A body without a head

Along with the recent development of various theories of the body, Lacan’s body theory aligns with postmodern thinkers such as Michael Foucault and Maurice Merlot-Ponti, who consider body social not biological. Lacan emphasizes the body of the Real, the passive condition of the body in terms of formation, identity, and understanding. Then, this condition of body shapes further in the condition of bodies of women and laborers under patriarchy and capitalism, respectively. Lacan’s ‘not all’ position, which comes from the logical square, allows women to question patriarchy’s system and alternatives of sexual identities. Lacan’s approach to feminine sexuality can be applied to women’s spirituality, emphasizing multiple narratives of body and sexual identities, including gender roles. In the social discernment and analysis in the liberation theology, we can employ the capitalist discourse, which provides a tool to understand how people are manipulated by late capitalist society, not knowing it. Lacan’s theory of ‘a body without a head’ reflects the current condition of the human body, which manifests lack, yet including some possibilities for transforming society.

The Enigma of Darwin Diagram

According to my best knowledge, for the first time here is presented a hypothesis, that the one and only "accompanying diagram" in Darwin's famous book On the Origin of Species contains, may be, a hidden code. Direct inspection reveals that the Diagram, viewed as built of four parts [(two upper and two lower / two left and two right); (two with more and two with less branches / two with multiple and two with single branches)], corresponds to the logical square of the genetic code. When, however, viewed as built of two parts (upper and lower), then it corresponds with Shcherbak’s diagram (Shcherbak, 1993, 1994) of four-codon and non-four-codon amino acids (AAs); not only by the form but also by the number of elementary quantities. [This version was storing 2015.01.06. on my website; the first one, under the title "The Darwin (hidden) code" at 2014.10.12.]

Neoplatonic "Tree of Life" (Arbor Porphyriana: A diagram of logic and mystical theology

In several versions of „Introduction to Aristotle's Categories“ („The Isagoge“) we find very intriguing diagram of the "Tree of Porphyry". This diagram is closely linked with the square of opposition (logical square), natural tree with vegetative ornaments and the anthropomorphic figure. Porphyry took over Aristotle's division into five predicables (quinque praedicabilia) and defined them through five classes (species, genus, differentia, propria, accidentia) and from them he created scala praedicamentalis (Arbor Porphyriana). The Neoplatonic-Aristotelianism of Porphyry influenced the return of interest in Aristotle's logic in the Middle Ages through translations of Boethius and Al-Farabi. Their works of logic were the basis for the study of many topics, especially those related to theology. Later diagrams with the natural tree and human figure (syndesmos) are found in the 13th century in "Tractatus" („Summulae Logicales“) written by Peter of Spain under different names such as: Tree of Love, Tree of Life, Tree of Science, Tree of Knowledge etc. Christian mysticism (Mystical theology), Islamic mysticism (Sufism) and Jewish mysticism (Kabbalah) was deeply influenced by Neoplatonic philosophy and within these mystical traditions we find different variations of the diagram aswell. Under the influence of the concept of Neoplatonic procession and reversion, mystic should be simultaneously involved in both Cataphatic and Apophatic theology to truly understand God. In other words, a spiritual person has to oscillate between affirming claims about the Tree of Life (the Being) and negation of those same claims to be able to have real knowledge of God.

The Logical Square and the Table of Oppositions

The way Frege presented the Square of Opposition in a reduced form in 1879 and 1910 can be used to develop two distinct versions of the square: The traditional square that displays inferences and a “Table of Oppositions” displaying variations of negation. This Table of Oppositions can be further simplified and thus be made more symmetrical. A brief survey of versions of the square from Aristotle to the present shows how both aspects of the square have coexisted for a very long time without ever being properly distinguished.

Carré sémiotique et interprétation des récits mythiques. — Semiotic square and the interpretation of myths

Semiotic square and the interpretation of myths. Greimas’ semiotic square is built upon the hypothesis that the concept of elementary structure of signification is operational only if subjected to a logical interpretation and formulation. However, Greimas’ commentaries on that model are questionable. On the one hand, he asserts that logical nature of the connection between any two terms, s1 and s2, is undetermined; on the other hand, he provides the relations s1 – non s1, s2 – non s2, s1 – non s2 and s2 – non s1 with a logical status. Now, since these two statements are inconsistent, a choice must be made: either these four relations have a logical significance, and then the semiotic square is a logical square, so that s1 – s2 has to be interpreted as an incompatibility relation; or s1 – s2 has no logical meaning, and then not only the status of the other relations given in the model is not logical either, but also the simple fact of applying negation to the terms s1 and s2 is meaningless. That dilemma follows from an argument, that Greimas has laid down as a principle, under which linguistic communication depends on the existence of a deep level (or immanent level) of the significance, that is supposed to precede its manifestation in speech. If, conversely, we assume that significance is produced at discursive level, and that consequently the patterning of linguistic codes relies on what could be called a semantic sedimentation process, which comes out from linguistic activity, there is no more dilemma. Such a thesis, which implies that the elementary structure of signification must be seen as the schematization by the describer of speakers’ mental activity, leads to a point of view inversion. Nevertheless, the two conditions which, according to Greimas, are required for catching the meaning are still relevant, except that, contrary to Greimas’ opinion, they now apply at the speech level: two discursive units can be opposed if they simultaneously include a common feature which join them, and a distinguishing feature which disjoin them. In order to illustrate that point, an analysis of two short amerindian myths, which Lévi-Strauss has already investigated, will be undertaken, and finally specific problems related to the interpretation of that kind of narratives will be outlined.

La transmission d'Aristote par les Arabes à la chrétienté occidentale. Une trouvaille relative au De Interpretatione

In chapter VII of On Interpretation, Aristotle alters a system of three pairs of natural contradictory propositions, in that he ignores the pair where two natural universals Men are white, Men are not white oppose each other contradictorily. This alteration has serious consequences: the two natural pairs, which Aristotle considers exclusively: All men are white versus Some men are not white and Some men are white versus No man is white are illegitimately identified to the two pairs of logical contradictories constituting the logical square: A versus 0 and I versus E respectively. Thus, the level of natural language and that of logic are confused. The unfortunate Aristotelian alteration is concealed by the translation of propositions known as indeterminates. To translate these, which, semantically, are particulars, all scholars, except for P.Gohlke, employ the two natural universals excluded by the master! The work of I. Pollak, published in Leipzig in 1913, reveals the origin of this nearly universal translation mistake: the Arabic version upon which AI-Farabi unfortunately bases his comment. In adding the vertices Y and U to the four ones of the square, the logical hexagon of Robert Blanche allows for the understanding of the manner in which the logical system and the natural system are linked.