16 research outputs found
Marcelo dascal and the literal meaning debates
No full textWhat role does literal meaning play in people’s understanding of indirect and figurative language? Scholars from many disciplines have debated this issue forseveral decades. This chapter describes these debates, especially focusing on the arguments between the author and Marcelo Dascal. I suggest that Dascal’s defense of “moderate literalism” may have some validity, contrary to some of my earlier arguments against this point of view. The chapter acknowledges the strong contribution that Marcelo Dascal has made to interdisciplinary discussions on language and thought
Aspects of a Watermark Solution
No full textAlthough watermarking is a relatively new technology, there are many ways of applying it on an electronic data set with the purpose of ensuring copyright integrity and authenticity of the electronic data. But, bearing in mind the evolution of information technology and of communication, a watermark may be the target of several attacks which aim at its robustness, its form and even at its removal. In order to reduce these threats, this paper proposes a solution - digital watermarking completed by a hash function which has an important role in the authenticity of the content of a message and in the security of the transmission of this message through computer networks which are the main support of collaborative systems.Digital Watermarking, Hash Functions, Digital Information Security, Collaborative Systems
O LUGAR DA PRAGMATICA NA TEORIA DA LINGUAGEM
No full textThe author discusses the inclusion of a pragmatic component in the theory of language.The nature of pragmatics and its relation to semiotics are considered, followed by ananalysis of triadic relations in the signs ad the influence of context in the evaluationof utterances (relationship between semantics and pragmatics). The position of pragmaticsin relation to the langue/parole and competence/performance dichotomies isconsidered, and recent attempts towards the definition of the scope of pragmaticsare analyzed in detail
BRAIN Journal - Pseudo-holographic Displays as Teaching Tools in Mathematics
No full textABSTRACT
Due to the fact that the abstract mathematical notions are often hard to grasp by students, without linking them to a specific physical representation or correlate them with regular facts, our team came up with the idea to create and implement a set of interactive teaching tool packages (ITTPs) to help them overcome such issues. The ITTPs consist of theoretical modules and applications in the framework of a Hungarian - Romanian cross-border project, developed with the aid of existing open source software and technologies. The focus of the Romanian team was on basic elements of linear algebra and analytic geometry, showcased using an auto-stereoscopic display for the purpose of image visualization. This paper presents an overview of similar technologies and the applications developed for representing pseudo-holographic images of geometric objects, namely vectors, straight lines, planes and conics. One of the developed packages was written using web technologies in order to make the applications available on mobile devices, as well as to eliminate the need to install any additional software.https://www.edusoft.ro/brain/index.php/brain/article/view/714/79
Interactive Applications for Studying Mathematics with the Use of an Autostereoscopic Display
No full textThe ‘Problem of Evil’ in the context of the French enlightenment: Bayle, Leibniz, Voltaire, de Sade
No full textThe ‘problem of evil’ in its most general form concerns the question of the consistency of the mere existence of ‘evil’ in the created world with the characteristics attributed to its creator. Theists recognize this problem, and every major religion has produced a theodicy, ‐from the Greek theos (God) and dikē (justice)‐, the technical term for the attempt to understand and reconcile the relationship of God to a cosmos that comprises ‘physical, and moral evil,’ and thereby to justify the ways of God to humans. The decades preceding and following the beginning of the eighteenth century saw the ‘problem of evil’ at the center of philosophical and theological debates. Bayle, Leibniz, Voltaire and de Sade’s sometimes ambiguous responses toward the ‘problem of evil,’ and even religion in general are, I believe, excellent avenues to understanding the multiplicity of attitudes in the period of the Enlightenment in regard to the issues surrounding the ‘problem of evil,’ such as the question of the existence of God, the relation between human beings and God, the doctrines of providence and moral freedom, the veracity of the Bible and of faith in general, and ultimately, the divine sanction for ethical values.
For Bayle, theodicy was impossible. Christian theologians could not reconcile God’s attributes of omnipotence, justice and benevolence with the fact of ‘evil’ in a world that God has created, ‐and thus responsible for its conditions‐, without exposing themselves to great difficulties. Indeed, if we had to find an explanation, dualism was the most rationally satisfying explanation of ‘evil’ on offer as it explains the misery of human existence, and somehow manages to reconcile the belief in the existence of a ‘good God’ with the presence of ‘evil’ or imperfection in the cosmos. For Bayle, if we do affirm God’s goodness, it can only be through an act of faith, never as the result of a rational deduction.
Bayle's work on the ‘problem of evil’ was closely followed by Leibniz who wrote his Theodicy largely as a response to Bayle, as he feared that Bayle’s dilemma represented a crisis in religious thought because not only a philosophical problem was at stake but also the very rationale for the existence of the Christian faith. Leibniz was confident that through the use of human reason, he could offer a coherent understanding of the world in which we live and of humanity’s place in it, thus provide an adequate, even though in some way incomplete explanation to the dilemma posed by the presence of ‘evil’ in the world. For Leibniz, God’s goodness and justice can be justified logically before the ‘evil’ of the world in light of a certain understanding of how God created the world: the omnipotent and rational God created the best of all possible worlds, ‐ metaphysically speaking that is‐, hence even ‘evil’ and suffering have their rightful place in a good order; however as finite beings, we are not capable of understanding the goodness of the totality.
In Candide, Voltaire parodied Leibniz’s ‘best possible world theory’ and tried to ridicule Leibniz’s views. For Voltaire, the amount of unhappiness in the world makes it ludicrous to believe that this is the ‘best possible world.’ While, in Candide, Voltaire does not offer an alternative solution for the ‘problem of evil,’ one truth is certain: Optimism is a false answer; while ‘evil’ is incomprehensible, any minimization is an offense against those who suffer in the world. And if human beings are the victims of forces beyond their control, it is experience, not philosophical discussions that taught Candide that the potential for limited, but effective action, still lay within humanity’s grasp: Candide’s garden must be cultivated.
De Sade’s Justine or Good Conduct Well chastised can be read as a parody of Voltaire’s Candide. In his novel Justine, de Sade’s libertines appeal to the world’s ‘evil’ as a demonstration that belief in God’s goodness and in God’s providential care, ‐as traditionally conceived‐, is no longer viable. Arguing the atheist’s case from the existence of ‘evil,’ de Sade will then attempt to explain ‘evil’ from a materialist and nihilistic view of the world with all its terrifying metaphysical and ethical implications. Without a supposedly perfect creator, there is no problem of trying to make sense of all the terrible things that happen in the world. There is just cause and effect and the laws of nature. There is no value‐system at work behind the scenes, no force for ‘good or evil,’ and no altruistic concern for others working through the basic natural forces. For de Sade’s libertines, the ‘problem of evil’ is a liberating one: if there is no God and the material world is all that exists, human beings can free themselves from all idols, from all illusions concerning the original cause of things, and by doing so they can thus succeed in ordering and establishing the world according to their own ideas
Scientific Reports
No full textThe tetrameric G protein-gated K+ channels (GIRKs) mediate inhibitory effects of neurotransmitters that activate Gi/o-coupled receptors. GIRKs are activated by binding of the Gβγ dimer, via contacts with Gβ. Gγ underlies membrane targeting of Gβγ, but has not been implicated in channel gating. We observed that, in Xenopus oocytes, expression of Gγ alone activated homotetrameric GIRK1* and heterotetrameric GIRK1/3 channels, without affecting the surface expression of GIRK or Gβ. Gγ and Gβ acted interdependently: the effect of Gγ required the presence of ambient Gβ and was enhanced by low doses of coexpressed Gβ, whereas excess of either Gβ or Gγ imparted suboptimal activation, possibly by sequestering the other subunit “away” from the channel. The unique distal C-terminus of GIRK1, G1-dCT, was important but insufficient for Gγ action. Notably, GIRK2 and GIRK1/2 were not activated by Gγ. Our results suggest that Gγ regulates GIRK1* and GIRK1/3 channel’s gating, aiding Gβ to trigger the channel’s opening. We hypothesize that Gγ helps to relax the inhibitory effect of a gating element (“lock”) encompassed, in part, by the G1-dCT; GIRK2 acts to occlude the effect of Gγ, either by setting in motion the same mechanism as Gγ, or by triggering an opposing gating effect. © 2019, The Author(s).We thank Dr. Tatiana Ivanina and Dr. Vladimir Tsemakhovich for help with preparation of some of the DNA constructs and purified proteins, Reem Handklo and Boris Shalomov for help with a two electrode voltage clamp experiment, Mariam Ashkar for help with Western blots, and Drs Ilana Lotan, Moran Rubinstein and Daniel Yakubovich for critical reading of the manuscript. This work was supported by the USA-Israel Binational Science Foundation grant #2013/230, the Israel Science Foundation grant #1282/18, and the Mauerberger Chair for Neuropharmacology (N.D.)
La polémica entre Franz Boas y Konrad Th. Preuss en torno al análisis sistémico de la mitología kwakiutl. Antropología. Boletín Oficial del Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia: Viejas y nuevas religiosidades. Num. 68 Nueva Época (2002) octubre-diciembre
No full textAlcocer, Paulina, “La magia en las palabras. Tylor, Preuss y Malinowski. El debate inconcluso entre animismo y preanimismo”, tesina de maestría en Historia y Filosofía de la Ciencia, México, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana- Iztapalapa, 2000.——, “Elementos humboldtianos en la teoría de la religión y de la magia de Konrad Theodor Preuss”, ponencia presentada en la XXVI Mesa Redonda de la Sociedad Mexicana de Antropología, Zacatecas, 2001.Berman, Judith, “’The Culture as It Appears to the Indian Himself: Boas, George Hunt, and the Methods of Ethnography”, en Volksgeist as Method and Ethic. Essays on Boasian Ethnography and the German Anthropological Tradition (George W. Stocking, Jr., ed.), Madison, The University of Wisconsin Press, 1996, pp. 215-256.Boas, Franz (ed.), Handbook of American Indian Languages, Bulletin 40, Washington, D. C., Bureau of American Ethnology, Smithsonian Institution, 1911.——, “Review of G. W. Locher, The Serpent in Kwakiutl Religion: A Study in Primitive Culture”, en Deutsche Literaturzeitung, 1933, pp. 1182-1186.——, “The Study of Geography”, en Race, Language and Culture, Chicago y Londres, The University of Chicago Press, 1940 [1887], pp. 639-647.——, “The Limitations of the Comparative Method of Anthropology”, en Race, Language and Culture, Chicago y Londres, The University of Chicago Press, 1940 [1896], pp. 270-280.——, “The Aims of Anthropological Research”, en Race, Language and Culture, Chicago y Londres, The University of Chicago Press, 1940 [1932], pp. 243-259.
Bunzl, Matti, “Franz Boas and the Humboldtian Tradition: From Volksgeist and Nationalcharakter to an Anthropological Concept of Culture”, en Volksgeist as Method and Ethic. Essays on Boasian Ethnography and the German Anthropological Tradition (George W. Stocking, Jr., ed.), Madison, The University of Wisconsin Press, 1996, pp. 17-78.Cole, Douglas, Franz Boas. The Early Years, 1858-1906, Seattle y Londres, m University of Washington Press, 1999.Dascal, Marcelo, “Epistemología, controversias y pragmática”, en Isegoria, 12 (1995), pp. 8-43.——, “The Study of Controversies and the Theory and History of Science”, en Science in Context, 11, 2 (1998), pp. 147-154.Effert, F.R., J.P.B. de Josselin de Jong, Curator and Archeologist. A Study of his Early Career (1910-1935), Together with a Bibliography of J.P.B. de Josselin de Jong (1886-1964) by F.R. Effert and H.F. Vermeulen, Leiden, Leiden University, Center of Non-Western Studies Publication, number 7, 1992.Furst, Peter T., “Introduction to chapter 4 [Konrad Theodor Preuss (1869-1938) on the Huichols]”, en Stacey B. Schaefer y Peter T. Furst (eds.), People of the peyote. Huichol indian history, religion and survival, Albuquerque, University of New Mexico Press, 1996.Jonaitis, Aldona, A Wealth of Thought. Franz Boas on Native American Art, Seattle y Londres, University of Washington Press, 1995.Josselin de Jong, J.P.B. de, “The Malay Archipielago as a Field of Ethnological Study”, en Structural Anthropology in the Netherlands. A Reader, P.E.Josselin de Jong, editor, Leiden, Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-Land-en Volkenkunde, 1983 [1935]; pp. 166-182.Lévi-Strauss, Claude, “Historia y etnología”, en Antropología estructural, Barcelona, Ediciones Paidós, 1992 [1958], pp. 49-72.Lévi-Strauss, Claude y Didier Eribon, Conversations with Claude Lévi-Strauss, Chicago y Londres, The University of Chicago Press, 1991 [1988].Locher, Gottfred Wilhelm, The Serpent in Kwakiutl Religion. A Study in Primitive Culture, Leiden, E. J. Brill, 1932.——, “The Reactions of Franz Boas and Konrad Theodor Preuss to a Structural Interpretation of Kwakiutl Mythology in 1933”, en Symbolic Anthropology in the Netherlands, P. E. de Josseling de Jong y Erik Schwimmer (eds.), La Haya, Martinus Nijhoff, 1982.Neurath, Johannes y Jesús Jáuregui, “La expedición de Konrad Theodor Preuss al Nayarit (1905-1907) y su contribución a la mexicanística”, en Preuss, Konrad Theodor, Fiesta, literatura y magia en el Nayarit, México, Instituto Nacional Indigenista - Centro Francés de Estudios Mexicanos y Centroamericanos,1998, pp. 15-60.Preuss, Konrad Th., “Der Kampf der Sonne mit den Sternen in Mexiko”, en Globus. Illustrierte Zeitschrift für Länder- und Völkerkunde, Brunswick, 87, 19 (1905), pp. 333-337.——, Die Nayarit-Expedition. Textaufnahmen und Beobachtungen unter mexikanischen Indianern 1. Die Religion der Cora-Indianer in Texten nebst Wörterbuch Cora-Deutsch, Leipzig, B. G. Teubner, 1912, pp. CVII + 396.——, Die geisitige Kultur der Naturvölker, Leipzig, B. G. Teubner (Aus Natur und Geisteswelt, Sammlung wissenschaftlich-gemeinverständlicher Darstellungen, 452), 1914.——, Die religiöse Gehalt der Mythen, Tübingen, J. B. Mohr, (Sammlung gemeinverständlicher Vorträge und Schriften aus den Gebieten der Theologie und Religionswissenschaft, 162), 1933——, “G. W. Locher, The Serpent in Kwakiutl Religion. A Study in Primitive Culture, Leyden, 1932”, en Sociologus. Zeitschrift fürVölkerpsychologie und Sociologie, 9, Stuttgart, 1933, pp. 348- 351.——, Fiesta, literatura y magia en el Nayarit. Ensayos sobre coras, huicholes y mexicaneros de Konrad Theodor Preuss (Jesús Jáuregui y Johannes Neurath, comps.), México, Instituto Nacional Indigenista–Centro Francés de Estudios Mexicanos y Centroamericanos,1998.——, “Die Religion”, en Preuss, Konrad Th. y Richard Thurnwald (comps.), Lehrbuch der Völkerkunde, Stuttgart, Verlag Ferdinand Enke, 1939 [1937], pp. 57-123.Seler, Eduard, “Die Lichtbringer bei den Indianerstämmen der Nordwestküste”, Gesammelte Abhandlungen V, Berlín, Behrend & Co., 1915 [1892], pp. 9-43.Stocking, George W., Jr., “Boasian Ethnography and the German Anthropological Tradition” en Volksgeist as Method and Ethic. Essays on Boasian Ethnography and the German Anthropological Tradition (George W.Stocking, Jr., ed.), Madison, The University of Wisconsin Press, 1996, pp. 3-8
Hacia una episteme dialógica del funcionamiento lingüístico-cognitivo: la centralidad de la noción de enunciado en los estudios de Novaes-Pinto
No full textNeste artigo, com o intuito de prestar uma homenagem à Professora Rosana do Carmo Novaes-Pinto, buscamos apontar a relevância de seus estudos para uma abordagem ética e dialógica da relação linguagem-sujeito-cérebro, tanto no interior da Neurolinguística Enunciativo-Discursiva, como nos estudos da linguagem de maneira geral. Para isso, retornamos a dois conceitos centrais na reflexão teórico-metodológica da autora acerca do funcionamento linguístico-cognitivo: a noção de organização extracortical, que a autora retoma de Vygotsky e Luria para explicitar a relação entre a história social do sujeito e suas relações para o desenvolvimento do funcionamento cerebral e o conceito de enunciado, retomada a partir da formulação bakhtiniana. A partir dessa retomada, buscamos mostrar como esses elementos se articulam na análise de dados dialógicos de sujeitos com afasia, por um lado, e na compreensão de fenômenos linguístico-cognitivos, por outro. Para ilustrar tal reflexão, apresentamos um dado analisado pela autora mostrando como, ao adotar o enunciado como elemento de análise, inserem-se na análise elementos fundamentais para a compreensão da relação intersubjetiva, dialógica e histórico-cultural dos sujeitos participantes na busca pela concretização de seu intuito-discursivo. Para concluir, retomamos as noções de “objeto teórico” e “objeto observacional” desenvolvidos por Dascal e Borges-Neto (1991), buscando mostrar como, ao apontar o enunciado como elemento da análise neurolinguística, a autora promove um avanço na questão epistemológica da área.In this article, with the aim of paying tribute to Professor Rosana do Carmo Novaes-Pinto, we seek to highlight the importance and relevance of her studies for an ethical and dialogical approach to the language-subject-brain relationship, both within Enunciative-Discursive Neurolinguistics and in language studies more broadly. To this end, we revisit two central concepts in the author’s theoretical-methodological reflection on linguistic-cognitive functioning: the notion of extracortical organization, which the author draws from Vygotsky and Luria to clarify the relationship between a subject's social history and their interactions in the development of brain functioning, and the concept of the utterance, based on Bakhtin’s formulation. By revisiting these concepts, we aim to show how these elements come together in the analysis of dialogical data from aphasic subjects and in the understanding of linguistic-cognitive phenomena. To illustrate this reflection, we present a piece of data analyzed by the author, showing how, by adopting the utterance as the unit of analysis, fundamental elements are incorporated into the analysis to better understand the intersubjective, dialogical, and historical-cultural relationship of the participating subjects in their pursuit of discursive intent. In conclusion, we revisit the notions of “theoretical object” and “observational object” developed by Dascal and Borges-Neto (1991), aiming to demonstrate how, by identifying the utterance as a key element in neurolinguistic analysis, the author contributes to epistemological advancements in the field.En este artículo, con el propósito de rendir homenaje a la Profesora Rosana do Carmo Novaes-Pinto, buscamos señalar la relevancia de sus estudios para un abordaje ético y dialógico de la relación lenguaje-sujeto-cerebro, tanto en el interior de la Neurolingüística Enunciativo-Discursiva, como en los estudios del lenguaje de manera general. Para ello, retornamos a dos conceptos centrales en la reflexión teórico-metodológica de la autora acerca del funcionamiento lingüístico-cognitivo: la noción de organización extracortical, que la autora retoma de Vygotsky y Luria para explicitar la relación entre la historia social del sujeto y sus relaciones para el desarrollo del funcionamiento cerebral, y el concepto de enunciado, retomado a partir de la formulación bajtiniana. A partir de esta retoma, buscamos mostrar cómo estos elementos se articulan en el análisis de datos dialógicos de sujetos con afasia, por un lado, y en la comprensión de fenómenos lingüístico-cognitivos, por otro. Para ilustrar tal reflexión, presentamos un dato analizado por la autora mostrando cómo, al adoptar el enunciado como elemento de análisis, se insertan en el análisis elementos fundamentales para la comprensión de la relación intersubjetiva, dialógica e histórico-cultural de los sujetos participantes en la búsqueda por la concreción de su intento-discursivo. Para concluir, retomamos las nociones de "objeto teórico" y "objeto observacional" desarrollados por Dascal y Borges-Neto (1991), buscando mostrar cómo, al señalar el enunciado como elemento del análisis neurolingüístico, la autora promueve un avance en la cuestión epistemológica del área
A Context-sensitive Approach to Analysing Talk in Strategy Meetings
No full textThe talk of managers in meetings is central to organizational life and crucial to research in strategic management, as well as managerial and organizational cognition, sensemaking and decision-making. To achieve full understanding, both the text and the context of discussion require systematic analysis, but most approaches treat context as everything that is known and observed beyond the immediate text. This obscures different readings of the text of meetings. To resolve this problem, the discourse historical approach (DHA) to critical discourse analysis is outlined as a framework within which researchers can analyse the text and context of talk in meetings. The primary contribution of this paper is to isolate four ‘levels of context’ as a heuristic framework within which discursive practices, strategies and texts can be located. By making explicit the levels of contextual analysis that are implicit in other methods, and illustrating the DHA using an episode of strategic discussion from a multinational company, this paper shows how researchers can use the approach to analyse the naturally occurring talk of senior managers in meetings, which is arguably the most important but yet under-explored venue for strategizing
