Christian Insights into Plotinus' Metaphysics and his Concept of Aptitude (Ἐπιτηδειότης)

Modern scholarship on Late Antique philosophy seems to be more interested than ever before in examining in depth convergences and divergences between Platonism and Early Christian thought. Plotinus is a key gure in such an examination. is paper proposes a pre- liminary study of the Plotinian concept of aptitude, as it emerges throughout the Enneads and aims at shedding light to certain aspects of Plotinian metaphysics that bring Plotinus into dia- logue with the thought of Church fathers by means either of similarities or di erences between Neoplatonist and Christian thought. It will be argued that the concept of aptitude is crucial as it involves the relation between the One and the many, the reality of participation, the relation of the cosmos with, and its dependence on, the superior spheres of being, the bestowal of divine gi s upon beings, and the possibility of the dei cation of the human being

Theurgy in Dionysius the Areopagite

The present chapter aims at offering insights into Dionysius the Areopagite’s notion of theurgy, both with respect to the metaphysical principles that connect with “θεουργία” and the particular sacramental reality that emerges from it. Pavlos argues that despite the linguistic affinities and terminological appropriations - whether Iamblichean or Proclean - Dionysius’ premises on the matter remain radically different from that of Neoplatonism, both in terms of the sacramental tradition he recapitulates and the wider Christian metaphysical contours he adheres to. Of central importance in the argument is the striking fact that, throughout the Corpus Dionysiacum, “theurgy” is a term exclusively used by the author to refer to the works of Christ in His earthly historical presence, and to the whole divine providential, creative, sustaining, and divinising activity and work of God. Consequently, if for Dionysius a “theurgist” (θεουργός) could not be any human being, but only Christ Himself, the God-Man, Dionysian theurgy aims at the deification of man, which is nothing other than Christ-likeness

The Real 3x+1 Problem

In this work, we introduce another extension U of the 3n+1 function to the real line. We propose a conjecture about the U-trajectories that generalizes the famous 3n+1 (or Collatz) conjecture. We then prove our main result about the iterates of U (which is directly related to both of these conjectures). We also introduce the "flipped 3x+1" function \widetilde U and prove an analogous result for its trajectories. In the final section, we pose some interesting questions about the iterates of U (and \widetilde U), prove a couple of simple results about the iterates of U and \widetilde U, introduce other related functions and propose yet more conjectures and questions about their iterates. It's our hope that the results, conjectures and questions presented here will be not only relevant to the 3n+1 conjecture itself, but also of interest in their own right.Comment: 12 pages. Accepted for publication in Acta Arithmetica. Added more references. The published version is slightly differen

The Effect of the Euro on Foreign Direct Investment

In this paper the recent effect of the European Monetary Union on inward FDI-flows is examined. We use a difference-in-differences approach and fixed effects with common time controls. The estimated results of the latter approach show that the introduction of the Euro raises inward FDI by 17 percent within the Euro-area and by 9 and 12 percent to and from non-member countries respectively. Moreover the geographical effects of the Euro are explored. The results show partial agglomeration tendencies for the euro area. There are also some indications of increased importance of vertical specialization in the sample.Foreign Direct Investment; EMU; Panel Data

The Effect of the Euro on Foreign Direct Investment

In this paper the recent effect of the European Monetary Union on inward FDI-flows is examined. We use a difference-in-differences approach for both a gravity based- as well as a general equilibrium approach. The estimated results show that the introduction of the euro raises inward FDI by 14 to 16 percent within the euro area by 11 to 13 percent from non-member and weakly by 8 percent to non-member countries. Moreover the geographical effects of the euro are explored. The results show partial agglomeration tendencies for the euro area. There are also some indications of increased importance of vertical specialization in the sample.Foreign Direct Investment, EMU, Panel Data