In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:Greek Writing from Knossos to Homer: A Linguistic Interpretation of the Origin of the Greek Alphabet and the Continuity of Ancient Greek LiteracyMichael WeissRoger D. Woodard. Greek Writing from Knossos to Homer: A Linguistic Interpretation of the Origin of the Greek Alphabet and the Continuity of Ancient Greek Literacy. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997. xiv = 287 pp. Cloth, $65.Woodard's is an important and groundbreaking (...) work which has put the question of the origin of the Greek alphabet in a new light. His thesis is that scribes literate in the Cypriot syllabary were responsible for the first Greek adaptation of the alphabet, and in order to demonstrate this thesis Woodard must investigate the spelling principles of the Mycenaean and Cypriot syllabic scripts. Although his initial chapters devoted to these scripts may at first seem irrelevant to the reader interested in the origin of the alphabet, they do turn out to be crucial for his theory.Woodard first describes the principles of the syllabic alphabets. Since neither Linear B nor the Cypriot syllabary was originally designed for the representation of the Greek language, both systems are relatively inefficient. In particular the representation of consonant clusters presented a problem for both syllabaries, for which a number of spelling strategies were devised. In Linear B the first consonant of a consonant cluster is either not written at all—e.g., ka–ko [khalkos], a strategy Woodard calls "partial spelling"—or the first consonant of the cluster is spelled with a dummy vowel copying the vowel of the syllable to the right: e.g., a–ko–ro [agros]. This type of spelling Woodard calls "plenary spelling." In Cypriot an internal consonant cluster is spelled either with "regressive spelling," whereby the first consonant of the cluster is expressed with a sign containing a dummy vowel copying the vowel immediately to the left—e.g., a–ra–ku–ro [argurō]—or with "progressive spelling," whereby the first consonant of the cluster is expressed with a sign containing a dummy vowel copying the vowel immediately to the right: e.g., pa–ti–ri [patri]. Cypriot progressive spelling is essentially identical to Linear B plenary spelling. Furthermore, Cypriot regressive spelling is used for precisely those internal clusters which are represented in Linear B with partial spelling.Trying to explain which factor(s) determine(s) whether a cluster will be spelled with, on the one hand, partial spelling in Linear B and regressive spelling in Cypriot or, on the other hand, with plenary spelling in Linear B and progressive spelling in Cypriot has been a long–standing project of Greek linguistics. In chapter 3 Woodard deals with the various theories which attempt to explain these different spelling strategies as the result of different syllabifications of consonant clusters. The simplest of the theories examined explains [End Page 163] partial/regressive spelling as indicating that the first consonant of the cluster closed the preceding syllable and the second consonant opened the following syllable. In other words, partial/regressive spelling is an indication of heterosyllabicity. Plenary/progressive spelling, on the other hand, is taken to indicate that the entire cluster began the following syllable; that is, clusters which are spelled in the plenary/progressive fashion are tautosyllabic. But, as Woodard rightly observes, the syllabifications needed to justify such a theory—e.g., de–so–mo to be syllabified [de–smois]—are abundantly contradicted by the metrical evidence of both later Greek and Vedic, which show that clusters of the type [–sm–] made position and therefore must have been heterosyllabic. If such clusters were heterosyllabic both in PIE, as the Vedic evidence suggests, and in later Greek, they must have had the same syllabification in Mycenaean. More sophisticated versions of syllable–based theories have tried to get around this problem in a variety of ways. The delicate versions of Ruijgh and Morpurgo Davies attempt to explain plenary spellings of the de–so–mo type as reflecting "orthographic syllabification" which arises through spelling in full those internal consonant clusters which are also spelled in full in word initial position. But even these versions, despite their partial agreement with the doctrines of the Greek grammarians, fail in... (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:BOOK REVIEWS 295 A study of Heidegger faces serious difficulties, for Heidegger is a difficult philosopher to comprehend. It is all too easy to fall into an oracular mode of presentation and to become obscure in that needless way of which one suspects Heidegger himself on many occasions. Seidel avoids these dangers admirably. His is a clear and careful, reasoned and unassuming account of Heidegger's views concerning the pre-socratics (...) and the historical fate of Being. His book should be a help to the scholar of Heidegger's thought and a stimulating, though perplexing, introduction to his philosophy. If it fails in the ways I have mentioned, it succeeds in many more ways than I have had the space to mention. It is a positive contribution to the literature concerning Iteidegger. STEPI-IEI~"A. ERICKSOR" Pomona College FiIosofia dell'arte. By Nicola Petruzzellis. Terza edizione riveduta ed accresciuta. (Napoli, Libreira Scientifica Editrice, 1964. I6~ pp. 642.) E' una terza edizione ma in cui l'ampiezza delle aggiunte ~ tale da far sl che non si possa parlare di un rifacimento soltanto perch~ i criter~ fondamentali dell'indagine tentata dall'autore (ed integrata dal felice volume su L'estetica dell'idealismo) sono rimasti gli stessi. Ma quello che prima era soltanto un motivo tematico s'~ sviluppato in una vogorosa e posscnte sinfonia, specie se ci si riferisce al panorama dell'estetica contemporanea, che, con ampiezza di vedute e spregiudicata freschezza d'informazione---integrando e continuando le note storie dell'estetica e della critica dello Zimmermann, dello Schlaser, del Bosanquet, del Croce e del Wellek--il Petruzzellis traccia all'inizio del libro "I1 panorama dell'estetica contemporanea, col quale si apre il volume---avverte--non vuol essere un'esposizione manualistica, e tanto meno un repertorio bibliografico pifl o meno completo, ma uno strumento d'indagine.... e vuo|e altresl fornire all'attento lettore le ragioni storiche e critiche deUe posizioni conclusive alle quali siamo pervenuti e dei consensi e dissensi in esse impliciti" (p. 6). II quadro ~ davvero completo, non solo in riferiment~ all'Italia, ch~ l'autore felicemente riassume e criticamente definisce, rendendo giustizia alle legittime esigenze di ognuno, le ricerche estetiche de Croce e Gentile, di Carlini e di Guzzo, di Stefanini e di Aliotta, di Rensi e di Baratono, di Carbonara e di Della Volpe. Il Petruzzellis 6 e~uriente anche circa le analisi sottili (che si ricoUegano all'esttismo ed al moralismo di SSren Kirkegaard) condotte intorno all'arte da Martin Heidegger e da Karl Jaspers, da Gabriel Marcel e da Jean Paul Sartre, mentre acutamente illustra quelle--ispirate ad un esistenzialismo positivo--di Nicola Abbagnano. Meno note le concezioni estetiche di Nicolai Hartmann e quelle fenomenologiche del Banff, del Morpurgo Tagliabue e del Dufrenne, sicch~ si deve dar atto al Petruzzellis della benemerenza d'averle minutamente illustrate, cosl come ha fatto con il problematicismo estetico di Ugo Spirito e del suo discepolo Armando Plebe. Sottilissima ~ poi l'analisi dei riflessi sulla filosofia dell'arte di correnti speculative ehe oggi (forse ~ effetto di moda) occupano, dal neoempirismo al marxismo, il palcoscenico culturale. Ms se tall correnti si agitano e si dimenano con notevole fracas~o in altri campi, penetrano solo furtivamente nel giardino delle Muse. Percib c'~ voluta tutta la paziente intelligenza del Petruzzellis per presentarci le riflessioni sull'arte (assai poco divulgatc specie in Italia) di John Dewey, di I. A. Richards, di Charles Morris, di B. C. Heyl, di Ernest Cassirer, di Susanne K. Langer e di GySrgy Luke. Quest'ultimo, in veritY, a differenza dei precedenti (mi riferisco sempre al solo lato estetico), ~ alquanto famoso, peraltro in effetti mal noto, ch~ la sua fortuna, dovuta prevalentemente a contingenti motivi politici, fa sl ch'egli sia pi~ citato che effettivamente letto. Un posto particolare in questo gran quadro il Petruzzellis assegna poi alle indagini semantiche di Guido Calogero e soprattuito a quelle penetranti ed acutissime di Antonino 296 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY Pagliaro, mentre sviscera con intelletto d'amore il contributo estetico arrecato da grandi contemporanei ispiratisi alla Scolastica quali Maritain, Petit e Gilson. Quest'adesione alle loro vibrazioni spirituali ci svela il profondo motivo animatore di questa: Filosofia d;ell'arte che scritta "nel momento pi... (shrink)

In QALY-thinking, an activity that takes N people from a bad state (including 'dying') to the state of healthy for X years should have priority over an activity that takes N other people from the same bad state to a state of moderate illness for the same number of years (given equal costs). An empirical study indicates that this view may not be shared by the general public in Norway. Subjects tended to emphasise equality in value of life and in (...) entitlement to treatment rather than level of health after treatment. The relevance of costs per QALY in prioritising between different health care programmes in Norway is thereby brought in to doubt. While the sample in the study is too small to support firm policy conclusions, the results should contribute to an increased interest among health economists in actually measuring people's ethical preferences in matters of prioritising, rather than taking it for granted that their own values are shared by the general public. (shrink)

Studies examining the ways in which the training of engineers and scientists shapes their research strategies and scientific identities.

In this paper I evaluate the ICE-theory of function ascriptions to technical artefacts as proposed by Houkes and Vermaas, 2004a and Houkes and Vermaas, 2004b. This account adds non-structural concepts to functional description of artefacts, which are typically not employed by engineers when they ascribe functions to artefacts. The aim of this paper is to analyse to what extent the ICE-theory can reproduce the engineering view that artefacts have their functions in virtue of their physicochemical structure. It is shown that (...) this theory can reproduce this engineering view for components of artefacts but not for the artefacts themselves: engineers can ascribe functions to components on the basis of only the physicochemical structure of artefacts; but when engineers ascribe functions to artefacts as a whole, they have to consider explicitly the goals for which agents use artefacts and the actions that constitute this use.Keywords: Function theory; Technical artefacts; Components; Physics and chemistry; Engineering; Action theory. (shrink)

This paper argues that environmental virtue ethics requires the adoption of an ethical ideal in order to guide the identification and practice of virtues. I recommend friendship as one such ideal due to emphasis such an ideal places upon the quality of the relationship with nature rather than the evaluation of individual actions. After describing the value of friendship as an ethical ideal, I respond to some of the objections that have been raised against it in the context of environmental (...) virtue. (shrink)

The paper considers the recently published British Medical Association Guidance on ethical issues arising in relation to rationing of treatment during the COVID-19 Pandemic. It considers whether it...

Academia bases reputation and standing on the number of published articles. As a result, the abilities and potential of researchers are also being judged by the number of articles they write, as well as on the impact factor of the journals in which their articles are being published. In itself this is not a problem, although one could of course question the assumption that the quantity of the output reflects the competence of individual researchers. As Altman has stated: “The length (...) of a list of publications is a dubious indicator of ability to do good research.”1 However, if senior faculty decide that the career progress of junior researchers in academia should be based on these criteria, academic medicine is bound to fail in fulfilling its role, namely maximising the quality of medical research and doing research for the right reasons. And to some extent it already has.1 …. (shrink)

Many writers in various fields--philosophy, religion, literature, and psychology--believe that the question of the meaning of life is one of the most significant problems that an individual faces. In The Meaning of Life, Second Edition, E.D. Klemke collects some of the best writings on this topic, primarily works by philosophers but also selections from literary figures and religious thinkers. The twenty-seven cogent, readable essays are organized around three different perspectives on the meaning of life. In Part I, the readings assert (...) and defend the theistic view that without the existence of God--or faith in God--life has no significance or purpose. In Part II the selections deny this thesis, defending instead the humanistic alternative--that life has or can have meaning and worth without any theistic beliefs or commitment. In the final group of readings, contributors ask if the question of the meaning of life is in itself legitimate and significant. The volume also includes an introduction by the editor and a selected bibliography. This new edition adds essays by A. J. Ayer, Hazel Barnes, William Lane Craig, Owen Flanagan, Antony Flew, Thomas Nagel, Kai Nielsen, Philip L. Quinn, Arthur Schopenhauer, and Walter T. Stace.The only anthology of its kind, The Meaning of Life, Second Edition, is ideal for courses in introduction to philosophy and human nature. It also provides an accessible and stimulating introduction to the subject for general readers. (shrink)

Whether we like it or not, whether we realize it or not, the methods of science impinge upon and affect our daily lives. In the four centuries during which they have been properly understood and used, these scientific methods not only have enlarged man's stock of knowledge many thousandfold but also have helped bring about changes in outlook and, indeed, in man's physical environment, far outstripping the changes that took place throughout all the rest of recorded human history. Yet, one (...) of the paradoxes of our time is that, while we live in an increasingly scientific and technological society, the ordinary citizen's knowledge of and interest in scientific and technical matters seem, in fact, to be declining. This lack of interest sometimes amounts almost to hostility. As a result, leadership, possibly even direct control, of world affairs may be well pass to those nations which are prepared to cultivate their science and technology, while, on a national scale, if the trend continues, only an esoteric "scientific priesthood" will be able to make many of the most important decisions. The sole answer - the only defense - is knowledge. To arouse the interest of laymen and students in scientific and technical matters is E. L. Dellow's purpose in writing this book. To achieve this aim, he exploits a trait inherent in most of us - a delight in watching other people work. Rather than setting out to dazzle us by reciting the achievements of science and technology, however, he shows how scientific knowledge, which makes the spectacular achievements possible, is gained, and he gives us some insight into the way in which scientists and technicians think and work. In the course of doing so, he also gives the reader who may not previously have taken an interest in these subjects a painless introduction to basic mathematical principles and other techniques of scientific research, discovery, and invention. -- from dust jacket. (shrink)

This essay investigates Clement’s terminology related to allegorical exegesis of Scripture (μυστήριον first of all, but also αἴνιγμα, τύπος, ἀλληγορία, παραβολή etc.), as well as theoretical and methodological issues related to Biblical allegoresis (i.e. the figural, spiritual exegesis of the Bible, which is taken to contain allegories or metaphorical, figural expressions), the influence of Stoic allegoresis of theological myths on Clement’s allegoresis of Scripture, and the impact of Philo’s Biblical allegoresis, and of Pantaenus’s scriptural exegesis, on Clement’s own spiritual exegesis (...) of the Bible. (shrink)

This book explores numerous ways in which vulgar language, grotesque appearances, and horrific experiences affect us in our relationships with others and with ourselves. Its compelling case studies and revealing interviews bring together ideas and issues that are a lingering, but unexplored, focus in psychotherapy literature. The grotesque and the vulgar are major inhabitants of the vast unconscious. Their variations and haunting presence are anticipated and reflected in the transactions of everyday life. So too do they manifest themselves in our (...) social institutions, maintaining their presence in the seven lively arts as much as in mental hospitals, rehabilitation facilities, and psychotherapy practices. Most of all, the grotesque and vulgar challenge the contemporary search for meaning and sanity. This book will help the psychotherapist better deal with the rich soil of grotesqueness and vulgarity in the interplay between the psychotherapy patient and the experiential world. Reading it will open new vistas of treatment possibilities. As each contributing author explores the potentialities and obstacles inherent in the competing and complementing forces of the grotesque and socially condoned sensibilities, you will learn about the value of the grotesque in the consultation room. You will further learn how the flaunted and unconscious vulgarities of everyday life enrich the creative vision inherent in therapeutic conversations. Most important, you will be challenged by what it means to abide with the sometimes pesky vulgar and grotesque guises in each of your client's lives. Here's a sample of what you'll find in Inhabitants of the Unconscious: The Grotesque and the Vulgar in Everyday Life: Louis Fierman's recollection of his treatment of a Nazi soldier, which offers fascinating therapeutic possibilities when issues of the grotesqueare at hand an extraordinary analysis of the role of the grotesque in artwork, with special attention paid to the work of Hieronymus Bosch a fascinating look at Sigmund Freud's perspective on the grotesque&#; and what it says about Freud himself the remarkable formative experiences of children with craniofacial difference &#;an exposition that will enrich your therapeutic interventions with children and adolescents who face atypical challenges extraordinary case studies&#;by Robert Marchesani about his therapeutic endeavors with a Vietnam veteran caught in the aftermath of his incestuous past and by E. Mark Stern about a dying woman who was unable to detach from, but ultimately vivified by an unyielding masochistic fixation. (shrink)

Se trata de unareflexión interdisciplinar, a partir de W. Benjamin, sobre las relaciones entre experiencia, tiempo y memoriahistórica. La 1. parte analiza el empobrecimiento moderno de la Erfahrung que genera una“nueva barbarie”, a la vez que expenmentación innovadora, y que reclama un concepto más rico de experiencia, ligada ala totalidad concrete de la existencia. La 2. señala algunas paradojas de la memoria, muestra la inconsistencia del tiempo, cristalizado en el mito de Cronos, comoprincipio ordenador, y toma en consideración experiencias relevantes (...) que requieren concebir otro tiempo. En esa dirección, la 3. parte desarrolla la idea de Jetztze¡t, nucleo de la concepción crítica de la historia como tradición de los oprimidos, en cuyos bistantes de peligro relanipagea el angelus novus.Il s’agit d’une reflexion interdisciplinaire sur les liaisons entre expérience, temps et bistoire. La lére partie analyse l’appauvrissement moderne de l’Erfahrung, qui produit, selon W. Benjaniin, experimentation créatice et á la fois “une nouvelle barbarie”, et qui exige la construction d’un concept plus tiche d’expérience, liée á la totalité concréte de l’existence. La 2&me ¡nontre quelques paradoxes de la mémoire, sovligne ]‘inconsistance dv lemps comino principe d’ordre, et rappelle l’existence d’expériences qui demandent un autre concept du temps. La 3éme partie developpe ¡‘idee benjaininienne de Jetztzeit, noyau de sa conception critique de l’histoire conune tradition des opprimés, et analyse particuliérement la figure de l’angelus novus. (shrink)