The Aleksanteri Institute of the University of Helsinki organized in 25–26 of September 2009 a special symposium Northern Lights — Facets of Enlightenment Culture with the aim to discuss form of Enlightenment thought in Sweden/Finland and Russia. The symposium, which was opened by Prof. Emeritus Matti Klinge, a renowned historian of 18th- and 19th-century Finland, had four participants from Russia, five from Finland and one from Germany; thus, it was yet a quite small event, but we hope that with it (...) the foundations of a fruitful co-operation, with annual symposia on questions of Enlightenment culture, will be laid. Of the speakers, Prof. Tatiana Artemyeva, Dr. Oili Pulkkinen and Prof. Vesa Oittinen focused on more general problems of study of Enlightenment ideas, while the other contributions dealt with different ―case studies‖ either in Sweden/Finland (Dr. Kimmo Sarje, Dr. Johan Sten), Russia (Prof. Mikhail Mikeshin, Dr. Johannes Remy, Dr. Larisa Agamalian), in France (Dr. Alla Zlatopolskaya) or Germany (Dr. Carola Häntsch). (shrink)

In this paper, we present some experimental findings whose best explanation, first of all, provides a positive answer to a philosophical question in ontology as to whether, in the overall domain of beings, there are fictional characters (_ficta_) over and above concrete individuals. Moreover, since such findings arise out of different comparisons between fictional characters and concrete individuals on the one hand and fictional characters again and non-items that do not belong at all to such an overall domain on the (...) other hand, they also suggest that _ficta_ are allowed as inhabiting a particular subrealm of that domain distinct from the one inhabited by concrete individuals, as previous findings in cognitive psychology had suggested. (shrink)

Motivated by the ongoing controversy surrounding corporate tax, this article presents a study that explores stakeholder expectations of corporate tax in the context of UK business. We conduct a qualitative analysis of in-depth interviews with representatives of community groups, as well as interviews with those representing business groups. We then identify eight themes that together describe “what” companies need to do, “how” they need to do it, and “why” they need to do it, if they wish to appeal to a (...) wide group of interested parties. We discuss our findings based on the corporate social responsibility literature and propose novel ways for community groups and business groups to connect on the topic of corporate tax, suggesting opportunities and themes for dialogue and potential steps to co-create solutions in a stakeholder society. (shrink)

ABSTRACTHow accurate are insights compared to analytical solutions? In four experiments, we investigated how participants' solving strategies influenced their solution accuracies across different types of problems, including one that was linguistic, one that was visual and two that were mixed visual-linguistic. In each experiment, participants' self-judged insight solutions were, on average, more accurate than their analytic ones. We hypothesised that insight solutions have superior accuracy because they emerge into consciousness in an all-or-nothing fashion when the unconscious solving process is complete, (...) whereas analytic solutions can be guesses based on conscious, prematurely terminated, processing. This hypothesis is supported by the finding that participants' analytic solutions included relatively more incorrect responses than timeouts compared to their insight responses. (shrink)

In response to the IABS conference theme to “advise practitioners,” this paper is framed in terms of two questions that have been found to be critical to practitioners. These are “what is Corporate Responsibility and how to do it” and “what is the value of Corporate Responsibility.” The paper uses theories from within the academic literature to develop a model to answer these two practitioner-based questions. An empirical framework based upon the model is developed and tested with a study of (...) customers of a financial service organisation in the UK. (shrink)

People with aphasia use gestures not only to communicate relevant content but also to compensate for their verbal limitations. The Sketch Model (De Ruiter, 2000) assumes a flexible relationship between gesture and speech with the possibility of a compensatory use of the two modalities. In the successor of the Sketch Model, the AR‐Sketch Model (De Ruiter, 2017), the relationship between iconic gestures and speech is no longer assumed to be flexible and compensatory, but instead iconic gestures are assumed to express (...) information that is redundant to speech. In this study, we evaluated the contradictory predictions of the Sketch Model and the AR‐Sketch Model using data collected from people with aphasia as well as a group of people without language impairment. We only found compensatory use of gesture in the people with aphasia, whereas the people without language impairments made very little compensatory use of gestures. Hence, the people with aphasia gestured according to the prediction of the Sketch Model, whereas the people without language impairment did not. We conclude that aphasia fundamentally changes the relationship of gesture and speech. (shrink)

Mathematics is often defined as a “universal” or “conventional” language. Yet, things may be not as simple as that. The theoretical lens of the semiosphere, with the related notions of context and spatial dynamics, within which the concept of cultural conflict is defined, provides a new framework for research in mathematics education to consider the cultural aspects of mathematical discourses. It is under this framework that learning awareness occurs, and teaching challenges are no longer conceived as independent of the content (...) taught (or to be taught). It is not a question of nullifying the cultural conflict, but exploiting the concept of asymmetry to make sense of mathematical discourse. Meeting foreign cultures leads to looking at one’s own practices. An example drawn from Danish numerals, juxtaposed with a mathematical discourse occurring in a sixth-grade classroom in Italy, delves into the practical application of the framework. (shrink)

Il cosiddetto “paradosso della finzione” nasce dal tentativo di spiegare quale tipo di emozioni proviamo verso quegli oggetti che troviamo nei romanzi e nei film e che sappiamo perfettamente essere fittizi. Si tratta di un paradosso classico, tornato alla ribalta nel 1975 dopo la pubblicazione di un articolo di Colin Radford che partiva precisamente dall’interrogativo riguardante le lacrime che versiamo per ciò che non è reale (come un personaggio fittizio, appunto). Perché ci commuoviamo per il suicidio di Anna Karenina se (...) sappiamo che non esiste? Che differenza c’è tra piangere per Anna Karenina, piangere per una bugia, piangere per la depressione e fare finta di piangere perché si vuol fare credere a chi ci guarda che siamo sinceramente commossi? In Piangere e ridere davvero (2009) Maurizio Ferraris offre un’interessante proposta teorica per dissolvere il paradosso in questione e si sofferma su alcune distinzioni fondamentali riguardanti le nostre reazioni emotive a stimoli reali e fittizi. In questo saggio si prende spunto dalla teoria di Ferraris e ci si propone di chiarire che cosa significhi fare finta di rispondere emotivamente a qualcosa nella vita di tutti i giorni e quale sia la differenza tra queste “finte” emozioni e quelle che invece proviamo durante la fruizione di opere che sappiamo essere di finzione. Saranno scelti come esempi paradigmatici il caso Fenaroli (al centro della cronaca italiana alla fine degli anni Cinquanta), Il vedovo di Dino Risi e Scusate il ritardo di Massimo Troisi. (shrink)

What makes Nespolo’s Madama Butterfly so distinct? Not the fact that it is its unique exemplar, in fact artworks as grand operas are essentially repeatable. What does that mean? How could we then explain why Nespolo’s stage costumes and scenery perfecty fit? By clarifying the kind of object Madama Butterfly is.

Drawing on corpora from West Africa and Iceland, the article presents a fieldwork-based comparative exploration of ‘things that place names do’. Treating toponyms as performative elements of culture, we have observed striking parallels as well as differences in the uses of place names in both regions. Place names communicate spatial orientation; play an important role in the commemoration of people and events; mark claims of possession; support the construction of identity; sacralize landscapes; and voice moral reprimands. They can provide entertainment, (...) by, for instance, inscribing ridicule into the land. They subvert as well as affirm hierarchies and power structures, and even play a role in interethnic conflict. Equally, they can become nuclei of storytelling, providing starting points for the invention of narratives. Showing the range of functions that place names can assume in two very different geographical contexts, the article presents a heuristic illustration of the potential of fieldwork-based approaches for toponomastic research. (shrink)

A collection of papers presented at the First International Summer Institute in Cognitive Science, University at Buffalo, July 1994, including the following papers: ** Topological Foundations of Cognitive Science, Barry Smith ** The Bounds of Axiomatisation, Graham White ** Rethinking Boundaries, Wojciech Zelaniec ** Sheaf Mereology and Space Cognition, Jean Petitot ** A Mereotopological Definition of 'Point', Carola Eschenbach ** Discreteness, Finiteness, and the Structure of Topological Spaces, Christopher Habel ** Mass Reference and the Geometry of Solids, Almerindo E. (...) Ojeda ** Defining a 'Doughnut' Made Difficult, N .M. Gotts ** A Theory of Spatial Regions with Indeterminate Boundaries, A.G. Cohn and N.M. Gotts ** Mereotopological Construction of Time from Events, Fabio Pianesi and Achille C. Varzi ** Computational Mereology: A Study of Part-of Relations for Multi-media Indexing, Wlodek Zadrozny and Michelle Kim. (shrink)

The purpose of this article is to discuss narration of ethical themes in nursing care. The text represents part of the findings of an ethnographic study aimed at description of everyday work on an oncology ward. Nurses on this ward are constantly involved in ethical care issues and narratives are told to share experiences. Of vital importance in ethical decision making is the perpetual creation of a mediating moral world constituted by daily experience. The need for making space in nursing (...) for a continual learning conversation is expressed and in this I include writings of nursing theorists. (shrink)

Una forma frecuente de medir y estimular el desarrollo narrativo infantil utiliza el recontado de una narración. En Chile, se han diseñado tareas considerando la estructura del input verbal, tanto en un nivel léxico-sintáctico como textual, estableciéndose –incluso– niveles de complejidad. En el marco del Proyecto FONDECYT 1130420, para elaborar un cuento infantil –input de la tarea de recontado– se hizo hincapié no solo en los rasgos verbales, sino también visuales del relato. De tal forma, se propuso un doble objetivo: (...) diseñar las imágenes de una historia potenciando su significado a través de una gramática visual y observar en qué medida estos elementos aparecen reflejados en el recontado oral de los sujetos. Para este propósito, junto a la Gramática de la Historia para el discurso, se consideró la Gramática de Diseño Visual y sus herramientas analíticas para la construcción de imágenes. El cuento se piloteó en una muestra de 20 pre-escolares de Kinder de un colegio particular subvencionado de la Región de Valparaíso. Sus discursos fueron videograbados, transcritos y analizados. Se observó que todas las imágenes narrativas aparecen mencionadas en más de un 60% de los recontados. Además, existen tres referidas en el 90% de los discursos infantiles y representan momentos cruciales del relato o cierta complejidad del input como la simultaneidad de acciones. Estos resultados permiten valorar la importancia de los elementos visuales del cuento en la tarea de recontado infantil. (shrink)

Gli oggetti fittizi sono quegli oggetti presenti nelle opere di finzione, dalla letteratura al cinema, dal teatro ai dipinti. Questo saggio prende in con­siderazione, prevalentemente, gli oggetti della finzione letteraria. Tali og­getti pongono interessanti quesiti tanto sul versante ontologico quanto sul versante semantico: in primo luogo occorre fare chiarezza sulle condizioni alle quali essi possono legittimamente essere considerati degli oggetti, in se­condo luogo è importante individuare il valore semantico degli enunciati de­signanti oggetti di tal sorta e infine è in­di­spensabile esplicitare (...) lo statuto on­tologico di tali entità al fine di spiegare come avviene che pro­viamo emo­zioni nei loro confronti.Fictional entities are those entities we find in fictional works, from li­te­rature to cinema, from theatre to paintings. This essay will mostly concern li­terary fictional entities. These entities pose interesting questions both for se­mantics and for ontology: first we need to clarify the conditions ac­cording to which they can legitimately be considered as objects, secondly we need to understand the semantical value of sentences referring to ob­jects of that sort, and finally we need to emphasize the importance of those en­tities in order to explain how does it happen that we prove emotions to­wards them. (shrink)

Nonostante Don Chisciotte e Madame Bovary si siano rovinati (letteralmente) la vita a forza di leggere romanzi, è opinione condivisa che le opere letterarie possano essere molto importanti, se non addirittura fondamentali, quale fonte di conoscenza. Non è quindi per caso che si comincino a leggere le storie ai bambini piccoli, che se ne richieda la lettura ai ragazzi a scuola e si cerchi di sensibilizzare il più possibile al mondo dei libri, perché, come diceva Umberto Eco, «[…] la nostra (...) ric... (shrink)

What happens when we read a text like The Name of the Rose? How may we understand what is fictional and what is true in it? By working on Eco’s Confessions of a Young Novelist, we will try to investigate the phenomenology of reading together with immersivity and our emotional involvement with fiction.

Augustine of Hippo understands the lay faithful in virtue of their regal-sacerdotal anointing at Baptism to exercise, always in unison with the ordained ministry, an indispensable twofold role in the sinner’s reconciliation. In Peter, not only the clergy but indeed all the saintly members of the community receive the spiritual commission to bind and loose. According to their particular vocation, the lay faithful bind the sinner through fraternal correction and loose him through their intercessory prayer. As members of the Totus (...) Christus, they participate in Christ’s unique remissive mediation. A mixed society where saints live among sinners provides the necessary context for this ecclesial reconciliation. (shrink)

This article analyzes populism utilizing the semiotic theory of A.J. Greimas. This structural linguist offers a tool for uncovering links between manifestations of populism and the language structu...

Zusammenfassung Patientinnen und Patienten steht das Recht auf Behandlung nach ihren eigenen Vorstellungen auch dann zu, wenn sie aktuell keinen eigenen Willen bilden können. Advance Care Planning (ACP), als ein spezielles Verfahren der gesundheitlichen Vorsorgeplanung, zielt darauf ab, dieses Dilemma durch eine Willensbestimmung im Voraus aufzulösen. Besonders ausgebildete Gesprächsbegleiter*innen bieten an, bei der Ermittlung, Formulierung und Dokumentation eines solchen, die individuelle gesundheitliche Situation berücksichtigenden Willens zu helfen. Das Umfeld der Betroffenen soll in den Gesprächsprozess einbezogen und es soll organisatorisch gesichert (...) werden, dass deren Willensbestimmung den aktuell Behandelnden im Bedarfsfall faktisch zugänglich ist. Das Verfahren kombiniert also ein kommunikatives mit einem institutionellen Element. Aus ethischer Sicht stellen sich dabei zwei wesentliche Herausforderungen. Erstens erfordert Gesprächsbegleitung mit einem so komplexen Ziel Kompetenzen und setzt bestimmte Haltungen voraus, wie sie für Professionen im strengen Sinne typisch sind. Daher wäre es wichtig, entsprechende professionelle Normen explizit zu machen, beispielsweise in Form eines Berufs-Kodex. Zweitens muss das Verfahren trotz seiner institutionellen Form für die Betroffenen freiwillig sein. Dies ist entscheidend für die Validität des Prozesses, aber auch für dessen Ergebnis. Denn wenn Letzteres rechtlich bindend sein soll, müssen die Betroffenen freiverantwortlich, d. h. ohne sog. Willensmängel handeln können. Es ist deshalb ethische Pflicht, beim Eintritt in und im Verlauf der Beratung auf die Freiwilligkeit zu achten. (shrink)

There are some others whom we will never have the chance to meet because they do not exist: Emma Bovary, Anna Karenina and Nana, for instance. The reason they are something different from us may seem obvious; they are, after all, fictional entities. But what does it mean when we say that they do not exist? That they are nothing at all, or that they are simply different from us? By assuming a realist ontological perspective we will explain what sort (...) of things fictional literary entities are, comparing them both to existing and to non-existing entities that resemble them in some respects (what is the difference between the historical Napoleon and the Napoleon in War and Peace? Are there similarities between fictional entities as created entities and other artifacts?). Finally, we will determine which theory gives the best account of fictional entities as things other than ourselves. (shrink)

According to Alexius Meinong, in order to give a philosophical explanation of the world we need to consider both existent and nonexistent objects, lest we fall into the "prejudice in favour of the real". The paper starts by examining some basic concepts of object theory seen as an existence-free science (modes of being, principle of independence of so-being from being, "Aussersein" and Meinong's paradox). There follows an exposition of Bertrand Russell's position, characterized by a "robust sense of reality", and afterwards (...) an analysis of differences and similarities between the two philosophers. The paper ends with a short account of Meinongian semantics and a comparison between object theory and metaphysics. (shrink)

Nel giardino floreale dell’Isola Che Non C’è si scontrano Lafcadio e Termidoro, due strani tipi sempre preoccupati di farsi riconoscere e di fare accettare gli oggetti delle loro ricerche. Non sono come gli studiosi d’un tempo, impegnati a costruire grandi sistemi e a inventare nuovi modi di pensare e di parlare, loro fanno piccole ricerche su oggetti particolari, si chiedono se esistono o se non esistono, come sono costruiti, di quali elementi sono composti, di che cosa hanno bisogno per con...

Nel 1856 Madame Bovary esce a puntate sulla «Revue de Paris» (1° ottobre - 15 dicembre), per comparire poi in versione integrale un anno dopo – in seguito all’assoluzione di Gustave Flaubert, avvenuta il 7 febbraio – presso l’editore Lévy. Il titolo dell’opera, molto semplice, è decisamente in linea con il realismo: l’autore si mette da parte, rinunciando alla propria voce e alla propria opinione, per fare parlare direttamente i personaggi e gli eventi che li riguardano. Infatti il titolo non...

“Naturalismo” è una parola che si dice in molti modi, almeno tanti quanti nella storia della filosofia e nel sentire comune sono i modi in cui si è parlato di “natura” e di espressioni simili. Oggi, il tema del naturalismo in filosofia e della cosiddetta naturalizzazione che una filosofia dovrebbe eventualmente attrezzare determinate nozioni e teorie è tornato prepotentemente alla ribalta della riflessione filosofica, sulla scia dei successi provenienti dalle scienze cognitive (linguistica, n...

La inmunización en adultos es una estrategia de salud pública que se ha desarrollado e impulsado en los últimos años como consecuencia del envejecimiento poblacional. El aumento de la proporción de personas adultas en la población y la manifiesta preocupación por promover un envejecimiento saludable de la población plantean la premura de aportar evidencia científica sobre los factores que se asocian a la vacunación de adultos. La prevalencia de inmunizaciones en adultos está por debajo de las metas planteadas por el (...) Ministerio de Salud, por ello se propone como objetivo explorar e identificar los factores asociados a la vacunación de adultos en Argentina, teniendo en cuenta las recomendaciones del calendario nacional de inmunizaciones. Se trata de un estudio cuantitativo, exploratorio y correlacional, cuya fuente de datos es la Encuesta Nacional de Factores de Riesgo de 2013. En la metodología se desarrollan modelos logísticos individuales usando como variables explicativas sexo, nivel de instrucción, cobertura de salud, situación conyugal y si accedió a información sobre vacunas de adultos en algún medio masivo de comunicación. La unidad de análisis son las personas mayores de 18 años y se analizan las subpoblaciones objetivo de las siguientes vacunas: doble bacteriana o triple acelular del adulto, influenza y neumococo. Como contribución puede mencionarse que los resultados indican que haber visto o escuchado información sobre vacunas de adultos resultó el factor que más aumenta las probabilidades de estar inmunizados de los adultos argentinos. (shrink)