Discourse Of Truth Research Articles

The paradoxical victim: Intimate violence narratives on trial in Italy

ABSTRACTVictims’ testimony plays a pivotal role in domestic violence hearings in Italy. In examining this role, I approach the Italian legal field as a heterogeneous system of knowledge and power that engages in complex relations with techniques of subjection and discourses of truth and, thus, as eminently suited to investigating the production of the victim‐subject. Paradoxically, the testimony of female victims of abuse is trapped between the normativity of justice system requirements and the confessional device, rendering it legally insignificant and thus essentially inadequate. In this context, the women's credibility and agency are central. I outline one legal case in which race and class intersect and the required modes of testimony are disrupted through the use of communication styles drawn from popular culture.

Matteo Ricci’s Accommodationism as the Model of Interfaith Dialogue ― Dialogue between Confucianism/Buddhism/Taoism and Christianity as Represented in Tianzhu Shiyi(The True Discourse of the Lord of Heaven)

Matteo Ricci’s Accommodationism as the Model of Interfaith Dialogue ― Dialogue between Confucianism/Buddhism/Taoism and Christianity as Represented in Tianzhu Shiyi(The True Discourse of the Lord of Heaven)

Excertos sobre o sedentarismo

Sedentary lifestyle has been treated as something perfectly measurable, and, therefore, that can be learned. On the other hand, the concept of sedentary lifestyle still remains questionable and, consequently, the tools for assessing it proved inconsistent. In this sense, the purpose of this study was to show that different discourses of truth have been supporting this concept, what motivates us to think what is true or even if there is any truth about it. After presenting different possibilities to understand sedentary lifestyle, through the use of aphorisms, we understand that electing a discourse as truth may just mean that people believe it that there is a will for truth as a will toward power.

Reforming teacher education in England: ‘an economy of discourses of truth’

This paper is an attempt to think aloud about the current policy proposals in circulation in England that address pre-service teacher education. Rather than dealing with details of policy and points of specificity in practice, the focus of this paper is with how propositions are justified and the overall ways in which meanings are being managed; a fundamental aspect of policy analysis.

Appeal to Tradition. Celsus on Jews, Christians, and the Roman Empire

In his True Discourse, Celsus characterizes Judaism and Christianity as religions that are born out of opposition to another religious tradition. But if for Celsus Judaism has recovered some elements of the ancient religions, notably their ethnic dimension and attachment to tradition, Christianity is still a revolutionary religion: the Christians enact a separation, a rupture with the social and political order, while their God is responsible for a stasis in the cosmic order. Celsus was the first to establish a relation between “polytheism” and the Roman Empire as a response to the political threat and the potential for subversion of Christian “monotheism”. It is the unique God of the Jews and the Christians who compels the pagan intellectual to reflect on the plurality of his gods and to utilize that plurality to justify the political order.

Biodiversity, Purity, and Death: Conservation Biology as Biopolitics

This paper draws on the Foucauldian notion of biopower to renarrate the development of conservation science in the US as a form of liberal biopolitical rule. With its emphasis on making nature live, conservation marks a shift away from a sovereign form of rule that emphasized subduing and controlling nature; today, nature is ruled not by the sword but by science. Through a discussion of key concepts in conservation biology—populations in crisis; evolution and its future orientation; extinction as death that is necessary for life; and diversity as purity—we illustrate the truth discourses, underlying logics, and calculative technologies by which distinctions within nonhuman life are made and made meaningful. We argue that conservation is biopolitical not just in that it moves from controlling individuals to statistically managing populations and species, but also in that it extends the racialized logic of abnormality in its core notions of biological diversity and purity. In the logics of conservation and race, life produces diversity, conceived as variety of biological kinds; within that diversity exist kinds that foster ongoing life, which should be maximized, and kinds that are threats, which should be let die in the name of life in general.

Something from Nothing:

The relentless negations in these lines—denials of action, thought, being, and feeling—emphasize the narrator’s lack of productive intellectual or social influence and his emotional void. Yet “nothing” takes on an allegorical force as it “cometh or gooth” and as the narrator describes his “felyng in nothyng.” This allegory illogically suggests that the Dreamer finds something—a feeling—in nothing, a paradoxical notion that anticipates a deep

‘For They are Naturally Born’: Quandaries of Racial Representation in George Best's A True Discourse

George Best employs racial rhetoric in his exploration narrative to contemplate and order human difference. This essay examines the ways in which that racial rhetoric, informed by prior English understandings of sub-Saharan Africa, disrupts the narrative as Best grapples with cosmographical quandaries, not the least of which is how and where American indigenous groups fit into a larger world order. Close reading of the textual and rhetorical features of Best's narrative reveals the manner in which black Africans function as an essential but problematic mediating presence through which Best contemplates cultural differences, in particular the features of the Inuit, and attempts to reconcile moments of cognitive dissonance in which his expectations do not align with his experiences. Ultimately, the narrative suggests larger questions about how racial discourse and stereotypes about West Africa affected Englishmen's encounters with and representations of Native peoples in early Atlantic contact zones.

“Clo’es could do de like o’ dat”: Race, Place, and Power in Mark Twain’s The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson

Michel Foucault teaches us in The Order of Things (1966) that principle of resemblance guided premodern systems of knowledge and organization. He writes: Up to end of sixteenth century, resemblance played a constructive role in knowledge of Western culture. It was resemblance that largely guided exegesis and interpretation of texts; it was resemblance that organized play of symbols, made possible knowledge of things visible and invisible, and controlled art of representing them. ... And representation--whether in service of pleasure or of knowledge--was posited as a form of repetition: theatre of life or mirror of nature, that was claim made by all language, its manner of declaring its existence and of formulating its right of speech. (17) Premodern western society relied on resemblance to structure and create discourses of knowledge and truth, providing order to vast realm of what was known to be true. This old order, according to Foucault, started to break down when knowledge took up residence in a new space in which identity was no longer based on visibility and similitude but on the relation between elements (a relation in which visibility no longer plays a role) and of functions they perform (218). Modern identity and social ordering began to depend on functions and internal structures of individuals rather than mere similarities between them. Mark Twain's The Tragedy of Wilson (1894) maps a similar transition from an old order of similitude and appearance based on genealogy to one of internal function based on biology. In Wilson, Twain's characters must move beyond visible surface in a power structure based on fluid notions of appearance and behavior to resituate power within individual biological difference. Dawson's Landing, antebellum Missouri town in which novel takes place, operates under an older power regime that becomes disrupted when miscegenation threatens to undermine social order and appearance and behavior are no longer sufficient designating race because system is now openly about biology and body. Thus, either social order must change, or new strategies must arise to maintain old one. The strategic maneuvering by which these changes take place relies on a specific understanding of social relationship between racism and geography. The novel's thematic tension surrounding blurring of racial divisions mirrors a similar anxiety about blurring of social and cultural boundaries separating Dawson's Landing from outside. Twain positions Dawson's Landing as an antiquated river town populated by residents who quickly dismiss more cosmopolitan outsiders. By end of novel, these two parallel tensions--between racial purity and miscegenation and between insider traditions and outsider influences-intersect as a cosmopolitan outsider solves racial confusion resulting from miscegenation. Wilson has two central conflicts. The first conflict lies largely at level of plot and informs second. The novel's main plot involves Tom Driscoll, born a slave named Valet de Chambers to his mother, Roxy, who switches him at birth with her master's son. Roxy's ruse succeeds because, due to a long history Of miscegenation, she and Tom look white. Tom grows up believing he is a white aristocrat, mistreats his slaves, and pays off gambling debts by disguising himself in drag to rob homes. When Judge Driscoll, his guardian, catches him trying to steal money, Tom stabs him with a knife he has stolen from Luigi and Angelo Capello, two Italian twins with aristocratic ties who recently moved to Dawson's Landing. This plot conflict lies in whether or not David Pudd'nhead Wilson, an East Coast-educated lawyer from New York, will discover real murderer and reveal switching of babies. Thematically, novel's conflict lies less with Tom than it does with manipulations and machinations of power strategies by Roxy and Wilson. …

Good libraries are expensive libraries?

PurposeThe ideas surrounding which institutional attributes make for good libraries vary radically based on patron review, professional association rankings, size of overall collections, and other measures. The purpose of this article is to provide insight into argumentation for establishing how libraries gain the compliment of “good” in an increasingly digital age.Design/methodology/approachAn analysis of the general effect digital content available on the internet has on the mind of the consumer frames the debate on how libraries can be seen as both relevant and good for their communities despite being expensive.FindingsLibrary leaders always need to advocate for their services and collections, but it is only through true reflective discourse with key stakeholders and governing bodies that enlightenment on the key advantages of libraries can be found.Originality/valueLibrary popularity and use rises and falls solely based on the conscious user evaluation of collections and services. Focusing this consciousness away from the myth that all material of worth is digital and available online is the key to helping users and governing bodies understand that investments in library infrastructure, technology and (most importantly) raw collections is what makes libraries good for all.

Questão fundiária: posse tradicional versus propriedade da terra entre Brasil e Cabo Verde

This paper intends to analyze the social processes which enabled the ascension of slaves descendants as land owners in post-colonial contexts. The debate raised intends to discuss the relations that produce truth discourses, in which the old leasers (Cape Verde) and quilombolas (Brazil) do not easily constitute themselves as land owners. The state of emergency theories understand these phenomena of political oscillation as a peculiar way of safeguarding the public security in an arbitrary paradigm of government. Thus, we will present claims that show land insecurity in these two countries in the complex framework of the state of the emergency that mix ethnic and political elements. We will present two rural universes: São Salvador do Mundo (Cape Verde) and Canguçu (Brazil). The first one faced hard territorial struggles between morgados and leasers, undergoing the agrarian reform project and currently is under the owning of small proprietaries. The second one experienced various historical changes related to the south land issue, besides concentrating, in its territorial space, a large number of slave workers. Additionally, the two localities offer dense ethnographic materials to work the theoretical issue of “land-security”.Key words: land ownership, state of exception, race.

‘Brazyl Unyverzal’: The Aesthetics and Ethics of Glauber Rocha’s Late Films

In his ‘Kynoperzpektyva 81’ manifesto Glauber Rocha divides up his films by theme; he lists two of his last films, and , under the heading ‘Brazyl Unyverzal’. In his final projects Rocha intensifies his already renowned undermining of representational mimesis in order to disfigure images and disarticulate discourses of nation and truth. By forcing the disfigurement of normative identities and values, Rocha seeks to produce ethical moments: he interrupts both the lives of those caught up in his film events and the audiences who ‘endure’ the results, acting upon perceptual and interpretative habits, inviting us to consider how these habits mediate our interactions with others. This article also refers to Rocha’s work for TV Tupi’s Abertura programme in 1979, an emblem of Brazil’s return to democracy; it examines his use of affection-images, extended sequence shots, and the architecture of Brasília as key to the radicalization of his aesthetics, politics, and ethics. The article concludes by examining presentational authenticity and futurity in these final works.

Logical truth in modal languages: reply to Nelson and Zalta

Does general validity or real world validity better represent the intuitive notion of logical truth for sentential modal languages with an actuality connective? In (Philosophical Studies 130:436–459, 2006) I argued in favor of general validity, and I criticized the arguments of Zalta (Journal of Philosophy 85:57–74, 1988) for real world validity. But in Nelson and Zalta (Philosophical Studies 157:153–162, 2012) Michael Nelson and Edward Zalta criticize my arguments and claim to have established the superiority of real world validity. Section 1 of the present paper introduces the problem and sets out the basic issues. In Sect. 2 I consider three of Nelson and Zalta’s arguments and find all of them deficient. In Sect. 3 I note that Nelson and Zalta direct much of their criticism at a phrase (‘true at a world from the point of view of some distinct world as actual’) I used only inessentially in Hanson (Philosophical Studies 130:436–459, 2006), and that their account of the philosophical foundations of modal semantics leaves them ill equipped to account for the plausibility of modal logics weaker than S5. Along the way I make several general suggestions for ways in which philosophical discussions of logical matters–especially, but not limited to, discussions of truth and logical truth for languages containing modal and indexical terms–might be facilitated and made more productive.

Between the Local and the Global: Chronicles for Understanding the Field of Sexology in Mexico

ABSTRACT This article examines the emergence, institutionalization, and configuration of sexology in Mexico. We conducted a qualitative study that included interviews with nine key actors, participant observation at relevant events, and a review of relevant documents specific to the field. The data collected indicate that the sexological field in Mexico participates intensely in processes and discourses in a dynamic that follows global strategies. The article covers several decades and reviews contextual factors involved in the configuration of Mexican sexology. The information presented here allows us to think about the relationship between local and global processes in the sexological field. Characterizing and analyzing this relationship is fundamental to understanding specific mechanisms, which have permitted sexology to legitimate itself as a discourse of truth on sex.

A New Essay About Lying: A Response to Alexandre Koyré

There is a tendency to assume that, under certain circumstances, lying is morally justifiable. There are numerous logical and philosophical arguments, which claim to have objective validity, point out that a world where only truth exists would be unbearable. This brings, as a necessary consequence, the relativization of the importance of truth and its function of being the pillar mode of the moral principle of honesty, turning truthful discourse into a tool, as usable as lying for pragmatic matters that are sometimes disguised as moral. Frankly in disagreement with such positions, this essay aims to present a detailed counter argument, claiming that lying is always immoral.

BEYOND EPISTEMOLOGICAL RELIGIOUS TRUTH A REFLECTION OF THE OTHER OUTSIDE “TRUE-FALSE” CATEGORY

The aim of this paper is to investigate the problematic and dynamic of ‘religious truth’, put into the context of religious freedom in today’s Indonesia. Generally speaking, the dominant discourse of religious truth in Indonesia is heavily determined by epistemological knowledge and understanding. In everyday language, through which this knowledge is produced and distributed, some epistemological categories, such as ‘deviant-believer’, ‘true- false’, and even ‘blasphemy’- are commonly applied. Here, in the problem lies these categorizations might open up possibility for the xation of ‘truth’, which in turn, inclines to subordinate what generically refer to as ‘the other’Seeking an alternative, this paper attemptsto develop more favorable and inclusive religious understanding, which indebted to the mode of existential religious understanding including linguistic model of translation. Employing Ricouerian’s hermeneutics, this mode of existential understanding offers valuable critique to the monopoly and orthodoxy of religious truth. Moving further, it promotes the others as an interpretative horizon and a ‘circling way’, through which we enrich our religious understanding, as well as self-understanding.

Public opinion, risk to reputation: The essentials of societal corporate governance?

Research Question/Issue: This paper will examine the role of reputation regarding corporate governance in terms of performance, risk control and the possible role of legislature or behaviors in this field (in particular with regards to the recent Green Paper “Companies in the EU: a management of governance”, COM (2011) 164 final, of the 5th April 2011, of the European Commission). Research Findings/Insights: Image, reputation, positive or negative opinion, notoriety of the companies and their managers are regarded as an element of their performance. It is accepted that public opinion, inherently linked to the reputation risk is an essential element of corporate governance. Regarding the need of a long term matter, particularly after the financial crisis, a short period of time is enough to transform a positive public opinion into a negative one. In addition, the assessment of public opinion is complex. Everyone can freely form an “opinion”. The opinion may be private and public. Public opinion refers to society, to citizens and to the people. Its classic means of expression are freedom of the press and freedom of speech. This question is particularly crucial regarding the role of the companies to the “society” as recently defined by the Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the committee of the Regions, A renewed EU strategy 2011-14 for Corporate Social Responsibility, the European Commission and the European Parliament (Brussels, 25.10.2011) COM (2011) 681 final). Theoretical/Academic Implications: How to manage good corporate governance reputation ?As from 1979, the Anglo-Saxon doctrine has acutely highlighted the role of reputation risk regarding corporate governance but what is the situation within the EU? Has legislature, in Europe (and for example, in France), sufficiently acknowledged the concept of reputation risk control? – A long term period seems necessary for efficient corporate governance. Yet, CSR has given an additional power to social and environmental information which may, because it affects a more important spectrum (stakeholders…), cause a more important prejudice, whereas CRS is an "integral part" of corporate governance. Thus, in France, as pointed out in recital 10 of the policy 2006/46/CE but above all, as pointed out in article 53 of the said Grenelle 1 law (n° 2009-967 of the 3rd August 2009), “the quality of information regarding the way in which companies consider the social and environmental consequences of their activity and the access to this information constitutes essential conditions of good corporate governance”. The SRI funds also attempt to control the factors of reputation risk. Practitioner/Policy Implications: The multiple vehicles of public opinion regarding corporate governance : in fact, CSR, largely consisting in the “reporting” of social and environmental values therefore on “societal communication”, which potentially contains so many possible public opinions to be expressed, may be “additions” to individual opinions. CSR rests on a true discourse which seems, to certain authors, removed from reality: “the reports on corporate social responsibility, summary document between the “say” and “do”, appear as a support of speech which, removed from the real situation, tends first and foremost, to show the “good faith” of organisations. Societal corporate e-governance with the aid of the internet further weakens the concept of societal reputation.

Sex, lies and thematising Irish

Thematising Irish in the media reflects the complex and contradictory sociolinguistic and language-ideological situation in Ireland. This article explores some of that complexity by investigating a thread on an online discussion forum on the subject of the first ever party leaders’ debate in Irish that took place during the 2011 general election in Ireland. In the discussion thread, three particular discourses emerge: a “discourse of truth” about Irish as lacking both authority as a national language and authenticity as a minority language of a recognizable ethnic group; a discourse of “them and us”; involving a differentiation between “Irish speakers” and “non-Irish speakers”, largely based on notions of competence; and, finally, a newly emerging discourse of “sexy Irish”, which signals a commodification of Irish speakers as young, beautiful and mediatisable. The features of the forum and the online, real-time evolution of the discussion thread impact in a number of ways upon these discourses and ideologies. However, despite the possibilities afforded by the forum, which are utilized by posters for performing Irish in different ways, these everyday practices are effectively erased and invalidated by the prevailing discourses, which rely strongly on the notion of bilingualism as parallel and discrete monolingualisms.

OS MESTRES E A ESCOLA: Relações de poder no campo educacional maranhense.

Este artigo de natureza histórica objetiva analisar as relações de poder ”“ sob a perspectivafoucaultina ”“ no espaço escolar público primário da capital maranhense, na primeira década do séculoXX. Nessa análise, o objeto de estudo foi a polêmica sobre os livros da Escola-Modelo Benedito Leite,principalmente, a cartilha Escripta rudimentar (1908), envolvendo Barbosa de Godóis, autor dacartilha e diretor das escolas Normal e Modelo, e Antônio Lobo, inspetor da Instrução pública, em1911. Como pano de fundo para a polêmica, evidencia-se a disputa por poder ”“ entendido comodiscurso verdadeiro ”“ no campo pedagógico, travada entre Lobo e Godóis por meio de seus discursosmaterializados no jornal Diário do Maranhão. Os discursos materializados nos artigos da polêmicapublicados no jornal Diário do Maranhão revelaram uma intensa disputa por poder no campopedagógico da capital maranhense, que tinha como objeto de desejo o discurso legá­timo.

Scholastic Persuasion in Thomas Usk’s Testament of Love

Because Usk was executed as a self-serving traitor, his biography has encouraged readings that blame the Testament of Love’s textual vagaries on its author’s ulterior motives which seem incongruous with his choice of the Boethian Consolatio genre. Broadening “Boethian” to include Boethius’s logical works, however, reveals that Usk based his textual strategies on long-standing and respectable conventions of logical plausibility dating back to Aristotle and Cicero and widely used throughout scholastic disputation. Using these logical “Topics” to validate the discussion between Love and the narrator, Usk seeks to transfer validity from the text’s arguments to himself, the author, and recuperate his character. In doing so, he develops a pioneering English philosophical vocabulary, similar to that of Langland and the Lollards. Identification of Usk’s logical strategies provides insight into Usk’s audience, education, and milieu, and suggests that Usk may be fruitfully considered according to contemporary fourteenth-century discourses of truth, public service, and vernacular philosophy.