Food in the communicative perspective: linguacultural approach

The article makes an attempt to characterise the act of eating as a communicative event and a cultural text: the analysis is based on the model of communication, theory of information and the general theory of signs. The main objective of the analysis is focused on reconstruction of the linguistic and cultural picture of eating in communication. In the description of the data, references are made to selected research methods and tools of linguistic semantics, particularly in its cultural variant. The data under consideration were initially limited to Polish linguaculture but in the course of analysis examples from other cultures were incorporated. While constructing a communicative model of eating, a basic distinction is made between the performer of an action (the eater) and the object of this action (the food). The analysis of the data reveals that apart from the verbally expressed information about who eats, what they eat, and how they do it. Another significant role in coding meaning is played by the accompanying non-verbal communication (eating-related sounds or the eater’s body language), as well as conventional signals replacing verbal formulas (communication through an arrangement of the cutlery, the dish itself or a specific manner of consumption).

The Pragmatics of Evidence Discourse

This chapter explores a number of pragmatic aspects of the evidentiary discourse. By calling them “pragmatic” the author refers to the aspects that are typically the province of “pragmatics” and can be generically defined as the study of the use of language in context; and by “evidence discourse” he refers to the discourse that is carried out about juridical evidence. This discussion restates the basic distinction between semantics and pragmatics and then addresses the nature of the speech acts in evidence discourse, the role of implicatures and presuppositions, and the place of deixis, i.e., the use of indexicals and demonstratives. The author claims that evidence discourse is predominantly assertive; that problems associated with implicatures are abated as questioners are skilled and questions are specific; that exploitation of presuppositions is avoided by attorneys’ vigilance and judicial control; and, finally, that deixis reveals the discourse’s ostensive dimension.

What's faith got to do with it?

“What’s faith got to do with it?” In this paper we explore the multilayered role of faith in two food banks in Toronto. We are drawing on a larger study of five partnerships between faithbased organizations and others for the common good, a study that unpacks the interesting dynamics of collaborations involving at least one faith partner. In the selection we have made for our present paper, the reader can expect to find a description and analysis of those dynamics as they pertain to individuals, groups, religious and secular organizations, new immigrants and long time residents, a rich variety of faith groups—all around the issues of having enough to eat, human dignity and the formation of community. When we use the word “faith” we are aware of the multiplicity of meanings carried by the term. There is a basic distinction, famously formulated by Wilfred Cantwell Smith, between the faith that animates and is held by an individual and ‘a faith’ in the sense of a world religion, which has a history, traditions, sacred texts, liturgy, normative practices, teachings, creeds, buildings, authorized leaders— in short all the characteristics of a religion established over many centuries. Of course, there is a symbiotic relationship between the personal and the institutional. Each enlarges and enriches the other; neither can exist without the other. Keywords: CVSS, Centre for Voluntary Sector Studies, Working Paper Series,TRSM, Ted Rogers School of Management Citation:

What's faith got to do with it?

“What’s faith got to do with it?” In this paper we explore the multilayered role of faith in two food banks in Toronto. We are drawing on a larger study of five partnerships between faithbased organizations and others for the common good, a study that unpacks the interesting dynamics of collaborations involving at least one faith partner. In the selection we have made for our present paper, the reader can expect to find a description and analysis of those dynamics as they pertain to individuals, groups, religious and secular organizations, new immigrants and long time residents, a rich variety of faith groups—all around the issues of having enough to eat, human dignity and the formation of community. When we use the word “faith” we are aware of the multiplicity of meanings carried by the term. There is a basic distinction, famously formulated by Wilfred Cantwell Smith, between the faith that animates and is held by an individual and ‘a faith’ in the sense of a world religion, which has a history, traditions, sacred texts, liturgy, normative practices, teachings, creeds, buildings, authorized leaders— in short all the characteristics of a religion established over many centuries. Of course, there is a symbiotic relationship between the personal and the institutional. Each enlarges and enriches the other; neither can exist without the other. Keywords: CVSS, Centre for Voluntary Sector Studies, Working Paper Series,TRSM, Ted Rogers School of Management Citation:

Adversidade, resignação e espiritualidade: uma abordagem na perspectiva das ciências das religiões em tempos de COVID-19 | Adversity, resignation, and spirituality: an approach to the perspective of religion sciences in COVID-19 times

O presente trabalho versa sobre a prática da espiritualidade em tempos de enfrentamento de adversidades. Tomando como base o componente multidisciplinar presente nas Ciências das Religiões, traz de forma resumida o campo de atuação de algumas dessas ciências objetivando clarificar aos leitores as diversas possibilidades de se debater e investigar o fenômeno religioso de um modo em geral. Apresenta a distinção básica entre religião e religiosidade e de que maneira a religiosidade se aproxima da espiritualidade. Respaldado em conceitos de espiritualidade e nos envoltórios vinculados à composição do ser, toma como ponto de partida a espiritualidade praticada pelos indivíduos. Utiliza algumas situações vivenciadas por sujeitos da região do sertão no enfrentamento da escassez de chuvas e como esses enfrentamentos podem se relacionar com o atual cenário de pandemia provocado pelo coronavírus Covid-19. Utilizou-se uma metodologia qualitativa descritiva com uso de fontes bibliográficas e algumas analogias com teor de subjetividades por se tratar de situações categorizadas dentro do tempo presente ou mesmo do tempo imediato. Os resultados apontam para além da racionalidade que se espera em termos de resoluções práticas, o uso da espiritualidade como mecanismo de resignação em tempos adversos. AbstractThis paper deals with the practice of spirituality in times of coping with adversity. Based on the multidisciplinary component present in the Sciences of Religions, it summarizes the field of action of some of these sciences in order to clarify to readers the various possibilities of debating and investigating the religious phenomenon in general. It presents the basic distinction between religion and religiosity and how religiosity approaches spirituality. Based on brief concepts of spirituality and on the wraps linked to the composition of the human being, it takes as its starting point the spirituality practiced by individuals. It uses some situations experienced by individuals from Sertão (a region in Brazil) in coping with the rainfall shortage and how these confrontations can be related to the current pandemic scenario caused by the Covid-19 coronavirus. It was used a descriptive qualitative methodology using bibliographic sources and some analogies with subjectivity content, owing to the fact that these situations are categorized within the present time or even the immediate time. The results point beyond the rationality that is expected in terms of practical resolutions, the use of spirituality as a mechanism of resignation in adverse times.O presente trabalho versa sobre a prática da espiritualidade em tempos de enfrentamento de adversidades. Tomando como base o componente multidisciplinar presente nas Ciências das Religiões, traz de forma resumida o campo de atuação de algumas dessas ciências objetivando clarificar aos leitores as diversas possibilidades de se debater e investigar o fenômeno religioso de um modo em geral. Apresenta a distinção básica entre religião e religiosidade e de que maneira a religiosidade se aproxima da espiritualidade. Respaldado em conceitos de espiritualidade e nos envoltórios vinculados à composição do ser, toma como ponto de partida a espiritualidade praticada pelos indivíduos. Utiliza algumas situações vivenciadas por sujeitos da região do sertão no enfrentamento da escassez de chuvas e como esses enfrentamentos podem se relacionar com o atual cenário de pandemia provocado pelo coronavírus Covid-19. Utilizou-se uma metodologia qualitativa descritiva com uso de fontes bibliográficas e algumas analogias com teor de subjetividades por se tratar de situações categorizadas dentro do tempo presente ou mesmo do tempo imediato. Os resultados apontam para além da racionalidade que se espera em termos de resoluções práticas, o uso da espiritualidade como mecanismo de resignação em tempos adversos.

Why Not-doings are Special

This chapter discusses criminal liability for omissions. The criminal law draws a basic distinction between things done and things not done. Its default rule is that one is not accountable for failing to prevent something that it would be a crime to bring about by a positive act. There are, of course, exceptions to the default rule, in as much as the law often imposes distinct duties to intervene and prevent harm. However, the concern in this chapter is with why the default rule itself should exist. One reason is that not-doings are typically less culpable, and the law has good reasons to acknowledge this by means of its default rule requiring a positive act. More importantly, though, the doing/not-doing distinction matters for reasons of ascriptive responsibility. Distinct duties are, first and foremost, conduits to holding the defendant accountable for an event or outcome. Absent such a duty, a not-doer is prima facie not accountable for the consequences of her deed: whereas a doer is. The chapter looks first at the nature of not-doings and omissions generally; considers whether not-doings really are less culpable; then investigates the argument from ascriptive responsibility for differentiating their treatment.

Replication and Reproducibility

This chapter focuses on replication and reproducibility. A single observation cannot be trusted. Similarly, findings from a single experimental investigation may reflect some regularity but they may also be due to chance, artefacts, or misinterpretations. Therefore, it is necessary to repeat the respective research procedure in order to validate the observations from the first study. Such a repetition is called replication. It is a very basic methodological tool that serves to transform an observation into a piece of validated knowledge. An observation or relationship that is found repeatedly and is also found under various scope conditions fulfils the important scientific criteria of reproducibility. There are different types of replications. The most basic distinction is between a narrow-bounded notion of replication termed direct replication and a wider notion of replication termed conceptual replication.

Informing the Classification of Positive Emotional Experiences: A Multisample Examination of Hierarchical Models of Positive Emotionality

Despite being multifaceted in nature, positive emotional (PE) experiences often are studied using only global PE ratings, and measures assessing more specific PE facets do not converge in their assessment approaches. To address these issues, we examined hierarchical factor structures of ratings of positive emotionality, which reflect propensities for experiencing PE, in both online community adult (N = 375) and undergraduate (N = 447) samples. Preregistered analyses indicated (a) a basic distinction between tendencies to experience social affection and other PE types, and that (b) PE ratings define as many as four replicable factors of Joviality, Social Affection, Serenity, and Attentiveness. These PE dimensions also showed divergent personality and psychopathology correlates in some ways. Collectively, these results highlight the need to consider distinct PE facets in addition to global PE ratings when assessing PE, as well as the need for additional research clarifying PE structure at different levels of abstraction.

Domesticating Social Taxonomies: Local and National Identifications as Seen Through Susan Drucker's Anthropological Fieldwork in Jamiltepec, Oaxaca, Mexico, 1957–1963

This article proposes an archaeology of the anthropological research undertaken by Susan Drucker in Jamiltepec, Oaxaca, in the late 1950s. I contrast the book that stemmed from this research with her undergraduate thesis and, above all, her field diaries to document the existence of two distinct sets of social nomenclature in Mexico: a local one rooted in Jamiltepec and characterized by a plurality of elusive classifications, and a national one founded on a basic distinction between the categories indigenous and mestizo. I argue that the transition between the local and the national one can be characterized as a domestication of social taxonomies, a process that reduced the multiplicity of identification positions circulating locally to the indigenous/mestizo binary and that above all did away with the mobile, unstable quality of those local identification positions in order to frame them as ontological categories. I thus demonstrate that the ideology of mestizaje, rather than operating on societies that were homogenously indigenous, intervened, in multidirectional ways, into complex local hierarchies.

Cassirer’s Reception of Dedekind and the Structuralist Transformation of Mathematics

Ernst Cassirer was a keen observer of development in the mathematical sciences, especially in the 19th and early 20th centuries. In this essay, the focus is on his reception of Dedekind’s contributions to the foundations of mathematics, and with it, on Dedekind’s mathematical structuralism. Cassirer adopts that structuralism early on, defends it against a number of criticisms, and embeds it into a rich historical account of the structuralist transformation of modern mathematical science. He also adds some original elements to our understanding of structuralism, e.g., by relating it to the Kantian notion of the “construction of concepts” in mathematics, by introducing a basic distinction between “substance concepts” and “function concepts”, and by tracing the “unfolding” of structuralist aspects far back in the history of thought. Overall, Cassirer’s approach is guided by the conviction that the metaphysics of modern mathematics should be approached by way of its distinctive methodology.