Este artigo faz um traçado temporal/metodológico na obra de Michel Foucault, a partir dos eixos teórico-metodológicos da arqueologia e da genealogia e busca demonstrar que a passagem de um eixo para outro significa, igualmente, uma alteração de método e de objeto de pesquisa. Todavia a dimensão arqueológica não é posta de lado, trata-se, antes, de uma expansão da crítica, pois essa se mantém de forma contundente, apesar de o tipo de questão metodológica mudar, e a análise passar a centrar-se, então, (...) na correlação entre poder e saber. A metodologia utilizada para a escolha das obras referenciadas no presente artigo deu-se a partir da seleção de passagens, no conjunto dos textos, que tratam dos temas abordados e que corroboram os argumentos propostos. Visa, ainda, a detalhar os elementos metodológicos da genealogia, apresentando o seu potencial crítico, a partir do entendimento de que a crítica genealógica é local, contingente, provisória; é um empreendimento para libertar os saberes históricos; é preciso ultrapassar/criticar uma tradição que defende que só há saber onde/quando se suspendem as relações de poder. Por fim, quando se define o exercício de poder, como um modo de ação sobre a ação dos outros, quando o caracteriza pelo governo dos homens, por uns ou outros, no sentido mais lato dessa palavra, inclui-se um elemento fundamental: a liberdade. O poder só se exerce sobre sujeitos livres e enquanto são livres – a relação de poder e a insubmissão da liberdade não podem ser separadas. A genealogia instaura uma ontologia histórica, e o que se propõe é um êthos, uma vida filosófica em que a crítica do que somos é a análise histórica dos limites que nos são colocadas e a experiência da sua transgressão possível. Vida que procura promover e dar forma à impaciência da liberdade, segundo o princípio da autonomia. Palavras-chave: Genealogia. Poder. Crítica. Liberdade. Michel Foucault. (shrink)

The predictable rhythmic structure is important to most ecologically relevant sounds for humans, such as is found in the rhythm of speech or music. This study addressed the question of how rhythmic predictions are maintained in the auditory system when there are multiple perceptual interpretations occurring simultaneously and emanating from the same sound source. We recorded the electroencephalogram (EEG) while presenting participants with a tone sequence that had two different tone feature patterns, one based on the sequential rhythmic variation in (...) tone duration and the other on sequential rhythmic variation in tone intensity. Participants were presented with the same sound sequences and were instructed to listen for the intensity pattern (ignore fluctuations in duration) and press a response key to detected pattern deviants (attend intensity pattern task); to listen to the duration pattern (ignore fluctuations in intensity) and make a button press to duration pattern deviants (attend duration pattern task), and to watch a movie and ignore the sounds presented to their ears (attend visual task). Both intensity and duration patterns occurred predictably 85% of the time, thus the key question involved evaluating how the brain treated the irrelevant feature patterns (standards and deviants) while performing an auditory or visual task. We expected that task-based feature patterns would have a more robust brain response to attended standards and deviants than the unattended feature patterns. Instead, we found that the neural entrainment to the rhythm of the standard attended patterns had similar power to the standard of the unattended feature patterns. In addition, the infrequent pattern deviants elicited the event-related brain potential called the mismatch negativity component (MMN). The MMN elicited by task-based feature pattern deviants had a similar amplitude to MMNs elicited by unattended pattern deviants that were unattended because they were not the target pattern or because the participant ignored the sounds and watched a movie. Thus, these results demonstrate that the brain tracks multiple predictions about the complexities in sound streams and can automatically track and detect deviations with respect to these predictions. This capability would be useful for switching attention rapidly among multiple objects in a busy auditory scene. (shrink)

Moderata Fonte's dialogueThe Worth of Women(1600) contains stinging critiques of marriage and the dowry system as well as of women's inequality. I argue that Fonte's critique of male dominance, particularly in marriage, employs a modern method of argument, which anticipates the later contractarian critiques of political authority. Given that women are naturally men's equals, Fonte argues that men's de facto authority over women is illegitimate and based on force. Moreover, by treating marriage as an artificial institution rather than as a (...) natural institution, Fonte anticipates later feminist arguments that criticize the modern contract tradition for its failure to extend its critique of other forms of authority to patriarchal marriage, instead positing a natural basis for women's subordination to men. In light of this history, Fonte's critique of patriarchy is especially interesting: it challenges the patriarchal family structure and the institutions that collude to diminish women's agency, and this challenge to male authority is similar to later (male) challenges to de facto political authority. (shrink)