On the Status of Newtonian Gravitational Radiation

We discuss the status of gravitational radiation in Newtonian theories. In order to do so, we (i) consider various options for interpreting the Poisson equation as encoding propagating solutions, (ii) reflect on the extent to which limit considerations from general relativity can shed light on the Poisson equation’s conceptual status, and (iii) discuss various senses in which the Poisson equation counts as a (non-)dynamical equation.

Design Discourse: An Outline of the Terminological Apparatus

Design is a relatively young field, increasingly in demand in modern culture – not only within its professionally established limits but also as a technique for generating new ideas and products in business, education, urbanism etc. Strengthening the professional boundaries of design as a form-building activity whose purpose is harmonization of human material environment can be done through a discursive approach. It provides the opportunity to “equalize” the material and ideal origins of design. This article explores the implementation mechanisms and the specific language means of design discourse. The necessity of giving conceptual status of such terms as “concept”, “sketch”, “layout”, “module”, “thing” and various others is shown. This research into the social-communicative aspect of design allows to develop an original and relevant system of concepts that can help not only to analyse the design processes and forms but also to establish its limits. This could help to address a number of more concrete theoretical problems, including specific design methods that distinguish it from artistic, architectural, marketing and general research methods. Keywords: design, design discourse, design thinking, form, objectivity, project, project implementation, concept

Textual Presupposition: An Intertextual Account

Whereas there has been ample research on presupposition, and different taxonomies have been put forward on the various types of presupposition, presupposition triggers, on the difference between entailment and presupposition, and on the dichotomy semantic presupposition/pragmatic presupposition, the interrelationship between presupposition and intertextuality has not received due attention. In some philosophical and linguistic accounts, the presupposition is preserved as a meaning-based notion and thereby accounted for in non -intertextual way where only propositions that are accepted and taken for granted by speaker/ writer count. The present study argues for an intertextual account of presupposition, where the proposition is not the property of the speaker/writer per se; rather, the presupposed proposition is interpreted in terms of intertextual relations with previous texts. The aim of the present article was to find; changed to, what kind of knowledge text producers expect their audience to have to be able to process new texts; what kind of knowledge text producers presuppose in the creation of new texts; the conceptual status of presupposition when new information is conveyed; and how presuppositions obtain in the case of intertextuality. This has been accomplished by drawing on both notions: Presupposition and intertextuality to argue whereas the two notions have been kept separate in non-intertextual accounts on presupposed propositions, both notions work on the same level of drawing on the text, and therefore to argue for coining a new term textual presupposition.

Beyond Equality and Discrimination

The societal frame of the “economically disadvantaged” is rooted in a distinction between a conceptual status of equality and the actuality of discrimination and disadvantage. This paradigm provides the governing logic for both criticism and justification of the status quo. This Article questions whether and to what extent this equality/antidiscrimination logic has lost its effectiveness as a critical tool and what, if anything, should be the foundation of the rationale that supplements or even replaces it.

Must/need, may/can and the scope of the modal auxiliary

This article argues that the logical paraphrases used to describe the meanings of must, need, may, and can obscure the natural-language semantic interaction between these verbs and negation. The purported non-negatability of must is argued to be an illusion created by the indicative-mood paraphrase ‘is necessary’, which treats the necessity as a reality rather than a non-reality. It is proposed that negation coalesces with the modality that must itself expresses to produce a negatively-charged version of must’s modality: the subject of musn’t is represented as being in a state of constraint in which the only possibility open to the subject is oriented in the opposite direction to the realization of the infinitive’s event. The study also constitutes an argument against a lexicalization analysis: in the combination mustn’t, must and not each contribute their own meaning to the resultant sense, but according to their conceptual status as inherently irrealis notions.

Sketching the Contours of State Authenticity

We outline a program of research in which we examined state authenticity, the sense of being one’s true self. In particular, we describe its phenomenology (what it feels like to be experience authenticity), its correlates (e.g., emotions, needs), its nomological network (e.g., real-ideal self overlap, public and private self-consciousness), its cultural parameters (Easter and Western culture), its precursors or determinants (congruency, positivity, and hedonism), and its psychological health implications. We conclude by arguing that state authenticity deserves its own conceptual status, distinct from trait authenticity, and by setting an agenda for future research.

Status of the class in the critque of political economy and politics.

This essay is centered on the element of the class, often removed in these years, focusing on its conceptual status, its relationship with reality and its critical potential. To address this theoretical plexus, the reference to Marx remains crucial. My essay, which tries to make reflection of Marx (and some Marxist theorists) interact with the contemporary debate, is divided into three parts. The first deals with the relationship between the critique of political economy and politics. The second focuses on the consequences of this approach on the status of the class. In the third part I try to highlight strengths and open problems in the investigated approach. What is at stake is to understand how we can relaunch this question in today’s scenario, changed with respect to the Marxian context, and on the basis of an interaction between the lines of class and race.