Some advances in legal practical reason: for a progressive dialogue with contemporary hermeneutics

This paper intends to critically discuss some points of the contemporary thesis concerning constitutional hermeneutics and methodology of law. Once identified some authors and the lines of argumentation affiliated grosso modo to the linguistic turn and rhetoric, as well as the core of the transcendental powers of communication (v.g. N. MacCormick, R. Alexy, K. Günther), the objective is to identify some dialogue with economics and political science, enlightened by recent researches about Hegel-Marx interpretations of social life. Of course the discussion inevitably passes through methodological questions, opposing analytics vs. dialectics, idealistic vs. realists standpoints. In a effort to foment the inclusive dialogue between points of view concerning the concept of law that may create (not necessarily) radical opponents, the lines of conclusion intents to revisit some foundations of Hegelian "method" (so to speak) and intends to give a modest contribution to a more profound analysis of the relations between sein and sollen categories, in order to enrich the discussions about technology and social life, specially the life of the law nowadays

Iterative differential Galois theory: a model theoretic approach

This paper introduces a natural extension of Kolchin's differential Galois theory to positive characteristic iterative differential fields, generalizing to the non-linear case the iterative Picard-Vessiot theory recently developed by Matzat and van der Put. We use the methods and framework provided by the model theory of iterative differential fields. We offer a definition of strongly normal extension of iterative differential fields, and then prove that these extensions have good Galois theory and that a G-primitive element theorem holds. In addition, making use of the basic theory of arc spaces of algebraic groups, we define iterative logarithmic equations, finally proving that our strongly normal extensions are Galois extensions for these equations

The Development and Validation of the Relational Depth Frequency Scale

Background: Relational depth is defined as ‘a state of profound contact and engagement between two people, in which each person is fully real with the Other, and able to understand and value the other’s experiences at a high level’ (Mearns and Cooper, 2005, p. xii). The concept emerged in humanistic therapies and became an area of interest in research on the therapeutic relationship. Evidence suggests relational depth may be associated to psychological growth and therapy outcome. The Relational Depth Inventory (Wiggins, 2007) provided a first instrument to measure presence of relational depth in a significant event. To this day there is no validated instrument to measure the frequency of relational depth in therapy. Aims: The principal aim of this project is to develop and validate a scale that can reliably measure the frequency of relational depth in therapy. Other aims include explorations of the demographic moderators of the frequency of relational depth. Methods: Standard procedures included the creation of an item pool, expert rating of items, and Three-Step Test interviews. A psychometric exploration was used to assess internal consistency in a sample of 556 clients and therapists, convergent validity with the RDI and WAI-SR, divergent validity with a measure of self-compassion, a principal component analysis, and associations in demographic variables. Findings and further research: The 20-item Relational Depth Frequency Scale (RDFS) has excellent reliability in this sample and good initial construct validity. We uncovered two dimensions of relational depth: enduring relational depth and intense moments of relational depth. Therapists had higher relational depth frequency (RDF) than clients. Qualified practitioners had higher RDF than trainees. Individuals who self-identified as spiritual had higher RDF than those who self-identified as atheists. Therapists had higher RDF the longer the therapy was. Clients showed lower RDF between the sixth and twenty-fourth session. The RDFS can be used for further research, particularly in assessing the predictive validity of relational depth on outcome.</br

Product of invariant types modulo domination–equivalence

We investigate the interaction between the product of invariant types and domination–equivalence. We present a theory where the latter is not a congruence with respect to the former, provide sufficient conditions for it to be, and study the resulting quotient when it is