Diderot, Reid e l’esperienza percettiva. Compensazioni sinestetiche, linguistiche ed estetiche

Sensible qualities, not presumed abstract or pure aesthetic properties, are the main source for the Diderot’s and Reid’s aesthetic theories. Both authors work on the perceptual activity in normal situations and in blind people’s cognitive experience.This essay is aimed at emphasizing both the connections between perceptual activity and aesthetic experience and the role of aesthetic devices in the cognitive life. In Diderot sensible qualities are connected to emotions; in Reid they are the natural signs of emotions and mental properties. This kind of relationship is the key to interpreting how cognitive activity is configured as an aesthetic experience because of the sensible qualities’ role.

The Triggering Track-Ways Theory

<p>In this thesis I present a new paradigm in human evolutionary theory: the relevance of track-ways reading (TWR) to the evolution of human cognition, culture and communication. Evidence is presented that strongly indicates hominins were exploiting conspecific track-ways 4 million years ago. For a non-olfactory ape that was a specialized forager in open, featureless wetland environments, they were the only viable natural signs to exploit for safety, orienteering, and recognizable social markers. Due to the unique cognitive demands of reading track-ways, as compared to scent-trails all other animals use to find each other and preferred prey species, social TWR triggered the evolution of a unique faculty for narrative elsewhere-and-when cognition in the hominin mind. Two million years later, this narrative faculty was entrenched enough to enable the rather sudden "explosion" of co-operative Oldowan Lithic Culture that began at 2.6mya. This cultural adaptation was a highly successful response to catastrophic environmental change. Thereafter selection for encephalization to increase neural capacity to store and co-operatively exploit socio-ecological knowledge gained from the hominin narrative faculty (via co-evolving, increasingly efficient modes of intentional communication) drove all further biological and cultural developments in the hominin trajectory towards H.sapiens and behavioural modernity.</p>

Sosialisasi Mitigasi Bencana Alam Tanah Longsor melalui Konsep Fisika Terpadu di Kecamatan Palolo Kabupaten Sigi

Bencana longsor merupakan salah satu peristiwa alam yang paling umum terjadi di Indonesia. Oleh karena itu, perlu adanya penambahan wawasan masyarakat tentang mitigasi bencana alam melalui kegiatan sosialisasi. Tujuan kegiatan pengabdian ini adalah untuk menambah wawasan pengetahuan fisika, teknik peringatan dini, dan mengenalkan faktor-faktor pendorong dan penghambat terjadinya bencana alam pada masyarakat Kecamatan Palolo. Kegiatan ini diikuti oleh 50 orang. Metode yang digunakan adalah sosialisasi bencana alam tanah longsor. Hasil pengabdian ini adalah bertambahnya wawasan pemahaman masyarakat terhadap konsep fisika terpadu terhadap kondisi topografi Kecamatan Palolo, teknik peringatan dini dalam mitigasi terhadap ancaman bencana alam tanah longsor, dan menemukan faktor pendorong berupa sifat gotong royong dalam menangani bencana alam tanah secara tradisional yang sudah tumbuh dalam masyarakat sebagai suatu kearifan lokal dan menjadi perhatian dalam sosialisasi. Berdasarkan kegiatan pengabdian yang telah dilakukan dapat disimpulkan bahwa pentingnya konsep fisika yang sederhana pada masyarakat dalam menangani bencana tanah longsor, diperlukannya peringatan dini yang bersifat mitigasi dari tanda-tanda alam, dan tetap melestarikan kearifan lokal gotong royong untuk menyelesaikan masalah masyarakat desa, serta pentingnya perangkat desa memotivasi masyarakat pada setiap kali kegiatan sosialisasi atau pertemuan desa secara melembaga. Landslides are one of the most common natural events in Indonesia. Therefore it is necessary to increase public knowledge about natural disaster mitigation through socialization activity. This community service aimed to broaden the knowledge of physics, early warning techniques and recognize the driving and inhibiting factors of natural disasters in the people of Palolo Subdistrict. Fifty people attended this community service. The method used was the socialization of landslide natural disasters. The results of this community service were increasing community understanding of integrated physics concept of the topographic conditions of Palolo District, early warning techniques in mitigating the threat of landslides, and finding driving factors in the form of cooperation in dealing with traditional land disasters that have grown in society as local wisdom and concern in socialization. Based on the community service that has been carried out, it can be concluded that the importance of simple physics concepts for the community in dealing with landslide disasters, the need for early warning that is mitigating natural signs, and still preserving the local wisdom of cooperation which has been in solving problems of the village community, as well as the importance of village officials motivating the community at every socialization activity or institutionalized village meeting.

The Triggering Track-Ways Theory

<p>In this thesis I present a new paradigm in human evolutionary theory: the relevance of track-ways reading (TWR) to the evolution of human cognition, culture and communication. Evidence is presented that strongly indicates hominins were exploiting conspecific track-ways 4 million years ago. For a non-olfactory ape that was a specialized forager in open, featureless wetland environments, they were the only viable natural signs to exploit for safety, orienteering, and recognizable social markers. Due to the unique cognitive demands of reading track-ways, as compared to scent-trails all other animals use to find each other and preferred prey species, social TWR triggered the evolution of a unique faculty for narrative elsewhere-and-when cognition in the hominin mind. Two million years later, this narrative faculty was entrenched enough to enable the rather sudden "explosion" of co-operative Oldowan Lithic Culture that began at 2.6mya. This cultural adaptation was a highly successful response to catastrophic environmental change. Thereafter selection for encephalization to increase neural capacity to store and co-operatively exploit socio-ecological knowledge gained from the hominin narrative faculty (via co-evolving, increasingly efficient modes of intentional communication) drove all further biological and cultural developments in the hominin trajectory towards H.sapiens and behavioural modernity.</p>

Natural signs from Plato to Thomas A. Sebeok

The paper pays tribute to Thomas A. Sebeok with an inquiry into the place of the semiotics of nature within his system of “global semiotics” and of natural signs within his typology of signs, which distinguishes “six species of signs.” It complements Sebeok’s theory of natural signs with a historical study of semiotic definitions of natural signs in four chapters. The first, “Natural signs from Plato to the Scholastics” focuses on Plato’s Cratylus, Aristotle’s “On Interpretation,” Augustine of Hippo, and the Scholastics, in particular Roger Bacon’s distinction between natural and “given” signs. The second, “Natural signs in 20th century analytical and cognitive philosophy,” discusses Rollin’s Natural and conventional meaning as well as the definitions of natural signs proposed by Jerzy Pelc, David S. Clarke, Laird Addis, and in Ruth Garret Millikan’s teleosemiotics. The third, “Structuralist strategies of excluding natural signs from semiotics” discusses how natural signs were excluded from cultural semiotics in the writings of Roland Barthes (Mythologies), Algirdas J. Greimas, and in Umberto Eco’s early semiotic writings. The fourth investigates how C. S. Peirce overcomes the dualism of nature and convention in his general theory of signs founded on evolutionary principles. The paper concludes with reflections on Sebeok’s theory of modeling as the distinctive feature of human semiosis.

The Meaning of Nyangahatn Ritual of Dayak Kanayatn Community for Disaster Mitigation

This research focused on the Nyangahatn ritual in Dayak Kanayatn indigenous people in West Kalimantan. This study uses a descriptive qualitative research method with a phenomenological approach with an emphasis on literature study. This paper uses the cultural theory, human ecology, and Disaster Mitigation and shows that there is a connection between those theories in Nyangahatn people’s rituals. Nyangahatn ritual related to the cultivation practices carried out based on the rice planting cycle. The results showed that the Nyangahatn ritual is a pearl of local wisdom, which is an effort in mitigating and adapting to disasters, especially regarding the planting and harvesting seasons. Forests or land cleared for cultivation are very calculated to avoid degradation and air sources. The Kanayatn Dayak indigenous people are very understanding about natural signs. In the process of land clearing for agriculture, it is essential to consider the ​​​​land area is to be planted so that it does not disturb the forest ecosystem. Meanwhile, the culture of balale' or gotong royong as a form of solidarity and harmony between community members is still maintained.

Perubahan Perilaku Masyarakat Petani Muslim Undaan Kudus terhadap Sistem Penanggalan Jawa Pranata Mangsa 2000-2018

This study discusses a socio-cultural history of Islam in a society regarding the reflection of the Javanese people's ability to read natural signs to determine the calculation of the seasons that will be used in farming, which is called Pranata Mangsa. The existence of the Pranata Mangsa Javanese calendar which later developed became a guideline in farming activities for Muslim farming communities in Undaan Kudus. However, if we look at several phenomena from the early 2000s AD to the present, especially regarding the seasons, of course there are many seasonal changes that occur on this Earth. The changing seasons on Earth occur due to various factors. This factor is due to the existence of several natural phenomena. This research uses historical methods and anthropological approaches. The anthropological approach can serve to study the socio-cultural background of past events, while history serves to study the cultural changes that occurred in the Muslim farming community of Undaan Kudus. This study shows that the socio-cultural conditions of the Muslim farming community are changing. The Muslim farming community of Undaan Kudus which was initially very thick with the guidelines of Pranata Mangsa with various religious ceremonies, gradually underwent a change by following the existence of modernism due to difficulties in reading natural signs.

Ibn Taymiyya on theistic signs and knowledge of God

This article aims to draw on the ‘Qur'anic Rationalism’ of Taqī al-Dīn Ibn Taymiyya (1263–1328) in elucidating an Islamic epistemology of theistic natural signs, in the lens of contemporary philosophy of religion. In articulating what Ibn Taymiyya coins ‘God's method of proof through signs (istidlāluhu taʿālā bi'l-āyāt)’, it seeks aid in particular from the work of C. Stephen Evans and other contemporary philosophers of religion, in an attempt to understand the relevance and force of this alternative to natural theology within the Islamic tradition. In doing so, it aims to respond to existing criticisms of Ibn Taymiyya's perspective in the literature, and to consider the implications of a Taymiyyan reading of theistic natural signs, on the epistemic function of Qur'anic āyāt as theistic evidence.

Disaster Management of Dempo Volcano Eruption, Pagar Alam City - Indonesia Based on Local Wisdom

This research aims to identify various forms of local wisdom in disaster mitigation in the Dempo volcano eruption and determine the level of community understanding of local wisdom in disaster management. This research uses the descriptive explanative method. The analysis used is a combination of qualitative and quantitative descriptive analysis. The results of this study have identified several forms of local wisdom in disaster management in communities in the Dempo volcano. Cultural semiotics in the form of community advice and teachings, and the call to prayer when there is potential for eruption. Faunal semiotics in the form of the behaviour of various types of animals, vegetal semiotics in the condition of natural plants and cultivation, and physical semiotics in the form of natural signs. Public knowledge of local wisdom and disaster management is generally still low.