Ciudad sobre ciudad compendia y resume a la perfección el proyecto filosófico de Eugenio Trías: la filosofía del límite. En anteriores libros Trías ha desarrollado separadamente lo que en este libro pretende articular de modo global. Lógica del limite desarrollaba una estética, La edad del espíritu, una filosofía de la religión y de la historia en función de lo que el autor denomina "la cita con lo sagrado, La razón fronteriza, se adentraba en el ámbito de la teoría del conocimiento, (...) Etica y condición humana, expone la naturaleza del ser del límite (el hombre) en su vertiente práctica y en su desarrollo cívico político. Ahora se trata de articular estos cuatro barrios que componen la ciudadela limítrofe, para construir la ciudad ideal, recuperando el proyecto platónico en su vertiente más innovadora... Sobre esos cuatro barrios se proyectan y desarrollan los conceptos fundamentales de la obra del autor: el ser del limite, la razón fronteriza y el suplemento simbólico. Trías desarrolla la ordenación de la ciudad y el despliegue de los barrios que la componen. Con ello consigue dar perfecta coherencia al proyecto de desarrollar la filosofía del límite y de ver las relaciones e interrelaciones que se dan entre esos diferentes barrios o ámbitos del pensamiento. Para desarrollar este proyecto Trías señala que la filosofía antes de ser un producto de la inteligencia, constituye una emoción. Por tanto este desarrollo vendrá marcado por tres emociones filosóficas fundamentales: el asombro, el vértigo y el amor-pasión. Tres elementos esenciales para comprender la noción del hombre como ser del límite, como anhelo de lo estético y de lo religioso en su afán de superar mediante lo simbólico las limitaciones impuestas a la razón por su carácter fronterizo. (shrink)

This article explores the relationship between the philosophy of the limit of Eugenio Trías and the sufism of Ibn ʿArabī. Firstly, it explains the function of the philosophy of religion in the triasian system and why the andalusian master has a privileged position. Secondly, it presents some essential aspects of the akbarian doctrine obtured by the philosophy of limit, as the declaration of the unity of Being, the path of servanthood, the transit from the sudden passion of love to the (...) spiritual love, the spiritual knighthood and the station of no-station. All of them share a common element: the trascendence of the egoic and the interest on the other as other. Finally, the article defends that Trias obturates the andalusian master doctrine due to the influence of Henry Corbin and mainly to the own limitations of its own philosophical project. The absent Ibn ʿArabī will be its shadow. (shrink)

Este artículo explora la relación entre la filosofía del límite de Eugenio Trías y el sufismo de Ibn ʿArabī. En primer lugar, pretende explicar la función de la filosofía de la religión en el sistema triasiano y por qué el maestro andalusí ocupa un lugar privilegiado en ella. Segundo, se ocupa de algunos aspectos esenciales de la doctrina akbarí que la filosofía del límite obtura, como la declaración de la unidad del Ser (tawḥīd), la conjugación de lo exotérico y lo (...) esotérico, la superación de la propia creencia, el camino de la servidumbre (ʿubūdiyya), el tránsito de la pasión súbita de amor (hawā) al amor espiritual (ḥubb), la caballería espiritual (futuwwa) y la morada de la no-morada (maqām lā maqām), los cuales comparten un nexo común: el trascendimiento de lo egoico y el interés en el otro en tanto otro. Finalmente, se defenderá que la obturación triasiana se debe tanto al influjo de Henry Corbin, como sobre todo, a las propias limitaciones de su proyecto filosófico, para el que el Ibn ʿArabī ausente constituye una suerte de sombra. (shrink)

In the fifth book of Livy there is a passage of which hitherto no good explanation has been forthcoming: Romae interim multiplex seditio erat, cuius leniendae causa coloniam in Volscos, quo tria milia civium Romanorum scriberentur, deducendam censuerant; triumvirique ad id creati terna iugera et septunces viritim diviserant.

La filosofía de la nada fue la respuesta ofrecida por Kitaro Nishida a la necesidad de asentar las bases de un diálogo filosófico con Occidente. Se propone en este trabajo que ese diálogo que todavía prosigue en la Escuela de Kyoto tenga entre uno de sus referentes occidentales a la filosofía del límite de Eugenio Trías. Para ello, y tras un repaso de los conceptos principales de cada propuesta filosófica, se considerará la adecuación del método categorial de análisis histórico propuesto (...) por Trías y se estudiarán los conceptos fundantes de «nada» y «límite», que a su vez son la base para una ética humanista capaz de entablar un diálogo entre las dos culturas. (shrink)

Interpretando a Nietzsche, podríamos afirmar que la embriaguez dionisíaca le posibilita al humano dirigirse afectivamente hacia lo externo, borrando incluso y paradójicamente ese límite que determinaría dónde empieza su ser y dónde aquello a lo que su ser es empujado. Trías recoge esta determinación en un concepto clave de su filosofía al denominarnos “ser del límite”. En ambos filósofos somos radicalmente pasión creadora; somos un animal límite y caótico, sufriente por queriente, y potencialmente feliz por el mismo motivo. Está en (...) nuestras manos investigar, tras el reconocimiento de esta condición estética, sensible e insalvable de lo humano, cómo vivir. (shrink)

In common-sense usage, violence is usually conceptualized as intentional physical harm. This makes violence identifiable, locatable, and it facilitates the governing of those identified as committing infractions upon the non-violent community. In this article it is illustrated how this conception of violence legitimates the state by blocking the state’s own foundational violence from critical scrutiny. It argues that the liberal state rests on the differentiation between active and reactive violence, whereby the latter is seen as the legitimate violence of the (...) people against violent infractions committed by private individuals. The concept of a ‘regime of violence’ describes the relation between various forms of violence, i.e. their selective and differential articulation and negation. Regimes of violence constitute a way of governing conduct in the medium of violence. The current regime of violence consists of what is called a trias violentiae, which is a specific conception of the relations and translations between private violence, state violence and structural violence. (shrink)

En este artículo se analizan en general los diferentes niveles de la comprensión que de la música tiene Eugenio Trías, con objeto de discutir más detalladamente los argumentos con los cuales, el filósofo español fundamenta su teoría de la música como gnosis sensorial o poética de la conversión. Para dar cuenta de la misma, Trías acuña el concepto de «imaginación sonora», como forma más excelsa de esa facultad que es la «imaginación creadora», de la cual se recoge, por otra parte, (...) su arqueología filosófica, y de la que se trata de enfatizar tanto su dimensión simbólica de sutura, como de su dimensión cognitiva. Esa concepción de la música como gnosis sensorial le servirá como fundamento para exigir un giro musical de la filosofía, que pueda superar el «giro lingüístico». (shrink)

L’articolo affronta il problema delle interazioni fra cittadini romani e indigeni nel territorio di Bergomum, municipium della regio xi - Transpadana, attraverso l’esame delle formule onomastiche riscontrabili in alcune iscrizioni. In particolare, l’analisi della documentazione epigrafica agirà su un doppio binario, prendendo in considerazione sia formule di onomastica idionimica – tipicamente indigene e presenti anche dopo la concessione della cittadinanza romana alla Transpadana alla metà del I secolo a.C. – sia formule fedeli al modello romano dei tria nomina, che testimoniano (...) un’ascendenza celtica e una certa persistenza di abitudini locali. Le prove fornite dall’onomastica, dunque, saranno utili ad indagare come gli abitanti “indigeni” di Bergomum abbiano affrontato la romanizzazione del loro territorio e attraverso quali meccanismi vennero integrati nella struttura sociale romana; ciò anche attraverso il confronto con realtà circonvicine, prima fra tutte la Colonia Civica Augusta Brixia. (shrink)

Nonostante non tutti gli studiosi concordino sul valore e sulla validità della testimonianza di Agostino, non si può oggi mettere in dubbio che questi ebbe una conoscenza molto precisa non solo della dottrina manichea, ma anche delle pratiche rituali in uso nelle comunità delle sette, e in modo particolare di quelle che si imponevano agli Uditori. Del resto, egli stesso non manca di definirsi esperto dell’affare manicheo al fine di affermare l’autorità del suo modo di procedere nella polemica.Certo non si (...) può cercare in questi testi antimanichei un’esposizione serena né uno studio sistematico del catechismo manicheo poiché tali scritti hanno il carattere di un’“opera d’assalto” che Agostino, al di là degli aspetti anche caricaturali che mette in luce esponendo la dottrina avversa, dedica a quanti, come lui, corrono il rischio di essere sedotti e intrappolati da tale dottrina eretica.Quella lunga permanenza nella setta, nove anni come lui stesso afferma, e l’attività dispiegata al suo servizio permise ad Agostino di avere una larga conoscenza dell’organizzazione interna delle comunità, delle riunioni liturgiche e della catechesi, infine dei rapporti tra le due professiones che costituivano la chiesa manichea, i laici, Uditori o Catecumeni da una parte e, dall’altra, i religiosi, Eletti o Santi, tenuti, quest’ultimi, ad osservare rigide regole ascetiche raggruppate sotto tre capi, tria signacula appunto, relativi a tre ordini di attività, corrispondenti ad altrettanti organi quali bocca, mano, seno, ai quali il perfetto manicheo apporrà come un sigillo che rispetterà scrupolosamente.In particolare, lo studio del “sigillo della bocca”, quello, cioè, che ordina di astenersi dalle cibarie carnee e sanguinolente; dal vino; dalle bevande fermentate come la birra; nonché dai pensieri malvagi; dai discorsi menzogneri, violenti o blasfemi , permette di ricostruire, sempre attraverso la polemica agostiniana, la problematicità degli aspetti legati alle pratiche e alle abitudini alimentari della setta.Apporre un sigillo alla bocca, così come alla mano o al seno, significa chiudere, per usare una metafora cara al medioevo, le porte dei sensi: occhi, orecchie, naso, bocca, mani. Viceversa, aprirle o lasciarle aperte equivale a provocare e a permettere l’irruzione al proprio interno dei “demoni esteriori”, e, quindi, esporsi a peccare. Operare la “chiusura dei sensi” significa perciò sottrarsi alle sollecitazioni della carne e del mondo, rifiutando il male e conservando, così, la propria anima integralmente pura e buona quale essa è per essenza.Di fatto, la regola dei “tre sigilli” non viene osservata nel suo rigore più stretto che dai fedeli giunti o chiamati alla perfezione, dagli “Eletti” e dai “Santi”. Meno severe sono, infatti, le leggi che regolano il comportamento dei semplici credenti, degli “Uditori” o dei “Catecumeni”. La delineazione di quella che senza dubbio si potrebbe definire una sorta di “doppia morale”, una duplice regola di condotta, emerge chiaramente nei passi relativi alle pratiche alimentari, laddove, per esempio, Agostino fa notare come agli Uditori, per esempio, sia permesso persino dedicarsi ad attività profane quali l’agricoltura e tutto ciò che ad essa consegue come seminare e raccogliere, operazioni ritenute sacrileghe dagli Eletti, o, ancora, poter mangiar carne e bere vino.Diversamente vanno, invece, le cose per i “Perfetti”, il cui regime di sussistenza è ridotto allo stretto indispensabile secondo uno stile di vita improntato al digiuno, alla preghiera e all’astinenza. Sono così loro proibiti i cibi grassi, le bevande inebrianti ed ogni gesto dannoso perpetuato nei confronti dei vegetali.Tali proibizioni alimentari, discussi da Agostino nell’oris signaculum, la cui critica occupa da sola i tre quarti dello sviluppo dedicato ai tre sigilli nel suo De moribus manichaeorum, sono fonte di grande interesse per il vescovo d’Ippona il quale non manca di prendere in esame, spesso con tono sarcastico, ciascun aspetto di questi rigidi precetti rivelandone quelle che per lui sono immancabili contraddizioni: «Smettete ... di lusingare gli ignoranti celebrando il sigillo della bocca come qualcosa di grande. A meno che per caso non riteniate il mangiare crne e il non bere vino un sigillo della bocca degno di ammirazione e lode».Il colore, l’odore e il sapore, tre criteri che guidano e orientano i manichei nella scelta dei cibi e che corrispondono ad altrettanti organi sensoriali, la vista, l’olfatto sentinella del terzo dei sensi chiamati in causa, quello del gusto, divengono per Agostino occasione non solo di riflessione ma di spunto polemico al fine di dimostrare come, spesso, limitarsi a giudicare la bontà o meno di un cibo servendosi di solo uno di questi sensi alla volta , porti a cadere in terribili errori di giudizio. Del resto, Dio non è qualcosa di materiale che possa essere percepito con i sensi ed è, dunque, assurdo ritenere che lo si possa scoprire con la vista, con l’olfatto, o con il gusto. (shrink)

Arash Arjomandi, discípulo cercano de Eugenio Trías, junto a quien se nutrió de los principios fundamentales de la inteligencia fronteriza, intenta descubrir aquí, en compañía del lector, las prescripciones o reglas para tener una vida buena (según expresión de muchos filósofos), es decir, aquellas prácticas cotidianas que sincronicen, de un modo sostenible, la satisfacción con la vida, por un lado, y el placer o deleite, por otro. Si bien este texto es resultado de un pensamiento filosófico profundo, tiene la pretensión (...) de serle útil al gran público. Ello responde al principal móvil que le guía siempre en sus trabajos: contribuir, desde la meditación filosófica, al bien común promoviendo cambios creativos en los hábitos de pensamiento y, por tanto, en los hábitos de actuación. En medio de la ingente cantidad de ensayos que se publican cada año sobre la felicidad, la gran innovación de este libro es que no adopta una perspectiva psicológica del asunto, sino que apuesta por una visión filosófica, aunque práctica; en ningún caso, abstracta. De ahí que sea un texto orientado, de parte a parte, a la provisión de instrumentos reflexivos pero útiles para cualquier tipo de lector, aunque no tenga el menor interés por la filosofía. Arjomandi continua en este libro el estilo de escritura que inauguró en su anterior ensayo, "La alquimia filosofal", un subgénero que, en la prensa, Pablo d’Ors denominó halagüeñamente intriga filosófica, es decir, un género ensayístico que persigue, mediante pistas racionales, la demostración de una intuición a la manera de una pesquisa detectivesca. (shrink)

No cabe entender la filosofía como una mera rapsodia de opiniones, ni de comentarios ad hoc, ni de retóricas solemnes... por más que puedan ser originales o ingeniosos. Los conceptos filosóficos —al igual que los términos de la ciencia o del propio lenguaje ordinario— están trabados, forman un sistema y sólo cuando se ha controlado en mayor o menor medida un territorio de conceptos e ideas, es posible confrontar ese pensamiento con otros. Incluso, a veces, es el criterio mismo de (...) «sistematización» la clave de una filosofía. Porque una filosofía no sólo puede ser ejercida de hecho como un sistema, sino que puede apelar a cierta coherencia y completud, representándose a sí misma como tal sistema. Uno de los sistemas filosóficos más interesantes en el panorama filosófico español es el de Eugenio Trías, cuya obra, La edad del espíritu, articula la relación entre el Tiempo y el Conocimiento. (shrink)

"Hay quien va por la vida viéndola, dejándose sorprender por la existencia". Esta obra es una aproximación laica a los fundamentos de la experiencia mística. Ayudándose de pensadores contemporáneos como Eugenio Trías, Marià Corbí o María Zambrano, la autora fundamenta el silencio de sí como peculiar vía de conocimiento y explora las formas en las que éste pueda favorecerse. Es una invitación a adentrarse en la lucidez asombrada como núcleo de una experiencia de vida plenamente humana. Mediante la relectura (y (...) el redescubrimiento) de los maestros del camino interior -exploradores del conocimiento silencioso-, se pondrá en evidencia la práctica de un peculiar esfuerzo de desegocentración como medio de sutilización de las capacidades humanas. La exploración de La nube del no-saber, del Bhagavad Gîta, o de las obras de Maestro Eckhart, Rûmî, Al-Yîlî, Lanfranchi, Juan de la Cruz, Teresa de Jesús, Nisargadatta Maharaj o Yoka Daishi entre otros, nos acerca a unas lecciones de vida que, nacidas de la experiencia mística, dejarán al descubierto la aportación propia e insustituible de ese rico legado. (shrink)

El propósito de este artículo es el de investigar algunos conceptos de la Filosofía del límite de Eugenio Trías y de la noción de “genealogía” propuesta por Michel Foucault.Expuestos a partir de tres trilogías de imágenes, se desprenden diálogos que ayudan a pensar cómo se develan esas sombras de la existencia que se esconden en los pliegues de lo racional. La gran pregunta tiene que ver con el “entorno matricial” y con el movimiento de “exilio y éxodo” del ser. Las (...) imágenes elegidas funcionan como “hitos genealógicos” foucoultianos: esas “verdades sin apariencia” y “sin historia” que emergen presentando vinculaciones que inducen a otras lecturas hermenéuticas.El artículo vuelve siempre otra vez -a partir de algunas de las imágenes elegidas- a pensarse desde San Juan / Argentina, sitio que tensiona e implica, en este caso, la existencia de todas estas reflexiones y su conexión visual. (shrink)

Part of the baths regulations preserved on a bronze plaque, engraved more or less identically on each side, from the copper mine at Vipasca, Lusitania. The manager is to wash, clean and grease the waterheating vats once a month. Such vats, as mentioned by Vitruvius in his discussion of public baths , were three in number: aena supra hypocausim tria sunt componenda. They were sizeable articles: Propertius seems to see himself tortured in one: Veneris torrebar aeno. The greasing was to (...) keep aerugo, copper rust, at bay; for this purpose Cato in general recommends amurca, lees of olive oil: ahena omnia amurca unguito…et aerugo non erit molesta; and also for greasing axles amurca axem unguito. For bronze tablets exposed to the weather such as the numerous public records on temple walls and the like Pliny recommends olive oil: aera…robiginem celerius trahunt…nisi oleo perunguantur. The phrase e recenti which occurs in both versions of the text is unexampled, and the CIL editors suggest that it means ex integro, afresh. However I am inclined to think that the engraver had a faulty copy in front of him and we should read adipe recenti. (shrink)

This ar ti cle pre tends to be a the o ret i cal in cur sion into the mag matic world of pas sion con ceived as the un chained power of hu man acts. This pa per is in spired in the works of the Span ish phi los o pher Eugenio Trías, and pro - poses pas sion as a ba sic cat e gory from which to ..

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:American Journal of Philology 125.2 (2004) 279-283 [Access article in PDF] J. N. Adams, Mark Janse, and Simon Swain, eds. Bilingualism in Ancient Society: Language Contact and the Written Word. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. x + 483 pp. Cloth, $98. There are some issues, and bilingualism is one of them, that have been mainstays in the scholarly dialogue of classicists and historical linguists for centuries. This interest has (...) been fueled in part by the frequent references to Greek/Latin bilingualism in the ancient record, especially in connection with what Adams (Bilingualism and the Latin Language, 9) calls "élite bilinguals," i.e., upper-class Romans who were skilled in Greek. For example, Quintilian (1.1.12) says: "a sermone Graeco puerum incipere malo, quia Latinum, qui pluribus in usu est, vel nobis nolentibus perbibet." Cicero (Verr. 4.127), attacking Verres for his lack of cultivation, has the following harsh words: "tum epigramma Graecum pernobile incisum est in basi, quod iste eruditus homo et Graeculus, qui haec subtiliter iudicat, qui solus intellegit, si unam litteram Graecam scisset, certe non sustulisset." There is a notable passage in Gellius (17.17.1; commentary by Skutsch, The Annals of Q. Ennius, Oxford 1975, 749-50) in which he affirms the proficiency of Ennius in Greek, Latin and Oscan, and that of the famed king Mithridates, who was said to be fluent in twenty-five different languages ("Quintus Ennius tria corda habere sese dicebat, quod loqui Graece et Osce et Latine sciret. Mithridates autem... quinque et viginti gentium quas sub dicione habuit linguas percalluit").But as is the case with many everyday commonsense notions, bilingualism is far more complex, and far more interesting, than has been thought previously. Bilingual societies have to some extent been unappreciated and have certainly been underanalyzed by scholars of the ancient world. The reasons are obvious but merit restatement: although bilingualism in ancient societies was an everyday fact of life, most of them did not have "language policies" governing the use of languages in particular social settings and therefore offer no scholarly or administrative discourse on the matter. Furthermore, the study of ancient bilingualism depends crucially on the existence of certain kinds of (bilingual) materials, a knowledge of the languages in question (not only Greek and Latin), and on subtle sociolinguistic notions, which are generally not in the repertoire of the literary or historical scholar, or the historical linguist.But this is all beginning to change, as scholars of antiquity begin to discover the features—psychological, sociological, and linguistic—that defined bilingual societies. Work has appeared recently by Indo-Europeanists conversant in dialectology and sociolinguistic principles: see, for example, Neumann and [End Page 279] Untermann, Die Sprachen im Römischen Reich der Kaiserzeit (Cologne 1980); Campanile, Cardona, and Lazzeroni, eds., Bilinguismo e biculturalismo nel mondo antico (Pisa 1988); and Dunkel, "Remarks on Code-Switching in Cicero's Letters to Atticus" (Museum Helveticum 57, 2000). There is also work by classical philologists who have applied the methods and approaches of sociolinguistics, such as Flobert, e.g., "Les grafittes de La Graufesenque; Un témoinage sur le gallo-latin sous Néron," in Iliescu and Marxgut, eds., Latin vulgaire-latin tardif iii (Tübingen 1992), and in this volume; and Biville, e.g., "Compétence bilingue latino-grecque et manipulations interlinguistiques," in La Koiné grecque antique, vol. 3 (Nancy 1998), also in this volume; and especially the recent massive volume by Adams, Bilingualism and the Latin Language (Cambridge 2003).The volume under review results from a conference held at the University of Reading in 1998. There are fifteen chapters, including a useful introductory essay by the editors. The introductory chapter is an important one for the classicist, since it contains discussion and explanation of many technical concepts that are central to the study of bilingual individuals and societies. The book contains two methodological essays in the introduction (D. L. Langslow, "Approaching Bilingualism in Corpus Languages"; and K. Versteegh, "Dead or Alive? The Status of the Standard Language"); four chapters on Greek-Latin bilingualism (F. Biville, "The Graeco-Romans and Graeco-Latin: A... (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:Ennius and the Architecture of the Annales by Jackie Elliott, and: The Annals of Quintus Ennius and the Italic Tradition by Jay Fisher, and: Shaggy Crowns: Ennius’ Annales and Virgil’s Aeneid by Nora GoldschmidtThomas BiggsJackie Elliott. Ennius and the Architecture of the Annales. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013. xiv + 590. Hardcover, $110.00.Jay Fisher. The Annals of Quintus Ennius and the Italic Tradition. Baltimore: Johns (...) Hopkins University Press, 2014. x + 206. Hardcover, $69.95.Nora Goldschmidt. Shaggy Crowns: Ennius’ Annales and Virgil’s Aeneid. Oxford Classical Monographs. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. x + 258. Hardcover, $125.00.According to Aulus Gellius, Ennius claimed to have three hearts, each representing a part of his hybrid cultural identity (Gel. 17.71.1: Quintus Ennius tria corda habere sese dicebat, quod loqui Graece et Osce et Latine sciret). Matching his hearts in number, the three books under review delve into the various Greek, Italic, and Latin influences on Ennius’ eighteen-book Annales, exploring the epic’s literary heritage and reception. One might rightly claim that in the wake of these important contributions (1088 pages for 623 fragments), we have firmly entered an aetas Enniana. The elephant in the room for all those interested in the poem is, of course, its highly fragmentary state of preservation. Instead of serving as an insurmountable obstacle, the scholarly process of interpreting fragmentary texts actually emerges as a shared feature of the methodologies on display in these otherwise quite different works. While Fisher and Goldschmidt push the limits of what an incomplete epic can communicate, Elliott more skeptically tackles the nature of transmission and its impact on our knowledge of the text.Ennius’ Oscan heart, representing his Italic heritage, takes center stage in Fisher’s study. Many readers will find most original and striking his arguments for the epic resonance and formulaic quality of “traditional” Latin phrases and their links with languages such as Umbrian and Oscan. Fisher relies throughout on the meaningful co-occurrence of communicative words, “traditional collocation” (3), and the use of language from various “traditional” cultural fields such as ritual, prayer, kinship, and the military (he adopts Lowell Edmunds’ concept of “system reference,” 5). According to Fisher, Ennius’ use of these culturally marked forms of language, shaped during the period of the central Italian koine\ (seventh to fourth centuries b.c.e.), allows his epic to include and enact an elevated tone appropriate to the inherited demands of his genre. While Ennius’ revolutionary turn to the hexameter may initially suggest a decision to abandon all that is old (or perhaps old-fashioned) about “native” literary culture, the pervasive presence of the Italic militates against severing Ennius from the lifeblood pumped through his Oscan heart. In fact, the dialogue between “foreign and familiar” aspects of culture is key to Fisher’s demonstration of how the Italic past emerges as a ghostly mediator and occasional replacement of superficially Greek and Homeric elements (10, 56, 85).With a presumed audience of Latinists, it is somewhat surprising that the introduction, “Ennius and the Italic Tradition,” devotes little time to outlining his rather unique methodology. But Fisher prefers to show rather than tell. On page 5 he jumps right into an analysis of Skutsch Ann. 232 (non semper vostra [End Page 713] evortit nunc Iuppiter hac stat), the language and context of Jupiter Stator in Cicero Cat. 1, and the Oscan Jupiter Versor: he convincingly connects Oscan Iovi Versori with Ennius’ evortit... Iuppiter (8). While the particulars of the argument take a winding course through various temples and texts, it is the act itself of probing seemingly commonplace language to reveal linguistic and cultural significance that highlights the best of what Fisher has to offer.Chapter 2, “The Annals and the Greek Tradition,” traces the Italic features of the epic through what one might call cross-lingual window-allusion. For example, Ann. 1 (Musae quae pedibus magnum pulsatis Olympum) contains a well-known substitution of the Greek Musae for his predecessors’ Camenae, but Fisher draws our attention to the “native Latin tradition” of the Salian priests’ tripudium behind pedibus... pulsatis: “if the collocation pedem pulsare is a traditional expression for... (shrink)

One currently popular methodology of metaphysics has it that ‘intuitions’ play an evidential role with respect to metaphysical claims. This chapter defends a realist methodology of metaphysics that implies that any rational being, simply in virtue of being rational, is necessarily capable of grasping the essences of at least some mind-independent entities. The notion of essence in play here is Aristotelian, whereby an entity’s essence is captured by an account of what that entity is, or what it is to be (...) that entity. Concepts are just ways of thinking of things and, as such, may or may not be adequate to the real natures — the essences — of the things being thought of. Our ‘intuitions’, particularly as revealed by aptly constructed thought experiments, may cast interesting light on some of our concepts, but they are not and cannot be reliable guides to mind-independent truths of essence. (shrink)

Spinoza's writings on metaphysics, ethics, and politics have had a remarkably diverse reception in recent times and have contributed to the current dialogue among philosophers, intellectual historians, and literary theorists.Errol E. Harris has written a brief and simplified introductory presentation of the major branches of Spinoza's philosophy. Spinoza's ideas are put forward in plain language and supported by convincing argument. Technicalities are either clearly explained or entirely avoided. Professor Harris also shows the student how Spinoza succeeded in reconciling the insights (...) of both the British empiricists and the continental rationalists.Errol E. Harris (Ambleside, Cumbria, England) is John Evans Professor of Moral and Intellectual Philosophy (Emeritus) at Northwestern University, and the author of Fundamentals of Philosophy, Spinoza's Philosophy: An Outline, The Substance of Spinoza, The Foundations of Metaphysics in Science, Hypothesis and Perception, Cosmos and Anthropos: A Philosophical Interpretation of the Anthropic Cosmological Principle, Cosmos and Theos: Ethical and Theological Implications of the Anthropic Cosmological Principle, and One World or None: Prescription for Survival. (shrink)

A remarkable collection of photographs by an ex-Marine who worked as a lawyer in Lawrence County, Ohio, for around thirty-six years.

Because corporate social responsibility (CSR) is potentially beneficial for companies, it is important to understand the factors that improve a company’s CSR practice. Scholars hypothesize that facilitating learning organization characteristics, which are divided in characteristics at the organizational and the operational level, may improve CSR implementation. These characteristics stimulate companies and their members to be critical, learn from the past, and embrace change, but there is limited empirical evidence of this approach. This study addresses this gap by surveying 280 CSR (...) professionals and performing bootstrap mediation analyses to test multiple hypotheses. Learning organization characteristics at the organizational level, play a key role in supporting CSR implementation: leadership for learning, system connection, and group learning show a direct relationship with CSR implementation. It is striking that the role of the learning organization characteristics at the operational level is only indirect; the organizational characteristics mediate their relationship with CSR implementation. (shrink)

This book is about the mind and its connection to the brain. The first two chapters discuss the basic characteristics of the mind, and places it in historical context by noting trends in popular culture, and various people's ideas about the mind. This discussion ends by concluding that the most fruitful approach to studying the mind is a scientific approach that looks for connections between the mind and the brain. The last four chapters focus on the following specific principles: The (...) operation of the mind is hidden; Prediction is an important function of the mind; and Connectivity and communication between different areas of the mind are crucial for the mind's operation. An important feature of this discussion is that it is supported by empirical research, by briefly describing experiments. This book therefore goes beyond simply presenting conclusions, by elucidating the procedures and reasoning that led to those conclusions. The intent of the book is to give readers a feel for the latest scientific thinking about the mind, by focusing on basic principles that hold across many different functions of the mind. One key to marketing the book is to emphasize the fact that the writing makes a fascinating, but complex, subject accessible to the general reader. (shrink)