In this paper, we describe an interdisciplinary study between Latin and Mathematics, where Latin serves as a tool for inquiry, facilitating access to and reflection on the new mathematical concepts that emerged during the Scientific Revolution of the 17th and 18th centuries. By examining original texts in Latin, we trace the genesis of these concepts and their development through the creation of a new Latin lexicon tailored to express them. We analyze texts by Galileo and the Bernoulli brothers concerning the (...) brachistochrone problem, which marks the transition from classical mathematics to the new infinitesimal calculus that laid the groundwork for the Scientific Revolution. From an epistemological perspective, solving this problem—which requires the new tools of differential calculus—offers a significant example of the limitations of classical mathematics. The analysis of primary sources allows us to reconstruct the original thinking that led scientists to propose solutions, while also encountering an epistemological obstacle: the concept of the limit. Furthermore, analyzing the Latin texts reveals the construction and evolution of scientific language as it developed alongside the new mathematics. (shrink)

The objective of this paper is to examine how artificial intelligence systems (AI) can reproduce phenomena of social discrimination and to develop an ethical strategy for preventing such occurrences. A substantial body of scholarship has demonstrated how AI has the potential to erode the rights of women and LGBT+ individuals, as it is capable of amplifying forms of discrimination that are already pervasive in society. This paper examines the principal approaches that have been put forth to contrast the emergence of (...) biases in AI systems, namely causal, counterfactual reasoning, and constructivist methodology. This analysis demonstrates the necessity of considering the sociopolitical context in which AI systems are developed when evaluating their ethical implications. To investigate this conjunction, we apply the theory of gender performativity as theorized by Judith Butler and Karen Barad. This illustrates how AI functions within the social fabric, manifesting patriarchal configurations of gender through an analysis of the notorious case of the COMPAS system for predictive justice. In conclusion, we demonstrate how reframing of gender performativity theory, when applied to AI ethics, permits us to consider the social context within which these technologies will operate. This approach enables an expansion of the interpretation of the concept of fairness, thereby reflecting the complex dynamics of gender production. In the context of AI ethics, the concept of "fairness" pertains to the capacity of an algorithm to generate results dealing with sensitive categories, such as gender, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, and disability, in a manner that does not engender forms of discrimination and prejudice. The gender dimension needs to be reconsidered not as an individual feature but as a performative process. Moreover, it enables the identification of pivotal issues that must be addressed during the development, testing, and evaluation phases of AI systems. (shrink)

Reconstruction of human ecosystems and their stability over time provides knowledge of the processes of adaptability developed by isolated communities. Seasonality of vital events is a good indicator of the effects of different lifestyles, which in turn depend on the ecological context in which a population developed specific subsistence models. Seasonality of births reflects the cultural attitude towards the best time to conceive, in relation to work activities and loads; the latter may also affect physiological functions related to fertility. The (...) present research concerns gross birth rates and seasonality of births and conceptions during four centuries in south-central Italy. Birth rates were between 33·0 and 36·5 per 1000. The pattern of seasonality of births and, by extension, of conceptions defines a southern-type agricultural area for the earlier periods. However, it also shows a progressive shift towards an increasing concentration of conceptions in spring namely from April to August – with a large increase in summer in the 19th century with respect to the previous periods. The new 19th century pattern is reported by Crisafulli, Dalla Zuanna & Solero (2000) as being representative of the central Adriatic region, a geographical classification to which Abruzzo can also be attributed. (shrink)

Is it possible that children experience something we could judge as the sublime? Some pivotal conjectures have been elicited to positively answer these questions; however, this general topic still stands in need of fuller theoretical and empirical insights. Since taking up this challenge may have important implications in the ever-expanding field of aesthetic education, in this article I will give a philosophical account of the experience of the sublime in 8-10 children, identifying both its plau- sible components and its markers, (...) which opens up future empirical inquiries. (shrink)

A cavallo tra i due concili di Costanza e Basilea, che hanno fortemente influito sul giudizio della Chiesa in relazione alle donne visionarie, si staglia la figura di Francesca Bussa dei Ponziani. Le visioni politiche di Francesca rappresentano un fulgido esempio di come i modelli brigidini e cateriniani siano stati ripresi e rimodellati su un nuovo, mutato contesto storico. La sua consolidata autorità le consentì di ammonire a più riprese papa Eugenio IV riguardo alla sua partecipazione al concilio (...) di Basilea, intervenendo attivamente nello scenario religioso e politico romano. (shrink)

In this paper, I interview Francesca De Vecchi (Full Professor of Theoretical Philosophy in Vita-Salute San Raffaele University) about her qualitative ontology and its social and normative implications. If at the foundation of our lifeworld there are significantly qualitative experiences, phenomenology can investigate the most important contemporary issues, such as gender disparity, socio-virtuality depersonalizations and political urgencies.

Resumen: El propósito del presente artículo es revisar concepciones en torno a la dimensión corporal, analizando modos en que la dinámica formalizante del discurso jurídico opera en sus aspectos productores de subjetividad. En ese sentido, nos centramos en algunos enfoques filosóficos –a modo de ‘panorama por escorzos’-, relativos al estatuto de lo corporal y la forma en que el cuerpo es construido y atravesado. En particular, presentamos aspectos de la concepción dialéctica hegeliana –a partir de la lectura de Kojève-, a (...) través de la cual creemos la experiencia corporal no puede ser pensada o conceptualizada; para luego retomar una serie de propuestas en torno a filosofías de la diferencia que entendemos fungen como herramientas para propiciar un acercamiento a la experiencia corporal y a los modos en que es codificada por el discurso jurídico, en particular el vinculado al delito y la trangresión Abstract: The aim of this article is to revise conceptions around the corporal dimension that operates in law discourse. In that sense we focus on some philosophical approaches related to the place that body asummes and the way it is constructed and crossed by. In particular, we criticize some aspects of the dialectic hegelian conception, through which we believe the corporal experiencie can not be thought or conceptualized. We take up a series of questions around philosophies of differencethat we asumme are a way to zoom in this experience and then to the modes that it is codified by the law discourse. (shrink)

Andrew G. Bonnell’s new book is a welcome addition to the panorama of the Anglophone research in Intellectual History and History of Political Thought, foremost because it is the first English-spea...

The essay aims to disclose British sociologist Ruth Levitas’s proposal regarding the thorny issue of the lack of consensus about the definition of the concept of utopia, a issue which, in the Levitas’s view, results in a widespread terminological confusion and in the omnipresent risk of arbitrary selection of the material. After an accurate analysis of the main theoretical and epistemological approaches on the topic, Levitas suggests an inclusive definition which would allow to cross the boundaries imposed by «restrictive» characterizations, (...) for the purpose of creating a higher degree of agreement with regards to what may be included within the concept of "utopia". Too «limitative» definitions would instead lead to misleading conclusions about the destiny and the function of the utopian genre, among which the widespread belief that utopia is in decline or, even worse, definitively disappeared. Finally, Levitas suggests a «sociology of utopia» through an analysis of the correlations between the two form of knowledge, correlations which, in her view, has been repressed for decades. (shrink)

The main purpose of Le Nouveau Cynée, published by Emeric Crucé in 1623, is to find a better way to establish an enduring peace in the whole world. This pacifist utopia is very interesting, because it contains for the first time the idea of avoiding war, by establishing an international arbitration court settled in Venice. The court is an assembly with representatives of all States, even the Turkish Empire. The assembly is called to discuss any kind of controversy which may (...) rise among the States and to vote for a solution. The Crucé’ work had a remarkable success immediately. It inspired many authors to reflect upon peace, but it then soon afterwards disappeared. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Feminist Studies 44, no. 2. © 2018 by Francesca T. Royster 503 Francesca T. Royster Stories We Tell After Orlando We are in Laila’s backyard for a Sunday barbecue, a cool and windy Chicago June day that immediately followed one of the very hottest days so far this year. My partner Annie and I have brought our fouryear -old daughter Cece and her best friend Gilda to (...) the barbecue, and they’ve dressed themselves in layers, with leggings and hoodies and dresses, girlie but survivalist at the same time in their sequins and metallic purple, discowear for preschoolers. We are at the end of a daylong play date, and we’ve already survived two playgrounds and several tearful standoffs, the ups and downs that come with friends so young. So Annie and I come hungry for some time with our adult friends. The closely packed, brick, three-flat apartment buildings on either side of Laila’s yard provide us with some protection from the wind for a good part of the afternoon. But as the sun goes down and the light dims, we pile on more jackets and scarves over our T-shirts and shorts. Gusts of wind randomly fan the flames until they’re visible over the lid of the grill as Laila cooks. I look out for Laila at the grill while Annie plays catch with the little girls. But I have to do so in stealth, because Laila is as stubborn as she is glamorous. She has insisted on wearing a jacket with green flowing sleeves as she tends the fire, and while she has put her long, graying blond hair up in a chop-sticked bun, she has also pulled out long wispy strands to achieve high femme style. It flies around her face in the wind, flirting with the flames. 504 Francesca T. Royster We are all getting together because later this week Laila will be boarding a plane for the twelve-hour flight home to spend time with her aging mother and father for the summer. “Home” is Lebanon, and we have already experienced losing Laila for a several months in 2006 during a visit home when Israel and Lebanon’s tensions grew into a violent series of bombings that came very close to her Beirut apartment. At the nadir of that time, Laila sent us frantic group letters conveying her worry, sometimes her despair, and her flashbacks to her childhood experiences in wartime Beirut in the 1970s and also in the war of 1982. For a few agonizing weeks her letters stopped coming altogether. The afternoon of our barbecue was the same day as the early morning shootings in the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, where forty -nine people were killed, and at least fifty others were wounded. The victims were all killed while practicing a rite that all of us considered as sacred and necessary as going to church might be for some—dancing the night away in a gay nightclub. This morning we had woken up to this news, blinking still without our glasses, the magnitude of the news headline hard to fathom as it flashed across the screens of our phones. It’s wrong that mass shootings have become part of the fabric of our lives, and probably will be for the lives of Cece and Gilda. The story feels both shocking and sadly familiar: the apparently easy availability of weapons and a pattern of anger taken to the next outrageous step. And then there’s the gay part. Even when I first heard that the shooting took place at a gay bar, I wondered if the killer, Omar Mateen might be gay himself. “Why Orlando?” I thought. Why a mostly unknown dance club? I thought of the messy, red-hot fury of hate and desire when they get mixed up together. As Annie and I talked about the shooting in hushed voices on the playground that morning, we thought of Matthew Shepard. We thought of the recent theory that Shepard most likely knew his killers; that he hung out with them, maybe did drugs with them. Some have written that the narrative that Mateen is gay only confirms the... (shrink)

In the field of psychology, the topic of everyday life as a specific subject of inquiry has been afforded little attention. Indeed, everyday life has recently been analyzed mainly in psychological studies that examine people's ways of behaving and thinking when they act in situations termed as mundane and ordinary. These studies are mainly carried out in two fields of social psychology which we refer to in general terms as Social Cognition and Social Representation Theory. The aim of this paper (...) is to examine how both these fields treat some of the features commonly attributed to everyday life. In particular, the features of familiarization, continuity and stability over time and automaticity are discussed in order to try to figure out meeting points between the two fields mentioned. (shrink)

This article discusses how, in addition to providing a definition for translation, the concept of equivalence may explain why we can say that sentence S in language L is a translation of sentence S1 in language L1. It analyzes two main kinds of equivalence that are used in analytical philosophy to define translation: semantic equivalence and functional equivalence. This analysis shows that drawing a distinction between semantic and functional equivalence is a way to understand the distinction between different levels or (...) aspects of meaning. Both semantic equivalence, introduced by Gottlob Frege, and functional equivalence, proposed by Wilfrid Sellars, were developed in Donald Davidson’s theory of meaning. After discussing the limits of Davidson’s definitions of equivalence, this article will argue that functional equivalence is a reason for comparing Davidson’s philosophy to positions such as those expressed by Hans-Georg Gadamer’s hermeneutics. (shrink)

The theme of the pleasure of knowledge is central in Averroes’ aesthetical reflection of Aristotle’s Poetics, regardless whether we side with the logical or with the moral interpretation. The first one stresses the continuity between Averroes and previous commentators in his attempt to reconstruct the Poetics as an integral part of the Logic itself, whereby poetic discourse is conceived as a form of reasoning based on syllogisms. According to the latter perspective, however, pleasure is central in that poetry is a (...) tool towards the pursuit of happiness: in this perspective it is necessary to bear in mind some common themes present in other works by Averroes. The pleasure of contemplative knowledge must go hand in hand with the pursuit of communal happiness and therefore with the good and proper order of c... (shrink)

This review discussed the effects of the impact of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 pandemic on the psychological wellbeing of people with Parkinson's disease focusing specifically on depressive symptoms, anxiety levels, sleep, and quality of life. Together with motor symptoms, psychological symptoms are common and disabling conditions in the clinical course of PD becoming a relevant topic as a result of the lockdown measure due to alter their everyday life. We searched on PubMed online electronic databases for English articles published between (...) January 2020 and 31 December 2021. Twenty-eight relevant studies were found and included in the review. Heterogeneous data emerged from the topics analyzed. Overall, data from depression studies showed significant depressive symptoms if the patient was analyzed longitudinally or vs. a control group consisting in healthy subjects, while these differences become minimal when the control group is a family member. Differently, in most of the studies reviewed there is no evidence of a statistically significant impact on anxiety disorders, nor on the quality of sleep. Conversely, PD patients showed a statistically significant negative impact of QoL compared with control groups or other neurological conditions. Although these findings must be interpreted carefully in the light of the studies' limitations, both in methodology and design, collectively our review showed that COVID-19 pandemic has had negative effects on the mental health of people with PD, due to disruption of healthcare services, loss of usual activities and supports and reduction in physical activity. (shrink)