El propósito del presente artículo consiste en indagar las diferencias de fuerza que sostienen el aparato conceptual de la obra de Suely Rolnik, para pensar una poética de la resistencia pasiva. Para ello, se abordará primero un análisis de la tradición biopolítica para distinguir una tendencia inmanentista (Foucault, Agamben) de otra que vincula la vida con la alteridad (Butler, Coccia). A continuación, se leerá esta segunda tendencia desde la teoría de la performatividad después de la deconstrucción, para proponer una genealogía (...) de la fuerza vulnerable que se denominará speech passion theory. En fin, el artículo enmarca en esta genealogía la fuerza afirmativa de Rolnik, y piensa desde ella la tarea de la política y el arte como una práctica estética más allá de la institución del arte. (shrink)

Durante los 2000, la música “indie” se volvió relativamente central en la zona metropolitana de Buenos Aires. En este artículo, estudiamos el “indie” de la ciudad de La Plata y afirmamos que no es un género musical y tampoco puede definirse sólo desde criterios estilísticos. Lo hacemos desde una investigación etnográfica que privilegió la observación participante, complementada con entrevistas abiertas y en profundidad realizadas a músicos y otros participantes de la escena “indie” en La Plata. Entendemos que el “indie” es (...) una manera de hacer, es la manifestación de una nueva relación con la música y con los medios de producción de música. ¿Con qué parámetros entender el “indie” dado que su lógica escapa a la instaurada por la apropiación identitaria de los géneros musicales? Describimos la música “indie” en La Plata entre 2009 y 2015 y mostramos su historia y evolución. Exploramos las discusiones sobre los usos de la música en el medio local, desde la mirada subculturalista hasta el más reciente abordaje pragmático, dentro del cual destacamos el concepto de mediación musical. De esta manera, proponemos una reformulación del concepto de música de uso para alcanzar una mejor comprensión del “indie” y de otros fenómenos musicales contemporáneos. (shrink)

In this pa per I will try to of fer a syn the sis be tween two con flict ing epistemological po si - tions on the re cent philo soph i cal scene: pos i tiv - ism, whose her i tage sur vives as the be lief that sci ence is the most gen u ine form of knowl edge, and the de fend ers of incommensur..

Reflections about religion developed in Wittgenstein’s early personal writings are notably influenced by Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling, particularly concerning the construction of an anthropology of the believer. Religious individual bases his existence in his position before God and in his faith. This basis exceeds ethical generality, and shows how religion is developed beyond the limits of reason and knowledge, in an existential dimension where faith is liken to love. This will imply the rejection of any religious doctrine and the inexpressible (...) quality of faith. (shrink)

Previous research has shown that inconsistencies across repeated interviews do not indicate deception because liars deliberately tend to repeat the same story. However, when a strategic interview approach that makes it difficult for liars to use the repeat strategy is used, both consistency and evasive answers differ significantly between truth tellers and liars, and statistical software (binary logistic regression analyses) can reach high classification rates (Masip et al., 2016b ). Yet, if the interview procedure is to be used in applied (...) settings the decision process will be made by humans, not statistical software. To address this issue, in the current study, 475 college students (Experiment 1) and 142 police officers (Experiment 2) were instructed to code and use consistency, evasive answers, or a combination or both before judging the veracity of Masip et al.'s ( 2016b ) interview transcripts. Accuracy rates were high (60% to over 90%). Evasive answers yielded higher rates than consistency, and the combination of both these cues produced the highest accuracy rates in identifying both truthful and deceptive statements. Uninstructed participants performed fairly well (around 75% accuracy), apparently because they spontaneously used consistency and evasive answers. The pattern of results was the same among students, all officers, and veteran officers only, and shows that inconsistencies between interviews and evasive answers reveal deception when a strategic interview approach that hinders the repeat strategy is used. (shrink)

ArgumentThe discovery of electron diffraction by George Paget Thomson in Aberdeen and Clinton J. Davisson and Lester H. Germer at the Bell Labs has often been portrayed as an example of independent discovery. Neither team was particularly interested in the developments of the nascent quantum theory but they both ended up demonstrating one of the most striking experimental consequences of the new physics. This paper traces the aftermath of this discovery and the way electron diffraction immediately turned from empirical evidence (...) of a highly novel theory into a technique for applied and technological research. Thomson was the first to design an “electron diffraction camera,” an instrument that soon found its place in laboratories around the world. I discuss the role played by Davisson and Germer, and by Thomson in the development of electron diffraction as a “research technology,” taking into account their specific institutional settings and research cultures. While Davisson and Germer remained in the industry-oriented Bell Labs, Thomson moved to Imperial College in 1930 where collaboration first, and competition later with George I. Finch was also relevant for the consolidation of an instrument that eventually became widely known as the “Finch Camera.”. (shrink)

Friedrich Nietzsche resorted several times to the image of a child playing with sand or pebbles. His purpose in doing so was to evoke a cyclical process of construction and destruction devoid of both responsibility and finality. This essay examines, on the one hand, the relation of the child’s image to its two main hypotexts (Heraclitus DK 22 B 52 and Iliad XV 362-64) and, on the other, the range of Nietzsche’s uses of the simile.

El propósito de este estudio consiste en mostrar la crítica de Kierkegaard a la metafísica de la lectura a través de su problematización de la noción de autor y su revisión de la noción de público en su obraDos épocas. Una recensión literaria. Para ello, se rechazará la interpretación habitual de esta obra, basada en la distinción público/privado, y se valorará la propuesta de Kierkegaard mediante las nociones de cuerpo e intimidad. Ello implicará una redefinición del lenguaje desde el secreto (...) y el silencio, y apuntará hacia una relación compleja entre la literatura, el cuerpo, la subjetividad y la religión. (shrink)

The aim of this article is to develop a postmetaphysical conception of reading by following Kierkegaard’s Either/Or Part I (1843) through such Derridian concepts as secret, hospitality, and spectrality. The work focuses on the three essays addressed to the Symparanekromenoi (“the community of the dead”), a fellowship neither young nor old with an aphoristic way of life (2010b, pp. 137–225) that can be understood as a figure of alterity. Special attention is paid to paratextual features of the book: the texts (...) are actually presented as old papers found in a secretary desk by a pseudonymous editor (“Victor Eremita”), which suggests that every text is a posthumous paper, that is to say, it will always be read after the death of its author. Instead of finding a solid author who holds the semantic weight of the text, these papers are based in a blank of sense, a specter, a secret: if they are sustained on its author, then they are sustained in a mystery, not in a sort of revelation of meaning. (shrink)

This article delves into the reception of John W. Draper's History of the Conflict between Religion and Science in Spain. With two translations into Spanish appearing almost simultaneously in 1876, the conflict became a weapon in a long political dispute. The tensions between conservatives and liberals, between monarchists and republicans had the university and pedagogical reforms as one of the main battlefields. One of the chief reformist movements was informed by “Krausism,” an ideology that had academic freedom as one if (...) its central tenets. The similarities between the educational agenda of Draper and that of Krausists explain why the former's book resonated among members of the latter group. The article argues that in order to understand the reception of Draper in Spain, one should pay attention to the disputes about national identity and educational reforms, so as to place the so‐called conflict thesis in the context of opposing Spanish patriotisms. (shrink)

Based on narrative, iconographical, and liturgical sources, this is the first systematic study to trace the story of the ritual of royal self-coronations from Ancient Persia to the present. Exposing as myth the idea that Napoleon's act of self-coronation in 1804 was the first extraordinary event to break the secular tradition of kings being crowned by bishops, Jaume Aurell vividly demonstrates that self-coronations were not as transgressive or unconventional as has been imagined. Drawing on numerous examples of royal self-coronations, (...) with a particular focus on European Kings of the Middle Ages, including Frederic II of Germany, Alphonse XI of Castile, Peter IV of Aragon and Charles III of Navarra, Aurell draws on history, anthropology, ritual studies, liturgy and art history to explore royal self-coronations as privileged sites at which the frontiers and limits between the temporal and spiritual, politics and religion, tradition and innovation are encountered. (shrink)

Many American readers like to regard Alexis de Tocqueville as an honorary American and democrat--as the young French aristocrat who came to early America and, enthralled by what he saw, proceeded to write an American book explaining democratic America to itself. Yet, as Lucien Jaume argues in this acclaimed intellectual biography, Democracy in America is best understood as a French book, written primarily for the French, and overwhelmingly concerned with France. "America," Jaume says, "was merely a pretext for (...) studying modern society and the woes of France." For Tocqueville, in short, America was a mirror for France, a way for Tocqueville to write indirectly about his own society, to engage French thinkers and debates, and to come to terms with France's aristocratic legacy. By taking seriously the idea that Tocqueville's French context is essential for understanding Democracy in America, Jaume provides a powerful and surprising new interpretation of Tocqueville's book as well as a fresh intellectual and psychological portrait of the author. Situating Tocqueville in the context of the crisis of authority in postrevolutionary France, Jaume shows that Tocqueville was an ambivalent promoter of democracy, a man who tried to reconcile himself to the coming wave, but who was also nostalgic for the aristocratic world in which he was rooted--and who believed that it would be necessary to preserve aristocratic values in order to protect liberty under democracy. Indeed, Jaume argues that one of Tocqueville's most important and original ideas was to recognize that democracy posed the threat of a new and hidden form of despotism. (shrink)

The origin of the bilaterian metazoans from radial ancestors is one of the biggest puzzles in animal evolution. A way to solve it is to identify the nature and main features of the last common ancestor of the bilaterians (LCB). Recent progress in molecular phylogeny has shown that many platyhelminth flatworms, regarded for a long time as basal bilaterians, now belong to the lophotrochozoan protostomates. In contrast, the LCB is now considered a complex organism bearing several features of modern bilaterians. (...) Here we discuss an alternative view, in which acoelomorph (Acoela + Nemertodermatida) flatworms, which do not belong to the Platyhelminthes, represent the earliest extant bilaterian clade. Sequences from ribosomal and other nuclear genes, Hox cluster genes, and reinterpretation of some morphological features strongly support the basal position of acoelomorphs arguing against a complex LCB. This reconstruction backs the old planuloid–acoeloid hypothesis and may help our understanding of the evolution of body axes, Hox genes and the Cambrian explosion. BioEssays 26:1046–1057, 2004. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

El propósito del presente estudio consiste en pensar la ambivalencia con que Zambrano aborda el género de la novela. De un lado, las reflexiones en La confesión, género literario posicionan a Zambrano próxima a las críticas de Benjamin y Adorno a propósito de la cosificación de la novela como género burgués de consumo. De otro lado, sus exposiciones en El sueño creador conciben la novela como la actualización del sueño de la libertad mediante el que el hombre pensarse desbordando la (...) medida de lo humano. Esta ambivalencia del género revela el relato como la condición de posibilidad e imposibilidad de una temporalidad incalculable, no cuantitativa, lo que vinculará las reflexiones de Zambrano con el pensamiento de Derrida. The aim of this study is to think the ambivalence with which Zambrano tackles the novel’s gender. On the one side, her thesis in La confesión, género literario bring Zambrano closer to Benjamin, and Adorno’s critique to the novel as a bourgeois and consumable gender. On the other side, Zambrano’s statements in El sueño creador depict the novel as the fulfillment of a dream of freedom, where man can question himself beyond the limits of the human. In this ambivalence, the narrative gender shows both the conditions of possibility and the conditions of impossibility of a non-quantitative temporality. This aporetic character of the novel opens a discussion between Zambrano and Derrida’s thought. (shrink)

El artículo presenta, analiza y comenta un texto de Arnau de Vilanova que se ha conservado relativo a la discusión que sostuvo este autor con los teólogos de París sobre la falacia del consecuente, en el contexto de la polémica escatológica . Los teólogos de París descalificaron la argumentación de Arnau de Vilanova porque incurría en la falacia del consecuente. Arnau de Vilanova se defiende de esta acusación.The article presents, analyzes and comments a text of Arnau de Vilanova that has (...) been conserved relative to the discussion that maintained this author with the theologians of Paris on the “fallacia consequentis”, in the context of the eschatological controversy . The theologians of Paris disqualified the argumentation of Arnau de Vilanova because he incurred the “fallacia consequentis”. Arnau de Vilanova defends himself of this accusation. (shrink)

Marcel Proust ha passat a la història de la cultura occidental com un escriptor, principalment novelista. Amb tot, la seva obra mestra. A la recerca del temps perdut, un dels cims de la literatura mundial, conté nombroses reflexions que permeten identificar clarament també un Proust pensador. Reconstruir la filosofia de Proust tot resseguint la mirada sobre el món que representa a la recerca?. és l'objectiu d'aquest assaig. A partir dels aforismes, sovint metafòrics, del Narrador proustià, Jaume Urgell ens ofereix (...) una anàlisi de la posició de l'escriptor francès en el context de la filosofia del segle XX. Expressant-se de vegades com a hereu d'un pensament anti-racionalista, en ocasions com a a coetani del existencialisme europeu i sovint precursor tant del pensament ironista com de mites de la quotidianitat més contemporània, Marcel Proust ens llega una obra plena de significats i alhora lliure de qualsevol convencionalisme, cosncient de les seves pròpies màscares i alhora innocent en el seu desenvolupament. Aquest assaigpresenta també algunes de les contribucions més rellevants en l'estudi de l'obra proustiana, com són les de Samuel Beckett, Gilles Deleuze i Richard Rorty, i desbrossa les incursions de Proust en el camp de la psicologia, l'ètica i l'estètica. Jaume Urgell És llicenciat en ciències empresarials i MBA per ESADE i Màster en Administració Pública per la Universitat de Harvard. Té un Diploma d'Estudis Avançats en Filosofia i Literatura per la UB. Dedica la seva vida intel·lectual a la literatura, la filosofia, la política i les relacions internacionals, i ha publicat diversos llibres i articles sobre aquestes matèries. (shrink)

En Creazione e anarchia, Giorgio Agamben distingue dos posiciones divergentes en la filosofía contemporánea heredera del pensamiento de Heidegger. Mientras que califica de “interpretación anárquica” el trabajo de Reiner Schürmann y el suyo propio, designa como “interpretación democrática” el trabajo de Jacques Derrida. El propósito del presente estudio consiste en valorar el alcance de estas designaciones, que se basan en los distintos sentidos de arché como origen y como principio, para comprender en qué medida puede resultar de interés para la (...) historia de la filosofía reciente tildar al pensamiento de Jacques Derrida como una interpretación democrática de Heidegger, y hasta qué punto la lectura agambeniana se muestra sesgada o limitada. Sostendremos que el gesto “democrático” de Derrida descansa en una cierta concepción de la literatura y de la performatividad de la que Agamben no aborda una lectura suficientemente crítica y precisa. La concepción literaria de la democracia por Derrida, aplicada a distintos aspectos como el tiempo, la muerte o la negatividad del lenguaje, opera una deconstrucción de la ontología heideggeriana y constituye el espacio democrático, así como el lenguaje, como momentos de espera para la irrupción de la alteridad. In creazione e anarchia, Giorgio Agamben distinguishes two divergent positions in the contemporary philosophy received from Heidegger’s thinking. While qualifying his own work and that of Reiner Schürmann’s as “anarchical interpretation”, he qualifies Jacques Derrida’s work as “democratic interpretation”. The purpose of this present study aims at valuing the scope of these designations, which are based on the different senses of arché as origin and as principle, in order to understand to which extent it is of any interest for the recent history of philosophy to name Jacques Derrida’s thinking as a democratic interpretation of Heidegger, and also, to which extent the agambenian reading seems biased or limited. We contend that Derrida’s “democratic” gesture lies on a given conception of literature and of performability of which Agamben does not undertake a sufficently critical and accurate reading. The literary conception of Derrida’s democracy applied to different aspects such as time, death o negativity of language, operates a deconstruction of the heideggerian ontology and embodies the democratic space, as well as the language, as moments of wait for the irruption of the otherness. (shrink)

This is an introduction to the thematic section on “The Historiography of Science and Religion in Europe,” which resulted from a symposium held at the eighth Conference of the European Society for the History of Science, University College London, UK, from September 14–17, 2018. The introduction provides a brief argument for the decentering of science and religion from the Anglo‐American discourse. It concludes by previewing the contributions of the section's essays.

Edmund T. Whittaker’s second edition of his A History of the Theories of Aether and Electricity is famous for his treatment of Einstein as an almost irrelevant character in the emergence of what he called “the relativity theory of Poincaré and Lorentz.” Historians of science have given a number of explanations, which include Whittaker’s scientific conservatism as an old classical physicist, his commitment to the ether, the pre-eminent role he attributed to mathematics over physics, and foundational philosophical disagreements, to name (...) a few. And in the background, often more implicit than forthright, the accusation of antisemitism looms over Whittaker. In this paper I intend to shed new light on this controversy by taking into consideration the abundant correspondence between Whittaker and his son preserved in the archives of the Fisher Library, University of Toronto. With it, we will get a more complex and personal view of the context in which his attempt at dethroning Einstein took place. Together with the abovementioned reasons, this correspondence shows that the problematic status quo of general relativity in the early 1950s, a period that has been described as the low-mark of general relativity, was very influential in the historical treatment he gave to Einstein. This is an aspect hardly mentioned in the historical work on this controversy and, from this correspondence, it appears to be central to understanding Whittaker at the time of drafting the new History. His possible antisemitic bias will also be addressed, though with the insufficient information on this subject the matter cannot be settled. (shrink)

Given the growing centrality of interdisciplinarity to scientific research, gaining a better understanding of successful interdisciplinary collaborations has become imperative. Drawing on extensive case studies of nine research networks in the social, natural, and computational sciences, we propose a construct that captures the multidimensional character of such collaborations, that of a shared cognitive–emotional–interactional platform. We demonstrate its value as an integrative lens to examine markers of and conditions for successful interdisciplinary collaborations as defined by researchers involved in these groups. We (...) show that markers and conditions embody three different dimensions: cognitive, emotional, and interactional; these dimensions are present in all networks, albeit to different degrees; the dimensions are intertwined and mutually constitutive; and they operate in conjunction with institutional conditions created by funders. We compare the SCEI platforms to available frameworks for successful interdisciplinary work. (shrink)

What is the classic in history? What is a classic in historical writing? Very few historians and critics have addressed these questions, and when they have done so, it has been only in a cursory manner. These are queries that require some explanation regarding historical texts because of their peculiar ambivalence between science and art, content and form, sources and imagination, scientific and narrative language. Based on some examples of the Western historiographical tradition, I discuss in this article to what (...) extent historians should engage the concept of the classic – as has been done for literary texts. If one assumes that the historical text is not only a referential account but also a narrative analogous to literary texts, then the concept of the classic becomes one of the keys for understanding the historical text – and may improve our understanding not only of historiography, but of history itself. I will argue in this article that it is possible to identify a category of the classic text in some historical writings, precisely because of the literarity they possess without losing their specific historical condition. Because of their narrative condition, historical texts share some of the features assigned to literary texts – that is, endurance, timelessness, universal meaningfulness, resistance to historical criticism, susceptibility to multiple interpretations, and ability to function as models. Yet, since historical texts do not construct imaginary worlds but reflect external realities, they also have to achieve some specific features according to this referential content – that is, surplus of meaning, historical use of metaphors, effect of contemporaneity without damaging the pastness of the past, and a certain appropriation of literariness. Without seeking to be normative or systematic, this article focuses on some specific features of the historical classic, offering a series of reflections to open rather than try to close a debate on this complex topic. (shrink)