Wittgenstein's philosophy is directly related to semiotic theory. To examine this critical question, Wittgenstein & Semiotics discusses the cultural climate of Wittgenstein's semiotics as the influence of Saussure and Peirce. Wittgenstein's word-play can reflect historically the pros and cons of modern society transfigurating the disasters of two World Wars into belief and action. But Wittgenstein's polemical style reflects the Zeitgeist of a new structure of writing philosophy based on the special force of semiotics. By transmitting one message to another to (...) see how the linguistic signs are decoded and interpreted, Wittgenstein saw how the exchanges of signs are carried out to renew cultural society. His linguistic sign functions in direct speech reflect how the structure of signs influences the symbolic systems and processes to communicate the meaning of his style to the readers. Wittgenstein's theory of semiotics contributed to the cultural technique of the growth of interdisciplinary fields of scholarly disciplines, both humanistic and scientific, which Wittgenstein's "free" speech enjoys today. (shrink)

'Standstill' could be the name for the exact kind of experience that is the hiatus between social expectations and real possibilities of agency. Standstill may also be the name of an aesthetic strategy to instill a non-linear time of resistance and experience into the political protocol of progress. Finally, standstill can be the name for the temporal fissure in the midst of the subject, for the lapse between the subject of the enunciation and the subject of a statement, the limit (...) that is the border between the inside and the outside. It can be the name for the mode of potentiality, for the moment of gesture, or, with Walter Benjamin, the medium of the dialectical image. The essays of this book transverse these dimensions of standstill as an in-between of time. The book includes essays by Georges Didi-Huberman, David Lapoujade, Peter Osborne, Jacques Rancière, Christine Ross, and others as well as conversations with Via Lewandowsky, Aernout Mik and Marcel Odenbach." -- Provided by publisher. (shrink)

Introduction: silence and secrecy -- Symptoms -- Cryptography -- Cryptomnesia -- Fact or fiction -- Cryptosemiotician -- Tentative conclusion -- Appendix: list of coded passages from Wittgenstein's Nachlass.

Gibt es eine spezifische Medialität des Spiels, die es sinnvoll macht, das Verhältnis jeden Ereignisses zu seiner Umgebung als Spiel zu beschreiben? In welcher Weise können Technik, Spiel und Ästhetik neu gedacht werden? Immer dann, wenn Technik mit mechanischen Bewegungen verbunden wird, sehen wir sie im Gegensatz zum Spiel. Wenn Technik jedoch mit Ästhetik assoziiert wird, taucht das Spiel als Teil der Technik auf. Spiel bringt Dinge in Relation und verändert sie dadurch. Wenn Materie als rhythmische Bewegung gedacht wird und (...) Spiel auf Wiederholung basiert, rückt der Spielbegriff ins Zentrum einer medienwissenschaftlichen Auslegung der relationalen Beschaffenheit von Zeit und Raum. Vor dem Hintergrund der Aktualität, welche die Spieletheorien von Huizinga und Caillois in den Game Studies erlangten, unternimmt der vorliegende Band eine medienphilosophische Befragung des Spielbegriffs. Er behandelt dabei das Spiel unter Bezugnahme auf Fragen der Neuen Materialismen und wirft zugleich einen neuen Blick auf das Spiel in der Psychoanalyse. (shrink)

This paper responds to the issues raised by D. Chalmers by offering a research direction which is quite radical because of the way in which methodological principles are linked to scientific studies of consciousness. Neuro-phenomenology is the name I use here to designate a quest to marry modern cognitive science and a disciplined approach to human experience, thereby placing myself in the lineage of the continental tradition of Phenomenology. My claim is that the so-called hard problem that animates these Special (...) Issues can only be addressed productively by gathering a research community armed with new pragmatic tools for the development of a science of consciousness. I will claim that no piecemeal empirical correlates, nor purely theoretical principles, will really help us at this stage. We need to turn to a systematic exploration of the only link between mind and consciousness that seems both obvious and natural: the structure of human experience itself. In what follows I motivate my choice by briefly examining the current debate about consciousness at the light of Chalmer’s hard problem. Next, I outline the phenomenological strategy. Finally I conclude by discussing some of the main difficulties and consequences of this strategy. (shrink)

Why are we interested in history at all? Why do we feel the need to distinguish between past and present? In this book, the author argues that the past originates from an experience of rupture separating past and present. Think of the radical rupture with Europe's past that was effected by the French and the Industrial Revolutions. Sublime Historical Experience investigates how the notion of sublime historical experience complicates and challenges existing conceptions of language, truth, and knowledge. These experiences of (...) rupture are paradoxical since they involve both the separation of past and present and, at the same time, the effort to overcome this separation in terms of historical knowledge. The experience unites feelings of loss/pain with those of love/satisfaction, and thus is in agreement with how sublime experience is ordinarily defined. The experience is also precognitive since it precedes historical knowledge. As such it is a challenge to traditional conceptions of the relationship between experience and truth or language. It compels us to disconnect the notions of experience and truth. (shrink)

In this article, the author uses his recent experience of organ transplantation as the basis for reflection on phenomenologically-derived notions of lived experience, temporality, selfhood and medical ethics.

Forgetting has rarely been investigated in historical theory. Insofar as it attracted the attention of theorists at all, forgetting has ordinarily been considered to be a defect in our relationship to the past that should be overcome in one way or another. The only exception is Nietzsche who so provocatively sung the praises of forgetting in his On the Use and Abuse of History . But Nietzsche's conception is the easy victim of a consistent historicism and therefore in need of (...) correction. Four types of forgetting are identified in this essay. Central in the essay's argument is the fourth type. This is the kind of forgetting taking place when a civilization "commits suicide" by exchanging a previous identity for a new one. Hegel's moving account of the conflict between Socrates and the Athenian state is presented as the paradigmatic example of this kind of forgetting. Two conclusions follow from an analysis of this type of forgetting. First, we can now understand what should be recognized as a civilization's historical sublime and how the notions of the historical sublime and of collective trauma are related. Second, it follows that myth and history do not exclude each other; on the contrary, history creates myth. This should not be taken to be a defect of history, for this is precisely how it should be. (shrink)

Objective The UK Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine programme commenced in the autumn of 2008 for year 8 (age 12–13 years) schoolgirls. We examine whether the vaccine should be given when there is a difference of opinion between daughters and parents or guardians. Design Qualitative study using semi-structured interviews. Participants A sample of 25 stakeholders: 14 professionals involved in the development of the HPV vaccination programme and 11 professionals involved in its implementation. Results Overriding the parents' wishes was perceived as problematic (...) and could damage the relationship between school and parents. A number of practical problems were raised in relation to establishing whether parents were genuinely against their daughter receiving the vaccine. Although many respondents recognised that the Gillick guidelines were relevant in establishing whether a girl could provide consent herself, they still felt that there were significant problems in establishing whether girls could be assessed as Gillick competent. In some areas school nurses had been advised not to give the vaccine in the absence of parental consent. None of the respondents suggested that a girl should be vaccinated against her consent even if her parents wanted her to have the vaccine. Conclusions While the Gillick guidelines provide a legal framework to help professionals make judgements about adolescents consenting to medical treatment, in practice there appears to be variable and confused interpretation of this guidance. Improved legal structures, management procedures and professional advice are needed to support those who are assessing competence and establishing consent to vaccinate adolescents in a school setting. (shrink)

We study a propositional bimodal logic consisting of two S4 modalities £ and [a], together with the interaction axiom scheme a £ϕ → £ aϕ. In the intended semantics, the plain £ is given the McKinsey-Tarski interpretation as the interior operator of a topology, while the labelled [a] is given the standard Kripke semantics using a reflexive and transitive binary relation a. The interaction axiom expresses the property that the Ra relation is lower semi-continuous with respect to the topology. The (...) class of topological Kripke frames characterised by the logic includes all frames over Euclidean space where Ra is the positive flow relation of a differential equation. We establish the completeness of the axiomatisation with respect to the intended class of topological Kripke frames, and investigate tableau calculi for the logic, although tableau completeness and decidability are still open questions. (shrink)

For Paul and Luke alike, the present age is the age of the Spirit; for them both, the presence and activity of the Spirit constituted the great new fact of their time.