Metaxy

2020 ◽  
pp. 147-166
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Alloa
Keyword(s):  
Specific Form ◽  
Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek thinking harbours surprising insights into the logics of mediation, especially when it focuses on the various figures of elementary media. Among all the Greek authors, however, the most consistent attempt to systematize a reflection on media was arguably made by Aristotle. The chapter sets out a classification of the various figures of mediation that reoccur throughout the philosopher’s body of work, singling out three main figures: the mesotês in ethics, the meson in logic, and—the most revolutionary one—the metaxy in Aristotle’s theory of perceptual environments. Given that the metaxy has no specific form (it is literally formless), it constitutes a pure potentiality to take on any form. The analyses of the diaphanous medium and the potentiality of vision point in the direction of a true philosophy of mediacy, whose central axiom can be summarized as follows: mediacy indicates the capacity to take on the form of something without being (it).

Arguing over Texts

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Camper
Keyword(s):  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Rhetorical Theory ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Textual Interpretation ◽  
Ambiguous Words ◽  
And Behaviors ◽  
Textual Meaning

Arguing over Texts presents a rhetorical method for analyzing how people disagree over the meaning of texts and how they attempt to reconcile those disagreements through argument. The book recovers and adapts a classification of recurring types of disagreement over textual meaning, invented by ancient Greek and Roman teachers of rhetoric: the interpretive stases. Drawing on the rhetorical works of Aristotle, Cicero, Quintilian, and Hermogenes, the book devotes a chapter to each of the six interpretive stases, which classify issues concerning ambiguous words and phrases, definitions of terms, clashes between the text’s letter and its spirit, internal contradictions, applications of the text to novel cases, and the authority of the interpreter or the text itself. From the dispute over Phillis Wheatley’s allegedly self-racist poetry to the controversy over whether some of Abraham Lincoln’s letters provide evidence he was gay, the book offers examples from religion, politics, history, literary criticism, and law to illustrate that the interpretive stases can be employed to analyze debates over texts in virtually any sphere. In addition to its classical rhetorical foundation, the book draws on research from modern rhetorical theory and language science to elucidate the rhetorical, linguistic, and cognitive grounds for the argumentative construction of textual meaning. The method presented in this book thus advances scholars’ ability to examine the rhetorical dynamics of textual interpretation, to trace the evolution of textual meaning, and to explore how communities ground their beliefs and behaviors in texts.

The Periodic System

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Scerri
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Platonic Solid ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Platonic Solids ◽  
System P ◽  
Chemical Inertness ◽  
Dimensional Shape ◽  
The Many

In ancient Greek times, philosophers recognized just four elements—earth, water, air, and fire—all of which survive in the astrological classification of the 12 signs of the zodiac. At least some of these philosophers believed that these different elements consisted of microscopic components with differing shapes and that this explained the various properties of the elements. These shapes or structures were believed to be in the form of Platonic solids (figure 1.1) made up entirely of the same two-dimensional shape. The Greeks believed that earth consisted of microscopic cubic particles, which explained why it was difficult to move earth. Meanwhile, the liquidity of water was explained by an appeal to the smoother shape possessed by the icosahedron, while fire was said to be painful to the touch because it consisted of the sharp particles in the form of tetrahedra. Air was thought to consist of octahedra since that was the only remaining Platonic solid. A little later, a fifth Platonic solid, the dodecahedron, was discovered, and this led to the proposal that there might be a fifth element or “quintessence,” which also became known as ether. Although the notion that elements are made up of Platonic solids is regarded as incorrect from a modern point of view, it is the origin of the very fruitful notion that macroscopic properties of substances are governed by the structures of the microscopic components of which they are comprised. These “elements” survived well into the Middle Ages and beyond, augmented with a few others discovered by the alchemists, the precursors of modern-day chemists. One of the many goals of the alchemists seems to have been the transmutation of elements. Not surprisingly, perhaps, the particular transmutation that most enticed them was the attempt to change the base metal lead into the noble metal gold, whose unusual color, rarity, and chemical inertness have made it one of the most treasured substances since the dawn of civilization.

From Dalton to the Discovery of the Periodic System

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Scerri
Keyword(s):  
Periodic System ◽  
Quantitative Data ◽  
Quantitative Characteristic ◽  
Good Deal ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
System P ◽  
Quantitative Property ◽  
To Come ◽  
First Time

Our story begins, somewhat arbitrarily, in the English city of Manchester around the turn of the nineteenth century. There, a child prodigy by the name of John Dalton, at the tender age of fifteen is teaching in a school with his older brother. Within a few years, John Dalton’s interests have developed to encompass meteorology, physics, and chemistry. Among the questions that puzzle him is why the various component gases in the air such as oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide do not separate from each other. Why does the mixture of gases in the air remain as a homogeneous mixture? As a result of pursuing this question, Dalton develops what is to become modern atomic theory. The ultimate constituents of all substances, he supposes, are hard microscopic spheres or atoms that were first discussed by the ancient Greek philosophers and taken up again by modern scientists like Newton, Gassendi, and Boscovich. But Dalton goes a good deal further than all of these thinkers in establishing one all-important quantitative characteristic for each kind of atom, namely its weight. This he does by considering quantitative data on chemical experiments. For example, he finds that the ratio for the weight in which hydrogen and oxygen combine together is one to eight. Dalton assumes that water consists of one atom of each of these two elements. He takes a hydrogen atom to have a weight of 1 unit and therefore reasons that oxygen must have a weight of 8 units. Similarly, he deduces the weights for a number of other atoms and even molecules as we now call them. For the first time the elements acquire a quantitative property, by means of which they may be compared. This feature will eventually lead to an accurate classification of all the elements in the form of the periodic system, but this is yet to come. Before that can happen the notion of atoms provokes tremendous debates and disagreements among the experts of Dalton’s day.

"WEAK" SYMMETRIES AND ADAPTED VARIABLES FOR DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS

2004 ◽  
Vol 01 (01n02) ◽  
pp. 23-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
GIAMPAOLO CICOGNA
Keyword(s):  
Differential Equations ◽  
Specific Form ◽  
Natural Classification

It is shown that the introduction of suitable "symmetry-adapted" variables for the study of differential equations can be efficient and useful even if the problem does not admit symmetries. This method not only provides new solutions but also leads to the introduction of weaker notions of symmetry, and allows a natural classification of the possible types of symmetry, each of which is characterized by a specific form of the equation when written in the appropriate variables. Some simple examples are briefly proposed.

scholarly journals ¿Es la ópera un género literario?

2011 ◽  
pp. 609
Author(s):  
Juan Carlos Pueo
Keyword(s):  
Literary Theory ◽  
Literary Work ◽  
Genre Theory ◽  
Specific Form ◽  
Literary Genre ◽  
Literary Genres ◽  
Semiotic Systems ◽  
Physical Presence ◽  
Language And Music

La ópera se considera comúnmente un género musical, pero su estatuto literario parece ser más bien dudoso. La intención de este artículo es poner en claro esta cuestión, tomando como referencia la teoría de los géneros literarios, la teoría teatral y la semiótica musical. La teoría literaria debe tener en cuenta la especificidad de ciertos géneros literarios cuya recepción ha sido destinada a ser acompañada por la música. Los géneros teatrales se definen por la presencia física de uno o más actores que representan sus personajes ante un público, de forma que dichos géneros pueden clasificarse por emplear o no el lenguaje y/o la música: esto significa que la ópera ocupa un lugar en la clasificación de los géneros literarios por su conjunción de lenguaje y música. Esta conjunción no es mera yuxtaposición, ha de ser pensada como simbiosis entre dos sistemas semióticos que colaboran para producir una forma específica de obra literario-musical que ha de considerarse un género literario y teatral con características especiales. Opera is generally considered a musical genre, but its literary statute seems to be rather uncertain. The aim of this article is to clarify this subject, taking as reference literary genre theory, theatrical theory and musical semiotics. Literary theory must take into consideration the specificity of certain literary genres whose reception is intended to be accompanied by music. Theatrical genres defines themselves by the physical presence of one o more actors that impersonate some characters for an audience, so this genres can be classified by the use or the disuse of language and/or music: this means that opera occupies a place in the classification of literary genres because of its conjunction of language and music. This conjunction is not mere yuxtaposition, it has to be thought as a symbiosis between two semiotic systems that collaborate to produce an specific form of musical-literary work that must be considered a literary and theatrical genre with special characteristics.

scholarly journals General Tendencies in Creating Terms with Greek and Latin Elements in the Forestry Field

2017 ◽  
pp. 155-161
Author(s):  
Liudmyla Marchuk
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Initial Point ◽  
Significant Degree ◽  
Scientific Discipline ◽  
Forest Industry ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Genetic Classification ◽  
European Languages ◽  
Latin Term

According to the genetic classification of borrowings, one of the largest groups of foreign language vocabulary in European languages is formed by lexemes of Latin origin. They are the result of interaction between languages, which are often characterized by a significant degree of genetic and temporal distances. In the article the terminology of Forest industry with the most common terminological elements of Latin and Greek origin is analyzed. Element – is not a word, but a part of the word (prefix, suffix, root), which is being in grammatical relationship with the other elements, forms independent words-terms. Thus, the element “micro” has no complete meaning of the words but it has the specific semantic loading, which is transferred by the concept “small, not big one”. In words-terms, it indicates the correlation of those words and constant objects, phenomena. And the precise scientific definition is received by term in the process of studying the specific scientific discipline. Knowledge of the structure of term’s elements explains the meaning of foreign language term, it helps in better understanding. It is well-known that the terms reflects either one dominant or secondary, or occasional feature, underlying the phenomenon, which reflects, such as color, shape etc. Terminology concept with elements of Greek and Latin origin in the Forest field, can be grouped into major thematic sections. The initial point for placing elements is a substantive concept, followed by an element that expresses this concept, the indicator of the origin of element, its importance in translation. Elements are usually placed according to antonymous meaning (micro – macro). Due to the polysemy some elements get into different sections. The group of terms, in which ancient Greek and Latin term elements are distinguishes is very numerous. Terms, formed with the help of classical elements, reflect the process of adaptation (in bigger or less degree) by modern languages. Thus, the group of terms with the initial parts, the etymons of which are Greek and Latin languages, get into synonymous relations, varying, intersecting or overlapping each other . The doublet terms – are the words or phrases that are combined by special terminological correlation with the same scientific concepts and object of reality. Thus, a large part of Greek and Latin elements in the terms and terminological combinations function as units of scientific style (root words, derivation and other elements) have the ability to influence the linguistic and cultural nature of language, and, thanks to aesthetically complete words, they intellectualize both speech and a speaker, the a specialist of the field.

Some Peripatetic Birds: Treecreepers, Partridges, Woodpeckers

1977 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 335-337 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. G. Arnot
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Ancient Greek

It is a truism to say that the study of ornithology has made great advances in the last fifty years, and that important problems affecting the classification of certain species and their distribution have been brought much closer to solution. Classical scholars, however, still tend to rely on the identifications of ancient Greek bird-names made by a few standard works such as D'Arcy Thompson's A Glossary of Greek Birds2 (1936) or O. Keller's Die antike Tierwelt (1909), apparently unaware that much of the ornithological information given there is now badly out of date, if not sheerly inaccurate. This brief paper aims protreptically to take four bird-names out of the Peripatetic corpus on natural history: and and to produce more precise identifications in the light of modern ornithological studies.

scholarly journals Roots ancient or medieval? Nikolaos Politis, modern Greek folklore studies and ancient Greek religion

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 167
Author(s):  
Agis Marinis
Keyword(s):  
Specific Form ◽  
Orthodox Church ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Greek Religion ◽  
Cultural Narrative ◽  
Modern Greek ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
Folklore Studies ◽  
Romantic Movement ◽  
The University

The question posed by the title can be reformulated in the following manner: to what extent has it been possible or desirable to connect modern Greek customs with ancient ones? not customs in general, but more precisely religious customs. Greek folklore studies typically begin with Nikolaos Politis, professor at the University of Athens, the first to introduce the term λαογραφία (meaning “folklore studies”) towards the end of the nineteenth century. Yet, we need to revert to at least as far back as the time prior to the Greek Revolution, that is, the period of the Greek enlightenment, in order to trace the beginnings of the shaping of the ideological framework of modern Greek folklore studies. it is well known and has aptly been pointed out, also in connection with Greek folklore studies, that for the Greeks the enlightenment movement went hand in hand with a specific form of romanticism. The Greek idea of the nation developed within the framework of the Romantic movement and on the basis of the connection between “us” and “the ancients”. How, then, were modern Greek folk customs that were not firmly related to the orthodox church incorporated in this new cultural narrative?

scholarly journals Modified Phraseological units with a Mythonym Component in English Media

2020 ◽  
pp. 210-224
Author(s):  
Svetlana Yu. Rubtsova
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Language Game ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Group Affiliation ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Discursive Space ◽  
Greek Myths ◽  
Human Function ◽  
Insufficient Knowledge

The article is devoted to studying the types of modifications of phraseological units with mythological allusions. The functions performed by them in the English discourse are characterized. The relevance of the study is due to the insufficient knowledge of intentionally modified precedent units - phraseological units with a mythological component - and the specifics of their functioning in the discursive space of the English language. The novelty of the study is seen in the explicitation of the modifications (transformations) classification of precedent units in relation to phraseological units containing mythonyms that refer to ancient Greek myths. The author identifies three main modification types of the precedent units of phraseological units with a mythonym component: semantic, structural-lexical and syntactic. Particular attention is paid to identifying the functions of modified phraseological units in multi-discourse English texts. It is shown that the modification of the considered precedent units allows the author of the statement to originally identify the situations and events illuminated by him (the qualifying function of the modified phraseological units), give the text expressiveness and brightness (expressive-decorative function), convincingly express his point of view (persuasive function), convey irony or create humorous effect through a language game (human function), identify their group affiliation (password function).

scholarly journals Peirce Chase’ing Pythagoras

2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (2-4) ◽  
pp. 350-367
Author(s):  
Rasmus Rebane
Keyword(s):  
Immanuel Kant ◽  
Common Knowledge ◽  
Greek Philosophy ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Ancient Greek Philosophy ◽  
The Common

Despite the common knowledge that there is something “Pythagorean” about Charles Peirce’s phenomenology and classification of signs there is a manifest lack of inquiries into the matter. Perhaps there is too little to go on, as Pythagoras himself did not leave us any writings to consult. Nevertheless, much of ancient Greek philosophy bears an unmistakable Pythagorean stamp, and Iamblichus’ bio - graphy of Pythagoras provides us with enough to get such inquiries started. This paper examines the development of triads, beginning with the Pythagorean one (body, soul, and intellect) and proceeds to those of Immanuel Kant (Experience, Understanding, and Reason) and Peirce’s compatriot and family acquaintance Pliny Earle Chase (Motivity, Spontaneity, and Rationality). The article concludes with an examination of the various triads in Peirce’s early writings, especially around the time of his discovery of Chase’s “Intellectual symbolism”.

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