In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:American Journal of Philology 122.3 (2001) 451-454 [Access article in PDF] Susan P. Mattern. Rome and the Enemy: Imperial Strategy in the Principate. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1999. xxi + 259 pp. Cloth, $35.00. This well-written book is nothing if not bold. Its time frame is, broadly speaking, the first two and a half centuries A.D. Its basis is the view that has met (...) increasingly wide acceptance over the past quarter-century, that the Romans' conduct of foreign relations was altogether different from what we assume of modern states. The Roman mindset, motivation, intelligence, and strategy are all alien to us and thus require evaluation on their own terms. Consequently, in five chapters Mattern first examines the character and education of Rome's small decision-making elite. She next moves to their "image of the world," variously gained through campaigning, geographical knowledge, intelligence, and ethnology. A chapter on strategy follows, treating the size and deployment of the Roman army and the different means by which the empire was defined and defended. Income and expenditure are the focus of the fourth chapter, with particular reference to the expense of maintaining the army, the cost of warfare, and the economic gain to be made from conquests. Finally a chapter on "values" concludes the book--the unashamed glorification of conquest, the prestige accruing to the Romans in general and to the emperor in particular, and reinforcement of the sense that it was discipline, both moral and organizational, that made Rome supreme over other peoples. [End Page 451]The discussion of all these aspects displays insight and balanced judgment, and the accompanying bibliography is valuable (some notes are repetitious, however: cf. 117 n. 163 with 172 n. 36). The work of Ampelius (ed. Budé 1993) might have been cited (25) as another example of how weak even a schoolmaster's geographical knowledge could be. Although, to be sure, it is true that "bird's-eye view" was hardly an option for Roman representations of the world (26), we might still recall Artemidorus' (Oneirocritica 2.68) vision of dreamers flying along and looking down at the landscape below, while the presentation of Rome's Marble Plan is large-scale and ichnographic. The Tabula Banasitana (AE 1971.534) merits citing as a prime example of Marcus Aurelius' pondering with care the bestowal of benefits upon people on a remote fringe of the empire (180). In stating that we shall never know where the Teutoburg Forest was, let alone the site of Varus' defeat (167), Mattern seems to overlook the finds made at Kalkriese (see now W. Schlüter in J. D. Creighton and R. J. A. Wilson, eds., Roman Germany: Studies in Cultural Interaction [1999] 125-59); equally, she shows no awareness of a kernel of truth in the tradition that Hadrian abandoned Dacia, at least in part (104; cf. Barrington Atlas, Directory, 1376). In treating the Roman concern to save "face" (177), there is more to be made of L. Caesennius Paetus as scapegoat. The major step of annexing Armenia must surely reflect instructions he brought with him from Rome, rather than just a personal preference (cf. 92 n. 46), but all the blame for the rapid, catastrophic failure of the annexation attempt is then heaped upon him alone. Tacitus grasped Rome's vulnerability in this region. He has the Parthian cavalry commander Vasaces coolly dismiss Paetus' bluster about long-standing Roman control there: "imaginem retinendi largiendive penes nos, vim penes Parthos" (Ann. 15.14). Later, after Corbulo's diplomatic victory, Tacitus can detail the official tokens of respect insisted upon by Tiridates during his journey to Rome and conclude ironically: "scilicet externae superbiae sueto non inerat notitia nostri apud quos vis imperii valet, inania tramittuntur" (Ann. 15.31).These and other sundry observations aside, it is the book's principal thesis that invites comment, namely Mattern's sweeping claim: "I would argue that Rome's real strategy lay in the realm of psychology. The empire was defended not by 'scientific frontiers,' however we might choose to... (shrink)

daftar-i avval. Mabāḥis̲-i maʻrifatʹshinākhtī va ravishʹshinākhtī --.

The author recounts major personal and moral tensions that arose during an 11-month period living in Ghana and shares how she has since learned to reconcile those tensions.

ʻAyyānī, Yaḥyá ibn Ḥumaydān, ca. 12th century; Muslim scholars; Yemen; views on Islamic philosophy.

Believers regularly refer to God as “forgiving and merciful” when praying for divine forgiveness. If one is committed to divine immutability and impassability, as Maimonides is, one must deny that God is capable, in principle, of acting in a forgiving manner. If one rejects divine impassability, maintaining that God has a psychology, as Muffs does, one must reckon with biblical depictions of divine vengeance and rage. Such depictions suggest that while being capable, in principle, of acting in a forgiving way, (...) God has a difficulty to manage God’s anger and do so in practice. Employing a Wittgensteinian perspective, I argue that utterances, e.g., “God merciful and gracious, slow to anger. . . forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin”, need not be understood as involving mistaken or confused descriptions of God’s nature and manner of acting. Rather, they can be understood as speech-acts of various types and functions: mystical, theurgic and others, that purport to bring about or transform various states of affairs in this world and/or beyond it. As such, they can function as non-semantic instruments that purport to elevate the believer to the “upper worlds”, or as anger-management devices that purport to help God implement His second order desire to act in a forgiving manner, despite His difficulty to do so. (shrink)

The paper is concerned with the question of the existence of moral dilemmas, conceived of as situations involving a subject in a conflict of non‐overridden moral obligations. I reject some of the presuppositions underlying discussions of this question and argue that certain morally relevant choices cannot be evaluated in relation to an all‐things‐considered moral obligation as permissible or impermissible, right or wrong. In arguing for the inadequacy of our ordinary moral predicates for fully capturing the nature of such choices, I (...) argue that they are, in certain respects, inexpressible. (shrink)

It seems that the choice for the subject "Christian Ethics in Ukrainian Culture" was made by everyone: the so-called "traditional Churches" and the authorities. The move, however, leaves much room for thought. First, who will teach this subject in educational institutions? We propose to use the experience not only of the western regions of Ukraine, including Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, etc., but also of the Ostroh Academy National University. When on March 24, 2000, the Rivne Regional Council decided to introduce the subject (...) of Christian ethics in Rivne schools, the National University "Ostroh Academy" became one of the basic training centers for teachers of Christian ethics. The creation of a faculty for the training of teachers of Christian ethics caused, accordingly, the recruitment of students. (shrink)

Antik Mısır’da Meryem isminin yazılışı mr sözcüğüyledir, sevilen anlamına gelir. İsis de Meryem de, özü itibarıyla aynı Tanrıça olduğu gibi Tanrısal ananın aynı bedenleşmiş görünümüdür. Bu nedenle, Hıristiyanlar, İsis’in tapınaklarını yıkıp yerle bir etmişler ve tapınanlarını da öldürmüşler; fakat bütün bu olup bitenlere rağmen, İsis, Meryem’e beslenilen iman ve tapınmada yaşamaya devam etmiştir. Nitekim İsis’e okyanus yıldızı anlamına gelen “Pelagia” unvanı verilmişken, benzeri şekilde Meryem de denizyıldızı olarak tanınmıştır. İştar ya da İnanna’nın tanındığı unvanlar gibi, Meryem de İsis’e verilen “Göğün (...) Kraliçesi” unvanını paylaşmıştır. İsis, Tanrıça konumuyla her şeyin hükmedicisini yansıtırken; Meryem de, Kutsal Ruh ya da Tanrı ailesi olarak eşleştirilen gökteki yücelmeyi ve taçlanmayı temsil etmektedir. (shrink)

Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı, 3 Mart 1924’te, Şeriye ve Evkaf Vekaleti’nin yerine kurulmuştur. Bu düzenleme ile dini konular, siyasal alanın dışına çıkarılıp idari bir işleve indirgenmek istenmiştir. Ancak bu tercihin aksine kurumun görev ve yetkilerinde ve teşkilatında artan ve büyüyen bir seyir ortaya çıkmıştır. Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı’na kurulduğundan bu yana birçok misyon yüklenmiştir. Dinin devlet tarafından kontrol edilmesi, daha çok kurucu iradenin ve militan laiklik taraftarlarının beklentilerini yansıtırken, dini nitelikli hizmetlerin karşılanması ise daha çok muhafazakâr kesimin beklentisi olmuştur. Her iki taraf (...) da kurumu, Türkiye’nin sosyal, tarihsel ve siyasal dokusunun sui generis niteliğiyle meşrulaştırmaya çalışmıştır. Özellikle 633 Sayılı Kanun’dan (1965) sonra Başkanlık, sosyal hayatın daha çok içinde olmaya başlamış ve 1980 sonrası dönemde sosyal ve milli dayanışmanın sağlanması için bir araç olarak görülmüştür. Bu durum, 1982 Anayasası’nın korporatist ve solidarist özelliklerinin bir yansımasıdır. Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı’nın bu şekilde araçsallaştırılması onun yıllar içinde bu derece büyümesinin temel itici gücü olmuştur. (shrink)

Zihin felsefesindeki güçlü temsilci kuramlara göre, bilinç durumlarının fenomenal yönü, temsil içeriklerine tam olarak indirgenerek açıklanabilir olduğu kabul edilmektedir. Özellikle ağrı gibi nesnesi tam olarak belirlenemeyen algı deneyimleri, güçlü temsilci teorilere karşı argümanların geliştirilmesinde sıkça kullanılmaktadır. Güçlü temsilci teorilere göre, bilincin fenomenal özellikleri temsil içeriklerine indirgenir ve temsil içerikleri izlenme teorileri aracılığıyla dışsal fiziksel süreçlerle bağlantı kurularak fizikalist kuramlara uygun bir şekilde açıklanır. Bu makalede, ağrı deneyimi özelinde vücutsal duyuların şeffaflık argümanı temelinde güçlü temsilci teorilere çıkardığı zorluklar ele alınacaktır. Ağrı (...) deneyiminin özgünlüğünü vurgulamak için öne sürülen gerçeklik/görünüş ayrımı argümanının, nesne/algı/edim ayrımının örtük bir kabulüne dayandığı öne sürülecek ve makalenin sonunda bilişsel bilimlerin deneysel verileri ile ağrı deneyimi özelinde gerçeklik/görünüş ayrımı argümanının sağlam bir temele dayanamayacağı savunulacaktır. (shrink)

David Schweickart has challenged a number of claims that are central to my argument that market socialism would probably degenerate into something only nominally distinguishable from capitalism. Chief among these is the claim that competitive pressures would force the workers in a worker-controlled firm to create pay and authority differentials that would make such firms structurally homologous to capitalist firms. Schweickart challenges this on two fronts: He argues that there is no good reason to believe that market forces under market (...) socialism would create the pay and authority differentials characteristic of capitalism. He further argues that certain structural features of market socialism would insure that competition would not be as intense as it is under capitalism. Consequently, even if capitalistically structured firms were more efficient, it would not make much difference, since no sword of Damocles would hang over the heads of those firms whose workers prefer more collectivist methods of control. Let us consider each of these points in turn. (shrink)