This article begins from the assumption that what was once an integral dimension of progress—the development of literature and of art more generally—now lies outside its scope. The essay falls into three parts that juxtapose French with German intellectual history. The first part examines the notion of literary progress developed by Charles Perrault and Fontenelle, as well as the opposition to it by Boileau and other antiquarians, during the querelle des Anciens et des Modernes in the later seventeenth century. The (...) second part treats the reception of those arguments during the eighteenth century by J. C. Gottsched, J. J. Bodmer, and J. J. Breitinger. Special attention is given to the paradox that Gottsched, the leader of the German antiquarians, and Bodmer, the leader of the German progressives, were equally devoted to the Leibnizian-Wolffian philosophical system and thus that German Romanticism, heavily indebted to Bodmer's poetics, had roots in rationalist philosophy. The essay's third part discusses ideas of literary progress in the writings of the early Romantics J. G. Herder and Friedrich Schlegel. As these discussions show, the conception of general progress was formed in a field that has since dissociated itself from progress's march. (shrink)

This is a response to the paper “The fruit of knowledge: To bite or not to bite? Isotta Nogarola on Eve’s sin and its scholastic sources,” by Marcela Borelli, Valeria A. Buffon, and Natalia G. Jakubecki. It has two aims. The first is to show the importance of discussions of Eve in the querelle des femmes, and so to emphasize the importance of Borelli, Buffon and Jakubecki’s analysis of Nogarola’s account of Eve. A second aim is to highlight the philosophical (...) rigour of Nogarola’s discussion of the culpability of Eve as demonstrated by Borelli, Buffon and Jakubecki, by contrasting it with attempts to exculpate Eve from responsibility that were made in pro-woman works written between the composition of Nogarola’s work and its publication. (shrink)

On cherche à mettre en perspective les divers ouvrages généraux de Geneviève Rodis-Lewis sur Descartes, « ses » Descartes, qui se reprennent et se corrigent sans se répéter ni se contredire, avec les trois images de Descartes qui dominent les études cartésiennes en France autour des années 1950 : « les » Descartes de Gouhier, d'Alquié et de Gueroult. La notion de développement semble un trait commun à l'objet étudié et à la méthode mise en œuvre pour l'approcher. 1 /Le (...) Colloque de Royaumont fait passer G. Rodis-Lewis d'une « petite querelle » avec P. Mesnard sur l'ordre des passions de l'âme à la « grande querelle » sur l'essence de la pensée, comme purement intellectuelle ou comme activité de la volonté. M. Gueroult, tout en le rejetant comme leibnizien et non cartésien, reconnaît l'importance de l' « embryon de conscience » mis en valeur par G. Rodis-Lewis. 2 / Désormais, elle ne cessera d'approfondir l'enquête sur « la première métaphysique de Descartes », celle de 1628-1630, méconnue à la fois par ceux qui refusent avec Gueroult tout ordre chronologique et par ceux qui le réduisent avec Alquié à une évolution unilatérale, les uns et les autres manquant ainsi le développement de la pensée de la liberté. 3 / On termine par le fragment du manuscrit Cartesius, que G. Rodis-Lewis a retraduit et dont elle a, la première, sinon la seule, dégagé l'importance. Sans se confondre avec la double définition de la liberté de la Méditation IV, ce passage l'anticipe et « il est difficile de se défendre de l'impression que voilà rembryon d'où sortira la pensée métaphysique de Descartes ». We try to put into perspective the various general books on Descartes by Geneviève Rodis-Lewis, her Descartes which are alluded to one another and are corrected without repetition or contradiction, with the three images of Descartes which are the most important of the Cartesion studies in France around the 1950's : Gouhier's, Alquie's and Gueroult's Descartes. The notion of development seems to be a common feature of the studied object and the method used to tackle it. 1 /Royaumont's Colloquium makes G. Rodis-Lewis pass from a « little quarrel » with P. Mesnard about the order of the passions of the soul to the « great quarrel » dealing with the essence of thought as purely intellectual or as an activity of the will. M. Gueroult, while rejecting the « embryo of conscience » emphasized by G. Rodis-Lewis as Leibnizian and non Cartesian, admits its importance. 2 /From then on, she kept on studying thoroughly the search for « Descartes' first Metaphysics », dated back to 1628-1630, unrecognised both by those, like Gueroult, who reject any chronological order and by those, like Alquié, who reduce it to a unilateral evolution, both of them thereby missing this way the development of the thought of freedom. 3 / We finish with the part of the Cartesius manuscript that G. Rodis-Lewis translated again. She was the first one, if not the only one, to show its importance. Without its being confused with the double definition of freedom of Meditation IV, this passage anticipates it and « it is difficult to avoid the impression that this is the embryo from which Descartes' metaphysical thought will emerge ». (shrink)

Response to commentaries on keynote article.

In this paper we consider an intuitionistic variant of the modal logic S4 (which we call IS4). The novelty of this paper is that we place particular importance on the natural deduction formulation of IS4— our formulation has several important metatheoretic properties. In addition, we study models of IS4— not in the framework of Kirpke semantics, but in the more general framework of category theory. This allows not only a more abstract definition of a whole class of models but also (...) a means of modelling proofs as well as provability. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:138 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY entier sans en ~tre l'eselave; toujours menace, mais toujours supdrieur. Le p~ch~ est alors d$truit par la vertu; il n'y a plus de conflit int~rieur. La puret~ du coeur est de vouloir une seule chose. Et c'est alors une mani~re d'immortalit~ par le Jugement. Une derni~re remarque de G. Price: les hommes d'aujourd'hui ont changd &attitude i~ l'~gard de Dieu. La question serait maintenant: Dieu (...) est-il pour ou contre les hommes? Et quel est le sons de l'Etre humain? Telle serait donc la valeur r~elle du probl~me kierkegaardien. Sans doute, G. Price pose l'Un, l'Individuel, en dehors de toute Eglise humaine; mais ainsi se comprend la querelle incessante entre Kierkegaard et l'Eglise de son temps. L'Homme-Dieu a souvent ~t~ consid~rd avec quelque m~fiance par le Dieu trop humanis~ et celui-ci, peut-r est touj ours vu et senti comme trop engag4 dans les structures soeiales du temps present. ANDRE LOUIS LEROY Sorbonne, Paris Cinquant'anni di esperienza idealistica in Italia. By Augusto Guzzo. (Padova: Cedam, 1964.) Con la delicata finezza di tocco che egli ~ propria, Augusto Guzzo, uno dei pifi impegnati protagonisti nel superamento dell'idealismo d'antico stampo, ha sobriamente tratteggiato (in cinque succose lezioni tenure, coli~invitato da Marino Gentile e dall'intera Facolti~ di Lettere e Filosfia presso l'Universit~ di Padova) lo sviluppo della cultura filosofica italiana nella prima met~ del nostro secolo. Assai opportunamente le sue magistrali lezioni sono state test~ pubblicare nella raccolta di Opuscoli Accademici edita dall'Ateneo patavino col titolo suggestivo: Cinquant'anni di espcrienza idealistica in Italia. Quel che eolpisee anzitutto ~ la calda umanit~ del tono, l'alto affiato morale che anima la parola dell'illustre Maestro. Questi, pur trattando dei pifi ardui problemi metafisici e gnoseologici, mai non cade nell'astruso e nell'astratto. Sa cogliere, inveee, con fine introspezione psicologica la genesi delle idee pifi ardue dalla personalit~ di coloro ehe le eoncepirono e eh'Egli individua con sottile discernimento e con artistica vivacitY. Ed alla base della sun intelligente eomprensione e della perspicace sua ermeneutiea psicologia ~ una disposizione morale che vorremmo dire di affettuosa indulgenza e di calore meridionale, anzi schiettamente napoletano, se non fosse pi5 giusto dirla apertura eristiana al colloquio tra le anime e quindi fra gli intelletti. E'questo che ineanta nella nitida prosa del Guzzo, che non ~ mai arcigno e sprezzante, non mai amaro e caustico, bensl sempre si sforza di comprendere e di giustificare. In lui rivive in effetti l'alta ispirazione della perennis philosophia di quel Leibniz che soleva ripetere con quella bonti~ ed umanitk propria solo agli ingegni sublimi: "So debbo ingannarmi, preferisco farlo piuttosto a favore che a svantaggio delle persone. Provo la stessa propensione leggendo gli seritti altrui eh~ mi sforzo di scoprire non quel ehe potrei critieare, bensl quanto merita d'essere approvato e di cui posso approfittare." D'altro canto l'apertura mentale del Guzzo non ~insidiata da quel pericoloso indifferentismo etico ed inttellettuale che, sotto la veste della comprensione e dell'indulgenza, lascia passar tutto, anche le tesi pifl pericolose, attraverso un facile contrabbando. Quella del Guzzo ~una intelligenza aperta e comprensiva, ma che non smarrisce in un sincretismo venato di scetticismo il discrimen trail vero ed il falso, la gerarchia dei valori intellettuali e morali. Egli tratteggia in un arguto viaggio immaginario lo stato dell'Italia aecademica ai principi del secolo, illustrando i fermenti complessi e molteplici che s'agitavano in quella che si suol rappresentare come una eultura positivistica piatta ed informe. Comunque eceo emergere in polemica battagliera e mordace contro di essa la figura dl Benedetto Croce, che le contrappone un hegelismo interpretato alquanto unilateralmente. I1 Guzzo sagacemente lumeggia la grande opera di rinnovamento culturale operata dal grande meridionale e tenta di illuminarne lo spirito profondo riportandosi alla testimonianza, --ch'~ poi un'interpretazione-- di uno dei mlgliori discepoli: Carlo Antoni. Secondo quest'ul- BOOK REVIEWS 139 timo Croce avrebbe avuto coscienza dell'abissale differenza tra lo Spirito universale e l'uomo transeunte. "Croce lo sapeva quando-secondo la testimonianza di Antoni--intendeva lo Spirito come... (shrink)

In this paper I will argue that the latter group [of Non-Humeans] is correct. My argument focuses on practical deliberation and has two parts. I will discuss two different problems that arise for the Humean Theory and suggest that while taken individually each problem appears to have a solution, for each problem the solution Humeans offer precludes solving the other problem. I will suggest that to see these difficulties we must take seriously the thought that we can only understand an (...) agent’s reasons for her action by looking at her actual or possible practical deliberation. (shrink)

In ‘Wittgenstein on Language and Rules’, Professor N. Malcolm took us to task for misinterpreting Wittgenstein's arguments on the relationship between the concept of following a rule and the concept of community agreement on what counts as following a given rule. Not that we denied that there are any grammatical connections between these concepts. On the contrary, we emphasized that a rule and an act in accord with it make contact in language. Moreover we argued that agreement in judgments and (...) in definitions is indeed necessary for a shared language. But we denied that the concept of a language is so tightly interwoven with the concept of a community of speakers as to preclude its applicabilty to someone whose use of signs is not shared by others. Malcolm holds that ‘This is an unwitting reduction of Wittgenstein's originality. That human agreement is necessary for “shared” language is not so striking a thought as that it is essential for language simpliciter.’ Though less striking, we believe that it has the merit of being a true thought. We shall once more try to show both that it is correct, and that it is a correct account of Wittgenstein's arguments. (shrink)

The King Report on Corporate Governance (1994) evoked unprecedented interest in corporate governance in South Africa. This does not mean that corporate governance was not an issue of concern before the release of this historical report. To the contrary, corporate governance in its broader sense has been at stake since the inception of the first publicly owned companies in South Africa. This article intends to give an overview of corporate governance in South Africa. It starts by making a distinction between (...) broad and narrow conceptions of corporate governance. Before applying this distinction to the practice of corporate governance in South Africa, a brief overview of the corporate landscape in South Africa is provided. Then the South African situation with regard to broad and narrow corporate governance respectively is analysed. The article ends with a discussion of the review of corporate governance that currently is in the making in South Africa. Throughout the article both the financial and ethical dimensions of corporate governance is attended to. (shrink)

Dealing with the nature of historical knowledge, this book is concerned with both philosophical and historical questions. It involves considerations as various as statistical hypothesis testing, componential analysis and the problem of the Synoptic Gospels. --.

The study of continuous group actions is ubiquitous in mathematics, and perhaps the most general kinds of actions for which we can hope to prove theorems in just ZFC are those where a Polish group acts on a Polish space.For this general class we can find works such as [29] that build on ideas from ergodic theory and examine actions of locally compact groups in both the measure theoretic and topological contexts. On the other hand a text in model theory, (...) such as [12], will typically consider issues bearing on the actions by the symmetric group of all permutations of the integers. More generally [1] shows that the orbit equivalence relations induced by closed subgroups of the infinite symmetric group can be reduced to the isomorphism relation on corresponding classes of countable models.This paper considers a third category formed by the continuous actions of separable Banach spaces on Polish spaces. These examples cannot be subsumed under the two earlier headings, and it is known from [10] that theBorel cardinalitiesof the quotient spaces that arise from such actions are incomparable with the equivalence relations induced by the symmetric group or any locally compact Polish group action.One of the first things to be addressed concerns the complexity of these equivalence relations. This question forappears in [1]. (shrink)

The King Report on Corporate Governance (1994) evoked unprecedented interest in corporate governance in South Africa. This does not mean that corporate governance was not an issue of concern before the release of this historical report. To the contrary, corporate governance in its broader sense has been at stake since the inception of the first publicly owned companies in South Africa. This article intends to give an overview of corporate governance in South Africa. It starts by making a distinction between (...) broad and narrow conceptions of corporate governance. Before applying this distinction to the practice of corporate governance in South Africa, a brief overview of the corporate landscape in South Africa is provided. Then the South African situation with regard to broad and narrow corporate governance respectively is analysed. The article ends with a discussion of the review of corporate governance that currently is in the making in South Africa. Throughout the article both the financial and ethical dimensions of corporate governance is attended to. (shrink)

Book Information Four-Dimensionalism: An Ontology of Persistence and Time. By Theodore Sider. Clarendon Press. Oxford. 2001. Pp. xxiv + 255. £30.

Classical temples in ancient Greece show two deterministic illusionistic principles of architecture, which govern their functional design: geometric proportionalism and a set of illusion-strengthening rules in the proportionalism's stochastic margin. Animal morphology, in its mechanistic-deductive revival, applies just one architectural principle, which is not always satisfactory. Whether a Greek Classical situation occurs in the architecture of living structure is to be investigated by extreme testing with deductive methods.Three deductive methods for explanation of living structure in animal morphology are proposed: the (...) parts, the compromise, and the transformation deduction. The methods are based upon the systems concept for an organism, the flow chart for a functionalistic picture, and the network chart for a structuralistic picture, whereas the optimal design serves as the architectural principle for living structure. These methods show clearly the high explanatory power of deductive methods in morphology, but they also make one open end most explicit: neutral issues do exist. (shrink)

Cushman, Young, & Greene (2010) urge the consolidation of moral psychology around a dual-system consensus. On this view, a slow, often-overstretched rational system tends to produce consequentialist intuitions and action-tendencies, while a fast, affective system produces virtuous (or vicious) intuitions and action-tendencies that perform well in their habituated ecological niche but sometimes disastrously outside of it. This perspective suggests a habit-corrected-by-reason picture of moral behavior. Recent research, however, has raised questions about the adequacy of dual-process theories of cognition and behavior, (...) which tend to distinguish categorically between fast, affect-laden, automatic, sometimes-unconscious, nearly-incorrigible mental processes and slow, rational, effortful, conscious, corrigible mental processes. Processes of one alleged type often have properties associated with the contrary type. For instance, rational processes can be emotional, and fast thinking can perform logical operations. In addition, the fast-slow binary transforms a continuous temporal scale into a dichotomous one, losing potentially important information along the way. While these problems are beginning to be addressed in some subfields of psychology, moral psychology has yet to grapple with them. In this theoretical paper, we argue that moral psychology needs a framework that accounts for our knowledge of both temporal and spatial (anatomical) dimensions of the brain basis of moral cognition and virtuous decision-making. We argue that methodologies with very fine-grained temporal granularity, such as electroencephalography (EEG), should be used to complement more frequently used methodologies such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We outline how this might be accomplished using generosity, gratitude, and integrity as a case study. (shrink)

Relatively congruence regular quasivarieties and quasivarieties of logic have noticeable similarities. The paper provides a unifying framework for them which extends the Blok-Pigozzi theory of elementarily algebraizable (and protoalgebraic) deductive systems. In this extension there are two parameters: a set of terms and a variable. When the former is empty or consists of theorems, the Blok-Pigozzi theory is recovered, and the variable is redundant. On the other hand, a class of membership logics is obtained when the variable is the only (...) element of the set of terms. For these systems the appropriate variant of equivalent algebraic semantics encompasses the relatively congruence regular quasivarieties. (shrink)

Relatively congruence regular quasivarieties and quasivarieties of logic have noticeable similarities. The paper provides a unifying framework for them which extends the Blok-Pigozzi theory of elementarily algebraizable (and protoalgebraic) deductive systems. In this extension there are two parameters: a set of terms and a variable. When the former is empty or consists of theorems, the Blok-Pigozzi theory is recovered, and the variable is redundant. On the other hand, a class of ‘membership logics’ is obtained when the variable is the only (...) element of the set of terms. For these systems the appropriate variant of equivalent algebraic semantics encompasses the relatively congruence regular quasivarieties. (shrink)

A world in which time travel into the past occurred would seem like a most strange world. Nicholas Smith, however, in his ‘Bananas Enough for Time Travel’, argues that time travel is not so strange as we think. In particular, he argues against what he views as the main reason time travel worlds seem so strange – the claim that time travel entails unusual numbers of coincidences. I shall argue that Smith's argument for rejecting the claim is inadequate. Hence, the (...) debate over the consequences of the coincidences of time travel cannot be avoided by denying the coincidences themselves. (shrink)