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Ancient Greek verbal morphology involved extensive allomorphy of lexical morphemes, most of which was phonologically and semantically arbitrary, lexically idiosyncratic, and functionally redundant. In the subsequent history of the language this allomorphy was reduced, partly through analogical levelling, where an allomorphic alternation is eliminated in favour of a single phonological expression of underlying meaning. This kind of reduction of arbitrary complexity is often observed in the development of morphological systems, which has inspired a common view of morphological change as being guided by universal preferences, which nudge morphological systems along paths which will lead them to a more optimal status. This paper uses some systematic empirical data from the history of Greek to put to the test two questions about analogical levelling and the role of 'optimisation'. Firstly, is levelling motivated by a universal preference for a one-to-one alignment of meaning and form in language? Secondly, is the direction of levelling determined by universal preferences for particular ways of marking morphosyntactic distinctions? I will argue that the answer to both questions is no: the changes in the Greek data I have examined are remarkably well predicted by language-specific, formal properties of paradigms, without the need to invoke universal preferences. These facts are best accommodated if speaker competence includes detailed probabilistic information about the predictive structure of paradigms, which has important implications for morphological theory, as well as historical linguistics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

TL-2 is an important information source for eponyms in plant genera. Some of the entries in TL-2 (among several hundred) do not correspond with the original dedication by the botanical author or other botanical or geographical information and genealogical literature. The differences, problems and corrections for those eponyms listed in TL-2 are pointed out here. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Dominican Johannes Cuno (1463–1513) was a talented Hellenist who was closely associated with Aldus Manutius, Mark Mousouros and Johannes Reuchlin. His manuscript London Arundel 550 is currently held in the British Library in London. It is a miscellany of texts, a little bit like a personal notebook; these texts reflect Cuno's interests as well as the interests of the classicists of the time more broadly. This paper presents for the first time two unpublished items from London Arundel 550 1 supplied by Johannes Cuno (autograph, Pavia, 1506–8) for the advancement of the learning of the Greek language in the West. These are a) London Arundel 550, f. 28v: Prosody of Greek words (Anonymous, probably Johannes Cuno), and b) London Arundel 550, f. 59v: Glossary of local dialects (Anonymous, after Philostratos). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper sets out a framework in which we can distinguish between four types of redistributive attention to the disadvantaged: compensation; personal enhancement; targeted resource enhancement; and status enhancement. It is argued that in certain cases many of us will have strong intuitions in favour or against one or more strategies for addressing disadvantage, and it is further argued that in such cases it is likely that our reactions are based on assumptions about the human good. Hence the two issues -- addressing disadvantage and the human good -- shed light on one another [1]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the concept of humanism. By attending to, and reflecting upon moods, one can come to a deeper understanding of our being-in-the-world and our comportment with Being (Sein) itself. Spirit which is always restless and moving forward is about to burst forth into a new qualitative stage of development-a happening that he metaphorically characterizes as the birth of a child. The mood is one of expectation, hope, of being on the verge of a radical qualitative transformation, a new beginning that emerges out of the womb of an old and dying order-a beginning that at once presupposes what has been, breaks with it, and fulfills and redeems it. There is a sense of entropy, of almost inescapable decline where suspicion, unmasking, and destroying of illusions have been carried so far that there is even an inability and anxiety to "name" what one is living through. It is difficult to imagine a more devastating condemnation of the destiny of "metaphysical humanity," or a more bleak portrait of the modern age. Humanism seems to have become the signifier that names everything that is ominous, dark, and nihilistic in the modern age.

The following article continues the debate concerning the human dimensions of global environ- mental change, which was the theme of the previous issue of this Journal, under the title of `Reconciling the sociosphere and tile biosphere' (121, August 1989). The Soviet Academician N. N. Moiseev advocates in it an ecological imperative and a new humanism based on the concept of the noosphere, inspired by the ideas of the Soviet scientist Vernadskv, who was in the 1920s, a pioneering scholar of global change, and by the work of the French Jesuit palaeoanthropologist and philosopher Teilhard de Chardin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents information regarding Raya Dunayevskaya, one of the founders of Marxist Humanism, an attempt after World War II by philosophers in Europe and the U.S. to reconcile Marxism and the age-old effort of people to achieve individual freedom, died in Chicago on June 6, 1987. Expelled when Stalin extended his personal dictatorship to the world Communist movement, she gravitated to the faction supporting Stalin's rival, Leon. She broke with Trotsky in 1938 over his position that it was the duty of the Left and the labor movement of other countries to defend the Bolshevik coup but the break was inevitable. Trotsky had masterminded the beginning of the Bolshevik coup by applying the theory of mass terror developed in the Irish rebellion, and was as big a terrorist as Stalin. She quit the Trotskyite movement in 1939 when the Hitler-Stalin Pact marked the outbreak of World War II. Raya Dunayevskaya's philosophy was limited by her faith in Marxian economics, which was not equipped to make the detailed analysis of economic processes and institutions that has distinguished the classical and neo-classical schools, and in the sociology she derived from it, that made society consist of two classes, the capitalists, the exploiting class, and the workers, the exploited class.

The article presents information on several topics published in the journal "Renaissance Studies." One of the topic was "The negative dialectic of Lorenzo Valla: A study in the pathology of opposition," by W. Scott Blanchard. Two of the more controversial moments in Valla's biography are examined closely, his dismissal from his teaching position at the university of Pavia in 1433 and his examination before the Inquisition at Naples in 1444. Another topic was "Heraldry in Arcadia: the court eclogue of Johannes Opicius," by Lena Wahlgren-Smith. The article attempts to place the Dialogus of Johannes Opicius in its historical and literary setting. This part of the eclogue shows a marked influence from Virgil and Calpurnius Siculus. Opicius's choice of genre represents a conscious attempt to follow the new trends in literary Italian humanism.

This article presents author's views on applied humanism. Humanistic psychology currently is very popular, and its proponents constantly are extolling its values. One almost would think it was a new panacea for the troubles of man. Historically, however, humanism has been practiced for centuries in limited situations sufficiently for its effects to become known. Indeed, scientific methods have advanced to the point at which causes and effects can be evaluated actuarily. No longer can people take its values for granted, but instead should submit them to critical evaluation.