An Interpretive Account of Urban Planning and Design, the People and Their Histories
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The Fourth Perspective: Evolution and Organismal Agency
The Fourth Perspective: Evolution and Organismal Agency Johannes Jaeger Complexity Science Hub (CSH), Vienna, Josefstädter Straße 39, 1080 Vienna Abstract This chapter examines the deep connections between biological organization, agency, and evolution by natural selection. Using Griesemer’s account of the re- producer, I argue that the basic unit of evolution is not a genetic replicator, but a complex hierarchical life cycle. Understanding the self-maintaining and self-pro- liferating properties of evolvable reproducers requires an organizational account of ontogenesis and reproduction. This leads us to an extended and disambiguated set of minimal conditions for evolution by natural selection—including revised or new principles of heredity, variation, and ontogenesis. More importantly, the con- tinuous maintenance of biological organization within and across generations im- plies that all evolvable systems are agents, or contain agents among their parts. This means that we ought to take agency seriously—to better understand the con- cept and its role in explaining biological phenomena—if we aim to obtain an or- ganismic theory of evolution in the original spirit of Darwin’s struggle for exis- tence. This kind of understanding must rely on an agential perspective on evolu- tion, complementing and succeeding existing structural, functional, and processual approaches. I sketch a tentative outline of such an agential perspective, and present a survey of methodological and conceptual challenges that will have to be overcome if we are to properly implement it. 1. Introduction There are two fundamentally different ways to interpret Darwinian evolutionary theory. Charles Darwin’s original framework grounds the process of evolution on 2 the individual’s struggle for existence (Darwin, 1859). -
(2019), the Vardar River As a Border of Semiosphere – Paradox Of
Geographia Polonica 2019, Volume 92, Issue 1, pp. 83-102 https://doi.org/10.7163/GPol.0138 INSTITUTE OF GEOGRAPHY AND SPATIAL ORGANIZATION POLISH ACADEMY OF SCIENCES www.igipz.pan.pl www.geographiapolonica.pl THE VARDAR RIVER AS A BORDER OF SEMIOSPHERE – PARADOX OF SKOPJE REGENERATION Armina Kapusta Urban Regeneration Laboratory Institute of Urban Geography and Tourism Studies Faculty of Geographical Sciences University of Łódź Kopcińskiego 31, 90-142 Łódź: Poland e-mail: [email protected] Abstract As suggested by its etymology, regeneration usually carries positive connotations while its negative aspects tend to be belittled. However, any renewal results in major morphological, physiognomic, functional or social changes, which imply changes in the meanings encoded in space. These transformations are not always welcome and they may lead to public discussions and conflicts. Skopje 2014 is a project within which such controversial transformations have been taking place. The area surrounding the Vardar River and its banks plays a major role here. On the river banks monumental buildings were erected, bridges over the river were modernised and new ones, decorated with monuments, were built for pedestrians. Bridges can be considered a valuable component of any urban infrastructure as they link different parts of a settlement unit (in the case of Skopje – left (northern) bank and the right (southern) bank; Albanian and Macedonian), improve transport, facilitate trade and cultural exchange. In this context, referring to Lotman’s semiosphere theory, they may become borders of semiotic space, which acts as a filter that facilitates the penetration of codes and cultural texts. Yet, in multicultural Skopje meanings attached to bridges seem to lead to social inequalities as they glorify what is Macedonian and degrade the Albanian element. -
Perceptual Variation and Structuralism
NOUSˆ 54:2 (2020) 290–326 doi: 10.1111/nous.12245 Perceptual Variation and Structuralism JOHN MORRISON Barnard College, Columbia University Abstract I use an old challenge to motivate a new view. The old challenge is due to variation in our perceptions of secondary qualities. The challenge is to say whose percep- tions are accurate. The new view is about how we manage to perceive secondary qualities, and thus manage to perceive them accurately or inaccurately. I call it perceptual structuralism. I first introduce the challenge and point out drawbacks with traditional responses. I spend the rest of the paper motivating and defending a structuralist response. While I focus on color, both the challenge and the view generalize to the other secondary qualities. 1. Perceptual Variation Our perceptual experiences tell us that lemons are yellow and sour. It’s natural to infer that lemons really are yellow and sour. But perceptions vary, even among ordinary observers. Some perceive lemons as slightly greener and sweeter. This gives rise to a challenge that forces us to rethink the nature of perception and the objectivity of what we perceive. For concreteness, I’ll focus on the perceptions of two ordinary observers, Miriam and Aaron. I’ll also focus on their perceptions of a particular lemon’s color. These restrictions will make the challenge easier to understand and the responses easier to compare. But the challenge and responses are perfectly general. Toward the end of the paper I’ll return to sourness and the other secondary qualities. When Miriam and Aaron look at the same lemon, their perceptions differ. -
Biogenetic Structuralism'
'BIOGE~TIC STRUCTURALISM'STRUCTURALISM" AND THE LOCATION OF STRUCTURES*STRUCTURES~'< In the heyday of 'high' structuralism it was sometimes argued, explicitly or implicitly, that the ultimate 'explanation' of cultural structures was to be found in the properties of 'the human mind'. This argument, it was perhaps felt, shifted the problem of explanation to the realm 'of philosophr, which many anthropologists considered outsiqe their concern. It was not surprising, therefore, that $ceptics ofaof, a more materialist persuasionpersuas'ion would critiofze structuralist analysis for being an essentially idea11stormentalistidealJtst or mentalist undertaking.undertakirig. Even so, the analytical value, of the notion of structures (in the Levi-Straussian sense,'hasbeen increasingly recognized, even by anthro pologists of a materialistmateria~ist stance (e.g. in the 'structural marx.i;sm'marx,j;sm' of MauriceNaurice Godelier (1973) and JonathanJonatl1an Friedman (1974),(1974)1 to the extent that nowadays only the most ardent 'vul¢ar'vul$ar materialists' feel they can do without it. This devefopment has not, however, done away with the problem of t~e locatiori of structures; the problem has only been push~d into the background, because other problems were.were felt: by most to be of more immediate concern. , .' ~ptwhether~f.lt'whether or not we have been bothered by the location problelflproblelf1 we should all welcome the pioneering work of two auth'prl;j,auth'prl;l, Charles Laughlin, an anthropologist, and Eugene d' Aqui!i, ~ psych~atrist, in which they lay the foundations " of aneW structural approach, 'biogenetic structuralism'. In the introduction to the book they state: !~ f f ., Th~majorTh~rnajor onttllbgical-:assumptiononttJlbgical-:assumption upon which biogenetic str\.ibturalismstr~bturalism is founded is that there exists no reality intervening between the central nervous system and the environment. -
Peirce's Theory of Communication and Its Contemporary Relevance
Ahti-Veikko Pietarinen Peirce’s Theory of Communication and Its Contemporary Relevance Introduction The mobile era of electronic communication has created a huge semi- otic system, constructed out of triadic components envisaged by the American scientist and philosopher Charles S. Peirce (1839–1914), such as icons, indices and symbols, and signs, objects and interpretants. Iconic signs bear a physical resemblance to what they represent. Indices point at something and say “there!”, and symbols signify objects by conven- tions of a community.1 All signs give rise to interpretants in the minds of the interpreters. It is nonetheless regrettable that the somewhat simplistic triadic ex- posé of Peirce’s theory of signs has persisted in semiotics as the some- how exhaustive and final description of what Peirce intended. The more fascinating and richer structure of signs emerging from their intimate relation to intercommunication and interaction (Peirce’s terms) has been noted much less frequently. Despite this shortcoming, the full Peircean road to inquiry – per- formed by the dynamic community of learning inquirers, or the com- 1 In fact, according to Peirce (2.278 [1895]): “The only way of directly communi- cating an idea is by means of an icon; and every indirect method of communicating an idea must depend for its establishment upon the use of an icon.” Peirce’s chef d’œuvre came shortly after these remarks into being as his diagrammatic system of existential graphs, a thoroughly iconic representation of and a way of reasoning about “moving pictures of thought”, which encompassed not only propositional and predicate logic, but also modalities, higher-order notions, abstraction and category-theoretic notions. -
Ellul, Jacques the Meaning of the City
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO COL 5037S SLA SLA325F MAGIC PRAGUE QUESTIONS OF LITERARY CITYSCAPE Fall 2014 We 10-12, Graduates 10-1 TBA, INSTRUCTOR: Veronika Ambros Phone: 416- 926 1300, ext. 3200 Office Hours: Thursday 12-1, St. Joseph Street Alumni Hall, #405, We 1-2 Centre for Comparative Literature BT; or by appointment Email:[email protected] Magic Prague 23/09/2014 2 Prague as a meeting point of different cultures attracted a variety of artists and scholars. Inspired by the book Magic Prague of the Italian literary scholar Angelo Ripellino, this class explores the myth of Prague in selected works by Jan Neruda, Franz Kafka, R.M. Rilke, Paul Wegener, G. Apollinaire, B. Hrabal, and others. A number of secondary texts will help to discuss questions of literary cityscapes, of centre and margin, of multiculturalism and nationalism in different genres. Readings in English and for the specialists in the original. Requirements: Undergraduate students: Attendance and participation - 20% 2 essays (5 pages, 30% each) - 60% 10 reader responses every class - 20% due every Monday at noon Deadlines: First essay: October 17 Second essay: November 28 Graduate students: Attendance and participation: 10% Presentation: 20% 1 essay (20 page) 50% 10 reader responses every class - 20% due Monday noon Deadline: December 5 The written assignments have to follow the MLA guidelines: www.mlahandbook.org The following books can be purchased: Neruda – Prague Tales http://www.amazon.com/Prague-Tales-Central-European-Classics/dp/9639116238 Ripellino – Magic Prague http://www.amazon.com/Magic-Prague-Angelo-Maria-Ripellino/dp/0330337793 Weil – Life with a Star http://www.amazon.com/Life-Star-Jewish-Lives-Jiri/dp/0810116855 Kundera – Ignorance http://www.amazon.com/Ignorance-A-Novel-Milan- Kundera/dp/0060002093/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1408124915&sr=8- 1&keywords=0060002093 Magic Prague 23/09/2014 3 Program 1 September 12 Introduction 2 September 19 Legends and Poetry All Jirásek, Alois, Old Czech Legends 1992 4-30; “Tales of the Ghetto” 101-112. -
Aesthetic Space: the Visible and the Invisible in Urban Agency
Aesthetic Space: The Visible and the Invisible in Urban Agency THÈSE NO 6445 (2017) PRÉSENTÉE LE 16 MAI 2017 À LA FACULTÉ DE L'ENVIRONNEMENT NATUREL, ARCHITECTURAL ET CONSTRUIT LABORATOIRE CHÔROS PROGRAMME DOCTORAL EN ARCHITECTURE ET SCIENCES DE LA VILLE ÉCOLE POLYTECHNIQUE FÉDÉRALE DE LAUSANNE POUR L'OBTENTION DU GRADE DE DOCTEUR ÈS SCIENCES PAR Mirza TURSIĆ acceptée sur proposition du jury: Prof. B. Marchand, président du jury Prof. J. Lévy, directeur de thèse Prof. M. Jakob, rapporteur Prof. L. Matthey, rapporteur Dr L. Pattaroni, rapporteur Suisse 2017 Acknowledgements First, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my advisor Prof. Jacques Lévy for his continuous support, motivation and thoroughness. His incisiveness and intellectual acuity were fundamental throughout the research and writing phases of this thesis. I thank him for teaching me that one should not find their way, but invent it. Additional thanks go to Prof. Bruno Marchand, Prof. Michael Jakob, Prof. Laurent Matthey and Dr. Luca Pattaroni for their participation on my thesis committee. Their feedback and ideas remain an invaluable inspiration for my future scientific activities. My sincere thanks also go to Prof. Ognjenka Finci, Prof. Lemja Chabbouh Akšamija and Prof. Adnan Pašić for their crucial support at the very beginning of my academic odyssee. I recognize that this research would not have been possible without the Swiss government, from which I received a three-year excellence scholarship through the Federal Commission for Scholarships for Foreign Students (FCS). I am particularly grateful to Karin Delavy-Juillerat and Nathalie Miazza for their unfailing support from my very first day at the EPFL. -
Marketing Semiotics
Marketing Semiotics Professor Christian Pinson Semiosis, i.e. the process by which things and events come to be recognized as signs, is of particular relevance to marketing scholars and practitioners. The term marketing encompasses those activities involved in identifying the needs and wants of target markets and delivering the desired satisfactions more effectively and efficiently than competitors. Whereas early definitions of marketing focused on the performance of business activities that direct the flow of goods and services from producer to consumer or user, modern definitions stress that marketing activities involve interaction between seller and buyer and not a one- way flow from producer to consumer. As a consequence, the majority of marketers now view marketing in terms of exchange relationships. These relationships entail physical, financial, psychological and social meanings. The broad objective of the semiotics of marketing is to make explicit the conditions under which these meanings are produced and apprehended. Although semioticians have been actively working in the field of marketing since the 1960s, it is only recently that semiotic concepts and approaches have received international attention and recognition (for an overview, see Larsen et al. 1991, Mick, 1986, 1997 Umiker- Sebeok, 1988, Pinson, 1988). Diffusion of semiotic research in marketing has been made difficult by cultural and linguistic barriers as well as by divergence of thought. Whereas Anglo-Saxon researchers base their conceptual framework on Charles Pierce's ideas, Continental scholars tend to refer to the sign theory in Ferdinand de Saussure and to its interpretation by Hjelmslev. 1. The symbolic nature of consumption. Consumer researchers and critics of marketing have long recognized the symbolic nature of consumption and the importance of studying the meanings attached by consumers to the various linguistic and non-linguistic signs available to them in the marketplace. -
A Semiotic Theory of Music: According to a Peircean Rationale
A SEMIOTIC THEORY OF MUSIC: ACCORDING TO A PEIRCEAN RATIONALE The Sixth International Conference on Musical Signification University of Helsinki Université de Provence (Aix-Marselle I) Aix-en-Provence, December 1-5, 1998 José Luiz Martinez (Ph.D.) [1] The recent growth of musical applications of Peirce’s general theory of signs, such as in the works of David Lidov (1986), Robert Hatten (1994), William Dougherty (1993, 1994), shows that this approach, once set properly in both musical and semiotic contexts, has great analytical power on questions of musical signification. In this paper I will present the structure of a semiotic theory of music, as demonstrated in my doctoral dissertation, Semiosis in Hindustani Music (Imatra: International Semiotics Institute), submitted and approved by the University of Helsinki in 1997. [2] Peirce, in his studies of semiotics, concluded that thought is only possible by means of signs (vide CP 1.538, 4.551, 5.253). Music is a species of thought; and thus, the idea that music is sign and depends on significative processes, or semiosis, is obviously true. A musical sign can be a system, a composition or its performance, a musical form, a style, a composer, a musician, hers or his instrument, and so on. According to Peirce, signification occurs in a triadic relation of a sign and the object it stands for to an interpretant (CP 6.347), which - in music - is another sign developed in the mind of a listener, musician, composer, analyst or critic. [3] In Peirce’s classification of the sciences, semiotics (or semeiotic) has three branches: Speculative Grammar, Critic and Methodeutic (or Speculative Rhetoric) (CP 1.192). -
Qualia NICHOLAS HARKNESS Harvard University, USA
Qualia NICHOLAS HARKNESS Harvard University, USA Qualia (singular, quale) are cultural emergents that manifest phenomenally as sensuous features or qualities. The anthropological challenge presented by qualia is to theorize elements of experience that are semiotically generated but apperceived as non-signs. Qualia are not reducible to a psychology of individual perceptions of sensory data, to a cultural ontology of “materiality,” or to philosophical intuitions about the subjective properties of consciousness. The analytical solution to the challenge of qualia is to con- sider tone in relation to the familiar linguistic anthropological categories of token and type. This solution has been made methodologically practical by conceptualizing qualia, in Peircean terms, as “facts of firstness” or firstness “under its form of secondness.” Inthephilosophyofmind,theterm“qualia”hasbeenusedtodescribetheineffable, intrinsic, private, and directly or immediately apprehensible experiences of “the way things seem,” which have been taken to constitute the atomic subjective properties of consciousness. This concept was challenged in an influential paper by Daniel Dennett, who argued that qualia “is a philosophers’ term which fosters nothing but confusion, and refers in the end to no properties or features at all” (Dennett 1988, 387). Dennett concluded, correctly, that these diverse elements of feeling, made sensuously present atvariouslevelsofattention,wereactuallyidiosyncraticresponsestoapperceptions of “public, relational” qualities. Qualia were, in effect, -
Title Peirce's General Theory of Signs Author(S)
View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Kyoto University Research Information Repository Title Peirce's General Theory of Signs Author(s) Clare Thornbury Finding Meaning, Cultures Across Borders: International Citation Dialogue between Philosophy and Psychology (2011): 49-57 Issue Date 2011-03-31 URL http://hdl.handle.net/2433/143046 The copyright of papers included in this paper belongs to each Right author. Type Article Textversion publisher Kyoto University 49 Peirce's General Theory of Signs CLARE THORNBURY Institute of Education, University of London Charles. S Peirce was one ofthe founders ofPragmatism, alongside William James and John Dewey. This paper looks at Peirce's later work on his theory of signs, or semiotic. Peirce's semiotic is a broad one, including as signs things that other semioticians may reject. Peirce's semiotic includes a key division ofsigns into the three categories ofIcon, Index and Symbol. This trichotomy and the breadth ofPeirce's semiotic makes it well suited to, for example, a semiology of cinema. The basic structure ofthe sign in Peirce is also triadic, being a relation between sign-object-interpretant, and this brings us to a further appreciation of the sign as sign-action: a move from semiotic to semiosis. Peirce's approach to the philosophy of language goes beyond language to a theory of signs in general, and this 'semiotic' is deeply embedded within his broader systematic philosophical works. To understand it therefore, it is helpful to do two things: 1) to understand the breadth of Peirce's semiotic and 2) to differentiate it from other philosophical theories in the field. -
English Selection 2018
ISSN 2409-2274 NATIONAL RESEARCH UNIVERSITY HIGHER SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS ENGLISH SELECTION 2018 CONTENTS HERBERT SPENCER: THE UNRECOGNIZED FATHER OF THE THEORY OF DEMOGRAPHIC TRANSITION ANATOLY VISHNEVSKY RETHINKING THE CONTEMPORARY HISTORY OF FERTILITY: FAMILY, STATE, AND THE WORLD SYSTEM MIKHAIL KLUPT GENERATIONAL ACCOUNTS AND DEMOGRAPHIC DIVIDEND IN RUSSIA MIKHAIL DENISENKO, VLADIMIR KOZLOV CITIES OF OVER A MILLION PEOPLE ON THE MORTALITY MAP OF RUSSIA ALEKSEI SHCHUR ARMENIANS OF RUSSIA: GEO-DEMOGRAPHIC TRENDS OF THE PAST, MODERN REALITIES AND PROSPECTS SERGEI SUSHCHIY AN EVALUATION OF THE PREVALENCE OF MALIGNANT NEOPLASMS IN RUSSIA USING INCIDENCE-MORTALITY MODEL RUSTAM TURSUN-ZADE • DEMOGRAPHIC REVIEW • EDITORIAL BOARD: INTERNATIONAL EDITORIAL COUNCIL: E. ANDREEV V. MUKOMEL B. ANDERSON (USA) T. MALEVA M. DENISSENKO L. OVCHAROVA O. GAGAUZ (Moldova) F. MESLÉ (France) V. ELIZAROV P. POLIAN I. ELISEEVA B. MIRONOV S. IVANOV A. PYANKOVA Z. ZAYONCHKOVSKAYA S. NIKITINA A. IVANOVA M. SAVOSKUL N. ZUBAREVICH Z. PAVLIK (Czech Republic) I. KALABIKHINA S. TIMONIN V. IONTSEV V. STANKUNIENE (Lithuania) M. KLUPT A. TREIVISCH E. LIBANOVA (Ukraine) M. TOLTS (Israel) A. MIKHEYEVA A. VISHNEVSKY M. LIVI BACCI (Italy) V. SHKOLNIKOV (Germany) N. MKRTCHYAN V. VLASOV T. MAKSIMOVA S. SCHERBOV (Austria) S. ZAKHAROV EDITORIAL OFFICE: Editor-in-Chief - Anatoly G. VISHNEVSKY Deputy Editor-in-Chief - Sergey A. TIMONIN Deputy Editor-in-Chief - Nikita V. MKRTCHYAN Managing Editor – Anastasia I. PYANKOVA Proofreader - Natalia S. ZHULEVA Design and Making-up - Kirill V. RESHETNIKOV English translation – Christopher SCHMICH The journal is registered on October 13, 2016 in the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology, and Mass Media. Certificate of Mass Media Registration ЭЛ № ФС77-67362.