La silva y los proyectos científicos (1557-1626): Juan Pérez de Moya, Jerónimo Campos y Francis Bacon

de varia lección (1540) de Pedro Mexía, que define algunas características de lo que se viene a llamar la miscelánea. La palabra latina, silva, aparte de significar «bosque», también expresa el concepto de abundancia y se ha utilizado para denotar la idea de almacén de argumentos y bosquejo literario en la literatura clásica. Después del éxito editorial de la obra mejiana, se imprimen varias silvas que sirven para consolidar el género, hasta llegar a establecer un vínculo entre la silva y los tratados con asuntos científicos: lo lleva a cabo Juan Pérez de Moya, quien registra en su Sylva experimentos de tal tipo, desde antídotos contra los animales dañinos a recetas cosméticas

Las Silvas de Juan Lorenzo Palmireno

This paper examines the works titled Silva by Juan Lorenzo Palmireno. The analysis of these texts sheds light on Palmireno’s understanding of the word and its possible implications in the sixteenth century. The study identifies an interpretation of silva as a way of writing different from his predecessor, Pedro Mexía, who first used it to title his work Silva de varia lección twenty years ago. The lack of any intention to arrange its structure gives these silvas the characteristic of a literary draft, a feature derived from one of the meanings of silva inherited from the Classical Age. Moreover, Palmireno’s works reveal an encyclopedic project of which the miscellany (represented by silva) forms a part. Furthermore, the silvas of Palmireno act as a transition to the later development of silva as a genre, which finds its educational objective being taken over gradually by the anxiety to provide entertainment.El artículo examina las obras tituladas Silva de Juan Lorenzo Palmireno. El análisis de estos textos deja constancia de cómo el humanista entiende la palabra y sus implicaciones en el siglo XVI. El estudio identifica una interpretación de silva como una manera de escribir distinta de su predecesor, Pedro Mexía, quien veinte años antes la utilizó para nombrar a su obra Silva de varia lección. La falta de la intención en ordenar los textos les otorga a las silvas palmirenianas la característica de un borrador literario, uno de los significados de la silva desde la Edad Clásica. Además, las obras del humanista aragonés muestra su proyecto enciclopédico del autor que integra la miscelánea (representada por la silva) como una parte. Estas silvas también actúan como la transición para el desarrollo de la silva como género que encuentra su objetivo educacional sustituido gradualmente por la finalidad de ofrecer entretenimiento

Mmp17-deficient mice exhibit heightened goblet cell effector expression in the colon and increased resistance to chronic Trichuris muris infection

Intestinal epithelial homeostasis is maintained by intrinsic and extrinsic signals. The extrinsic signals include those provided by mesenchymal cell populations that surround intestinal crypts and is further facilitated by the extracellular matrix (ECM), which is modulated by proteases such as matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs). Extrinsic signals ensure an appropriate balance between intestinal epithelial proliferation and differentiation. This study explores the role of MMP17, which is preferentially expressed by smooth muscle cells in the intestine, in intestinal homeostasis and during immunity to infection. Mice lacking MMP17 expressed high levels of goblet-cell associated genes and proteins, such as CLCA1 and RELM-β, which are normally associated with immune responses to infection. Nevertheless, Mmp17 KO mice did not have altered resistance during a bacterial Citrobacter rodentium infection. However, when challenged with a low dose of the helminth Trichuris muris, Mmp17 KO mice had increased resistance, without a clear role for an altered immune response during infection. Mechanistically, we did not find changes in traditional modulators of goblet cell effectors such as the NOTCH pathway or specific cytokines. We found MMP17 expression in smooth muscle cells as well as lamina propria cells such as macrophages. Together, our data suggest that MMP17 extrinsically alters goblet cell maturation which is sufficient to alter clearance in a helminth infection model

W. Somerset Maugham’s Letters to Lady Aberconway in the British Library

The Western Manuscripts collection of the British Library possesses a series of original letters from W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965) to Christabel, Lady Aberconway (1890–1974) that has not been registered in bibliographies of Maugham’s manuscripts and private letters. Maugham’s biographers only mention the relationship between the two correspondents as fellow dinner guests. However, these letters, written over a period of thirty years, show that Maugham was teasing and playful with his friend, enjoyed her company, and was moved by her letters. This article outlines briefly Lady Aberconway’s life for understanding Maugham's letters and discusses several details of interest for the study of the author’s life and work

Las <i>Silvas</i> de Juan Lorenzo Palmireno

This paper examines the works titled Silva by Juan Lorenzo Palmireno. The analysis of these texts sheds light on Palmireno’s understanding of the word and its possible implications in the sixteenth century. The study identifies an interpretation of silva as a way of writing different from his predecessor, Pedro Mexía, who first used it to title his work Silva de varia lección twenty years ago. The lack of any intention to arrange its structure gives these silvas the characteristic of a literary draft, a feature derived from one of the meanings of silva inherited from the Classical Age. Moreover, Palmireno’s works reveal an encyclopedic project of which the miscellany (represented by silva) forms a part. Furthermore, the silvas of Palmireno act as a transition to the later development of silva as a genre, which finds its educational objective being taken over gradually by the anxiety to provide entertainment.<br><br>El artículo examina las obras tituladas Silva de Juan Lorenzo Palmireno. El análisis de estos textos deja constancia de cómo el humanista entiende la palabra y sus implicaciones en el siglo XVI. El estudio identifica una interpretación de silva como una manera de escribir distinta de su predecesor, Pedro Mexía, quien veinte años antes la utilizó para nombrar a su obra Silva de varia lección. La falta de la intención en ordenar los textos les otorga a las silvas palmirenianas la característica de un borrador literario, uno de los significados de la silva desde la Edad Clásica. Además, las obras del humanista aragonés muestra su proyecto enciclopédico del autor que integra la miscelánea (representada por la silva) como una parte. Estas silvas también actúan como la transición para el desarrollo de la silva como género que encuentra su objetivo educacional sustituido gradualmente por la finalidad de ofrecer entretenimiento

Examination of the problems of false consciousness

The concept of false consciousness is understood to involve individuals who act in ways that contribute to their own oppression, on the basis of ignorant beliefs that resist revision when confronted with attempts at correction. And these beliefs are themselves thought to arise from the individual’s oppressed conditions. This thesis is an attempt to rehabilitate the concept back into the toolkit of analytic social philosophy against its detractors. I thus examine the common problems associated with using this concept in social philosophy, using the case of women anti-suffragists as a central case study. I begin with a brief genealogy of the concept of false consciousness, which attends to the history of the concept as it developed within the Marxian and Critical Theory traditions, before making a few preliminary clarifications about how the concept will be defined and used here. I then explain several challenges to using the concept of false consciousness, suggesting that detractors of the concept often rely on characterisations of it that sit uneasily between our emancipatory goals and certain extant approaches to social epistemology and ontology, normativity, and moral blameworthiness. The concept of false consciousness is often criticised as an ad hoc explanation for why someone acts a particular way that is contrary to their own interests. There is no standard account for why someone has false consciousness especially under multiple systems of oppression. I address this by proposing an approach that treats the concept as a means to regulate social research and direct attention to various looping mechanisms that sustain oppressive beliefs and practices. These mechanisms converge upon an individual to produce beliefs that may be shared with other oppressed agents when seen from the perspective of a system of oppression. Yet at the same time, such beliefs are nuanced differently at more agent-targeted levels and in relation to other systems. Another problem with false consciousness is in determining the appropriate standard for employing the concept in critique. Standards of critique are themselves often the very things in dispute. The problem thus lies in needing to provide a standard of critique that can avoid such disagreement and also ensure that the standards themselves are not products of false consciousness. I address this by appealing to the notion of well-being, which would generate standards that are by definition the agent’s own. Extant accounts of well-being, however, are inadequate for the task. I thus outline my own account, grounded in our status as sense-making organisms and second-order norms regulating our organismic processes. False consciousness is also often thought to involve victim-blaming, since the individuals are thought to be irrational or not to know any better. Using the concept to pick out the individual as contributing to the very oppression they experience thus seems to be inappropriate as irrationality and ignorance are exculpatory in many other cases in ethics. I address this by focusing on a historical case study of several women anti-suffragists. I first examine the charges of irrationality and find that the charges do not hold for them. I then consider the reasons behind their systematic ignorance and find that they are indeed brought about by culpable mechanisms. In turn, the women are also culpable for the acts that follow from them. Hence, false consciousness does not preclude blameworthiness. I conclude with a brief observation of a tension between moral criticism— wherein agents are criticised as individuals—and social criticism (critique)— wherein individuals are criticised in terms of social categories. I suggest that, although the concept of false consciousness can overcome the above conceptual problems, it nevertheless appears to have some limited use in relation to our blaming practices. This thesis, therefore, is an attempt to clarify, defend, and rehabilitate the concept of false consciousness, in order to expand the social philosopher’s toolkit and refine our understanding of social criticism both in philosophy and public discourse