El poder y los signos. Baudrillard y la incertidumbre de la crítica

RESUMEN En 1977, el filósofo francés Jean Baudrillard publica en la editorial Galilée el artículo titulado Oublier Foucault (Olvidar a Foucault). Con ello logró provocar una fuerte polvareda en los ambientes académicos franceses, muy especialmente en los distritos universitarios de París, donde Michel Foucault se había convertido en una auténtica leyenda. Más de veinte años después, esta tesis se propone investigar las consecuencias de aquella apuesta. Es preciso tener en cuenta que si ya la obra de Foucault tuvo amplia resonancia desde la década de los setenta, con textos tan influyentes como Vigilar y castigar o La voluntad de saber, es generalizada la sensación de que, a raíz de la muerte del pensador (1984), su importancia no ha hecho sino multiplicarse, hasta el punto de encontrarnos en nuestros días con una verdadera escuela foucaultiana de pensamiento, una escuela dotada aparentemente de objetivos de trabajo y métodos específicos e identificables y con dimensiones interdisciplinares. Es este estado de cosas el que nos hizo decidirnos a recuperar el texto de Baudrillard, pensador que, por cierto, ha cobrado también por su lado una innegable popularidad, incluso fuera de los ámbitos de la filosofía, a pesar de que no hay equilibrio entre la masiva traducción y distribución de sus trabajos y la aparición de literatura sobre los mismos. Sospechamos que ello se debe en parte al prejuicio academicista que relaciona la literatura ensayística postmoderna más con un difuso esteticismo sociológico que con la teoría de la racionalidad, pero sobre todo, se debe al carácter asistemático de la obra de este autor, lo que complica extraordinariamente su exégesis. Esta tesis proyectó desde un principio cubrir ese vacío, otorgarle en la medida de lo posible un sentido de discurso, si no homogéneo ni unitario, sí al menos coherente. La idea básica del artículo es la de que Foucault, al igual que los anteriores maestros de la crítica y Marx es el ejemplo más claro-, fue incapaz de arrostrar con todas sus consecuencias la caída del paradigma de la representación, es decir, no se atrevió a renunciar a una sustancia original o salvaje a la que aferrarse para intentar salvar algo a modo de principio de realidad. Desde ese punto de vista, el concepto de Poder análogo para Baudrillard al Deseo de Deleuze y Guattari- no es sino la puesta al día del valor de uso del marxismo, en suma: la sustancia que resiste al juego de la intercambiabilidad. En el capítulo de conclusiones advertimos las consecuencias más intolerables de esta concepción, que aboca a un nihilismo destructivo, en la medida en que parece reclamar, siquiera de forma metafórica, la suspensión del discurso crítico en nuestros días. Tal cosa es rechazable si se aplica al modelo foucaultiano, y en mayor medida si se extiende a la filosofía crítica en general. Debemos sin embargo dejar un resquicio abierto a la cuestión, pues desde algún sitio recóndito, sin que sepamos muy bien por qué, concluimos en que Baudrillard no sólo diagnostica magistralmente la sociedad de nuestro tiempo, sino que además advierte del peligro de caída en el pozo de la incertidumbre y la simulación que amenaza con fagocitar y metabolizarlo todo en la cultura contemporánea. __________________________________________________________________________________________________In 1977 the french philosopher Jean Baudrillard published his article Oublier Foucault (Forget Foucault). The text caused a big scandal in the academic world because Michel Foucault, receiver of the invectives, was at that time on the top of his glory. The objective of the Thesis is to analize and wonder the sense, the philosophic implications and consequences of that controversy. On the first level, more specific, we researched the critics thrown in that article: Baudrillard said the intellectual model of the genealogy, developed in Foucault like an analysis of the power relations and its influence in the truth games, is out of place to understand the postindustrial society dynamics. This task is easier from the characteristic categories of the called postmodern language like the seduction, simulations or hypereality. According to Baudrillard, Foucault would be the last of the great masters in the philosophical critic. On the second level, this concret problem connect with the problem in the background: if Foucault is, according to Baudrillard, a critic theoric, is possible his analysis has been out of place in the simulations society? Even more, all the critic discourse in general has been out of place in the society of the simulations? Confronting both questions is indispensable to this research

Topological field theories in n-dimensional spacetimes and Cartan's equations

Action principles of the BF type for diffeomorphism invariant topological field theories living in n-dimensional spacetime manifolds are presented. Their construction is inspired by Cuesta and Montesinos' recent paper where Cartan's first and second structure equations together with first and second Bianchi identities are treated as the equations of motion for a field theory. In opposition to that paper, the current approach involves also auxiliary fields and holds for arbitrary n-dimensional spacetimes. Dirac's canonical analysis for the actions is detailedly carried out in the generic case and it is shown that these action principles define topological field theories, as mentioned. The current formalism is a generic framework to construct geometric theories with local degrees of freedom by introducing additional constraints on the various fields involved that destroy the topological character of the original theory. The latter idea is implemented in two-dimensional spacetimes where gravity coupled to matter fields is constructed out, which has indeed local excitations.Comment: LaTeX file, no figure

A Statistical Mechanical Problem in Schwarzschild Spacetime

We use Fermi coordinates to calculate the canonical partition function for an ideal gas in a circular geodesic orbit in Schwarzschild spacetime. To test the validity of the results we prove theorems for limiting cases. We recover the Newtonian gas law subject only to tidal forces in the Newtonian limit. Additionally we recover the special relativistic gas law as the radius of the orbit increases to infinity. We also discuss how the method can be extended to the non ideal gas case.Comment: Corrected an equation misprint, added four references, and brief comments on the system's center of mass and the thermodynamic limi

Agreement and repeatability of objective systems for assessment of the tear film

Purpose: To assess the agreement and repeatability of two objective systems for measuring the tear film stability. Methods: Retrospective analysis of the tear film stability of 99 healthy right eyes measured with a videokeratoscope (VK) and the Optical Quality Analysis System (OQAS, Visiometrics). Two consecutive measures were taken with both systems, with an interval of 10 min between them. Variables included in the study were first and mean non-invasive break-up times (NIBUT and MNIBUT) measured with VK, and mean and standard deviation of the optical scattering index (OSIm and OSIsd) measured with OQAS. The agreement and repeatability of grading scales provided by both devices were also evaluated using the Cohen’s k with quadratic weights. The Ocular Surface Disease index (OSDI) questionnaire was also passed out to all subjects. Correlations and associations between subjective and objective metrics were analyzed. Results: Significant differences were found between consecutive measurements of NIBUT (p = 0.04) and MNIBUT (p = 0.01), but not for OSIm (p = 0.11) and OSIsd (p = 0.50). Grading scales resulted in fair (k = 0.20) or poor agreement (k = 0.04) between systems depending if the first or second trial was considered. The repeatability of the grading scale was good for OQAS (k = 0.59) and fair for VK (k = 0.37). No significant correlations or associations were found between OSDI and any of the metrics obtained with both devices (p ≥ 0.36). Conclusions: The two devices evaluated cannot be used interchangeably for the assessment of tear film stability. Good intrasession repeatability was obtained for tear film grading of the OQAS whereas it was fair for VK

Illness Perceptions of COVID-19 in Europe: Predictors, Impacts and Temporal Evolution

Objective: Illness perceptions (IP) are important predictors of emotional and behavioral responses in many diseases. The current study aims to investigate the COVID-19-related IP throughout Europe. The specific goals are to understand the temporal development, identify predictors (within demographics and contact with COVID-19) and examine the impacts of IP on perceived stress and preventive behaviors. Methods: This was a time-series-cross-section study of 7,032 participants from 16 European countries using multilevel modeling from April to June 2020. IP were measured with the Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire. Temporal patterns were observed considering the date of participation and the date recoded to account the epidemiological evolution of each country. The outcomes considered were perceived stress and COVID-19 preventive behaviors. Results: There were significant trends, over time, for several IP, suggesting a small decrease in negativity in the perception of COVID-19 in the community. Age, gender, and education level related to some, but not all, IP. Considering the self-regulation model, perceptions consistently predicted general stress and were less consistently related to preventive behaviors. Country showed no effect in the predictive model, suggesting that national differences may have little relevance for IP, in this context. Conclusion: The present study provides a comprehensive picture of COVID-19 IP in Europe in an early stage of the pandemic. The results shed light on the process of IP formation with implications for health-related outcomes and their evolution

A precision medicine test predicts clinical response after idarubicin and cytarabine induction therapy in AML patients

Complete remission (CR) after induction therapy is the first treatment goal in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients and has prognostic impact. Our purpose is to determine the correlation between the observed CR/CRi rate after idarubicin (IDA) and cytarabine (CYT) 3 + 7 induction and the leukemic chemosensitivity measured by an ex vivo test of drug activity. Bone marrow samples from adult patients with newly diagnosed AML were included in this study. Whole bone marrow samples were incubated for 48 h in well plates containing IDA, CYT, or their combination. Pharmacological response parameters were estimated using population pharmacodynamic models. Patients attaining a CR/CRi with up to two induction cycles of 3 + 7 were classified as responders and the remaining as resistant. A total of 123 patients fulfilled the inclusion criteria and were evaluable for correlation analyses. The strongest clinical predictors were the area under the curve of the concentration response curves of CYT and IDA. The overall accuracy achieved using MaxSpSe criteria to define positivity was 81%, predicting better responder (93%) than non-responder patients (60%). The ex vivo test provides better yet similar information than cytogenetics, but can be provided before treatment representing a valuable in-time addition. After validation in an external cohort, this novel ex vivo test could be useful to select AML patients for 3 + 7 regimen vs. alternative schedules