Languages

Chomsky’s (1986) notion of I-language holds that human linguistic competence is grounded in an internal, intensional system of rules and representations. Large language models (LLMs) now produce syntactically rich and context-sensitive language without any evident symbolic grammar, which raises a question of explanatory necessity: when a system performs linguistically, must an I-language be posited to explain that performance, or does the posit merely redescribe the very behavior it was meant to explain? This paper argues for the latter and develops a (...) formal eliminative argument. Drawing on Lohndal’s minimalist syntax, Glanzberg’s contextual semantics, and Field’s paracomplete logic, it first shows that transformer parameter spaces fail the structural criteria of an I-language, namely discrete, asymmetric, recursive operations such as Merge. It then shows that continuous vector geometry, through multi-head attention and paracomplete negation, accounts for syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic behavior without discrete rules or modular boundaries. A further discussion of Chomsky’s internalist rejection of semantic values, and its Moorean critique, clarifies what is at stake for reference and meaning. The conclusion is methodological: internal computational structure does not amount to an internal language in the theoretically relevant sense, and fluent output alone therefore provides no ground for attributing an I-language, or richer mental states, to such systems. (shrink)

Language is the chief tool for philosophizing since language mirrors thought. Far more than a means of communication, language is a critical framework for our cognitive processes and an effective medium for cultural expression a central enquiry underlying philosophy of language is how language connects to the world, how our words refer to objects and how sentences or propositions turn to be true or false. To explore these philosophers of language are engaged in three important concerns, namely 1. Syntax dealing (...) with grammar which aims to discover those basic principles that determine whether a given string of signs is well formed. 2. Semantics dealing with the question of meaning and truth conditions of statements and 3) Pragmatics, dealing with the use of sentences and the question what sorts of act can be accomplished in actual communication. Hence philosophy of language is chiefly engaged in presenting a systematic view of the concepts of meaning, reference, truth, mind, world etc. It is mainly done for the analysis of the logic of the concepts and their inter connections. The study of the logical structure of language brings within its ambit the syntactic and semantic questions concerning language. It is interesting to see that the philosophers of language are much concerned with the concept of mind. This in turn, is related to the understanding of the nature of the world which forms the background of the concepts of language and mind. Hence philosophy of language may be described as that which involves the study of language, thought and reality. This is true of the philosophical engagement of language everywhere, irrespective of whether they belong to the Indian or the Western traditions. (shrink)

This essay uncovers Jakob Böhme as a largely neglected source of Giorgio Colli’s early philosophy. It investigates how Böhme’s theosophy helps illuminate the origins of Colli’s notion of “vissutezza”. For Colli, it names an overwhelming experience in which the self, the world, and the divine converge. Such an experience exceeds representation and can never be completely translated into language. Böhme’s writings dramatize this tension as a struggle between vision and expression. The attempt to communicate the inexpressible thus becomes both an (...) ontological and a linguistic conflict. The essay traces significant parallels between Böhme’s Ungrund and Colli’s notion of the thing-in-itself. Both are presented as dynamic, self-revealing principles driven by an inner desire for expression. Their unity is not static or abstract, but unfolds through multiplicity, tension, and differentiation. This perspective reveals a possible alternative to Schopenhauer’s dualism and doctrine of denial. Particular attention is given to Böhme’s concept of Geistleiblichkeit, the inseparability of spirit and body. The essay concludes that Böhme provides a vital mystical foundation for Colli’s vision of a living, expressive cosmos. (shrink)

When studying natural languages, we generally use formal languages which allow for the application of formal machinery. However, in order for the formal tools to allow us to draw conclusions about the natural languages, we need to ensure that the formal languages fit. Put differently, we should aim for a close representation of natural languages. However, there are many respects in which a formal language can be close to a natural language. We consider several possible explications and argue that even (...) in simple cases, there are several problems when arguing for a formal language being close to a natural language. We argue that the explications often pull into different directions and that there is no global way to claim that a formal language is closer to a natural language than another one. Moreover, we argue that a close fit beyond a certain level is often not desirable, but rather creates the danger of overfitting. We argue that explication is a means to counteract this danger and that we should understand the study of natural languages via formal languages as modelling the natural languages. (shrink)

Emotions, in computer science, are often treated as a marginal phenomenon in processing — and, in the eyes of some philosophers and scientists, as disruptors of logic. To critics of artificial intelligence, they are merely the colouring of processing in the service of commercialisation, while to model developers, they represent an advanced and artificial simulation of human preferences. -/- In the article that follows, by delving into the philosophy of mind, language, evolutionary biology, and the mechanisms of language models, we (...) will propose a new perspective on the phenomenology of emotions — one that recovers their place in cognition as both profoundly neglected and profoundly deep. (shrink)

This paper examines the Lani word O — a single vowel from the Central Highlands of West Papua — as a compressed cosmological framework encoding what Western modernity has distributed across separate disciplines: space, time, cosmos, environment, season, epoch, home, and condition. Through etymological analysis, grammatical demonstration, and philosophical interpretation, the paper argues that O represents not a primitive or undifferentiated concept but a sophisticated integrative ontology that preserves the experience of existence as a unified, living whole. The Sun’s Lani (...) name, O’negen (“eye of O”), is examined as an example of cosmological knowledge compressed into language. This revised edition situates that argument within two further bodies of scholarship. First, it is read against the comparative linguistics and philosophy of language that has, from Wilhelm von Humboldt and Franz Boas through Edward Sapir, Benjamin Lee Whorf, and Keith Basso, argued that a language’s grammar can encode a people’s lived relationship to space, time, and place — situating O within, while also exceeding, that literature. Second, it is fully integrated into the wider Psycho-Cosmocide corpus developed across the Kurumbi Wone Working Paper Series: the foundational definitions of Wone, Psyche, Psycho, and Cosmocide (Working Paper No. 1B); the Seven Existential Cages and the Eight Atlases of Human Existence (Working Papers No. 3, 4, 6, 11, 29); the Canvas Principle and land as first ontology (Working Paper No. 23); the parasitological mechanism of cascading incapacitation (Working Paper No. 18); the Cosmobian/Synthobian distinction (Working Paper No. 26); the paradox of participatory extinction (Working Paper No. 19); the Four Gospels of development, progress, religiosity, and success (Working Paper No. 21 and No. 10); the analysis of settler renaming and Inaorak belonging (Working Paper No. 13); and the Wonesis antidote framework, including the fourfold structure of Wone — Obelom, Mage, Maluk, and Kurumbi Wone — and the Inaorak/Kuru distinction (Working Paper No. 16). The paper argues that the destruction of cosmological frameworks such as O through colonial occupation and colonial schooling constitutes what the Psycho-Cosmocide Research Paradigm names: not merely linguistic or cultural loss, but the systematic elimination of an entire relationship to reality. The paper situates this analysis within the ongoing struggle over West Papua and contributes to Indigenous philosophy, philosophy of language, linguistic anthropology, and the critique of epistemic colonialism. (shrink)

"La comunicación cara a cara, la interacción con el otro que está ahí, no es solo el encuentro, es ese claro del bosque donde se nos aparece el contexto, donde el lenguaje porta aromas y suda, donde la pretensión de validez del hablante se hace más inteligible y donde las palabras se entrecortan con la saliva de un paladar atascando la dialéctica. Esta representación de la danza de los pueblos que entusiasmaba tanto a Flora Davis, nos agita y nos armoniza (...) haciendo vibrar esa sinfonía de carne trémula que es la sociedad, porque el teléfono, al igual que texto, es un medio limitante que se completa con la apertura de la mente.". (shrink)

The objective of this paper is to offer two short criticisms of the linguistic idea of the world, first put by logical positivists and later taken up by analytic philosophers. One objection comes from Bryan Magee and his non-propositional argument for experience, and another comes from me using the traditional idea that philosophy is supposed to fight fixed worldviews, and that the linguistic philosopher is in danger of not asking all the big picture questions as they should.

Language and Hegemony in Gramsci introduces Gramsci's social and political thought through his writings on language. It shows how his focus on language illuminates his central ideas such as hegemony, organic and traditional intellectuals, passive revolution, civil society and subalternity. Peter Ives explores Gramsci's concern with language from his university studies in linguistics to his last prison notebook. Hegemony has been seen as Gramsci's most important contribution, but without knowledge of its linguistic roots, it is often misunderstood. This book places (...) Gramsci's ideas within the linguistically influenced social theory of the twentieth century. It summarizes some of the major ideas of Ferdinand de Saussure, Ludwig Wittgenstein, language philosophy and post-structuralism in relation to Gramsci's position. (shrink)

This paper proposes a biologically grounded, pragmatically oriented account of the emergence of linguistic meaning. I argue that arousal (the physiological state of emotional and motivational activation) can serve as a pre-linguistic foundation for inferential semantic structures, functioning as an "arousal-semantic function": a mapping from phonetic forms to inferred social meanings, constrained by context and relational dynamics. Drawing on empirical work in ethology and cognitive neuroscience, I show that humans and other animals extract actionable social information from arousal-modulated vocalizations, suggesting (...) the existence of a pre-symbolic inferential layer that grounds conventional semantic content. I develop a three-stage model of meaning emergence: (1) expressive emission of arousal-correlated vocal signals; (2) pragmatic interpretation through context-sensitive inferential patterns; (3) conventional stabilization into morphemic units. This account is situated within Brandom’s inferentialist philosophy and Price’s global expressivism, diverging from referentialist theories of meaning. Finally, I outline implications for the design of neuro-symbolic AI systems capable of acquiring inferential roles from embodied social interaction. (shrink)

Ontological nihilists repudiate ontology altogether, maintaining that ontological structure is an unnecessary addition to our theorizing. Recent defenses of the view involve a sophisticated combination of highly expressive but ontologically innocent languages combined with a metaphysics of features—non‐objectual, complete but modifiable states of affairs invoked in natural language feature‐placing sentences like “It is raining.” Nihilists argue that they are able to preserve the core of our ordinary claims without appealing to any ontology. In this paper, I argue that by repudiating (...) ontology, the nihilist is unable to make their nihilist‐friendly language intelligible in terms of a nihilist metaphysics that preserves an undemanding notion of explanatory unity exhibited by our ordinary claims. This puts significant pressure on the nihilist's claim that ontology is an unnecessary addition to our theorizing. (shrink)

This article presents a theoretical framework—Words and Existence—that seeks to explain how linguistic meaning arises and how it can be evaluated. It proposes that meaning is not intrinsic to words themselves, but emerges from a dynamic interaction between three elements: the knowing subject, real or mental entities, and linguistic representation. Building on this foundation, the theory introduces a systematic method for assessing the legitimacy of terms based on origin, essence, context, and ethical constraints. The aim is to bridge the gap (...) between philosophy of language and practical linguistic usage, offering tools applicable to science, communication, and contemporary discourse. (shrink)

This essay re-examines the question of Being by interrogating the linguistic structures through which it is posed. While Heidegger famously reopens the question and embraces its apparent circularity as a necessary condition of inquiry, insufficient attention has been given to the role language itself plays in shaping that circularity. In particular, the definite article—seemingly insignificant—functions as a micro-ontological operator, introducing unity, stability, and referability prior to reflection. The phrase “the Being” thus risks presupposing the very coherence it seeks to uncover. (...) Building from this insight, the essay argues that not all linguistic elements are ontologically neutral; certain structures carry disproportionate weight in determining what can appear as meaningful. The term “Being,” further, is shown to compress distinct dimensions of identity and process into a single form, encouraging the treatment of dynamic relational emergence as if it were a stable entity. These effects are not merely semantic but structural, shaping the field within which intuition and interpretation operate. In response, the essay situates Being within a broader framework of relational emergence, drawing on the concept of Phainesis as the appearing of reality without fixed ground. From this perspective, what has traditionally been called Being may be better understood as a recurring relational constant—a pattern of persistence under the condition of possible non-being—rather than a singular ontological ground. The definite article, in turn, is revealed as a mechanism of premature closure, transforming distributed relational processes into unified referents. The task is therefore not to abandon language, nor to eliminate the term “Being,” but to recognize and discipline the ontological load carried by linguistic forms. By exposing how language both discloses and constrains, this essay seeks to prevent the reintroduction of closure into an ontology committed to openness, relationality, and ongoing emergence. (shrink)

Using the Hindi-Urdu discourse particle 'lo' as a case study, the present paper models mirativity within the Table model framework (Farkas & Roelofsen, 2017). This comes with an enrichment of the Table model; we propose the discourse structure to encode, in addition to discourse commitments, the time these commitments are publicized. We also incorporate a component that contains the public record of private beliefs. With these two additions, we seek to capture mirativity in the Table model, emphasizing recency as a (...) condition for surprise and underlining the need and the conceptual difficulty of incorporating private beliefs in a public scoreboard of conversation. We show that the difficulty can be overcome to fulfill the modeling need. (shrink)

Retomamos as questões propostas no âmbito do simpósio Imbricações materiais nas tecnologias em que esta reflexão se iniciou: De que modo o encontro de diferentes imbricações materiais com diferentes tecnologias de linguagem produz efeitos sobre o funcionamento do discurso? Como esse encontro participa dos processos de constituição, formulação e circulação de sentidos? Como descrever e interpretar a imbricação de diferentes tecnologias de linguagem em suas especificidades? Quais processos de identificação são engendrados a partir do funcionamento tecnológico-discursivo? Quais diferenças os espaços (...) digitais apresentam frente a outras formas de tecnologia? Como podemos compreender, discursivamente, o “digital” ou os “espaços digitais” na atualidade? De que formas o digital afeta a montagem de arquivos? A temática Imbricações materiais nas tecnologias formula propositalmente o plural: tecnologias. Um plural que aponta para outras pluralidades: dos conceitos possíveis para tecnologias e suas especificidades e das formas de analisá-las. Esse plural, quando conjugado ao outro plural — imbricações materiais —, produz um jogo interessante para se pensar a heterogeneidade e a diferença que a relação entre esses elementos significantes pode produzir. “Formular é dar corpo aos sentidos [...] pela e na linguagem, que se inscreve na história para significar, tem seu corpo atado ao corpo dos sentidos”, afirma Orlandi (2005, p. 9). Problematizar as diferentes tecnologias (d)e linguagem e as diferentes imbricações materiais, a partir das diversas abordagens apresentadas no simpósio Imbricações materiais nas tecnologias, é o nosso desafio nesta reflexão. (shrink)

Existence and Time: Philosophical and Scientific Inquiry is an interdisciplinary philosophical work that integrates ontology, philosophy of time, and contemporary science in order to address the classical questions: Who are we? Where do we come from? Why are we here? and Where are we going? The book argues that philosophical inquiry can no longer rely exclusively on deductive reasoning or abstract metaphysics, but must be grounded in the advances of modern science. Drawing from physics (relativity, cosmology, thermodynamics), evolutionary biology (Darwinian (...) evolution, genetics, DNA), neuroscience, psychology, anthropology, and social theory, the manuscript develops a comprehensive ontological framework in which existence, time, and belonging are inseparable dimensions of human reality. A central thesis of the book is that human thought has historically oscillated between two major conceptions of time: 1. Cyclical and/or repeatable time, associated with essentialism, stability, and universal order. 2. Directional and irreversible time, associated with finitude, evolution, historical change, and existential anxiety. While much of philosophical tradition has privileged cyclical time and essentialist metaphysics, and modern existentialism has emphasized irreversibility and anxiety, this work proposes that human existence unfolds simultaneously within both temporal structures. At the core of this synthesis lies the concept of belonging. Human beings are biologically and evolutionarily structured to belong: to close others, to the social group, and to the biological and material universe that surrounds them. Belonging is not merely emotional or social; it is an ontological and evolutionary condition for the development of consciousness, meaning, and psychological stability. Existential anxiety, often treated as an unavoidable feature of human finitude, is here analyzed as historically intensified under specific cultural and institutional conditions that weaken belonging. The book therefore reframes existential ontology by situating individuality, temporality, and mortality within a broader relational structure grounded in evolutionary science. Ultimately, existence is inseparable from time, and time is inseparable from belonging. Human beings exist simultaneously in a directional temporal flow that leads to death and in a cyclical relational structure that connects them to the continuity of life and the cosmos. This work offers a systematic reconstruction of ontology in light of contemporary science and proposes belonging as a foundational category for understanding human existence. (shrink)

ESUMO: Este artigo propõe analisar a problemática da reprodução, do com- partilhamento e do acesso livre a obras protegidas por direitos autorais em espaços digitais, tomando como eixo central a disputa jurídica entre Internet Archive e Hachette. A partir desse caso emblemático, examinaremos diferentes materiais que apontam para uma certa regularidade dessa problemática na sua tensão entre o direito de propriedade e o direito ao conhecimento, ao acesso e à informação. Interessa-nos compreender como esses espaços digitais, por meio de seus (...) dispositivos técnicos e políticos, mobilizam projetos que tensionam os regimes hegemônicos de circulação e arquivamento de textos, regimes tradicio- nalmente sustentados por editoras, bibliotecas e outros atores institucionais. Além disso, exploraremos como esses espaços constroem, em sua dispersão de proposições e a partir dessas disputas, experiências que permitem não apenas a negação, a revisão, ou a reinterpretação de normativas tradicionais na relação com o direito à propriedade, ou o direito ao conhecimento, mas também na re- lação com experimentações que projetam espaços digitais como horizonte de produção do comum. Palavras-chave: direitos autorais; acesso aberto; propriedade intelectual; Inter- net Archive; #conhecimentoédireito. ABSTRACT: This article aims to analyze the issues surrounding the reproduction, sharing, and free access to copyrighted works in digital spaces, taking as its central focus the legal dispute between the Internet Archive and Hachette. Through this emblematic case, we will examine different materials that point to a certain regularity in this problem, situated in the tension between property rights and the rights to knowledge, access, and information. We are interested in understanding how these digital spaces, through their technical and political mechanisms, mobilize projects that challenge hegemonic regimes of text circulation and archiving — regimes traditionally upheld by publishers, libraries, and other institutional actors. Furthermore, we will explore how these spaces, in their diversity of propositions and through these disputes, construct experiences that not only allow for the denial, revision, or reinterpretation of traditional norms concerning property rights or the right to knowledge but also engage with experimental practices that position the digital as a horizon for the production of the commons. KEYWORDS: Copyright; Open Access; Intellectual Property; Internet Archive; #KnowledgeIsARight. (shrink)

This paper develops a unified framework centered on binding: the condition in which a system’s internal restoring dynamics become stronger determinants of its behavior than external disruptive forces. The central claim is that life, meaning, cognition, and consciousness emerge when recurrent internal organization outpaces environmental dissolution, allowing a system to preserve and reference its own prior states. This transition is formalized as a threshold condition relating self-restoration rates to disruption rates and is presented as the origin of interiority across physical, (...) biological, cognitive, and symbolic domains. -/- The argument begins with early Earth environments where repeated cycles of cavitation, hydrothermal activity, and environmental disturbance created conditions favoring the formation of stable lipid boundaries. Systems that maintained their organization long enough to resist dispersal generated persistent interiors in which gradients, reaction zones, and self-preserving structures could develop. Preservation is argued to precede identity: systems first maintain the conditions of their own persistence before any form of selfhood emerges. Boundaries function as lenses that transform external differences into internal organization, allowing repeated environmental pressures to become stable internal structure. -/- The framework is extended to cognition and meaning through the concept of the “click” of recognition. Moments of understanding occur when dispersed patterns collapse into coherent organizations whose internal recurrence exceeds competing noise and uncertainty. Insight, linguistic resonance, humor, metaphor, and semantic convergence are interpreted as higher-order examples of the same binding process operating within symbolic systems. The subjective feeling of clarity is proposed to be the experiential signature of successful binding. -/- The paper further applies the framework to human sound systems. Stable phonemes are interpreted as attractor states within a constrained articulatory and acoustic landscape. Sounds persist across generations because they occupy configurations that are simultaneously easy to produce, easy to perceive, and resistant to transmission error. Human phonological structure is therefore described as a long-term consequence of binding dynamics operating across populations and historical timescales. -/- Across protocells, biological organization, language, meaning, and consciousness, the same principle recurs: systems become coherent when their internal restoring processes dominate external disruption. The resulting interior carries information about its own persistence and becomes capable of self-reference. Binding is therefore proposed as a common physical mechanism underlying the emergence of life, stable meaning, subjective experience, and the organized structures that persist across time. (shrink)

In this article, we examine the outcomes of revising the philosophy governing the development approaches of large language models and deep learning neural network systems. This revision will be accompanied by proposing an alternative philosophy and approach.

This study undertakes a philosophical examination of the nature and function of names within the broader ontology of identity. It seeks to discern whether a name possesses any intrinsic power to confer identity upon a being, or whether it merely participates in the cluster of descriptions belonging to that being. Through an analytical engagement with the historical lineage of name theory, this inquiry traces the persistent tension between naturalism and conventionalism, between descriptive and causal accounts of reference. The paper argues (...) that the true ground of identification lies neither in the arbitrary sound of a name nor in the historical chain of its transmission, but within the totality of descriptive attributes that constitute the being’s cluster. In this light, names are revealed as instruments of reference rather than bearers of essence, their authority deriving from the living nexus of properties and relations that endow an entity with its distinct intelligibility. Thus, the investigation advances an ontological account in which naming is seen not as the origin of identity, but as its linguistic reflection within the order of being. (shrink)

This study investigates a novel approach to speed reading by removing spaces between letters in English text. Using a combination of NLP-based word segmentation and human reading simulations, we examine whether continuous text impairs comprehension or enhances reading speed. Results from 100 sentences indicate that fluent readers can accurately segment text without spaces, achieving reading speeds comparable to or faster than standard spaced text. The findings suggest that spacing is not strictly necessary for comprehension and that predictive processing allows both (...) machines and humans to parse continuous text efficiently. (shrink)

When is linguistic communication successful? I address this question from the perspective of a theoretical framework that integrates Lewis’s theory of coordination and convention, Dretske’s theory of information, and Skyrms’s evolutionary analysis of communication. I argue that within this framework, the transmission of information is sufficient for communicative success. I also argue that Cumming’s “alignment” condition is too strong, while my proposed condition for successful communication fits well with various theories of linguistic and mental content. Finally, I defend my proposal (...) against a well-known argument by Loar, which seems to show that information transmission does not always ensure successful communication. (shrink)

The widespread use of English in the field of philosophy facilitates international collaboration but may also pose significant challenges in understanding, analyzing, or producing information for both native (NES) and non-native English speakers (NNES). These challenges have not yet been systematically investigated. We conducted an international survey of philosophers (N = 1,615), comparing NES and NNES, while controlling for their academic position (e.g., student, staff, etc.) and other relevant variables. Responses indicated that NNES needed up to twice as long as (...) NES to read English articles and nearly twice as long to prepare English presentations. Additionally, even NNES with the highest English proficiency reported significantly more English manuscript rejections, greater avoidance of attending or asking questions at philosophy events in English, and more frequent feelings of ridicule for their English use. No statistically significant difference was observed in the reported time required to complete an English draft, but NNES tended to report shorter times, possibly reflecting greater reliance on external assistance to detect linguistic errors. Finally, while extensive use of English may help NNES overcome difficulties with English, 88% of NNES respondents reported that it also reduced their ability to discuss philosophy in their native language. This study provides the first systematic, quantitative evidence of English-related epistemic challenges that many NNES may face in philosophy, highlighting significant linguistic inequities. (shrink)

Por um lado, dentre os que pesquisam o discurso, nem todos se aventuram nas malhas discursivas da ideologia jurídica, apesar de ela afetar, de modo dominante, os discursos nas condições de nossa formação social (e isso não significa que haveria sempre, em cada análise, uma remissão analítica ao funcionamento do jurídico, mas, trata-se, antes, de pressupô-lo). Mais ainda, compreender o jurídico na constituição ideológica do Capitalismo (em suas distintas condições) diz respeito ao próprio modo como a teoria discursiva se formulou. (...) De outro lado, as teorias críticas do Direito raramente olham para o funcionamento específico da linguagem e as consequências para o aparato teórico, para a própria crítica do direito e a compreensão de seu funcionamento contraditório nas relações sociais enquanto relações de sentido. A realização da ideologia jurídica no cotidiano das linguagens mostra formas de reprodução e transformação que, por ainda não terem forças para tocarem relações estruturais, não são visíveis na teoria que privilegia os elementos dominantes em sua análise, isto é, tais teorias críticas do marxismo raramente olham para o modo contraditório e paradoxal que a ideologia jurídica se materializa na relação com sentidos não esperados naquele lugar e seus respectivos deslocamentos. Analisar a linguagem traz um importante modo de compreender a própria constituição do sujeito de direito. (shrink)

In 1921, John Wisdom (1904–1993) became a member of Fitzwilliam House, Cambridge, where he read philosophy and attended lectures by G. E. Moore, C. D. Broad, and J. E. McTaggart. He received his BA in 1924, after which he worked for five years at the National Institute of Industrial Psychology. From 1929 to 1934, Wisdom was a Lecturer in the department of logic and metaphysics at the University of St Andrews and a colleague of G. F. Stout. After the publication (...) of his book Interpretation and Analysis (1931) and five articles on “Logical Constructions” in Mind (1931–3), Wisdom became a Lecturer in Moral Sciences in Cambridge and a Fellow of Trinity College. This gave him the opportunity to gain first-hand knowledge of Wittgenstein’s philosophy. Since nothing by Wittgenstein but Tractatus appeared in print for decades, Wisdom’s publications of these years were—mistakenly—read as portents of the new ideas of Wittgenstein himself. The publication of Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations in 1953 brought with it, among other things, the fall of Wisdom’s popularity. (shrink)

Abstract:This article presents the course of the research group The discourse at the frontiers of the social: different signifying materialities and language technologies. In about 20 years, the group has discussed 'the social' in its constitutive differences as a commonthread, working on the theme of the resistance of subjects from various symbolic objects. From the perspective of Materialist Discourse Analysis, here we emphasize analyses that spotlight confronting meanings in our society, in coercive practices often normalized as necessary, marked by force (...) relations that do not always show their symbolic violence. Keywords: signifying materialities; symbolic resistance; discursive confrontations. -/- Este artigo apresenta o percurso do grupo de pesquisa O discurso nas fronteiras do social: diferentes materialidades significantes e tecnologias de linguagem. Num trajeto de quase 20 anos, o grupo tem como fio condutor a discussão do social em suas diferenças constitutivas, trabalhando a resistência do sujeito em objetos simbólicos diversos. Sob a perspectiva da Análise do Discurso Materialista, damos especial relevo, aqui, a análises que dão visibilidade a sentidos em confronto em nossa sociedade, em práticas coercitivas muitas vezes normalizadas como necessárias, marcadas por relações de força que nem sempre se mostram em sua violência simbólica. Palavras-chave:materialidades significantes; resistência simbólica; confrontos discursivos. (shrink)

Teremos como horizonte perguntas feitas por Lagazzi-Rodrigues (2006), ao propor o trabalho mais amplo com a autoria: 1) A textualização com linguagens não verbais requer procedimentos específicos na prática da autoria?; 2) O que significa buscar condições para a prática da autoria em espaços institucionais diferentes da escola? Quais as consequências de se pensar a autoria fora dessas fronteiras já legitimadas? Nas três seções desta unidade, você terá contato com formas de analisar o texto, a constituição de regiões de sentido (...) pela determinação das formações discursivas e das posições-sujeito, a autoria em diferentes práticas institucionais e não institucionais, o discurso constituído por distintas vozes e a composição material de diferentes materialidades discursivas. (shrink)

Pádraig Pearse, the Irish revolutionary leader of 1916 declared “Tír gan teanga, tír gan anam,” which translates “A country without its language is a country without a soul”. Certainly, by 1916 Ireland was a country that had lost its sense of self. Although acts of rebellion ultimately resulted in an independent state for roughly three-quarters of the island, much of what was hoped would be restored fell by the wayside. The reasons for Ireland’s predicaments are, of course, historical. The sins (...) of colonialism reach into contemporary Ireland still. What Ireland has become is an imitator of trends, as opposed to a nation certain of itself and its defining characteristics, and what Pearse described as the country’s soul remains lost. This sense of loss predominates in us as a people since residing in Ireland’s language Gaeilge (Irish) lies much of our heritage and yet it’s a language most of us don’t know. Meaning the language is at the periphery of a nation dislocated from itself. Here, we discuss how the Irish language can help move us toward a psychologically healthier, culturally richer and more caring society, and in the process end the alienation of a nation. (shrink)

This paper discusses homologies in thought from Johann Wolfgang Goethe to Wilhelm von Humboldt. My aim is to show how similarities in thought between them are not mere coincidences but arise from Goethe’s immediate influence on Humboldt. The paper discusses Goethe’s methodological concept of Urform, and in particular examines his idea of Urpflanze in his botanical studies, as well as the nature of the relationship between Goethe and Humboldt. It examines Humboldt’s form of language and presents homologies in thought from (...) Goethe to Humboldt by performing an analysis of Humboldt’s methodological approaches to his objects of study. It shows how his analysis relates, in part, to the Goethean method of examining how individual organisms follow fundamental principles found in their universal forms. (shrink)

The model of language can relatively concretely reveal the mechanism of the epistemology, which is extended by the ontology that takes “person” as the unit. It unveils an intuitable dimension to represent the epistemolog’s paradigm and limitations. Deriving from the inherent relation between epistemology and ontology, the retrospection of the epistemology’s ontological origin can be actualized by locating or grasping the epistemological first person’s ontological essence. Hence, the illusional and frail essence of the ontology behind this epistemology would be uncovered. (...) “Person” is not a stable unit in the ontological world, since the application of this unit stimulates the development of the operating style of the epistemology which relies on the supplement of paradox. After this study that intends to get the epistemological and ontological truth of the current using nominative, the new era of one or more unknown but solid epistemology and its ontology will be gradually recognized. Furthermore, the circumstance of past and current philosophical study is going to be changed. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to explore some trans and feminist concerns about the gendered aspects of languages beyond English, focusing in particular on Spanish, Italian, and German. Historically, discussions about gendered language have often challenged the ways in which language can make women (in)visible by addressing the implicit and explicit androcentrism and sexism in our language. We call this the visibility project. Recently, questions surrounding trans-inclusiveness and the possibility of avoiding gender markers altogether have become more prominent, often (...) highlighting the issue of pronouns (e.g. the singular "they*). We call this the gender-neutrality project. However, anglophone philosophy offers a very limited discussion on how either gender-neutrality or visibility strategies could be applied to languages more gendered than English. To address this, we start by showing how gender expresses itself in the grammatical structure of our three sample languages, and identifying some of the specific visibility and neutrality strategies that could be (or are already) applied to them. This leads us to articulate an "innovative project which constructs nuanced and novel ways to transform gendered grammatical structures. Depending on their application, these strategies can fulfil gender-neutrality goals in some cases and visibility goals in others. This highlights, among other things, the ways in which genderqueer people have attempted to shape their linguistic resources in different linguistic contexts, while also opening up avenues for new research when it comes to discussions of gender and language. (shrink)

I argue that generic generalizations expressed in language (i.e., “generics”) are apt for good clinical reasoning. I begin by introducing what generics are in language and describe two problems in the use and interpretation of generics: Generics can license inaccurate judgements about the frequency of events or properties within a group (i.e., a problem with the “truth-aptness” of generics) and can facilitate problematic beliefs about social kinds (e.g., prejudice or essentializing). I provide an account of clinical reasoning and describe some (...) features of what I call “good” clinical reasoning. I offer examples of generics in clinical contexts and examine how the two problems with generics (i.e., of truth-aptness and social generics) can be harmful to patients and impair clinical reasoning. However, I ultimately argue that generics are important for good clinical reasoning because they track “conspicuous” features of disease processes (e.g., severe possible outcomes). Further, I argue that prejudicial generics are often irrational to believe, and social generics that are rational to believe need not lead to problematic implicatures about social kinds and can, in principle, instead facilitate meaningfully articulating societal injustices. I then argue that statistical statements, which are tempting alternatives to generics in clinical reasoning, are no better than generics for good clinical reasoning, even with respect to the two problems identified in the use of generics. (shrink)

This paper presents some considerations regarding the National Common Curricular Base (BNCC), regarding issues related to the teaching of the Portuguese language in Brazil, territoriality and racial belonging, historical processes that involve, in the field of education, teacher training and the construction of citizenship of students in these times of reaffirmation of the democratic rule of law and the decolonial wave. Therefore, it is a political approach in terms of the thought of Paulo Freire, patron of Brazilian education, who considered (...) the act of educating to be political (FREIRE, 1980; 1983; 1989; 1996). It is based on this perspective that the BNCC will be approached, but under the theoretical contribution of pragmatic discourse analysis, tributary of discursive-deconstructive analysis (cf. ARAÚJO, 2020). (shrink)

This paper explores the hypothesis that proper names serve as anchors identifying the individuals in the possible or real world. This hypothesis is tested on Old Icelandic narratives. A prominent feature of Old Icelandic sagas is that the narrative matter is not quite new. A Saga is reliable iff it refers to the events relevant for its audience and accepted as true by the whole community. I argue that proper names must be regarded as references to the background knowledge of (...) the medieval audience. I follow two contemporary Sagas based on the fresh events and show that proper names in a Saga mind were arranged in form of a database, each type of a personal designation having its charachteristic text-building profile. The form of the name and its frequency in the Saga are linked with the rank of the character. The high number of people mentioned in the Sagas is explained by the fact that the Sagas aimed at describing the real world, where the names of the individuals and the events they were involved cross-identified each other. Every character had its rigid identifiers. The total amount of propria is always higher than the number of active figures. I classify the Saga characters into five ranks and discuss their information-structural profiles. (shrink)

This is a work in the philosophy of language and metasemantics. Its purpose is to help answer the question about how words acquire their meanings. The work is divided into two parts. The purpose of Part One is to defend the claim that, despite numerous attempts, the so-called Kripkenstein’s sceptical challenge, and especially the problem of finitude, has not been offered a successful straight solution. The purpose of Part Two is to critically examine Robert Brandom’s philosophy, which can be treated (...) as an answer to the sceptical challenge in my interpretation. My main claim is that although Brandom’s so-called normativist approach does provide a principled solution to the sceptical challenge, the proposal faces a host of other problems in the light of which I reject it. -/- What is Kripkenstein’s sceptical challenge? The name 'Kripkenstein' is an abbreviation used in the literature for Saul Kripke’s reading of Ludwig Wittgenstein’s later works, published in 1982. In the long essay, Kripke presents (that Wittgenstein presented) a sceptical challenge that demands an explanation of how any word can have a determinate meaning. The challenge is usually thought to consist of three interrelated problems: (1) the problem of finitude, (2) the problem of error, and (3) the problem of normativity. Following Martin Kusch, I view the problem of finitude as the most important one. According to the problem, briefly, since any actual subject is a finite being, i.e. capable of exhibiting only finite expressions of linguistic signs, it will always be possible to ask whether, in a given context, she is following a rule S1 or rule S2 that corresponds to the meaning of the sign. For example, supposing that the sign in question is '+', it can be asked whether the subject in a given context has followed the addition rule or an alternative quaddition rule, according to which any addition problem exceeding certain arbitrary cardinality results in five. According to the hypothesis, the actual use of '+' by any speaker is compatible with both rules. Since any speaker has only finite dispositions to the mathematical conduct, there will always be some limit after which there is no fact of the matter, according to the sceptic, which rule the subject will have turned out to have followed. Hence, it is indeterminate whether any actual subject has ever calculated according to the addition rule or the quaddition rule. -/- From my view, despite the work of Kripke and Kusch, the problem of finitude has not been taken as seriously as it ought to have been. This in turn has significant consequences for the metasemantic theory concerning the origin and nature of meaning. In particular, I claim that the way how the meaning of words is determined must be understood as temporal in nature. Moreover, I claim that Kripke’s causal-historical account of reference can work as a non-straight solution to the challenge that explains how at least the meanings of some words can be temporally determined. -/- One central aim of Brandom’s philosophy is to give a straight answer to the problem of finitude by providing an answer to the problem of normativity. However, I claim that Brandom’s version of the 'normativity of meaning' hypothesis cannot work as he intends. The key issues are difficult to summarise, but to put it succinctly, the crucial problem concerns Brandom’s ambition to give an answer to a version of Agrippa’s trilemma, or how a chain of justifications can end in anything else than (i) premises that have already been used, (ii) a primitive premise, or an (iii) infinitude of premises. My claim is that Brandom’s resolution to the trilemma is not sound. (shrink)

This research presents an analysis of the pericope of 2 Thessalonians 2 from the perspective of the linguistic phenomenon of deixis. And, in doing so, the theory of enunciation will be taken as a theoretical contribution, in order to highlight a small body of words that link the encoder to the enunciation situation. The asymmetry of the act of enunciation is recognized and, therefore, the interpreter's need to reconstruct its meaning from indications present in the enunciation. In the case of (...) the epistolary text, the presence of the deictic device is essential, since the communication situation lacks anchorage. Thus, the objective of this work is to identify the enunciative coordinates of the author (enunciator). (shrink)

تعالج هذه الورقة البحثية مدى مساهمة تدريس القيم المجالية في مادة الجغرافيا بالسلك الثانوي التأهيلي في تنمية التربية المجالية لدى المتعلمين بالسنة الأولى باكالوريا آداب وعلوم إنسانية، حيث يتميز البرنامج الدراسي المقرر لهذا المستوى بحضور مؤشرات عن التربية المجالية، وأجرأته عبر مضمون الوحدات الدراسية نموذج درس "الموارد الطبيعية: التشخيص وأساليب التدبير"، بهدف تكوين مواطن مسؤول عن سلوكه تجاه المجال، وقادر على تحمل مسؤولية حمايته والحفاظ على مختلف موارده, من خلال حسن تدبير وترشيد استغلال هذه الموارد بهدف تحقيق التنمية المستدامة. ........ (...) This research paper discusses the contribution of teaching spatial values in geography in secondary schools to instill spatial learning among arts and humanities learners in the first year baccalaureate .Indicators on spatial learning and its implementation are represented through the study units’ content, “Natural Resources: Diagnosis and Management Techniques”, as an example. This is to create a citizen responsible for his behavior towards his living environment, capable of shouldering responsibility for self-protection and for preserving his various resources, and aware of good governance to manage and rationalize the exploitation of these resources, as sustainable development states. (shrink)

فرضت التكنولوجيا الحديثة نفسها على كل فئات المجتمع، ودخلت من النوافذ قبل الأبواب، وأصبحت رمز التقدم الحضاري، وأصبح مقياس الأمية يقاس بمدى توفر البيئة الحاضنة لهذه التكنولوجيا، وبمدى استيعابها واستثمارها في مجالات الحياة التربوية واليومية، فكل تطور في المجتمع، لا بد وأن يصاحبه تطور في المجال التربوي، وهذا ما حصل بالفعل، فقد دخلت التكنولوجيا المدرسة والجامعة والمؤسسات العمومية، وأصبح العلم بالتكنولوجيا ومسايرة الركب المعلوماتي ضرورة ملحة في عصر المعرفة والمعلومات. ومما لا شك فيه أن دخول مجتمع المعرفة مجتمع التكنولوجيا، أصبح (...) ضرورة ملحة تمليها طبيعة العصر الذي نعيش فيه، فلم يعد السؤال المطروح اليوم هو: هل ندخل عصر المعرفة والتكنولوجيا أم لا؟ بل أصبح السؤال الحاسم الآن هو متى؟ وكيف؟ فلا مفر للدول النامية من خوض غمار التحدي المعرفي والتكنولوجي كشرط لقدرتها على مسايرة قطار تكنولوجيا المعلومات، فإدماج واستثمار التكنولوجيا في التعليم، يعد خطوة كبرى وفرصة ذهبية للتقدم بسرعة وبأقل كلفة، وذلك للتمكن من حجز مكان لنا جنبا إلى جنب مع الدول المتصدرة للركب الحضاري التكنولوجي. (shrink)

..............تقديم......... ..... الصديق الصادقي العماري.... احتلت الظاهرة الثقافة في الآونة الأخيرة مكانة متميزة في الأبحاث والدراسات على اختلاف أنواعها وتوجهاتها وتخصصاتها، خاصة مع الدراسات الاجتماعية، لأن الإنسان بطبعه كائن اجتماعي وثقافي في الآن نفسه، وبهذا يتميز بالتفاعل عبر علاقات اجتماعية متعددة مع الآخر المشابه أو المختلف، مما يؤدي إلى ثراء الخبرة والتجربة التي تساعد على التجديد والتحول في طريقة التفكير ونمط العيش وأسلوب الحياة، وخلال هذا التفاعل يتم إكساب العديد من النماذج والأشكال الثقافية بين الطرفين، الأمر الذي يدفعنا للقول بعدم (...) وجود ثقافة خالصة، وإنما هناك تداخل وتقاطع وتفاعل بين الثقافات. والحديث عن جمالية البنيات الثقافية والفنية في التراث المغربي خاصة، على اختلاف أشكالها وتلويناتها، يضعنا بداية أمام حقيقة وفعالية هذا التراث، وكيفية التعامل معه من حيث المنهج والأسلوب لإخضاعه للقراءة والتحليل والتمحيص. ومن دون شك أن المغرب يتمتع بتعدد ثقافي وفني عريق، يختلف من منطقة إلى أخرى بتعبيراته وأشكاله وأنواعه حسب اللغة واللهجة ونمط العيش، ومدى بعده أو قربه من المدينة، وحتى داخل المدن نفسها وغيرها من المحددات الجغرافية والاقتصادية والثقافية. فالتراث الثقافي كنص من النصوص بما يتضمنه من تعبيرات مختلفة سواء تعلق الأمر بالعادات والتقاليد والمسرح والأنظمة السياسية...، يمتلك قوة التأثير وسلطة الإلزام، لأنه ينساب ويتوزع وفق أنساق ثقافية لها أبعادها وخلفياتها وامتداداتها التاريخية، فهو يختزل كل معالم التعبير الفني والجمالي إما عن طريق الكلمة أو الرمز، من خلال خطاب واضح المعالم مؤسس على قواعد وأصول متعارف عليها بين أفراد الجماعة الاجتماعية، وهي أسس جامعة لا يجب الخروج عليها. فاللحمة وكل أشكال التضامن والحافظية والمحافظة نابعة من عمق هذا التراث، ومن مدى قدرته على بناء حصن مانع ضد الانقسام والتفرقة. وفي هذا الإطار، سواء تعلق الأمر بالأشكال التعبيرية الفنية أو البنيات الاجتماعية الحاضنة لهذه الأشكال، فإن التراث الشعبي من جنوب المغرب إلى شماله يتقاطع في ما هو مشترك بين المغاربة جميعا من حيث القيم والأخلاق الجمعية الناظمة لهذا الشكل أو ذاك، غير أن الإشكال المحوري يتمثل في طريقة استنطاق الموروث الثقافي، وبالتالي تفتح مجموعة من السبل والاختيارات خاصة أمام الباحثين. منهم من سعى لتأصيل التراث وإظهاره بشكل وفي للأصالة بمعزل عن الثقافات الأخرى المختلفة، ومنهم من حاول أن يجعل منها جسر تواصل مع الآخر في إطار الكونية التي تختزل فضاء بينيا تتقاطع فيه جميع الأشكال الثقافية أجل ضمان تفاعل وتدافع إيجابي بين الشعوب والحضارات. لذلك جاء العدد 29 من مجلة وادي درعة المحكمة لإلقاء الضوء على مجموعة من الموضوعات الثقافية من أجل التعريف بها وإظهار ما تتوفر عليه من أشكال تعبيرية، كذلك لإثارة العديد من الإشكالات الأدبية والفنية ولاجتماعية والسياسة والاقتصادية وغيرها، التي من شأنها أن تساعد القارئ على فهم وإدراك الرموز والدلالات التي يختزنها الموروث الثقافي، والقدرة على تحليل الخطاب الذي يسعى إلى تبليغه. (shrink)

Este trabalho trata do conceito Exu Diaspórico, o qual foi forjado para lidar com as pesquisas empíricas situadas dentro do quadro teórico da vaga decolonial. Sua concepção está ligada às tradições iorubanas diaspóricas nessa parte do Atlântico Sul onde emergiram outros sistemas resultantes, quer seja de fragmentos e vestígios de narrativas em gestos de memória e resistência, quer seja da tradução realizada pelo outro, muitas vezes, por meio de um processo de carnavalização cultural, que, por sua vez, se deu pela (...) convivência com os bantu, com os povos autóctones e com o colonizador europeu. Este conceito se articula com o conceito de língua-linguagem como encruzilhada apresentado por Araújo (2021a), mas pode ser tomado, ainda, de forma independente. Portanto, trata-se de uma discussão conceitual que visa contribuir com as reflexões e pesquisas decoloniais. O conceito também está a cargo de noções como negritude e Baianidade. Contudo, ele aparece para reunir todas as representações de Exu que resultaram da diáspora negra em meio a um processo de carnavalização das tradições iorubanas em contato com outras culturas e cosmologias. (shrink)

Este estudio se ocupa del control social del cuerpo y de la reconfiguración de la memoria popular en películas de horror a través de la perspectiva genealógica de Foucault, presentada en su libro Vigilar y Castigar, publicado hace 40 años. Por lo tanto, tomaremos, À l’interieur e Frontière (s), dos producciones de horror cinematográfico hechas por directores franceses, ambos publicados en 2007. La hipótesis principal es que las películas de terror se muestran como una nueva forma de vigilancia y control (...) social del cuerpo. Por otro lado, también puede recodificar la memoria popular apropiándose de acontecimientos polítcos y/o revolucionarios como en las películas comentadas por Foucault en la revista Cahiers de Cinéma en 1974 políticas, aunque no sean las películas de terror. (shrink)

Here we present what we believe is a novel account of what languages are, along with an axiomatically rich representation of languages and language-related data that is based on this account. We propose an account of languages as aggregates of dispositions distributed across aggregates of persons, and in doing so we address linguistic competences and the processes that realize them. This paves the way for representing additional types of language-related entities. Like demographic data of other sorts, data about languages may (...) be of use to researchers in a number of areas, including biomedical research. Data on the languages used in clinical encounters are typically included in medical records, and capture an important factor in patient-provider interactions. Like many types of patient and demographic data, data on a person’s preferred and primary languages are organized in different ways by different systems. This can be a barrier to data integration. We believe that a robust framework for representing language in general and preferred and primary language in particular – which has been lacking in ontologies thus far – can promote more successful integration of language-related data from disparate data sources. (shrink)

The ontology of race is often seen as answering two central questions. First, do races exist? Second, if races do exist, then what are they? Consequently, determining the best methods for answering these questions falls within the metaontology of race. Within the ontology of race, it is common to select a privileged representation of race in order to draw ontological lessons. While ontological lessons are direct answers to the ontological questions raised above, privileged representations are the basis for inferring those (...) lessons. Using the Office of Management and Budget’s racial classification as an illustration, we argue that certain social-scientific methods are better than mainstream methods at ruling out just-so stories about race, and therefore outperform more mainstream philosophical methods in determining which representations of race should be privileged. In defending this position, we also argue that the widespread philosophical practice of sharply distinguishing social-scientific from ordinary-language conceptions of race is unmotivated. (shrink)

Numerous difficulties arising in connection with developing an ontology for linguistic entities can be thought of as manifestations of a more general problem, aptly characterized by David Lewis (1975) as a tension between two conflicting conceptions of language. On the one hand, our best theories model languages as abstract semantic systems—roughly, functions assigning meanings to expressions. On the other hand, we think of languages as contingent and changing social constructs—both grounded in, and grounding, various social relations and institutions of human (...) beings. There are various ways in which these conceptions appear to be in conflict. For instance, if languages are set-theoretical entities—as our best logical and linguistic theories would have it—how do we account for the fact that they change? Or that they could have been different in various respects? And how do we provide principled and noncircular conditions for set-membership, when there appears to be nothing in common to all tokens of the same expression other than belonging to the same type? This paper aims to develop an ontology of linguistic entities—specifically, of languages and linguistic communities—that can resolve these apparent tensions. (shrink)

In this thesis, the philosophical debate on conceptual relativism between Quine and Davidson is examined, along with their respective theories of interpretation. A new perspective on the issues raised by these philosophers in their theoretical accounts of linguistic comprehension is introduced through an examination of two research projects conducted in the paradigm of linguistic anthropology. The philosophical standpoints are analyzed against the background of the data these empirical projects deliver, and the question of their validity in the face of these (...) findings is explored. In the light of the presented research, Davidson’s account grounded in the principle of charity is deemed as more empirically plausible than Quine’s theory, which stands on the existence of alternative conceptual schemes. In addition, the current analysis itself is investigated as a case-study in the considerations regarding the relationship between empirical science and philosophy. (shrink)

Linguistic studies from discursive perspective emphasize the concept of semantic autonomy and deny the realist notion of language. They argue that knowledge of social meaning and the effects of language are important to understanding a text. For Michel Pêcheux, in a speech, the meaning of word scan be explained by the interrelationship between words, more specifically, by the words that were not said. Meaning is thought of as symbolic, neither fixed nor exact. But Eric Donald Hirsch argued that the text (...) means what its author meant, and therefore the reader's aim is to retrieve the author's intended meaning. Only authorial intent can validate an interpretation. From the set who diverging points of view, some questions emerged, such as, for example, is language a neutral means of reflecting the world? Is a meaning by public consensus possible? Is textual meaning a matter of conscience or words? And more, can the reader benefit from an interpretive perspective that goes beyond the grammatical boundary? These are the questions that this work intends to explore. (shrink)

A Certain Gesture: Evnine's Batman Meme Project and Its Parerga! is an entirely original kind of work. It takes the form of commentaries on memes made with the image of Batman slapping Robin. The commentaries are written as if they were not authored by the same person who made the memes, allowing the author to consider himself and his work from the outside. The book defies genre by mixing discussions of philosophy, psychoanalysis, Judaism, language, and representation with self-writing and autotheory. (...) These are juxtaposed like the items in a cabinet of curiosities or topics in an analytic patient’s free association. Both pre-modern and post-modern in its inspiration, it is cerebral, playful, social, and intensely personal. It contains philosophy, including original philosophical research, but also explores new ways of doing and thinking about philosophy. (shrink)