This book is a collection of secondary essays on America's most important philosophic thinkers—statesmen, judges, writers, educators, and activists—from the colonial period to the present. Each essay is a comprehensive introduction to the thought of a noted American on the fundamental meaning of the American regime.

The volume presents essays on the philosophical explanation of the relationship between body and soul in antiquity from the Presocratics to Galen. The title of the volume alludes to a phrase found in Plato, Aristotle and Plotinus, referring to aspects of living behaviour involving both body and soul, and is a commonplace in ancient philosophy, dealt with in very different ways by different authors.

La géométrie souterraine est une science mathématique pratique, qui se développe dans les exploitations minières et dont la diffusion est considérablement modifiée au cours du xviiie siècle. Ce phénomène est lié à l’institutionnalisation graduelle de la discipline, de l’établissement d’un système de compagnonnage à la création d’académies des mines. Progressivement, les pratiques vont faire appel à de nouvelles méthodes et intégrer une solide formation en mathématiques théoriques. La circulation et l’enseignement des connaissances sont dans un premier temps basés sur un (...) système de manuscrits qui sera étudié en détail. L’exemple du Markscheider August Beyer (1677-1753) illustre ce processus collectif de constitution et de transmission de connaissances, dont la diffusion est cependant contrôlée. Nous analysons dans un second temps l’évolution des vecteurs de circulation et son influence sur la discipline, en nous appuyant sur la biographie de deux mathématiciens saxons, J.A. Scheidhauer (1718-1784) et son discipline J.F. Lempe (1757-1801). Leurs parcours croisés symbolisent la transformation de la discipline. Le passage à l’imprimé, la publication d’articles dans des revues spécialisées et la création de chaires académiques font de la géométrie souterraine une science reconnue qui reste cependant en dehors du corpus de connaissances et des débats universitaires. (shrink)

La géométrie souterraine est une science mathématique pratique, qui se développe dans les exploitations minières et dont la diffusion est considérablement modifiée au cours du xviiie siècle. Ce phénomène est lié à l’institutionnalisation graduelle de la discipline, de l’établissement d’un système de compagnonnage à la création d’académies des mines. Progressivement, les pratiques vont faire appel à de nouvelles méthodes et intégrer une solide formation en mathématiques théoriques. La circulation et l’enseignement des connaissances sont dans un premier temps basés sur un (...) système de manuscrits qui sera étudié en détail. L’exemple du Markscheider August Beyer illustre ce processus collectif de constitution et de transmission de connaissances, dont la diffusion est cependant contrôlée. Nous analysons dans un second temps l’évolution des vecteurs de circulation et son influence sur la discipline, en nous appuyant sur la biographie de deux mathématiciens saxons, J.A. Scheidhauer et son discipline J.F. Lempe . Leurs parcours croisés symbolisent la transformation de la discipline. Le passage à l’imprimé, la publication d’articles dans des revues spécialisées et la création de chaires académiques font de la géométrie souterraine une science reconnue qui reste cependant en dehors du corpus de connaissances et des débats universitaires. (shrink)

L'examen de la céramique à vernis noir d'époque hellénistique trouvée à Délos fait apparaître la présence de productions importées d'Italie. Il s'agit de campaniennes A, Β et C du IIe et du Ier s. av. J.-C, au nombre de quelque 150 fragments qui se répartissent pour l'essentiel entre les deux premières catégories. Après en avoir dressé un catalogue, on examine les implications historiques de cette présence, apparemment unique dans la moitié orientale de la Méditerranée, sous l'angle des modalités de la (...) diffusion (il ne s'agit sans doute pas d'un véritable commerce, mais de chargements d'accompagnement), de la chronologie (ces apports commencent dès avant le milieu du IIe s.), de l'usage (les vases à boire sont absents, probablement remplacés par d'autres catégories de vaisselle), des origines géographiques de cette céramique (Étrurie, confins du Latium et de la Campanie, golfe de Naples). Ce sont là autant d'indices qui peuvent contribuer à éclairer la présence italienne à Délos. (shrink)

Ed. by John J. Cleary and Gary M. Gurtler ( this volume contains papers and commentaries presented to the Boston Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy during the academic year 2006-7).

The new edition of Chariton's novel Chaireas and Callirhoe by Mr. Warren E. Blake has a twofold merit: it is founded on a new and accurate collation of the only extant manuscript, a Florentinus, and it gives a full collection of the conjectures in and since the editio princeps by D'Orville . The new text has already provoked some suggestions by Prof. H. J. Rose in C.Q. xxxiii, 1939, 30, but I should like to propose alterations in some more passages.

ZusammenfassungDer Beitrag befasst sich mit der Mathematisierung in der praktisch-technischen Ausbildung im letzten Drittel des 18. und ersten Drittel des 19. Jahrhunderts. Anhand von zwei Fällen werden Variantenreichtum und Problemlagen des praktisch-mathematischen Wissens in der Zeit um 1800 herausgearbeitet. Nach einer Einführung zu institutionellem Rahmen und sozialem Status der praktischen Mathematiker (eigentlich mathematischen Praktiker) in den deutschen Gebieten, beschäftigt sich der erste Teil mit dem Bergmeister Johann Andreas Scheidhauer (1718–1784). Die Biographie dieses bislang wenig beachteten Praktikers führt zu einer Analyse (...) seiner Handschriften und deren Rezeption, in erster Linie durch Johann Friedrich Lempe (1757–1801), Professor für Mathematik an der Bergakademie Freiberg. Ein Praktiker der nachfolgenden Generation steht im Fokus des zweiten Teils. Carl Friedrich Steiner (1774–1840) war ein Baumeister im Weimar der Goethezeit. Gewissermaßen reflektiert sein Lehrbuch zur Geometry descriptive die Folgen der fortlaufenden Mathematisierung und den Stellenwert mathematischen Wissens in der Ausbildung junger Praktiker und Künstler. Beide Teilstudien geben Aufschluss zum historischen Verständnis praktischer Mathematik. (shrink)

En la Universidad Médica “Carlos J. Finlay”, se realiza una intervención educativa con el objetivo de valorar la concepción y aplicación de un programa para un curso de preparación de metodólogos en correspondencia con sus funciones en condiciones de universalización de las Ciencias Médicas de Camagüey, en el periodo de septiembre de 2005 a junio de 2007. Se emplean diferentes métodos investigativos: los teóricos, así como la técnica de discusión grupal, permitió diseñar el programa del curso para la preparación de (...) metodólogos en condiciones de universalización y los empíricos, la obtención de algunos datos de interés acerca de los metodólogos que reciben el curso y sus valoraciones en relación con el mismo. Se constata que la preparación pedagógica y experiencia en el desempeño es insuficiente para asumir el rol de metodólogo y valoran de muy importantes los contenidos desarrollados, los métodos y formas organizativas concebidas, por lo que se concluye que el programa del curso cumple con las expectativas del metodólogo al estar diseñado teniendo en cuenta las funciones que estos desempeñan y sus necesidades sentidas A study was carried out about the intervention in education developed to increase teacher's methodological preparation under their new functions due to the fresh conditions of learning within the community applied to medicine training and education in Camagüey. It was carried out in the period of September 2005 to June 2007. Different research methods were used: the theoretical ones and the technique for group discussion help to design the course syllabus and the assessment for those teachers that received the course. It was verified that the methodological preparation and performance experience are insufficient to play their role; but they value as very important the contents, the methods and the organization of the course. The authors conclude that the course meets the expectations of training, because it was designed keeping in mind the teachers' functions and their necessities. (shrink)

Does South Africa need a common moral language? Many people are of the opinion that South Africa finds itself 'after Babel’ and needs a common moral language (1). The author considers some of the arguments of people who disagree with this analysis, because they do not define the problem in this way (2); because they find the language- or Babel-methaphor confusing (3); because they agree with the description of the problem, but not with the suggested solution, namely a common moral (...) language (4); or because they accept the solution, but do not regard it as the proper task of the Christian church to be involved in this search for a common moral language (5). (shrink)

hoc est, Capitolium’. This sentence comes in a passage based on a portion of the Historia Regum Britanniae of Geoffrey of Monmouth , but is not itself to be found in Geoffrey. Since Luard was unable to find the words attributed to him ‘in Lucan’, he concluded that the chronicler who was responsible for their inclusion had made a mistake. He offers no suggestions about the origins of the quotation. In a posthumous work of G. Gundermann's edited by G. Goetz, (...) Trogtis und Gellius bei Radulfus de Diceto, we find the quotation described as ‘einen angeblichen Lucanvers'. W. Morel learned of its existence from this reference and printed it as fr. 12 of Lucan. (shrink)

De drie korte verhandelingen over de positie van hooggeplaatsten moeten gezien worden als een schakel in de lange keten van de literair-filosofische traditie van de Vorstenspiegels, die met name in de Italiaanse Renaissance zeer geliefd waren. Pascal volt echter deze voorbeelden maar gedeeltelijk, omdat hij een nieuwe macht introduceert, waaraan ook de groten der aarde onderworpen zijn, nl. de macht van het geloof. Zijn bespiegelingen over macht, morele plicht en verantwoordelijkheid zijn nog steeds actueel.

hoc est, Capitolium’. This sentence comes in a passage based on a portion of the Historia Regum Britanniae of Geoffrey of Monmouth, but is not itself to be found in Geoffrey. Since Luard was unable to find the words attributed to him ‘in Lucan’, he concluded that the chronicler who was responsible for their inclusion had made a mistake. He offers no suggestions about the origins of the quotation. In a posthumous work of G. Gundermann's edited by G. Goetz, Trogtis (...) und Gellius bei Radulfus de Diceto, we find the quotation described as ‘einen angeblichen Lucanvers'. W. Morel learned of its existence from this reference and printed it as fr. 12 of Lucan. (shrink)

Information can be public among a group. Whether or not information is public matters, for example, for accounts of interdependent rational choice, of communication, and of joint intention. A standard analysis of public information identifies it with (some variant of) common belief. The latter notion is stipulatively defined as an infinite conjunction: for p to be commonly believed is for it to believed by all members of a group, for all members to believe that all members believe it, and so (...) forth. This analysis is often presupposed without much argument in philosophy. Theoretical entrenchment or intuitions about cases might give some traction on the question, but give little insight about why the identification holds, if it does. The strategy of this paper is to characterize a practical-normative role for information being public, and show that the only things that play that role are (variants of) common belief as stipulatively characterized. In more detail: a functional role for “taking a proposition for granted” in non-isolated decision making is characterized. I then present some minimal conditions under which such an attitude is correctly held. The key assumption links this attitude to beliefs about what is public. From minimal a priori principles, we can argue that a proposition being public among a group entails common commitment to believe among that group. Later sections explore partial converses to this result, the factivity of publicity and publicity from the perspective of outsiders to the group, and objections to the aprioricity of the result deriving from a posteriori existential presuppositions. (shrink)

Ned Block argues that the higher-order (HO) approach to explaining consciousness is ‘defunct’ because a prominent objection (the ‘misrepresentation objection’) exposes the view as ‘incoherent’. What’s more, a response to this objection that I’ve offered elsewhere (Weisberg 2010) fails because it ‘amounts to abusing the notion of what-it’s-like-ness’ (xxx).1 In this response, I wish to plead guilty as charged. Indeed, I will continue herein to abuse Block’s notion of what-it’s-like-ness. After doing so, I will argue that the HO approach accounts (...) for the sense of what-it’s-like-ness that matters in a theory of consciousness. I will also argue that the only incoherence present in the HO theory is that generated by embracing Block’s controversial notion of what-it’s-like-ness, something no theorist of any stripe ought to do. Block is famous for (among other things) having introduced the notion of ‘phenomenal consciousness’ into contemporary philosophy of mind (Block 1995). This term is widely employed in the philosophical literature and it even appears in the empirical literature. But wide-speared usage has brought about divergent interpretations of the term. We can distinguish a ‘moderate’ and a ‘zealous’ reading of ‘phenomenal consciousness’. On the moderate reading, ‘phenomenal consciousness’ just means ‘experience’. Many people have embraced this sense of the term and use it to roughly pick out conscious experience involving sensory quality (states like conscious visual experiences or conscious pains, for example).2 On the zealous reading, however, phenomenal consciousness is held to be ‘distinct from any cognitive, intentional, or functional property’ (Block 1995: 234). That is, any explanation of phenomenal consciousness in exclusively cognitive, intentional, or functional terms will fail to capture, without remainder, what is really distinctive about phenomenal consciousness. Block, of course, is fully clear about embracing the zealous reading; indeed, his initial introduction of the notion is in those terms. The same ambiguity occurs with the much-used (and abused) idea of ‘what-it’s-like-ness’.. (shrink)

Telling a patient that the outcome of his illness is not good, or even hopeless, requires sensitivity and the ability to communicate with him in the setting of a hospital which is an unnatural environment divorced from family and friends. It is a task which must be taught and learned by doctors and nurses.

The existential analysis -- The death of dasein -- The timeliness of dasein -- The derivation of time -- The time of being.

The achievements of the textile industry in Roman Britain are often underestimated as a result of the meagreness of our available evidence. The Edict on maximum prices issued by Diocletian in A.D. 301 shows that British capes commanded high prices on the markets of the Empire, and that in the late third century A.D. British rugs were the best in the world. In view of the competition from the traditional centres of rug manufacture in the East, this is an astonishing (...) achievement. (shrink)

The received translation and interpretation of many of the technical terms current in the textile industry of the Roman Empire are inaccurate, because lexicographers have either fought shy of being precise, or have thought that they recognized in the ancient world technical processes which originated at a much later date. The evidence is often equivocal or insufficient, but may still yield details that have been overlooked. The textile expression scutulatus, to take an example, deserves more attention than Blümner has devoted (...) to it. When it refers to the appearance of a garment, Lewis and Short, s.v. scutulatus, translate ‘diamond or lozenge-shaped, checkered’. It seems worth while to attempt a more precise translation, and, if possible, to estimate the significance in context of the goods so designated. (shrink)

Living out of silence, out of a fully functioning, lovingly attentive mind, and not just out of thought, out of a partially functioning mind, is requisite for depth or profundity in living or relating. A fully attentive, truly silent or meditative mind sees that there is real dualism of time and the timeless and that time and the timeless each has its own unique value. The timeless, or real silence, that which alone can make for depth in one's living and (...) relating, can be there only when, in one's awareness, time and all that is related to time, have come to an end. An examination of a wide variety of statements made by writers, both past and present, shows that these understandings are seldom there in contemporary writings, just as they were not there in writings that have come down to us from the past. 'Living beyond the One and the Many' invites readers to consider the possibility that what is presented in it can bring deep meaning to one's way of living in the world"--Publisher's description, back cover. (shrink)

If the world itself is metaphysically indeterminate in a specified respect, what follows? In this paper, we develop a theory of metaphysical indeterminacy answering this question.

Jeffrey Collins’ new book aims to presents Locke’s views on religious toleration in the light of Thomas Hobbes’ political philosophy. At first blush, Hobbes seems an unusual choice as a point of co...