Aristippus and Xenophon as Plato’s contemporary literary rivals and the role of gymnastikè (γυμναστική)

Plato was a Socrates’ friend and disciple, but he wasn’t the only one. No doubt, Socrates had many followers, however, the majority of their work is lost. Was there any antagonism among his followers? Who succeeded in interpreting Socrates? Who could be considered as his successor? Of course, we don’t know if these questions emerged after the death of Socrates, but the Greek doxography suggests that there was a literary rivalry. As we underlined earlier, most unfortunately, we can’t examine all of them thoroughly due to the lack of their work, but we can scrutinize Xenophon’s and Aristippus’ work. All of them, Plato, Xenophon and Aristippus, presented to a certain extent their ideas concerning education. Furthermore, they have not neglected the matter of gymnastikè, but what is exactly the role of physical education in their work? Are there any similarities or any differences between them? Since, Xenophon and Aristippus (as well as Plato) seem to be in favor of gymnastikè, it is necessary to understand its role

Evolution of Asylum Legislation in the EU: Insights from Regulatory Competition Theory

The paper proposes to use regulatory competition theory in order to better understand the evolution of the EU member States' asylum legislation. It argues that regulatory competition theory can explain the rapid trend of legislative amendments from the mid-80's onwards, the progressive yet incomplete convergence of the EU member States' legislation, and the spiral of restrictions of legal norms originally enacted to protect asylum seekers. Competition among legal norms also explains EU Member States' reticence to collaborate and share the burden. The first argument of the paper is that a phenomenon of competition developed because Member States were convinced that generous asylum policies would be a pull factor for asylum seekers. They feared that regulatory arbitrage (i.e. asylum shopping) would lead asylum seekers to select their destination State on the basis of the level of protection offered. States have entered into a process of de-regulation and, because of their interdependence, national measures have become instruments of a general race to externalise. The result has turned out to be negative and corresponds to a 'race-to-the-bottom'. This negative result can be observed at two levels : competition was detrimental to both asylum seekers and States; the rules enacted were suboptimal.The paper then explains why the first cooperation instruments introduced at the end of the 80's and onwards have failed to meet their objective. The effects of cooperation schemes like the Dublin Convention or burden sharing projects are negligible and there was no shift from costly and unilateral aylum policies towards fairer and more efficient collective action. It is an example of cooperation in the shadow of competition.Finally the paper evaluates the communautarisation of the competence to act in the field of asylum. It is unlikely to permit the emergence of a federal and centralised regulation able to change the nature of the game. In conclusion, the paper seeks to assess if a good combination of cooperation and competition is likely to produce 'good' asylum policy in Europe and investigates the 'co-opetition' model promoted by Esty and Gerardin.enlargement; European identity; identity

The Australia we love: a report on key issues affecting nature and society in Australia

This report identifies the need to establish a clear and credible baseline of key trends and issues affecting nature and society in Australia and around the world, on the assumption that a healthy Australian society relies on healthy nature for our prosperity and our wellbeing. This credible baseline is one necessary element for galvanizing and growing a people’s movement for nature in Australia. Such a movement will be critical if Australians are to adopt and implement the systemic changes required of our society to achieve our true potential this century. The report is divided into 7 sections. Section 1 highlights the importance of healthy nature as the foundation for a healthy and prosperous society. Section 2 is a brief note of the long history of human influence on nature in Australia, and the complexity involved in decisions regarding land, water and sea. Section 3 provides a synthesis of some of the key indicators of the pressures on nature in Australia and the impact of these pressures on Australian nature and society. Many of the measures reported here are simply snapshots in time and space, highlighting the difficulty of measuring the complexity of nature and our interactions with it in any comprehensive way. Section 4 is a synthesis of similar indicators at a global scale. Section 5 looks at how progress is measured in Australia, and the importance of adopting broader definitions of sustainable wellbeing as a frame for effectively valuing and protecting nature. Section 6 tells the stories of ordinary Australians doing extraordinary things for nature, inspiring us all to better value and protect what we have. Section 7 is a call to action that looks ahead to an innovative and solutions-focused future in which Australia is effectively valuing and protecting nature as the foundation for the sustainable wellbeing of our society

Going places

Journeys. We all make them. Often they take us to exotic places. Sometimes they take us even further. They might take us through time. Or they might take us into a new way of life. There are times too, when we go all over the world and back again only to find that home is, after all, where it’s all happening. This book contains stories about many different types of journey. We hope you will enjoy travelling into it and finding a world that suits you

Places in diplomacy

In the world of diplomacy, what does Vienna or Paris evoke, for instance? For the historian, there is the inevitability of associating these imperial capitals of the Old World with major diplomatic events such as the Congress of Vienna of 1815 and the Paris Peace Conference of 1919. International conferences have a peculiar habit of acquiring nicknames taken after the cities in which they take place. Historians talk in the shorthand of ‘at Versailles’, ‘at The Hague’, ‘at London’ and so forth, implicitly drawing boundaries of shared knowledge and expectations. In the nineteenth and early twentieth century, these places were overwhelmingly located in Europe, which was largely a reflection of the configuration of political power in the world. But, also, it exposes limitations in how we have come to conceptualise diplomacy as predominantly a Western-centric process. Notable exceptions were diplomatic events that marked the decline of the once mighty empires, such as the Treaty of Nanking of 1842 ending the first Opium War, one of the ignominious of the nineteenth-century treaties

Craft in unexpected places

Within the shifting territories of craft practice, the handmade has become a relational form of contemporary activity that transforms our understanding of place through a hands-on, minds-on process of collective-making. The conceptual significance of craft is activated through a chance encounter with the handmade in daily life. During the article we aim to explore the confluence between crafting, social engagement, volunteering and the realms of education and creative practice that we have both experienced first hand. What will be revealed will be the voices of practitioners collectively exploring cloth’s potential as a metaphor for consciousness, carrier of narrative and catalyst for community empathy and cohesion. This will be informed by an enquiry into historical forms of communal crafting drawn from archival research at the Imperial War Museum London and Foundling Hospital Collection housed at the Foundling Museum in London and a primary case study of the workshop ‘Desconocida – Unknown – Ukjent’. We employ a method used in object-based research: a value system that can be applied to the consideration of cloth as an object of study – namely, the locational, iconographical, archival, aesthetic and transferral. Focusing particularly on the transferral and locational, we will examine the significance of the handmade gesture in particular artistic, political and social contexts. These visual and textual narratives will inform our perception of ‘Craft in unexpected places’ and bring visibility to a selection of craft interventions by making links between the wide-reaching possibilities for craft-based practices and their expressive potential within the social and political landscapes they inhabit

Domestic spaces in unhomely places : Oikos and ethics in McCarthy’s the Road

Spatially, Cormac McCarthy‟s The Road is starkly simple. Although the basic schema permits many variations, I would argue that there are qualitatively only three spaces in the entire novel. These are the road itself, the sea, and chanced-upon, variously manifested domestic space. These closely interdependent spaces structure the narrative and allow for the staging of an exploration of memory and childhood, as well as providing the context for a compelling but never fully articulated ethical demand to emerge. The road is a threateningly exposed and entirely desperate place that offers no refuge or sustenance. Roving gangs of half-starved cannibals travel the road, as does their food, the last remaining, pitiful detritus of humanity, aimlessly and hopelessly wandering. Chronotopically, the road exists in the pitiless zero hour of a present bereft of past and future [there is no past, 55; the hour. There is no later. This is later, 56].peer-reviewe

Semantic labeling of places

Indoor environments can typically be divided into places with different functionalities like corridors, kitchens, offices, or seminar rooms. We believe that such semantic information enables a mobile robot to more efficiently accomplish a variety of tasks such as human-robot interaction, path-planning, or localization. In this paper, we propose an approach to classify places in indoor environments into different categories. Our approach uses AdaBoost to boost simple features extracted from vision and laser range data. Furthermore,we apply a Hidden Markov Model to take spatial dependencies between robot poses into account and to increase the robustness of the classification. Our technique has been implemented and tested on real robots as well as in simulation. Experiments presented in this paper demonstrate that our approach can be utilized to robustly classify places into semantic categories

Exploring Dark Places

Over the last 18 months, Office of Experiments, led by artists Neal White and Steve Rowell, have engaged in the Overt Research Project gathering together original documentation of sites of experimentation, intelligence and knowledge not normally accessible to the public. This research brings together a range of issues concerning the UK and its techno-scientific and military complex, and the role of the artist in an experimental society. The outputs of this work have been aggregated into a database, and the first version of this - 'A Fieldguide to Dark Places - South Edition' was part of the larger exhibition that White co-curated at John Hansard Gallery in 2009-10. In addition to discussing the act of documenting sensitive sites such as Corsham Computer Centre, ISEEE and Porton Down, Neal White will also introduce the first archive to be obtained by the Office of Experiments as a part of this project. Donated by the campaigner and activist Mike Kenner, it contains catalogued material of over 30 years of personal research and requests for information to Porton Down, the Cabinet Office and others implicated in experiments involving the spraying of the public with alleged toxic materials. Kenner's work has been so sustained over such a long period, that his knowledge has in turn been co-opted by Porton Down administration, who forward awkward enquiries on to him directly. This tactic turns Kenner into part of the machine that he resists. The talk will reflect on the issues raised by the work of artists and activists operating as independent researchers in a broader context of examining experimental systems, and in a context of socially-engaged arts practices