The current situation around COVID-19 portrays a threat to us in several ways: It imposes uncertainty, a lack of control and reminds us of our own mortality. People around the world have reacted to these threats in seemingly unrelated ways: From stockpiling yeast and toilet paper to favoring nationalist ideas or endorsing conspiratorial beliefs. According to the General Process Model of Threat and Defense the confrontation with a threat - a discrepant experience - makes humans react with both proximal and (...) distal threat responses. While the proximal response manifests in behavioral inhibition that leads to heightened anxious arousal and vigilance, distal responses seek to lower behavioral inhibition and the associated state of anxiety and vigilance through engaging in distal defenses. In the present research, we propose that the reactions to COVID-19 may represent distal defense strategies to the pandemic (in the form of environmental or group related worldview defenses) and therefore can be explained and forecasted by the model. Thus we hypothesized increased perceived COVID-19 threat perception to lead to a proximal threat response in the form of heightened behavioral inhibition. This, in return, should enhance the use of distal defenses (i.e.: several ingroup biases, system justification and conspiratorial beliefs) overlapping with the reactions observed as a response to COVID-19. This hypothesized mediated effect of increased perceived COVID-19 threat on distal defenses was tested in two pre-registered studies: In Study 1 (N = 358) results showed perceived COVID-19 threat to be related to behavioral inhibition and in turn to be associated with increased distal defenses (i.e., higher entitativity, control restoration motivation, passive party support). In Study 2 (N = 348) we manipulated COVID-19 threat salience and found results suggesting the distal defenses of system justification and conspiratorial beliefs to be mediated by the proximal threat response. The results of the present research hint towards a common mechanism through which the seemingly unrelated reactions to COVID-19 can be explained. The results might help to predict future behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic and design measures to counteract detrimental effects of the pandemic. (shrink)

Tommaso si e confrontato spesso con il tema del fine dell'uomo: ampie sezioni delle sue opere vi sono espressamente dedicate e altre ne sono l'implicita trattazione. La presente ricerca vuole introdursi all'opera di Tommaso d'Aquino non tanto evocando gli spettri di polemiche solo posteriori sul soprannaturale, quanto invece gettando uno sguardo al tempo in cui e vissuto, il XIII secolo, ed ad un luogo caratteristico nel quale egli ha studiato e insegnato: l'universita di Parigi. Ne viene fuori una figura in (...) profonda osmosi con le tensioni spirituali della sua epoca e preoccupato di esprimere la perennita della fede. Alfonso Valsecchi, 1971, ha conseguito licenza e dottorato presso la Pontificia Universita Gregoriana. (shrink)

After initially emerging in China, the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak has advanced rapidly. The World Health Organization (WHO) has recently declared it a pandemic, with Europe becoming its new epicentre. Italy has so far been the most severely hit European country and demand for critical care in the northern region currently exceeds its supply. This raises significant ethical concerns, among which is the allocation of scarce resources. Professionals are considering the prioritisation of patients most likely to survive over those with remote (...) chances, and this news has triggered an intense debate about the right of every individual to access healthcare. The proposed analysis suggests that the national emergency framework in which prioritisation criteria are currently enforced should not lead us to perceive scarce resources allocation as something new. From an ethical perspective, the novelty of the current emergency is not grounded in the devastating effects of scarce resources allocation, which is rife in recent and present clinical practice. Rather, it has to do with the extraordinarily high number of people who find themselves personally affected by the implications of scarce resources allocation and who suddenly realise that the principle of ‘equals should be treated equally’ may no longer be applicable. Along with the need to allocate appropriate additional financial resources to support the healthcare system, and thus to mitigate the scarcity of resources, the analysis insists on the relevance of a medical ethics perspective that does not place the burden of care and choice solely on physicians. (shrink)

This study offers a new interpretation of the poem of the founder of Western philosophy: Parmenides. It shows that there is more in his poem than the description of Being by means of negative adjectives such as ingenerated and immobile. His words ask his audience to question their habits, to modify their goals, to engage in new enterprises and to look with a critical eye at their previous attempts to get knowledge. It operates as a travel guide that leads the (...) audience on a journey that will educate them and help them to gradually become philosophically mature, to become true themselves, which can also be described as the encouragement to become Being. (shrink)

Why government outsourcing of public powers is making us less free Many governmental functions today—from the management of prisons and welfare offices to warfare and financial regulation—are outsourced to private entities. Education and health care are funded in part through private philanthropy rather than taxation. Can a privatized government rule legitimately? The Privatized State argues that it cannot. In this boldly provocative book, Chiara Cordelli argues that privatization constitutes a regression to a precivil condition—what philosophers centuries ago called "a (...) state of nature." Developing a compelling case for the democratic state and its administrative apparatus, she shows how privatization reproduces the very same defects that Enlightenment thinkers attributed to the precivil condition, and which only properly constituted political institutions can overcome—defects such as provisional justice, undue dependence, and unfreedom. Cordelli advocates for constitutional limits on privatization and a more democratic system of public administration, and lays out the central responsibilities of private actors in contexts where governance is already extensively privatized. Charting a way forward, she presents a new conceptual account of political representation and novel philosophical theories of democratic authority and legitimate lawmaking. The Privatized State shows how privatization undermines the very reason political institutions exist in the first place, and advocates for a new way of administering public affairs that is more democratic and just. (shrink)

While a large body of research has provided quantitative data on children’s levels of happiness, positive emotions and life satisfaction, the literature reflects a dearth of studies that analyze these dimensions from a narrative and qualitative point of view. Folk and fairy tales may serve as ideal tools for this purpose, since they are concerned with several concepts scientifically investigated by research in the field of positive psychology, such as resilience, self-realization, personal growth and meaning in life. The aim of (...) the present study was to explore children’s well-being and positive emotions using an innovative narrative approach, which involved interviews and group discussions, as well as the analysis of fairy tales written and discussed in a group context. The sample included 95 school children who were asked to report and discuss in a group setting situations or experiences which triggered positive emotions and happiness in them. Guided by their teachers and a school psychologist, they were then asked to write their own original fairy tale drawing on the positive emotions that had previously emerged. Positive emotions were found to be triggered mainly by interpersonal relationships with peers as well as with family members. Hobbies and leisure time were also strongly associated with happiness and hedonic well-being, while personal fulfilment, self-esteem and goal achievement emerged as highly significant for children. In sum, the findings suggest that this school psycho-educative intervention based on narrative strategies provided useful information on children’s well-being and yielded positive feedback, the implications and possible further applications of which are discussed. (shrink)

In his masterwork De Trinitate, Augustine claims there is no real difference between the notions of essentia and substantia, even if the former better express the unity of God and if the latter is more commonly used. Still, a useful philosophical distinction can be drawn from Augustine’s use of the two terms : since substantia may contain a possible conception of potentiality, Augustine prefers essentia to avoid any implication of multiplicity inside the Trinity. John Scottus Eriugena receives Augustine’s influence but (...) elaborates on it through his work on some Greek fathers, notably Pseudo‑Dionysius the Areopagite, Gregory of Nyssa and Maximus the Confessor. In his dialogue Periphyseon, Eriugena merges Latin and Greek trinitarian vocabulary and doctrine ; according to him, causality is at the core of trinitarian relations, for even in the godhead, the Father is the only true anarkos, uncaused, the Son and the Holy Spirit being caused by him. This is particularly evident in the created image of the Trinity, i.e., the human soul. For the Irishman, the Augustinian gnoseological triad coincide with the Dionysian ontological triad. Through its trinitarian form, human mind is both capable of understanding God and manifesting his causal relation to created nature. Thus, Eriugena blends Augustine’s careful ontological distinction in a Greek neoplatonic triadic conception. (shrink)

For strategic communication games à la Crawford and Sobel the paper shows that under some prior beliefs different equilibrium partitions of the state space can have equal cardinality. Hence, there can be different equilibrium action profiles with the same size.

Boredom, in cinema as well as in our everyday experience, is usually associated with a generalised loss of meaning or interest. Accordingly, boredom is often perceived as that which ought to be avo...

Le Quaestiones 2 («Se l’oggetto adeguato della conoscenza divina sia l’essenza di Dio o l’ente universale») e 3 («Se le creature secondo le loro proprie nature e le loro essenze siano vita in Dio e nel Verbo») della Distinctio 35 dello Scriptum di Pietro Aureoli sono importanti per la ricostruzione sia del pensiero del loro autore che della storia della dottrina delle idee divine nel Medioevo. Aureoli rifiuta il modello tradizionale di causalità esemplare, secondo cui Dio avrebbe creato il mondo (...) sulla base di modelli archetipi esistenti dall’eternità nella sua mente. Ricorrendo al concetto di aequivocatio, stabilisce che l’essenza di Dio è in maniera equivoca l’unico esemplare per tutte le creature ed elabora, così, la teoria della causalità esemplare equivoca. (shrink)

Machine learning algorithms have begun to enter clinical settings traditionally resistant to digitalisation, such as psychiatry. This raises questions around how algorithms will be incorporated in professionals’ practices, and with what implications for care provision. This paper addresses such questions by examining the pilot of an algorithm for the prediction of inpatient violence in two acute psychiatric clinics in the Netherlands. Violence is a prominent risk in acute psychiatry, and professional sensemaking, corrective measures (such as patient isolation and sedation), and (...) quantification instruments (such as the Brøset Violence Checklist, henceforth BVC) have previously been developed to deal with it. We juxtapose the different ways in which psychiatric nurses, the BVC, and algorithmic scores navigate assessments of the potential of future inpatient violence. We find that nurses approach violence assessment with an attitude of doubt and precaution: they aim to understand warning signs and probe alternative explanations to them, so as not to punish patients when not necessary. Being in charge of quantitative capture, they incorporate this attitude of doubt in the BVC scores. Conversely, the algorithmic risk scores import a logic of pre-emption into the clinic: they attempt to flag targets before warning signs manifests and are noticed by nurses. Pre-emption translates into punitive attitudes towards patients, to which nurses refuse to subscribe. During the pilots, nurses solely engage with algorithmic scores by attempting to reinstate doubt in them. We argue that pre-emption can hardly be incorporated into professional decision-making without importing punitive attitudes. As such, algorithmic outputs targeting ethically laden instances of decision-making are a cause for academic and political concern. (shrink)

Drawing on philosophy, law and political science, and on a wealth of practical experience delivering emergency medical services in conflict-ridden settings, Lepora and Goodin untangle the complexities surrounding compromise and complicity.

This article addresses the inherently relational nature of musical agency, drawing upon interdisciplinary research. It argues that music does not exist in isolation but within social and emotional contexts shaped by a network of relationships among musicians. These interactions create a collaborative space that transcends mere technical execution, fostering a collective experience enriched by shared sensitivity and emotional engagement. Consequently, musical practice, whether compositional or performative, entails a moral responsibility, particularly challenging the perspectives of Levinas; Bauman; and Wilde, who traditionally (...) separated art from ethics. As outlined in Nielsen and Cobussen’s work “music contributes to a better understanding of one’s place within the world, and thus, to an ethical sensibility”, emphasizing how musical practice cultivates ethical awareness through its relational nature. Music is thus conceived as a moral endeavor, where care extends not only to the music itself but also to the individuals involved in its creation and performance. Moreover, this moral responsibility extends to future generations, as musical tradition is conceived as a temporal bridge linking the past, the present, and the future. The tradition is composed of individuals actively engaged in the practices that shape the tradition or traditions. Musicians bear an intergenerational responsibility toward those who will inherit and reinterpret current practices—a responsibility not grounded in direct reciprocity, but in what Randall describes as “conceptual ties”. The continuity of musical tradition and its aesthetic value depend on the care and responsibility each generation shows toward both the participants and the evolving cultural products of this process. Thus, the discussion elucidates the ethical dimensions of musical agency and practice, particularly in Western classical music, and highlights how our obligations to future generations are intrinsic to the practice itself, thereby contributing to broader debates on intergenerational care ethics. (shrink)

Between the radical, creative capacity of our imagination and the social imaginary we are immersed in is an intermediate space philosophers have termed the imaginal, populated by images or (re)presentations that are presences in themselves. Offering a new, systematic understanding of the imaginal and its nexus with the political, Chiara Bottici brings fresh perspective to the formation of political and power relationships and the paradox of a world rich in imagery yet seemingly devoid of imagination. Bottici begins by defining (...) the difference between the imaginal and the imaginary, locating the imaginal's root meaning in the image and its ability to both characterize a public and establish a set of activities within that public. She identifies the imaginal's critical role in powering representative democracies and its amplification through globalization. She then addresses the troublesome increase in images now mediating politics and the transformation of politics into empty spectacle. The spectacularization of politics has led to its virtualization, Bottici observes, transforming images into processes with an uncertain relationship to reality, and, while new media has democratized the image in a global society of the spectacle, the cloned image no longer mediates politics but does the act for us. Bottici concludes with politics' current search for legitimacy through an invented ideal of tradition, a turn to religion, and the incorporation of human rights language. (shrink)

Nel pensiero di Giovanni Scoto Eriugena si può ritrovare un rapporto analogico sussistente tra Dio e la natura umana. Ultimo dei grandi neoplatonici, egli propone un sistema filosofico caratterizzato da un movimento universale distinto in tre momenti: la creazione, lo sviluppo e il ritorno. Essi sono identificati rispettivamente al pensiero, alla parola e alla comprensione; tutti e tre mostrano l’analogia tra il creatore e la sua creatura. Nel principio, le cause primordiali di tutte le cose consistono in definizioni, pensate da (...) Dio tramite l’intelletto umano. Nell’operazione che le sviluppa nei loro effetti, queste cause sono pronunciate nel e dal Verbo secondo le regole della dialettica, per essere ricevute e intese dall’uomo. Infine, il ritorno all’unità originaria coincide con la comprensione dell’universo, attraverso uno studio della scrittura e della natura, strumenti necessari a ricostituire la natura umana infranta dal peccato originale e permetterne la deificazione. Lo studio dei rapporti analogici che si presentano costantemente in queste tre tappe universali permette di mostrare l’originalità della filosofia eriugeniana e la sua capacità di rielaborare in maniera inedita alcuni tra i maggiori concetti filosofici della tradizione tardoantica. In the thought of John Scottus Eriugena, an analogical relationship may be found between God and human nature. Last of the great Neo-Platonists, he proposes a philosophical system distinguished by a universal movement divided into three moments: creation, development and return. They are identified respectively with thought, speech and understanding; all three show the analogy between the creator and his creature. In the beginning, the primordial causes of all things consist in definitions, conceived by God through the human intellect. In the operation that develops them into their effects, these causes are pronounced in and by the Verb according to the rules of dialectics, to be received and understood by Man. Finally, the return to the original unity coincides with the understanding of the universe, through a study of scripture and nature, instruments necessary to reconstitute human nature shattered by the original sin and allow its deification. The study of the analogical relationships that constantly arise in these three universal stages allows us to show the originality of Eriugenian philosophy and its ability to rework philosophical concepts from the late antique tradition in a novel way. (shrink)

This article considers the relationship between John Buridan’s natural philosophy and medicine. By examining some aspects of Buridan’s description of the human body related to sensation, nutrition, and generation—especially as they were framed in the so-called “controversy between philosophers and physicians”—this article shows that, though mostly faithful to Aristotelian doctrine, Buridan’s theoretical biology relies to a large extent on medical ideas.

Citation metrics are statistical measures of scientific output that draw on citation indexes. They purport to capture the impact of scientific articles and the journals in which they appear. As evaluative tools, they are mostly used in the natural sciences, but they are also acquiring an important role in the humanities. While the strengths and weaknesses of citation metrics are extensively debated in a variety of fields, they have only recently started attracting attention in the philosophy of science literature. This (...) paper takes a further step in this direction and presents an analysis of citation metrics from the perspective of a Kuhnian model for the development of science. Starting from Gillies’ argument against the use of citation metrics for scientific research (2008), this paper shows that citation metrics interfere with the development of normal science in certain fields or subfields. The main issue is that citation metrics do not take field-specific differences into account, thereby selectively favoring some fields and arbitrarily hindering the development of others. In other words, this paper shows that current citation metrics fail to “carve science at its joints”. In light of this, the paper cautions against their use for evaluative purposes. (shrink)

In this book, originally published in 2007, Chiara Bottici argues for a philosophical understanding of political myth. Bottici demonstrates that myth is a process, one of continuous work on a basic narrative pattern that responds to a need for significance. Human beings need meaning in order to master the world they live in, but they also need significance in order to live in a world that is less indifferent to them. This is particularly true in the realm of politics. (...) Political myths are narratives through which we orient ourselves, and act and feel about our political world. Bottici shows that in order to come to terms with contemporary phenomena, such as the clash between civilizations, we need a Copernican revolution in political philosophy. If we want to save reason, we need to look at it from the standpoint of myth. (shrink)

What are the most detailed descriptions under which subjects intend to perform bodily actions? According to Pacherie (2006), these descriptions may be found by looking into motor representations—action representations in the brain that determine the movements to be performed. Specifically, for any motor representation guiding an action, its subject has an M‐intention representing that action in as much detail. I show that some M‐intentions breach the constraints that intentions should meet. I then identify a set of intentions—motor intentions—that represent actions (...) in as much detail as some motor representations while meeting the constraints that intentions should meet. (shrink)

In contemporary virtue ethics, virtues are often assimilated to skills. This assimilation suggests that the moral knowledge of virtuous individuals parallels the practical knowledge of experts in a particular skill. According to Julia Annas (2011a, 2011b), virtues function as skills requiring the ability to articulate reasons for one’s actions. These skills are developed through habitual practice over time. For example, a pianist who internalizes piano techniques possesses practical expertise akin to someone who understands their actions, even when performed automatically. Annas (...) argues that to cultivate ethical virtue, we should emulate musical action, viewing it as a habit rather than mere repetition. This analogy aids in understanding virtue acquisition as practical skill-building. Expanding on Annas’s insights, this article contends that musical practice offers profound ethical implications for musicians as potential moral agents. Supported by important neurological and psychological studies on musical expertise, as well as the dynamics of classical music interpretation and professional career development, this argument sheds light on the ethical dimensions of musical agency. These insights into musical expertise could enhance our understanding of ethical expertise overall. (shrink)

The first book of the De anima contains Aristotle’s psychological doxography. It is usually divided into two sections: the mere listing of the previous theories on the soul (I.2) and their critical examination (I.3–5). Despite such apparent neatness, various discrepancies emerge and the structure of the doxography remains obscure. To account for such problems and for the general agenda of the psychological doxography, I shall propose a tripartite model, arguing that Aristotle’s grouping of his predecessors’ theories is based on three (...) criteria (motion, cognition and incorporeality), all of which are to be referred back to one overarching criterion (primacy). After collecting some textual evidence in favour of this interpretation, I shall deal with an apparent difficulty faced by the suggested model, namely chapter 4. Based on the results thus reached, I conclude that the doxography of De anima i significantly contributes to the development of Aristotle’s own psychological theory and to defining its role within his wider philosophical project. (shrink)

We develop an account of how mutually inconsistent models of the same target system can provide coherent information about the system. Our account makes use of ideas from the debate surrounding rob...

The classification of the sciences is one of the most discussed and analysed aspects of Peirce’s corpus of work. I propose that Peirce’s attempt at systematising the sciences is characterised by a distinctive historicity, which I construe in two complementary senses. First, I investigate Peirce’s classification as part of a broader nineteenth-century move toward classifying the sciences, a move that was at the same time motivated by social and epistemological goals. I claim that this re-contextualisation adds an entirely new layer (...) to the otherwise distinctively internalist readings of Peirce’s classification. I then look at how Peirce’s scheme, especially in the form it displayed in the early 1890s, relates to his own historical writings, particularly his history of science. Looking at Peirce as a historical actor in his own right through the lens of his classification, I claim, is indispensable to understand the contemporary relevance of his contributions to the history and historiography of the sciences. (shrink)

Medical complicity in torture is prohibited by international law and codes of professional ethics. But in the many countries in which torture is common, doctors frequently are expected to assist unethical acts that they are unable to prevent. Sometimes these doctors face a dilemma: they are asked to provide diagnoses or treatments that respond to genuine health needs but that also make further torture more likely or more effective. The duty to avoid complicity in torture then comes into conflict with (...) the doctor’s duty to care for patients. Sometimes the right thing for a doctor to do requires complicity in torture. Whether this is the case depends on: the expected consequences of the doctor’s actions; the wishes of the patient; and the extent of the doctor’s complicity with wrongdoing. Medical associations can support physicians who face this dilemma while maintaining a commitment to clear principles denouncing torture. (shrink)