WEIZSÄCKER’S RELATIONAL THEORY AND BINARY GEOMETROPHYSICS OF YU. S. VLADIMIROV

The question of the connection between the ideas of relational concepts and the construction of a unified physics by K.F. von Weizsäcker, and binary geometrophysics of Yu.S. Vladimirov. It is shown the initial closeness both of the original premises of the two programs and their main conclusions, which completely coincide. The moments of divergence of the two programs are also shown. This discrepancy is due to the fact that Weizsacker associates the main problem of constructing a unified physical theory with epistemological problems, while in binary geometrophysics the ontological assumptions associated with the concept of pregeometry are taken as a basis.

An Integrated Account of Rosen’s Relational Biology and Peirce’s Semiosis. Part I: Components and Signs, Final Cause and Interpretation

Robert Rosen’s relational biology and biosemiotics share the claim that life cannot be explained by the laws that apply to the inanimate world alone. In this paper, an integrated account of Rosen’s relational biology and Peirce’s semiosis is proposed. The ultimate goal is to contribute to the construction of a unified framework for the definition and study of life. The relational concepts of component and mapping, and the semiotic concepts of sign and triadic relation are discussed and compared, and a representation of semiotic relations with mappings is proposed. The role of the final cause in two theories that account for what differentiates living beings, natural selection and relational biology, is analyzed. Then the presence of the final cause in Peirce’s semiosis is discussed and, with it, the similarities and differences between the theories of Rosen and Peirce are deepened. Then, a definition of a semiotic relation in an organism is proposed, and Short’s definition of interpretation is applied. Finally, a method to identify and analyze semiotic actions in an organism is proposed.

On the Translatability of Cultural Phenomena: Modernismo and Modernism within and without Mass Culture

“Spanish American modernismo,” wrote Octavio Paz in 1972, “has no connection to what in English is called ‘modernism.’” Indeed, for a long time there was consensus in both critical traditions that “despite some parallels,” as Astradur Eysteinsson put it, “the differences between the two concepts are too many to warrant their critical coalescence.” In recent years, however, it has become the rule to discuss Latin American and Spanish modernismos within the Anglo-Germanic notion of modernism, as part of the broader concept of “global modernisms.” But how did two of the most important aesthetic concepts of the twentieth century from two distinct traditions go from misleading cognates to variants of the same phenomenon? This article offers a comparative history to explain the conditions of their mutual (un)translatability. It presents their divergent beginnings, briefly surveys their independent developments, and finally argues that, in the past few decades, both have similarly turned from differential to relational concepts mainly by transforming their relationship to mass culture. They have thus gone from high-literary ideologies of exclusion to fields of research on the networks and dynamics of modern culture. As they did, however, their standing within their respective critical traditions has changed in opposite ways.

Football, Culture, Skill Development and Sport Coaching: Extending Ecological Approaches in Athlete Development Using the Skilled Intentionality Framework

In this manuscript, we extend ecological approaches and suggest ideas for enhancing athlete development by utilizing the Skilled Intentionality Framework. A broad aim is to illustrate the extent to which social, cultural and historical aspects of life are embodied in the way football is played and the skills young footballers develop during learning. Here, we contend that certain aspects of the world (i.e., environmental properties) are “weighted” with social and cultural significance, “standing out” to be more readily perceived and simultaneously acted upon when playing football. To comprehend how patterns of team coordination and athletic skill embody aspects of culture and context we outline the value-directedness of player-environment intentionality. We demonstrate that the values an individual can express are constrained by the character of the social institutions (i.e., football clubs) and the social order (i.e., form of life) in which people live. In particular, we illuminate the extent to which value-directedness can act as a constraint on the skill development of football players “for good or ill.” We achieve this goal by outlining key ecological and relational concepts that help illustrate the extent to which affordances are value-realizing and intentionality is value-directed (exemplified, by footballers performing in a rondo). To enhance coaching practice, we offer: (a) insights into markers of skilled intentionality, and (b), the language of skilled intentions, as well as highlighting (c), an additional principle of Non-linear Pedagogy: Shaping skilled intentions, or more precisely shaping the value-directedness of player-environment intentionality. We contend that, if sport practitioners do not skilfully attend to sociocultural constraints and shape the intentions of players within training environments and games, the social, cultural, and historic constraints of their environment will do so: constantly soliciting some affordances over others and directing skill development.

Community-Based Livestock Breeding: Coordinated Action or Relational Process?

Over the past decade, community-based breeding programs (CBBPs) have been promoted as a viable approach to improving smallholder livelihoods through a systematic livestock breeding. CBBPs aim to initiate systematic breeding at the community level, including an organized animal identification and recording of performance and pedigree data. To ensure the breeding programs' continuity, building capacities, and ownership among participants are essential to the approach. This study's purpose was to understand how CBBPs have evolved in specific institutional settings and which dynamics occur in the course of implementation. We addressed these questions in reflective conversations with six coordinators of a diverse sample of CBBPs: goats (Malawi, Uganda, and Mexico), sheep (Ethiopia), alpaca (Peru), and cattle (Burkina Faso). The interviews and analysis were guided by categories of the multi-level perspective. The respondents considered lack of funding and weak institutionalization as the main constraints on the CBBPs. While the idea of participation and localized ownership was at the center of the programs, linear paradigms of knowledge transfer prevailed. In all cases, the impulse to start a CBBP came from individual researchers, who relied on intermediaries, such as extension agents, for implementation. Personal relations and trust were seen as both a factor in the success and a positive outcome of CBBPs. We conclude that these findings have different implications depending on how rural development is conceptualized: proponents of the innovation systems perspective would call for stakeholders to further align their interests and coordinate their actions. Proponents of process-relational concepts, in contrast, would not consider the CBBP a product but a starting-point for initiators and participants to continuously discover new ways of collaboration and engagement.

Relational patterns in atlas cartography: educational-practical system of choropleth map

This article describes the relational concepts of modern “choropleth map relational pattern of atlas cartography”, presented as Educational-practical system of choropleth map (EPSCM). Such patterns and systems are needed to provide practically useful knowledge about thematic maps for the user groups such as: practical cartographers, students of cartographic specialties, developers of modern atlas systems and (maybe) unskilled users. In the work two kinds of choropleth map pattern relations are described. The epistemological (vertical) relations are defining repetitive relations between representations of choropleth map that exist in the three phases of choropleth map life cycle: research, development and operation. These phases correspond to the conceptual, application, and operational strata of choropleth map existence defined in work. Transformational (horizontal) relations describe repetitive relations that exist between the product (choropleth map) and the process of its creation on some specific Stratum. It is proved that necessary to deal with the socalled main triad of choropleth map solutions framework to achieve educational and practical purposes: products-processes of the current strata (eg, application) and their counterparts in the more highly organized strata (eg, conceptual). To prove the main results the reduction and abduction are used. The reduction is applied to obtain the structure of the solution from the more common solutions of atlas systems. Abduction is applied to (re)prove the validity of vertical and horizontal relations for practically useful choropleth map. As additional evidence is used induction: proposed analogy between the concepts of the choropleth map strata and levels of van Gigch’s general systems theory and Bunge’s metacartography.

Autisme als meerduidig en politiek fenomeen: een disability studies perspectief

In clinical practice and research, we often explain what autism is by using several definite and seemingly neutral sentences. However, can we know what autism is in a truly objective sense? Is it moreover justified to put forward persistently the medical-clinical perspective as an explanation? To answer these questions, we first look at the interdisciplinary field of Disability Studies, paying special attention to the concept of neurodiversity. Drawing on that field and its insights, we do not only unravel the multiple meanings of autism, but we also make an argument for an urgent understanding of autism as an ambiguous and political phenomenon. This understanding implies thinking autism in contextual and relational concepts and recognizing the mutability of the phenomenon. Furthermore, by drawing on concrete examples, we demonstrate why an ambiguous and political understanding of autism is urgent, both in individual trajectories as in thinking about early autism detection and intervention. Finally, we conclude our article by arguing for an attitude of epistemic humility. We also offer some suggestions on how to implement ambiguity and political understanding of autism in a clinical and research context.

A reconstruction theory of relational schema induction

Learning transfer (i.e. accelerated learning over a series of structurally related learning tasks) differentiates species and age-groups, but the evolutionary and developmental implications of such differences are unclear. To this end, the relational schema induction paradigm employing tasks that share algebraic (group-like) structures was introduced to contrast stimulus-independent (relational) versus stimulus-dependent (associative) learning processes. However, a theory explaining this kind of relational learning transfer has not been forthcoming beyond a general appeal to some form of structure-mapping, as typically assumed in models of analogy. In this paper, we provide a theory of relational schema induction as a “reconstruction” process: the algebraic structure underlying transfer is reconstructed by comparing stimulus relations, learned within each task, for structural consistency across tasks—formally, the theory derives from a category theory version of Tannakian reconstruction. The theory also applies to non-human studies of relational concepts, thereby placing human and non-human transfer on common ground for sharper comparison and contrast. As the theory and paradigm do not depend on linguistic ability, we also have a way for pinpointing where aspects of human learning diverge from other species without begging the question of language.

On the Developmental Trajectories of Relational Concepts Among Children and Adolescents With Intellectual Disability of Undifferentiated Etiology

The aim of this study was to examine the developmental trajectories of comprehension of relational concepts among 557 participants with intellectual disability (ID) of undifferentiated etiology (M age = 12.20 years, SD = 3.18) and 557 typically developing (TD) participants (M age = 4.57 years, SD = 0.80). Logistic regression analyses, with nonverbal cognitive level entered first in the equations, showed only negligible differences with regard to the discriminative power of each of the 72 concepts used as outcome variables, and moderate differences in difficulty for only three items. A moderate mixed effect (i.e., combining a group difference in difficulty and discriminative power) was observed for a fourth item. It is concluded that the developmental trajectories of relational concepts are similar for participants with or without ID. The implications and limitations of the study are discussed.