The gold coin found in 1978 among the many treasures of the Tillya Tepe burials in northwestern Afghanistan by the Russian archaeologist Viktor Sarianidi and his team has provoked much debate. Suggestions have been made that it depicts the first representation of the Buddha. This article shows that it does not show the Buddha, but Heracles, representing the Buddha’s guardian Vajrapani. The coin also throws into doubt the early first century CE date of the burials, placing them in the late (...) first century to early second century CE.. The coin also draws attention to the connection between many objects in the burials and Gandhāra, particularly the site of Sirkap at Taxila. (shrink)

Iranian copper coins of the Qajar era—all described by the word falus—have a great variety of designs, weights, and sizes. These coins sometimes also include letters and phrases that are undeciphered to date. This article uses siyāq script to read some of these mystery notations for the first time. The multiple fascinating examples of siyāq numbers found thereby on Qajar coins and countermarks show that, contrary to former belief, some copper coins of this era had specific (...) face values written on them in the siyāq script. This research uses these copper coins to take a small step toward a better understanding of the monetary system of the Qajar era by introducing several denominations never reported before. Finally, as siyāq script had never been discovered on coins, this new possibility now allows numismatists and scholars to revisit and correct former interpretations or to intro- duce and decipher new coins in the future. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:American Journal of Philology 121.2 (2000) 237-258 [Access article in PDF] The Inauguration of Lentulus Niger Patrick Tansey AppendicesMore than half a century ago, in the course of a groundbreaking article in this journal on the composition of the pontifical college in the first century B.C., Lily Ross Taylor attempted to fix the date of the banquet held in honor of the inauguration of L. Cornelius Lentulus Niger as (...) flamen Martialis. 1 She was partially successful, but the precise date eluded her. Her article remains fundamental, but the question of the date of the banquet can be profitably reconsidered. It so happens that a precise date is not beyond our grasp. What is more, we shall see that once the date of the banquet has been established, a number of important consequences follow.Macrobius preserves a remarkably detailed account of the banquet. For present purposes the guest list will suffice: refero enim pontificis vetustissimam cenam quae scripta est in indice quarto Metelli illius pontificis maximi in haec verba: ante diem nonum kalendas Septembres, quo die Lentulus flamen Martialis inauguratus est, domus ornata fuit, triclinia lectis eburneis strata fuerunt, duobus tricliniis pontifices cubuerunt, Q. Catulus, M. Aemilius Lepidus, D. Silanus, C. Caesar, rex sacrorum, P. Scaevola Sextus, Q. Cornelius, P. Volumnius, P. Albinovanus et L. Iulius Caesar augur qui eum inauguravit; in tertio triclinio Popilia, Perpennia, Licinia, Arruntia virgines Vestales, et ipsius uxor Publicia flaminica et Sempronia socrus eius. 2The passage contains a number of vital clues as to the date of the event. Macrobius states that he derived his account from the index quartus of the pontifex maximus Metellus--that is, Q. Caecilius Metellus Pius (cos. 80), pontifex maximus from 81 until his death in 64 or 63. We are also told that the banquet took place ante diem nonum kalendas Septembres [End Page 237] (22 August), though the year is not specified. In a brief note Mommsen elucidated a further clue and established the basic chronological parameters. He observed that among the pontifices in attendance was the young C. Caesar and that as a consequence the banquet must be dated after Caesar's entry into the pontifical college, which Mommsen placed in 74. 3 He also noted that the mention of Metellus Pius entailed that the banquet could be dated no later than Pius' death in 63. 4 He concluded that the banquet probably occurred not long before 63. 5There matters rested until, many years later, Taylor reconsidered the question at length. She acknowledged that the banquet must date between the years 74/73 and 64/63. However, she employed a complex and ingenious argument to show that the terminus post quem non for the banquet should be set back from 63 to 69. Following a suggestion of Marquardt and Wissowa, she argued that the lists in Macrobius' Saturnalia (3.13.10-11) and in Cicero's De Haruspicum Responsis (12) register the members of the pontifical college in order of their entry into the college. 6 Therefore, since the pontifex P. Sulpicius Galba does not appear [End Page 238] in Macrobius' list and is named after Lentulus Niger by Cicero, it follows that Niger's inauguration must have preceded the co-optation of Galba. Taylor argued further that the date of Galba's entry into the pontifical college could be fixed approximately, as Galba issued coins when curule aedile depicting the emblems of the pontificate, which suggests that he was already a pontifex by the time he held the aedileship. Finally, as Galba was an unsuccessful consular candidate for 63, and hence praetor by 66, Taylor contended that he was aedile at the latest in 69. Thus according to her chain of reasoning, Galba was a pontifex by 69, and the banquet in honor of Niger's inauguration must be dated no later than that year. Hence Taylor dated the banquet between the years 74/73 and 69. 7More recently Marinone used a novel argument in an attempt to fix the date of the banquet more precisely. He argued that Macrobius found the account of the banquet in... (shrink)

In 1987, Roy Sorensen coined the term “parahistory” to denote the hypothetical study of evidence retrieved via time travel. Parahistory would thus stand to history rather as parapsychology does to psychology; studying data (in this case artefacts) that are obtained in ways unrecognised by orthodox science. This paper considers future-derived parahistorical artefacts. Past/future asymmetries threaten irresolvable problems in calibrating future objects' periods, in dating future artefacts and insulating them from causal loops. In turn, causal loop objects at best cannot (...) be non-arbitrarily dated at all and at worst, cannot even be artefacts. Even if there can be evidence for travel from the future, any such evidence that appeals to future artefacts faces pervasive difficulties and is very unlikely to be compelling. (shrink)

Zusammenfassung Childs’ Rekonstruktion der Genealogien wird bestätigt: Der Pfeiler ist wahrscheinlich von Cherẽi und nicht von Cheriga errichtet worden. Die am Ende der Südseite erwähnten Schlachten fanden wahrscheinlich nicht später als 428 v. Chr. statt. Die auf der Ostseite erwähnten Aktionen sind wahrscheinlich nicht später als 424 v. Chr., weil Ertaχssiraza unmittelbar vor einer Aktion des Dynasten Teϑϑiweibi erwähnt wird und daher mit Artaxerxes I. gleichzusetzen ist. In einer zuvor berichteten militärischen Aktion erscheinen Miϑrapata, Aruwãtijesi und die „Triere des Cherẽi“. (...) Am Beginn der Nordseite gibt es einen Sprung bis wahrscheinlich 412/411 v. Chr., als der Satrap Tissaphernes in Kaunos tätig war. Am Ende des Prosatextes ist wahrscheinlich in ]welẽ der Name des Dynasten Ddenewele zu sehen, als „sein Sohn“, d. h. Cherẽis Sohn und Nachfolger. Die griechischen Verse danach rühmen den Sohn des Harpagos, und sein Name sollte nach dem Καρικα γένος zu [Καρ.]ις ergänzt werden, nicht zu [Γεργ]ις. Die ihm zugeschriebene Tötung von sieben arkadischen Hopliten an einem Tag erklärt die sonst kryptische Zahl CII im Feldzug gegen Tlos. Die anschließenden B-lykischen Verse gelten aber Cheriga, und das Nordgedicht mag zu seinen Lebzeiten gedichtet worden sein, weil er hier handelnd auftritt. Der einzige chronologische Fixpunkt ist die Schlacht an der Mykale 428 v. Chr., von der auf der Südseite berichtet wird. Im Westgedicht tritt eine Frau namens Muni an die Stelle des Cheriga, und das könnte seine Frau sein, die nach dem Tod des Cherẽi die Herrschaft übernommen haben könnte. Dieses Bild von der Pfeiler-Chronologie ist vereinbar mit Müselers Chronologie der dynastischen Münzen mit den Namen von Cheriga, Teϑϑiweibi, Cherẽi und Ddenewele. Allerdings können im Rahmen dieses Konzepts andere auf dem Pfeiler vorkommende Dynasten wie Trbbẽnimi, Miϑrapata und Aruwãtijesi nicht mit den gleichnamigen Münzprägern identisch sein, mit der möglichen Ausnahme des Punamuwa. Außerdem ist der Cheriga der Münzen zwar sicher mit dem Cheriga auf dem Pfeiler identisch, aber offenbar nicht mit Cheriga, dem Vater des Erbbina in den Letoon-Inschriften. Doch der Dynast Waχssepddimi auf dem Pfeiler ist möglichwerweise identisch mit dem älteren der beiden Weχssere genannten Dynasten, der im Xanthostal unmittelbar nach der Herrschaft des Kuprlli Münzen prägte. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Feminist Studies 41, no. 3. © 2015 by Feminist Studies, Inc. 509 Mytheli Sreenivas Birth Control in the Shadow of Empire: The Trials of Annie Besant, 1877–1878 In March 1877, two London activists provoked a debate about poverty and overpopulation that reverberated across metropole and colony. These activists, Annie Besant and Charles Bradlaugh, republished a book by the American physician Charles Knowlton that outlined methods to prevent conception. TheFruitsofPhilosophy,which (...) Bradlaugh and Besant provocatively subtitled An Essay on the Population Question, had been in limited circulation in Britain since 1833, but the book’s legality was called into question when its previous publisher was charged with obscenity in early 1877.1 Determined to establish the legal right to publish information about contraception, on March 23rd, 1877, Bradlaugh and Besant delivered copies of The Fruits of Philosophy to the police department, the city solicitor, and local magistrates, and they announced their intent to sell the book from their premises at the Freethought Publishing Company on Stonecutter Street in East London. The following day, a crowd filled the narrow space outside the publishing house, and the two activists sold hundreds of copies of Knowlton’s book. When no arrests were made, Besant and Bradlaugh renotified the authorities that they were selling a supposedly obscene book and were informed in turn that papers were 1. S. Chandrasekhar, “A Dirty, Filthy Book”: The Writings of Charles Knowlton and Annie Besant on Reproductive Physiology and Birth Control and an Account of the Bradlaugh-Besant Trial (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981), 26. 510 Mytheli Sreenivas being prepared for their arrest and prosecution. On the 7th of April, 1877, Besant and Bradlaugh were arrested and taken into custody.2 In their subsequent trial, the two activists linked birth control advocacy to a Malthusian worldview. They argued that the urban working classes and the rural poor in Britain labored under the burden of overpopulation. Humanitarian concern for impoverished people, and not intent to promote obscenity, drove them to disseminate information about birth control. Besant and Bradlaugh were eventually acquitted on a legal technicality, and Bradlaugh moved on to other issues. Besant, however, was dissatisfied with The Fruits of Philosophy because its methods were outdated by the science of the day. She was determined to write a more up-to-date guide explaining contraceptive methods and went on to found a Malthusian League to disseminate birth control information. These events—the trial and Besant’s further campaigns promoting contraception —mark a watershed moment in the history of birth control activism.3 They would shape how reproduction came to be understood not as a private matter, but as a particular sort of social problem, whose implications reverberated from London to the empire in India and back again. To outside observers, Bradlaugh and Besant may have seemed an unlikely pair to set these events into motion. Bradlaugh, at age forty-four, had a long history of association with radical causes. A celebrated atheist and antimonarchical republican, he helped to shape a tradition of mid-nineteenth-century English radicalism that developed in the wake of Chartist decline. As a member of the National Reform League in the 1860s, he had participated in public demonstrations to extend the franchise. His leadership of the National Secular Society made him a popular lecturer among Freethinkers on issues of political democracy, anticlericalism, and occasionally on neo-Malthusianism.4 2. Anne Taylor, Annie Besant: A Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992), 110–12. 3. The term “birth control” was coined in a meeting of Margaret Sanger and her associates in 1914, and thus would not have been in use in the late nineteenth century. The term contraception was not unknown, but had only limited circulation in scientific discourses. Nevertheless, I use both “birth control” and “contraception” interchangeably to mean methods to prevent conception. See Peter C. Engelman, A History of the Birth Control Movement in America (Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2011), xviii. 4. Taylor, Annie Besant, 80–81. Mytheli Sreenivas 511 In comparison to Bradlaugh’s prominence, Besant was relatively unknown. Her public career began after a separation from her husband, the Anglican vicar Frank Besant. Perhaps the couple were ill-suited to each other from... (shrink)

Over the past 50 years, technical advances have taken place in medicine that have greatly increased the possibilities of life-prolonging intervention. The increased possibilities of intervening have brought along new ethical questions. Not everything that is technically possible is appropriate in a specific case: not everything that could be done should be done. In the 1980s, a new term was coined to indicate a class of inappropriate interventions: “medically futile treatment”. A debate followed, with contributions from the USA and several (...) western European countries. A similar debate later took place in Mediterranean countries, although with a different terminology. The purpose of this article is to provide an up-to-date and systematic analysis of the concept of futility, and to draw some conclusions on its operationalisation in medical practice. While the concept of “medical futility” in theory applies to all kinds of medical intervention that might be performed without being medically indicated—things such as certain medical screenings and cosmetic surgery—in practice the literature on “futility” deals only with life-saving and life-sustaining medical interventions. This article deals with this more limited application of the concept of “futility”. (shrink)

This paper attempts to bring the work of Gilbert Simondon into conversation with contemporary discourse on climate change and the Anthropocene. Though his work pre-dates the coining of the term, Simondon, with his non-anthropomorphic view of technology, is in many ways a philosopher of the Anthropocene. In this paper I contrast Simondon’s philosophy to the popular idea that technology is something we can use to adapt to the practical problems of the Anthropocene. I will begin by looking briefly at the (...) narrative of adaptation in the Anthropocene. I will then discuss Simondon’s philosophy of individuation in order to understand why he rejects these narratives of adaptation. Next, I will look at his own ideas on the role that can be played by technology. Ultimately, I hope to describe why, for Simondon, a view of technology that centres on relation rather than on a particular view of the human subject is crucial to human life. The significance of a non-anthropomorphic approach to technology extends beyond the current ecological crisis to all manner of injustice, violence, and misunderstanding between human groups as well as the environment. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:The Reception of Husserl’s Phenomenology in Japanese PhilosophyShinji HamauzuWhen we talk about the influence of Husserl’s phenomenology, we should discuss in advance what can justify this talk. When we mention keywords— for instance, intuition of essence, intentionality, inner time-consciousness, rigorous science, natural attitude, phenomenological reduction, transcendental phenomenology, noesis-noema, my living body, genetic phenomenology, empathy, intersubjectivity, life-world, and so on—which keywords should we use when talking about the influence Husserl’s (...) phenomenology had on Japanese philosophy? But we should also ask the following question as well: Which of Husserl’s texts could be available for scholars of Japanese philosophy? Interestingly, there were few works, beyond attending Husserl’s lectures, that one could access, because he only published six books and six articles while he was alive. After Husserl died in 1938, many manuscripts were rescued from the Nazi’s hands and placed at Leuven University in Belgium where the Husserl Archive was first established. The manuscripts were edited and published as Husserliana beginning in 1950 (which now has 42 volumes). Given this, we can think of Husserl’s work as consisting of two periods: the period before and the period after the publication of Husserliana.I myself am interested in the problem of “intersubjectivity” within Husserl’s phenomenology. It is on the one hand the problem of “other-experience (Fremderfahrung)”—i.e., “how I experience the other”—which is the problem of other-experience in the empirical dimension. But it is on the other hand the problem of “intersubjective constitution”—i.e., “how the objective world is the correlate of intersubjective constitution through other-experience,”1 which is the problem of how the other participates in the transcendental dimension. It is characteristic of Husserl’s phenomenology that these two problems are discussed together inseparably. [End Page 1]The manuscripts on the problem of “intersubjectivity” from 1905 to 1935 are collected in volumes XIII to XV of Husserliana. Although the fifth meditation of Cartesian Meditations (first published in French translation in 1931) is often mentioned as the representative work on this theme, it is no more than the tip of the iceberg after Husserl struggled for many years on this problem. The genesis of this theme in the manuscripts dates back to 1905 when terms such as “other” (ein Anderer) and “foreign” (fremd) appeared in manuscript 1, or terms such as “empathy” (Einfühlung) and “intersubjective” appeared in manuscript 2. Husserl wrote later that he had discussed this theme to a relatively large extent in the lecture Fundamental Problems of Phenomenology (Hua XIII) in 1910–1911. In the period of 1905–1910, after the “problem of intersubjectivity” was first introduced, we can also find the idea of “phenomenological reduction” appear for the first time in the literature. This tells us that the problem of intersubjectivity and the idea of phenomenological reduction were born as two sides of the same coin.When Husserl’s phenomenology was first introduced to Japan, Japanese scholars were already reading the first volume of Ideas Pertaining to a Pure Phenomenology and to a Phenomenological Philosophy, where the “intersubjective world” is thought to refer to a “correlate of experience mediated by empathy,”2 and so the task is to clarify the “intersubjective constitution of the objective world.”3 However, when we consider Husserl’s influence in the history of Japanese philosophy and examine whether the problem of intersubjectivity is discussed as a fundamental problem of philosophy, it can be doubted, in my opinion, whether or not there were any researchers who ever faced this problem seriously. In what follows, I survey several generations of philosophers in Japan who engaged with Husserl’s rehabilitation, to investigate the problem of intersubjectivity in his reception and extent of his influence.Nishida Kitarō’s Interest in PhenomenologyNishida Kitarō (1870–1945) looked back at the revision of his first book in 1936 and wrote,The standpoint of this book [An Inquiry into the Good (1911)] is that of consciousness, which might be thought of as a kind of psychologism... I came to realize that it is not that experience exists because there is an individual, but that an individual exists because there is experience. I... (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:Actium and Augustus: The Politics and Emotions of Civil WarAlain M. GowingRobert Alan Gurval. Actium and Augustus: The Politics and Emotions of Civil War. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1995. xiv 1 337 pp. 6 plates. Cloth, $45.50.Because they occur at precise moments in time, battles can provide a convenient means to mark political and even cultural changes. In Roman history one thinks of battles such as (...) those of the Allia, Cannae, Zama, Pharsalus, and Philippi, all of which came to be regarded as major turning points. As is the nature of such things, however, the recollection and representation of a battle can eclipse the event itself and assume a meaning far out of proportion to the battle’s strategic or even immediate political significance. This is particularly true of the confrontation between Antony and Octavian at Actium in 31 B.C., arguably the single most important battle in Roman history.In Actium and Augustus Robert Gurval undertakes a fresh examination of the impact that the battle had on Augustan culture. His thesis is a provocative one. While not in the least denying the powerful influence of the battle, he casts considerable doubt on the notion that from the outset Augustus deliberately sought to promote Actium as part of an imperial ideology (an ideology, that is, devised by the emperor himself) and that the attention paid to the battle by Augustan poets constitutes a reaction against or collusion in such an ideology.To that end Gurval surveys all of the available evidence. The first two chapters are devoted to historical inquiry: chapter 1 covers such matters as Augustus’ triple triumph in the summer of 29, the so-called Actian arch, Augustus’ coinage, Nicopolis, and the Actian Games; chapter 2, Octavian’s relationship with Apollo and the Temple of Apollo on the Palatine. In each of these areas Gurval calls into question a substantial body of scholarly opinion that seeks to interpret these monuments and events as part of a propagandistic celebration of [End Page 638] Augustus’ victory at Actium. In Gurval’s view, this argument, often grounded in inference and speculation, simply does not stand up to scrutiny. For example, there is little hard evidence to suggest that the Temple of Apollo on the Palatine, originally vowed following the defeat of Sextus Pompey at Naulochus in 36 and dedicated in October of 28, was in any obvious way meant as an offering to the Apollo who assisted Octavian at Actium. (As Gurval observes, Apollo Actius does not appear on coins until 16 B.C.). Similarly, he refutes those who would identify as the “Actian arch” a single-span structure that abutted the Temple of Divus Julius in the Forum but was evidently torn down to accommodate the triple arch erected in 19 B.C. to commemorate the recovery of the standards from Parthia. As he demonstrates, there are problems with both the precise date and purpose of the original arch, which he prefers to see as a generalized monument to the emperor’s military achievements rather than a reminder of Antony’s defeat.Having considerably shaken the view that Augustus sought to make propagandistic capital of Actium, Gurval turns in chapters 3–6 to the treatment of the battle by Augustan poets. Chapter 3 deals with Horace; chapter 4 with Propertius’ references to the battle in books 1–3; chapter 5 with Aeneid 8; and in chapter 6 Gurval returns to Propertius and 4.6. The special value of his close readings of these texts is that, set in the context of his broader consideration of the “Actian myth,” they yield useful insights into the way the literary handling of the battle varied from author to author and evolved over time. As one would expect, given the conclusions reached in the first two chapters, Gurval maintains that these texts neither attempt to undermine an “official propaganda” (213) about Actium nor constitute any kind of “political panegyric” (208). Rather, they are to be read as fundamentally personal reflections on an event to which the poets themselves had attached a particular and not necessarily similar importance.Faced with the irrefutable and well-illustrated fact that... (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:Aristotle and Neoplatonism in Late Antiquity: Interpretations of the “De Anima.” by H.J. BlumenthalLloyd P. GersonH.J. Blumenthal. Aristotle and Neoplatonism in Late Antiquity: Interpretations of the “De Anima.” Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1996. Pp. x + 244. Cloth, $57.50.The label ‘Neoplatonism’, coined in the eighteenth century to indicate a putative and rather ill-defined development within the Platonic tradition, is to this day applied in sundry ways. Presumably, ‘Neoplatonic’ (...) is supposed to be distinguished from ‘Platonic’, but the problem with this is that most of those ancient philosophers called ‘Neoplatonic’ thought of themselves simply as Platonists, that is, as authentic interpreters and continuators of Plato. Nevertheless, there are several important and relatively clear differentiations to be made among those within this tradition. One such refers to those Platonists who attempted to appropriate Aristotle’s philosophy. This was done principally in two ways. For Plotinus, Aristotelian concepts and distinctions were employed to defend Plato against Peripatetic attacks. For Porphyry and the later Platonic commentators on the works of the Aristotelian corpus, Aristotle was co-opted as an authority on the philosophy of the sensible world, leaving the higher, intelligible world to Plato. The commentaries on Aristotle’s De Anima are particularly revealing in this regard. For one would assume that in matters regarding the soul it would be extremely difficult to see Aristotle and Plato as anything other than irreconcilable. Aristotle’s hylomorphism and explicit denial of the immortality of the soul hardly seem to be compatible with that which can be called, even on the most charitable interpretation, genuinely Platonic. In fact, the reconciliation of Aristotelian and Platonic soul doctrines is one of the central tasks late Platonists set for themselves. As Blumenthal notes: “Whatever the historical truth about the relation of Aristotle’s thought to Plato’s may have been, the Neoplatonist regarded it as propaedeutic to Plato’s as well as aiming at the same goal” (25).H. J. Blumenthal’s long-anticipated monograph explores in minute detail the extant commentaries on Aristotle’s De Anima written by late Platonic or, if one insists, Neoplatonic philosophers. This book builds upon a large body of frequently groundbreaking work by the author on various facets of late Greek philosophy. The main commentaries studied are those of John Philoponus and the unknown authors dubbed ‘Pseudo-Philoponus’ and Pseudo-Simplicius’, though there is also considerable attention paid to Themistius, the last Peripatetic commentator on De Anima and, of course, [End Page 315] Alexander of Aphrodisias, whose commentary on De Anima has not survived but whose own immensely influential Peripatetic treatise on the soul does.This book is divided into two parts: I. Commentaries and Commentators and II. Interpretations of the De Anima. The first part provides the essential background to the second. Anyone approaching the Aristotelian commentators for the first time will find here a most useful guide. Even those who have some familiarity with this material will benefit from the author’s extensive knowledge of detail and judicious examination of some of the difficult issues of dating, authorship, philosophical lineage, and so on.The second section of the book concentrates on the De Anima commentaries. Here the author, following the order of the text of De Anima, systematically surveys the positions of the commentators on some of the central issues taken up in Aristotle’s work. These include the commentators’ efforts to reconcile Aristotle’s definition of the soul with Platonic assumptions about its nature and Plato’s tripartite division of the soul with Aristotle’s not entirely clear divisions. One of the instructive features of this comparative study of the commentaries is to see frequently how the issues that seize the imagination of modern commentators trouble the ancients not at all and vice versa.Most readers will be mainly interested in the chapters on the commentaries on the latter part of Book Two and Book Three of De Anima. From Plotinus onward, some of the most original philosophizing in the Platonic tradition focuses on self-consciousness, memory, imagination, and the integrative operation of the rational and arational powers. The last two chapters are filled with material about these issues as well as the... (shrink)

There is no clear consensus among scholars about the authenticity of the Magna Moralia. Here I present a new case for thinking that the work was composed by a later Peripatetic, and is not, either directly or indirectly, the work of Aristotle. My argument rests on an analysis of the author’s usage of ἐνέργεια, which is a fruitful way to investigate the date of the work: the term was apparently coined by Aristotle but in later antiquity came to be used (...) in ways inconsistent with Aristotle’s own usage. I argue that in several passages from the Magna Moralia the term is used in this distinctively late sense and that it is not plausible to think that this innovation could have occured in Aristotle’s own lifetime or shortly thereafter. (shrink)

Cerro da Vila was founded as a Roman production and harbour settlement at the end of the Republican Age. It developed into a small seaside settlement, largely based on the exploitation of maritime resources, although it is unlikely that this exploitation exceededsubsistence level. The abandonment of the settlement probably resulted from violent attack and destruction at the end of the 11th / beginning of the 12th century AD. A hoard of 239 silver coins and fragments were discovered at the (...) bottom of an Islamic storage pit dug into the ground in an area of the former Roman site, where several remains of buildings and layers confirm settlement activity in the Visigothic and Islamic period. The latest coin is dated 270/883-4, but the hoard might have been buried some years later. It is likely that the hoard represents a small random sample of the coin circulation in Gharb al-Andalus. Most of the coins are fragmented. As it is typical for that period, a number are slotted and slashed coins; some of them are plugged with tiny pieces of silver. With the exception of two Carolingian deniers all the identifiable coins are from Cordoba, proving a tight control of the circulation of coins in al-Andalus. The hoard belongs to a horizon of similar hoards from southern and south-western al-Andalus which were buried in the 260s/870s and 270s/880s. Their composition is discussed in the article. They all belong to the period of the uprising of the muwallad landowner ʿUmar ibn Ḥafṣūn between 267/880-1 and 303/915- 6, against the Emirate of Cordoba. (shrink)

What are the effects of our environment on human development and the next generation? Numerous studies have provided ample evidence that a healthy environment and lifestyle of the mother is important for her offspring. Biological mechanisms underlying these environmental influences have been proposed to involve alterations in the epigenome. Is there enough evidence to suggest a similar contribution from the part of the father? Animal models provide proof of a transgenerational epigenetic effect through the paternal germ line, but can this (...) be translated to humans? To date, literature on fathers is scarce. Human studies do not always incorporate appropriate tools to evaluate paternal influences or epigenetic effects. In reviewing the literature, I stress the need to explore and recognize paternal contributions to offspring's health within the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease hypothesis, and coin this new concept the Paternal Origins of Health and Disease paradigm. A better understanding of preconceptional origins of disease through the totality of paternal exposures, or the paternal exposome, will provide evidence-based public health recommendations for future fathers. A father's hereditary contribution exceeds that of his DNA sequence. The environment can regulate systems such as the sperm epigenome, which is inheritable as well and may steer the genome and health status of his offspring. We here suggest a new concept, the Paternal Origins of Health and Disease, as part of the DOHaD theory. (shrink)

Ethical analyses of biomedical human enhancement often consider the issue of authenticity — to what degree can the accomplishments of those utilizing biomedical enhancements be considered authentic or worthy of praise? As research into Brain-Computer Interface technology progresses, it may soon be feasible to create a BCI device that enhances or augments natural human intelligence through some invasive or noninvasive biomedical means. In this article we will review currently existing BCI technologies and to what extent these can be said to (...) enhance or augment the capabilities of the respective users, describe one hypothetical type of BCI device that could augment or enhance a specific aspect of human knowledge — namely, mathematical ability, and relate these concepts to the active externalism view of the extended mind as espoused by Clark and Chalmers in order to argue that knowledge of mathematics derived from the usage of a BCI and the application thereof constitutes authentic knowledge and achievement. (shrink)

As artificial intelligence technologies become increasingly prominent in our daily lives, media coverage of the ethical considerations of these technologies has followed suit. Since previous research has shown that media coverage can drive public discourse about novel technologies, studying how the ethical issues of AI are portrayed in the media may lead to greater insight into the potential ramifications of this public discourse, particularly with regard to development and regulation of AI. This paper expands upon previous research by systematically analyzing (...) and categorizing the media portrayal of the ethical issues of AI to better understand how media coverage of these issues may shape public debate about AI. Our results suggest that the media has a fairly realistic and practical focus in its coverage of the ethics of AI, but that the coverage is still shallow. A multifaceted approach to handling the social, ethical and policy issues of AI technology is needed, including increasing the accessibility of correct information to the public in the form of fact sheets and ethical value statements on trusted webpages, collaboration and inclusion of ethics and AI experts in both research and public debate, and consistent government policies or regulatory frameworks for AI technology. (shrink)

The date of Ādi Śaṅkarācārya has been one of the unsolved problems of Indian Philosophy. He is generally accepted to have lived from 788 to 820 CE and is thus assigned from the end of the eighth century to the beginning of the ninth century. So far scholars who have worked on this problem have consulted his hagiographies and his works to determine his date. However, they have not studied the date of Ādi Śaṅkarācārya by placing him in the context (...) of the development of religion in South India. Nor have they consulted South Indian sources, especially Tamiḻ texts, to see if there are any references to his philosophy. In this paper, I study the problem of the date of Ādi Śaṅkarācārya by consulting Tamiḻ sources and the hitherto less consulted epicŚivarahasya. I also connect his date with the emergence of Śaivism as a popular religion in South India. Based on my study, I place Ādi Śaṅkarācārya in the fifth century BCE and as a result, I emphasize the importance of redating Hindu scriptures, especially theVedas, as Ādi Śaṅkarācārya is the earliest commentator. (shrink)

In their paper “Algorithms for Ethical Decision-Making in the Clinic: A Proof of Concept,” Meier et al. present the design and preliminary results of a proof-of-concept clinical ethics algor...

Brain–Computer Interface (BCI) technology is a promising research area in many domains. Brain activity can be interpreted through both invasive and non-invasive monitoring devices, allowing for novel, therapeutic solutions for individuals with disabilities and for other non-medical applications. However, a number of ethical issues have been identified from the use of BCI technology. In this paper, we review the academic discussion of the ethical implications of BCI technology in the last five years. We conclude that some emerging applications of BCI (...) technology—including commercial ventures that seek to meld human intelligence with AI—present new and unique ethical concerns. Further, we seek to understand how academic literature on the topic of BCIs addresses these novel concerns. Similar to prior work, we use a limited sample to identify trends and areas of concern or debate among researchers and ethicists. From our analysis, we identify two key areas of BCI ethics that warrant further research: the physical and psychological effects of BCI technology. Additionally, questions of BCI policy have not yet become a frequent point of discussion in the relevant literature on BCI ethics, and we argue this should be addressed in future work. We provide guiding questions that will help ethicists and policy makers grapple with the most important issues associated with BCI technology. (shrink)

In a characteristically provocative judgement Sir Ronald Syme has declared: ‘It is not easy to go against a document. Nevertheless, the worse posture is obduracy against the testimony of a precise and lucid writer’. The writer is Ovid, the document one employed by Frontinus, and the context, the death-date of Messalla Corvinus, a subject of scholarly dispute since Scaliger's day. Largely on the basis of two passages in Ovid , Syme rejects the apparent testimony of Frontinus and Jerome that Messalla (...) died in a.d. 12 or 13, in favour of a date in a.d. 8, before Ovid's departure for exile. Issues beyond the death-date of Messalla are involved. Thus Syme wishes, as a corollary, to ante-date the year of Livy's death by five years from a.d. 17 to a.d. 12.3 Further, Syme's characterization of Ovid as ‘a precise and lucid writer’ seems to have more general implications. His arguments merit close scrutiny. (shrink)

Once we have accepted that theCirisstems from neither Virgil nor Gallus, but was written by a post-Virgilian poetaster, the obvious task for us is to try and formulate some more specific idea of the date of the poem. I think that it has been sufficiently proved that theCirisis not only post-Virgilian, but post-Ovidian in origin, including as it does unquestionable imitations of that author. But this, to date, is really as far as we have got. It is the purpose of (...) this paper to put forward the thesis that the author of theCirislived late enough to know and be influenced by Statius and other poets of the later first century A.D.Now of course any theory that theCirisknew and used Statius and other Silver poets is rendered highly unlikely if it can be maintained that Suetonius considered it, with the otherminora, a genuine Virgilian work. And so we are brought back again to the famous list in the DonatanLife:deinde Catalepton et Priapea et Epigrammata et Diras, item Cirim et Culicem, cum esset annorum XXVI. cuius materia talis est. pastor fatigatur aestu; cum sub arbore condormisset et serpens ad eum proreperet, e palude culex provolavit atque inter duo tempora aculeum fixit pastori. at ille continuo culicem contrivit et serpentem interemit ac sepulchrum culici statuit et distichon fecit. (shrink)

Inspirado por el trabajo de Deborah Lupton, Inger Mewburn y Pat Thomson, The Digital Academic: Critical Perspectives on Digital Technologies in Higher Education (2017), este artículo examina el yo digital académico contemporáneo. Más allá de la utilidad que pueden tener en cuanto a la interacción, plataformas digitales como Academia.edu, Linkedin, Google Scholar, etc. transforman al académico o académica en un sujeto digital cuyo rendimiento se controla constantemente hasta convertirlo en prisionero de una creciente dataveillance, una vigilancia a través de los (...) datos. En este contexto, analizamos el impacto de los mencionados procesos de monitorización continua del rendimiento y la productividad sobre las condiciones de vida y trabajo de los profesionales universitarios contemporáneos, en un momento en el que las tensiones, los conflictos y el malestar que habitan la universidad neoliberal parecen volverse cada vez más incapacitantes.Drawing inspiration from the work of Deborah Lupton, Inger Mewburn and Pat Thomson, The Digital Academic: Critical Perspectives on Digital Technologies in Higher Education (2017), this paper looks at the digital self of contemporary academics. Using digital platforms such as Academia.edu, Linkedin, Googlescholar, digital academics can increase their daily interactions and the impact of their research. More than being interaction tools, these tools transform the academics into digital individuals whose performance is constantly monitored until they find themselves prisoner of a growing «dataveillance» (Lupton, Mewburn and Thomson, 2017). In this context, the question concerns not only the impact of digital technologies on the quality of contemporary research, but also the impact of digital surveillance on the living and working conditions of contemporary academics, at a time where the tensions, conflicts and malaise that inhabit the neoliberal university have become ever more manifest. (shrink)

Bioethics tends to be dominated by discourses concerned with the ethical dimension of medical practice, the organization of medical care, and the integrity of biomedical research involving human subjects and animal testing. Jacques Derrida has explored the fundamental question of the “limit” that identifies and differentiates the human animal from the nonhuman animal. However, to date his work has not received any reception in the field of biomedical ethics. In this paper, I examine what Derrida’s thought about this limit might (...) mean for the use/misuse/abuse of animals in contemporary biomedical research. For this, I review Derrida’s analysis and examine what it implies for scientific responsibility, introducing what I have coined the “Incompleteness Theorem of Bioethics.”. (shrink)

Theognostos is a well-known author of a surviving orthographical work and a lost history of the revolt of Euphemios in Sicily. Although the dating of the Orthography was the subject of controversy in the distant past, the issue has long been considered as settled: the work is generally thought to have been dedicated to Emperor Leo V , not Leo VI , as the opposite opinion held. The present article reexamines the problem on the basis of a re-evaluation of (...) all available evidence as well as by bringing new parallels into the discussion. The solution reached goes some way in-between the two previous propositions. According to it, the Orthography would still derive from Theognostos' teaching experience in the first half of the ninth century , but would date from mid-century. The dedication of the author's magnum opus would have taken place much later, in the very early reign of Leo VI, for reasons also discussed here. Thus, Theognostos emerges as a ninth-century figure and a contemporary of Patriarch Photios. (shrink)

Just about every odd year in the early fifth century B.C. has been proposed as the date of the Nemean victory of Pytheas from Aegina, celebrated in Pindar's Fifth Nemean and Bacchylides' thirteenth ode. Scholars have attempted to date both odes with the help of Isthmian 6 and 5, which celebrate victories of a member of the same family and the latter of which at 48ff. refers to Salamis as a recent event. Various interpretations of the victory catalogues in I. (...) 6 and 5 have led to various dates for N. 5 and B. 13. The fullest analysis of the material is that by Severyns, who argues that N. 5 and B. 13 must be at least seven years earlier than I. 5. In his conclusion , however, he still suggests three possible dates for N. 5 and B. 13: 487, 489, and 485 B.C., in what he considers to be the order of likelihood. (shrink)

This thesis investigates transnational macro-narrative decendancy in violent conflicts and identifies enabling dynamics that facilitate re-framing. To date there has been little focus on processes involved, explicitly narrative descendancy, bridging, resonance building, or grafting, representing a critical knowledge gap. -/- This thesis reviews relevant literature on constructivism and rational choice theory and tests the findings against an empirical case study in Central Sulawesi. The findings demonstrate a mixture of approaches is present, though this is likely due to a range of (...) dynamics unique to the conflict. The results have high relevance to policy makers and academics across security and conflict disciplines. (shrink)

In his newly reissued and revised book, the philosopher Ian Dearden at- tempts a critical inquiry into a philosophical position he calls “nonsensi- calism,” which he takes to correspond to the view “that it is possible to be mistaken in thinking one means anything by what one says”.1 He holds that an unexamined assumption to this effect is implicit in a large swathe of philosophical work dating from a period stretching throughout most of the 20th century, thanks to the (...) widespread tendency of philosophers to accuse each other of talk- ing nonsense. This is, according to the author of the book, most visible in the earlier and later philosophical writings of Wittgenstein, in logical pos- itivism, and in representatives of the Oxford-based “ordinary language” philosophy movement, as well as in the writings of many of those subse- quently writing under the influence of these. Dearden coins a special term to refer to the sort of error that philosophers are accusing each other of having committed: he calls such cases of error “illusions of meaning.”. (shrink)

When announcing the first instalment, the author made a firm declaration: ‘collegi non servato temporis ordine’. The note of elegant disdain suitably echoes a poet: ‘postmodo collectas, utcumque sine ordine iunctas’;. In fact, care for balance and variety predominates. Nevertheless, when Pliny came to recount public transactions, he had to respect a ‘temporis ordo’, as many signs indicate. Mommsen in his classic study was able to work out the chronological framework, of the nine books, from 97 to 108 or 109. (...) In general, his scheme stands the test — that is, apart from the notion of a rapid publication in separate books. Indeed, no argument avails to prove that the first instalment saw the light of day earlier than the end of the year 105. Pliny was expert in finance and an alert contriver everywhere. Persons of that quality may succumb to inadvertence, although not very often. Licinius Nepos, praetor in 105, comes twice into action , before his edict gets a mention . Again, in a letter the context of which points to 105, a consulship for Minicius Fundanus is divined ‘in proximum annum’ . Fundanus entered office in the early summer of 107. By contrast, Valerius Paulinus, consul suffect in the pair that followed that consulship, does not come up until 9.37. An extremely late point in the collection. It imposes a salutary warning when a number of letters in the final triad are put under scrutiny. The exposition of Mommsen ran into criticism, sometimes hasty or even perverse. Moreover, various attempts were made to modify the dates of certain prosecutions in the Senate. The emergence of a consul on the Fasti Ostienses demolished an elaborate reconstruction that concerned two proconsuls of Bithynia. More accruing, a number of fairly close dates can now be established. (shrink)

No ancient has told us in any surviving writing when Iambulos lived. Lucian says no more than that he composed a work obviously fabulous but quite amusing; Diodoros of Sicily, the only other author to mention him at all, earns our gratitude by excerpting his romance, apparently under the impression that it was sober fact. Moderns are accordingly vague in dating him. It is obvious that he must be earlier than or contemporary with Diodoros, whose historical work mentions no (...) date later than 54 B.C, but his allusions to events of his own life indicate that he was old enough to take an intelligent interest in the world as early as about 60 B.C, and still alive as late as 21 B.C. Kroll contents himself with indicating that Iambulos is later than Megasthenes, which gives us a range of close on 250 years. I think, however, that we may reduce this very considerably and place Iambulos, if not in any definite year, at least within a period of less than a century. (shrink)

Tsc question of the date of Ctesibius has been much obscured of late years by those German scholars1 who assert that Ctesibius the pneumatic and hydraulic engineer mentioned by Vitruvius IX. 8. 2 is distinct and separate from Κτησίβιος Κτησίβιος μηΧανικός who is mentioned by Athenaeus Mechanicus , Philo of Byzantium , and Hedylus ap. Athenaeum Naucratitam Deipn. XI., p. 497, d-e = Anthologia Graeca ed. Cougny, Paris , 1890, Vol. III., p. 298, n. 67.

In discussions of the date at which Philodemos wrote the treatise περ σημείωѵ κаί σημεώσεωѵ there is general agreement on one point ‘that for this purpose our best evidence is a passage from col. 2, II. 11 sqq., of the papyrus. The author is there explaining the difficulties of induction in allowing for unobserved variations, and in taking Man as an instance he quotes first ‘the Kretan giant’ and then οѷ)ς έѵ՚ Акώρε π∋γμα∕ονς δονσιν νλει δ՚ ν∕αóγο’ Aντώνιος νûν ∕ (...) κ Ʃụρίαμσ(ατ. In the last line the letters of the papyrus are ΕΞΡΙΑΣ, which equally well may represent either § 'ρας or κ Σνρας but κ Σνρας has held the field since it was first suggested by Gomperz. (shrink)

Connaître la date du premier siège de Nisibe est important car celle-ci permet de connaître la date de la mort de l'évêque le plus connu de cette époque : Jacques de Nisibe. L'A. pense à l'année 337. Jacques a du mourir pendant le siège et non après comme l'attestent certaines sources. Il est mort le 15 juillet 337 et a été enterré dans les murs de la cité.

The Dating of the Historical Buddha. Part 1. Ed. Heinz Bechert. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1991. xv, 525 pp. n.p.