Il 2 ottobre, nella vigilia di Sukkot, festa ebraica che ricorda la fragilità della nostra dimora terrena, è mancato Claude Vigée, il grande poeta francese, ebreo alsaziano, che Testo e Senso ha avuto l’onore di ospitare nella sue pagine, alcuni anni fa, in quanto poeta, saggista e traduttore, nell’occasione di una tavola rotonda dedicata a Traduzione ed Etica1. Per lui, infatti, la parola poetica è stata sempre integralmente “poéthique” (poetica ed etica insieme): l’etica contro il nichilismo, e contro i dogmi del pensiero unico, contro la disgregazione, la disintegrazione, la distruzione dell’umano nell’uomo, contro il ritorno dei mostri e della barbarie; una lezione di vita, la sua, una lotta per la vita, in nome della vita, secondo l’imperativo della Scrittura: «Io ho posto davanti a voi la vita e la morte, la benedizione e la maledizione; scegli la vita, onde viviate tu e la tua discendenza» (Deuteronomio, 30 v. 19).
Computational linguistics. Natural language processing, Epistemology. Theory of knowledge
In reading Father Dumitru Stăniloae, it is obvious that love and divine-human communion have a prominent role in his theology. This text aims to approach this topic from a phenomenological point of view: it analyzes the implicit reductions working in Stăniloae’s texts, the presence of the intentionality, the role of the ego and its limits, as well as the problem of the reciprocity of love (raised by Jean-Luc Marion). We will try to argue not only that there are phenomenological influences in Stăniloae’s understanding of love, but also that such a topic requires a phenomenology that synthesizes the phenomenology of the world (Husserl and Heidegger) and the phenomenology of life (M. Henry). Because love, in its perfection, is a gift of the Holy Spirit, both types of phenomenology must be complemented with a dialogical and paradoxical one, a theo-phenomenology of love, where the Given can be invisible, living, eternally saturated, and never reducible to an object or to a concept.
Keywords: Dumitru Stăniloae, Jean-Luc Marion, love, erotic reduction, theological counter-reduction, reciprocity of love, spiritual life, phenomenology
Life and The Useful: the Parable of the Sow
The notion of life and the notion of utile represent a sort of paradigm of modernity: the conflict that invests them can be deconstructed to show the trend lines of our time. The individual/property/contract triad undergoes a fundamental decentralization that leads to a rethinking of political categories of modernity. La limite de l’utile, the invention of the human person and the multiple overflow of life, even in terms of belief in freedom, are the essential keys to this path, according to seraphic Durkheim and extreme Bataille.
I begin with two epigraphs, both of which were guest columns written for, commissioned especially by, PMLA. Although they are separated by fifteen years, they both make some strikingly similar points which are relevant for someone attempting to chart the potential connections or intimacies between queer theory and speculative realism (and in this position piece I’m placing quite a strong emphasis on object-oriented ontology which is just one offshoot of speculative realist thinking). The first thing we might emphasize is the need to pin things down, to say what exactly queer theory is and does and to be entirely clear about what speculative realism is and what precisely it is that speculative realists do. Yet, perhaps the power and virtue of both queer theory and speculative realism, what makes them so compatible, is that neither is a delimitable field. Part of the attraction of both is their very undefinability, their provisionality, and, most importantly, their openness.
Outsourcing is a management strategy that is gradually proving its worth in library and information science. The purpose of this study was to investigate the outsourcing of ICT services in selected public university libraries in Kenya in order to establish the challenges facing libraries in outsourcing ICT services. The study adopted a multicase study strategy in four selected public university libraries in Kenya. Purposive sampling was used to identify respondents. Data collection was done using a semi-structured interview schedule. The findings reveal that public university libraries in Kenya outsource ICT services such as Internet, e-resources and derive benefits such as cost cutting, knowledge and skills acquisition and economies of scale. The study noted that ICT policies and procurement laws are inadequate in guiding the outsourcing processes. The study found that ICT service processes had various challenges such as high cost and loss of control of the services due to relying heavily on the vendors. The study concluded that there was a need for the library management to be conversant with outsourcing procedures, such as negotiation of contracts, to gain more from outsourced ICT services. The study recommended that the university libraries develop, review and implement ICT outsourcing policies. The university management should involve librarians in the outsourcing process and implementation.
How do we define, discuss or assess aesthetics within a contemporary philosophical framework? The indefiniteness that accompanies attempts to formalize a definition of the aesthetic is a primary focus of this paper. This lack of a definition has occupied philosophers for hundreds of years in attempts to delineate the boundaries of an elusively formless concept. This formlessness speaks to the incredibly evasive character of such a pervasive feature recognized in both natural and artificial systems, agents and artefacts. With the rapid growth of artificially intelligent systems and an astounding diversity in computational creativity, in what ways may we approach aesthetics? How is the aesthetic recognized, determined and produced? This paper seeks to critically engage issues of non-human agency, inter-object relations, and aesthetic theory in relation to computational entities and autonomous systems. The ability of these systems to operate outside of human cognitive limitations including thought patterns and constructions which may preclude alternative aesthetic outcomes, afford them in some ways limitless potential in relation to aesthetics. The designation of the accidental or provisional is utilized as an alternative approach to the production and assessment of aesthetic occurrences of the non-human.
A partir da década de 20, dois fatores adquirem importância na teoria freudiana sobre o desenvolvimento inicial do psiquismo e sobre a gênese das neuroses: a constituição pulsional envolvendo a pulsão de morte e experiências traumáticas precoces. No entanto, não há uma hipótese claramente formulada sobre a maneira como esses fatores interagem entre si. Encontramos, contudo, na teoria psicanalítica kleiniana, hipóteses sobre a relação entre os fatores constitucionais e as experiências precoces que parecem permitir avançar a reflexão freudiana desenvolvida a partir da década de 20. O objetivo deste artigo é retomar algumas das ideias formuladas por Freud sobre a temática em foco, principalmente em “Além do princípio do prazer” (1920), “Inibições, sintomas e angústia” (1926) e “Análise terminável e interminável” (1937) e, em seguida, discutir algumas das contribuições trazidas por Melanie Klein, sobretudo, em seu livro “Inveja e gratidão” (1957).
In this paper, Sacred Art is examined as an imitation of historia. Historia interprets historical human events as empirical, material and real while seeking to understand their moral and spiritual significance. It is from historia that sacred art can be understood, where Christ and the saints are portrayed in the integrity of their human natures united to symbols representing Divinity or grace in order to present a visual/contemplative narrative. Mortimer Adler rightly sees that the vision of the beautiful is inherently contemplative, thus sacred iconography provides a language that can form the common sense of men and women.
Many of contemporary philosophers argue against metaphysics putting forward a thesis that metaphysical claims are deflationary. This way of thinking seems to be not only persuasive but above all it rightly expresses a main difficulty of metaphysical inquires. In this paper I am trying to shed a little light on the problem of deflation of metaphysical judgments. In the first section I refer to some Wittgenstein's ideas from Tractatus logico-philosophicus and I focus on the phenomenon of manifestation as a possible source of deflation of metaphysics. The second section is devoted to the Wittgenstein's concepts of language games on the one hand and rules on the other; both of them are a key to understanding of the deepest dimensions of deflationary metaphysics. The third section is an elaboration of three models of deflation of metaphysical expressions: 1. deflation in regard to the informative status of metaphysical judgments; 2. deflation in regard to the metasemantic properties of judgments about the world, and 3. deflation in regard to the semantic ground of ontological judgments. The fourth and last part of the paper is an exposition of two crucial problems which metaphysics has to face with. I call the first of them 'a problem with conceptualization of the metaphysical experience', whereas the second one is labeled 'a problem with semantic inclusion of metaphysical expressions into judgments about facts'.
Riassunto:
Attraverso una breve ricostruzione dei tratti salienti del costruttivismo piagetiano si intende cogliere l’attività di scrittura, di cui Piaget fu strenuo artefice, come tratto che esibisce il pensiero in salda e costitutiva unione con l’azione e con l’intenzionalità inter-soggettiva. In tal modo la scrittura diviene estensione del pensiero e luogo di costruzione teorica, non suo mero residuo.
Resumé:
A partir d’une perspective sur les thèmes principaux du constructivisme piagetien, il s’agit de saisir dans l’activité d’écriture, dont Piaget est éminent représentant, le trait qui montre par excellence la pensée animée constitutivement par l’action et l’intentionalité inter-subjective. En ces termes, l’écriture est exténsion de la pensée et lieu de construction théorique, et non pas son résidu formel.
Computational linguistics. Natural language processing, Epistemology. Theory of knowledge
Sem querer esgotar o assunto, diante de sua complexidade, o presente artigo analisa a atuação político-ideológica da Revista Veja durante a eleição presidencial de 2010. Nosso objetivo é demonstrar, a partir da análise de capas, editoriais e matérias, como a Revista atuou firmemente a favor do candidato José Serra/PSDB e em detrimento da candidata Dilma Rousseff/PT. Nas páginas de Veja, não havia uma cobertura jornalística ou debate de propostas, mas um discurso partidário contra o PT e sua candidata, sempre retratados como corruptos ao mesmo tempo em que o PSDB e seu candidato só apareciam de forma positiva.
Epistemology. Theory of knowledge, History (General)
O objetivo deste artigo é analisar algumas das principais idéias apresentadas no debateepistemológico ligado aos estudos da retórica na economia, defendendo que algumas dascontrovérsias e conclusões alcançadas neste campo do conhecimento são de particularimportância para o estudo da história social do pensamento econômico, bem como da históriada intelectualidade econômica. Ainda, o artigo busca avaliar as limitações da análise retóricaquando aplicada aos estudos históricos, sugerindo alguns possíveis meios de superar esteslimites.
Epistemology. Theory of knowledge, History (General)