The present paper reports a set of experimental studies concerning the comprehension of French argumentative operators and connectives.The first part is a presentation of the theoretical framework, the methodological problems and some of the most general results. Experiments were carried out in the perspective of the linguistic theory of argumentation developed by Anscombre and Ducrot. According to this theory, a number of devices in language are mainly defined by their argumentation function, i.e. by the types of discursive sequences and conclusions (...) they involve. Three categories of such devices were examined: (1) operators like “presque” (almost), “à peine” (hardly), “au moins” (at least), etc. which give an argumentative orientation to the statement; (2) co-orientation connectives, like “même” (even), which relate two statements oriented towards the same conclusion; (3) counter-orientation connectives, like the concessive ones (“mais” (but), “quand même” (even so), etc.), which relate two statements oriented towards opposite conclusions. The data shed light on issues such as: What is the nature of the relationship between the informative and argumentative functions of different operators? Is there a hierarchical relation between the argumentative processes of “co-orientation” and “counter-orientation”? What is the role of negation in the processing of argumentative sequences?The second part of the paper focuses specifically on the study of how 8 and 10 year-old children process “counter-oriented” statements. Five concessive connectives were studied: “mais”, “pourtant”, “quand même”, “même si”, “bien que”. The test was composed of two successive completion tasks: in one task the children had to choose the relevant context of complex sentences involving concessive connectives; in the other task they had to choose their relevant conclusion. Main results show a clear evolution in the performance of children between 8 and 10, suggesting that concessive strategies are not completely mastered at the age of 8. Differences among the concessive connectives studied were brought out: the item “quand même” obtained much better results than the other items with 8-year-old subjects; statements with “mais” seemed to be better processed in the conclusion task than in the context task, especially by 10-year-old subjects. These results are compared with other data obtained in some of the numerous studies on the production and comprehension of concessive connectives in various languages, and discussed from the point of view of argumentative theory. (shrink)

The paper explores the semiotic and legal semiotic perspectives related to posthumous digital face. In doing so, the contribution also seeks to explore the complex relationship between AI-generated faces, including deep fakes, mourning, and posthumous rights. The article has five parts. In the introduction, we discuss the challenges of _posthumous existence_ and the issues related to respecting the deceased. We also examine some examples of ‘digital personhood’. In part two, we present three case studies and use semiotics to help us (...) distinguish between _posthumous existence_ and _digital resurrection_. In part three, we provide a semiotic classification of representation in the context of digital faces and our case studies. We suggest that there is a difference between the _phenomenological presence_ of a hologram and the _cognitive value_ of recreating someone’s identity, including their biography, face, and voice. In part four, we explore the topic of digital spectra and mourning, including the concept of _imputability_. In part five, we analyse how the law offers new insights into the ontology of the face of the deceased and posthumous existence in hologram form. In the conclusion, we summarise the article’s key findings and highlight open issues and potential future developments. (shrink)

This article discusses how the legal systems in several Western countries, with a special focus on Italy, address our present day animal rights movement and how these legal systems can faithfully reflect the movement’s values as well as promote them in a manner that will ultimately change the rights themselves and their cultural context: this is an extremely interesting issue for the semiotic study of the “humanization of animals”. Therefore, I will summarize several semiotic arguments using the model of the (...) four ontologies by Philippe Descola and the concept of prospectivism by Eduardo Viveiros De Castro. I expect several important changes will come about thanks to the ties between philosophical animal rights discourse and legal discourse and I also believe that the two most interesting issues will be animal labor and reproduction. I will concentrate on the debate over zoophilia laws in Denmark, Germany and Italy in order to propose a way to understand the threshold which separates humans and animals in our naturalistic ontology. Nowadays, “becoming animals” and “becoming humans” seem to be two central and open-ended semiotic processes: legal rights and animal rights philosophy help bring several issues into focus such as animal subjectivity and informed consent. (shrink)

What is bioethics? For those involved in the study or the teaching of bioethics this question is a fundamental one. This book proposes a series of possible answers to this question, converging on the idea that bioethics is a myth. As a whole, the book is a response to the so-called French “bioethical” laws (1994) and to the “bioethics” they propagate. It is therefore, for the French-reading English-speaker, a good introduction to these and to the debates around them. Gérard Mémeteau, (...) professor of law and director of the newly established Centre de Droit Médical at the University of Poitiers, documents in his article on the one hand the inconsistencies of the French legal approach, and on the other his own regret at being forced to admit these inconsistencies. Reluctantly, he concludes that the traditional concept of the human being, subject of positive law, is, despite the affirmation of “respect for the human being from the beginning of its life”, …. (shrink)

RESUMO Este artigo apresenta informações de um estudo iconográfico – pautado no campo da abordagem qualitativa, orientado pela questão “quais as representações do cuidar/cuidado humano presentes em uma pintura da Renascença?” – cujo objetivo foi identificar a(s) representação(ões) do cuidar/cuidado humano expressa(s) por uma pintura renascentista. A arte desenvolvida no Renascimento teve um caráter científico devido aos conhecimentos da Matemática, Física, e outras áreas, inseridos nela. Os resultados do estudo da imagem produzida por material artístico – iconografia – permitiram, através (...) da análise iconográfica, desvelar o cuidar/cuidado humano sob a forma de compaixão como sendo o verdadeiro significado da pintura O Bom Samaritano (1550-1570) de Jacopo Bassano. Outras variantes de cuidar/cuidado foram identificadas, confluindo para a representação do cuidar/cuidado manifestação da vida. Palavras-chave: Arte, saúde, cuidar/cuidado humano, Renascimento, iconografia. (shrink)

Cy Twombly est un artiste très secret. De son vivant, il ne laissait personne entrer dans son atelier pendant qu’il peignait et seulement quelques photographes ont pu en franchir le seuil. C’est l’artiste lui-même qui offre le meilleur accès à son univers dans ses ateliers de New York, Rome, Bassano in Taverina ou Gaeta et dans sa ville natale de Lexington : une publication récente, Cy Twombly : Homes & Studios (Nicola Del Roscio, Schirmer/Mosel, 2019), nous permet d’avoir un (...) aperçu de ses lieux de travail par des clichés choisis avec soin par l’artiste. Face à ces photographies de Twombly, une question se pose : quel usage fait Twombly de la photographie d’atelier? Dans cet article, nous allons explorer ce thème à travers l’étude approfondie de ces prises de vue, et analyser trois approches et regards différents de l’artiste sur son espace créatif : les vues d’ensemble, les natures mortes et les détails. (shrink)