Abstract
In this article, I use a metaphorical concept in order to propose an interpretation for the dialogical relationship that occurs between I-positions in the human self. Metaphor is a useful tool for scientific production and its heuristic value has been demonstrated in several fields of knowledge. I claim a musico-logical metaphor to explain dynamic dialogic processes that occur when I-positions are in agreement or disagreement relationship. These dialogic processes are based on tension and release and, in a complementary way, can result in contradictory, tautological, or contingency relations between I-positions. These relations were categorized using concepts from Music and Logic, thus creating a theoretical model composed of metaphorical concepts. To provide evidence of how a musico-logical metaphor might contribute to the interpretation of relations between I-positions in the system of self, I discuss a case study of a rural worker and analyze how child labor marked his life trajectory throughout different moments. The musico-logical metaphor might contribute to dialogical processes understanding that occur at the border of the agreement-disagreement dyad in the system of the self, since this metaphor proposes to identify, from a cogenetic understanding, dialogic interactions between I-positions located in this border, thus transforming the agreement-disagreement dyad into a triadic agreement-border-non-agreement set.
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In Cultural Semiotic Psychology an interesting approach to loop idea has been taken by Zittoun & Gillespie (2016) in the notion of imagination loop, a form of operation of the imagination understood as “a process of uncoupling, a looping out of the immediate situation, and return to that situation” (p. 38).
Excerpt from the short story “Funes, the memorioso”. In: Borges (2016). Ficções. Trad. Davi Arrigucci Jr. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras.
A good exercise may be, during the reading of this paper - since it is not yet possible to add “sounds” to our scientific articles – to listen to the piece shown in Fig. 1 and observe how, in each bar of the piece, tensions are added to the melody and harmony with the introduction of discordant notes in relation to the central tone of the piece. These tonal modulations create a loop around the central tone that widens in tension and is resolved in bars - but carrying in itself the ability to generate new tensions in the unfolding of the music - following until the end of the musical piece.
Propositional logic utilizes a set of symbols to represent propositional calculus. These symbols include sentence letters (for example, p, q, r), operators and parentheses (Mortari, 2016). They are forms of artificial language that, unlike natural language, do not change over time. Hansson (2018) states that “the use of formalization in philosophy is part of our general strivings for clarity and precision in philosophical discussions” (p. 11). Hansson (2018) also asserts that “any representation of a concept in logic or some other formal language is the outcome of a streamlining of the concept, a simplification for the sake of clarity, in other words an idealization” (p. 15). All three logical consequences that I have shown - tautology, contingency and contradiction - and from which I suggest metaphorical concepts have symbolic forms of representation in Logic. Tautology can be represented, for example, by (p ∧ q) → (p V q), the contradiction by p ∧ ~ p, the contingency by (p V q) → (p ∧ q). Wittgenstein (1922) also represents tautology by (if p then p, and if q then q) [pp ∙ qq] and the contradiction by (p and not p; and q and not q.) [P ∙ ~ p ∙ q ∙ ~ q]. The different meanings for logical operators can be found in Mortari (2016), Hansson (2018), Copi (1978), Wittgenstein (1922) and Russell (1972).
In other words, maintenance and transformation are directions that tend to lead the cycle to states of transitivity. According Valsiner (2014), “transitive relations are a special case of intransitivity” and transitivity can be “a temporary solution in the field of intransitive relations of various kinds”. The transitivity is contained in the intransitivity as a temporary state of the cycle. Intransitivity, however, is not contained in transitivity.
The Landless Workers’ Movement (MST) is a social movement with a strong presence in Brazil. Additional information can be found at https://mst.org.br/quem-somos/.
Original excerpt in Portuguese: “com oitos anos, quando eu comecei a trabalhar eu trabalhava com animais, meu pai criava animal em campo, como eu disse a você, minha origem vem de lavrador mesmo… eu trabalhava com meus pais na roça. Então eu não tinha muita liberdade, eu… não tive liberdade de escola não, não entrava na minha mente… bom, não vou dizer eu não aprendi nada de escola, mas eu era mais ocupado com os animais, coisa de animais mesmo, coisa de roça”.
The temporal particle “today” is an indication of the recent nature of the construction of this meaning of child protection as opposed to the belief in the importance of the child’s insertion in family work.
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Acknowledgements
The author thanks Pina Marsico, and Luca Tateo for their careful recommendations to improve this article during the Kitchen Seminar (May 2020). A special thanks to Jaan Valsiner, my supervisor during my doctoral research visit to Sigmund Freud University, Vienna. This work was supported by the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES).
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Santana, R.R.C. The Movement Between Agreement and Disagreement in Self Positions Through a Musico-Logical Metaphor. Integr. psych. behav. 57, 856–877 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12124-022-09731-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12124-022-09731-2