Intorno al brutto. Una categoria controversa

Paul Valéry, in his “Discourse on Aesthetics”, which he pronounced in 1936 in front of an audience of philosophers, reproached them, accusing aesthetics in particular of having pursued the abstract idea of beauty for too long, losing itself in the shadows of specialized terminology or in verbal games and thus forgetting the varied reality of works of art. Following an abstract idea of beauty means losing sight of the artistic object. It also means deluding oneself that the ugly is merely a counterbalance to a dominant category. But what does ugly mean? Its ambivalence lies precisely in a continuous oscillation between an evaluative and a descriptive use. There is a duplicity, so that on the one hand it expresses a negative judgment, and on the other hand - suspending its normal semantic destiny - it reclaims for itself some positivity. It is precisely from this positivity that the ugly begins its journey in the field of aesthetics.

Angus Fletcher’s Other Literary Darwinism

Angus Fletcher pitches his book to general readers. Though it consists of literary criticism, it is designed as a psychological self-help manual-literature as therapy. Fletcher's thera­peutic program is presented as an alternative to the kind of literary Darwinism that iden­tifies human nature as the basis for literature. He acknowledges the existence of human nature but aims at transcending it by promoting an Aquarian ethos of harmony and un­derstanding. He has some gifts of style, but the dominant voice in his stylistic blend is that of the shill hawking a patent medicine. He presents himself as a modern sage who reveals an ancient but long-lost technique for using literature to boost happiness and well-being. Each of his 25 chapters identifies a distinct literary technique and uses popularized neuro­science to describe its supposedly beneficial psychological effects. Fletcher’s chains of rea­soning are habitually tenuous, and his exposition is littered with factual errors that betray ignorance of the books, genres, and periods he discusses. Despite its shortcomings, Fletch­er’s book has received encomiums from prestigious researchers, including the psychologist Martin Seligman and the neuroscientist Antonio Damasio. In evaluating Fletcher’s rhetor­ical style, analytic categories, Aquarian ethos, historical self-narrative, pattern of reasoning, and literary scholarship, this review essay reaches a more negative judgment about the value of his book. As an alternative to Fletcher’s book, I recommend a few evolutionary literary works for general readers.

Three problems of neo-Marxism, or What you need to know before using a neo-Marxist approach

The maturity of the neo-Marxist approach in cognition is determined not only by the heuristics of its theoretical and methodological foundations, but also by self-critical reflection. Three initial problems of the neo-Marxist approach are identified, which are useful to take into account when using it in scientific research: excessive criticism of neo-Marxist cognition, ideological bias of the neo-Marxist approach, conceptual uncertainty of capitalism as an object of neo-Marxism. It is proved that the ideological component is falsely identified with all neo-Marxism, and the critical component is treated trivially. The problem of the neo-Marxist approach lies not in the fact of a negative judgment about the reality under study, but in the level of theoretical and methodological support for the critical approach. It is necessary to distinguish criticism as a negative judgment and criticism as a dialectical logic of negation. The researcher can avoid the critical and ideological component of neo-Marxist research within the framework of the scientific tradition of neo-Marxism. This tradition does not deprive the researcher of the possibility of scientific search for new socio-economic reasons for the transformation of capitalism or new political ones by the subject of anti-capitalist resistance. The difference is that the ideological goal setting orients the researcher to the construction of the revolutionary situation of capitalism, and the scientific one – to the knowledge of the revolutionary factors of the existing «capitalist construct». More complex problem of the neo-Marxist approach is the conceptual uncertainty of capitalism. This problem requires a solution at the level of the community of neo-Marxist theorists. The unresolved nature of this problem affects the initial positions of new neo-Marxist studies. It does not allow us to define capitalism as an object of neo-Marxist research of any subject orientation. There are two options for a research strategy in this situation. First, it is possible, based on the conventional concept of truth, to join some neo-Marxist definition of modern capitalism and implement one’s subject research within the framework of the tradition of a particular neo-Marxist theorist. Secondly, it is possible to use the hypothetical-deductive method and proceed from the chosen understanding of capitalism as a hypothetical position, where the author’s subject of research is constituted as a consequence of this hypothesis and requires a verification check for truth. The solvability of general neo-Marxist epistemological problems means that there are no obstacles to the widespread application of neo-Marxism in social cognition.

Esteem, Social Norms and Status Inequality

When we appraise others as talented or virtuous, we esteem them: we register admiration of their traits and virtues. It is generally believed that, unless they involve a violation of respect, distributions of esteem are not a concern from the point of view of justice. In this paper, I want to dispute this commonly-held view. I will argue that attributions of esteem can become problematic when a particular trait becomes such a uniquely relevant source of social esteem in a community that its absence becomes a reason to regard others as less than full members of the community. For instance, in contemporary capitalist societies those perceived as lacking certain socially valued traits and unable or unwilling to make certain kinds of contribution to the community, such as those who are unemployed or have committed criminal offences, are widely disesteemed and also regarded as inferior qua members of the community by others. From the fact that they fail to possess particular qualities a broader negative judgment of their ability to contribute to the community is inferred. Moreover, their failure to gain esteem in these pervasive domains eclipses their possession of other esteem-worthy traits as well as other positive contributions they might have made to society. This perception of inferiority renders it impossible for them to live on equal terms with other citizens. I argue that as egalitarians we should oppose these distributions of esteem.

AN APPRAISAL ANALYSIS OF NARRATIVE TEXT FROM THE 11TH GRADE ENGLISH TEXTBOOK

This present study explain the appraisal devices especially the attitude types. Appraisal theory is the development of Systemic Functional Linguistics theory in the realm of interpersonal meaning initiated by Martin and White. This study used qualitative research with discourse analysis (DA) techniques. The object of analysis in this study is narrative text of the English textbooks for senior high school students published by the Ministry of Education and Culture. This study employed a document analysis as a technique for collecting data. The findings showed that there were 65 systems of attitude which consist of 19 positive affect, 25 negative affect, 8 positive judgment, 8 negative judgment, 1 positive appreciation, and 4 negative appreciation.

Exploring the Enjoyment of the Intergenerational Physical Activity

Intergenerational physical activity could be a pleasant method to prevent elderly sedentary behaviors. The aim of this study is to provide a basis to develop an intergenerational physical activity between preschool children and elderly people. An assessing enjoyment three questionnaire survey was administered to 140 participants (aged 67.8 ± 9.1): the global physical activity questionnaire (GPAQ) assessing the sedentariness degree; the physical activity enjoyment scale (PACES-Q) assessing enjoyment for the physical activity usually practiced; the physical activity enjoyment scale (PACES-INT) assessing the enjoyment for a hypothetical intergenerational program. Successively, the sample was divided into subgroups based on age, gender, marital status, education, employment, sports background, sedentariness level and residential location. Four multichoice questions, aiming to have guidelines in organizing an intergenerational program, were used. A total of 44.3% of the sample found the physical activity practiced pleasant, whereas 81.5% enjoyed the intergenerational program (only 7.1% expressed a negative judgment). A separated one-way ANOVA showed significant differences in PACES-INT for gender, (p = 0.009), residential location, (p < 0.001) and employment (p = 0.004). About 80% of the sample would adhere to the intergenerational programs, despite the fatigue fear and logistic or family relationship problems.

INDONESIA GOVERNMENT’S PREVENTION OF COVID-19: CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS STUDY

COVID-19 information is massively reported by media and social network focus not only on the spreading and infection but also on the government’s prevention in handling the pandemic. Thus this study, under Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis (CDA) and by using Appraisal System as a tool for textual analysis, is aimed to gain insight and understanding regarding how Indonesia government’s prevention of COVID-19 in the beginning of pandemic crisis are presented in media, specifically The Jakarta Post. The result shows to some extents. Firstly Appraisal System used in the text analysis level presents that the news report published by The Jakarta Post is overridden by the voice placing the government as the target of negative JUDGMENT. Secondly, Appraisal System analysis leads to explanatory critique of the news text regarding reader positioning. The lack of representations of other choice positively or neutrally on the text strongly give the dynamic-negative meaning to the target audience.

Metaphorical perceptions of physical education and sports: An evaluation from the perspective of pre-service teachers

This study has been designed to examine pre-service teachers' metaphorical perceptions of physical education and sports. In this study, phenomenology, one of the qualitative research designs, was used. The study group consists of 60 pre-service teachers studying at the Department of Physical Education and Sports Teaching at Şırnak University during the 2020-2021 academic year. Research data were obtained from the statements of students who were asked to complete the sentence "Physical Education and sports are like … for me because ... ". Research data were analysed using the content analysis method. The analysis of the data consists of stages including classification, elimination, category development, validity and reliability tests, and interpretation of the metaphors obtained in the study, respectively. Six categories were created in this study in which the metaphorical perceptions of pre-service teachers of the concept of physical education and sports were examined. Categories created for physical education and sports were healthy/quality life, life/lifestyle, freedom/entertainment, indispensable/sine qua non, source of peace/love, and development. As a result, it was determined that pre-service teachers have positive opinions about physical education and sports and have no negative judgment.

“Why attacking the Bureau of Industry and Commerce?”: news value flow to news comments on Chinese social media

Comments on social media provide a suitable site to view text-reader relations from the perspective of news reading. This article interrogates readers’ evaluative responses to Weibo shared news in China. The study, drawing upon Discursive News Values Analysis and appraisal, first identifies the news values of Eliteness, Personalization, Negativity and Positivity in a news story about car quality sourced from the Weibo network of People’s Daily. Then the following 1027 comments, including Chinese characters and emojis, are investigated by using a mixed-methods approach. The corpus analysis shows that business Eliteness (the Mercedes dealership) and Personalization (the buyer) are convergently valued news actors, while readers evaluate authoritative Eliteness (the Bureau) in an unexpected way. Close examination of the appraisal devices in the comments uncovers a divergence between negative judgment toward Eliteness and positive affect/judgment for Personalization. Emojis play an important role in activating attitudes through the interplay with language. In commentary journalism, the readers’ response can influence news value decisions when there is a mismatch between the news values promoted by news organizations and the values that readers perceive as newsworthy.

The Principle of Excluded Middle in Kant

The principle of excluded middle is more important than is commonly believed for understanding Kant's overall philosophical project. In the article, this principle is examined in the following contexts: (i) kinds of judgments, (ii) concepts of opposition, negation, and determination, and (iii) apagogic proof. It is first explained how the principle of excluded middle is employed by Kant in distinguishing between the kinds of judgment. Also called the principle of division, it is the principle of disjunctive and apodictic judgments in Kant's famous table of judgments. Next, the Author shows which kind of opposition is related to the principle of the excluded middle. As a merely logical criterion of truth, this principle grounds the logical necessity of a cognition and plays an important role in the use of apagogical proofs. Then Kant's account of logical negation will be investigated briefly. Negative judgment with a negative copula indicates that something is not contained within the sphere of a given concept. This process occurs in accordance with the principle of excluded middle. Finally, an analysis is made of how Kant presents the metaphysical principle of thoroughgoing determination and its differences from the logical principle of excluded middle.