Logical Articulation Research Articles

On the Untranslatable in Psychoanalysis

ABSTRACT The untranslatable refers to a language-based formation that escapes meaning. Structurally susceptible to being identified, the untranslatable raises the question of how it should be conveyed. In the field of psychoanalysis, this linguistic concept invites us to review certain fundamental aspects of practice and theory. From this point of view, the recurrence of translingualism in Freudian clinical cases indicates the untranslatable as an element of the formation of the symptom. A logical articulation also arises with the paternal function of transmission of the name and the prohibition of incest. The Lacanian notions of the letter, of the littoral and of non-specularity additionally provide a few interesting versions of the untranslatable. Exploration of these different theoretical aspects will enable us to demonstrate that sex and modalities of gender give the logical function of the untranslatable a subjective form. A few clinical and political reflections will be drawn from this latter observation.

Two-sided form, differentiation and second-order observation in Escher’s artworks and Calvino’s stories

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to find a leading idea of the mid-twentieth century, demonstrating the pervasive nature of some concepts belonging to second-order systems theory. To achieve this objective, the paper looks at the art and literature of this era, to identify the principles developed by Luhmann in his late works. In particular, Escher’s drawings, Calvino’s stories and Luhmann’s concepts seem to express, in different ways, the same functioning mechanism of the complex social system.Design/methodology/approachWith reference to theoretical approach and methodology, this paper carries out an interdisciplinary demonstration by alternative modes of logos and mythos. Some of the pillars of general systems theory are examined through the logical articulation of concepts developed by Spencer-Brown, von Foerster, and first of all through the late works of Luhmann, as well as through the analysis of Escher’s artworks and Calvino’s literary works. This paper interprets these artistic and literary works using cybernetic principles and systemic concepts, in particular, “two-sided forms,” “system–environment differentiation” and “second-order observation.”FindingsIn general, the main finding is the similarity of fascination with paradoxes and forms, with post-ontological reasoning, in twentieth century. The result of the cross-reading of Escher, Calvino and Luhmann reveals the presence of what Simmel called the “hidden king”: a philosophical paradigm of an era. In mid-1900s, this leading idea seems to express itself in the discoveries of biology and cybernetics, such as in Luhmann’s theory, art and literature. Escher’s drawings, Calvino’s stories and the concepts of Luhmann are projections of second-order system theory, in its constructivist value.Originality/valueThe originality of this paper lies mainly in the demonstration of theoretical concepts through the alternative modes of logos and mythos. These reflections can provide a new perspective to investigate social sciences from a cultural angle. This particular approach allows a deep awareness of the theory. The concrete value is to provide a better understanding to manage complexity.

How Much is an Image Worth?

The paper discusses the problem of “competition” between the image and the articulated language/text. The problem as such is historical and it reflects the change between the language based communication (including the radio era) and the mainly image based communication. Opposing to those who equate the image construction in the information and communication technology with the impoverishment of meanings and necessity and ability of logical/rational discourse, the arguments of these two positions are analysed. The paper mentions the difference between representation, image and idea, analyses some arguments related to the logical articulation of words in texts, and to the specific imagistic manner of communication, and concludes that the text and image are complimentary, and that their worth depends on the meanings they transmit and the quality of meanings/values they transmit. In this respect, the diminishing of preoccupations, of ability and time for logical articulation of the reference to the world means the decline of man. At the same time, the theory highlighted in the paper does not counter the “bad” image to the “good” text (and certainly, nor vice versa), but the measure in their use according to the scale of goals and means which people must have.

Adapted cost-benefit analysis methodology for innovative railway services

This paper reviews and adapts the methodology “Guide on the methodology for carrying out cost-benefit analysis” prepared by the European Commission (EC). It is specifically tailored to the assessment of an innovative rail freight service, and its application in the context of a number of potential service areas (principally pan European) in Europe. The SPECTRUM service is an innovative rail freight concept for the transport of low density high value (LDHV) goods. The methodology is primarily based on the “Guide to cost-benefit analysis of investment projects” of the European Commission. The cost definition takes input from a Life Cycle Cost analysis and applies a series of conversion factors. The benefits have been estimated considering the user’s surplus, i.e. the difference between Generalised Logistic Costs (GLC) borne by transport/logistics operators (and more in general freight transport service users) when using the SPECTRUM service and GLC connected to “pre-shift” mode, i.e. road or traditional rail; and the difference in external costs generated by freight transport activities connected to externalities such as air pollution and climate change, noise, accidents, and other externalities (up- and down-stream processes, nature and landscape, biodiversity losses, soil and water pollution, congestion). The adapted methodology has proven capable of representing the multiple effects resulting from the theoretical introduction of an innovative rail service in the freight transport sector - accounting for the differential impacts compared to the baseline scenario solutions. The logical articulation of the analysis is flexible; two specific estimation schemes (the estimation of ad hoc unit parameters for the external costs and ad hoc approach for using GLC as proxies of users’ surplus in a scenario where the introduction of the innovative service modifies the modal split of freight transport between different solutions) can be applied to other territorial contexts. It may also be used to evaluate other types of freight transport services, provided that some unit data can be retrieved, which pertain to site-specific cost of infrastructures, average speeds and rates of different transport solutions, costs of personnel and other operating costs.

El uso del argumento ontológico en la filosofía de Duns Scoto, Gottfried Leibniz y Gustavo Bueno / The Modal Ontological Argument in Duns Scoto, Gottfrieb Leibniz and Gustavo Bueno

This article shows that the modal ontological argument as proposed by Gottrieb Leibniz was very much anticipated in its logical articulation by John Duns Scotus in his work De Primo Principio. To this end, the author analyzes some of the various versions of the argument present in the philosophical thought of authors such as Scotus, Leibniz, Malcom and Plattinga, and demonstrates that those versions are based on the hidden premise of the possibility of the idea of God. In this respect, the Spanish philosopher Gustavo Bueno defends what he calls an “inverted ontological argument” which, if viable, would prove not so much the non-existence of God but that the idea of God does not exist itself.

Teoria da Ação Comunicativa (Habermas): estrutura, fundamentos e implicações do modelo

Este artigo não pretende analisar o conjunto da obra de Habermas. Trata-se de pensar exclusivamente a Teoria da Ação Comunicativa (TAC), primeiro, em relação aos teóricos em que afirma fundamentar-se, depois, no sentido da sua própria articulação lógica interna e, finalmente, em relação ao seu objeto de pesquisa, a realidade social. Procura demonstrar que a TAC executa dois giros conceituais essenciais: (a) um ao limitar o agir estratégico ao espaço da economia e da política e (b) outro ao definir cultura, sociabilidade e subjetividade como dimensões constituídas no mundo da vida.

Lógica para Modelos de Integração de conhecimentos para auxílio à decisão - plantios florestais ecológico-econômicos em zonas de recarga de aquíferos

Logic Models for Integration of Knowledge to Aid Decision - Ecologic and Economic Forest Plantations in Areas of Aquifer Recharge. The Agrarian and Environmental Geosciences imply integra- tion of several sciences and fields of knowledge in order to assist farming, forestry and animals' bringing. To integrate those sciences and knowledge into a model it is necessary to bring conservation practices not only to agronomical practices but at same time into geo-ecological administration of watersheds. The interconnection of those sciences demands organization of: (1) knowledge bases (2) a logical articulation system for these cog- nitive bases (3) logic models of natural processes and technology and (4) a prevision and control system of even- tual anthropic-derived impacts in underground water recharge zones, water circulation, water quality and terrain stability. For act of central challenge is internalization of the cross-cutting aspects of decision derived from various sciences, natural systems and security issues. Four geo-environmental questions are cen- tral to whole process of making, for proper integration of practical knowledge, which involves determination of the: (1) adequate parameters, (2) structural conditioning factors, (3) geodynamic factors, and (4) terrain/ecosystems susceptibility to anthropic interventions. The logical steps become thus evident for design of making supporting systems, which will deal with themes involving sensible areas in watershed.

Lógica para Modelos de Integração de conhecimentos para auxílio à decisão - plantios florestais ecológico-econômicos em zonas de recarga de aqüíferos

The Agrarian and Environmental Geosciences imply the integration of several sciences and fields of knowledge in order to assist farming, forestry and animals’ bringing. To integrate those sciences and knowledge into a model it is necessary to bring conservation practices not only to the agronomical practices but at the same time into geo-ecological administration of watersheds. The interconnection of those sciences demands the organization of: (1) knowledge bases (2) a logical articulation system for these cognitive bases (3) logic models of natural processes and technology and (4) a prevision and control system of eventual anthropic-derived impacts in underground water recharge zones, water circulation, water quality and terrain stability. For the act of decision the central challenge is the internalization of “the cross-cutting aspects of decision” derived from the various sciences, natural systems and security issues. Four geo-environmental questions are central to the whole process of decision making, for the proper integration of practical knowledge, which involves the determination of the: (1) adequate parameters, (2) structural conditioning factors, (3) geodynamic factors, and (4) terrain/ecosystems susceptibility to anthropic interventions. The logical steps become thus evident for the design of decision making supporting systems, which will deal with themes involving sensible areas in watershed.

Analisando as pesquisas em educação especial no Brasil

Nosso objetivo foi examinar a articulação lógica entre o problema e a proposição teórico-metodológica das produções na área da Educação Especial, focando os seus pressupostos epistemológicos. Nos fundamentamos nos pressupostos das tendências empírico-analítica, fenomenológica-hermenêutica, crítico-dialética e do paradigma da complexidade. O procedimento adotado foi interpretar todas as dissertações/teses produzidas nos Programas de Pós-Graduação em Educação e Educação Especial do Brasil, que versam sobre Educação Especial, produzidas nos anos de 2001, 2002 e 2003, disponíveis no banco de teses da CAPES. Encontramos as tendências empírica, fenomenológica e dialética. Os equívocos encontrados foram a não inserção da pesquisa entre as produções na área; ausência de criticidade; não posicionamento numa determinada concepção de educação; construção teórica fundamentada em concepções diferentes; falta de coerência nos pressupostos teórico-metodológicos; não explicitação metodológica; não descrição dos procedimentos éticos; e má elaboração dos resumos. Concluímos pela necessidade da melhoria das dissertações/teses para que possamos avançar na produção de conhecimento na área da Educação Especial.

Polanyi and Instructional Method in Music

Michael Polanyi drew much of the impetus for the formulation of his epistemology from an unpropitious state of affairs with which art educators are intimately familiar: a nagging suspicion (or, even more disturbing, an outright conviction) that facets of experience which defy logical articulation are less real or less important than the objective remainder. A corollary of reverence for things scientifically, explicitly, and systematically established is a pervasive skepticism regarding the validity or reliability of meanings which, for whatever reason, evade attempts to capture them propositionally, logically. Our world is thus radically dichotomized: on one side we encounter facts-indisputable knowledge generated by unwavering adherence to the scientific method; and on the other lie such ambiguous, evanescent, subjective meanings as those commonly attributed to aesthetic experiences-pleasant perhaps, interesting certainly, but hardly as significant as the meticulously scrutinized body of knowledge we hold to be objectively true. Educators in the arts know better than all this, of course. Or do we? We are quick to assert that the arts are basic to our students' development but often seem at a loss as to what form their contribution actually takes. Uneasy, we attempt to substantiate our endeavors by rendering them and the learnings they are to enhance more explicit: we defer to behavioral accounts of learning and instruction, compiling endless lists of competencies whose concreteness presumably testifies to their authenticity. This same reverence for the concrete and explicit disposes us to assign increasingly higher priority to specific technique rather than to abstract (and therefore more flexible) principle and to cram instructional time with a maximum of information-with facts-to the detriment of such indeterminate states as fascination or wonder or awe, which are so

El proceso de Velasco y la organización campesina

Evaluate the period of military reform unfolded in Peru between 1968 and 1975 is somewhat more complex and precise than just "characterize" the regime, as has been proposed by most of his critics on the left. This is not just about identifying the logical articulation of the social project bearing the Velasco government, beyond the laws or ideological discourse. This task includes additional necessarily hard work at the empirical level of analysis of results of observation of behavior and dynamic relationships. In short, we must move from contemplation of rigid models to follow a living social process, full of contradictions that manifest class interests, ideological projects and institutional behaviors relatively fluid. In this paper about what happened with the peasant organization in the context of a radical agrarian reform as implemented by the military reform, we have considered both the analysis of secondary legal model and the important game of the internal struggle of tendencies within the power.

Nelson goodman and the logical articulation of nominal compounds

Nelson Goodman claims to have given us a criterion for likeness of meaning that is more stringent than simple coextensiveness and yet that avoids the familiar extentionalist objections. The notion of a nominal compound plays a key role in his account. I show that Goodman's comments concerning this notion are inadequate, that his comments concerning expressions like ‘unicorn-picture’ are subject to two serious objections: (1) they don't support his claims about likeness of meaning (i.e., the claims that his criterion is more stringent than simple coextensiveness) and (2) they make English an unlearnable language.

Methodological implications for geography from the philosophy of K. R. Popper

Abstract In the scientific methodology of Karl Popper the following deductive sequence is stressed: initial problems, tentative solutions, error elimination, resultant problems. This sequence produces two difficulties, concerning the source of the initial problems and the criteria for testing the proposed solutions. Discussion of these problems is relevant to geography, where they have arisen as in any other science. Particularly relevant to geography is Popper's scheme of the “three worlds”: World 1, objective reality; World 2, subjective consciousness and appraisal; World 3, objective knowledge. Geographers study not merely World 1 but rather its logical articulation in World 3. Acceptance of such a scheme helps to reduce not only any supposed dichotomy between physical and human geography but also any supposed division between field workers and so‐called “armchair” geographers. The open‐ended approach of Poppsr's deductive sequence leads naturally to the problems of prediction and planning. The Popperi...

SOME PROPERTIES OF RELATIONSHIPS IN THE STRUCTURE OF INDEXING LANGUAGES

This discussion treats relational analysis as an alternative to the ‘categorical’ view of syntactic structures in indexing. It is suggested that the relational characterization of syntactic structures by reference to the meaning of the spaces between constituent terms may point the way to classification structures which are stable to new knowledge and discipline‐independent. Conversely the meaning‐protecting role of disciplinary domains has in the past relegated relational ideas to a peripheral significance in classification structures. General properties of syntactic strings, logical articulation, disarticulation, and linearization of branching relationships are discussed, together with the role of relational symbolism as noise in significant‐word based searches. Attention is next given to certain derivative relations which arise out of an inclusion relation between an isolated concept and the relation‐linked combination of which it forms a part. One class of these derivative relations is an explicit syntactic relation and its affiliation to other syntactic relations may throw light on the little understood nature and development of the content of personality facets.

The functionalist theory of stratification: Two decades of controversy

The author examines the 1945 and 1948 versions of the Davis‐Moore functionalist theory of stratification. The analysis explores the basic postulates, assumptions, and logical articulation of the theory and isolates its distinctively functionalist components. This is followed by a historical account of the major criticisms leveled at the theory. The critics have succeeded in showing the fallacious and tautologous character of the functionalist components, thus, in effect, destroying the theory as a theory. Despite this destruction, various portions of the Davis‐Moore theory are shown to be usable, to contain valuable insights, and to be capable of further development.