This book provides the first English translations of pivotal essays and debates on the role of language politics, linguistics, and translation in Antonio Gramsci's influential cultural theory. It also includes new works from leading and up-and-coming anglophone scholars to create a vital resource for a wide variety of readers interested in Gramsci across many disciplines including cultural studies, critical political economy, social and political theory, literature, sociology, post-colonialism, and philosophy.

Cet article est constitué de deux parties : la première concerne l’arrivée au Brésil en 1816, de Marie Joséphine Durocher (1809-1893), accompagnée de sa mère, et leur installation dans le nouveau pays en tant que « marchandes de modes » ; la seconde traite de la trajectoire professionnelle de Mme Durocher en tant que sage-femme. De fait, en 1834, elle devient la première sage-femme diplômée du pays, exerçant ce métier pendant plus de cinquante ans à Rio de Janeiro. L’approche biographique (...) nous permet de constater que derrière une image de femme d’exception, sa vie ressemble à celle d’autres femmes vivant dans les villes brésiliennes du XIXe siècle, notamment les couturières et modistes françaises qui traversent l’Atlantique pour « faire l’Amérique » et les sages-femmes françaises et brésilienne qui y exercent leur profession. (shrink)

The general question to be considered in this paper points to the nature of the world described by chemistry: what is macro-chemical ontology like? In particular, we want to identify the ontological categories that underlie chemical discourse and chemical practice. This is not an easy task, because modern Western metaphysics was strongly modeled by theoretical physics. For this reason, we attempt to answer our question by contrasting macro-chemical ontology with the mainstream ontology of physics and of traditional metaphysics. In particular, (...) we introduce the distinction between stuff-ontology, proper of chemistry, and individual-ontology, proper of physics. These two ontologies differ from each other in the basic categories of their own structures. On this basis, we characterize individual-ontology in such a way that the features of stuff-ontology will arise by contrast with it. (shrink)

This paper provides a historical reevaluation of the originality and implications of Avempace's critique of Aristotle's causal explanation of the motion of projectiles. It also offers a serious revision of the place which has usually been assigned to Avempace in the history of science. The views regarding projectiles defended in Avempace's Arabic commentary are in sharp opposition to the anti-Aristotelian Avempace that was known in the Medieval West through Averroes. Avempace's commentary reveals only a moderate critic of Aristotle, a critic (...) who did not, in any case, break with the master, and who, therefore, did not even go as far as Philoponus in creating a new and more profound theory of projectile motion. (shrink)

Ejes de la territorialidad patriarcal -- Fronteras y antifaces del signo mujer -- En el flujo heterogéneo de la liberación.

El presente artículo tiene como objetivo principal presentar y discutir el concepto de las hiperescrituras del yo como prácticas de producción de memorias. A partir de estas escrituras, practicadas y compartidas en la pandemia, se pretende pensar la ficción como táctica de (re)existencia. Finalmente se presenta una experiencia en la plataforma Moodle, diseñada con estudiantes durante el 2020, que tuvo la ficción como punto de partida de la propuesta didáctica.

Imposing “sin” taxes has been the preferred way governments tried to discourage the over-consumption of temptation goods for decades. However numerous evidence shows that consumers exhibit behavioral biases which can affect their reaction to taxes. This paper investigates a potential bias and how it affects demand for temptation: financial worries associated with poverty have been shown to shift attention towards pressing needs, often at the expense of forward-looking decisions. In an online experiment with UK participants, we randomly induce financial worries (...) and ask participants to allocate a budget between basic necessities and temptation goods in an experimental market. We randomly impose “taxes” on temptation by increasing its price. We find that, in the absence of any tax, inducing financial worries lowers demand for temptation, effect stronger for lower-income participants. However, when financial concerns are salient, increasing the tax does not lower demand among lower-income participants. While financial worries might protect against over-consumption of temptation in the absence of tax changes, they also might hurt the poor the most when additional taxes are introduced. (shrink)

Receptor oligomerization plays a key role in maintaining genome stability and restricting protein mutagenesis. When properly folded, protein monomers assemble as oligomeric receptors and interact with environmental ligands. In a gene-centered view, the ligand specificity expressed by these receptors is assumed to be causally predetermined by the cell genome. However, this mechanism does not fully explain how differentiated cells have come to express specific receptor repertoires and which combinatorial codes have been explored to activate their associated signaling pathways. It is (...) our contention that the plasma membrane acts as the locus where several contextual cues may be integrated. As such it allows the semiotic selection of those receptor configurations that provide cells with the minimum essential requirements for agency. The occurrence of protein misfolding makes it impossible for receptor monomers to assemble along the membrane and to sustain meaningful relationships with environmental ligands. How could a cell lineage deal with these loss-of-function mutations during evolution and restrain gene redundancy accordingly? In this paper, we will be arguing that the easiest way for bacteria clones to accomplish this goal is by getting rid of cells expressing mutated receptor proteins. The mechanism sustaining this cell selection is also occurring in many somatic tissues and its function is currently believed to counteract in vivo protein mutagenesis. Our discussion will be mainly focused on the significance and semiotic nature of the interplay between membrane receptors and the epigenetic control of gene expression, as mediated by the control of mismatched repairing and protein folding mechanisms. (shrink)

Abstract:I defend that the distinctive object of our aesthetic evaluation of films is the full emotional experience, taken as a unified whole, that we go through as we watch a film and that I call the viewer's film emotional life. The aesthetic value itself—the positive quality we perceive in the experience of having had a certain film emotional life—is in the significance we experience in that film emotional life insofar as it contributes to the discovery and the exploration of the (...) viewer's human and individual emotional nature. I finally suggest that the explanation of the positive felt quality of such experience is in the progress it represents regarding our resourcefulness as emotional subjects toward the realization of our individual ideal of life. (shrink)

For several decades now, and for a number of different reasons, there has been a significant reawakening of interest in Aristotle's practical philosophy. In particular it is widely held that his philosophy can work as a model for safeguarding the fundamental ethical demands without having to deny the natural essence of the human being and without having to resort to a metaphysical basis. This article sets out to question this theoretical approach. It considers in particular two main problems: the responsability (...) of the individual and the role of the knowledge of good in ethics. The comparison between two recent publications , is directed towards demonstrating that Aristotle's ethical thought does not meet demands nowadays considered essential. As for responsability, Aristotle succeeds in justifying responsability for actions but not responsability for character: the results are hardly acceptable . With regard to the knowledge of good, it is broadly estabilished that, in his ethics, Aristotle does not consider it to be a central theme . The question is whether the lack of this particular feature is really, as many maintain, a positive characteristic. This paper aims to demonstrate that it is not the case, or at least it is not when evaluating ethical theories from a general current perspective, because nowadays the fundamental ethical problem seems indeed to be the identification of an intersubjective consent on the notions of good and evil. If, in our search for an effective model for modern reflection, we wish to turn our attention to ancient philosophy, then the Socratic/Platonic approach seems to be much more promising than that of Aristotle. (shrink)

In this paper, I identify and provide an explanation for a heretofore unrecognized puzzle in feminist aesthetics and the philosophy of horror. Many horror movie fans have an aversion to rape scenes. This is puzzling because genre fans are not equally bothered by the depiction of other types of violence and cruelty. I argue that we can make sense of this selective aversion by appeal to the notion of ‘distance’, which philosophers of horror use to explain why people are attracted (...) to horror movies in the first place. When we consume horror, we ‘distance’ ourselves from the scary things depicted, which allows other mechanisms to kick in that lead to overall enjoyment. I argue that ‘distance’ often collapses when viewers are confronted with depictions of rape because rape is common in real life and a gendered form of violence that is implicated in social injustice. (shrink)

Established at the annual meeting of the International Society for Biosemiotic Studies on July 3rd 2014, in conjunction with Springer Publishing, publishers of the Society’s official journal, Biosemiotics, the Annual Biosemiotic Achievement Award seeks to recognize those papers published in the journal that present novel and potentially important contributions to the ongoing project of biosemiotic research, its scientific impact, and its future prospects. Here the winner of the Biosemiotics Achievement Award for 2019 is announced: the award goes to Y.H. Hendlin (...) for the article ‘I Am a Fake Loop: the Effects of Advertising-Based Artificial Selection’. (shrink)

Una gran parte de las arquitecturas de la posmodernidad, se presenta como expresiones indecisas y de nomenclatura ambigua. El ejercicio que realizan estos arquitectos, a través de sus edificaciones, refleja con nitidez el cambio provocado por el auge del sector informático y la expansión de la economía global, dos fenómenos entrelazados de manera inextricable, han contribuido a generar una nueva geografía de la centralidad y la marginalidad (Sassen), por eso, el proyecto que reflejan los dibujos de estas arquitecturas, puede ser (...) alterado en su imagen mediante toda suerte de yuxtaposiciones, analogías, contrastes, adulteraciones formales y distorsiones espaciales, porque todo es intercambiable en la nueva realidad espacio‐temporal de la telemática; materiales,texturas y formas aleatorias, la imagen pública tiende a excluir el espacio público. (shrink)

El artículo presenta el análisis de las implicaciones de evaluar la comprensión de lectura y la redacción en pruebas de ingreso a la educación superior, como una consideración necesaria para el desarrollo de una política de competencia comunicativa. Se describe el diseño de un instrumento, partiendo de la concepción sociosemiótica de la lengua, del enfoque metodológico de la comprensión por niveles intra, inter y extratextual, ligado a procesos cognitivos, y la escritura como tecnología. Se incluye, además, un concepto de evaluación (...) enmarcado en el desarrollo de competencia, es decir, los resultados de la prueba se utilizan, por fuera de concepciones deterministas excluyentes, para mostrar un estado de la competencia y las acciones posibles de mejoramiento de la misma. La competencia comunicativa se demuestra como saber transversal, inter y transdisciplinario. (shrink)

Resumo: Este artigo tem por objetivo inserir a discussão do segundo pragmatismo de Peirce, por ele chamado de pragmaticismo, no contexto das ciências normativas, a saber, a estética, a ética e a lógica ou semiótica. Tendo por finalidade estudar os fins e ideais que guiam os sentimentos, a conduta e o pensamento humanos, as ciências normativas funcionam como chaves para a compreensão do ideal último do pragmaticismo que está no crescimento da razoabilidade concreta do mundo.: The aim of this article (...) is to discuss Peirce's second pragmatism, witch he called pragmaticism, within the framework of his normative sciences, i. e. aesthetics, ethics, and logic or semiotic. The scope of these sciences is the study of the aims and ideals that guide human feeling, behavior, and thought. The normative sciences function as a key to the understanding of the ultimate ideal of pragmatism, i. e., the grouth of concrete reasonableness in the world. (shrink)

In the years 1675-84, Leibniz sought to disprove Descartes’s account of clear and distinct perception by implementing a three-step argumentative strategy. The first part of the paper reconstructs the argument and highlights what aspects of Descartes’s epistemology it addresses. The reconstruction shows that the argument is based on conceivability errors. These are a kind of symbolic cognition that prove Descartes’s clear and distinct perception as introspectively indistinguishable from Leibniz’s symbolic cognition. The second part of the paper explores the epistemic implication (...) of the indistinguishability between clear and distinct perception and symbolic cognition: the mind constitutively depends on products of the imagination. My conclusion addresses the role of the imagination in symbolization. Symbolization does not exceed imagination; it rather is an idealized use of cognitive surrogates, like characters, to submit to the imagination what is not subject to it. (shrink)

Dans son dernier livre intitulé Pränatale Zeiten (Les temps prénataux), Caroline Arni s’attèle à défaire toutes les évidences sur les prémices de l’existence humaine. Comment, s’interroge l’historienne, les médecins, physiologues et psychologues du xixe siècle ont-ils appréhendé cette phase aux aurores de la vie, qu’ils qualifient de « prénatale » et qui semble façonner la destinée de tout individu? À l’aide du terme « das Ungeborene » (le « non-né » ou « à naître »), une notion volontaireme...

In the psychiatric field, since the first decades of the XX century, some phenomenologically-oriented authors pointed out the importance of gathering patients’ experience of illness and meaning making. In the current literature, a few interventions for people suffering from mental illness and their families/caregivers, aimed at supporting them in making meaning, are available. Yet, also relatives have to confront with the “loss” of mental health in their family, just like patients themselves. Relatives could therefore perceive the need to make meaning (...) through narrating that loss. In this paper, we will report a few narrative-based interventions for relatives of patients suffering from mental health problems. We will conclude with some reflections, guided by phenomenological-existential pedagogy, which considers search for meaning as a fundamental educational practice, when caring for a wounded existence. (shrink)

On soutient qu’il n’est pas possible de défendre le concept de personne, si l’on ne critique cette « conséquence de la philosophie kantienne », selon laquelle la majeure partie de la philosophie contemporaine refuse à la fois de reconnaître le concept d’« individu » et d’abandonner cette thèse qu’il peut exister quelque chose indépendamment de la pensée : conséquence acceptée par cette philosophie qui, en faisant appel au concept du « concret », entend se soustraire aux conclusions à la fois (...) subjectivistes et universalistes de l’idéalisme. Il n’est pas possible pourtant d’échapper à ces conclusions si l’on ne revient pas sur la détermination des concepts, d’où dérive la solution donnée par Kant à son problème ; et, plus loin encore, sur la détermination des concepts établis dans la philosophie grecque et, en particulier, dans celle d’Aristote et de Platon, détermination qui a agi et continue à agir sur la philosophie européenne. On expose les points principaux d’un essai destiné à rétablir le concept de l’expérience du sujet individuel dans un monde réel. (shrink)