Where Is Negation in Merleau-Ponty’s Ontology? Symbolic Formation and the Implex

This paper concerns a basic ambiguity in Merleau-Ponty’s ontology between the reversibility of flesh and its écart. Where the former suggests continuity between the sensing and the sensible, the latter suggests their separation. It is difficult to know from reading The Visible and the Invisible which is to be prioritized or how one is to be read alongside the other. I argue that such a relation comes to light by thinking through the negation that is, for Merleau-Ponty, always constellated with being. This becomes more explicitly an ontology of differentiation or difference itself which does not prioritize identity. Such an ontology is, I argue, prefigured in Merleau-Ponty’s work on passivity and its symbolic formation. The idea is that the dynamic between negation and being and of symbolic formation happens at the level of, or even in, the body. The final section is thus a consideration of “the implex,” a term Merleau-Ponty borrows from Paul Valéry along with “chiasm.”

Symbolic Interaction of The Deaf Students in Public School

<em>This study aims to know how symbolic interaction process happens to the deaf students who study in SD Maranatha 01 public school. Communication built by the deaf students to the teachers and other students who have good hearing will influence the changing of meaning and behavior. That's why the author is interested to analyze the symbolic interaction of the deaf students in public school, how the role of the teachers and other students in dealing with the deaf students to take their action and to adapt themselves in public school. The research method used in this study is descriptive qualitative conducted using observation, and interview techniques. The foundation used in this study is the theory of Symbolic Interactionism of George Herbert Mead. The conclusion of this research is; the behavior and symbolic formation happening to the deaf students of SD Maranatha 01 are influenced by the social process.</em>

Mosaic Panel «Scythian Ukraine – Steppe Hellas» of Mykola Storozhenko. Architectonics of the Plastic Space

This article shows architectonical features of the plastic space in the mosaic panel of Mykola A. Storozhenko «Scythian Ukraine – Steppe Hellas» (1987–1992) and analyzes the composition structure of this work in the context of interrelationships of the multi-faceted imagery and symbolic formation. Nowadays a wide range of such completely concrete formal artistic aspects as composition structure features and architectonics of the plastic space in monumental works of Mykola Storozhenko, in particular his mosaic panels, are still understudied. By making a compositional and constructive analysis the author has revealed interrelationships forming between plastic space elements of the work in the course of the internal imagery interaction and has drawn associative conceptual parallels. The author considers the complex imagery panel system in the context of visual perception focused on symbolic and information as well as national and historical plans of the composition idea. As exemplified by the mosaic panel «Scythian Ukraine – Steppe Hellas» it has been shown that all means of artistic expression aim to establish a stable and architectonically complex plastic system. As a result of research the author of this article proves that the integrity of the imagery is guaranteed by each of the above formal and conceptual composition elements; each of them has its function and creates an irreplaceable and unique constructive imagery fragment in the plastic space of the mosaic panel. On the other hand, the emphasis is made on the fact that only the total effect of interaction of all vectors leads to the powerful multi-layer imagery and symbolic formation which depth the architectonical vertical of archetype and moment of perception comes through and unfolds to the outside. Materials of this analytical research are quite important when solving a question of the theoretical and practical application directly in the creative process in order to improve education programs for composition and as a methodological auxiliary material for students of creative specialties and art expert students.

On the Edge of Democracy

This book links the emergence of democracy in Italy after World War II to human experiences and the symbolic formation of meaning in a time of political and existential uncertainty. Between 1943 and 1948 Italians experienced the most intense period of the war, with its hardship and violence, and the most intense period of social, economic, and political reconstruction, with its hopes and vitality. Unlike conventional accounts that focus on institutions, ideologies, and political norms, On the Edge of Democracy examines the aspirations, expectations, and hopes of real people in real time—the social dramas the individuals engaged with. Adopting an anthropological approach, it sees the process of democratization in Italy as analogous to a ritual passage, in which social order was suspended and then reasserted following a liminal time during which ideas and beliefs were reformulated and new meanings, symbols, and identities emerged. The period of civil war 1943–5, especially, was a time of brutality and dramatic violence as well as a critical juncture of creative existential pluralism. The events during the period following the collapse of Fascism and the disintegration of national unity created a new popular consciousness and changed the relationships among individuals, and between individual and political power. Existential crisis and lived experiences during this period of uncertainty generated new meanings, interpretations, and hopes that shaped post-Fascist democracy. Democracy in Italy was the consequence of ordinary’s people reactions to, and symbolization of, the circumstances which they went through in those extraordinary times.

Freedom and Culture

Through a key passage (Xici 2.2) from the Book of Changes, this paper shows that Ernst Cassirer’s philosophy of symbolic forms shares similarities with the canonical account of symbolic formation in the Chinese tradition: the genesis of xiang (象), often translated as image or symbol. xiang became identified with the origins of culture/civilisation itself. In both cases, the world is understood as primordially (phenomenologically) meaningful; the expressiveness of the world requires a human subject to consummate it in a symbol, whilst the symbol in turn gives us access to higher orders of meaning. It is the self-conscious creation of the symbol that then allows for the higher forms of culture. For both the Xici and Cassirer, symbols and the symbolic consciousness that comes with it is the pre-condition for the freedom, ethics and the cultivation of agency. As for both the Xici and Cassirer, it is human agency that creates these symbols, it will be argued that the Xici is making a Cassirerian argument about the (ethical) relationship between human agency, symbols and ethics/freedom.

Educação e identidade nacional argentina (1884-1913)

Na segunda metade do século XIX, a educação pública passou a desempenhar papel central para o fortalecimento institucional do Estado argentino e a consolidação da identidade nacional. Nesse sentido, o objetivo deste artigo é discutir a relação entre escola e nacionalidade, tendo como recorte dois temas fundamentais para a história educacional do país: a promulgação da Lei de Educação Comum, em 1884, e o projeto de educação patriótica capitaneado pelo Conselho Nacional de Educação durante a gestão de Ramos Mejía (1908-1913). Partindo da análise de seus significados e desdobramentos, pretende-se demonstrar como as políticas públicas educacionais contribuíram para selecionar e difundir os elementos mais convenientes à formação simbólica da nação, inviabilizando aspectos culturais e sujeitos sociais vistos à margem da verdadeira “argentinidade”.Education and Argentinian national identity (1884-1913). Abstract: In the second half of the 19th century, public education started to play a vital role to Argentinian State institutional strengthening and national identity consolidation. This article aims to discuss relation between school and nationality, by means of two central subjects on educational history of the country: Common Education Law of 1884 and patriotic education project, headed by National Council of Education during Ramos Mejía administration (1908-1913). Based on analyses of its meanings and deployments, it seeks to demonstrate how public policies contributed to select and disseminate most convenient elements to symbolic formation of the Nation, making invisible cultural aspects and social individuals seen as apart from the truly “Argentinity”. Keywords: education; Argentina; national identity; History of Education.

From the diasporic to the transnation: Catherine Temma Davidson’s The Priest Fainted

This paper analyses the depiction of the main female protagonists of Catherine Temma Davidson’s novel The Priest Fainted (1998) in the context of the symbolic formation of the hybrid identity of the main female character and narrator which is close to Bill Ascroft’s concept of the transnation. The author of this paper analyses Davidson’s depiction of three generations of female protagonists with a Greek cultural background and the way they symbolically represent the transition from a traditional diasporic identity (the narrator’s grandmother), through multicultural and transnational identity (her mother) up to the identity close to the concept of the transnation as defined by Bill Aschroft (the narrator herself). At the same time, the formation of such a cultural identity is understood as a symbolic formation of female independence and the rejection of a patriarchal society, religious bigotry and conservative values as represented, in the narrator’s and her mother’s view, by contemporary Greece.

Pathêt: di Atas Kertas dan di Atas Panggung Wayang Kulit dalam Perspektif Teori Praktik

Pathêt: on the Paper and on the Stage of Shadow Puppet Theater in Practice Theory Perspectif. Researchesabout karawitan focusing on pathêt has given conceptual result which repairs and clarifi es the result of previousresearches, with different paradigms. Some are even repetitive. On the other hand, in the practical level and socialdevelopment, some changes and dynamic art performing paradigm have changed. If the researches and the researchparadigms on this matter cannot accommodate the changes, the result will be static. There have been some pathêtresearches that inspired a critical development of karawitan and performance studies. The result of the researchesimplied a temporal context, demanding revisiting on the temporary context and its relation to non-theoretical matter,partial, practicality, and social reality. A scientifi c construction based on human activity as a practice is neededto construct scientifi c atmosphere to balance social dynamics, performance, and the harmony of gending karawitanrelated to the utilization of pathêt as a part of coherent structure. Social reality of wayang kulit stage is close to theaesthetic and art feel towards karawitan music. Social structure and performance structure in the present time do notalways posses linier relation to the symbolic structure and past aesthetic. Symbolic and aesthetic constructs have theability of symbolic formation and high level of musical appreciation. Therefore, Pierre Bourdieu’s practical critiqueserves as an alternative encouragement reacting to critical pretension towards problem solution and reception ofpathêt in the conceptual and practical level