We give an account of the appearance and first developments of the statistical model of atoms proposed by Thomas and Fermi, focusing on the main results achieved by Fermi and his group in Rome. Particular attention is addressed to the unknown contribution to this subject by Majorana, anticipating some important results reached later by leading physicists.

A complete theoretical model describing artificial disintegration of nuclei by bombardment with α-particles, developed by Majorana as early as 1930, is discussed in detail jointly with the basic experimental evidences that motivated it. By following the quantum dynamics of a state resulting from the superposition of a discrete state with a continuum one, whose interaction is described by a given potential term, Majorana obtained (among the other predictions) the explicit expression for the integrated cross section of the nuclear process, which (...) is the directly measurable quantity of interest in the experiments. Although this is the first application of the concept of quasi-stationary states to a Nuclear Physics problem, it seems also that the unpublished Majorana work anticipates by several years the related seminal paper by Fano on Atomic Physics. (shrink)

Este escrito explora La individuación a la luz de las nociones de forma y de información de Gilbert Simondon, tomando como hilo conductor la cuestión de la animalidad. Se analiza si en dicho libro hay un corte antropológico que permita separar tajantemente la individuación del hombre de la de los otros animales. La hipótesis inicial es que tal concepción de la antropogénesis, con el excepcionalismo humanista y el especismo que implica, resulta incompatible con el sistema allí desplegado por Simondon. A (...) lo largo del trabajo se enfatiza que la ontología de Simondon, con sus ambigüedades y tensiones en torno a la cuestión, exige pensar otro concepto de “animalidad” que aquel que hereda de la tradición filosófica contra la que se enfrenta. (shrink)

The notion of information processing has dominated the study of the mind for over six decades. However, before the advent of cognitivism, one of the most prominent theoretical ideas was that of Habit. This is a concept with a rich and complex history, which is again starting to awaken interest, following recent embodied, enactive critiques of computationalist frameworks. We offer here a very brief history of the concept of habit in the form of a genealogical network-map. This serves to provide (...) an overview of the richness of this notion and as a guide for further re-appraisal. We identify 77 thinkers and their influences, and group them into seven schools of thought. Two major trends can be distinguished. One is the associationist trend, starting with the work of Locke and Hume, developed by Hartley, Bain, and Mill to be later absorbed into behaviorism through pioneering animal psychologists (Morgan and Thorndike). This tradition conceived of habits atomistically and as automatisms (a conception later debunked by cognitivism). Another historical trend we have called organicism inherits the legacy of Aristotle and develops along German idealism, French spiritualism, pragmatism, and phenomenology. It feeds into the work of continental psychologists in the early 20th century, influencing important figures such as Merleau-Ponty, Piaget, and Gibson. But it has not yet been taken up by mainstream cognitive neuroscience and psychology. Habits, in this tradition, are seen as ecological, self-organizing structures that relate to a web of predispositions and plastic dependencies both in the agent and in the environment. In addition, they are not conceptualized in opposition to rational, volitional processes, but as transversing a continuum from reflective to embodied intentionality. These are properties that make habit a particularly attractive idea for embodied, enactive perspectives, which can now re-evaluate it in light of dynamical systems theory and complexity research. (shrink)

Aims and background: The present work assessed the impact of two decrees on ethics committees in Italy, aimed at bringing the national laws on the conduct of clinical trials into line with the rest of the EC, and regulating and facilitating not-for-profit research.Material and methods: Prospectively collected data from an Italian multicentre study were examined with respect to the ethics review process. Administrative and time elements of the review process were audited. Main outcome measures were time between the application submission (...) and the ethics committee definitive opinion, type and number of application submission forms, number of ethics committees that refused fee exemption, and time between the ethics committee approval and the administrative authorisation.Results: A total of 134 local research ethics committees were approached. Application submission procedures and application forms varied greatly; paper submission was mandatory. The median time from submission to approval was 72 days. Only two LRECs refused the fee exemption. The median time from LREC approval to administrative agreement was 50 days and only 9.6% of local authorities came to a verbal agreement with the sponsor.Conclusions: Italian LRECs are still not sufficiently efficient in complying with the Directive 2001/20/EC requirement . Better coordination of LRECs work is needed although the optimal level of coordination between them is still not known. In the meantime, national guidelines are needed concerning the application of Directive 2001/20/EC. The behaviour of Italian LRECs towards not-for-profit research was excellent although only the fee exemption was requested. (shrink)

Este artículo, escrito por algunos de quienes nos formamos con ella, recorren el legado filosófico e institucional de María Cristina Di Gregori, una destacada filósofa y maestra que desplegó su labor primero como estudiante, y luego como docente e investigadora en la Universidad Nacional de la Plata durante más de 50 años. Se destacan sus esfuerzos por construir una concepción alternativa del conocimiento y el lugar que las ideas pragmatistas tuvieron en tal construcción. Desde su trabajo inicial sobre el pensamiento (...) de Alfred Schutz, pasando por su discusión con las posiciones escépticas pero también fundacionistas, se muestra cómo la filosofía del pragmatismo clásico, que fue recuperada en el ámbito iberoamericano en gran parte gracias a su influjo, fue determinante para elaborar la comprensión del conocimiento y la ciencia de Di Gregori como una actividad atravesada también por las marcas distintivas de lo humano: los valores, las emociones y la creatividad. En la primera parte, Federico E. López ofrece un recorrido general por el legado filosófico e institucional de Di Gregori, mientras que María Luján Christiansen y Aurelia Di Berardino ofrecen una semblanza de su trabajo durante los primeros años luego de su doctorado. En la segunda parte, Livio Mattarollo, Victoria Paz Sánchez y Leopoldo Rueda analizan el modo en que, a lo largo de su recorrido intelectual, Di Gregori fue incorporando las ideas pragmatistas, apenas presentes en su trabajo doctoral. (shrink)

We invoke the ideal of tolerance in response to conflict, but what does it mean to answer conflict with a call for tolerance? Is tolerance a way of resolving conflicts or a means of sustaining them? Does it transform conflicts into productive tensions, or does it perpetuate underlying power relations? To what extent does tolerance hide its involvement with power and act as a form of depoliticization? Wendy Brown and Rainer Forst debate the uses and misuses of tolerance, an exchange (...) that highlights the fundamental differences in their critical practice despite a number of political similarities. Both scholars address the normative premises, limits, and political implications of various conceptions of tolerance. Brown offers a genealogical critique of contemporary discourses on tolerance in Western liberal societies, focusing on their inherent ties to colonialism and imperialism, and Forst reconstructs an intellectual history of tolerance that attempts to redeem its political virtue in democratic societies. Brown and Forst work from different perspectives and traditions, yet they each remain wary of the subjection and abnegation embodied in toleration discourses, among other issues. The result is a dialogue rich in critical and conceptual reflections on power, justice, discourse, rationality, and identity. (shrink)

Il processo di riconoscimento delle cure palliative quale diritto umano individuale di base ha recentemente riscontrato una proficua quanto attesa accelerazione. Parimenti allo sviluppo tecnico dei nostri giorni non si esauriscono infatti le forme dell’umano sentire e sperare, l’esigenza e l’impeto dell’aver-cura autentico dell’altro, la risposta multidisciplinare, comunitaria e sociale che ne consegue doverosa. È quanto attesta e promuove la recente Dichiarazione di Astana sull’assistenza sanitaria primaria, nel riconoscere le cure palliative tra le forme di cura primarie oggi possibili e (...) dovute ad ogni individuo, espressione di un diritto alla salute non riconducibile a mere forme di assistenzialismo tecnico-burocratico, lontane dall’uomo e dalla vita, ma segno e presenza concreta e tangibile dell’umanità inalienabile da cui esso proviene. Ciò che accomuna in questo percorso di riscoperta e ridestazione è l’essenza della nostra umanità, il desiderio di non cadere intrappolati in una in-umanizzazione collettivizzata, assurda quanto brutale, l’umanità di un diritto alla vita, alla salute e alla sua tutela che nasce rinnovato nel cuore di ogni generazione, la consapevolezza originaria di una determinazione ontologico-esistenziale comune e condivisibile. Il problema della reciprocità del riconoscimento personale fra gli esseri umani nelle pratiche dell’aver-cura e la necessità di un’instancabile promozione di forme di presa in carico realmente globali ed affidabili permea profondamente lo stesso processo di un autentico, efficace e quanto più conforme possibile sviluppo sociale, in una comunità di uomini e di popoli che stenta a riconoscersi come tale e dove occorre innanzitutto curare la speranza affinché ne venga abitata la cura di ogni persona. (shrink)

According to the Simple View of intentional action, I have intentionally switched on the light only if I intended to switch on the light. The idea that intending to is necessary for intentionally -ing has been challenged by Bratman (1984, 1987) with a counter-example in which a videogame player is trying to hit either of two targets while knowing that she cannot hit both targets. When a target is hit, the game finishes. And if both targets are about to be (...) hit simultaneously, the game shuts down. The player knows that she cannot hit both targets, but still she concludes that, given her skills, the best strategy is to have a go at each target at the same time. Suppose she hits target 1. It seems obvious that she has hit target 1 intentionally. But, Bratman argues, she could not have intended to hit target 1. Since the scenario is perfectly symmetrical, had the player intended to hit target 1, she would have also had to intend to hit target 2. But the player knows that she cannot hit both targets. (shrink)

Open peer commentary on the article “Perception-Action Mutuality Obviates Mental Construction” by Martin Flament Fultot, Lin Nie & Claudia Carello. Upshot: I contrast enactivist and ecological perspectives on some of the themes raised by the authors. I discuss some of their worries about the notion of sense-making and other epistemological aspects of enactivism.

The temporality of intentions and actions in situations of social interaction can sometimes be paradoxical. I argue that in these situations it may sometimes be possible to conceive of individual acts that can, in a strong sense, be intended retroactively. This could happen when the relational patterns in social interaction literally alter the virtual structure of a participant's past corporeal intentions resulting in an odd experience of having intended something all along without knowing it. I propose that this possibility should (...) be interpreted as more than just a narrowly epistemic phenomenon. Examining this claim involves clarifying the enactive perspective on intentionality, which I do here. The enactive approach rejects the model of a causal relation between intention and action for one of an intrinsic qualitative relation between the two as facets of sense-making. I develop this idea and compare it with Merleau-Ponty's Fundierung model of the mutual relation between corporeal and reflexive intentionality to show that co-regulated moves/affections during social interaction may modulate both arcs of this relation, creating the possibility of a re-signification that alters not the actuality but the virtual tendencies that preceded the social act. (shrink)

Alla provvidenza di Dio si fa spesso ricorso per proporre una soluzione al problema del male, quando questo venga usato a fini ateistici. Negli ultimi decenni, accanto al problema del male, si è imposto un altro problema finalizzato a negare l’esistenza di Dio, quello del nascondimento divino, soprattutto nella versione che ne ha offerto il filosofo canadese John Schellenberg (1959-). In questa sede, intendo trattare il rapporto tra nascondimento e provvidenza di Dio. Intendo innanzitutto mostrare che alla base dell’argomento del (...) nascondimento, così come Schellenberg lo propone, vi è un’inadeguata lettura degli eventi storici. Di essi non vengono considerate le conseguenze, perlomeno le più significative, che possono darsi nel corso del processo storico. Intendo poi confermare questa mia lettura in due modi. In primo luogo, mostrando che la filosofia della storia, ossia una lettura razionale degli eventi storici, si è potuta dare solo quando tali eventi siano stati letti secondo un’ipotesi che ne considerasse, appunto, il successivo processo di sviluppo. In secondo luogo, mostrando che questa ipotesi, a differenza di quella che non considera tale processo, evita l’insorgenza di un problema morale. (shrink)

Il problema dell'induzione è tra i più dibattuti in filosofia della scienza. Il mio tentativo in questo scritto sarà di mostrare come un'indagine sull'induzione possa contribuire a chiarire i termini del dibattito intorno a relativismo, pluralismo culturale e democrazia.

Scopo centrale del libro è ricostruire la genesi del problema della metafisica di Heidegger indagando il rapporto del filosofo con i pensatori greci e con Kant, il quale costituisce insieme ad Husserl un costante riferimento delle analisi del heideggeriane. Nel corso della trattazione si sottolinea l’importanza dell’intima co-appartenza di tempo e spazio nella definizione della questione metafisica, in linea con la posizione di quegli interpreti che non guardano al filosofo alla luce di una divisione tra un “ primo” e un (...) “secondo” Heidegger ma rintracciano una continuità teorica tra le analisi sulla temporalità e quelle sulla spazialità. (shrink)

Frankfurt sets out to refute the principle according to which ‘a person is morally responsible for what he has done only if he could have done otherwise’ . Frankfurt devises a counterexample in which an agent is intuitively responsible even though she could not have done otherwise: Suppose someone – Black, let us say – wants Jones to perform a certain action. Black is prepared to go to considerable lengths to get his way, but he prefers to avoid showing his (...) hand unnecessarily. So he waits until Jones is about to make up his mind what to do, and he does nothing unless it is clear to him that Jones is going to decide to do something other than what he wants him to do. If it does become clear that Jones is going to decide to do something else, Black takes effective steps to ensure that Jones decides to do, and that he does do, what he wants him to do. Whatever Jones's initial preferences and inclinations, then, Black will have his way … Now suppose that Black never has to show his hand because Jones, for reasons of his own, decides to perform and does perform the very action Black wants him to perform. In that case, it seems clear, Jones will bear precisely …. (shrink)

All’interno del dialogo _Della Dignità e Nobiltà delle Donne _(1622), Cristoforo Bronzini afferma con decisione che numerose donne nel corso della storia si sono distinte nell’ambito della scrittura, a dispetto di obsoleti pregiudizi: l’articolo si propone di indagare le modalità con le quali Bronzini declina il paradigma della differenza di genere, offrendo nello specifico una breve panoramica sulle scrittrici umanistico-rinascimentali che l’autore propone come massimi _exempla_ _virtutis_.

Learning to perceive is faced with a classical paradox: if understanding is required for perception, how can we learn to perceive something new, something we do not yet understand? According to the sensorimotor approach, perception involves mastery of regular sensorimotor co-variations that depend on the agent and the environment, also known as the “laws” of sensorimotor contingencies (SMCs). In this sense, perception involves enacting relevant sensorimotor skills in each situation. It is important for this proposal that such skills can be (...) learned and refined with experience and yet up to this date, the sensorimotor approach has had no explicit theory of perceptual learning. The situation is made more complex if we acknowledge the open-ended nature of human learning. In this paper we propose Piaget’s theory of equilibration as a potential candidate to fulfill this role. This theory highlights the importance of intrinsic sensorimotor norms, in terms of the closure of sensorimotor schemes. It also explains how the equilibration of a sensorimotor organization faced with novelty or breakdowns proceeds by re-shaping pre-existing structures in coupling with dynamical regularities of the world. This way learning to perceive is guided by the equilibration of emerging forms of skillful coping with the world. We demonstrate the compatibility between Piaget’s theory and the sensorimotor approach by providing a dynamical formalization of equilibration to give an explicit micro-genetic account of sensorimotor learning and, by extension, of how we learn to perceive. This allows us to draw important lessons in the form of general principles for open-ended sensorimotor learning, including the need for an intrinsic normative evaluation by the agent itself. We also explore implications of our micro-genetic account at the personal level. (shrink)

Nelle Summulae del salmantino Domingo de Soto, la teoria della proposizione sembra rivelare un’irrisolta tensione tra l’opzione per la prospettiva terministica, la quale considera il significato della proposizione come il risultato dell’analisi semantica dei suoi componenti, e l’opzione per la prospettiva ‘dictistica’, che si concentra sul riferimento e sul senso globale della proposizione. La struttura della proposizione mentale, pur determinata in maniera ‘causale’ dalle sue componenti, il nome e il verbo, viene d’altronde a costituirsi in maniera ‘uni-qualitativa’, ossia per mezzo (...) di un unico atto mentale, con il quale si designa uno stato di cose esterno . Il ‘valore di verità’ della proposizione, espresso sintatticamente mediante l’unione o la separazione di un termine da un altro, viene a denotare la conformità a un modo d’essere delle cose nella realtà. (shrink)

In 2017, Italy passed a law that provides for a systematic discipline on informed consent, advance directives, and advance care planning. It ranges from decisions contextual to clinical necessity through the tool of consent/refusal to decisions anticipating future events through the tools of shared care planning and advance directives. Nothing is said in the law regarding the issue of physician assisted suicide. Following the DJ Fabo case, the Italian Constitutional Court declared the constitutional illegitimacy of article 580 of the criminal (...) code in the part in which it does not exclude the punishment of those who facilitate the suicide when the decision has been freely and autonomously made by a person kept alive by life-support treatments and suffering from an irreversible pathology, the source of physical or psychological suffering that he/she considers intolerable, but fully capable of making free and conscious decisions. Such conditions and methods of execution must be verified by a public structure of the national health service, after consulting the territorially competent ethics committee. This statement admits, within strict and regulated bounds, physician assisted suicide, so widening the range of end-of-life decisions for Italian patients. Future application and critical topics will be called into question by the Italian legislator. (shrink)

Dox ed episteme: il senso comune e la fenomenologia -- Una filosofia dell'esperienza -- Intenzionalità e realta.