Fernández-Savater, Amador (2020)Habitar y gobernar: Inspiraciones para una nueva concepción políticaBarcelona: Ned Ediciones, 381 p. ISBN 978-84-18273-03-2.

El presente artículo plantea un análisis del sujeto revolucionario en Los condenados de la tierra de Frantz Fanon bajo la lente de las posteriores contribuciones teóricas de Antonio Negri y Ernesto Laclau a los modos y determinaciones de construcción de los sujetos políticos en general y a través de sus valoraciones de las tesis fanonianas en particular. En concreto, se argumentará que en Fanon se encuentran matizada y entrecruzadamente algunas de las consideraciones que permiten interpretar el sujeto político que se (...) alza en la lucha de liberación nacional, primero como un sujeto múltiple y espontáneo de características tangentes a la multitud negriana, y segundo como un sujeto articulado unificadamente en relación con el pueblo laclausiano que, eventualmente, acabará recalando en nuevas correspondencias exegéticas con Negri. Este cuerpo analítico será complementado con referencias a la postura divergente de Vladímir Lenin y de Rosa Luxemburgo en torno a la cuestión del espontaneísmo y la organización del sujeto revolucionario. (shrink)

El presente escrito trata de abordar la relación entre el ser humano y su mundo de productos técnicos mediante la exploración del concepto de desnivel prometeico, acuñado por Günther Anders. De este modo, se llevará a cabo un análisis de correspondencia entre las nociones de Anders y la enajenación marxiana y feuerbachiana, alumbrando así un estudio comparativo de vocación extemporánea y crítica.

Resumen: Este artículo tiene como foco de estudio la fonología segmental del mapudungun, en general, y el estatus de los fonos interdentales /en el chedungun hablado en Alto Biobío, en particular. Se elicitó una lista léxica adaptada de Croese, 30 colaboradores adultos, bilingües de chedungun y español, pertenecientes a 10 localidades pehuenches de esta comuna. Mediante evidencia cuantitativa, visual, palatográfica y de contraste en ambiente análogo, se concluye que dichos fonos tienen estatus fonémico en la zona señalada.: This article focuses (...) on the Mapudungún segmental phonology in general, and the status of the interdental phones / from the Chedungun spoken in Alto Biobío in particular. An adapted lexicon list by Croese was elicited from 30 adult bilingual assistants, belonging to 10 towns of this community. Through the quantitative, visual, palatographic and analog environment contrast we concluded that those phones have phonemic status in the mentioned area. (shrink)

Resumen Este artículo se ocupa del estatus fonético-fonológico de las consonantes interdentales, en el Mapudungun hablado en el sector costa de isla Huapi, IX Región de La Araucanía. Después del análisis de pares mínimos, cuantificación de los segmentos interdentales versus alveolares, y la consciencia fonológica de los hablantes encuestados, se pudo concluir la vigencia de estos segmentos en tanto fonos y en tanto fonemas. Es decir, en esta zona son fonemas.This article deals with the phonetic-phonological status of the interdental consonants (...) ],, in the Mapudungun spoken in the Coastal area of the Huapi Island, IX Region of Araucania. After analyzing minimal pairs, quantification of interdental segments versus alveolar, and the phonological awareness of the assessed speakers, the validity of these segments could be concluded both as phones and as phonemes. That is to say,, are phonemes in this area. (shrink)

RESUMEN La problemática del muy bajo peso al nacer ha sido abordada desde hace varios años, sin embargo, las investigaciones están enfocadas desde diferentes perspectivas y contextos, no siempre se ha considerado su repercusión a corto y a largo plazo, así como la interacción de los diferentes factores que se relacionan con este riesgo biológico. Por ello en esta revisión bibliográfica se realiza una valoración de estudios ejecutados a nivel internacional y en Cuba dedicados al desarrollo neuropsicológico de niños con (...) muy bajo peso al nacer. Se concluye que el muy bajo peso al nacer repercute en el desarrollo neuropsicológicos desde edades tempranas, hasta la adolescencia; por ello es necesario una visión integradora que tenga en cuenta el riesgo biológico, las particularidades individuales y el contexto social en que se desenvuelve el niño desde los primeros momentos, lo que posibilitará, perfeccionar la atención a corto y largo plazo al grupo de riesgo. ABSTRACT The problems of very low birth weight have been dealt with for many years, however, research on the matter is approached from different perspectives and contexts, not always have its short and long term repercussions being considered as well as the interaction of different factors related to this biological risk. Therefore, this bibliographical review makes an assessment of international and Cuban studies devoted to very low birth weight children’s neuropsychological development. It was reached the conclusion that very low birth weight affects neuropsychological development from early ages to adolescence; for that reason, it is necessary to have an integrated approach of the problem that takes into account the biologicals risk, individual characteristics and the social context in which the child develops from the beginning, which will make the improvement of short and long term care to this risk group possible. (shrink)

The concept of polarity is pervasive in natural language. It relates syntax, semantics and pragmatics narrowly, Semantics: an international handbook of natural language meaning, De Gruyter Mouton, Berlin, 2011; Israel in The grammar of polarity: pragmatics, sensitivity, and the logic of scales, Cambridge studies in linguistics, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2014), it refers to items of many syntactic categories such as nouns, verbs and adverbs. Neutral polarity items appear in affirmative and negative sentences, negative polarity items cannot appear in affirmative (...) sentences, and positive polarity items cannot appear in negative sentences. A way of reasoning in Natural Language is through Natural Logic. This logic is based on the concept of polarity in order to make the meaning of a sentence weaker o stronger without changing its truth value. There exist many proposals to compute polarity in the Natural Logic context, the most widely known are the ones by: van Benthem, Sánchez-Valencia, Dowty, and van Eijck, 6th international Tbilisi symposium on logic, language, and computation, Batumi, Georgia, Springer, 2007). If Natural Logic is going to be used, as an inferential mechanism between text fragments, in Natural Language Processing applications such as text summarization, question answering, and information extraction, it is a priority to know what the existing relationship among the aforementioned algorithms is; for example, to implement the most general. We show in this paper the equivalence among the analyzed algorithms, filling a gap in Natural Logic research, particularly in computing polarity, and the soundness of their algorithms. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie Jahrgang: 65 Heft: 2 Seiten: 337-348.

We deal with situations incongruent with our automatic response tendencies much better right after having done so on a previous trial than after having reacted to a congruent trial. The nature of the mechanisms responsible for these sequential congruency effects is currently a hot topic of debate. According to the conflict monitoring model these effects depend on the adjustment of control triggered by the detection of conflict on the preceding situation. We tested whether these conflict monitoring processes can operate implicitly (...) in an implicit learning procedure, modulating the expression of knowledge of which participants are not aware. We reanalyze recently published data, and present an experiment with a probabilistic sequence learning procedure, both showing consistent effects of implicit sequence learning. Despite being implicit, the expression of learning was reduced or completely eliminated right after trials incongruent with the learned sequence, thus showing that sequential congruency effects can be obtained even when the source of congruency itself remains implicit. (shrink)

This article analyses the epistemic status of law and its presumption of being a science in relation with the so-called demarcation criterion proposed by different philosophers of science. Such criteria are the main analytical elements to differentiate scientific discourses from those who are not and the ones who pretend to be. In relation to those, pseudoscience and law are treated, to finally conclude with the exposition of the case of Daubert v. Merrill Dow Pharmaceuticals, in which a judicial process defined (...) demarcation criteria. This paper shows how the demarcation criteria of science and the concept of pseudoscience cannot be applied to law science given its own rationality. (shrink)

Mental body-representations are highly plastic and can be modified after brief exposure to unexpected sensory feedback. While the role of vision, touch and proprioception in shaping body-representations has been highlighted by many studies, the auditory influences on mental body-representations remain poorly understood. Changes in body-representations by the manipulation of natural sounds produced when one's body impacts on surfaces have recently been evidenced. But will these changes also occur with non-naturalistic sounds, which provide no information about the impact produced by or (...) on the body? Drawing on the well-documented capacity of dynamic changes in pitch to elicit impressions of motion along the vertical plane and of changes in object size, we asked participants to pull on their right index fingertip with their left hand while they were presented with brief sounds of rising, falling or constant pitches, and in the absence of visual information of their hands. Results show an "auditory Pinocchio" effect, with participants feeling and estimating their finger to be longer after the rising pitch condition. These results provide the first evidence that sounds that are not indicative of veridical movement, such as non-naturalistic sounds, can induce a Pinocchio-like change in body-representation when arbitrarily paired with a bodily action. (shrink)

En el presente artículo se analiza las posibilidades de la teoría de las Representaciones Sociales (RS) para, desde la perspectiva de los sujetos, analizar los elementos cognitivos implicados y socialmente construidos que sustentan las acciones de gestión micro y macro institucional, y de coordinación entre varias municipalidades de un mismo territorio, lo que la literatura de gestión denomina trabajo asociativo o asociativismo. Interesan específicamente las representaciones sociales de la asociatividad en el tema educativo, desde actores político-administrativos y profesionales implicados en (...) la mejora de la educación municipal. Se postula y fundamenta que el estudio de las Representaciones Sociales del Asociativismo Municipal en Educación es pertinente desde los elementos conceptuales de la perspectiva Procesual, dado que el objeto de Representación –el Asociativismo Municipal en Educación- y las técnicas para su análisis se ajustan a las estrategias de implementación del trabajo asociativo en los distintos niveles de organización municipal en el tema educativo. (shrink)

Resumen: En este artículo se analiza el estatuto epistémico del derecho y su presunción de cientificidad en relación con los llamados criterios de demarcación, propuestos por diferentes filósofos de la ciencia. Tales criterios son los principales elementos analíticos para diferenciar a los discursos científicos de aquellos que no lo son y de los que pretenden serlo. En relación con estos se trata la pseudociencia, el derecho y se concluye con la exposición del caso Daubert v. Merroll Dow Pharmaceuticals, en el (...) que, en un proceso jurídico, se definen criterios de demarcación. El artículo muestra cómo los criterios de demarcación no pueden ser aplicados al derecho, pero tampoco la denominación de pseudociencia, debido a la propia racionalidad jurídica.: This article analyses the epistemic status of law and its presumption of being a science in relation with the so-called demarcation criterion proposed by different philosophers of science. Such criteria are the main analytical elements to differentiate scientific discourses from those who are not and the ones who pretend to be. In relation to those, pseudoscience and law are treated, to finally conclude with the exposition of the case of Daubert v. Merrill Dow Pharmaceuticals, in which a judicial process defined demarcation criteria. This paper shows how the demarcation criteria of science and the concept of pseudoscience cannot be applied to law science given its own rationality. (shrink)

A veinticinco años de la publicación en Social Text del artículo que da inicio al escándalo Sokal, este trabajo hace una evaluación del caso desde cuatro perspectivas. En la primera parte se analizan los argumentos a favor y en contra del escándalo y de lo que sostiene Sokal con respecto a cierto tipo de estudios en Humanidades. La segunda hace un recuento de casos similares que anteceden y suceden al escándalo. La tercera evalúa la recepción del caso en Francia a (...) partir de una tradición que ha sido esquiva a la Filosofía analítica en ese país, tanto intelectual como institucionalmente. En la cuarta parte se debate la perspectiva política del fraude. (shrink)

Este artículo propone una aproximación crítica al concepto de femicidio. Se repasa su origen y las diferentes versiones desarrolladas por su proponente, Diana Russell, a más de algunas otras alternativas de la definición. Se realiza una aproximación analítica al mismo, y se revisan sus cualidades intensionales y connotativas. Se hace una breve relación con respecto al concepto alternativo de “feminicidio” y se desarrolla una crítica a ambos. Se refuta la idea de femicidio como un delito de odio y se termina (...) con un análisis sobre las dificultades de la instrumentalización jurídica del concepto, tal como ha sido propuesto. (shrink)

Corporate, Social, Ethical and Environmental Reporting should ideally discharge the accountability of an organisation to its stakeholders. Voluntary reporting has been characterised by a dearth of neutral and objective information such that the advocates of SEER recommend that it be made compulsory. Their underlying rationale is that legally specified disclosure requirements and enforcement mechanisms will enhance the quality of such reporting. This paper sets out to explore how realistic this scenario actually is, in view of the conflicting interpretations in the (...) literature on this subject. To that end, a survey of the reporting patterns of 78 of the largest Spanish companies between 2001 and 2003 examines the extent of their compliance with the ICAC-2002 standard, which obliged them to make environmental disclosures in their financial statements. The results suggest that progressive and improved regulation could increase the volume and quality of SEER disclosures. They also suggest, however, that persistent non-compliance means that the problems associated with voluntary disclosure still exist. Finally, through an impression management perspective, the study reveals, the diverse strategies, ranging from dismissal to concealment, that are employed by companies to avoid transparency. As regulation improves and enforcement expectations rise, it becomes more difficult to dismiss compulsory reporting norms. As a result, some firms engage in more complex concealment strategies to attain corporate legitimacy, depriving stakeholders of regulatory information. The latter point serves to reconcile apparently contradictory explanations in the literature as to whether legitimacy theory might explain partial compliance with SEER regulation. (shrink)

How do we acquire a mental representation of our own face? Recently, synchronous, but not asynchronous, interpersonal multisensory stimulation between one’s own and another person’s face has been used to evoke changes in self-identification. We investigated the conscious experience of these changes with principal component analyses that revealed that while the conscious experience during synchronous IMS focused on resemblance and similarity with the other’s face, during asynchronous IMS it focused on multisensory stimulation. Analyses of the identified common factor structure revealed (...) significant quantitative differences between synchronous and asynchronous IMS on self-identification and perceived similarity with the other’s face. Experiment 2 revealed that participants with lower interoceptive sensitivity experienced stronger enfacement illusion. Overall, self-identification and body-ownership rely on similar basic mechanisms of multisensory integration, but the effects of multisensory input on their experience are qualitatively different, possibly underlying the face’s unique role as a marker of selfhood. (shrink)

Research has found that both cisgender and transgender androphilic males (i.e., males sexually attracted to and aroused by other adult males) have female-typical occupational preferences when compared with gynephilic males (i.e., males sexually attracted to and aroused by adult females). Moreover, whereas cisgender androphilic males’ occupational preferences tend to be intermediate between those of gynephilic men and androphilic women, transgender androphilic males tend to have occupational preferences that are more similar to androphilic women. No study has directly compared both types (...) of androphilic males within the same culture. The present study investigated occupational preference and its relation to childhood sex-atypical behavior (CSAB), among gynephilic men (_n_ = 208), androphilic women (_n_ = 138), and cisgender (_n_ = 132) and transgender (_n_ = 129) androphilic males from the Istmo region of Oaxaca, Mexico, where androphilic males are recognized as third gender, _muxes_. The study found large sex differences in occupational preferences (_d_ = 2.80). Furthermore, both cisgender _muxe nguiiu_ (_d_ = 2.36) and transgender _muxe gunaa_ (_d_ = 3.44) reported having more sex-atypical occupational preferences compared with men. However, _muxe gunaa_ reported higher female-typical occupational preferences than women (_d_ = 0.59) and _muxe nguiiu_ (_d_ = 0.57), whereas _muxe nguiiu_ and women did not differ (_d_ = 0.08). These findings are consistent with the conclusion that sex-atypical occupational preferences are a cross-culturally universal aspect of male androphilia. Finally, CSAB was associated with sex-atypical occupational preferences among all participants. These findings suggest that a developmental continuity exists between childhood and adulthood sex-atypicality. (shrink)

Inter-organizational models are both a well-documented phenomena and a well-established domain in management and business ethics. Those models rest on collaborative capabilities. However, mainstream theories and practices aimed at developing these capabilities are based on a narrow set of assumptions and ethical principles about human nature and relationships, which constrain the very development of capabilities sought by them. This article presents an Aristotelic–Thomistic approach to collaborative entrepreneurship within and across communities of firms operating in complementary markets. Adopting a scholarship of (...) integration approach and evaluating the six studies of communities of organizations, we contribute an inter-organizational network model based on the assumptions about human motives and choice offered by Aristotle. We argue that the sustainability of inter-organizational communities depends on how rich is the set of assumptions about human nature upon which they are based. In order to develop and sustain collaborative capabilities in inter-organizational communities, a set of assumptions that takes both self-regarding and others’-regarding preferences as ends is required to avoid any kind of instrumentalization of collaboration, which is an end in itself. Implications for theory and practice are discussed. (shrink)

This study explores the efficacy of a specific tool – the articulation of the ideal self – in job engagement, psychological well-being, and organizational citizenship behavior. We hypothesized that employees who can visualize their jobs as part of their ideal self – in particular how it helps in its development and realization – would feel higher levels of engagement and fulfillment in their lives, as well as engage in greater amounts of helping and voice OCB. A total of 239 full (...) time employees from five companies in Costa Rica filled out the ideal self questionnaire, the job engagement, and psychological well-being surveys, and were evaluated by their peers on task behavior and helping and voice OCB. Results of the SEM model showed that the ideal self was positively related to job engagement, psychological well-being and helping and voice. These findings contribute to the research on the impact and importance for organizations to help employees find meaningfulness in their work. (shrink)

La resistencia de la memoria. Un recorrido por el proyecto: Se rebelan, se revelan, de Estudio Biopus.

En este artículo se examina la influencia que ejerce la violencia en la construcción del Estado. Asimismo, desde la perspectiva de Hannah Arendt, se analiza la política como espacio donde se afirma y protege la vida a través de la acción política y las normas jurídicas. Se trata de razonar el dualismo política-violencia, y violencia-normas jurídicas. En este sentido, la pregunta que da origen al presente escrito se enuncia en los siguientes términos: ¿cómo es posible reafirmar la vida como voluntad (...) a través de la política y cuidar de la existencia humana en un contexto en donde la violencia pareciera ser consustancial a la forma de estado y al medio por el cual se construye la comunidad política? Un examen riguroso de las circunstancian que fuerzan el análisis de este interrogante conduce necesariamente a sostener que: solo se podrá afirmar la vida a través del ejercicio de la política, cuando la sociedad política sea concebida como una construcción institucional cuya meta principal sea combinar la libertad de los individuos y las colectividades con la unidad de las normas jurídicas. (shrink)

En el año 711 Ṭāriq ibn Ziyād y Mūsà ibn Nuṣayr emprendían la conquista de al-Andalus desde Ifrīqiya. El objeto de este artículo es indagar en los orígenes de ambos personajes a través del estudio de las diferentes noticias que se contienen en las crónicas y los diccionarios biográficos, tanto orientales como occidentales. En el caso de Mūsà, el punto de partida se encuentra en ʿAyn al-Tamr en la orilla derecha del río Éufrates, de donde era originario su padre, para (...) concluir que provenía de un entorno social vinculado a la aristocracia local árabe, primero al servicio de la administración sasánida y luego de la omeya. En cuanto a Ṭāriq, todo apunta a que la relación de walāʾ que le vinculaba con Mūsà ibn Nuṣayr se había constituido en un momento muy anterior a la llegada de este último a Ifrīqiya. Esta constatación, junto con las noticias aportadas por varios informadores, inexplicablemente ignoradas por la historiografía, apunta a descartar el origen norteafricano y bereber de Ṭāriq para situarlo en el ámbito geográfico sasánida. (shrink)

Using the Self-Determination Theory as a framework, this study tests the predictive capacity of the teacher’s interpersonal style of autonomy support at a higher education institution, and the grit on the satisfaction of basic psychological needs, intrinsic motivation, group cohesion, and life satisfaction in university students. A sample composed of 489 Colombian university students, aged between 18 and 41 years, was used; they filled in the questionnaires that measured the variables of interest. After the analysis of structural equations, the results (...) showed that the perception of teaching style of autonomy support and the grit positively predicted the basic psychological needs and these predicted the intrinsic motivation, which in turn predicted group cohesion and satisfaction with life. The model describes the possible importance of promoting the teacher’s interpersonal style of autonomy support within the university setting in the search for satisfaction with life along with the active role of the student through the mediation of the satisfaction of basic psychological needs, increased quality motivation, and high group cohesion. (shrink)

Purpose Artificial intelligence and automation are currently changing human life with a great implication in the communication field. This research focusses on understanding the current and growing impact of AI and automation in the role of communication professionals to identify what skills and training are needed to face its impacts leading to a recommendation. Design/methodology/approach The research involves methodological triangulation, analysing and comparing data gathered from consulting with experts using the Delphi method, focus group with communication students, and literature review. (...) Findings Findings show that the likely impacts are on the one hand the enhancing of efficiency and productivity, as well as freeing communication professionals to focus on the creative side, strategy and analytical thinking, on the other hand, repetitive and low-level jobs could be lost, being higher position jobs or those involving creativity and decision making harder to automate. Two types of training are needed: to gather experience with the current AI and automated tools, and to focus on developing human qualities that AI cannot replicate. Originality/value The outcomes of this research are valuable to help current and future communication practitioners, as well as organisations, to be one step ahead and survive the age AI and automation, being aware of its current and near-future impacts. The paper offers a list of recommended soft and technical skills, as well as training needed, categorizing them in low, medium and high priority. (shrink)

Ezequiel Rojas is recognized as one of the most important Colombian utilitarian thinkers of the nineteenth century. His writings, however, have been ignored or underestimated by philosophy historians in Colombia who read them from the perspective of European history of philosophy, class struggles or partisan issues —a reading which ignores the manner of local writings. The present text offers instead a reflection on the notion of “science” in Rojas’ philosophical works emphasizing the practice of localized “exercise of writing”, and thus (...) provides a comprehensive view of his works as part of Colombian history of philosophy. (shrink)

Some basic mathematical facts pertaining to " Catastrophe Theory" are sketched. The alleged applications to the social sciences are studied. Three representative models, due to E.C. Zeeman, are described in detail, and critically analyzed. The models are found to be vaguely formulated, to be based on false hypotheses, to lead to few nontrivial predictions. Moreover, most of those predictions do not agree with reality. Finally, the only nontrivial mathematical result used in these models - Thom 's theorem - is found (...) to be incorrectly applied. It is concluded that no justification exists for the claim that Catastrophe Theory can be applied to the social sciences. (shrink)

A Computable Universe is a collection of papers discussing computation in nature and the nature of computation, a compilation of the views of the pioneers in the contemporary area of intellectual inquiry focused on computational and informational theories of the world. This volume is the definitive source of informational/computational views of the world, and of cutting-edge models of the universe, both digital and quantum, discussed from a philosophical perspective as well as in the greatest technical detail. The book discusses the (...) foundations of computation in relation to nature. It focuses on two main questions: What is computation? How does nature compute? The contributors are world-renowned experts who have helped shape a cutting-edge computational understanding of the universe. They discuss computation in the world from a variety of perspectives, ranging from foundational concepts to pragmatic models to ontological conceptions and their philosophical implications. The volume provides a state-of-the-art collection of technical papers and non-technical essays representing a field that takes information and computation to be key to understanding and explaining the basic structure underpinning physical reality. It also includes a new edition of Konrad Zuse's "Calculating Space", and a panel discussion transcription on the topic, featuring worldwide experts (including a Nobel prize) in quantum mechanics, physics, cognition, computation and algorithmic complexity.A Computable Universe is a collection of papers discussing computation in nature and the nature of computation, a compilation of the views of the pioneers in the contemporary area of intellectual inquiry focused on computational and informational theories of the world. This volume is the definitive source of informational/computational views of the world, and of cutting-edge models of the universe, both digital and quantum, discussed from a philosophical perspective as well as in the greatest technical detail. The book discusses the foundations of computation in relation to nature. It focuses on two main questions: What is computation? How does nature compute? The contributors are world-renowned experts who have helped shape a cutting-edge computational understanding of the universe. They discuss computation in the world from a variety of perspectives, ranging from foundational concepts to pragmatic models to ontological conceptions and their philosophical implications. The volume provides a state-of-the-art collection of technical papers and non-technical essays representing a field that takes information and computation to be key to understanding and explaining the basic structure underpinning physical reality. It also includes a new edition of Konrad Zuse's "Calculating Space", and a panel discussion transcription on the topic, featuring worldwide experts (including a Nobel prize) in quantum mechanics, physics, cognition, computation and algorithmic complexity. (shrink)

This book describes in detail the relationship between symbolic representations of knowledge and abstract states of knowledge, exploring along the way the foundations of knowledge, knowledge bases, knowledge-based systems, and knowledge representation and reasoning. The idea of knowledge bases lies at the heart of symbolic, or "traditional," artificial intelligence. A knowledge-based system decides how to act by running formal reasoning procedures over a body of explicitly represented knowledge—a knowledge base. The system is not programmed for specific tasks; rather, it is (...) told what it needs to know and expected to infer the rest. This book is about the logic of such knowledge bases. It describes in detail the relationship between symbolic representations of knowledge and abstract states of knowledge, exploring along the way the foundations of knowledge, knowledge bases, knowledge-based systems, and knowledge representation and reasoning. Assuming some familiarity with first-order predicate logic, the book offers a new mathematical model of knowledge that is general and expressive yet more workable in practice than previous models. The book presents a style of semantic argument and formal analysis that would be cumbersome or completely impractical with other approaches. It also shows how to treat a knowledge base as an abstract data type, completely specified in an abstract way by the knowledge-level operations defined over it. (shrink)

This article discusses Jacques Rancière's theory of literature as centred on an agonistic concept of literature, where literature is seen as a ‘positive contradiction’. This positive contradiction arises from what Rancière sees as literature's origins in the ‘errant letter’, which is conceived as an intrinsically democratic principle that, for Rancière, also results in the tendency of literature to incarnate the word and to propose an extra-textual truth which would signal the end of literature as democratic errancy. Asking whether it is (...) possible to identify Rancière as ‘taking sides’ in what he sets up as a struggle, the article analyses three examples of Rancière's engagement with literary texts in which he demonstrates the necessity for literature to maintain its constitutive contradiction, resulting in a conception of literature as an agonistic field and as a self-critical mode of writing. (shrink)