The problem of the one and the many is central to ancient Greek philosophy, but surprisingly little attention has been paid to Aristotle's treatment of it in the Metaphysics. This omission is all the more surprising because the Metaphysics is one of our principal sources for thinking that the problem is central and for the views of other ancient philosophers on it.The Central Books of the Metaphysics are widely recognized as the most difficult portion of a most difficult work. Halper uses the problem of the one and the many as a lens through which to examine the Central Books. What he sees is an extraordinary degree of doctrinal cogency and argumentative coherence in a work that almost everyone else supposes to be some sort of patchwork. Rather than trying to elucidate Aristotle's doctrines-most of which have little explicitly to do with the problem, Halper holds that the problem of the one and the many, in various formulations, is the key problematic from which Aristotle begins and with which he constructs his arguments. Thus, exploring the problem of the one and the many turns out to be a way to reconstruct Aristotle's arguments in the Metaphysics. Armed with the arguments, Halper is able to see Aristotle's characteristic doctrines as conclusions. These latter are, for the most part, supported by showing that they resolve otherwise insoluble problems. Moreover, having Aristotle's arguments enables Halper to delimit those doctrines and to resolve the apparent contradiction in Aristotle's account of primary ousia, the classic problem of the Central Books. Although there is no way to make the Metaphysics easy, this very thorough treatment of the text succeeds in making it surprisingly intelligible.

Does a novel focus on one life or many? Alex Woloch uses this simple question to develop a powerful new theory of the realist novel, based on how narratives distribute limited attention among a crowded field of characters. His argument has important implications for both literary studies and narrative theory. Characterization has long been a troubled and neglected problem within literary theory. Through close readings of such novels as Pride and Prejudice, Great Expectations, and Le Père Goriot, Woloch demonstrates that the representation of any character takes place within a shifting field of narrative attention and obscurity. Each individual--whether the central figure or a radically subordinated one--emerges as a character only through his or her distinct and contingent space within the narrative as a whole. The "character-space," as Woloch defines it, marks the dramatic interaction between an implied person and his or her delimited position within a narrative structure. The organization of, and clashes between, many character-spaces within a single narrative totality is essential to the novel's very achievement and concerns, striking at issues central to narrative poetics, the aesthetics of realism, and the dynamics of literary representation. Woloch's discussion of character-space allows for a different history of the novel and a new definition of characterization itself. By making the implied person indispensable to our understanding of literary form, this book offers a forward-looking avenue for contemporary narrative theory.

Is the world one or many? Ji Zhang revisits this ancient philosophical question from the modern perspective of comparative studies. His investigation stages an intellectual exchange between Plato, founder of the Academy, and Ge Hong, who systematized Daoist belief and praxis. Zhang not only captures the tension between rational Platonism and abstruse Daoism, but also creates a bridge between the two.

E Pluribus Unum: (From Many, One) is an epic story (1861–1876) chronicling the lives of two individuals. One a black man, Jason Ruth, born into a life of perpetual slavery; the other was a white woman, Rebecca Billings, the daughter of Henry Billings, master of the Rosewood Plantation, born into a pampered life of privilege as a member of the Southern aristocracy. Two people – one black, the other white – whose preordained statuses in life were at diametrically opposite ends of the South's Antebellum society. Two people with absolutely nothing in common yet two people whose lives were inexorably linked due to the lust of Rebecca's father, Henry Billings, for his black slave, Ruth, Jason's mother. Henry Billings's coupling (white master with his black female slave), a common and socially accepted practice in the slave–holding South, resulted in the birth of Mandy (Jason and Rebecca's sister). While Jason and Rebecca are not related by blood, Jason (who had been born before his mother, Ruth, caught the eye of the "massa") and Rebecca each shared a deep and enduring love for his and her only surviving sibling, their common link, their sister, Mandy. The novel tells of Rebecca's life while raising a child of mixed blood in the South during the Civil War and during Reconstruction. It tells of Jason's life as a member of the Massachusetts 54th Infantry Division and his service as a member of the United States Army's 10th Cavalry (Buffalo Soldiers). The novel examines three coexisting nineteenth–century American cultures: the recently defeated South's response to the post–Civil War's era of Reconstruction, the former black slaves who are attempting to adjust to life as freedmen, and the noble nomadic hunter–gatherer society of the Plains Indians fighting to defend and to maintain their way of life.

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Adventurous monkeys have a series of mishaps and escapades involving a bike, a golf cart, a canoe, a restaurant, and a hotel.