Transfiguración y crítica: Foucault, Baudelaire y la ontología del presente

De manière quelque peu surprenante, la figure de Charles Baudelaire apparaît au cœur de l’écrit de Michel Foucault consacré aux Lumières et à la Réponse de Kant à la question : Was ist Aufklärung? Foucault s’appuie sur Le peintre de la vie moderne de Baudelaire pour caractériser celle qui, à son avis, doit être considérée comme l’attitude de la modernité. Dans sa description du travail du dessinateur Constantin Guys, Baudelaire aurait capturé le trait principal de cette attitude : «À l’heure où le monde entier entre en sommeil, il se met, lui, au travail, et il le transfigure. Transfiguration qui n’est pas annulation du réel, mais jeu difficile entre la vérité du réel et l’exercice de la liberté. […] Pour l’attitude de modernité, la haute valeur du présent est indissociable de l’acharnement à l’imaginer, à l’imaginer autrement qu’il n’est et à le transformer non pas en le détruisant, mais en le captant dans ce qu’il est. La modernité baudelairienne est un exercice où l’extrême attention au réel est confrontée à la pratique d’une liberté qui toute à la fois respecte ce réel et le viole». La communication consistera dans un commentaire de ce texte, afin de montrer que l’idée de « transfiguration », qui joue un rôle central dans ce passage, peut être utilisée pour mieux comprendre l’idée foucaldienne de critique : une description qui capte les déterminations historiques qui ont constitué notre présent (à travers des recherches archéologiques et généalogiques) et, en même temps, montre les possibilités ouvertes de transformation et d’inauguration de nouveauté (à travers l’ontologie historique du présent). Au cœur de la critique comme tâche de la philosophie, on trouve chez Foucault, à coté de Kant, la figure littéraire de Baudelaire.Sorprendentemente, la figura de Charles Baudelaire aparece en el texto de Michel Foucault dedicado a las Luces y a la “Respuesta” de Kant a la pregunta: Was ist Aufklärung ? Foucault se apoya en El pintor de la vida moderna de Baudelaire para caracterizar la “actitud de la modernidad”. En su descripción del trabajo del dibujante Constantin Guys, Baudelaire habría agarrado el rasgo principal de esta actitud: “En el momento en que el mundo entero entra en el sueño, él se pone a trabajar y lo transfigura. Transfiguración que no es cancelación de lo real, sino juego difícil entre la verdad de lo real y el ejercicio de la libertad […] Para la actitud de la modernidad, el alto valor del presente es indisociable del empeño en imaginarlo, en imaginarlo de otro modo que no es y en transformarlo no destruyéndolo, sino capturándolo en lo que es. La modernidad baudelairiana es un ejercicio en el que la extrema atención a lo real se enfrenta a la practica de una libertad que a la vez respeta este real y lo viola”. El articulo consistirá en un comentario de este texto, con el fin de demostrar que la idea de “transfiguración” que desempeña un papel central en este pasaje, puede utilizarse para comprender mejor la idea foucaldiana de crítica: una descripción que capta las determinaciones históricas que han constituido nuestro presente (a través de investigaciones arqueológicas y genealógicas) y que, al mismo tiempo, muestra las posibilidades abiertas de transformación y de novedad (a través de la ontología del presente). En el centro de la crítica como tarea de la filosofía, se encuentra en Foucault, junto a Kant, la figura literaria de Baudelaire

La biopolítica en tiempos de pandemia. Sobre algunas reflexiones de Roberto Esposito a partir de Foucault

Abstract: This article discusses how the Foucauldian theme of biopolitics has returned to the center of attention in Italian philosophy during the pandemic period. In particular, the article focuses on the thought of Roberto Esposito, who, in his latest book, Immunità comune. La biopolitica nell’epoca della pandemia (2022), has revisited some of his previous reflections on biopolitics (cf. Bios. Biopolitica e filosofia, 2004), updating them in light of the current situation. This has allowed him to position himself in the debate on the pandemic and discuss the possibility of using the Foucauldian category of biopolitics to understand our present and outline current forms of political action

Isolation of intermediate valence hybrids between ferrous and methemoglobin at subzero temperatures.

Quenching a hemoglobin solution partially saturated with carbon monoxide into a hydro-organic solvent containing ferricyanide will produce under suitable conditions a population of partially oxidized and CO-bound hemoglobin molecules. Since each Fe3+ heme carries one extra charge, it should be possible, in theory, to resolve the spectrum of intermediate compounds between hemoglobin and carbon monoxide, which was originally present in solution. In this study we report: 1) the development of a simple and rapid method to quench aqueous hemoglobin solutions into a hydro-organic solvent at subzero temperatures; 2) the determination of suitable experimental conditions to isolate valence hybrids between carbonmonoxy- and methemoglobin by isoelectric focusing at temperatures as low as -25 degrees C; and 3) the identification and isolation of all valence hybrids of different charge between carbonmonoxy- and methemoglobin

A multi-range approach for Cultural Heritage survey: a case study in Mantua Unesco site

In this paper, a Cultural Heritage survey, performed by employing and integrating different type of acquisition technologies (imagebased and active sensor based) is presented. The aim of the survey is to create a 3D multiscale database, therefore, different restitution scales, from the architectural-urban one to a detail one are taken in consideration. This research is part of a project financed by the Unesco for the study of historical gardens located in Mantua and Sabbioneta, and in particular for the Palazzo Te renaissance gardens in Mantua, which are reported in this paper. First of all, a general survey of the area has been realized by employing the classical aerial photogrammetry in order to provide the actual arboreal and urban furniture conditions of the gardens (1:500 scale). Next, a detailed photogrammetric survey of the Esedra courtyard in Palazzo Te has been performed by using a UAV system. At the end, laser scanning and traditional topography have been used for the terrestrial detailed acquisition of gardens and architectural façades (1:50???1:20 scale). The aim of this research is to create a suitable graphical documentation support for the study of the structure of the gardens, to analyze how they have been modified over the years and as an effective support for eventual future re-design. Moreover, the research has involved a certain number of botanic and archeological investigations, which have been duly acquired and modeled with image based systems. Starting from the acquired datasets with their acquisition scales, a series of comparative analysis have been performed, especially for those areas in which all the systems have been employed. The comparisons have been extracted by analyzing point cloud models obtained by using a topographical network. As a result, the multi-range approach efficiency, obtained by employing the actual available technologies have been illustrated in the present work

Isolation of intermediate compounds between hemoglobin and carbon monoxide.

A human hemoglobin solution partially saturated with carbon monoxide was rapidly quenched at -25 degrees C into a hydro-organic buffer containing ferricyanide. Under the experimental conditions of pH, ionic strength, and buffer composition used in this work, it was found that the deoxy hemes were rapidly transformed into their met form, whereas practically no carbon monoxide-bound hemes were oxidized before the separation of the mixture from the oxidizing agent. As a preliminary step to the analysis of the resulting solution, carbonylhemoglobin solutions partially oxidized with ferricyanide were studied by isoelectric focusing at -25 degrees C under identical conditions. The relative position in the gel of all nine possible valence hybrids was established as follows (going from the anodic to the cathodic side of the gel) alpha CO2 beta CO2, (alpha CO beta +)(alpha CO beta CO) (alpha CO beta CO), (alpha CO2 beta +2), (alpha + beta CO), (alpha + beta +)-(alpha CO beta CO), (alpha + beta +)(alpha CO beta +), (alpha +2 beta CO2), (alpha + beta +)(alpha + beta CO), alpha +2 beta +2. When carbonylhemoglobin and methemoglobin were mixed in equal proportion at -25 degrees C and then analyzed by isoelectric focusing at the same temperature, it was found that the contribution of valence hybrids other than alpha CO2 beta CO2 and alpha +2 beta +2 to the total amount of hemoglobin in the gel was no more than 6%. When carbonylhemoglobin and deoxyhemoglobin were mixed in the same proportion and incubated at 20 degrees C so to allow the redistribution of the carbon monoxide molecules between all possible binding sites to occur, a substantially higher amount of valence hybrids, derived from the oxidation of intermediate compounds of hemoglobin with carbon monoxide, was found. The isoelectric focusing separation indicated the presence in the original solution of intermediate species other than carbonylhemoglobin and deoxyhemoglobin at a concentration of about 10% of the total

Analysis of Nucleotide Variations in Genes of Iron Management in Patients of Parkinson's Disease and Other Movement Disorders

The capacity to act as an electron donor and acceptor makes iron an essential cofactor of many vital processes. Its balance in the body has to be tightly regulated since its excess can be harmful by favouring oxidative damage, while its deficiency can impair fundamental activities like erythropoiesis. In the brain, an accumulation of iron or an increase in its availability has been associated with the development and/or progression of different degenerative processes, including Parkinson's disease, while iron paucity seems to be associated with cognitive deficits, motor dysfunction, and restless legs syndrome. In the search of DNA sequence variations affecting the individual predisposition to develop movement disorders, we scanned by DHPLC the exons and intronic boundary regions of ceruloplasmin, iron regulatory protein 2, hemopexin, hepcidin and hemojuvelin genes in cohorts of subjects affected by Parkinson's disease and idiopathic neurodegeneration with brain iron accumulation (NBIA). Both novel and known sequence variations were identified in most of the genes, but none of them seemed to be significantly associated to the movement diseases of interest

Peptide-nucleic acid-mediated enriched polymerase chain reaction as a key point for non-invasive prenatal diagnosis of β-thalassemia

The presence of fetal DNA in maternal plasma can be exploited to develop new procedures for non-invasive prenatal diagnosis. Tests to detect 7 frequent beta-globin gene mutations in people of Mediterranean origin were applied to the analysis of maternal plasma in couples where parents carried different mutations. A mutant enrichment amplification protocol was optimized by using peptide nucleic acids (PNAs) to clamp maternal wild-type alleles. By this approach, 41 prenatal diagnoses were performed by microelectronic microchip analysis, with total concordance of results obtained on fetal DNA extracted from chorionic villi. Among these, 27/28 were also confirmed by direct sequencing and 4 by pyrosequencing