Phylogenetic signal in characters from Aristotle’s History of Animals

The influential Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322 BCE) is almost unanimously acclaimed as the founder of zoology. There is a consensus that he was interested in attributes of animals, but whether or not he tried to develop a zoological taxonomy remains controversial. Fürst von Lieven and Humar compiled a data matrix from Aristotle’s Historia animalium and showed, through a parsimony analysis published in 2008, that these data produced a hierarchy that matched several taxa recognized by Aristotle. However, their analysis leaves some questions unanswered because random data can sometimes yield fairly resolved trees. In this study, we update the scores of many cells and add four new characters to the data matrix (147 taxa scored for 161 characters) and quote passages from Aristotle’s Historia animalium to justify these changes. We confirm the presence of a phylogenetic signal in these data through a test using skewness in length distribution of a million random trees, which shows that many of the characters discussed by Aristotle were systematically relevant. Our parsimony analyses on the updated matrix recover far more trees than reported by Fürst von Lieven and Humar, but their consensus includes many taxa that Aristotle recognized and apparently named for the first time, such as selachē (selachians) and dithyra (Bivalvia Linnaeus, 1758). This study suggests that even though taxonomy was obviously not Aristotle’s chief interest in Historia animalium, it was probably among his secondary interests. These results may pave the way for further taxonomic studies in Aristotle’s zoological writings in general. Despite being almost peripheral to Aristotle’s writings, his taxonomic contributions are clearly major achievements.

Populism and Asianization

This chapter will clarify that the recent spread of populism is based on the fact that logical and emotional thinking/behaving are merging, especially in the West. In the West since the era of Greek philosopher Plato, people have tried to separate logic and emotion and have emphasized the superiority of logic to emotion. However, because of the invention and progress of media technologies, recently people's ways of thinking/behaving are becoming emotional. Therefore, the trend of populism could be understood that the people's ways of thinking/behaving in the West are approaching those in Asia. This phenomenon can be called “Asianization.” This means that populism is not a temporal trend but a long-time lasting trend. Also, this chapter will describe how to overcome populism.

Десять темных мест в поэзии О. Мандельштама: комментарии и расшифровка

Предложен ряд решений, проливающих свет на темные и спорные места в десяти стихотворных текстах выдающегося русского и советского поэта О. Э. Мандельштама, критически проанализи- рованы существующие в современной специальной литературе трактовки таких мест. Выявлены тактики, реализующие характерную для позднего Мандельштама «установку на загадку» (О. Ронен), определены базисные функции данной установки в его поэтике. Как показал анализ, основной из таких тактик является метафора, различными способами затемненная, а потому допускающая вари- ативность трактовок либо в той или иной степени герметичная, т. е. закрытая для исчерпывающего и однозначного истолкования. Такие «темные» метафоры, основной субъект которых не поддается уверенной экспликации, поэт именовал «гераклитовыми».В статье приведены доводы в пользу того факта, что внутренняя форма термина гераклитова метафора восходит к прозванию раннеантичного греческого философа Гераклита Эфесского – σκοτεινός ‘темный’. Среди применяемых О. Э. Мандельштамом способов затемнения семантических переносов наиболее востребованными, а значит, характерными для его авторского идиостиля ока- зались: 1) недостаточность контекста, в частности незамкнутый характер метафор указанного типа; тщательно «припрятанная», т. е., как правило, не более чем однословная, аллюзийная опора на прецедентный текст, зачастую малоизвестный, а значит, недоступный для широкой читательской аудитории; 3) «замаскированное» указание на отдельный элемент (или элементы) той актуальной для поэта бытовой либо исторической конситуации, с опорой на которую может быть достигнуто адекватное понимание текста.Это означает, что трактовка, более или менее отвечающая авторскому замыслу, облигаторно предполагает применение контекстуального, конситуативного либо интертекстуального анализа построенных поэтом семантических переносов, в частности «гераклитовых метафор», анализ же семантических переносов настоятельно требует применения трансформационного анализа; соот- ветственно, удаленность исследователя от указанных лингвистических методов, прежде всего от экспериментальных, т. е. дистрибутивного и трансформационного анализа, если не лишает ясной перспективы, то существенно затрудняет дальнейшее герменевтическое осмысление творческого наследия позднего Мандельштама, т. е. тех текстов, которые были написаны им после 1920 года.Исследование показало, что неясность целого ряда таких текстов, иногда вплотную приближаю- щаяся к сфере герметизма, имеет определенное функциональное обоснование. Установка на загадку, или, в античной терминологии, «темный намек» (κάλυμμα, συγκάλυμμα), в подавляющем большин- стве случаев используется в стихотворных текстах О. Э. Мандельштама не как привычный атрибут эзопова языка (мнение Н. Струве), а в эстетических целях, т. е. как прием, который придает тексту эмоционально минорный, стилистически приподнятый, нередко профетический оттенок, характер энигмы.A number of solutions are proposed that shed light on the dark and controversial passages in ten poetic texts of the outstanding Russian and Soviet poet O. Mandelstam. The existing interpretations of such passages in modern special literature are critically analyzed. The tactics that implement the characteristic for late Man- delstam “orientation to riddle” (O. Ronen) are identified, the basic functions of this orientation in his poetics are determined. As the analysis has shown, the main of these tactics is a metaphor that is in various ways darkened, and therefore allows for variability of interpretations, or is more or less hermetic, i.e. closed to an exhaustive and unambiguous interpretation. Such “dark” metaphors, the main subject of which does not lend itself to confident explication, the poet called “heraclitic”.The paper provides arguments in favour of the fact that the internal form of the term heraclitic metaphor goes back to the nickname of the early antique Greek philosopher Heraclitus of Ephesus – σκοτεινός ‘dark’. Among the applied by O. Mandelstam methods of darkening of semantic transfers were the most popular, and therefore characteristic for his author’s idiostyle: 1) the lack of context, in particular, the non-closed nature of metaphors of type mentioned above; 2) carefully “hidden”, i.e., as a rule, no more than a one-word, allusive reliance on a precedent text, often little-known, and therefore inaccessible to a wide readership; “disguised” indication of a separate element (or elements) of the actual for the poet everyday or historical consituation, based on which an adequate understanding of the text can be achieved.This means that the interpretation that more or less corresponds to the author’s intention obligatorily involves the use of contextual, consituative, or intertextual analysis of the semantic transfers constructed by the poet, in particular, “heraclitic metaphors”, while the analysis of semantic transfers obligatorily requires the use of transformational analysis. Accordingly, the researcher’s remoteness from the above-mentioned linguistic methods, primarily from experimental, i.e., distributive and transformational analysis, if not de- prives of a clear perspective, then significantly complicates further hermeneutical understanding of the cre- ative heritage of the late Mandelstam, i.e., those texts that were written by him after 1920.The study has shown that the darkness of a number of such texts which sometimes comes close to the sphere of hermeticism has a certain functional justification. “Orientation to riddle”, or, in ancient terminol- ogy, “dark hint” (κάλυμμα, συγκάλυμμα), in the vast majority of cases is used in the poetic texts of O. Man- delstam not as a familiar attribute of the Aesop language (opinion of N. Struve) but for aesthetic purposes, i.e. as a technique that gives the text an emotionally minor, stylistically elevated, often prophetic shade, the character of Enigma.

An Analysis of Hamlet from the Perspective of Aristotle's Tragedy Theories

With profound tragic significance, Hamlet is an enduringly popular tragedy by the famous British dramatist William Shakespeare. The complex characters, as well as the various artistic techniques for the creation of the tragic story in the play, especially its application of the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle's tragedy theories, have received extensive attention from academia. This paper intends to conduct a study on the application of Aristotle's tragedy theories in Shakespeare's Hamlet. On the basis of the analysis of Aristotle's tragedy principles related to tragic plots and characters, "Error and Frailty", "Fear and Pity" and "Purification", the paper discusses the tragedy Hamlet and its application of Aristotle's guidance, in order to help readers untie the reasons of the design for some important parts of this tragedy.

Wandering Atoms, Roman Error, and Poetic Tradition in Lucretius

Between Terence and Lucretius’s floruit (ca. 50s BCE), the boundaries of Roman power moved far outward again. And it is no coincidence that among the most disorienting images in all of ancient poetry stands Lucretius’s portrayal of Epicurus’s mental journey across the immeasurable universe, a heroic quest from which the Greek philosopher, like a conquering Roman general, brings back knowledge as a preferable form of imperial plunder (De rerum natura [DRN] 1.72–77). Lucretius thus depicts the Greek Epicurus as potentially more appealing—and specifically more masculine—than an audience of first-century BCE Romans might be inclined to regard him, given stereotypes of Epicureans as queerly deviant where Roman gender norms were concerned. The passage also creates a salient contrast between Epicurus and the wandering Odysseus of Homer’s Odyssey. After contextualizing Lucretius’s work through the “becoming lost” theme in fragmentary poetry between him and Terence (Pacuvius, Accius, and Lucilius), Chapter 3 argues that this image of Epicurus is not alone within DRN in the attitude toward Roman expansion that it encourages. There are pervasive aspects of the whole poem that anticipate and reinforce Lucretius’s approach here to both the positive and negative aspects of expansion, as well as the link that Lucretius fashions between them and his own poetic craft. We discern these connections especially by focusing on two interrelated, though opposed, semantic fields denoting wide-ranging, non-systematic movement: error/errare and vagus/vagari. Within DRN, these can designate, respectively, an Odyssean aimlessness in life and an Epicurean existence in harmony with the natural motions of the atoms.

GAMIFICATION OF LEARNING: USE OF VIDEO GAME IN EDUCATION PROCESS

The pre-Socratic Greek philosopher Anaxagoras was a proponent of the theory that in all things there are parts of all other things, and that it must be considered that everything was in everything else. In the derived sense, it can be said that, since everything is contained in everything else, then anything can be explained through anything else. In the applied sense, this would mean that the elements of one thing can be applied to any other thing, and the phenomenon of gamification confirms the claim of this ancient philosopher. Widely and directly applicable as rarely any other thing, gamification, that is, the application of elements and principles from video games (or games in general) in non-gaming environments, has become one of the most sought after new technological solutions. Its application is extremely wide - from security services and business, all the way to the focus of this paper, which is the process of learning and education. The aim of this paper is to research the phenomenon of gamification of education, by defining and determining the factors and elements of that process, and then, by analyzing examples of practical application of this phenomenon, give an evaluation of the current situation, with a projection of the further development of this increasingly important phenomenon.

Análisis comparativo de la virtud de la sabiduría propuesta por la psicología positiva en relación a la propuesta aristotélica.

In terms of transdisciplinarity, the contrast between Seligman's positive psychology and Aristotle's theory of virtues will be confronted, since both tend to rescue the central nucleus of the formation of the human being, which are the virtues or strengths of human capital. The confluence that this contemporary theory has with the Aristotelian eudemonist vision will be approached via a comparative hermeneutic, since the summation of virtues understood as second nature –built by good habits– is an original contribution of the Greek philosopher. Noticing this confluent meeting or convergent edge from an analytical point of view, as a common denominator in both theories, allows us to make a connection of historicity that is often eluded in contemporary thought due to ignorance.

Cosmic Interdependence: Heraclitus on Grounding

Are there any metaphysically basic (i.e., absolutely fundamental) entities in the cosmos on which all the other entities in the cosmos depend? If not, how are the various entities in the cosmos related to each other in terms of relative fundamentality? These questions have been of interest since the birth of philosophy. In this paper I argue that, for the early Greek philosopher, Heraclitus, there are no metaphysically basic entities. Rather, 1) the various entities in the cosmos are metaphysically interdependent and 2) the cosmos itself and its parts are metaphysically interdependent. I call this view cosmic interdependence. I demonstrate its distinctiveness and argue for its contemporary significance with respect to the grounding structure of quantum entanglement.

Reading F.S. Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby through Aristotle’s Eyes: Friendship, Gifts, and Commodities

This research explores the interlocked notions of friendship, community, gift, and commodity culture in Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. It seeks to demonstrate that Fitzgerald’s ethical vision of friendship, community, the Bad, and the Good are deeply shaped by Aristotle’s works The Nicomachean Ethics, The Politics, and The Metaphysics. The extent to which Aristotle has shaped the form and contents of The Great Gatsby, a novel rightly described as a classic of its genre and how far the contentious aspect of its gendered and orientalized characterization can be traced to Fitzgerald’s dialogic relation with the Greek philosopher are among certain questions that this research addresses. The approach to the issue and the related questions stated above is eclectic. It draws its paradigms, partly from Bakhtin’s dialogical theory, partly from economic and cultural anthropology, and partly from postcolonial, historical theory of the type elaborated by Said and Fanon.

Phylogenetic Signal in Characters from Aristotle’s History of Animals

The great Greek philosopher Aristotle (384–322 BCE) is almost unanimously acclaimed as the founder of zoology. There is a consensus that he was interested in attributes of animals, but whether or not he tried to develop a zoological taxonomy remains controversial. Fürst von Lieven and Humar compiled a data matrix and showed, through a parsimony analysis published in 2008, that these data produced a hierarchy that matched several taxa recognized by Aristotle. However, their analysis leaves some questions unanswered because random data can sometimes yield fairly resolved trees. In this study, we update the scores of many cells and add four new characters to the data matrix (147 taxa scored for 161 characters) and quote passages from Aristotle’s Historia animalium to justify these changes. We confirm the presence of a phylogenetic signal in these data through a test using skewness in length distribution of a million random trees, which shows that many of the characters discussed by Aristotle were systematically relevant. Our parsimony analyses on the updated matrix recover far more trees than reported by Fürst von Lieven and Humar, but their consensus includes many taxa that Aristotle recognized and apparently named for the first time, such as selachē (selachians) and dithyra (Bivalvia). This study suggests that even though taxonomy was clearly not Aristotle’s chief interest in Historia animalium, it was probably among his secondary interests. These results may pave the way for further taxonomic studies in Aristotle’s zoological writings in general. Despite being almost peripheral to Aristotle’s writings, his taxonomic contributions are clearly major achievements.