The Poverty of the Claudii Pulchri: Varro,De Re Rustica3.6.1–2

1992 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 190-200 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Jeffrey Tatum
Keyword(s):  
Good Reason ◽  
Literary Work ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Samuel Johnson ◽  
De Re ◽  
The Third ◽  
Do So

‘In historical composition’, said Samuel Johnson, ‘all the greatest powers of the human mind are quiescent’. Perhaps so, but even if the historian must appear dull and plodding next to his more profound and shimmering brethren, the philologists and – of course – the literary critics, still he must be granted at least one virtue in plenty and that virtue is scepticism. Especially nowadays. While not quite yet ready to surrender his province to the meta-historians (who, not much believing in facts, have no real use for scepticism anyway), the historian continues diligently to scrutinize his sources with such wary Pyrrhonism as he can muster. He is especially suspicious of those ancients whose intelligence and whose literary gifts he most admires, hence the unrelenting distrust of authors such as Cicero and Caesar – and recently even such paragons of accuracy as Polybius. Still, a few authors have earned our unconscious credence, it would seem, merely by dint of their artlessness; we simply do not respect them enough to doubt them. A case in point: Varro'sDe Re Rustica, a remarkable ensemble of three dialogues, a highly literary work, yet one whose obvious inadequacies have distracted readers from its attempts at literariness and consequently have led them to take its veracity for granted – even when it relates to items having little or nothing to do with agriculture. A brief passage in the third book ofR.R.informs us, or rather seems to inform us, that what was perhaps republican Rome's most illustrious family, the Claudii Pulchri, was reduced to poverty in the seventiesB.C. in the aftermath of the death of the consul of 79 – evidence that has been accepted widely by modern scholars. In this paper I hope to show that there is no good reason for believing Varro's Appius when he claims to have been pauperized by his father's death and, furthermore, that to do so is to fail to appreciate the artistry and wry humour with which Varro has composed Book Three.

scholarly journals Essence and Mere Necessity

2018 ◽  
Vol 82 ◽  
pp. 309-332 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Leech
Keyword(s):  
Good Reason ◽  
The Other ◽  
De Re ◽  
The World ◽  
Do So

AbstractRecently, a debate has developed between those who claim that essence can be explained in terms ofde remodality (modalists), and those who claim thatde remodality can be explained in terms of essence (essentialists). The aim of this paper is to suggest that we should reassess. It is assumed that either necessity is to be accounted for in terms of essence, or that essence is to be accounted for in terms of necessity. I will argue that we should assume neither. I discuss what role these key notions – essence and necessity – can reasonably be thought to contribute to our understanding of the world, and argue that, given these roles, there is no good reason to think that we should give an account of one in terms of the other. I conclude: if we can adequately explainde remodality and essence at all, we should aim to do so separately.

The Key of e

1972 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-8
Author(s):  
Bernard M. Oliver
Keyword(s):  
Good Reason ◽  
Complex Numbers ◽  
Rigor Mortis ◽  
The Third ◽  
Mathematics Curricula ◽  
Traditional Curricula ◽  
Do So

The first two topic were usually part of traditional curricula; the third often was. Complex numbers were first widely introduced in the “new” mathematics curricula, with their heavy emphasis on sets and numbers. There is good reason to question the validity of attempting to teach many of the abstraction contained in these new courses (especially when we do so with a rigor sometimes perilously close to rigor mortis) when, for the majority of youngsters, a better mastery of arithmetic or an introduction to calculu would be more widely use ful knowledge.

scholarly journals A political ontology for Europe: Roberto Esposito’s instituent paradigm

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rita Fulco
Keyword(s):  
Political Theology ◽  
Political Crisis ◽  
Recent Proposal ◽  
Political Ontology ◽  
The Third ◽  
European Crisis ◽  
Do So

AbstractThe aim of my article is to relate Roberto Esposito’s reflections on Europe to his more recent proposal of instituent thought. I will try to do so by focusing on three theoretical cornerstones of Esposito’s thought: the first concerns the evidence of a link between Europe, philosophy and politics. The second is deconstructive: it highlights the inadequacy of the answers of the most important contemporary ontological-political paradigms to the European crisis, as well as the impossibility of interpreting this crisis through theoretical-political categories such as sovereignty. The third relates more directly to the proposal of a new political ontology, which Esposito defines as instituent thought. Esposito’s discussion of political theology is the central theoretical nucleus of this study. This discussion will focus, in particular, on the category of negation, from which any political ontology that is based on pure affirmativeness or absolute negation is criticized. In his opinion, philosophical theories developed on the basis of these assumptions have proved to be incomplete or ineffective in relation to the current European and global philosophical and political crisis. Esposito therefore perceives the urgent need to propose a line of thought that is neither negatively destituent (post-Heideggerian), nor affirmatively constituent (post-Deleuzian, post-Spinozian), but instituent (neo-Machiavellian), capable of thinking about order through conflict (the affirmative through the negative). Provided that we do not think of the institution statically–in a conservative sense–but dynamically, as constant instituting in which conflict can become an instrument of a politics increasingly inspired by justice.

A deflationist theory of intentionality?

2005 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-90
Author(s):  
Sebastian Knell
Keyword(s):  
Mental States ◽  
Specific Role ◽  
Philosophical Debate ◽  
Attitude Ascription ◽  
Attitude Ascriptions ◽  
Theories Of Truth ◽  
De Re ◽  
The Third ◽  
Short Summary

The paper presents an interpretation of Brandom’s analysis of de re specifying attitude-ascriptions. According to this interpretation, his analysis amounts to a deflationist conception of intentionality. In the first section I sketch the specific role deflationist theories of truth play within the philosophical debate on truth. Then I describe some analogies between the contemporary constellation of competing truth theories and the current confrontation of controversial theories of intentionality. The second section gives a short summary of Brandom’s analysis of attitude-ascription, focusing on his account of the grammar of de re ascriptions of belief. The third section discusses in detail those aspects of his account from which a deflationist conception of intentionality may be derived, or which at least permit such a conception. In the proposed interpretation of Brandom’s analysis, the vocabulary expressing the representational directedness of thought and talk does not describe a genuine property of mental states, but has an alternative descriptive function and in addition contains a performative and a meta­descriptive element.

A European Perspective on Religion and Welfare: Contrasts and Commonalities

2012 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 589-599 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grace Davie
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
The State ◽  
Comparative Perspective ◽  
European Perspective ◽  
The Third ◽  
Effective Delivery ◽  
Delivery Of Services ◽  
Do So ◽  
West European

This article places the British material on religion and social policy in a comparative perspective. In order to do so, it introduces a recently completed project on welfare and religion in eight European societies, entitled ‘Welfare and Religion in a European Perspective’. Theoretically it draws on the work of two key thinkers: Gøsta Esping-Andersen and David Martin. The third section elaborates the argument: all West European societies are faced with the same dilemmas regarding the provision of welfare and all of them are considering alternatives to the state for the effective delivery of services. These alternatives include the churches.

The Irish–British Dimension

2021 ◽  
pp. 106-126
Author(s):  
Paul Gillespie
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Interstate Relations ◽  
The Third ◽  
Ability To Act ◽  
Political Relations ◽  
Power Scale ◽  
Opening Up ◽  
Normal Relationship ◽  
Do So

Power, scale, and wealth have moulded relations between Ireland and Britain historically and will continue to do so in future. Political relations between them have been determined by these asymmetric factors, giving much greater strength to the larger and richer island. Nevertheless, both islands exist within a larger European and transatlantic setting, a geopolitical fact that can mitigate or counteract Britain’s ability to act exclusively in its own interests. The chapter first explores this history and structure of the Irish–British relationship and then examines current political relations between the two islands, as seen in the intense joint efforts to bring peace to Northern Ireland and to regularize their interstate relations. Brexit rudely interrupts that new more normal relationship, as the third section argues, opening up several scenarios for changing constitutional futures within and between the two islands explored in the final one.

The experience of non-traditional study of the poetics of literary works (on the example of the book “Fontanelle” by Meir Shalev)

2021 ◽  
pp. 58-75
Author(s):  
Vadim Markovich Rozin
Keyword(s):  
New World ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Literary Work ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Family ◽  
Gradual Development ◽  
History Of ◽  
Family And Marriage ◽  
Nontraditional Approach ◽  
Empirical Material

This article offers a nontraditional approach towards studying the poetics of literary work, which considers personality of the reader and analysis of the reality that he reconstructs and experiences. The empirical material is comprised on the authorial analysis of the poetics of Meir Shalev's novel “Fontanelle”. This literary work features the four major themes: love of the protagonist Michael, creation of the new world from its inception, the characteristic of life values of a person, and discussion of the peculiarities of reality that Meir Shalev builds as an artist. In the first theme, the author reveals several images of love, reflecting on the mystical love of the protagonist for the young woman Ana, love in the family and marriage, love for children. At the same time, the author discusses not only the way that Meir Shalev understands and describes love in “Fontanelle”, but also talks about the own interpretation of love. In the plotline of the second theme, the author also distinguishes two lines: the story the protagonist’s grandfather Apupa, who carries his beloved Amuma on his shoulders across the country, seeking a place where they could create a home and family; and the story of gradual development of a small settlement into a city, created by Apupa and Amuma on the mountain, and several Jewish families at the lower valley. Discussing in the third topic the anchors of human life, the author emphasizes such values as effort, love, family and family line, creativity, indicating that Michael is not alone, he is loved, he gets involved in family history, as well as the history of Israel and Jewish culture, drawing strength in the heroes of this story. The last part of the article gives characteristic to the reality of “Fontanelle” and explains why the author liked it.

The Gathering of A Community: The British-born of San Francisco in 1852 and 1872

1976 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 279-312 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. A. Burchell
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
San Francisco ◽  
High Rate ◽  
Geographical Mobility ◽  
The Third ◽  
Human Effort ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Incomplete Picture ◽  
Do So

Studies of the Massachusetts communities of Newburyport and Boston have revealed a high rate of geographical mobility for their populations, in excess of what had been previously thought. Because of the difficulty in tracing out-migrants these works have concentrated on persisters, though to do so is to give an incomplete picture of communal progress. Peter R. Knights in his study of Boston between 1830 and 1860 attempted to follow his out-migrants but was only able to trace some 27 per cent of them. The problem of out-migration is generally regarded as being too large for solution through human effort, but important enough now to engage the computer. What follows bears on the subject of out-migration, for it is an analysis of where part of the migrating populations of the east went in the third quarter of the nineteenth century, namely to San Francisco.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document