Various historical sources from the Renaissance--including transcripts of trials for witchcraft, writings on demonology and textbooks of pharmaceutical botany--describe vegetal ointments prepared by women accused of witchcraft and endowed with marked psychoactive properties. Here, we examine the botanical composition and the possible pharmacological actions of these ointments. The results of our study suggest that recipes for narcotic and mind-altering salves were known to Renaissance folk healers, and were in part distinct from homologous preparations of educated medicine. In addition, our study (...) reveals an unexpected connection of these vegetal psychotropes with archaic chtonic beliefs, confirming the tight association between rituals and cults entered on the Underworld and the image of the Medieval witch. (shrink)

The Phenomenology of Everyday Life presents results from a rigorous qualitative approach to the psychological study of everyday human activities and experiences. This book does not replace scientific observation with humanistic analysis, but provides an additional perspective on significant human questions. The qualitative approach this book employs is grounded in the philosophical traditions of existentialism and phenomenology, which use dialogue as their major method of inquiry. These traditions are especially well adapted to encompass and describe human events and activities. In (...) addition, such events can be properly investigated only on the basis of a method sensitive enough to articulate the nuances of human experience and reflection. In this latter regard, it is important to note that insights deriving from literature and the humanities are equally as revealing of the human world as those from experimental psychology, biology or medicine. (shrink)

In this article we propose to overlap aesthetic experience with medial experience, starting from the assumption that every aesthetic experience is always a medial experience. Adopting a naturalistic approach, in which we explain what we mean with the term naturalization, we suggest a partial review of the issue. First, we state that human natural language is a kind of technology, made possible by certain physical, cognitive and social features; this sort of biological technology must be considered as an underlying condition (...) for aesthetic experience. Secondly, we suggest the importance of social relationships among various species, demonstrating the role played by this relationships in natural selection: a new perspective will emerge. Thirdly, we explain in more detail why aesthetic experience can be likened to medial experience; in doing so, we offer an epistemological comparison between evolutionary theory and Marshall McLuhan’s approach to media studies. Resulting comparison will offer an original definition of aesthetic experience which rises through the interaction engaged by our natural technologies interacting prosthetically with environment. (shrink)

This volume presents the results of the research PRIN project “Perception, performativity, and cognitive sciences”, which has been financed by MIUR over the three years period 2016–2019 and carried out by a team of academics: Antonino Pennisi, Vittorio Gallese, Ruggero Eugeni, Claudio Paolucci, Pietro Montani, Marco Mazzone, Franco Lo Piparo, Guglielmo Tamburrini. During 2017 Nunzio Allocca has joined the roman unity, while Marco Carapezza joined the unity of Palermo. All the news about the state of research and the scientific (...) initiatives involving our research group are available on the web and described in 2/2017 of “Reti Saperi Linguaggi. Italian Journal of Cognitive Sciences”. (shrink)

. Each predicate of the Aristotelian square of opposition includes the word “is”. Through a twofold interpretation of this word the square includes both classical logic and non-classical logic. All theses embodied by the square of opposition are preserved by the new interpretation, except for contradictories, which are substituted by incommensurabilities. Indeed, the new interpretation of the square of opposition concerns the relationships among entire theories, each represented by means of a characteristic predicate. A generalization of the square of opposition (...) is achieved by not adjoining, according to two Leibniz’ suggestions about human mind, one more choice about the kind of infinity; i.e., a choice which was unknown by Greek’s culture, but which played a decisive role for the birth and then the development of modern science. This essential innovation of modern scientific culture explains why in modern times the Aristotelian square of opposition was disregarded. (shrink)

In my contribution, I discuss the important role of moral anthropological questions in the development of Schiller’s theoretical thought. I underline the fact that Schiller’s philosophical questions in Jena are much closer to those he confronted in Stuttgart – much closer than is considered to be the case in contemporary Schiller scholarship. I show how this continuity becomes evident when we take into consideration the moral anthropological topics that continued to interest Schiller throughout his life. To ground my argument, I (...) show that the concept of the“whole human being” (i. e. the concept of a human considered in its entirety, as both sensible and rational) constitutes the continuous characteristic of Schiller’s philosophical considerations. (shrink)

Both the global workspace theory and Block’s distinction between phenomenal and access consciousness, are central in the current debates about consciousness and the neural correlates of consciousness. In this article, a unifying global workspace model for phenomenal and access consciousness is proposed. In the model, recurrent neural interactions take place in distinct yet interacting access and phenomenal brain loops. The effectiveness of feedback signaling onto sensory cortical maps is emphasized for the neural correlates of phenomenal consciousness. Two forms of top-down (...) attention, attention for perception and attention for access, play differential roles for phenomenal and access consciousness. The model is implemented in a neural network form, with the simulation of single and multiple visual object processing, and of the attentional blink. (shrink)

European Journal of Philosophy, Volume 29, Issue 4, Page 795-810, December 2021.

Nella storia della metafisica è stato un grande problema come chiarire l’idea della coincidentia oppositorum (la coincidenza degli opposti) di Cusano, il quale è riconosciuto comunque da Cassirer come il primo epistemologo del pensiero moderno, in particolare come colui che ha saputo conquistare l’infinito alla mente umana. Dopo alcuni secoli, ha avuto una grande importanza una idea simile a quella di Cusano, la dialettica di Hegel, la quale aggiunge una negazione ad una prima frase negata per ottenere una sintesi in (...) termini generali. Ma poi queste idee sono state sempre meno seguite, eccetto che nel XX secolo da un filosofo non accademico, Lanza del Vasto che ha criticato Hegel e si è ricondotto a Cusano. Nello scritto esamino questa tematica mediante gli strumenti recentemente forniti dalla logica matematica, già verificati sugli scritti di altri scienziati; essi sono capaci di distinguere con precisione che cosa, negli scritti di uno studioso, è un passaggio logico formale e che cosa è una semplice illazione, derivata dalla conoscenza comune o dalla sua creatività; e se è un passaggio logico, decidere di che tipo di logica è. Per mezzo di questo metodo formale, i) presento alcune caratteristiche del ragionare di Cusano; ii) critico il metodo di Hegel; il risultato si accorda con la analisi critica di Hegel che Lanza del Vasto ha compiuto in maniera intuitva; iii) dimostro che la relazione tra Cusano e Lanza del Vasto è più forte di quanto dichiara quest’ultimo; iv) suggerisco una spiegazione della coincidentia oppositorum, chiarendo che la novità di ragionare in logica non classica è stata così innovativa che il tentativo di Cusano di precisarne il metodo è risultato in una scorciatoia, non errata ma valida solo in alcune situazioni; mentre è stato deviante il tentativo di Hegel; Lanza del Vasto, che ha portato un contributo al metodo di Cusano, si è comunque reso conto che occorreva arrivare a formalizzare un nuovo tipo di logica, che oggi risulta essere quella non classica. In definitiva, occorre attribuire a Cusano il merito di aver suggerito una nuova maniera di razionalità logica, quella capace di ragionare in logica non classica e di averne dato, sia pure in maniera imprecisa ed oscura, una prima formalizzazione. (shrink)

The environmental crisis is undoubtedly one of the most critical and urgent problems of our times. Many people are raising their voices in support of nature to build a better future for humanity and for our planet. In this article, the authors explore the specific contribution that Christianity and Islam can offer in this debate and how religions can help bring back into the ecological discourse the element of the sacred that abandoned the reflection about nature since the advent of (...) the Enlightenment. Moving from the spiritual dimension of nature in the light of Pope Francis’s 2015 encyclical on ecology Laudato Si’, the authors argue that the current ecological crisis can represent an opportunity for a renewed encounter among religions, bringing together the ethical and the spiritual, recovering the element of communion between human beings and nature that points to something beyond themselves. The authors present the Laudato Si’ as a universal invitation and a space for encounter between world religions that puts at its heart love as a guiding principle and animating force of a much-needed ecological, spiritual and anthropological conversion. Contribution: This article focuses on the spiritual dimension of nature in Pope Francis’s 2015 encyclical letter Laudato Si ’. The authors argue that the document with its emphasis on love represents a platform for dialogue between Christianity and Islam by bringing back the element of the sacred in the current ecological debate. (shrink)

I characterize Bishop's constructive mathematics as an alternative to classical mathematics, which makes use of the actual infinity. From the history an accurate investigation of past physical theories I obtianed some ones - mainly Lazare Carnot's mechanics and Sadi Carnot's thermodynamics - which are alternative to the dominant theories - e.g. Newtopn's mechanics. The way to link together mathematics to theoretical physics is generalized and some general considerations, in particualr on the geoemtry in theoretical physics, are obtained.that.

In the past few decades a remarkable change occurred in Kant scholarship: the "other" Kant has been discovered, i.e. the one of the doctrine of virtue and the anthropology. Through the rediscovery of Kant's investigations into the empirical and sensuous aspects of knowledge, our understanding of Kant's philosophy has been enriched by an important element that has allowed researchers to correct supposed deficiencies in Kant's work. In addition, further questions concerning the nature of Kant's philosophy itself have been formulated: the (...) more the "other" Kant comes to the fore, the stronger the question concerning the connection between pure philosophy and empirical investigation becomes. The aim of this study is to show that the psychological and anthropological interpretations of Kant's pure philosophy are not convincing and at the same time to illustrate some connections between his critical and anthropological investigations by means of an analysis of the theory of the faculties. Against both a "transcendental psychological" and an "anthropological" reading, the book presents Kant's theory of the facultiesas a constitutive part of his critical philosophy andshows that there is a close connection between Kant's pure philosophy and his moral aesthetic. (shrink)

Over the years, research in the field of narratological studies has converged towards a unitary vision of narrativity, which is based on a shared interpretation of Aristotle's Poetics. The object of this article is to describe the main characteristics of an alternative model of narrativity, which I propose to call “Nietzschean narratology”. In particular, I emphasize the role that the notion of melancholy plays within the model of aesthetic experience of The Birth of Tragedy. I wish to show that, in (...) this work, Nietzsche criticizes the artificiality of the Aristotelian catharsis, by opposing to it the naturalness of the “Dionysiac melancholy” which, according to him, vivifies the Attic drama. (shrink)

Normal.dotm 0 0 1 135 770 111111 6 1 945 12.0 0 false 14 18 pt 18 pt 0 0 false false false Normal.dotm 0 0 1 161 922 111111 7 1 1132 12.0 0 false 14 18 pt 18 pt 0 0 false false false Eles são há muito conhecidas algumas suposições sobre a relação entre a assimetria do cérebro e/ou indecisão hemisférica funcional que, por vezes, caracteriza os indivíduos canhotos e distúrbios de aprendizagem específicas. Até hoje, no entanto, (...) essas teorias não encontrei muitas confirmações em estudos da neurociência e da psicologia experimental. Em outros aspectos, se olharmos para as evidências experimentais em distúrbio específico de linguagem, ou observação em sala de aula de crianças com distúrbio específico de aprendizagem, ou seja, as experiências empíricas descritas por professores do ensino fundamental, Essa relação parece ser bastante óbvio. Através da aplicação de um questionário estruturado a uma amostra de professores do ensino fundamental italianos, neste estudo, tentamos documentar se há uma maior incidência de dislexia, discalculia e disgrafia em crianças canhotos. Palavras-chave : dislexia, discalculia, disgrafia, assimetria cerebral, canhotismo. (shrink)

_Riassunto_: Nel suo scritto intitolato _What is moving right now?_ Elton Marques cerca di rispondere alla domanda su cosa sia la _spotlight_ cui si riferisce la teoria temporale detta _Moving Spotlight Theory_ ed espone l’idea che si tratti del flusso di coscienza relativo ai nostri stati mentali. Dopo aver presentato la sua tesi, introduco un’ipotesi aggiuntiva allo scopo di risolvere una difficoltà presente nella sua interpretazione. Benché Marques non tenti di sostenere il modello della MST rispetto ad altri modelli temporali, (...) egli cerca di rendere la sua ipotesi convincente. Per questo motivo, io stesso metto qui a confronto il modello della MST (in particolare nella versione offerta da Marques) con altri modelli temporali, per valutarne la plausibilità all’interno del dibattito complessivo riguardante le principali teorie sul tempo, che pertanto vengono esposte nelle loro linee essenziali. _Parole chiave_: A-theory; B-theory; Growing Block Theory; Moving Spotlight Theory; Tempo _What is moving in MST? _ _Abstract_: In his paper entitled _What is moving right now?_ Elton Marques queries the nature of the _spotlight_ is in the _Moving Spotlight Theory_ of time, suggesting it is the flow of consciousness regarding our own mental states. After presenting his thesis, I introduce an additional hypothesis which helps resolve a problem with his proposal. Also, although Marques presents a convincing argument for his interpretation, he does not attempt to compare the MST model with other temporal models. I take up this challenge, comparing the MST model (specifically, the version offered by Marques) with other temporal models, pointing out essential characteristics and differences. In this way, I am able to locate and evaluate MST within the overall debate and main theories of time. _Keywords_: A-theory; B-theory; Growing Block Theory; Moving Spotlight Theory; Time. (shrink)

La philosophie de l’animalité chez Heidegger et Merleau-PontyLe présent essai est une tentative de réflexion à partir de l’oeuvre de Merleau-Ponty sur le problème anthropologique: comment penser l’humain dans son rapport ontologique avec l’animal sans retomber dans les dichotomies traditionnelles du spiritualisme et du naturalisme ou de la philosophie et de la non-philosophie, dans lesquelles la pensée contemporaine, en particulier la pensée heideggerienne, est restée à notre avis enfermée. L’originalité théorique de l’approche merleau-pontienne à l’égard de la thématique de la (...) différence anthropologique consiste dans le fait de vouloir repenser la vie, humaine et non humaine, au-delà des dichotomies classiques anthropologico-métaphysiques de la matière et de l’esprit, de l’instinct et de la raison, de la nature et de l’histoire, et ainsi de suite. Par conséquent, ce que nous proposons ici est de repenser la philosophie de l’animalité capable de rendre compte de la spécificité de l’humain sur la base d’une proximité ontologique inédite avec l’animal, comprise comme élément central de l’ontologie de la nature que Merleau-Ponty tentait d’élaborer dans les dernières années de sa vie. Une tâche qui, sans doute, plus qu’un aboutissement théoriques, pourrait être l’indice d’une série de problèmes que la philosophie, grâce avant tout à la contribution fondamentale de Merleau-Ponty, pourrait enfin affronter de manière radicale.The Philosophy of Animality in Heidegger and Merleau-PontyBased on Merleau-Ponty’s work, the present essay attempts to reflect on the anthropological problem: how to conceive the human in its ontological relation withthe animal – without falling back into the traditional dichotomies of spiritualism and naturalism or philosophy and non-philosophy, in which contemporary thought, in particular Heidegger’s thought, has remained, in our opinion, confined. The theoretical originality of Merleau-Ponty’s approach in regard to the thematic of anthropological difference consists in the fact of wanting to rethink life – both human and non-human life – beyond the classic anthropologico-metaphysical dichotomies of matter and spirit, of instinct and reason, nature and history, and so forth. As a result, what we propose here is to rethink the philosophy of animality in a way that is capable of accounting for the specificity of the human on the basis of a new ontological proximity with the animal. We understand this new ontological proximity as the central element of the ontology of nature that Merleau-Ponty attempts to elaborate in the last years of his life. No doubt, this is a task which, being more than a theoretical result, could be the index of a series of problems that philosophy, thanks above all to Merleau-Ponty’s fundamental contribution, can finally confront in a radical manner. (shrink)

One of the most important phenomenological problems that influenced Merleau-Ponty’s work is the idea of a comeback to the lifeworld like primordial ground as much of the individual philosophical reflection as of the intersubjective experience of knowledge. The aim of this paper is to highlight the character, in the same breath paradoxical and founding, of the otherness experience that, according to Merleau-Ponty, the phenomenological concept of intersubjectivity involves. Therefore, Merleau-Ponty radicalizes this husserlian concept with the notion of intercorporeity. In this (...) manner, what the French philosopher wants to carry out is not as much an external criticism to the phenomenology, but rather the radical phenomenological purpose to take phenomenology to its extremes limits. Questioning the dualism of empirical and transcendental, of sensible passivity and reflexive activity, of material exteriority and inner spiritual reality, the concept of intercorporeity refers to a kind of being that prevents from the pretension of a definitive foundation on the base of one of the two sides of this metaphysical polarity. In contrast with this dualism, and according to the Merleau-Ponty’s “new ontology”, the concept of intercorporeity has an outstanding relevance because announces the ontological co-existence of the human being with the Nature’s and Earth’s being. (shrink)

This article uses the Historia Lausiaca of Palladius (cc. 33-34) to identify in a monastic and ecclesiastical community some verbal, psychological and physical violence that reflects what today would be framed as bullying.

Nous pourrions, d?une formule générale, avancer que selon le médecin psychiatre et philosophe Ludwig Binswanger, l?action de la psychothérapie vise à aider le malade à recouvrer quelque chose de la mobilité de son existence au sein des structures, volontiers qualifiées d?existentiales ou de transcendantales, ou encore a priori , de l?être-au-monde et de l?être-avec-autrui. Je m?attacherai à montrer ici que la capacité à endurer l?indéter­mination inhérente à l?ouverture des possibles, à se porter depuis l?au-delà des préfigurations de l?avenir, est comme (...) la condition de l?historicisation de l? ipse , d?une traversée des conditions destinales de l?existence, une traversée de la passivité, commerce dialectique avec elle mais sans telos glorieux. Pâtir l?indétermination pour élaborer sa passivité. Chacun sait que du côté de la philosophie, l??uvre de Binswanger a reçu ses principales impulsions, après l?étude précoce de Kant 1 , de la phéno­ménologie, en particulier celle de Husserl, et de l?analytique existen­tiale de Heidegger. Chez chacun de ceux-ci, Binswanger a cherché les moyens de décrire la mondanéisation du monde dans l?expérience normale et, sur la base des résultats acquis avec ces seuls moyens descriptifs, de mettre au jour les Umwandlungen , les modifications, les « flexions » de l?existence au cours des expériences morbides de ses patients. Encore faut-il voir, si nous. (shrink)

The essays collected in this volume explore the ethical issues raised by the process and substance of policy-making, and discuss whether it is reasonable to expect ethical standards in public affairs.

MethodologyA new hypothesis on the basic features characterizing the Foundations of Mathematics is suggested.Application of the methodBy means of it, the several proposals, launched around the year 1900, for discovering the FoM are characterized. It is well known that the historical evolution of these proposals was marked by some notorious failures and conflicts. Particular attention is given to Cantor's programme and its improvements. Its merits and insufficiencies are characterized in the light of the new conception of the FoM. After the (...) failures of Frege's and Cantor's programmes owing to the discoveries of an antinomy and internal contradictions, respectively, the two remaining, more radical programmes, i.e. Hilbert's and Brouwer's, generated a great debate; the explanation given here is their mutual incommensurability, defined by means of the differences in their foundational features.ResultsThe ignorance of this phenomenon explains the inconclusiveness of a century-long debate between the advocates of these two proposals. Which however have been so greatly improved as to closely approach or even recognize some basic features of the FoM.Discussion on the resultsYet, no proposal has recognized the alternative basic feature to Hilbert's main one, the deductive organization of a theory, although already half a century before the births of all the programmes this alternative was substantially instantiated by Lobachevsky's theory on parallel lines. Some conclusive considerations of a historical and philosophical nature are offered. In particular, the conclusive birth of a pluralism in the FoM is stressed. (shrink)

This edited volume focuses on the hypothesis that performativity is not a property confined to certain specific human skills, or to certain specific acts of language, nor an accidental enrichment due to creative intelligence. Instead, the executive and motor component of cognitive behavior should be considered an intrinsic part of the physiological functioning of the mind, and as endowed with self-generative power. Performativity, in this theoretical context, can be defined as a constituent component of cognitive processes. The material action allowing (...) us to interact with reality is both the means by which the subject knows the surrounding world and one through which he experiments with the possibilities of his body. This proposal is rooted in models now widely accepted in the philosophy of mind and language; in fact, it focuses on a space of awareness that is not in the individual, or outside it, but is determined by the species-specific ways in which the body acts on the world. This theoretical hypothesis will be pursued through the latest interdisciplinary methodology typical of cognitive science, that coincide with the five sections in which the book is organized: Embodied, enactivist, philosophical approaches; Aesthetics approaches; Naturalistic and evolutionary approaches; Neuroscientific approaches; Linguistics approaches. This book is intended for: linguists, philosophers, psychologists, cognitive scientists, scholars of art and aesthetics, performing artists, researchers in embodied cognition, especially enactivists and students of the extended mind. (shrink)