ETH-Bibliothek, the main library at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich's, is holding in its Image Archive vast collections of photographs. Among them is the complete, and so far only little examined, collection of ETH Zurich's own Photographic Institute throughout its existence as an independent service and research unit between 1886 and 1979. The new, third volume in the series Pictorial Worlds. Photographs from the Image Archive, ETH-Bibliothek documents both main aspects of scientific photography: servicing research in many (...) disciplines and being subject of basic research itself. A rich selection of images is presented, ranging from astronomical and micro photography to laboratory situations and carefully illuminated experimental installations. The introductory essay investigates the interplay between photography and the world of science and tells the story and changing role over the decades of ETH Zurich's Photographic Institute. (shrink)

Aristotle's Ethica Eudemia and Ethica Nicomachea, as is well known and much discussed, contain three books in common. Less well known, at least until Dieter Harlfinger alerted scholars to the fact in 1971, is that some of the manuscripts of Eth. Eud. do, contrary to the then prevailing consensus, contain the text of these common books. Even less well known is that Harlfinger's discovery was anticipated some 50 years before by Walter Ashburner, who had uncovered this fact about Eth. Eud. (...) MSS in the Laurentian library of Florence. Ashburner's anticipation of Harlfinger, however, is not the real value of his article. Its value rather is that it contains collations of readings for the common books, and thereby gives us an excellent resource for examining the text of the common books as this text is contained in exclusively Eth. Eud. MSS. The Eth. Eud. tradition of the common books has hitherto received little attention. Modern editions of Eth. Eud. do not include these books, and editions of Eth. Nic. have other MSS for the purpose. Ashburner's collations are the more valuable because they are taken from the one MS that, in Harlfinger's learned stemma, appears as the archetype for all the rest. (shrink)

"De interpretatione" from Aristoteles. Aristotle (384-322 BCE) was a Greek philosopher born in Greece.

In the West, it is widely believed that, since Africans lack an emotional experience with romanticism and transcendentalism, they do not possess the philosophical prerequisites necessary to protect wilderness. However, the West’s disdain for African systems of thought has precluded examination of customary African views of wilderness. Examination of ethnographic reports on Kenya’s Highland Bantu reveals a complex view of phenomena that the West generally associates with wilderness. For the Bantu, wilderness is an extension of human living space, and through (...) concerted social action rather than individual initiative, it is, or at least can be, dominated by society. Wildlife is unnatural and alienated from human society, which is natural. Because wilderness is, consequently, understood to be fearsome and hostile, it is not a place that can provide inspiration or self-actualization. Almost all forests have a special spiritual relationship with humankind, and some trees have a special relationship with God. Althoughtraditional Bantu thought is contrary to a concept of wilderness as conserved, managed space filled with tourists and recreators, it does embrace a concept of wilderness as wildlands. The Bantu have gone to considerable length to develop an approach to wilderness that minimizes individual contact while requiring association with wilderness as a social activity. Population growth and want of vocational opportunities continue to thrust Highland Bantu into wilderness as a fundamental and traditional survival technique. (shrink)

"De unitate intellectus contra Averroistas" from Thomas Aquinas. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), sanctus, doctor Ecclesiae catholicae, theologus italianus et philosophus mediaevalis.

Treatise on Mimamsa philosophy; critical edition.

By Jerome Rothenberg. Contributions by Steven Clay, Rodney Phillips.

Aerial photography had a special place in the business of the legendary former Swiss airline, "Swissair." Walter Mittelholzer, aviation pioneer and one of the founders of "Swissair," first trained as a photographer before joining the Swiss army s flying corps during WW I and later turning to civil aviation because of his keen interest in aerial photography. Photography was also the more profitable part of "Ad Astra Aero," one of "Swissair s "preceding companies which continued to exist as a subsidiary (...) of the newly formed "Swissair" under the name "Swissair Photo AG" as of 1931 until 2001, when the famous airline ceased operations. "Swissair Photo + Vermessung AG" was saved from liquidation in a buyout in 2001 and still operates as" BSF Swissphoto." The heritage of Walter Mittelholzer and "Swissair Photo AG" is kept at ETH Zurich s Image Archive, alongside Swissair s corporate "Swissair Photo Archive". The collection comprises around 100,000 pictures taken between 1918 and 2011. In includes mainly vertical and oblique aerial photographs of landscapes, towns and villages, and mountains, but also industrial plants, infrastructures, and individual buildings in Switzerland and abroad, from the 1960s onward in color. About 15,000 of them were taken by Walter Mittelholzer. A remarkable aspect is the vast number of views of the Swiss mountains: pure landscape photography, many of them with a horizontal or slightly oblique perspective. This was caused by personal interest of the photographers, many of them also keen mountaineers, but probably also by a high demand for such pictures for postcards and other commercial use. During the 1970s there was a notable change, when a more aesthetic view of the land became dominant that rather looked vertically at shapes and colors of the cultivated landscape than at the wilderness. Around 200 of the most beautiful, most striking, and most informative photographs were selected for the new book "Swissair Aerial Photography." They show the many changes in the landscape and in settlements over nearly a century. They also are an inventory of lost elements making a landscape, such as untamed rivers, orchards, receding glaciers and moors, shrinking agricultural areas, vanished historical buildings. And they document the growth of industrial plants and other infrastructure and urban sprawl in general. The book shows how an idyllic agricultural country has turned into one of the most densely inhabited places in the world in a matter of decades. The introductory essay looks at the history and content of the collection at the Image Archive at ETH Bibliothek, the history and a range of aspects of aerial photography in general, the changing aesthetics and use of the images and what can be read from them today, technical developments and a brief history of aerial photography in Switzerland." " Series The series "Pictorial Worlds. Photographs from the Image Archive, ETH-Bibliothek, "published in cooperation by "ETH-Bibliothek" and Scheidegger & Spiess, aims at building a bridge between analytical treatment of historical image sources and the interest in individual photographs for any possible reason. Whereas the library s online database simplifies research and enables search inquiries going beyond the mere inventory, the books are meant to present the contours of specific collections of images, to embed them in the context of their origin, and to offer an introduction to the multitude of possible historical interpretations. Each volume of the series comprises an introductory essay on the given subject and presented material. Detailed captions offer additional information on individual images. This subject-guided approach and carefully selected examples are meant to give a representative view of the sometimes extensive range of a particular collection within the Image Archive. The entire series is conceived for a general audience interested in cultural history and visual aesthetics, rather than for a specialized and scientifically interested one. ". (shrink)

In E.N. I. c. 5 Aristotle is considering divers views as to what constitutes Eudaimonia. He told us in c. 4, 2–3 that there are many conflicting opinions on the subject. The Many identify Happiness with some palpable good, such as pleasure, wealth, honour, but the Wise identify it with something beyond the Many, while [Plato] denied it to be any specific good at all. Of all these views we should consider such as have many adherents or are considered to (...) be reasonable. Accordingly, the Universal Good is considered in c. 6 after consideration in c. 5 of five particular goods—pleasure in the form of bodily pleasure, honour, wealth, virtue [and, implied in the theoretic Life, wisdom]. These five goods are brought into relation with four Lives—viz. pleasure with the apolaustic; honour and virtue with the political; [wisdom] with the theoretic; wealth with the business or money-making Life; and the first three Lives are called προέχοντες. There is nothing in this introduction of the Lives to astonish us; for, as Aristotle himself tells us, τò ληθς ν τοȋς πρακτικοȋς κ τν ργων κα τοû βίου κρίνεται . But there is much difference of opinion as to the argument he draws from the Lives. According to the view now submitted for consideration, the argument is that when a specific good, which some suppose to be Eudaimonia, is also the end of a ‘pre-eminent’ Life, then there is some prima facie probability in the view that that specific good is Eudaimonia. (shrink)

Stephen Law has recently argued (Think, Vol 5, Issue 9), using a dialogue set on the fictional planet Eth, that traditional belief in God is 'silly'. Bergmann and Brower argue that theists on Earth should not be convinced.

Il s'agit de retracer ici la présence spectrale dans l'oeuvre de Gaston Bachelard de ce que nous appelons «École de l'ETH ». Nous en avons choisi trois figures fondamentales: Hermann Weyl, Wolfgang Pauli et Gustave Juvet. Pour le premier, nous traitons de sa place centrale et permanente dans la constitution bachelardienne d'une philosophie qui se veut à hauteur de la nouvelle « géométrie physique » rigoureusement construite dans un esprit riemannien. Quant à Pauli, nous montrons une insoupçonnable affinité qui est (...) étayée par les analyses remarquables qu'en donna le philosophe: de la construction urgente d'une« métaphysique quantique», qui se fonde sur les implications d'un principe de Pauli bien compris, à l'idée de «particule métaphysique», en passant par les enjeux décisifs et si prometteurs du «postulat de non-analyse». Dans le cadre de cette polyconstruction convergente de l'entreprise « surrationaliste », nous traitons de la troisième figure, moins connue mais tout aussi marquante, du mathématicien-philosophe Gustave Juvet. (shrink)

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that libraries do not inevitably arise from the aggregation of information, and to apply this result to critique the meaningfulness of the idea of a “digital library.”Design/methodology/approachThree independent arguments demonstrate that libraries are more than the sum of the books that they contain: first, the logical argument, which analyses the internal consistency of claims for the superiority of electronic formats; second, the semantic argument, which examines ordinary language to isolate the core (...) requirements of what it means to be a “library”; and third, the ethical argument, which identifies the source of the unique phenomenological experience of encounter with the library.FindingsIt is found that the three arguments each refute the view that “library” is the collective noun for “book,” and argue instead that it is an emergent concept that offers to its community a reflection of the local cultural knowledge through the ordinary selection and organization practices that distinguish libraries from other book accumulations. Against that understanding the idea of a comprehensive and universal digital library fails on the essential criteria of selectivity and organization. While such products can be powerfully useful, they offer something distinct from libraries. When we lose sight of this difference we risk losing the inherent and irreducible values embodied by libraries.Originality/valueThe paper's arguments provide a reasoned infrastructure to several beliefs that are both common and unexamined. (shrink)

Communist library secret fond in Romania,.

The Library of Aristotle follows the adventures of Aristotle's book collection down to the edition of the corpus aristotelicum by Andronicus of Rhodes in the first century CE. Aristotle started to collect books in order to form his personal library even before he became a member of the Academy and a pupil of Plato (367 BCE). The kernel of his collection consisted in the texts of his father Nicomachus and medical treatises which the latter, who was physician to (...) Amyntas III of Macedonia, probably had in his possession. Aristotle's own writings, the exoteric together with the didactic, cover 106 cylinders. In order to comment on the whole of the cultural tradition, he also collected all written texts accessible to him at the time: treatises on physics, philosophy, poetry, rhetoric, theory of government and politics, cosmogony, the diatribes of the sophists and all the works of Plato and the members of the Academy. His knowledge of the written tradition is evident from the numerous citations he uses in his texts and his critical comments on the works of other authors. There are three discernible periods in Aristotle's writing, which correspond to the three stages in his life in which he made major additions to his library: the period of the Academy (c. 367-347), the period of his self-imposed exile to Assus, Lesbos and Macedonia (c. 347 - 335) and the time when he taught at the Lyceum of Athens (c. 335-322). His library, comprised of all these books, came to form part of the Lyceum library, and remained intact until Theophrastus's death." -- Publisher's website. (shrink)

Libraries occupy a special space in our society, and our minds. Today, public libraries are struggling hard to attract new users and increase footfalls that seem to be in the downtrend. Besides, Physical Libraries need innovations in their services frontier to survive stiff competition from virtual digital libraries that provide instant access to information at no cost. Librarians and library professionals as knowledge managers could help design and foster entrepreneurship models of service delivery aimed towards bringing novelty in their (...) operations. This is for the reason that libraries must take up the challenges to survive and compete with digital libraries which would maximize user satisfaction, attract new patrons and increase their user base. To make libraries economically independent and socially competent knowledge organizations, libraries need to innovate and adopt entrepreneurship-intrapreneurship business models which would attract investments from the private sectors. To transform libraries into productive, innovative knowledge organizations, librarians must take the initiative to think out of the box. This paper addresses these issues and analyses the intrapreneurship attitude to library operations. It argues that librarians should adopt a model of knowledge entrepreneurship where librarians, besides being knowledge managers, would also act as intrapreneurs within their organization. (shrink)

Libraries occupy a special space in our society, and our minds. Today, public libraries are struggling hard to attract new users and increase footfalls that seem to be in the downtrend. Besides, Physical Libraries need innovations in their services frontier to survive stiff competition from virtual digital libraries that provide instant access to information at no cost. Librarians and library professionals as knowledge managers could help design and foster entrepreneurship models of service delivery aimed towards bringing novelty in their (...) operations. This is for the reason that libraries must take up the challenges to survive and compete with digital libraries which would maximize user satisfaction, attract new patrons and increase their user base. To make libraries economically independent and socially competent knowledge organizations, libraries need to innovate and adopt entrepreneurship-intrapreneurship business models which would attract investments from the private sectors. To transform libraries into productive, innovative knowledge organizations, librarians must take the initiative to think out of the box. This paper addresses these issues and analyses the intrapreneurship attitude to library operations. It argues that librarians should adopt a model of knowledge entrepreneurship where librarians, besides being knowledge managers, would also act as intrapreneurs within their organization. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Philologus Jahrgang: 160 Heft: 2 Seiten: 360-365.

Journal Name: Philologus Issue: Ahead of print.

A dialogue investigating whether the usual religious defences of belief in God are really up to the job.

This article focuses on the book collection whose history began in the mid-eighteenth century and despite certain losses continues nowadays 1. This is a sole known book gathering that belonged to the Ukrainian ruling dynasty and still finds itself in the possession of the family. The Counts Razumovsky, who trace their ancestry from the hetman Kyrylo Rozumovsky (1728– 1803), held first-class libraries in their Ukrainian, Russian, Austrian, and Czech estates during almost three centuries. However, it is only the Viennese collection (...) that survived the tough twentieth century and sheds light on the bookish tastes of its aristocratic proprietors. At the same time, the catalogues of 1907 and 1914 reveal the repertoire of the lost assemblages, offering a broader exploration of the family book tradition possible. The theoretical frame of the lecture refers to the contemporary memory studies with a special attention to family memory. (shrink)

Public and research libraries have long provided resources in electronic formats, and the tension between providing electronic resources and patron privacy is widely recognized. But assessing trade-offs between privacy and access to electronic resources remains difficult. One reason is a conceptual problem regarding intellectual freedom. Traditionally, the LIS literature has plausibly understood privacy as a facet of intellectual freedom. However, while certain types of electronic resource use may diminish patron privacy, thereby diminishing intellectual freedom, the opportunities created by such resources (...) also appear liberty-enhancing. Adjudicating between privacy loss and enhanced opportunities on intellectual freedom grounds must therefore provide an account of intellectual freedom capable of addressing both privacy and opportunity. I will argue that intellectual freedom is a form of positive freedom, where a person’s freedom is a function of the quality of her agency. Using this view as the lodestar, I articulate several principles for assessing adoption of electronic resources and privacy protections. (shrink)