Greek Philosophy Research Articles

Das Verhältnis zwischen Neuplatonismus und Christentum nach Werner Beierwaltes am Beispiel seiner Auslegung des Dionysius Areopagitas

Abstract The present essay aims first at clarifying Werner Beierwaltes’ understanding of Neoplatonism at large as the accomplishment of Greek philosophy pursued by Plotinus and coherently developed by Proclus. It seeks secondly to locate Beierwaltes’ remarkable effort to trace the “Wirkungsgeschichte” of Neoplatonism. Focus has been placed, thirdly on his understanding of Dionysius Areopagita as the effective mediator of Neoplatonic issues in the Latin philosophical tradition long before the rediscovery of Proclus in the 13. century. Beierwaltes’ understanding of Dionysius’ “Christian Neoplatonism” as a lucky instance of “Hellenization of Christianity” is finally compared with different exegesis provided by Ivánka and Balthasar in the years immediately preceding Beierwaltes’ remarkable Proclus-monography of 1965.

The Ancient Greek Symposion as Space for Philosophical Discourse: Xenophanes and Criticism of the Poetic Tradition

The aim of the present article is to discuss relations between archaic Greek philosophy and poetry through the example of Xenophanes of Colophon (sixth century BCE), the poet best known for a critique of traditional religion using anthropomorphic imagery. The initial problem lies in understanding the performative aspect in Xenophanes’ elegiac poems; analysis of fragments 1W and 2W has revealed that his literary output can be situated within the framework of the aristocratic symposium. This sympotic context determines the second question: how the poetic fragments fi t with those compositions in which Xenophanes attacks traditional beliefs and poetic ideas of Homer and Hesiod. As I suggest, the critique of traditional mythical narratives, and undermining other poets’ authority, can be interpreted as an expression of performative practices functioning at symposia of the archaic and classical epochs. By removing the division between “philosophy” and “poetry”, different aspects of Xenophanes’ fragments begin to coincide with the phenomenon of the ancient symposium, understood as a space for intellectual competition.

MUSIC AS A SCIENCE OF MIND IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF AL-FARABI

This article reviews how philosophical issues related to music ca be informed by cognitive science approaches, particularly those of psychology and neuroscience. Focusing on activating emotions with the expressions of music, this study draws attention to an interdisciplinary field within the framework of philosophy. The first traces of issues associated with the depths of consciousness are found in Ancient Greek philosophy. Throughout human history, most philosophers have actively contemplated and attempted to answer fundamental questions about the universe and consciousness. The philosophy of music states that the art of music, each of the first foundations, involves the characteristic movement of the mind, which is summed up by fragmentation and synthesis (composition), according to the perception and imagination of the senses. Al Farabi, in his book The Great Book of Music, evaluates how certain features of musical rhythm, tonality and combinations can have an emotional impact on the listener, based on scientific, epistemological, and empirical studies. The observation of entropy in music, relevant to the active role music plays in social interaction, also supports our research, because it is the basic dynamic of the philosophy” of the mind.

All roads lead to the gut–brain microbiome network

“The whole is something besides the parts”, wrote the Greek philosopher Aristotle more than 2000 years ago. Author and gastroenterologist Emeran Mayer (Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA, USA), gives us a renewed appreciation of this phrase in the context of our understanding of the body and the brain. In The Gut-Immune Connection, Mayer takes us back to a holistic way of thinking that accounts for the full complexity of the interconnection between our gut, our mind, and the trillions of microbes that live in our gastrointestinal tract.

The idea of constancy in development and evolution – Scientific and philosophical perspectives

The ability of developmental systems to produce constant phenotypes, even in a wide range of different environments, and the longstanding stability of species are among the most remarkable phenomena in biology. I argue that understanding the longstanding constancy and stability of species or the constant outcome of development in different environments are also prerequisites for explaining stable change (i.e., change that does not consist of random plasticity). Various approaches to account for stable changes in development are based on the causal role of genes and an organized genome, mathematical-physical-chemical models, or a combination of both. I argue that the constancy of developmental outcome and the longstanding stability of species are associated with organisms' structural and organizational hierarchies, particularly highly organized gene-regulatory networks and genetic causality, which are fundamental principles of life. Mathematical-physical-chemical models that marginalize these principles cannot convincingly account for the observed constancy in development and evolution. However, an integration of physical-chemical processes such as reaction-diffusion mechanisms and genome-based mechanisms of form generation has recently proved fruitful in explaining the development of some periodic structures. Constancy and change were also major topoi in ancient Greek philosophy, in which prominent philosophical schools such as the atomists attempted to bridge the antinomy between them by basing stable change on constant entities. I argue that the idea of change, that is, change without losing complexity or even increasing it, being based on modifications of the otherwise reliable transmission of genomes over long periods of time has a historical parallel in the writings of these ancient speculative thinkers, notwithstanding the fundamental differences between the two thought systems.

Philosophy

The eleventh volume of the Studia Praesocratica series presents a welcome challenge to scholars of early Greek philosophy to get to grips with the exciting and valuable material found in the Herculanean testimonia. These texts provide a resource that has often been overlooked even by those seeking relatively recently to present comprehensive collections of texts and evidence on the Presocratics, and Christian Vassallo has done a great service in producing this extensive collection of textual evidence, along with English translations and commentary. As Vassallo makes clear in his introduction and individual commentary sections, a close study of the reception of early Greek philosophy in the Epicurean tradition throws up exciting new perspectives that may well provide a basis to challenge standard narratives, particularly with respect to early epistemology and theology. The work is explicitly designed to be of value not just to papyrologists but to scholars of early Greek philosophy too. With this in mind, Vassallo presents the evidence separately for each individual Presocratic, with separate commentary sections aiming to put the evidence into its Epicurean context. He extends the coverage of his already monumental work by including a useful appendix on ‘Diogenes of Oinoanda's Criticism of Presocratic Philosophy’ (595–645). Any scholar of early Greek philosophy seeking to undertake a comprehensive survey of the textual evidence will be grateful to Vassallo for the work he has done and for how accessible he has rendered these texts.

Abu Nasr al-Farabi in the perspective of Mohsen Mahdi

This study examines the efforts made by the Iraqi scholar Mohsen Mahdi in the field of studying Farabi philosophy, and the reasons that led him to specialize in the thought of Abu Nasr al-Farabi, who is considered the founder of Islamic philosophy, and one of the most important and influential Muslim philosophers in the philosophy of Middle ages. The study then analyzed the methodological perspective on which Dr. Mohsen Mahdi relied in looking at Al-Farabi's philosophical achievement. This perspective is based on two things, the first is fairness and the second is exploration. Mohsen Mehdi found in Al-Farabi his deepening into the beginning of language, its completeness and its relationship with philosophy and religion in the book (Letters), his greatest work. A common opinion before Mohsen Mehdi published his book On letters was that philosophers who wrote in Arabic explored the meaning of this term in the same way as Greek philosophers.   Keywords:  Al-Farabi ,exploration, fairness, Mahdi,  letters, philosophy.  

Vetera Novis Augere et Perficere: Thomas Aquinas and Christian-Muslim Dialogue

Vetera Novis Augere et Perficere:Thomas Aquinas and Christian-Muslim Dialogue Joseph Ellul, O.P. Pope Leo XIII's encyclical letter Aeterni Patris, issued on August 4, 1879, sought to address many issues that were challenging nineteenth-century Catholic scholarship and academic life. In proposing the thought of Thomas Aquinas as a model of Catholic teaching, the Pope intended, in his own words, "to strengthen and complete the old by aid of the new,"1 not only by reviving the study of the works and teachings of the Angelic Doctor, especially in the realm of philosophy, but also to uphold as perennial his method of engaging with his contemporaries within and without the Catholic faith.2 It is within this context that we are called upon to reflect upon this appeal: "vetera novis augere et perficere." The thirteenth century was indeed a time of intellectual upheaval, following the introduction of Aristotle and, later on, the translations into Latin of the Arabic commentaries on Aristotle by Ibn Rušd (Lat. Averröes; d. 1198). This event was met within the ecclesiastical world with apprehension, if not outright fear. Neo-Platonic philosophy and its interpretation by Ibn Sina (Lat. Avicenna; d. 1037) was already perfectly acceptable to Mediaeval Christian scholars. The latter was in fact considered an essential tool for understanding the illuminationist thought of St. Augustine. Étienne Gilson even spoke of Augustinisme avicennisant (Avicennized [End Page 1231] Augustinianism).3 The problem was Aristotle and his renowned commentator Ibn Rušd: a pagan commented on by an infidel. One must also note, however, that mediaeval Western intellectuals and institutions were able to encounter and adapt the Islamic legacy, because they already possessed a sufficient scientific base (with of course the contribution of translations of Greek together with Latin works) with which to understand, assimilate, and build upon this new knowledge that appeared from the East. In sum, mediaeval Christendom created living, vibrant societies, constantly searching, always discovering something new. In dealing with the specific (and delicate) subject of Aquinas's dialogue with Islamic thought, it would be necessary to reflect in particular upon two key works of his: the Liber de Veritate Catholicae Fidei contra Errores Infidelium (A Book on the Truth of the Catholic Faith against the Errors of Unbelievers),4 popularly known as the Summa contra gentiles [SCG], together with his De rationibus fidei contra Saracenos, Gnæcos et Armenos ad Cantorem Antiochenum, better known simply as De rationibus fidei. At this point it would be necessary to articulate the term "Islamic thought." Of itself it should not be identified with Islam as a religion. Rather, it should be considered as embracing classical Greek philosophy as interpreted by the Neo-Platonic movement and disseminated through Oriental Christian and Jewish schools of thought. Islamic civilization absorbed these teachings and built its own proper ediice upon these foundations. A Model for Interreligious Dialogue? Proposing Thomas Aquinas as a model for engagement with Islamic thought may also raise a few eyebrows. Hence, it would be appropriate to pose an essential question: "What type of dialogue existed in mediaeval times?" One should begin with an a priori exclusion of dialogue as it is understood today, given the fact that there existed neither the motive nor the means to implement it. In fact mediaeval society was aware of only three religions: the pagan, which had been replaced by Christianity; the Jewish, founded upon the precepts of the First Covenant which "Christ fulilled by his actions and [End Page 1232] by his teaching"5 and which was also believed to prefigure the everlasting New Covenant sealed by Jesus on the Cross; and finally, the Christian, which believed in Jesus as the final revelation of God to humanity.6 With such a vision in mind it is obvious that any doctrine that is not situated within these parameters, or which proposes some form of belief or conduct which was different from, if not contrary to, the Christian vision of God, the cosmos, and society, would be considered as heretical and its promoter an impostor.7 When Islam made its appearance in the Christian world, it carried with it a book that it considered of divine provenance, and...

Reading the Universe of Signs Well: Prospects for Partnering Theosemiotic with a Christian Semiotic Theology

Reading the Universe of Signs <i>Well</i>: Prospects for Partnering Theosemiotic with a Christian Semiotic Theology

THE PROBLEM OF EVIL AND THEODICY: ANALYSIS FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION

From a historical point of view, the problem of evil has not lost its relevance even though it has been debated since ancient Greek philosophy. This is because evil is an existential phenomenon inseparable from humanity. Especially the most relevant topic of philosophy. Heraclitus, who was concerned about this topic, believed that "good and evil are one thing", while Schelling recognized that "evil is necessary for the emergence of good". Ibn Arabi said, "God created evil because he has pity for it," and Augustine defined it as "God did not create evil, evil is the absence of good." As it can be understood from these results, no philosopher or theologian has avoided this important issue. This article discusses the problem of evil and deceit, which are one of the main arguments of atheists against the basis of theistic faith. What is evil? What is the ontological structure? Who created it? Has God created evil on earth or is this phenomenon caused by the action of humanity? Is evil a punishment or a test given to humanity? Religious and philosophical questions of this kind have always been discussed in history, but to this day, there is no concrete answer to these questions. This article discusses the content and meaning of the phenomenon of evil, as well as the causes and logical, evidential models. Moreover, in this article, we will outline the traditional ways of solving the problem of evil, based on the views of scientists put forward by various theodicy in Islamic and Western thinking. Key words: Evil and goodness, evil and God, theodicy, the silence of God.

Wpływ nauki starożytnej Grecji na rozwój logiki

The role of logic in everyday life is of incredibly significant importance. Since ancient times, great thinkers such as Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and Zeno of Elea have shown an interest in it. The present state of logic is the result of a prolonged process of evolution. The ancient Greek times played a pivotal and immensely foundational role in shaping it. From the 6th to the 4th century BCE, the foundations of logical thinking were born, which had a far-reaching impact on the later development of this field. The aim of this article is to present the significant influence of ancient Greek philosophy on the development of the science of logic. Due to the extensive thematic scope, the author has selected key issues that, in her opinion, had the most impact on the development of this science. This work delves into essential elements such as Socrates' methods, syllogism, and the reductio ad absurdum strategy, all of which lead to a deeper understanding of the fundamentals of logic.

Contributors

Previous article FreeContributorsPDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreShadi Bartsch is the Helen A. Regenstein Professor of Classics at the University of Chicago and Director of the Institute on the Formation of Knowledge. She has written or edited some twelve books on classical antiquity and, recently, several essays on the Chinese reception of the Western classical tradition. Her new translation of Vergil’s Aeneid came out in 2022 and her new study, Plato Goes to China, was published by Princeton University Press in January 2022.Jue Hou is a PhD Candidate in Social Thought and Comparative Literature at the University of Chicago. His research interests include translation studies, East Asian and European literary modernisms, and Chinese and Japanese intellectual history.Huang Yang is Professor and Chair of the History Department, Fudan University, and President of the Chinese Society for the Study of Ancient World History. His research interest is Greek history. Among the books he published are Studies in Politics and Society in Ancient Greece (2014); A Study on Land Tenure in Ancient Greece (1995); and An Introductory Guide to Research in Greek History (co-authored with Yan Shaoxiang, 2nd ed., 2021), all in Chinese. His latest publications also include “The Prehistory of Western Political Science: Political Thought in Greece in the Fifth Century BC” (2020, in Chinese) and “The Invention of the ‘Barbarian’ and Ethnic Identity in Early Greece and China” (2021, in English). His current project is a comparative study of Greek and Chinese ideas of the “barbarian.”Nie Minli is Professor of Philosophy, Renmin University of China. Professor Nie’s research interests focus on ancient Greek philosophy, especially Plato and Aristotle. He was a visiting scholar at the University of Crete, Greece, during 2005–6. His important works include Being and Substance: A Study of Aristotle’s Metaphysics Zeta (Z 1–9) (2011); Substance and Form: A Study of Aristotle’s Metaphysics Zeta (Z 10–17) (2016); and The Origins of Western Thought (2017), all published in Chinese and by Chinese publishing companies.Leihua Weng is Chinese Endowed Assistant Professor of Chinese Language and Literature at Kalamazoo College. She is interested in traditions, including the formations, transformation, and transmission of traditions, as well as their modern receptions in China and in the West. She is finishing a book project on reading Plato and Leo Strauss in China.Zhang Longxi is Chair Professor of Comparative Literature and Translation at City University of Hong Kong and an Honorary President of the International Comparative Literature Association. A leading scholar in East-West cross-cultural studies, he has published more than twenty books and many articles in English and Chinese, and his major book publications in English include The Tao and the Logos: Literary Hermeneutics, East and West (1992); Mighty Opposites: From Dichotomies to Differences in the Comparative Study of China (1998); Allegoresis: Reading Canonical Literature East and West (2005); Unexpected Affinities: Reading across Cultures (2007); From Comparison to World Literature (2016); and, most recently, A History of Chinese Literature (2023).Yiqun Zhou is Associate Professor of East Asian Languages and Cultures and, by courtesy, of Classics, at Stanford University. Her research interests include the comparative study of ancient societies and the reception of classical antiquity in modern China. She is the author of Festivals, Feasts, and Gender Relations in Ancient China and Greece, published by Cambridge University Press. Previous article DetailsFiguresReferencesCited by KNOW: A Journal on the Formation of Knowledge Volume 6, Number 2Fall 2022The Complexities of Inheritance: Contemporary Chinese Readings of Antiquity East and West Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/723567 © 2022 The University of Chicago. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

DEMOCRITUS’ VIEWS ON ATOMS IN THE INTERPRETATION OF BERUNI AND IBN SINA

This article provides brief information about the scientific and philosophical heritage of Beruni and Ibn Sina, who played an important role in the development of the philosophical thought of the Early Renaissance, as well as the importance of correspondence, which is considered one of the most important scientific and philosophical heritage of the 11th century, the opinions of our great scientists about teachings of the ancient Greek philosophers.

Symbolic Classification and The Emergence of a Metaphysics of Causality

Symbolic Classification and The Emergence of a Metaphysics of Causality Owen Goldin what is distinctive about metaphysics as a mode of thought that emerged in the fifth century before the Common Era? How did it emerge out of early ways of conceptualizing the world as a whole, and why? Many answers have been proposed. One common view is that earlier modes of thought personify natural agencies; once this is abandoned, the way is open for discerning more complex regularities among natural events.1 Another view is that the process of "rationalization" introduced by the Greeks involves an implicit appeal to the individual's natural intelligence, in contrast to a dependence on an "inherited stock of wisdom."2 A third view is that the first Greek philosophers introduced inference as a way of navigating conceptual relationships, independent of the sorts of personal interactions among divinities related in mythical narrative.3 According to a fourth account, the mode of rationality that allowed for the development of ancient Greek metaphysics was a social [End Page 3] practice with the aim of persuasion, brought on by more democratic involvement in societal deliberations concerning law and policy.4 To these I add a fifth way of answering the question. Crucial to the emergence of Greek metaphysics is explicit distinction of ontological/causal priority and posteriority. Ancient Greek scientific explanations developed out of older, archaic modes of conceptualization, which I maintain have deep parallels with modes of conceptualization shared by many nonliterate cultures. Such modes of thought rest on an implicit worldview which can be called a metaphysics, in a loose sense, and are still worthy of philosophical consideration. I begin with a red flag that will be raised for many as soon as we start talking about the metaphysical traditions of nonliterate cultures. What counts as a metaphysical tradition? I make some distinctions. In the loosest sense, an account or tradition is metaphysical if it reflects a coherent worldview concerning the kinds of beings that there are and how they are related to one another. According to a stricter sense of the term, a tradition is metaphysical if it involves working through this worldview in an explicit and systematic matter. In an even stricter sense, a tradition is metaphysical if, in addition to being explicit and systematic, it merits being classified as "philosophical," itself not an unproblematic term. I here stipulate that an account is philosophical if it does not rest on premises that are specific to certain cultural traditions and employs inferential arguments that are in principle subject to refutation. Generally speaking, there are two ways in which a tradition that is metaphysical in the strictest sense can listen to one that is metaphysical in a looser sense. First, a metaphysician might examine the latter tradition in order to explore how, historically, it served as the root for the former. An example is Aristotle's interest in Hesiod as expressing metaphysical intuitions that later philosophers unpacked.5 By studying [End Page 4] the ontological presuppositions of the sort of account from which our own metaphysics is derived, one learns more about our own ontological presuppositions and what we gain from them.6 This sort of dialogue carries with it the danger that the later thinker presupposes that—in the spirit of "you have to start somewhere"—the earlier thinkers were simply doing a bad job working through their own theories; Aristotle has often been accused of precisely this.7 Another sort of dialogue is possible as well. An alternative metaphysical tradition can reveal the possibility of a radically different way of conceptualizing the causal and ontological structure of the world, one with its own advantages. In such a case there is shared set of problems at issue, shared points of reference within the philosophical literature, and a shared understanding of what philosophical argument is. But philosophical insight might also emerge from the kind of dialogue in which a developed metaphysics that conforms to certain standards of inferential argument confronts a way of thinking that is metaphysical in a looser sense. A substance-based ontologist can be led to reflect on whether the world has to be cut up as she does by studying Aztec...

"Treptele convertirii. Exegeză biblică și protreptic filosofic la Clement din Alexandria"

This article explores some aspects of Clement of Alexandria’s use of moral exhortation (or protreptic), a genre widely practiced both by Greek philosophers and early Christian writers. While modern scholars have commonly limited the analysis of Clement’s use of this genre to his Protrepticus to the Greeks, I will try to take a step further by pointing to some protreptic elements found in the first book of the Paedagogus. Along with discussing some biblical and philosophical topoi, I will focus my analysis on the medical language and imagery found in that book. As I intend to show, the use of medical imagery was a rhetorical device Clement made use of to reinforce his protreptic appeal to the Greeks to convert to Christianity. Reading Clement’s Paedagogus in light of the categories of the protreptic genre is important as it allows us to readdress not only the question of its purpose, but also that of its sources and intended readership. Against the communis opinio that the addressees of this book were only the already-converted Christians, I will try to argue that Clement’s intended audience also encompassed the Alexandrian pagan intellectuals of his day.

Нове видання досократичних фрагментів: матеріали Геркуланумських папірусів. Vassallo, C. (2021). The Presocratics at Herculaneum. A Study of Early Greek Philosophy in the Epicurean Tradition. Berlin: De Gruyter.

Review of Vassallo, C. (2021). The Presocratics at Herculaneum. A Study of Early Greek Philosophy in the Epicurean Tradition. Berlin: De Gruyter.

Ephemeral climates: Plato's geographic myths and the phenomenological nature of climate and its changes

Historical and cultural approaches to climate generally consider climate to be a stabilising concept between weather and culture. Different historical and cultural concepts of climate signify different ways of learning to live with the weather. However, anthropogenic climate change evidences the limit of this approach: instead of stabilising, climates ephemeralise together with the ways we have come to adapt to them. Changing climates require a concept of climate that captures how climates are experienced both as stable and ephemeral. To create such a concept, I engage in an exercise of counterfactual etymology, reconstructing the concept of climate that might have emerged from the Ancient Greek term hora as opposed to klima. Central to my re-creation of phenomenological climate are Plato's myths, through which I highlight the methodological kinship between myth and phenomenology. Drawing on a later dialogue, Philebus, I provide an ontological account of climates as both stable and ephemeral. I conclude by situating my approach to climate and its changes in recent work on the relationship between weather and climate, arguing for the necessity of phenomenological climate in order to make sense of what changes with climate change. My turn to Ancient Greek philosophy and its application to the phenomenology of climate and its changes sounds out a novel approach to research in historical geography.

Noteworthy Problems with God’s Immutability, Impassibility, and Simplicity. Should We Treat These Divine Attributes and the Hellenic Conditions of Christian Theism as a Dogma?

The article presents problems that the concepts of God’s immutability, impassibility, and simplicity pose for Christian theism. Through the critical analysis, the author indicates the roots of these ideas (mostly, but not only, in ancient Greek philosophy) and the consequences of absolutizing them for the image of God and His relationship to the world. The more general purpose of the paper is to highlight the danger of the strong dependence of religious depictions on philosophical grounds. As concluded in the article, it is a mistake to absolutize the particular solutions that appeared at the junction of fides et ratio at one of the historical stages. The awareness of this becomes extremely important when reflecting on the divine immutability, impassibility, and simplicity. The author shows some proposals to reformulate their understanding in light of contemporary analytic philosophy. Partial reinterpretation in this regard may help to rethink the concept of the Creator’s interaction with creation and to reconcile the biblical image of God with the philosophical one.

Religious Beliefs in "Silambu"

Man is not only an animal that eats, dresses, and lives, but also an animal with religious knowledge. Only man, unlike animals, has discovered a superhuman power to protect himself from threatening evil and to obtain what he desires. How the ancient people came to think about religion is an unending debate among anthropologists and realists. He mentions that scholars like "Periluite" and others like "Thurkiyam" think that the fear that appeared in the people is the reason for the emergence of religion. The text says that there was a principle behind the fact that Veeduperu (Salvation), Meyporul (Reality), Illatthuravu (Give up material life), Vethanambikkai (Belief in Vedas), Nadukal Vanakkam (Salutation to Hero Stone), the number three, Veda and Velvi (Veda and Sacrifice), are considered to be religious as well as subjected to scrutiny and appropriate that being religious is wise. Therefore, Ilango has also indicated the state of meditation of the saints of Jainism. It can be seen in three places in Silapathikaram that the people of that time gave importance to the number three in their lives. Countless sounds are heard in the city of Madurai. Then it can be known that the Vedas have been used in a faith-based manner by the fact that they are recited and the sound is heard. During the Silapathikaram era, virtuous Brahmins lived all over Tamil Nadu. They recited the Vedas, made prayers, and performed their six types of activities, such as reciting, desiring, conducting prayers, and offering gifts. The Epic emphasises the excellence of the Vedas by praising the maadalan. "Gods are peerless warriors who do good." According to the Greek philosopher, Euchemerus, after the deaths of these heroes, the people began to worship them as gods. But he also accepts the worship of dead ancestors as the root cause of religion. Despite these differences of opinion, religion is a very deep subject that resonates with man's deep experiences. A place where the thoughts and dreams of billions of minds flash, explaining the religious beliefs of the Silapathikaram period.

Highly Energy-Efficient Metaconductor-Based Integrated RF Passives: Metaconductor-Based RF Passives

Human beings are naturally mobile and crave freedom. But, for many years, we were leashed to our office desks/homes to make a long-distance phone call. Finally, in 1973, the first-ever cellular phone call was made by Motorola engineer Dr. Martin Cooper using a handmade prototype device that weighed almost 2.5 lb. As Greek philosopher Heraclitus said, “Change is the only constant,” and over the past 50 years, cellular phone technology has undergone a drastic makeover where we drifted from a 2.5-lb cellular phone to a 0.4-lb smartphone (an iPhone 13), from typewriters to digital systems like desktops and laptops, and from paper maps to GPS for navigation. Similarly, as shown in <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig1" xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Figure 1</xref> , our journey in wireless mobile communications started with 1G with analog data transmission and a data rate at ∼2.4 Kb/s to a full-fledged and operating 4G at a maximum data rate of 1 Gb/s.