The radical changes deriving from the COVID-19 emergency have heavily upset some of the most familiar routines of daily work life. Abruptly, many workers have been forced to face the difficulties that come with switching to remote working. Basing on the theoretical framework proposed by the Job Demands-Resources model, the purpose of this paper was to explore the effect of work overload, on behavioral stress, meant as an outcome linked to the health impairment process. Furthermore, the aim of the study (...) was to explore the mediating role of job crafting, considered as a second-order construct consisting of two dimensions in the abovementioned relation. Participants were 530 workers experiencing remote working or work-from-home during the first COVID-19 lockdown in Italy. Hypotheses were explored by using three different latent variables, measured reflexively through indicators on a 5-point scale, extracted from validated questionnaires. Data analysis was performed through Structural Equation Modeling; to test the mediation, bootstrap validation was computed. Results showed that the mediation of job crafting was partial. More specifically, the direct effect between work overload and behavioral stress was positive; moreover, the indirect, negative effect through the mediation of job crafting was also significant. Therefore, results showed that job crafting can play a crucial role as a protective factor supporting the activation and adjustment of suitable resources; these resources can be useful to deal with the negative effects of work overload, particularly under the condition of heavy remote working and use of technologies, on individual outcomes. Starting from the current global scenario of the pandemic that has not yet ceased its effects, the study suggested decisive theoretical and practical implications. Accordingly, findings extended the current trends in occupational health psychology research, with special reference to the mainstream topic “work and COVID-19” in the Italian context. Finally, results can give suggestions to companies engaged in managing change, recommending that they build a collaborative workplace at the individual and collective level to implement job crafting interventions and enrich the personal and organizational resources of workers, which is useful cope with the current demands. (shrink)

One of the many drastic changes caused by Covid-19 was the quick implementation of distance learning which represented a great technological challenge to many teachers and students. In fact, Italy ranks 24th amongst the 27-EU member countries in digital competitiveness which testifies to the significant delays and gaps in basic digital skills amongst the population. Based on the difficulties encountered in organizing distance learning, we assumed that teachers' perceived stress increased. Given that transversal skills can be associated with this relationship, (...) we hypothesized that among these skills, self-efficacy mediated the relationship between the difficulties in organizing distance learning and perceived stress. Since we targeted teachers from Italy and other European countries, we also hypothesized that this mediator effect would be different for both samples. Our sample was composed of a total of 366 primary/middle school teachers of which 86% female. After doing a mediation analyses with Process, Hayes' Model 4, we confirmed H1 but not H2: resulting in a partial mediation effect of self-efficacy for each individual group of teachers. Since difficulties of distance learning can affect the perception of stress, we believe that the promotion of transversal skills, such as self-efficacy, can better equip teachers when facing stressful situations. (shrink)

_Sunto_ __L’obiettivo di questo studio è di riflettere su alcune questioni che ruotano intorno alla rappresentazione dell’Intelligenza artificiale, e che riguardano l’impatto della tecnologia sulla sfera esistenziale e sulla condizione umana. In questo quadro mi soffermerò, attraverso un close reading, sul film Her di Spike Jonze, analizzandone in particolare i dialoghi, con l’intento di evidenziare anche la presenza di quei fili che tracciano una continuità con le questioni poste da Alan Turing nel celebre articolo “Computing Machinery and Intelligence” pubblicato sulla (...) rivista Mind nel 1950. Se la domanda al centro dello studio di Turing è Can Machines Think?, e viene ripresa in seguito da Asimov e Dick con la variante Can Machines Lie?, nel film di Spike Jonze la declinazione più stringente dell’interrogativo è Can Machines Feel? Parole chiave: Intelligenza artificiale; solitudine; emozioni; reale/virtuale; modi di amare; trascendenza. _Abstract_ The purpose of this study is to tackle some of the issues that revolve around the representation of Artificial Intelligence and that concern the impact of technology on the existential sphere and the human condition. Within this framework, I will focus on Spike Jonze’s film Her, in particular through a close reading of its dialogues. The aim is also to highlight the presence of threads tracing a continuity with the issues raised by Alan Turing in the famous article “Computing Machinery and Intelligence” published in the journal Mind in 1950. If the question at the heart of Turing’s study is ‘Can Machines Think?’ – later turned into ‘Can Machines Lie?’ in Asimov and Dick’s variant – in Spike Jonze’s film the point at issue becomes ‘Can Machines Feel?’. (shrink)

This study investigates the risk and return characteristics of impact investing in the public equity market. We use a unique hand-collected dataset of 50 US listed firms whose product (or service) addresses at least one of the global social and environmental challenges, as defined by the United Nations Social Development Goals (SDGs). We designate such firms Impact Firms, and we compare their financial performance to a matched sample of Non-Impact Firms in the time span 2002–2019. Our results show that Impact (...) and Non-Impact Firms have similar level of financial performance and both volatility and systemic risk over the entire sample period. At the same time, Impact Firms show a slightly lower negative skewness of the returns over the entire sample period, but not during crisis periods. However, compared to matched Non-Impact Firms, Impact Firms outperform during periods of market crisis, generating a valuable dampening of downside risk. (shrink)

El artículo propone el estudio de tres cuentos de tres escritoras centroamericanas: “Correr desnuda” de Jessica Isla, “Muñeca rota” de María del Carmen Pérez Cuadra y “Yo, cocodrilo” de Jacinta Escudos, que comparten la tematización de la huida. Partiendo de la idea del “desempoderamiento” político en la literatura centroamericana, del supuesto cinismo de la narrativa de las últimas décadas, la intención de la investigación es indagar en el posible potencial disruptivo dela fuga en un contexto local y global, supuestamente definido (...) por la impotencia y la resignación. La fuga se considera una acción negativa que, en lugar de abordar directamente las situaciones de opresión, actúa indirectamente, a través de la desobediencia y se asocia a la potencialidad de los cuerpos y a un devenir disconforme. (shrink)

El presente trabajo propone un estudio de los dos poemarios de la poeta salvadoreña Tania Pleitez Vela, Nostalgia del presente (2014) y Preguerra (2017). Las dos colecciones comparten una poética de la memoria que adquiere rasgos diferentes que se van a analizar. Se aprecia que, de la imposibilidad de asumir el pasado y de nombrar el dolor, se llega al reconocimiento de una pertenencia. Así que en Nostalgia del presente (2014) se perfila el dolido proceso de la rememoración, a través (...) de un yo lirico desamparado e inquieto, mientras que en Preguerra (2017) una voz más ponderada y reflexiva transmite la narración de la memoria. (shrink)

Il 6 Aprile del 1922 alla Sorbona di Parigi ebbe luogo un famosissimo dibattito circa la natura del tempo tra Bergson, Einstein e altri filosofi e scienziati che rappresenta tuttora una pietra miliare in questo campo. Generalmente gli studiosi concordano sul fatto che, nonostante Bergson avesse sicuramente frainteso molti importanti punti della teoria di Einstein, le sue idee meritano di essere considerate molto piů attentamente di quanto i fisici siano soliti fare. Tuttavia, fino ad oggi nessuno ha ancora chiarito bene (...) quali precisamente delle idee di Bergson dovrebbero essere considerate corrette, e, soprattutto, perché. Il presente saggio č un tentativo di rispondere a queste domande. (shrink)

The Italian code of medical deontology recently approved stipulates that physicians have the duty to inform the patient of each unwanted event and its causes, and to identify, report and evaluate adverse events and errors. Thus the obligation to supply information continues to widen, in some way extending beyond the doctor-patient relationship to become an essential tool for improving the quality of professional services.

C'est en puisant dans les ressources de la pensee medievale que la philosophie moderne a elabore ses propres theories de la connaissance, a la fois inedites et empruntees. La connaissance des anges et celle des bienheureux constituent deux modeles qui ont preside au destin de la philosophie au XVIIe siecle. Le choix de l'un ou de l'autre de ces modeles, le choix de l'un contre l'autre, engage le fait de determiner dans quelle mesure un esprit fini doit par ticiper au (...) divin pour acceder a la verite, notamment a la connaissance vraie de l'infini. Ni ange ni bienheureux, a quelle connaissance l'homme aura-t-il acces? Dans cet ouvrage, Emanuela Scribano interroge la philosophie moderne a partir de choix fondamentaux qui delimitent le lieu propre du savoir humain. (shrink)

An analysis of Derrida’s early work engaging Plato, Hegel, and the life sciences. Germs of Death explores the idea of genesis, or dissemination, in the early work of Jacques Derrida. Looking at Derrida’s published and unpublished work from “Force and Signification” in 1963 to Glas in 1974, Mauro Senatore traces the development of Derrida’s understanding of genesis both linguistically and biologically, and argues that this topic is an overlooked thread that draws together Derrida’s readings of Plato and Hegel. Demonstrating (...) how Derrida’s analysis liberates the understanding of genesis from Platonic and Hegelian presupposition, Senatore also highlights Derrida’s engagement with the biological thought of his day. Senatore also shows that the implications of Derrida’s insights extend into contemporary ethical and political questions relating to postgenomic conceptions of life. “Senatore here demonstrates with stunning insight, clarity, and economy that Derrida’s work of the 1960s and ’70s needs to be understood as a radical critique or deconstruction of both the philosophical concept of life (from Plato to Hegel) and the prevailing biological model of heredity as a ‘genetic program.’ It will be impossible henceforth to read Derrida on questions of the trace, dissemination, life, and so on, without coming to terms with ‘the germs of death.’” — Michael Naas, author of The End of the World and Other Teachable Moments: Jacques Derrida’s Final Seminar “The book represents a major contribution to the field of Derrida studies and phenomenology, particularly its attention to the concept of genesis that formed the basis of Derrida’s earliest study of Husserl and the origin of his concept of writing. The unique contribution is the inclusion of the works from the periods of the mid-1970s, which have been neglected in the mainstream scholarship on Derrida.” — Gregg Lambert, author of Philosophy after Friendship: Deleuze’s Conceptual Personae. (shrink)

It is a widely supported claim that liberal democratic institutions should treat citizens with equal respect. I neither dispute nor champion this claim, but investigate how it could be fulfilled. I do this by asking, as a sort of litmus test, how liberal democratic institutions should treat with respect citizens holding minority convictions, and thereby dissenting from a deliberative output. The first step of my argument consists in clarifying the sense in which liberal democracies have a primary concern for the (...) respectful treatment of citizens qua self-legislating persons. Taking the second step, I address critically the common tendency in the literature to concentrate on what I have termed the ex ante legem phase, focusing solely on the structure of institutionalized decision-making processes. I submit, rather, that the principle of equal respect for persons demands more of liberal democratic institutions to enhance citizens' chances to give voice to their consciences and influence, on that ground, the formulation of the rules to which they should conform. Fulfilling this commitment requires democratic theorizing to go beyond the ex ante legem phase and regard forms of ex post legem contestation as an extension of citizens' right to political participation. Against this backdrop, I take the third and last step and argue that a promising way forward consists in the adoption of an ex post legem version of conscientious exemptionism, granting citizens a conditional moral right to request exemptions on the grounds of conscience from certain controversial legal and political provisions. (shrink)

Austerity politics, war in the Middle East and at other borders of the European Union, the rise of nationalisms, the emergence of populist parties and politicians, Islamophobia and the refugee crisis are amongst the recent developments suggesting the need for discussions about the theories and concepts that academic disciplines provide for making sense of societal, cultural and political transformations. In this article, we focus on the capacities of feminist political theories to undertake this task. By assessing different feminist approaches to (...) political analysis that range from focusing on women and men, to analysing gender, to doing intersectionality and to adopting post-structural and new materialist approaches, we explore the contributions and the limitations of each framework. This allows us to consider where feminist theoretical debates on gender and politics currently are, to assess old and new developments and to address lacunae in the debate. Our argument is that dominant approaches in political science influence the emergence and marginalisation of particular feminist frameworks for political analysis, but also that feminist theorising of gender and politics, in striving for recognition within mainstream political science, reproduces its own hegemonies and marginalisations. (shrink)

Can the quality of gender+ equality policies be defined in ways that apply across different policy contexts and different policy moments? In light of different scholarly debates and empirical material from gender violence policy debates especially in Southern and Central Eastern Europe, this article discusses dilemmas around defining the quality of gender+ equality policies. It proposes a two-dimensional model. The first dimension links quality to procedural aspects: empowerment of women’s rights advocates at different stages of the policy process, and transformation (...) with reference to prevailing contextual legacies. The second dimension is more substantive, and includes genderedness, intersectionality and the structurally transformative focus of policies. The article illustrates how within the framework set by these criteria, the quality of gender equality policies is constructed through policy debates in ways that are dependent on the different discursive, institutional and structural factors specific to various policy contexts. (shrink)

Analyzes Aristotle's natural philosophy and metaphysics from a feminist, deconstructive, psychoanalytic perspective, showing that Aristotelian teleology relies on the disparagement of chance and the feminine simultaneously and finding resources therein for contemporary feminist thought.

This article offers a conceptual framework for discussing the role of envy within processes of transitional justice. Transitional justice importantly includes the transformation of intergroup dynamics of interaction in the aftermath of societal conflicts and upheavals. Such transformation aims to realise “interactive” justice in transitional justice by reshaping belief and value systems, and by moulding emotional responses between the involved parties. A nuanced understanding of the emotions at play in intergroup antagonistic dynamics of interaction is thus essential to transitional justice. (...) Among the many emotions that we could address in such scenarios, we target envy. Envy, in its various forms, features prominently in many societal conflicts and upheavals, and has, therefore, the potential to undermine or, conversely, support just intergroup interactions. However, the ambivalent role of this emotion has been scantly analysed in the philosophical literature on transitional justice. We make a start on filling this lacuna by developing a conceptual framework which is necessary to appreciate how envy and its varieties are epistemically and practically relevant to realising interactive justice in transitional justice processes. (shrink)

Global cultures, local ethics -- Modernity and the West's self-understanding : the discursive paradigm -- Pluriversal justice : Amartya Sen and the capabilities approach.

Christianity is a complex phenomenon, especially during the initial period. The use of the plural “Christianities” in historiography aims to emphasize this complexity. This paper offers some examples to highlight the different ways of life, the manifold interpretations of Jesus, the diverse organizations of churches and of worship during the first two centuries. The paper goes on to discuss the concept of Christianity and proposes a definition deriving from the impact of Jesus on believers. This impact led to his veneration, (...) whether in an exclusive sense or not, but always in a decisive manner, given that, as the eschatological envoy, Jesus is the cause of salvation. (shrink)

On the occasion of the publication of Derrida’s unedited seminar Geschlecht III: Sex, Race, Nation, Humanity, which includes significant pages on Heidegger’s discourse on animality, this article proposes reopening the dossier that the French philosopher had dedicated to that discourse throughout his work. It aims to elaborate an overall interpretation of this dossier in the light of the grammatological account of the living, which, at the moment of sketching his intellectual biography, Derrida himself acknowledges as the shared feature of his (...) work. In particular, the article takes into examination the readings of Heidegger’s thesis that “the animal is poor in world” which Derrida had offered since Of Spirit: Heidegger and The Question. As the examination develops, it is shown that Derrida’s critical reelaboration of Heidegger’s discourse is shaped as a Nietzschean-type perspectivism. (shrink)

In Italy in recent years, an exponential increase in the frequency of medical malpractice claims relating to the issue of informed consent has substantially altered not only medical ethics, but medical practice as well. Total or partial lack of consent has become the cornerstone of many malpractice lawsuits, and continues to be one of the primary cudgels against defendant physicians in Italian courtrooms. Physicians have responded to the rising number of claims with an increase in ‘defensive medicine’ and a prevailing (...) preoccupation with the purely formal aspects of consent. The result is a plethora of consent forms, believed to be a guarantee of ‘informed consent’, as well as a growing reliance on informed consent as a shield against judicial action brought by the patient. Physicians ‘inform’ patients without really sharing information, often delegating the task of communication to other professionals who are not doctors. Italian judges always condemn the physician when information to the patient has been inadequate, thus leading insurance companies to consider the lack of valid informed consent as the total responsibility of the physician and/or the hospital. It is necessary to change tack, to remove this idea of consent which permeates the defensive culture of medical practice. Italian physicians need to be trained, first of all, to become aware that information and consent are two distinct processes, albeit closely connected. Valid communication demands a higher level of professionalism from physicians. (shrink)

In this paper, I focus on Edmund Husserl’s analyses of the act of approval and the role he attributes to it in his ethics. I show that we can deepen our understanding of both if we rely on his critical reflections on Shaftesbury’s theory of affections in his lecture course Einleitung in die Ethik. The sections of this course devoted to Shaftesbury are the only place in Husserl’s later philosophical production where he addresses the need to clarify the nature of (...) approval from a phenomenological point of view and provides precise indications about the role that such emotions play in our life. I thereby examine Husserl’s criticisms of Shaftesbury’s account of reflective emotions, and I compare these criticisms with Husserl’s account of approval in the texts from the Konvolut über Billigung collected in the Studien zur Struktur des Bewusstseins. I argue that, according to Husserl, approval is an essential but not sufficient component in the pursuit of virtue. The upshot is that crucial parts of Husserl’s ethics come from a radical and original reworking of central notions of the early modern sentimentalist tradition. (shrink)

On a proceduralist account of democracy, collective decisions derive their jus- tification—at least in part—from the qualities of the process through which they have been made. To fulfill its justificatory function, this process should ensure that citizens have an equal right to political participation as a respectful response to their equal status as agents capable of self-legislation. How should democratic participation be understood if it is to offer such a procedural justification for democratic decisions? I suggest that, in order to (...) overcome the structural procedural disadvantages affecting the actual, effective opportunities that citizens who hold nonmainstream views have to exercise their right to political participation, the enhancement of such opportunities requires securing space for contestation. Against this background, I vindicate the (currently underestimated) role of conscientious objection as a form of political participation. (shrink)

Edmund Husserl often characterizes essences and eidetic laws in normative terms. Many of his statements to this effect are however highly puzzling as they appear at odds with Husserl’s general understanding of normativity. In this paper I focus on this puzzle and I argue that we can reconcile most of the apparent tensions between these two dimensions of Husserl’s philosophical thought. In the first part of the paper, drawing on the contemporary literature on kinds of norms, I focus on Husserl’s (...) work on the varieties of normativity. I submit that, on his view, essences and eidetic laws are never intrinsically normative, and that not all essences and not all corresponding eidetic laws can function as norms for their instances. Crucially, however, I argue that, according to Husserl, essences and eidetic laws can function as norms for a range of the subject’s acts. In the second part of the paper I further examine this thesis, thus explaining in what sense Husserl thinks that essences and eidetic laws can have this function. I show that formal eidetic laws can engender deontic and evaluative norms for correct or rational judgments, evaluations, desires, and acts of the will. I also contend that material essences and material eidetic laws also have a normative function for judgments. I conclude that this shows how Husserl’s view makes room for norms that are not context-dependent or subjectively grounded. (shrink)

"This book discusses political corruption and anticorruption as a matter of a public ethics of office. It shows how political corruption is the Trojan horse that undermines public institutions from within via the interrelated action of the officeholders. Even well-designed and legitimate institutions may go off track if the officeholders fail to uphold by their conduct a public ethics of office accountability. Most current discussions of what political corruption is and why it is wrong have concentrated either on explaining and (...) assessing it as a matter of an individual's corrupt character and motives or as a dysfunction of institutional procedures. The book investigates the common normative root of these two manifestations of political corruption as a relationally wrongful practice that consists in an unaccountable use of the power of office by the officeholders in public institutions. From this perspective, political corruption is an internal enemy of public institutions that can only be opposed by mobilizing the officeholders to engage in answerability practices. In this way, officeholders are responsible for working together to maintain an interactively just institutional system"--. (shrink)

Contemporary societies are riddled with moral disputes caused by conflicts between value claims competing for the regulation of matters of public concern. This familiar state of affairs is relevant for one of the most important debates within liberal political thought: should institutions seek to realize justice or peace? Justice-driven philosophers characterize the normative conditions for the resolution of value conflicts through the establishment of a moral consensus on an order of priority between competing value claims. Peace-driven philosophers have concentrated, perhaps (...) more modestly, on the characterization of the ways in which competing value claims should be balanced, with a view to establishing a _modus vivendi _aimed at containing the conflict. _Interactive Justice _addresses an important question related to this debate: on what terms should the parties interact _during_ their conflict for their interaction to be morally acceptable to them? Although largely unexplored by political philosophers, this is a main area of concern in conflict management. Building on a proceduralist interpretation of "relational" concerns of justice, the author develops a liberal normative theory of interactive justice for the management of value conflict in politics grounded in the fundamental values of fair hearing and procedural equality. This book innovatively builds a bridge between works in political philosophy and peace studies to propose a fresh lens through which to view the normative responses liberal institutions ought to give to value conflict in politics, and moves beyond the apparent dichotomy between pursuing end-state justice through conflict resolution or peace through conflict containment. (shrink)

Keyword essay for "Matter" providing a genealogical account of the concept, its meaning and function in Western philosophy from a feminist perspective.

The intertwining of landscape and face belongs to human spatial epistemology: as suggested by Matteo Meschiari, primitive humans used to orientate themselves in landscape through recognition of facial patterns. By reflecting upon Marlen Haushofer’s novel The Wall (Die Wand), the article aims to question the semantic of the “face of the landscape” in the wake of an imagined nuclear apocalypse that leaves behind a cat, a cow, a dog, a woman and a wall. The wall transcends the boundaries between human (...) and other-than-human: in terms of Roberto Marchesini, it creates a somato-landscape – a hybridization of inner and outer landscapes typical of post-human awareness. Finally, such a landscape culminates in the dismissal of the pre-apocalyptic culture of the face: faces no longer function as a means of recognition. (shrink)

Constellations, Volume 29, Issue 2, Page 176-183, June 2022.

This article explores EU gender policy through the lens of the `Wollstonecraft dilemma', a guiding conceptual device that helps to summarize women's difficult path towards equality in a patriarchal system. EU gender policy reflects the contradictions women must face in their struggle for equality, which are common to most public gender policies. All provisions devised to progress in gender equality have negative retroactive effects on women, due to the patriarchal context in which they are applied. Empirical evidence from the Spanish (...) case offers further support to the argument, showing how EU gender policy is still trapped in the `Wollstonecraft dilemma'. A more holistic approach to EU gender policy, able to tackle all the areas of which patriarchy is composed, and an improved monitoring of EU gender policy implementation in the member states, could both generate a more effective gender policy in the EU and make further progress in solving the dilemma. (shrink)

The question of the role of women in the Church, in other words, of women’s ministries, is still conditioned today, especially in the Catholic Church, by theological a priori and by anachronism. This essay aims to discuss and to point out the difficulties arising from both of these factors.

Descartes, Divine deception, First Meditation, Suarez.

Leibniz's controversial target in the best-of-all-possible-worlds theory is not Malebranche, as is commonly claimed, but Suarez.

In his remarks on L’Homme, La Forge aims at a rigid separation of the functions of the body from the activity of the soul. This project looks authentically Cartesian, but some critical issues reveal how difficult it is taking away any activity of the soul in sensitive experience. In the Traité de l’esprit de l’homme, La Forge explicitly limits the cognitive capability of the memory without the active presence of the mind.

Cronoca della terza edizione del Pavia Graduate Conference in Political Philosophy, Università di Pavia, 15-16 settembre 2005.