A Simple Digestion Method with a Lefort Aqua Regia Solution for Diatom Extraction

Presence of diatoms in tissues has been considered as a significant sign of drowning. However, there are limitations in the present extraction methods. We developed a new digestion method using the Lefort aqua regia solution (3:1 nitric acid to hydrochloric acid) for diatom extraction and evaluated the digestive capability, diatom destruction, and diatoms' recovery of this new method. The kidney tissues from rabbit mixed with water rich in diatoms were treated by the Lefort aqua regia digestion method (n = 10) and the conventional acid digestion method (n = 10). The results showed that the digestive capability of Lefort aqua regia digestion method was superior to conventional acid digestion method (p < 0.01); the structure of diatom remained almost intact; and the recovery of diatom was comparable to the conventional acid digestion method (p > 0.05). The Lefort aqua regia reagent is an improvement over the conventional acid digestion for recovery of diatoms from tissue samples.     

Castoriadis and the Modern Political Imaginary—Oligarchy,Representation, Democracy

Abstract

This article examines the link between oligarchy and the notion of representative democracy, which for Castoriadis also implies the bureaucratisation of society. However, in an argument with and against Castoriadis, one has to decipher modern oligarchies before launching into a radical critique of the principle of representation. There is a diversity of representative democracies, and the complexity of modernity comes from a mixture of oligarchy, representation and democracy. Even though the idea of democracy has evolved, we do not live under representative democracies but under liberal oligarchies. Direct democratic procedures and representative elements can sometimes be gathered in order to create new forms of political commitment. The main problem is avoiding a concentration of powers, which cannot create the conditions for the emergence of democratic institutions.     

The Sacred,Social Creativity and the State

Abstract

This paper explores the specific contribution of a strand of contemporary French social theory founded by Cornelius Castoriadis and Claude Lefort to the under standing of human power. It formulates a conception of power that transcends its definitions in terms of physical coercion or institutionalised violence to reveal the way power is creative and institutes the social. Its reflection on the cultural nature of political power and it role in society is shown to extend the pioneering reflection of Durkheim's sociology, especially as regards the homology that exists between religion and politics. The social role performed by the state explored by Durkheim prefigures Gauchet's theory of the state, which builds on Lefort's work. Gauchet's theory can be said to elaborate a critical synthesis of the two stands of Durkheim's work: the sociology of religion and the sociology of the modern state. This synthesis raises questions on the role played by the European state in the development of individualism, in both its political and economic manifestations.     

Modernity Gone Awry: Lefort on Totalitarian and Democratic Self-representation

Abstract

This essay starts by reviewing Claude Lefort's writings on totalitarianism, a theme that runs like a red thread through his oeuvre and plays a key role in the different stages of his intellectual development. The analysis of the USSR is a central interest of Lefort and his colleagues at Socialisme ou Barbarie (and inspires them to adopt an explicitly "political" approach against the "economism" of their fellow Marxists); the problem of totalitarianism features prominently in Lefort's theory of democracy and human rights (where it functions as the "flipside" of democracy); and the theme holds Lefort's attention well after the events of 1989. The emphasis of this essay, however, is not on the chronology of Lefort's trajectory, but on the methodological role of totalitarianism in his theoretical framework. Lefort's account of totalitarianism serves him as a tool to dissect the symbolic fabric of modern society. In Arendt's view, totalitarian rule reveals something of the essence of modernity, as a movement towards ever increasing technical mastery. For Lefort, by contrast, totalitarian tendencies arise as an attempt to close off the experience of indeterminacy that has been opened up by political modernity. He shows that the totalitarian "imaginary" (which he dissects in psychoanalytic terms) presupposes yet deliberately inverts the very ideas that sparked the democratic revolution and that are central to the self-representation of democratic societies. In consequence, democracy is continuously at risk of degenerating into totalitarianism. Importantly, the totalitarian threat, which Lefort believes to be the main threat to modern society, only becomes visible by adopting a specifically "political" perspective. It is therefore of the utmost importance that we continue to under stand and to interpret our society in "political" terms, that is, in reference to the symbolic constellation of collective power.     

Fleshing Out the Political

Abstract

This paper attempts to draw out the political import of Merleau-Ponty’s ontology of the flesh, by engaging the critique levelled against it by his student and literary executor Claude Lefort. In suggesting a tension in Merleau-Ponty’s work that obscures alterity, Lefort seems to miss the rich political import of Merleau-Ponty’s ontology of the flesh. Founded in his development of the concepts of écart and reversibility, Merleau-Ponty’s ontological position breaks with many of the standard tenets of political thinking, and offers a multifaceted conception of alterity. I will suggest that Lefort’s own claim to alterity buckles under the immanent weight of his critique of Merleau-Ponty, offering at best a conception of otherness limited to a self-relational non-identity. This conception ultimately fails to adequately consider the relations existing between different beings-in-the-world. In thinking being as flesh, Merleau-Ponty offers us an ethico-political optic that attempts to think alterity and ontology in a manner that unhinges us from our closed and autonomous being, opening us to the world, others and to the non-identical becoming that characterizes being as such.     

勒福特王水消解法检验动物器官硅藻的法医学应用

目的研究勒福特王水消解法对动物器官中硅藻检验的法医学应用。方法将勒福特王水消解-滤膜富集-扫描电镜观察法与传统强酸消解-离心富集-光学显微镜观察法比较,对生前入水和死后入水的实验动物肺、肝和肾组织中的硅藻数量、检验时间、检出率以及观察效果进行研究,并进行统计学分析。结果生前入水组用勒福特王水消解-滤膜富集-扫描电镜观察法检出肺、肝、肾组织中的硅藻数量均多于传统方法(P0.05),检验时间少于传统方法(P0.05),检出率无差异(P0.05),观察效果优于传统方法。结论勒福特王水消解-滤膜富集-扫描电镜观察法具有简单、高效、定性定量分析准确的特点,该方法成本低廉,操作简单,具有较好的实用价值。     

元首制时代的罗马宪法文本研究——以《韦斯巴芗谕令权法》为依据

《韦斯巴芗谕令权法》是西方世界保留下来的最古的较完整宪法文本,其发现证明了"罗马公法不存在或虽存在但无价值论"的错误。该法被铭刻在两块铜表上,第一块铜表佚失,得到保留的第二块铜表包括8个条文外加一个制裁,它授予韦斯巴芗皇帝外交权、元老院会议主持权、召开元老院会议通过法律权、官吏推荐权、城界外推权、自由裁量权、免受一定法律约束权等权力,还包括溯及力条款和免责规定。该法确定了元首制时代皇帝与元老院的权力分配关系,是长期存在的王权法的一个例证。尽管该法表现了皇权扩张的趋势,但仍维持了皇帝在法律之下的西方宪政传统。