Bayle: Pesquisas sobre as doenças mentais (Recherche sur les maladies mentales), 1822





Considerações Preliminares

No tocante à descrição dos sintomas, se existe um ramo das doenças humanas que dificilmente poderia ser levado a um grau mais elevado de perfeição, esse é sem dúvida o das doenças mentais. O famoso professor Pinel, no seu Traité de l'aliénation (Tratado da alienação), e, na sua esteira, o doutor Esquirol, nos seus excelentes artigos do Dictionnaire des sciences médicales (Dicionário das Ciências Médicas), elaboraram quadros tão verdadeiros e completos dos numerosos distúrbios da inteligência, que seria vão buscar algum sintoma ou fenômeno essencial que lhes tivesse escapado. Infelizmente, para a espécie humana, os esforços dos maiores médicos, até o presente, apenas permitiram rasgar parte do véu que recobre o assunto aqui abordado. Tanto os sintomas da alienação e de suas numerosas espécies, quanto as causas que a preparam ou excitam foram descritos com a maior exatidão; entretanto, a sua natureza mais íntima, ou, antes, as suas causas imediatas, escaparam, até hoje, às mais laboriosas e científicas pesquisas e, via de regra, deram apenas ensejo a hipóteses mais ou menos duvidosas. Logo, é essa parte da patologia das doenças mentais que deve chamar a atenção dos médicos e exige a observação mais assídua. O conhecimento da natureza das doenças é o alicerce mais inabalável da terapêutica; e, sem dúvida, se a natureza da alienação mental fosse descoberta, o seu tratamento não se limitaria quase inteiramente, como ocorre hoje, aos cuidados mais ou menos infrutíferos da higiene.

As opiniões dos autores em relação à sede e à natureza da alienação são tão variadas que nem cogito passá-las em revista. Vários médicos eminentes, guiados por um juízo rigoroso e pelo medo de incorrerem em disparate, limitaram-se aos resultados de uma observação profunda, sem emitir qualquer opinião ou explicação a respeito da natureza da loucura. O sr. Pinel não dedicou nenhum artigo de sua obra imortal a esse interessante assunto; entretanto, em dado lugar (p. 1411), insinua que a sede primitiva da mania se localiza na região do estômago e dos intestinos, de onde, como que por irradiação, o distúrbio do entendimento se propaga. Vários observadores famosos, como Bonet, Morgagni, Meckel, Greding e Willis propuseram diferentes ideias sobre a alienação; entretanto, fundamentaram-nas em um número de fatos limitado demais para merecerem muita confiança. A maioria dos médicos modernos considera a alienação o resultado de uma irritação do cérebro, não como uma lesão do próprio princípio intelectual. Ora, qual é a natureza dessa alteração física? Este é justamente o ponto obscuro e incerto. As numerosas pesquisas anatômicas feitas em cadáveres de alienados comprovaram de modo incontestável que, por um lado, na maioria dos casos, não há lesões orgânicas perceptíveis pelos sentidos, quer no cérebro quer nas partes adjacentes; e, por outro, em outras circunstâncias, existem alterações mais ou menos notáveis em diferentes órgãos da economia. Esses fatos serviram de fundamento a opiniões opostas quanto à sede da alienação, levando uns a ver a doença como uma afecção idiopática do cérebro e, outros, como uma afecção simpática desse mesmo órgão.

O sr. Georget, autor de um novo tratado sobre a loucura, sustenta que essa doença é sempre uma afecção idiopática, cuja natureza é desconhecida e na qual os sintomas que se manifestam em vários órgãos da economia, mais ou menos afastados do cérebro, são secundários e decorrentes da alteração desse órgão. O sr. Falret, em seu Traité du suicide et de l'hypochondrie (Tratado sobre o suicídio e a hipocondria) compartilha essa opinião. Em compensação, o sr. Prost (Coup d'œil sur la folie [Breve observação sobre a loucura]) considera a alienação uma doença sempre simpática e a define assim: distúrbio dos órgãos cerebrais determinado por um distúrbio dos órgãos mucosos do ventre, sobretudo da bílis e do estômago. Segundo esse autor, a maioria das causas predisponentes e ocasionadoras da loucura age sobre o fígado e os intestinos por intermédio do cérebro. Disto resulta uma secreção de bílis mais abundante, a qual aflui nos intestinos e adquire, diz ele, propriedades que parecem inebriantes para o encéfalo e corrosivas para o aparelho digestivo. Segundo o sr. Prost, a acumulação de bílis torna-se a causa mais ativa da loucura, por comunicar ao sangue fluídos corrompidos, por atuar de maneira imoderada sobre a membrana mucosa intestinal, a qual pode inflamar ou até mesmo escoriar, e finalmente por irritar os vermes que, na opinião desse autor, são comumente encontrados nos alienados. Em consequência desta ideia, considera os vomitórios, purgantes e anti-helmínticos como a base do tratamento da loucura. O sr. Broussais acredita que essa doença se acompanha e é, no mais das vezes, dependente de uma gastrite crônica.

Todas essas opiniões sobre a sede e a natureza da alienação parecem pouco fundamentadas apenas por serem excessivamente exclusivas. Parece-nos que, ao estudar cuidadosamente os fenômenos da alienação mental, todo médico, desde que não esteja dominado por alguma opinião formada ou ideia pré-concebida, apreciará suas causas e comparará os sintomas da doença com as lesões anatômicas encontradas quando se abre o corpo de alienados que morreram. Então, não poderá senão admitir que a loucura, na maioria das vezes, é idiopática e, entretanto, às vezes, sintomática. Esta é a opinião do professor Royer-Collard, que tem tanto peso nesse importante assunto, opinião que abraçamos e tentaremos provar com a ajuda de certo número de fatos, limitando-nos a relatar os que tendem a demonstrar que a alienação mental pode ser simpática, pois os que estabelecem que, na maioria das vezes, ela é idiopática são tão abundantes e concludentes que seria supérfluo querer aumentar mais ainda o seu número.

Nosso trabalho divide-se em três partes. Na primeira, buscamos provar que a alienação mental é, às vezes, o sintoma de uma inflamação crônica do aracnoide. A segunda tenciona demonstrar que essa doença pode ser ocasionada, mantida ou modificada por uma gastrite ou gastrenterite crônica. A terceira inclui duas observações nas quais a loucura parece ter sido determinada por uma gota irregular.

As observações que respaldam esta dissertação foram feitas e recolhidas na Maison royale de Charenton, sob os olhos do professor Royer-Collard, médicochefe desse estabelecimento, ao qual renovo, aqui, a homenagem do meu reconhecimento pelas bondades que me dispensou no decorrer dos meus estudos médicos.

Pratiquei a maioria das autópsias cadavéricas junto com o meu amigo, o doutor Roberts-Roche, inspetor do serviço médico da Maison royale de Charenton.

Texto completo com a parte I - Apresentação com informações importantes da obra - Edição original

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Beek: Hamann, Herder and linguistic relativism

As we have seen, the conception of the origin of language was in the enlightenment based on rationality, involving the establishing of a convention facilitating the expression of independently construed thoughts. The change in the conception of the origin of language can be seen as parallel to changing conceptions regarding literature. Whereas in the enlightenment literature was conceived of as reflecting reality, in the subsequent Romantic period the literary use of language was seen as expressing the emotions of the individual poet. In accordance with this change of ideas in literary thought, the ideas on the origin of language changed as well. It was now thought that language had originated from the expressing of emotions, rather than being based on rational agreement. This idea had already been expressed by forerunners of Romanticism like Blackwell in his 1735 work An Enquiry Into the Life and Writings of Homer, and thereafter maintained by Monboddo, Rousseau and Vico. These writings had an impact on Hamann’s 1762 work Kreuzzüge des Philologen. This work was a frontal attack upon the prevalent ideas on language held in the Enlightenment period. In his work the various ingredients of linguistic relativism can all be found: he states that while some similarities among languages can be found, there are also differences. And those differences among languages parallel differences in thought. Language did not originate from thought, but its origin had been prior to thought, for thought presupposes a language in which it might manifest itself. Hamann may thus be seen as the first one to hold such relativistic views in a strongly articulated fashion.

Hamann’s work had a thorough influence upon Herder, as is apparent from the latter’s 1772 prize winning essay Abhandlung über den Ursprung der Sprache. Herder’s essay answered the question posed by the Berlin Academy, who intended to resolve the question whether language had a human/rational or a divine origin. Herder however did not favour either of these options, but refuted both and instead introduced the emotional variant that was not very common at the time. The opening sentence of the first section is already quite suggestive:

“Schon als Tier hat der Mensch Sprache . Alle heftigen und die heftigsten unter den heftigen, die schmerzhaften Empfindungen sei nes Körpers, alle starke Leidenschaften seiner Seele äußern sich unmittelbar in Gesch rei, in Töne, in wilde, unartikulierte Laute.” [Herder1772, erster Teil, erster Abschnitt]
This work was widely influential; together with that of the before mentioned authors, it changed the way in which researchers thought about the origin of language. By providing an alternative to the rationalistic variant, the emotional variant questioned the primacy of thought to language. Now other constellations became possible (language preceding thought or language and thought originating at the same time) and thus the discussion of linguistic relativity was opened.

Herders’ concept of linguistic relativity was fitted into a much broader anti-rational framework, questioning the traditional conception of the universality of reason, and instead opting for individual spontaneity as the main source of thought. Herder thus maintained there being a wide variety of different intellectual societies. The importance of language within this constellation is that it is the primary source through which one can observe these various societies. In his critique on Kant he elaborated upon this topic. He therein opted that language is the necessary medium for thought to be exercised, a statement that had also been present in the work of Hamann. Herder however takes an even more radical stance by asserting that thought itself is internalised language, thus equating language and thought.

BEEK, Wouter (2006). Linguistic Relativism: Variants and Misconceptions. University of Amsterdam

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Beek: Linguistic Relativism - Variants and Misconcepts



A very useful study, from the Enlightenment until XX century.

Contents:

  
Introduction

The principle of linguistic relativism, stated as general as  possible

Linguistic relativism  until Whorf

The notion of language and thought in the Enlightenment

Hamann and Herder, the Romantic period

Humboldt’s    conception of linguistic relativism

Humboldt’s influence on Boas, Sapir, and Whorf

Whorf’s conception of linguistic relativism

Introduction    

Ascribing the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis to Whorf

The weak and strong variants of the Sapit-Whorf hypothesis

Empirical research

The    early    research tradition (1950-1980)

Color vocabulary research

Recent and current research (1990-2005)

Lucy  

Boroditsky 

Levinson and the Nijmegen group

The theoratical side of the matter

The careless, cigarette-fr

opping, half-blind, male worker

The great Eskimo vocabulary hoax

Counting is a handfull job

The empirical relevance of the matter

From correlation to causation

Variants and future research

Conclusion
Bibliography

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Frères Lumière Brothers - Autochrome




http://www.autochromes.culture.fr/

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Useful tools





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Goethe: Empirical Observation and Science (1798)

 

 Phenomena, which others of us may call facts, are certain and definite by nature, but often uncertain and fluctuating in appearance. The scientific researcher strives to grasp and keep the definite aspect of what he beholds; in each individual case he is careful to note not only how the phenomena appear, but also how they should appear. There are many empirical fractions which must be discarded if we are to arrive at a pure, constant phenomenon—as I can frequently note, especially in my present field of study. 2 However, the instant I allow myself this, I already establish a type of ideal.

But there is a great difference between someone like the theorist who turns whole numbers into fractions for the sake of a theory, and someone who sacrifices an empirical fraction for the idea of the pure phenomenon.

For the observer never sees the pure phenomenon with his own eyes; rather, much depends on his mood, the state of his senses, the light, air, weather, the physical object, how it is handled, and a thousand other circumstances. Hence it is like trying to drink the sea dry if we try to stay with the individual aspect of the phenomenon, observe it, measure it, weigh it, and describe it.

In my observation of nature and reflection on it I have attempted to remain true to the following method as much as possible, especially in my recent work.

After observing a certain degree of constancy and consistency in phenomena, I.derive an empirical law from my observation and expect to find it in later phenomena. If the law and the phenomena are in complete agreement, I have succeeded; if they are not in complete agreement, my attention is drawn to the circumstances surrounding each case, and I am forced to find new conditions for conducting the contradictory experiments in a purer way. But if a case which contradicts my law arises often and under similar circumstance, I realize that I must go further in my research and seek out a higher standpoint.

In my experience, this is the very point where the human mind can come closest to things in their general state, draw them near, and, so to speak, form an amalgam3 with them just as it usually does in common empiricism, but now in a rational way.

Thus the results of our work are:

1. The empirical phenomenon,
which everyone finds in nature, and which is then raised through experiments to the level of

2. the scientific phenomenon
by producing it under circumstance and conditions different from those in which it was first observed, and in a sequence which is more or less successful.

3. The pure phenomenon
now stands before us as the result of all our observations and experiments. It can never be isolated, but it appears in a continuous sequence of events. To depict it, the human mind gives definition to the empirically variable, excludes the accidental, sets aside the impure, untangles the complicated, and even discovers the unknown.

This is perhaps the ultimate goal of our efforts,, at least if we have the right sense of our own limits. For here it is not a question of causes, but of conditions under which the phenomena appear;.their consistent sequence, their eternal return under thousands of circumstances, their uniformity and mutability are perceived and predicted; their defined quality is recognized'and again defined by the human mind.

In reality this work could not be called speculative, for it seems to me that in the end these are just the practical and self-distilling processes of common human understanding as it ventures to apply itself to a higher sphere.

Weimar
January 15, 1798

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Ay luna que reluces


Ay luna que reluces,
Toda la noche m'alumbres.
Ay, luna tan bella
Alumbresme a la sierra;
Por do vaya y venga!
Toda la noche m'alumbres.

"Ay luna que reluces" villancico anónimo del siglo XVI. 

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John Zammito: A Philosophical Reconstruction of the Sublime


Its a review made by Zammito about the Robert Doran's book, The Theory of the Sublime from Longinus to Kant.

Robert Doran claims that the sublime is all about transcendence transferred from the religious to the aesthetic domain of experience. Taken in this philosophical rather than stylistic sense, it proved crucial for the development of modern subjectivity. Doran traces the issue from Longinus through the decisive reception of Nicolas Boileau, who first distinguished le sublime from le style sublime, on to an extended engagement with Immanuel Kant. In all this he seeks its place in the rise of the modern bourgeois subject. The social-historical connections tend to be a bit overstated, first, with regard to Boileau and the idea of the honnête homme, and especially with the claim that “Burke treats aesthetic concepts as proxies for sociopolitical categories.” It is not fruitful for an understanding of Kant, either. This weakens his powerful argument for the philosophical significance of the sublime in modern thought.
Zammito's review on "Brillonline".

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Le problème anthropologique chez Michel Foucault


Cette recherche de doctorat est le résultat d'un projet plus vaste intitulé «La Question de la Mort de l'Homme et de la Psychologie selon Michel Foucault». Ce projet a l'objetif d'examiner la formulation, les facteurs et les conséquences rapportés aux différentes démarches utilisées par Foucault dans ses critiques aux «anthropologies», figurées dans la trajectoire des textes publiés pendant les années 1950 et 1960. La question principale est le problème «anthropologique»: dans les textes parus en 1954, Foucault a entrepris un double projet de contestation et fondation des sciences humaines; le jeune philosophe essayait de corriger les perspectives considerées par lui comme des perspectives erronées, pour en établir une nouvelle anthropologie finalement rigoreuse. Par contre, d'une façon relativement vite les projets de fondation ont eté remplacés pour des suspicions et donc il y a eu un changement de la façon d'énoncer le problème anthropologique: au lieu d'être «solution», la question anthropologique commence à devenir un domaine plein de problèmes. L'essay de fonder donne place à un ensemble d'analyses qui dénoncent plusieurs engagements historiquements faits pour les connaissances anthropologiques. La recherche realisée essaye d'analyser ce passage de la «solution» au «problème», en croisant la lecture de certains matériaux: les textes publiés par Foucault pendant les années 50 (et quelques textes des annés 60), les débats contemporains et les discussions sur lesquelles ces textes ont essayé d'entrer, et aussi quelques notes écrites par Jacques Lagrange pendant les cours donnés par Foucault à l'Ecole Normale Supérieure depuis 1953 jusqu'à 1955. Le croisement de références a l'objetif de voir le contexte des problèmes probablement vus par Foucault dans les textes de 1954, et le chemin parcouru par lui, jusqu'àux questions enoncées dans les textes de 1957 et l'écriture à Uppsala de la thèse principale sur l'histoire de la folie.

Une recherche doctorale sur le "premier" Focuault (années 1950), liens dans Philpapers 

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"All testing, all confirmation and disconfirmation of a hypothesis takes place already within a system. And this system is not a more or less arbitrary and doubtful point of departure for all our arguments; no it belongs to the essence of what we call an argument. The system is not so much the point of departure, as the element in which our arguments have their life."
- Wittgenstein

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"Le poète ne retient pas ce qu’il découvre ; l’ayant transcrit, le perd bientôt. En cela réside sa nouveauté, son infini et son péril"

René Char, La Bibliothèque est en feu (1956)


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