Glowacki discusses how humans regularly face collective action problems that may result in either peaceful or aggressive between-group interactions. Peace and war probably coevolved in humans. Using a gene–culture evolutionary framework is a powerful way to analyse why, when, and how humans have the capacity to build and maintain long-term peaceful interactions between groups and also to wage deadly wars.

Der Goldene Esel des Apuleius ist der einzige Roman in lateinischer Sprache, den wir vollstandig besitzen, und einer der altesten Texte seiner Art in der europaischen Literatur. Der Ich-Erzahler Lucius schildert die spannenden Abenteuer, die er, nach einer Liebesnacht in einen Esel verwandelt, auf einer Reise in Griechenland bis zu seiner Ruckverwandlung erlebt. In seinen Bericht sind mehrere erotische Geschichten eingelegt, darunter der beruhmte Mythos von Amor und Psyche. Als ein bedeutendes Werk der Weltliteratur hat der Roman seit Beginn (...) der Neuzeit Erzahlprosa und Kunst immer wieder stark beeinflusst.". (shrink)

This note is motivated by Whitehead’s researches in inclusion-based point-free geometry as exposed in An Inquiry Concerning the Principles of Natural Knowledge and in The concept of Nature. More precisely, we observe that Whitehead’s definition of point, based on the notions of abstractive class and covering, is not adequate. Indeed, if we admit such a definition it is also questionable that a point exists. On the contrary our approach, in which the diameter is a further primitive, enables us to avoid (...) such a drawback. Moreover, since such a notion enables us to define a metric in the set of points, our proposal looks to be a good starting point for a foundation of the geometry metrical in nature (as proposed, for example, by L.M. Blumenthal). (shrink)

Socrates (469-399 BC) is one of history's most enigmatic figures. Our knowledge of him comes to us second-hand, primarily from the philosopher Plato, who was Socrates' most gifted student, and from the historian and sometime-philosopher Xenophon, who counted himself as a member of Socrates' inner circle of friends. We also hear of Socrates in one comic play produced during his lifetime (Aristophanes' Clouds) and in passing from the philosopher Aristotle, a student of Plato. Socrates is a figure of enduring interest. (...) He is often considered the father of Western Philosophy, yet the four most famous accounts we have of him present a contradictory, confusing picture. Just who was Socrates? A brilliant philosopher, at times confounding and infuriating, morally serious and yet ironic; the ever-worldly man, sometime mystic, and uncommon martyr depicted by Plato? Or did Plato conflate Socrates' views with his own startling genius, as Aristotle suggests? Was So rates instead the less impressive, more mundane man whose commonsense impressed the laconic Xenophon? Or was Socrates the charlatan, the long-winded phony of Aristophanes' play? The Socratic works of Diogenes Laertius (3rd century AD), Libanius (AD 314 -- c. 393), Maximus of 'Tyre (2nd century AD), and Apuleius (born c. AD 125) add important dimensions to the portrait of Socrates: Diogenes Laertius' Life of Socrates emphasizes Socrates' deep ethical nature and his extraordinary personality; Libanius' Apology of Socrates is based on sources now lost to us; Maximus of Tyre's Whether Socrates Did the Right Thing When He Did Not Defend Himself makes the star ling claim (against testimony of Plato and Xenophon) that Socrates never spoke athis own trial; from Apuleius' On the God of Socrates we hear at length of Socrates' infamous daimonion: the "divine sign" only mentioned elsewhere, the sign that warned Socrates against certain courses of action. In short, from these four texts we are reintroduced to Socrates, and new wrinkles are added to an already intriguing historical figure. (shrink)

[St. Bonaventura: The Mind’s Search for God.].

Apuleius' story of Cupid and Psyche, the relationship of the human Soul with divine Love, is one of the great allegories of world literature. It forms an integral part of and profoundly illuminates the message of his novel Metamorphoses or The Golden Ass, which relates the adventures of a young man and his spiritual fall and redemption. To enrich and deepen his basic plot, the origins of which are obscure, Apuleius has combined poetic sources, Platonic philosophy and popular (...) iconography in an unprecedented tour de force of literary creation. This edition sensitively elucidates the subtle art with which this transformation has been accomplished, and comprehensively illustrates both Apuleius' inventive handling of his various models and sources and the exuberant and idiosyncratic Latinity with forms the vehicle for it. It places in a fresh light the results of recent work on the ancient Novel and on Apuleius himself, and offers a stimulating, occasionally provocative, reading of his much-discussed text. The Latin is accompanied by a facing English translation, making the edition more accessible to students of comparative literature as well as to classicists. (shrink)

Apuleius of Madauros, writing in the latter half of the second century CE in Roman North Africa, is best known to us today for his Latin fiction, the Metamorphoses aka The Golden Ass, about a man who turned into a donkey and back again. However, he was also a Platonic philosopher, who, even though many of his writings are lost, wrote a range of rhetorical and philosophical works which survive to this day. This book examines these works to reveal (...) how Apuleius' Platonism is a result of his 'impersonation of philosophy', that is, a rhetorically powerful methodological tool that allows him to 'speak' on behalf of Plato and his philosophy. This book is the first exploration of the full scope of his idiosyncratic brand of Platonism across his multifarious literary corpus and is a major contribution to the study of the dynamic between literature and philosophy in antiquity and beyond. (shrink)

«Wer die heilige Schrift liebt, liebt auch die Philosophie, um durch sie den Glauben zu bestärken; aber die Philosophie ist der Baum der Erkenntnis von Gut und Böse, weil in ihr die Falschheit der Wahrheit beigemischt ist». Dieser Ausspruch Bonaventuras in einer Adventspredigt zu Joh 1,26-27 aus dem Jahre 1267 spiegelt die ganze Ambivalenz wider, die sich in seinen Schriften mit Bezug auf die Philosophie findet. Dem unverkennbaren philosophisch-spekulativen Impetus seines Denkens steht eine teilweise harsche Philosophen- und Philosophiekritik gegenüber. «Die (...) Philosophen gaben neun Wissenschaften und versprachen, eine zehnte zu geben, nämlich die Schau. Aber indem sich viele Philosophen von der Finsternis des Irrtums trennen wollten, verstrickten sie sich in größere Irrtümer; und indem sie sich weise nannten, wurden sie zu Toren; indem sie auf ihr Wissen stolz waren, wurden sie zu Gefolgsleuten Luzifers». (shrink)

Loewe drew attention to the fact that Apuleius is one of the authors drawn upon by the compiler of the Glossary that has come to be known as ‘Abolita’; and Professor Lindsay in his article on this Glossary gives as examples of Apuleius glosses three short batches from the CA-, the CI-, and the CO- sections. These batches are respectively as follows: C.G.L. IV. p. 29, 33 = Met. 7, 12 or 8, 13: 34 = Met. 9, 16: (...) 35 = Met. 11, 16. (shrink)