science: the homogeneity principle. According to the Posterior Analytics, every science has its specific subject matter , which it explores in terms of predicative content, and to which it is restricted. Being, does not constitute such a genos. Aristotle has to find a feature which can play a role for 'being' that is analogous to 'genos' in a special science. Aristotle finds it in the pros hen notion . Pros hen makes the content-neutral, focal structure of being transparent. It is not an extension of synonymy . With the help of pros hen, Aristotle can construct a content-neutral universal metaphysics project, solving the puzzles which arose in III, 1/2 precisely as a conflict between the questions which metaphysics should address and the homogeneity criterion for content-specific sciences. His theory of science remains fully intact for the sciences for which it was designed. The objections against Platonist metaphysics remain in place as well. The content-neutral analysis of being meets the expectations formulated for metaphysics in I, 1/2, on the basis of endoxa. Aristotle's project is constituted by what is commonly called 'general metaphysics'. It includes a consideration of the divine. (shrink)

This paper explains why and how we should introduce birth into the canon of subjects explored by philosophy. It focuses on the epistemology of birth, namely, on the nature, origin, and limits of the knowledge produced by and/or related to giving birth. The paper provides a view on the philosophy of birth, i.e., an approach to construct a new logos for genos.

The primary sense of the word ‘hypothesis’ in modern colloquial English includes “proposition not yet settled” or “open question”. Its opposite is ‘fact’ in the sense of “proposition widely known to be true”. People are amazed that Plato [1, p. 1684] and Aristotle [Post. An. I.2 72a14–24, quoted below] used the Greek form of the word for indemonstrable first principles [sc. axioms] in general or for certain kinds of axioms. These two facts create the paradoxical situation that in many cases (...) it is impossible to translate the Greek form of the word using the English form: the primary sense of the word ‘hypothesis’ in modern colloquial English is diametrically opposed to one sense used by Plato and by his most accomplished student Given current colloquial English usage it is impossible to get the word hypothesis to carry the connotation of “settled truth” much less “axiomatic truth”. The ‘hypo-’ [under] in the Plato-Aristotle use of ‘hypothesis’ might carry the sense of “basis” or “foundational” as opposed to “less than usual or normal”. This paradox parallels the one pointed out by Robin Smith: it is impossible for the English word ‘syllogism’ to carry the meaning of its Greek form Aristotle intended. There are other cases as well: it is impossible for the English biological term ‘genus’ to carry the meaning of its Greek form the Greek genos refers to family as in our ‘genealogy’, not to “higher species” as in our ‘generic’. (shrink)

Aristotle holds that there must be multiple forms of human being and those forms constitute a genos, this paper argues. Aristotle advances his claim by arguing that the strength of a polis rests on the existence of a spectrum of useful essential differences among its citizens. The paper rejects the notion that eîdos is a homonym, and argues that it signifies `form,' not `species.' Its theses are based on analysis of passages in the Ethics, Metaphysics, Politics and other works. (...) The argument of the paper is compatible with `individual' or `particular' forms. The paper also proposes a solution to the issue of `natural slavery.'. (shrink)

Those who work with topics related to Modern Greek identity usually start discussing these issues by quoting the famous Georgios Gemistos Pletho (c.1360-1454): we, over whom you rule and hold sway, are Hellenes by genos (γένος), as is witnessed by our language and ancestral education. Although Woodhouse thought of Pletho as the last of the Hellenes, others prefer to denounce him the last of the Byzantines and the first and foremost Modern Greek. During the 14th and 15th centuries, a (...) number of influential intellectuals in the Eastern Roman Empire preferred the term Hellene (Ἓλλην) to identify themselves, instead of the formal Roman (Ρωμαῖος) and the common Greek (Γραικός). According to the prevalent view of modern scholarship, the shift should not be interpreted only as a statement of proto-national identity, but also as the outcome of growing archaism. As Vryonis pointed out, the historian Critoboulos used to call the Balkan nations with their archaic names: Byzantines became “Hellenes,” Albanians became “Illyrians,” etc. Chalkokondyles followed in the same path. Furthermore, in order to lament the decline of their Empire, byzantine intellectuals tended to compare their sad present to the glory of ancient Greece. Besides archaism, proto-nationalism and Hellenism, I suggest that a careful reading of the sources would lead us to reappraise the ways 15th century intellectuals perceived identity. Whilst I do not accept Vakalopoulos’ views on diachronic Hellenic identity, I support that, in the 15th century, Byzantine scholars attempted to create an identity based on cultural and historical continuity and otherness. Moreover, Laiou’s definition of Greek identity as a resultant of language, history, tradition and interests does not cover the case of 15th century Byzantine philosophers, since the latter strived to enrich and enlarge Greek identity with additional elements. It is worth noting that those philosophers who fled to Italy deliberately chose to describe themselves as Greeks (Greci/Γραικοί) or Hellenes (Ἓλληνες) and not as Romans (Ρωμιοί/Ρωμαῖοι), according to the Byzantine official terminology. During the 15th century a major shift occurred in the Byzantine intelligentsia and its prominent members revisited matters of identity. In this paper, I attempt to scrutinize the ways Byzantine philosophers of the 15th century, who lived in the territories of the Byzantine Empire and in Italy, perceived identity and otherness. In my research, I include not only Greek, but also Latin sources, since their works is written in both languages. (shrink)

Cet article explique pourquoi et comment introduire la naissance dans le canon des sujets explorés par la philosophie. Il porte sur l’épistémologie de la naissance, c’est-à-dire sur la nature, l’origine et les limites des connaissances produites par et/ou liées à l’accouchement. L’autrice offre un regard sur la philosophie de la naissance et explore une nouvelle généalogie – un nouveau logos pour le genos –, une méditation radicale sur notre origine et notre naissance.

What does the study of Plato’s dialogues tell us about the modern meaning of ‘sex’? How can recent developments in the philosophy of sex and gender help us read these ancient texts anew? _Plato and Sex _addresses these questions for the first time. Each chapter demonstrates how the modern reception of Plato’s works Ð in both mainstream and feminist philosophy and psychoanalytical theory Ð has presupposed a ‘natural-biological’ conception of what sex might mean. Through a critical comparison between our current (...) understanding of sex and Plato’s notion of genos, Plato and Sex puts this presupposition into question. With its groundbreaking interpretations of the Republic, the Symposium and the Timaeus, this book opens up a new approach to sex as a philosophical concept. Including critical readings of the theories of sex and sexuation in Freud and Lacan, and relating such theories to Plato’s writings, _Plato and Sex_ both questions our assumptions about sex and explains how those assumptions have coloured our understanding of Plato. What results is not only an original reading of some of the most prominent aspects of Plato’s philosophy, but a new attempt to think through the meaning of sex today. (shrink)

At Plato’s Phaedrus 270c, Socrates asks whether one can know souls without knowing ‘the whole.’ Phaedrus answers that ‘according to Hippocrates’ the same demand on knowing the whole applies to bodies. What parallel is intended between soul-knowledge and body-knowledge and which medical passages illustrate the analogy have been much debated. Three dominant interpretations read ‘the whole’ as respectively (1) environment, (2) kosmos, and (3) individual soul or body; and adduce supporting Hippocratic passages. But none of these interpretations accounts for the (...) Phaedrus’ rhetorical method. A better reading sees the whole as the genos ‘soul,’ as the Phaedrus’ taxonomies divide that genus. (shrink)

We study the appearance of genetic information starting from a system where self-reproductive and enzymatic functions are supported by the same sort of molecules. In a first phase, the information must have arisen in the form of rate independent sequences as records of enzymatic functions. Although this stage must have played an important role in evolution, it will be shown how its evolutive capacities were blocked by the impossibility of appearance of geno/phenotype duality. Finally, a logical scheme is proposed for (...) a transition process toward a system with a code offering a simplification of the conditions required from the assumption of a maximum use of the double RNA capacity, both reproductive and enzymatic. (shrink)

_Physics_ VIII 1 presents a multi-stage argument concluding that there was not, nor ever will be, a time when there was not nor will not be motion (_Phys_. VIII 1.252b5-6). In this paper I shall argue that chapter’s argument is dialectical in a precise way. My claim will be that _Physics_ VIII 1 is apodeictically conditioned – its structure must be understood in terms of the theory of science in the _Posterior Analytics_ and the methods for establishing principles in the (...) _Topics. Physics_ VIII 1 is not demonstrative in a straightforward deductive way, but is structured with the nature of a scientific _genos_ and requirements for scientific knowledge always in mind. Aristotle begins by asking about the eternality of motion, posing a pair of conceptual opposites that form a mutually exclusive and logically exhaustive dichotomy. But the initial statement of the dichotomy turns out to require substantial unpacking, leading eventually to a single remaining option, that motion in the cosmos is eternal. But the status of this conclusion itself turns out to be problematic. Put in terms of Aristotle’s theory of science, all _phusiologoi_ made motion a posit or hypothesis, whether they regarded motion as eternal or not. Though Aristotle has rejected one option, at a deeper level, he finds all previous accounts lacking. Because motion is fundamental to all coming-to-beand-passing-away, what is at stake is the status and adequacy of a principle governing the whole science of nature (_tên theôrian pasan_; 250b17). In this way, the chapter prepares for the subsequent investigation into the principles of cosmic motion. (shrink)

This paper explores the place of evil in Plato’s thought through the lens of the Philebus. I show that the concept of evil in this dialogue is in broad agreement with the classic Christian position which accents metaphysically its privative and derivative character and morally its rebellious and self-oriented character. The entryway into the issue is 29d9–e1, where a “power of dissolution” is proposed in addition and opposition to the power of generation and mixture, and then quickly rejected. Such a (...) power would be both metaphysically and ethically subversive, or in short, evil. Plato appears to suppress the possibility of evil, but in fact, he relocates the power of dissolution within the unlimited genos in order to show its necessary subordination to and dependence on the limiting and causal principles within generated beings. Evil, on a metaphysical level, is subject to good. On an ethical level, however, the possibility of subversion remains and is exemplified in the dialogue in the radical hedonism of Philebus. After showing how hedonism manifests the power of dissolution in human life, I conclude by remarking the ultimate practical proof towards which this dialogue, and others, points in defense of its claims. (shrink)

The dossier of decrees concerning the Deceleans and the Demotionidae of Athens presents fascinating problems and has attracted plentiful discussion. For a long time there has been a division between the view of Wilamowitz and his followers, that the Demotionidae were a phratry and the Deceleans a privileged genos within it, and that of Wade–Gery refined by Andrewes, that the Deceleans were a phratry and the Demotionidae a privileged genos within it.3 Each of these interpretations gave rise to (...) problems; and since the work of Bourriot and Roussel on the gene there has been a reluctance to believe in gene as aristocratic clans able to control their phratries. Recently Hedrick has argued that the Demotionidae were the phratry and the Deceleans the members of the deme of Decelea; and Lambert has argued that the Demotionidae were the phratry and the Deceleans a genos–like body which formed a semi–independent group within the phratry and which in these decrees was extending its independence further. These interpretations also give rise to problems: in this paper I attempt to continue the debate and to show that an interpretation on Wade–Gery′s lines is after all the most likely to be right. (shrink)

Herodotus has often been considered the Father of Ethnography no less than the Father of History. It comes as a paradox, then, that he has been taxed with confusion in his use of two terms that recur over and over in his discussion of peoples, ἕθνος and γνος. Here is the formulation of Raymond Weil:Hérodote definit mal l‘ethnos’. C'est pour lui tantôot une subdivision du ‘génos’, tantôt au contraire un ensemble de ‘géné’. Ainsi 1' ‘ethnos’ des Médes, comme celui des (...) Scythes, groupe plusieurs γνεα. Mais cet ‘ethnos’ scythe porte aussi le nom de ‘génos’, et comprend des ἕθνεα. Les Athéniens sont un ‘ethnos’ hellénique qui fait partie du ‘génos’ ionien, les Lacédémoniens un ‘ethnos’ pélasgique à rattacher au ‘génos’ dorien. (shrink)

Herodotus has often been considered the Father of Ethnography no less than the Father of History. It comes as a paradox, then, that he has been taxed with confusion in his use of two terms that recur over and over in his discussion of peoples, θνος and γνος. Here is the formulation of Raymond Weil: Hérodote definit mal l‘ethnos’. C'est pour lui tantôot une subdivision du ‘génos’, tantôt au contraire un ensemble de ‘géné’. Ainsi 1' ‘ethnos’ des Médes, comme celui (...) des Scythes, groupe plusieurs γνεα. Mais cet ‘ethnos’ scythe porte aussi le nom de ‘génos’, et comprend des θνεα. Les Athéniens sont un ‘ethnos’ hellénique qui fait partie du ‘génos’ ionien, les Lacédémoniens un ‘ethnos’ pélasgique à rattacher au ‘génos’ dorien. (shrink)

Herodotus has often been considered the Father of Ethnography no less than the Father of History. It comes as a paradox, then, that he has been taxed with confusion in his use of two terms that recur over and over in his discussion of peoples, ἕθνος and γνος. Here is the formulation of Raymond Weil:Hérodote definit mal l‘ethnos’. C'est pour lui tantôot une subdivision du ‘génos’, tantôt au contraire un ensemble de ‘géné’. Ainsi 1' ‘ethnos’ des Médes, comme celui des (...) Scythes, groupe plusieurs γνεα. Mais cet ‘ethnos’ scythe porte aussi le nom de ‘génos’, et comprend des ἕθνεα. Les Athéniens sont un ‘ethnos’ hellénique qui fait partie du ‘génos’ ionien, les Lacédémoniens un ‘ethnos’ pélasgique à rattacher au ‘génos’ dorien. (shrink)