Acertijos matemáticos e imaginación: Una visión viquiana de la enigmatología

Enigmatología es el término que ha sido usado para designar el estudio de los puzzles en la cultura humana. La estructura poética de los puzzles implica que quien intenta resolverlos debe literalmente imaginar escenarios que trasciendan un razonamiento lineal. En tiempo de Vico, el cartesianismo dominaba la escena académica de la época, haciendo que la vieja tradición, centrada en el estudio de la lengua y la literatura perdiera terreno frente a un énfasis puesto en la matemática, la filosofía crítica y las ciencias. Los puzzles eran considerados como productos de un pensamiento lógico-racional. Pocos los consideraron como productos de una fuerza creativa más fundamental. El concepto de fantasia de Vico vino a proporcionar una poderosa estructura explicativa para comprender cualquier ingenio enigmatológico.Enigmatology is the term that has been used to designate the study of puzzles in human cultures. The poetic structure of puzzles implies that they require the solver to literally imagine scenarios in ways that transcend linear reasoning. In Vico’s times, Cartesianism dominated the academic scene of the day, causing the older tradition, centered on the study of language and literature, to lose ground to an emphasis on mathematics, critical philosophy, and the sciences. Puzzles were viewed as products of rational-logical thinking. Few saw them as products of a more fundamental creative force. Vico’s concept of fantasia came forward to provide a powerful explanatory framework for understanding enigmatological artifacts

Of Cigarettes, High Heels, and Other Interesting Things 3/E

Among species, human beings seem to be a peculiar lot. Why is it, for example, that certain members of the species routinely put their survival at risk by puffing on a small stick of nicotine? Why is it that some females of the species make locomotion difficult for themselves by donning high-heel footwear? Are there hidden or unconscious reasons behind such strange behaviors that seem to be so utterly counter-instinctual, so to speak? For no manifest biological reason, humanity has always searched, and continues to search, for a purpose to its life. Is it this search that has led it to engage in such bizarre behaviors as smoking and wearing high heels? And is it the reason behind humanity’s invention of myths, art, rituals, languages, mathematics, science, and all the other truly remarkable things that set it apart from all other species? Clearly, Homo sapiens appears to be unique in the fact that many of its behaviors are shaped by forces other than the instincts. The discipline that endeavors to understand these forces is known as semiotics. Relatively unknown in comparison to, say, philosophy or psychology, semiotics probes the human condition in its own peculiar way, by unraveling the meanings of the signs that undergird not only the wearing of high-heel shoes, but also the construction of words, paintings, sculptures, and the like

Opposition theory and the interconnectedness of language, culture, and cognition

The theory of opposition has always been viewed as the founding principle of structuralism within contemporary linguistics and semiotics. As an analytical technique, it has remained a staple within these disciplines, where it continues to be used as a means for identifying meaningful cues in the physical form of signs. However, as a theory of conceptual structure it was largely abandoned under the weight of post-structuralism starting in the 1960s — the exception to this counter trend being the work of the Tartu School of semiotics. This essay revisits opposition theory not only as a viable theory for understanding conceptual structure, but also as a powerful technique for establishing the interconnectedness of language, culture, and cognition

Mathematical Cognition and the Arts

This article revisits the study of mathematics in the arts, and vice versa, the arts in mathematics, with a view to connecting mathematical and artistic creativity to the same neural circuits—a proposition put forward for mathematics and language in a critical 2000 book by Lakoff and Núñez, Where Mathematics Comes From: How the Embodied Mind Brings Mathematics into Being. This expanded perspective would open up suggestive avenues for connecting mathematics, language, and the arts as part of an imaginative blend that comes out in different forms but having the same underlying neural source. Whether or not this can be established empirically, it is plausible and highly interesting and, thus, needs to be explored seriously in order to see if equations to theorems are born of the same mental structures that produce music, poetry and drawing, as the philosopher Max Black [4] had anticipated before the advent of contemporary neuroscience in the early 1960s. The argument put forth here is that art can be studied through a mathematical lens, and that mathematics can be studied through an artistic lens, in order to glean what the common neural substratum is like. The approach is called hermeneutic, in line with critical approaches in the arts, from visual art to literature

Vico da una prospettiva personale

Traducción del inglés por Javier Moreno ZacarésNo puede subestimarse la importancia de las opiniones de Vico sobre el lenguaje para la lingüística contemporánea. Yo mismo soy prueba de ello. Insatisfecho con los modelos generativos en boga en los años ’70, me dirigí hacia Vico en busca de inspiración. Aquella decisión cambió dramáticamente mi propia vida profesional y el foco de mi investigación. En este artículo discuto las razones por las que Vico fue tan importante para mí y, por extensión, para la lingüística actual. El foco actual en la metáfora como médula del lenguaje es viquiano en su perspectiva, y este artículo explica por qué.The importance of Vico’s views on language to contemporary linguistics cannot be underestimated. I am proof of this. Becoming dissatisfied with generative models in vogue in the 1970s, I turned to Vico for insights. That decision changed my own professional life and research focus dramatically. This paper discusses the reasons why Vico was so important to me and, by extension, to linguistics today. The focus on metaphor as the backbone of language today is Vichian in its perspective, and this paper explains why it is so.Non dev’essere sottovalutata l’importanza delle opinioni di Vico sul linguaggio per la linguistica contemporanea. Io stesso ne sono testimone. Insoddisfatto dei modelli generativi in voga negli anni ’70, mi sono rivolto a Vico in cerca di ispirazione. Quella decisione ha cambiato drammaticamente la mia vita professionale e il focus della mia ricerca. In questo articolo discuto i motivi per cui Vico fu così importante per me e, per estensione, per la linguistica attuale. L’attuale focus sulla metafora come sostanza del linguaggio è prospettiva propriamente vichiana e questo articolo ne spiega il perché

Estudiando la mente: una perspectiva desde Vico

El propósito de este artículo es revisar los conceptos clave presentes en la Ciencia nueva de Vico, poniéndolos en correspondencia con las aproximaciones pasadas y actuales que se hacen en general en psicología y ciencias cognitivas. Revisar a Vico es tan importante hoy como lo ha sido siempre, dadas ciertas tendencias en inteligencia artificial que hoy en día persuaden a la gente con el error de creer que la mente humana no es más que una máquina celular, impermeable a las fuerzas históricas, operando del modo en que lo haría cualquier algoritmo.The purpose of this paper is to revisit some key concepts in Vico’s New Science, mapping them against previous and current approaches in psychology and cognitive science generally. Revisiting Vico is as important today as it ever was, given trends in Artificial Intelligence that now have the persuasive effect of duping people into believing that the human mind is no more than a cellular machine, impervious to historical forces thus functioning like any algorithm does

Metáfora y conceptos abstractos

La gran cantidad de datos recolectados sobre la metáfora sugiere enfáticamente que muchos de los conceptos abstractos, si no la mayoría, son codificables y reconocibles primordialmente como «ideas metaforizadas», es decir como conceptos que se derivan cognitivamente mediante el razonamiento metafórico y un proceso de asociación metafórica que en este artículo se denominará estratificación [layering] (Gibbs, 1994; Goatley, 1997). La literatura más actualizada sobre lo que se ha denominado Teoría de la Metáfora Conceptual –de aquí en más TMC– (Lakoff y Johnson 1980, 1999; Lakoff, 1987; Johnson, 1987) ha hecho obvio que los conceptos metafóricos forman la base de muchas abstracciones. Sin embargo, desde mi punto de vista, la TMC carece todavía de un marco sintético para interpretar las diversas y multiformes manifestaciones de los muchos estratos [layers] de la metáfora en el simbólico y comunicacional comportamiento humano. El propósito de este artículo es el de proveer dicho marco desarrollado a partir del trabajo previo en esta área (Danesi, 1998, 2004).Facultad de Bellas Arte

Sémiotique judiciaire : crime et signe

The science of crime, or forensic science, crystallized at around the same time as gothic and detective literature in the latter part of the nineteenth century. A large portion of the early crime-detection techniques of the era were derived from, or modeled on, those employed by fictional detectives such as C. Auguste Dupin and Sherlock Holmes. Vice versa, new forensic techniques were incorporated by fiction writers so as to make their stories more realistic, and in line with the emerging cultural scientism of the era. The connection between forensic science and crime fiction continues to this day. This merger can be called forensic semiotics, which aims to study the connection between real crime, fictional crime, and the sign systems involved in both. The objective is to argue that crime is a fertile ground for semiotic analysis, since it can provide insights not only into the cultural dimensions of crime, but also into the type of mindset that characterizes criminal acts. It is claimed that forensic semiotics would greatly enhance and broaden the scientific terrains of both forensic science and criminology.La science du crime, ou criminologie, s'est diffusée à peu près en même temps que la littérature gothique et policière, dans la dernière partie du XIXe siècle. Une grande partie des premières techniques de détection de l'époque provenaient ou s'inspiraient de celles employées par des détectives de fiction comme C. Auguste Dupin et Sherlock Holmes. Inversement, de nouvelles techniques médico-légales ont été utilisées par les écrivains afin de rendre leurs histoires plus réalistes et conformes au scientisme culturel émergent. Le lien entre la science médico-légale et le roman policier existe encore aujourd'hui. Cette « fusion » peut être appelée sémiotique médico-légale, qui vise à étudier le lien entre le crime réel, le crime fictif et les systèmes de signes impliqués dans les deux. L'objectif est de faire valoir que le crime est un terrain fertile pour l'analyse sémiotique, car il peut fournir des indications non seulement sur les dimensions culturelles du crime, mais aussi sur le type de mentalité qui caractérise les actes criminels. On estime que la sémiotique médico-légale améliorerait et élargirait considérablement le champ scientifique de la médecine légale et de la criminologie

Metáfora y conceptos abstractos

La gran cantidad de datos recolectados sobre la metáfora sugiere enfáticamente que muchos de los conceptos abstractos, si no la mayoría, son codificables y reconocibles primordialmente como «ideas metaforizadas», es decir como conceptos que se derivan cognitivamente mediante el razonamiento metafórico y un proceso de asociación metafórica que en este artículo se denominará estratificación [layering] (Gibbs, 1994; Goatley, 1997). La literatura más actualizada sobre lo que se ha denominado Teoría de la Metáfora Conceptual –de aquí en más TMC– (Lakoff y Johnson 1980, 1999; Lakoff, 1987; Johnson, 1987) ha hecho obvio que los conceptos metafóricos forman la base de muchas abstracciones. Sin embargo, desde mi punto de vista, la TMC carece todavía de un marco sintético para interpretar las diversas y multiformes manifestaciones de los muchos estratos [layers] de la metáfora en el simbólico y comunicacional comportamiento humano. El propósito de este artículo es el de proveer dicho marco desarrollado a partir del trabajo previo en esta área (Danesi, 1998, 2004).Facultad de Bellas Arte

Opposition theory and computational semiotics

Opposition theory suggests that binary oppositions (e.g., high vs. low) underlie basic cognitive and linguistic processes. However, opposition theory has never been implemented in a computational cognitive-semiotics model. In this paper, we present a simple model of metaphor identification that relies on opposition theory. An algorithm instantiating the model has been tested on a data set of 100 phrases comprising adjective-noun pairs in which approximately a half represent metaphorical language-use (e.g., dark thoughts) and the rest literal language-use (e.g., dark hair). The algorithm achieved 89% accuracy in metaphor identification and illustrates the relevance of opposition theory for modelling metaphor processing