scholarly journals WISDOM IN INVERTED COMMAS: GREEK COMEDY AND THE QUOTABLE MAXIM

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Matthew Wright
Keyword(s):  
Literal Sense ◽  
Greek Comedy

Greek comedy is full of quotable maxims. According to a literal reading, the comedians might be seen as custodians of traditional gnomic wisdom, along with their tragic counterparts. Nevertheless, it is argued here that maxims in comedy are different from maxims in other contexts. Comic maxims typically appear ‘within inverted commas’, not just in a literal sense (because of their inherent ‘quotationality’) but in a figurative sense (because of their pervasive irony and self-consciousness). Examples from Menander, Antiphanes, Diphilus and others are used to demonstrate that the comedians can be seen as playing around with the content and form of traditional wisdom. Sometimes they seem to be poking fun at the maxim as a medium of expression, or at tragic maxims, or at the habit of quotation itself.

Meta / Dia Zwei unterschiedliche Zugänge zum Medialen

2010 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dieter Mersch
Keyword(s):  
Literal Sense ◽  
Media Philosophy ◽  
Similar Vein

In media philosophy since Benjamin, the concept of medium is conceived in terms of »translation« or »transport«. In a similar vein, Christoph Tholen has brought the literal sense of »metaphor« as »meta-pherein« into focus. In my paper I argue that Tholen's approach misses the »meta« (»in the middle« or »beyond«) of »metaphor«, corresponding to the Latin »trans«. This is contrasted with the greek »dia« that allows the development of a performative notion of medium, which orients itself at material practices of transition.

Die klingende Ferne; Walter Braunfels’ Opera Die Vögel after Aristophanes’ Birds

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 355-371
Author(s):  
Michael Ewans
Keyword(s):  
Central Theme ◽  
Spiritual Values ◽  
Greek Comedy ◽  
Human Understanding ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Insight Into

Abstract This article explores the opera Die Vögel (1920) by Walter Braunfels (1882–1954), and its reception of Aristophanes' Birds. The Introduction is substantial, as the work is little known. It is followed by an Overview of each of the two Acts, which discusses in Act I the relationship to Aristophanes (Braunfels discarded the second half of the original Greek comedy and struck out on a completely new path). Then the article analyses the development during Act II of insight into die klingende Ferne (‘the music of far away') by Hopeful, who is the principal human character in Braunfels' adaptation. It is shown that Hopeful's quest for spiritual values almost beyond human understanding is the central theme of the opera; the superiority of the life of birds, which Aristophanes treats humorously in the two parabaseis, is taken seriously in Braunfels' mystical second Act.

THE FLOW OF FLUIDS THROUGH ACTIVATED CARBON RODS.

1952 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 348-371 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. A. Flood ◽  
R. H. Tomlinson ◽  
A. E. Leger
Keyword(s):  
Activated Carbon ◽  
Relative Pressure ◽  
End Effects ◽  
Flow Rates ◽  
Frequency Distributions ◽  
Literal Sense ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Porous Bodies ◽  
Carbon Rods ◽  
Flow Through

The flow rates of the vapors of benzene, ethyl chloride, diethyl ether, methanol, and water through activated carbon rods have been found to exceed, considerably, flow rates calculated by classical equations. The excess flow rates show maxima in widely different relative pressure regions and are ascribed to flow of adsorbed material. An empirical equation is presented which correlates the observed flow rates with relevant adsorption isotherms. Classical equations of flow through elliptical and rectangular pipes are discussed with reference to flow through fine-grained porous materials. It is shown that equations of the Adzumi type are roughly valid as applied to fine-grained porous bodies, but that without a knowledge of the frequency distributions of pore sizes and shapes, flow data cannot be related to pore dimensions in any literal sense. End effects are discussed.

Human Performance Evaluation of a Metaphor Graphic Display for Respiratory Data

1994 ◽  
Vol 33 (04) ◽  
pp. 390-396 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. G. Stewart ◽  
W. G. Cole
Keyword(s):  
Performance Evaluation ◽  
Human Performance ◽  
Pattern Detection ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Complex Task ◽  
Graphic Display ◽  
Literal Sense ◽  
Single Number ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Human Problem

Abstract:Metaphor graphics are data displays designed to look like corresponding variables in the real world, but in a non-literal sense of “look like”. Evaluation of the impact of these graphics on human problem solving has twice been carried out, but with conflicting results. The present experiment attempted to clarify the discrepancies between these findings by using a complex task in which expert subjects interpreted respiratory data. The metaphor graphic display led to interpretations twice as fast as a tabular (flowsheet) format, suggesting that conflict between earlier studies is due either to differences in training or to differences in goodness of metaphor, Findings to date indicate that metaphor graphics work with complex as well as simple data sets, pattern detection as well as single number reporting tasks, and with expert as well as novice subjects.

Monkey Business: Imitation, Authenticity, and Identity from Pithekoussai to Plautus

2004 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine Connors
Keyword(s):  
Democratic Culture ◽  
Greek Culture ◽  
Greek Comedy ◽  
The People

Abstract This essay explores references to monkeys as a way of talking about imitation, authenticity, and identity in Greek stories about the ““Monkey Island”” Pithekoussai (modern Ischia) and in Athenian insults, and in Plautus' comedy. In early Greek contexts, monkey business defines what it means to be aristocratic and authoritative. Classical Athenians use monkeys to think about what it means to be authentically Athenian: monkey business is a figure for behavior which threatens democratic culture——sycophancy or other deceptions of the people. Plautus' monkey imagery across the corpus of his plays moves beyond the Athenian use of ““monkey”” as a term of abuse and uses the ““imitative”” relation of monkeys to men as a metapoetic figure for invention and play-making. For Plautus, imitator——and distorter——of Greek plays, monkeys' distorted imitations of men are mapped not onto the relations between inauthentic and authentic citizens, as in Athens, but onto the relation of Roman to Greek comedy and culture at large. Monkey business in Plautus is part of the insistence on difference which was always crucial in Roman encounters with Greek culture.

Psycho-Physical Union: The Problem of the Person in Descartes

Dialogue ◽  
1983 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-46
Author(s):  
Murray Lewis Miles
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Mind ◽  
Philosophy Of Nature ◽  
Literal Sense ◽  
Point Of Intersection ◽  
The Mind

The problem of the person may be described as the crux of Descartes' philosophy in the fairly obvious literal sense that it is the point of intersection of the two chief axes of the system, the Philosophy of Nature and the Philosophy of Mind. The actual, if not professed aim of the former is the ousting of the occult powers and faculties of Scholastic-Aristotelian physics by the mechanical concept of force or action-by-contact. The chief tenet of the latter is that mind, whose essence is thinking, is clearly and distinctly conceivable apart from matter, the essence of which is extension. From this, by an illicit inference which need not concern us further, Descartes concludes that the mind is “really distinct” from matter, that is, a substance capable of existing apart from body in its own right. Where these two lines of thought meet, the problem of the person constitutes itself in the following manner.

Satyric Play: The Evolution of Greek Comedy and Satyr Drama by Carl A. Shaw

Phoenix ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 69 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 177-179
Author(s):  
Anna S.Uhlig
Keyword(s):  
Greek Comedy

Could there Be More than One Almighty?

1993 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 465-495 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. W. Bartel
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Christian Doctrine ◽  
Literal Sense ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
Doctrine Of The Trinity ◽  
The Trinity

If proof is required that yesterday's scandal can become today's fashion, we need look no further than recent discussions of the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. Just a generation ago, Trinitarians typically insisted that the members of the Godhead are not distinct persons in any literal sense. But during the past few years, more and more philosophically sophisticated Christians have unblushingly maintained that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are not just different persons, but different individuals – that the Trinity consists of three divine beings.

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