A sympathetic exposition, carefully documented, of the meaning and function of aesthetic concepts in the Enneads. The Plotinian dialectic is compared to the artistic process. Aesthetic experience is found analogous to the mystical, and artistic intuition similar to ecstasy.--L.K.B.

These essays and critical reviews develop diverse themes in the context of discussing the philosophy of art. Two presuppositions dominate: 1) philosophy and art represent the highest peak of human culture, 2) Italian aesthetics has a decidedly philosophic foundation. One looks in vain for a defense or elaboration of these crucial assumptions.--C. E. B.

Comme l’explique l’introduction des deux éditeurs, ce volume ras­semble les Actes du troisième colloque de théologie des religions de l’Uni­versité de Sicile, après un premier volume sur Jésus-Christ et l’unicité de la médiation (publié à Milan en 2000), et un deuxième, qui se proposait de dresser le bilan et les perspectives de la théologie des religions (2001). Ce troisième colloque fut marqué par le passage à la réflexion sur des thèmes théologiques spécifiques. Les intervenants étaient in..

This essay analyzes two Menippean fragments, quotations of Varro by Seneca and Tertullian respectively. The first of these describes the image of the Stoic god satirically as “round, without head, without prepuce.” This can be read as a caustic rebuttal of the main attributes of the god, such as are presented in fr. 583 B., there considered the rational origin of the whole. The latter fragment, fr. 582 a-b B. mentions a multitude of Ioves without heads and can be interpreted (...) as an ironic reference to the Stoic view of the deity: the Stoic god is at the same time singular and multiple because it is the sole source of generation of the whole. The allusion to the acephalous character of the deities in both fragments suggests an attribution of the passages to the same, lost satire, where a discussion about the nature of the gods took place. In particular, the comparison with some passages of Cicero’s De Natura Deorum permits the identification of the speaker with an Epicurean philosopher who opposes the Stoic conception of the divine. (shrink)

MEDIEVAL LOGICS LAMBERT MARIE DE RIJK (ed.), Die mittelalterlichen Traktate De mod0 opponendiet respondendi, Einleitung und Ausgabe der einschlagigen Texte. (Beitrage zur Geschichte der Philosophie und Theologie des Mittelalters, Neue Folge Band 17.) Miinster: Aschendorff, 1980. 379 pp. No price stated. THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY MARTA FATTORI, Lessico del Novum Organum di Francesco Bacone. Rome: Edizioni dell'Ateneo 1980. Two volumes, il + 543, 520 pp. Lire 65.000. VIVIAN SALMON, The study of language in 17th century England. (Amsterdam Studies in the (...) Theory and History of Linguistic Science, Series 111: Studies in theHistory of Linguistics, Volume 17.) Amsterdam: John Benjamins B.V., 1979.x + 218 pp. Dfl. 65. Theoria cum Praxi. Zum Verhaltnis von Theorie und Praxis im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert. (Akten des 111. Internationalen Leibnizkongress, Hannover, 12. bis 17.November 1977, Band 111: Logik, Erkenntnistheorie, Wissenschaftstheorie, Metaphysik, Theologie.) Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1980. vii + 269 pp. DM 48. CLASSICAL AND NON-CLASSICAL LOGICS MICHAEL CLARK, The place of syllogistic in logical theory. Nottingham: University of Nottingham Press, 1980. ix + 151 pp. £3.00. A.F. PARKER-RHODES, The theory of indistinguishables. Dordrecht, Boston and London: D. Reidel Publishing Company, 1981. xvii + 216 pp. Dfl.90.00/$39.50. NICHOLAS RESCHER and ROBERT BRANDOM, The logic of inconsistency. Oxford:Basil Blackwell, 1980. x + 174 pp. f 11.50. MISCELLANEOUS J. ZELENY, The logic of Marx. Translated from the German by T. Carver. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1980. xcii + 247 pp. £12.50. FELIX KAUFMANN, The infinite in mathematics. Edited by Brian McGuinness. Introduction by E. Nagel. Translation from the German by Paul Foulkes. Dordrecht: Reidel, 1978. xvii + 235 pp. Dfl 85/$39.50 (cloth); Dfl 45/$19.95 (paper). PAMELA MCCORDUCK, Machines who think. San Francisco: W.H. Freeman and Company, 1979. xiv + 275 pp. $14.95. J. MITTELSTRASS (ed.), Enzyklopadie Philosophie und Wissenschaftstheorie Bd. 1 : A-G. Mannheim, Wien, Ziirich: Bibliographisches Institut, 1980. 835 pp. DM 128. (shrink)