The conception of “prospective potency” was defined by its author H.Driesch as “the sum of the possible modes of development of a given part of the embryo”. However, in the language of science the word “potency” usually means “power”, not “possibility”. Therefore this conception from the beginning possessed a certain ambiguity, that it retained up to the present. The distinction of “active” and “passive” potency, introduced by Roux, has found no general acceptance. It appeared necessary to submit the conception of (...) “potency” to a profound analysis. In the first place it is shown, that the ambiguity of this conception vanishes, if we understand by the word “potency” those fundamental properties of the embryonic material, that are responsible for its various developmental possibilities. We can distinguish among these properties the “reactive powers”, by which the embryonic material reacts to inductive stimulations, and its own “developmental tendencies”. These faculties only differ by their strength; a “reactive power” may change into a “tendency”, when its intensity increases during development; conversely, a “tendency” may change into a mere “reactive power” by a decrease of its strength. The determination of the material results from the conflict of its tendencies. The inductive actions interfere by strengthening or weakening different tendencies, and by activating new tendencies by reinforcement of the “reactive powers” of the embryonic material. (shrink)

This book raises in a new way a central question of Christology: what is the divine motive for the incarnation? Throughout Christian history a majority of Western theologians have agreed that God's decision to become incarnate in the person of Jesus Christ was made necessary by "the Fall": if humans had not sinned, the incarnation would not have happened. This position is known as "infralapsarian." A minority of theologians however, including some major 19th- and 20th-century theological figures, championed a "supralapsarian" (...) Christology, arguing that God has always intended the incarnation, independent of "the Fall." Edwin Chr. van Driel offers the first scholarly monograph to map and analyze the full range of supralapsarian arguments. He gives a thick description of each argument and its theological consequences, and evaluates the theological gains and losses inherent in each approach. Van Driel shows that each of the three ways in which God is thought to relate to all that is not God -- in creation, in redemption, and in eschatological consummation -- can serve as the basis for a supralapsarian argument. He illustrates this thesis with detailed case studies of the Christologies of Schleiermacher, Dorner, and Barth. He concludes that the most fruitful supralapsarian strategy is rooted in the notion of eschatological consummation, taking interpersonal interaction with God to be the goal of the incarnation. He goes on to develop his own argument along these lines, concluding in an eschatological vision in which God is visually, audibly, and tangibly present in the midst of God's people. (shrink)

Previous studies of auditory expectation have focused on the expectedness perceived by listeners retrospectively in response to events. In contrast, this research examines predictive uncertainty —a property of listeners' prospective state of expectation prior to the onset of an event. We examine the information-theoretic concept of Shannon entropy as a model of predictive uncertainty in music cognition. This is motivated by the Statistical Learning Hypothesis, which proposes that schematic expectations reflect probabilistic relationships between sensory events learned implicitly through exposure. Using (...) probability estimates from an unsupervised, variable-order Markov model, 12 melodic contexts high in entropy and 12 melodic contexts low in entropy were selected from two musical repertoires differing in structural complexity (simple and complex). Musicians and non-musicians listened to the stimuli and provided explicit judgments of perceived uncertainty (explicit uncertainty). We also examined an indirect measure of uncertainty computed as the entropy of expectedness distributions obtained using a classical probe-tone paradigm where listeners rated the perceived expectedness of the final note in a melodic sequence (inferred uncertainty). Finally, we simulate listeners' perception of expectedness and uncertainty using computational models of auditory expectation. A detailed model comparison indicates which model parameters maximize fit to the data and how they compare to existing models in the literature. The results show that listeners experience greater uncertainty in high-entropy musical contexts than low-entropy contexts. This effect is particularly apparent for inferred uncertainty and is stronger in musicians than non-musicians. Consistent with the Statistical Learning Hypothesis, the results suggest that increased domain-relevant training is associated with an increasingly accurate cognitive model of probabilistic structure in music. (shrink)

Das ältere Mittelindisch im Überblick. Oskar von Hinüber. 2., erweiterte Auflage Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 2001. 344 pp. €45.10. ISBN 3-7001-0761-7.

dBu ma sar gsum gyi ston thun. Phya pa Chos kyi sen ge. Edited by Helmut Tauscher. Vienna 1999. XXXIII, 146 pp.

The "Khandha Passages" in the Vinayapitaka and the four main Nikayas. Tilmann Vetter. Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Vienna 2000. 357 pp. ASch. 774. ISBN 3-7001-2932-7.

Treatise on Mimamsa philosophy; critical edition.

The Salistamba Sutra and its Indian Commentaries. Jeffrey D. Schoening. Volume I. Translation with Annotation. Volume II. Tibetan Editions. Wiener Studien zur Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde 35, 1-2. Vienna 1995. pp.xx, 388; ix, 382. ATS 850.

Ancient Indian Coins. Osmund Bopearachchi and Wilfried Pieper., Brepols, Turnhout 1998. 289 pp. + 59 plates. €88. ISBN 2-503-50730-1 Uygur Buddhist Literature. Johan Elverskog., Brepols, Turnhout 1997. 154 pp. €43. ISBN 2-503-50544-9.

Cultivating a Daily Meditation. Dalai Lama XIV. LTWA, Dharamsala 1991. xiv, 137 pp. No price given.

Emptiness Appraised. A Critical Study of Nagarjuna's Philosophy. David F. Burton. Curzon Press, Richmond 1999. XV, 233 pp. £40.00. ISBN 0 7007 1066 3.

Epistemology and Spiritual Authority. Vittorio A. van Bijlert., Vienna 1989. 191 pp. ÖS 230.00.

India in Early Greek Literature. Klaus Karttunen. Studia Orientalia 65, Helsinki 1989. vi, 295 pp. FIM 150. ISBN 951-9380-10-8. India and the Hellenistic World. Klaus Karttunen. Studia Orientalia 83, Helsinki 1997. x, 439 pp. FIM 200. ISBN 951-9380-35-3.

Stanislaw Schayer: O filozofowaniu Hindusów. Artykuly wybrane. Wybral i wstepam opatrzyl Marek Mejor. Warsaw 1988. 539 pp. Zl 1100.