This chapter discusses the creation of the intelligible world, which comes to being through the formative activity of the Good on its first product. The Great Kinds are dynamically balanced principles, by virtue of which Intelligible Matter received form as Being, Movement achieves Rest, and Difference is united by Identity, thus establishing Intellect, the One-Many. The three crucial principles of the Plotinian metaphysics are outlined: (1) the principle of the microcosm, (2) the imaging principle, and (3) the principle of the triadic selfhood. In light of the first principle, at all the levels of reality there exist individual beings who exist within and are united with the great principles of reality by virtue of two forms of participation. The notions of vertical and horizontal participation are defined. The imaging principle relates to reality consisting of hierarchies of dynamically produced images of higher archetypes. What is expressed participates vertically in its archetype. The third principle is a triadic intertwining of loving and knowing with selfhood. The “negative” or “potential” aspects of the Great Kinds are described as the metaphysical seeds of evil and fall.

Plotinus’ views on concepts have so far received little attention, whereas his views on ennoiai, conceptions, have been more widely discussed. This is partly due to the varied vocabulary that Plotinus uses to refer to what we might call concepts, assuming that the latter are understood as mental items distinct from thoughts. Sara Magrin’s chapter ‘Plotinus on Concepts’ focuses on one important passage of the Enneads (Ennead 6.6.12–14) which offers a critical discussion of an account of the concepts (ennoēmata) of one and numbers commonly attributed to the Stoics. The chapter pursues the twofold aim of reconstructing the account in question and of interpreting and assessing Plotinus’ criticism of it. This has scarcely, if ever, been attempted in the scholarship, both because the evidential value of that passage in respect of the Stoics has been deemed questionable and because Plotinus’ criticism of the Stoic concept of number is extremely compact and difficult to articulate. The main contribution of Magrin’s analysis consists in her use of Plotinus’ criticism of the Stoics as evidence, on the basis of which she pieces together Plotinus’ views on concepts.

Yi-Tang Lin presents the historical process by which statistics became the language of global health for local and international health organizations. Drawing on archival material from three continents, this study investigates efforts by public health schools, philanthropic foundations, and international organizations to turn numbers into an international language for public health. Lin shows how these initiatives produced an international network of public health experts who, across various socioeconomic and political contexts, opted for different strategies when it came to setting global standards and translating local realities into numbers. Focusing on China and Taiwan between 1917 and 1960, Lin examines the reception, adaptation, and appropriation of international health statistics. She presents the dynamic interplay between numbers, experts, and policy-making in international health organizations and administrations in China and Taiwan. This title is also available as Open Access.

Abstract: This article explores early Jewish conceptions of the “bad man” as reflected in the hermeneutic legacy of one seminal biblical passage (Num 15:30-31) in order to discern the most egregious forms of religious wrongs. This offers a prism for gauging whether early iterations of “Judaism” were so fully aligned with law and praxis that this constituted the entirety of religious life and its ultimate measure. Or, alternatively, whether one can already perceive in classical Jewish discourse an acknowledgement, or even an articulation, of a “religious” or “theological” nucleus apart from the normative order.

This chapter focuses on the differences in how languages construe their numbers.

Chapter 1 argues that total global public banking capacity is exponentially greater than what tends to be reported by international institutions. Two premises support the argument. First, the financing for development literature provides an inconsistent and inaccurate empirical account of public banks around the world. The forcefulness of this premise depends on the second premise, namely that national and subnational public banks persist in significant institutional numbers and size. The chapter shows there are more than 900 public banks with nearly $49 trillion in combined assets. Understanding the actual capacity of (sub)national public banks is a precondition for having an informed debate on the future of public banks and for whom they might catalyse a global green & just transition. The chapter opens this discussion by first locating public banks within the wider credit system and in relation to other types of public financial institutions.

At different places in his writings Alexander expands on Aristotle’s criticism of Pythagorean and Academic doctrines making numbers principles of beings. On these accounts, harmoniai and symphōniai are singled out as paradigmatic cases illustrating a more general explanatory strategy. This chapter analyzes Alexander’s understanding of this strategy and explores the extent to which he may or may not have found room for its use within his account of Aristotle’s philosophy. The chapter is divided into four sections. Section 1 outlines the Aristotelian background of the discussion; sections 2 and 3 focus on the textual evidence from Alexander’s writings (in particular: from the commentaries on Aristotle’s Metaphysics and De sensu, and from Alexander’s De anima). Finally, section 4 sets Alexander’s analysis within the broader context of Aristotelian metaphysics and sketches out a possible account of the interplay between the shaping of Alexander’s views and the development of different stances about the nature and role of forms, quantities and quantitative determinations both in opposition to the Pythagorean and the Platonic traditions and within the Peripatetic tradition as such.

This chapter introduces the different data types of Python: integers, characters, strings, lists, dictionaries, tuples, etc. The chapter also treats the concept of mutability.

In this chapter, it is shown that the textual heterogeneity of the book of Revelation is only on the surface. To the contrary, it has a clear structure, designed to provide unity to the whole: a prologue in which the author provides the guidelines to the reader (1. 1–3); an introductory liturgical dialogue (1. 4–8); an account of the things John saw and heard during his vision (1.9–22.16); and a closing liturgical dialogue (22.17–21). After this, the type of account constituted by Rev 1.9–2.16 is examined, through analysis of previous proposals. We conclude that Rev 1.9–2.16 is a special narrative, with the following characteristics: the use of a homodiegetic narrator (allowing John to simultaneously appear as a witness to the story and as one of its characters, and thus to highlight the veracity of the story he tells); a flexibility in the use of space–time coordinates; the variety of characters that participate in the plot; the fact that the plot has a happy ending; etc. Finally, I explore the author’s purpose of showcasing the truthfulness of the narrative.