The article offers an analysis of Kant’ s “Third Antinomy of Pure Reason” (in which he examines the possibility of reconciling Transcendental freedom with natural Determinism), in order to show the lack of grounds of the interpretation that claims that the critical resolution of the antinomy implies a shift with respect to the cosmological terms in which the conflict was initially stated. Through a detailed analysis of the sources, we will suggest that the conflict analyzed in the Third Antinomy is (...) not exclusively cosmological, but rather that it also –and to the same degree– constitutes a practical conflict, and, secondly, that the critical solution is not developed in exclusively practical terms, but that it also involves certain aspects directly linked to the cosmological question initially formulated. (shrink)

Resumen: Este trabajo examina la posición que adopta Kant en la polémica del spinozismo, la cual involucró a importantes figuras de la Ilustración alemana en un debate acerca de los alcances y límites de la razón. Con la publicación del texto Was heisst: Sich im Denken orientiren?, Kant rechaza tanto la posición de Jacobi -quien declara que la razón es incapaz de arribar a una demostración de la existencia de Dios y proclama la necesidad de un "salto a la fe"- (...) como la posición de Mendelssohn, quien confía en las posibilidades de la razón para alcanzar tal demostración. A través de una concepción de la razón como facultad crítica y autónoma, Kant toma una posición mediadora en el debate, y establece los alcances y límites de la razón, fundamentalmente en lo que atañe a la representación de Dios como ser originario. El concepto de razón esbozado en el escrito de 1786 deja entrever la insoslayable dimensión política ínsita en la noción kantiana de publicidad. El modo en que Kant concibe allí la conexión entre razón, crítica, publicidad y política trasciende los márgenes de dicha polémica e introduce cuestiones fundamentales sobre las condiciones político-jurídicas que se requieren para el ejercicio autónomo del pensamiento. Sin embargo, y pese a la radicalidad de los planteamientos kantianos, la naturalización racionalista de la creencia religiosa supone un límite de la filosofía crítica que exige revisarse a la luz de criterios actuales.: This paper analyzes the position taken by Kant in the controversy of Spinozism, which engaged many important thinkers of the German Enlightenment in a debate on the scope and limits of reason. With the publication of Was heisst: Sich im Denken orientiren?, Kant takes part in the debate and rejects both the position adopted by Jacobi -who regards reason as incapable of reaching a demonstration of God's existence and thus proclaims the necessity of a "leap of faith"-, and Mendelssohn's position, who trusts in the possibilities of reason to reach such a demonstration. By means of a conception of reason as a critical and autonomous faculty, Kant attempts to go beyond both positions, and sets the scope and limits of reason in regard to the representation of God as the originating being. The concept of reason developed within the framework of the critical project exhibits its unavoidable political dimension in the text of 1786. Kant establishes there a connection between reason, critique, publicity, and politics that goes beyond the margins of the controversy and addresses fundamental issues regarding the political and juridical conditions required for an autonomous exercise of reason. However, despite the radical character of Kant's proposals, the rationalistic naturalization of religious belief represents a limit to his critical philosophy, and should be revised by the lights of current criteria. (shrink)

El objetivo de este trabajo es examinar el modo en que Kant concibe la relación entre el derecho político, el derecho de gentes y el derecho cosmopolita, en dos de sus textos de madurez: Hacia la paz perpetua y La metafísica de las costumbre s. El análisis de esta cuestión no solo permite esclarecer principios fundamentales de su filosofía jurídico-política, sino que aporta además nociones relevantes para la actual discusión acerca de los derechos humanos, el cosmopolitismo y el derecho internacional; (...) temáticas que posicionan a Kant como uno de los autores modernos de mayor presencia en el marco del debate filosófico contemporáneo. En primer lugar, examinaré la posición asumida por el filósofo con respecto al intervencionismo, que resulta especialmente relevante para comprender la relación entre el derecho político y el derecho de gentes, ya que obliga a pensar el alcance y los límites del principio de soberanía estatal. En segundo lugar, haré referencia al modo en que este autor concibe la conexión entre el republicanismo y la institución de una comunidad jurídica internacional, e intentaré mostrar que se trata aquí de fines independientes —y a la vez, vinculados— a los que debemos aproximarnos en un proceso de perfeccionamiento gradual de las instituciones jurídicas. (shrink)

Background: Using lies, in dementia care, reveals a common practice far beyond the diagnosis and prognosis, extending to the entire care process. Objectives: In this article, we report results about the attitude and the behaviour of nurses towards the use of lies to patients with dementia. Research design: An epidemiological cross-sectional study was conducted between September 2016 and February 2017 in 12 elderly residential facilities and in the geriatric, psychiatric and neurological wards of six specialised hospitals of Italy’s Campania Region. (...) Participants: In all, 106 nurses compiled an attitude questionnaire (A) where the main question was ‘Do you think it is ethically acceptable to use lies to patients with dementia?’, instead 106 nurses compiled a behaviour questionnaire (B), where the main question was ‘Have you ever used lies to patients with dementia?’ Ethical considerations: Using lies in dementia care, although topic ethically still controversial, reveals a common practice far beyond the diagnosis and prognosis, extending to the entire care process. Findings: Only a small percentage of the interviewed nurses stated that they never used lies/that it is never acceptable to use lies (behaviour 10.4% and attitude 12.3%; p = 0.66). The situation in which nurses were more oriented to use lies was ‘to prevent or reduce aggressive behaviors’. Indeed, only the 6.7% in the attitude group and 3.8% in the behaviour group were against using lies. On the contrary, the case in which the nurses were less oriented to use lies was ‘to avoid wasting time giving explanations’, in this situation were against using lies the 51.0% of the behaviour group and the 44.6% of the attitude group. Conclusion: Our results, according to other studies, support the hypothesis of a low propensity of nurses to ethical reflection about use of lies. In our country, the implementation of guidelines about a correct use of lie in the relationship between health operators and patients would be desirable. (shrink)

A key role in inference is played by randomization, which has been extensively used in clinical trials designs. Randomization is primarily intended to prevent the source of bias in treatment allocation by producing comparable groups. In the frequentist framework of inference, randomization allows also for the use of probability theory to express the likelihood of chance as a source for the difference of end outcome. In the Bayesian framework, its role is more nuanced. The Bayesian analysis of clinical trials can (...) afford a valid rationale for selective controls, pointing out a more limited role for randomization than it is generally accorded. This paper is aimed to offer a view of randomization from the perspective of both frequentist and Bayesian statistics and discussing the role of randomization also in theoretical decision models. (shrink)

The Kantian remarks concerning the thing in itself as cause of the sensitive affection are certainly problematic, since they seem to contradict the Critical principle that states the unknowability of things in themselves, and seem to involve, on the other hand, an illegitimate use of the categories...

A comparison between ecl. 1 and ecl. 10 shows not only the deep differences of the new Virgilian pastoral poetry from Theocritus’ bucolic, but confirms that even Virgil lacked confidence in the power of poetry to solace real sorrow, an idea maintained throughout the whole Bucolicon liber. Interesting analogies between the first and the last eclogue help furthermore to explain Virgil’s farewell to his bucolic production.

While moral perfectionists rank conscious beings according to their cognitive abilities, Paola Cavalieri launches a more inclusive defense of all forms of subjectivity. In concert with Peter Singer, J. M. Coetzee, Harlan B. Miller, and other leading animal studies scholars, she expands our understanding of the nonhuman in such a way that the derogatory category of "the animal" becomes meaningless. In so doing, she presents a nonhierachical approach to ethics that better respects the value of the conscious self. Cavalieri (...) opens with a dialogue between two imagined philosophers, laying out her challenge to moral perfectionism and tracing its influence on our attitudes toward the "unworthy." She then follows with a roundtable "multilogue" which takes on the role of reason in ethics and the boundaries of moral status. Coetzee, Nobel Prize winner for Literature and author of _The Lives of Animals_, emphasizes the animality of human beings; Miller, a prominent analytic philosopher at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, dismantles the rationalizations of human bias; Cary Wolfe, professor of English at Rice University, advocates an active exposure to other worlds and beings; and Matthew Calarco, author of _Zoographies: The Question of the Animal from Heidegger to Derrida_, extends ethical consideration to entities that traditionally have little or no moral status, such as plants and ecosystems. As Peter Singer writes in his foreword, the implications of this conversation extend far beyond the issue of the moral status of animals. They "get to the heart of some important differences about how we should do philosophy, and how philosophy can relate to our everyday life." From the divergences between analytical and continental approaches to the relevance of posthumanist thinking in contemporary ethics, the psychology of speciesism, and the practical consequences of an antiperfectionist stance, _The Death of the Animal_ confronts issues that will concern anyone interested in a serious study of morality. (shrink)

In European nations, the aging of the workforce is a major issue which is increasingly addressed both in national and organizational policies in order to sustain older workers’ employability and to encourage longer working lives. Particularly older workers’ employability can be viewed an important issue as this has the potential to motivate them for their work and change their intention to retire. Based on lifespan development theories and Van der Heijden’s ‘employability enhancement model’, this paper develops and tests an age-moderated (...) mediation model (which refers to the processes that we want to test in this model), linking older workers’ (55 years old and over) perceptions of job support for learning (organizational factor) and perceptions of negative age stereotypes on productivity (job-related factor), on the one hand, and their intention to retire, on the other hand, via their participation in employability enhancing activities, being the mediator in our model. A total of 2,082 workers aged 55 years and above were included in the analyses. Results revealed that the two proposed relationships between the predictors and intention to retire were mediated by participation in employability enhancing activities, reflecting two mechanisms through which work context affects intention to retire (namely “a gain spiral and a loss spiral”). Multi-Group SEM analyses, distinguishing between two age groups (55-60 and 61-65 years old), revealed different paths for the two distinguished groups of older workers. Employability mediated the relationship between perceptions of job support for learning and intention to retire in both age groups, whereas it only mediated the relationship between perceptions of negative age stereotypes and intention to retire in the 55-60 group. From our empirical study, we may conclude that employability is an important factor in the light of older workers’ intention to retire. In order to motivate this category of workers to participate in employability enhancing activities and to work longer, negative age stereotypes need to be combated. In addition, creating job support for learning over the lifespan is also an important HR practice to be implemented in nowadays’ working life. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Present Trends of French Philosophical ThoughtAlexandre Koyré and Paola ZambelliThe paper that is published here for the first time was read to the Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research by Alexandre Koyré, probably during one of his first trips to the United States as a visiting professor in the fall of 1946 or in the fall of 1950. 1 Given its content and the secondary (...) literature he quoted, the paper seems to go back to the end of 1946, when eight lectures were announced in the Bulletin of the New School, 2 but Koyré probably read only the first of them, deciding to postpone the later ones, because the other subject chosen for his 1946 seminars at the New School (“Les philosophes et la machine”) gained more interest and grew longer. He came back to the New School in 1950 to give some lectures on existentialism [End Page 521] in France, but this time he was the guest of Horace Kallen. 3 But we read in this paper that Koyré had spoken in a series of seminars organized by Albert Salomon. It was determined that Koyré should speak on a broad subject—not only on Sartre’s existentialism, but also on French philosophical trends in general in the first year after the Second World War. His American listeners were obviously interested in hearing about Sartre, Camus, Merleau-Ponty, and the development of the new existentialist school in France.The result was that Koyré prepared a long paper—one that began by mentioning philosophers who had died in the War and the Resistance and concluded with an analysis of Sartre’s ontology and ethics. In the archives of the Centre Koyré in Paris there are three originals of this paper: a longer manuscript which, though earlier in date than the other two, is more complete and provides the basis of my edition, and two shorter typescripts, possibly prepared by the author’s typist with a view to publishing the piece in an American journal. In the first of the two typed versions several sentences, names, and words are missing in the typescript but were inserted into the text by an unknown hand. The second of the typescripts is complete in these points, but its preparation was interrupted for unknown reasons, and the copies (an original and two carbons) bear a final handwritten note: “Le texte s’arrête là.” Happily, the present manuscript version continues to the paper’s original conclusion.Perhaps Koyré, having temporarily mislaid the last pages of the manuscript among his many notes, decided not to publish the paper. 4 The omission from the [End Page 522] body of his published work is regrettable, since this is one of the few papers in which Koyré took a position on contemporary philosophical problems. On the basis of his deep knowledge of Husserl’s and Heidegger’s philosophies, he was able to give a serious interpretation of Sartre. In discussing Sartre, Koyré predominantly used Sartre’s polemical lecture L’exis-tentialisme est un humanisme, read, and published in 1946 as a response to Catholic and Marxist critiques. This was certainly a simpler text than the bulky but more authoritative L’être et le néant. And perhaps it was to avoid taking this latter work in his suitcase that Koyré—as he often did—prepared a selection of fundamental passages for his American trip, copying them first in French and then making what was their first translation into English (published below in an appendix).No doubt, after five years of exile, Koyré wished to familiarize himself with the work of contemporary thinkers, both French and German. Indeed, he had already been doing this, since just before the lecture in New York, Koyré took part in a private debate with Jean Wahl, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Georges Blin, Maurice de Gandillac, and Gabriel Marcel on the subject of Heidegger’s philosophy. The last two speakers, together with Koyré himself, published their papers from the exchange in a journal and later in a volume introduced by Wahl. In his contribution Koyré emphasized Heidegger’s ideas of “concern [Sorge, souci]” and of “being unto death [zum Tode sein],” writing... (shrink)

Bergson's engagement with evolutionary theory was remarkably up to date with the science of his time. One century later, the scientific and social landscape is undoubtedly quite different, but some of his insights remain of critical importance for the present. This paper aims at discussing three related aspects of Bergson's philosophy of evolution and their relevance for contemporary debates: first, the stark distinction between the affirmation of the reality of change and becoming, on the one hand, and any notion of (...) progress on the other; second, the insistence on the intimate interplay between forms of knowledge and forms of life; third, his idea that machines and organisms, technology and biology, are not separate domains but, rather, stem from and answer to the same problems and needs that living beings express. Such a Bergsonian framework may prove very helpful in reassessing the implicit assumptions of several contemporary debates on the ethical and political stakes of evolution, biosciences, and technologies, as well as the increasingly problematic boundary between “biology” and “culture.”. (shrink)

The paper discusses some changes in Bolzano's definition of mathematics attested in several quotations from the Beyträge, Wissenschaftslehre and Grössenlehre: is mathematics a theory of forms or a theory of quantities? Several issues that are maintained throughout Bolzano's works are distinguished from others that were accepted in the Beyträge and abandoned in the Grössenlehre. Changes are interpreted as a consequence of the new logical theory of truth introduced in the Wissenschaftslehre, but also as a consequence of the overcome of Kant's (...) terminology, and of the radicalization of Bolzano's anti‐Kantianism. Bolzano's evolution is understood as a coherent move, once the criticism expressed in the Beyträge on the notion of quantity is compared with a different and larger notion of quantity that Bolzano developed already in 1816. This discussion is enriched by the discovery that two unknown texts mentioned by Bolzano in the Beyträge can be identified with works by von Spaun and Vieth respectively. Bolzano's evolution is interpreted as a radicalization of the criticism of the Kantian definition of mathematics and as an effect of Bolzano's unaltered interest in the Leibnizian notion of mathesis universalis. As a conclusion, the author claims that Bolzano never abandoned his original idea of considering mathematics as a scientia universalis, i.e. as the science of quantities in general, and suggests that the question of ideal elements in mathematics, apart from being a main reason for the development of a new logical theory, can also be considered as a main reason for developing a different definition of quantity. (shrink)

Dominical categories are categories in which the notions of partial morphisms and their domains become explicit, with the latter being endomorphisms rather than subobjects of their sources. These categories form the basis for a novel abstract formulation of recursion theory, to which the present paper is devoted. The abstractness has of course its usual concomitant advantage of generality: it is interesting to see that many of the fundamental results of recursion theory remain valid in contexts far removed from their classic (...) manifestations. A principal reason for introducing this new formulation is to achieve an algebraization of the generalized incompleteness theorem, by providing a category-theoretic development of the concepts and tools of elementary recursion theory that are inherent in demonstrating the theorem.Dominical recursion theory avoids the commitment to sets and partial functions which is characteristic of other formulations, and thus allows for an intrinsic recursion theory within such structures as polyadic algebras. It is worthy of notice that much of elementary recursion theory can be developedwithout referencetoelements.By Gödel's generalized incompleteness theorem for consistent arithmetical systemTwe mean any statement of the following sort: if every recursive set is definable inT, thenTis essentially undecidable [41]; or if all recursive functions are definable inT, thenTis essentially undecidable [41]; or if every recursive set is definable inT, thenT0andR0 are recursively inseparable [39]; or if all re sets are representable inT, thenT0is creative [28], [39]; or ifTis a Rosser theory, thenT0andR0are effectively inseparable [39]. (shrink)

Background: The research question for this study was as follows: Is the Code of Ethics for Nurses in Italy (Code) a valid or useful decision-making instrument for nurses faced with ethical problems in their daily clinical practice? Method: Focus groups were conducted to analyze specific ethical problems through 11 case studies. The analysis was conducted using sections of the Code as well as other relevant documents. Each focus group had a specific theme and nurses participated freely in the discussions according (...) to their respective clinical competencies. Ethical considerations: The executive administrative committee of the local nursing licensing council provided approval for conducting this project. Measures were taken to protect the confidentiality of consenting participants. Findings: The answer to the research question posed for this investigation was predominantly positive. Many sections of the Code were useful for discussion and identifying possible solutions for the ethical problems presented in the 11 cases. Conclusion: We concluded that the Code of Ethics for Nurses in Italy can be a valuable aid in daily practice in most clinical situations that can give rise to ethical problems. (shrink)

The aim of the article is to analyze the double movement around the legal construct “Señor Natural” that takes place in Las Siete Partidas by Alfonso X, a key concept in the wise King’s political program. On the one hand, the concept of “Señor natural” is reworked and becomes legal, placing the king above any other order; on the other, the obligation regarding the “Señor natural” is established as the best of all “natural obligations”. All this conflates into a new (...) concept of “Señor natural” based on men and the land, which becomes a natural obligation in Partidas, a monarch’s reinforcement to exercise dominium in the totality of the kingdom. (shrink)

This paper aims to investigate the nature of trust in others. First, we argue that the feeling of trust is an important phenomenon of human existence, but it is not the true root of trust in others. Trust is above all an intentional response of the person, one that must be motivated and adequate to its object. When we trust, we entrust a good that is important to another person so that he or she can take care of it. For (...) trust to be authentic, the other must be trustworthy. The feeling of trust, then, arises as a spontaneous response when we are aware that our trust is properly placed. When we have understood that trust is a response, it is possible to examine the ethical relevance of trust in others: trust fulfils morally relevant values, is the source of moral duties, introduces the person in the logic of self-giving and is nourished by a variety of moral virtues. (shrink)

In 1909 A. Koyré (1892–1964) came to Göttingen as an exile and there became a student of Edmund Husserl and other philosophers (A. Reinach, M. Scheler): already before leaving his country Russia Koyré read Husserl'sLogical Investigations, a text which interested greatly Russian philosophers and was translated into Russian in the same year. As many other contemporary philosophers, in Göttingen they were discussing on the fundaments of mathematic, Cantor's set theory and Russell's antinomies. On this problems Koyré wrote a long paper (...) inspired to Husserl'sLogical Investigations, read it in the Philosophical Society at Göttingen and submitted it as draft for his Ph.D. dissertation to Prof. Husserl, who refused it. So unhappily the celebrated methodologist and historian of science began his academical career: Koyré came back to write on logical and mathematical paradoxes in 1922 and in 1946–47 saying he was “going back to his first love”. Among other factors this deep interest in mathematic and exact sciences unabled Koyré to analyze Galileo and Newton in his masterly way. (shrink)

The idea that death is a duration, a reversible, often only apparent process was at the basis of the taphophobia which the Illuminists suffered. This same idea however, opened enormous possibilities for physicians. By overcoming their different views regarding the doctrines of vitalism and mechanicalism, infact they took on an active role in front of agony and death. On the other hand, the epistemological pyrrhonism of that period together with this conception of death as a « mixed-state » characterized by (...) indecipherable « signs », favour the medical aim of dominating death and developing techniques of reanimation. To the failures of diagnostic medicine, the medical profession opposed not only a fairytale compensatory-homeopathic remedy (curing death and illness with apparent death), but also practical researches and techniques along with experimental and therapeutic activism. (shrink)

Lejos de la interpretación de Leon Battista Alberti como prototipo del "hombre universal", GARIN ha reconocido el carácter contradictorio del pensamiento albertiano. En efecto, en la extensa y polifacética obra del humanista genovés coexisten dos visiones antagónicas del hombre y el mundo. A una le corresponde la confianza en la razón, a la otra la constatación del carácter absurdo de la existencia. Este Alberti "sombrío" se expresa en las páginas de Momus y las Intercenales. En ellas, la apelación a una (...) existencia simulada es abordada a través de una risa desacralizadora del ideal humano que alumbró el temprano Renacimiento italiano. Far from the interpretation of Leon Battista Alberti as a prototype of the "universal man", GARIN has analyzed the contradictory nature of Alberti's thought. In fact, in the extensive and versatile work of the Genoese humanist two opposite visions of man and the world coexist: one believes in the power of reason, the other acknowledges the absurdity of life. It is in Momus and the Intercenales that this "somber Alberti" is present. In these texts the appeal to a simulated life is addressed through a form of laughter that demystifies the human ideal of the early Italian Renaissance. (shrink)

This book explores the current forms of social science theorization starting from some federative themes: Agency, Anthropocene, Coloniality, Intersectionality, Othering, Singularization, Technoscience and Uncertainty. The book proposes a reconstruction of contemporary social theory starting from some thematic issues rather than starting from authors or schools of thought. It emphasizes the usefulness of a rhizomatic way of thinking that recognizes the importance of interconnections, heterogeneity and multiplicity in understanding the complexity of global societies. Focusing on federative themes, it highlights some heuristic (...) and conceptual tools that intersect and intertwine in different themes, returning a complex toolbox for the social sciences, adaptable to different contexts and situations, enriched by voices and theoretical perspectives deriving from reflections on the social that the modern and Eurocentric perspective has tended to marginalize. The book is intended for an academic audience interested in social theory. It is also intended for students from a wide range of disciplines undertaking social science studies. (shrink)

In Virgil’s Eclogues the Muses Pierides are always represented as authors of the poems, like in the Gallus papyrus from Qaṣr Ibrîm. Their presence in passages allusive to the verses of the papyrus and the employ of the epithet by Prop. 2, 10 and 2, 13 in texts rich of references to Gallus suggest that the word Pierides was already in Gallus’ poetry and perhaps in the lacuna at v. 6 of the papyrus.

The comparison between Prop. 2, 34, 91-92 and Virg. ecl. 10, 18 allows to argue that Gallus treated Adonis in his love elegy and that he used this character as an exemplum, in the same way of his future followers, in particular Propertius and Ovid. It is possible that he imitated Euphor. fr. 43 Pow., and for this reason we can try to reconstruct his relationship with the models and his freedom in in adapting them to the new elegiac poetry.

BackgroundThe psychological burden possibly deriving from not immediately undergoing radical treatment for prostate cancer could be a potential disadvantage of active surveillance, especially in the eve of some relevant clinical exams [i.e., re-biopsy, prostate-specific antigen test, and medical examination]. Even if it is known from the literature that the majority of PCa men in AS do not report heightened anxiety, there is a minority of patients who show clinically significant levels of anxiety after diagnosis. The present study aimed to investigate (...) if demographic, clinical, and psychological variables at the entrance in AS were associated with the risk of developing clinically significant PCa-related anxiety 2 months before the first re-biopsy and to offer psychological support to improve quality of life.Materials and MethodsA total of 236 patients participated in the PCa Research International: AS protocol and in PRIAS-QoL study. Demographic/clinical features, health-related QoL domains, coping with cancer, PCa-related anxiety [Memorial Anxiety Scale for PCa ], personality traits, and decision-making-related factors were assessed at T0. MAX-PC was also administered at T1. PCa-related anxiety at T1 was considered to be of clinical significance if the MAX-PC score was ≥1.5. Multivariable logistic regression coupled to bootstrap was used to detect factors associated with high levels of anxiety.ResultsThe median age was 64.4 years. Fifty-six patients reported MAX-PC total score above the cutoff. Three factors were associated with a high level of PCa anxiety at T1: anxious preoccupation [odds ratio = 4.36], extraversion, and prostate-related symptoms. Physical well-being was associated with a low PCa anxiety subscale ; neuroticism and functional well-being were associated with PSA anxiety. Neuroticism and helplessness/hopelessness were associated with fear of progression.ConclusionOnly a partial portion of the sample experienced significant levels of anxiety after 10 months. Psychological assessment should be routinely conducted to detect risk factors for increased anxiety, offering tailored psychological interventions aimed at promoting interpersonal awareness and emotional well-being. (shrink)

This collection of essays sheds new light on the relationship between two of the main drivers of intellectual discourse in ancient Greece: the epic tradition and the Sophists. The contributors show how throughout antiquity the epic tradition proved a flexible instrument to navigate new political, cultural, and philosophical contexts. The Sophists, both in the Classical and the Imperial age, continuously reconfigured the value of epic poetry according to the circumstances: using epic myths allowed the Sophists to present themselves as the (...) heirs of traditional education, but at the same time this tradition was reshaped to encapsulate new questions that were central to the Sophists' intellectual agenda. This volume is structured chronologically, encompassing the ancient world from the Classical Age through the first two centuries AD. The first chapters, on the First Sophistic, discuss pivotal works such as Gorgias' Encomium of Helen and Apology of Palamedes, Alcidamas' Odysseus or Against the Treachery of Palamedes, and Antisthenes' pair of speeches Ajax and Odysseus, as well as a range of passages from Plato and other authors. The volume then moves on to discuss some of the major works of literature from the Second Sophistic dealing with the epic tradition. These include Lucian's Judgement of the Goddesses and Dio Chrysostom's orations 11 and 20, as well as Philostratus' Heroicus and Imagines. (shrink)

This book charts the multidimensional course of what has come to be known as the “Vegetal Turn” in environmental humanities - a wave of theoretical and practical interest in the complexities and peculiarities of plant life and plant-human relations. The Vegetal turn consists of increasingly sophisticated, inter- and trans-disciplinary, inter- and trans-cultural explorations of the multiple systems and networks of communication, intelligence, technical-operational capabilities, and relations articulated by and via plants - as well as the ethical, economic, cultural, and political (...) dimensions of plant-human interactions and practices. The volume includes contributions from philosophy and the humanities more generally that explore and reflect on the history, prospects, and applications of four main themes that the Vegetal Turn has brought to general attention: the mind of plants, and what their peculiar mentality can tell us about mind more generally; plant personhood and/or moral standing, and the justifications and implications of attributions thereof; plant relationships with humans, plant-based human relationships, and the ethics of human practices with or regarding plants - from agriculture to the arts, from forest management to urban design ; as well as the rights and/or political representation of plant life and the other life-forms that depend on it, human as well as non-human, present and future. (shrink)

It has been tempting for many historians of fourth century North Africa to view the Donatist Church as a patriarchal movement. However Donatism exhibited varied contours during its period of ascendancy in north Africa, and the female presence often led to tension, even schism, within itself. The purpose of this article is to discuss the Donatist movement through a gender perspective and to explain the role of the women who lived between the Great Persecution and the Conference of Carthage (411). (...) In particular, the article examines Lucilla and other women of the Donatist movement. (shrink)

This Handbook offers a broad yet unified treatment of all the philosophical issues connected with climate change, ranging from foundational puzzles to detailed applications. It addresses the philosophical foundations of the discussion on the ethical, social, political and legal impacts of climate change. It covers all branches of philosophy that are relevant to the understanding of the premises and implications of the impacts on human, animal and natural life on Earth. More specifically, the Handbook examines the scientific accounts of climate (...) change as well as its causes. It explores the tools offered by social sciences and humanities to study the societal impact of climate change. It studies the ethical and political issues connected with and resulting from climate change, and puts it all in an environmental and historical context. In addition, the book offers solutions to the main philosophical puzzles and problems, and provides paths of interaction between philosophy and other disciplines. The discussion about climate change and the mitigation/adaptation policies spans many areas and levels – from abstract science and philosophy to current on-the-ground politics. However, climate change is also a great a philosophical puzzle. Indeed, its existential and practical relevance can be thought to largely derive from the philosophical complications it engenders. Climate change is applied philosophy par excellence. Preventing dangerous anthropogenic climate change needs very good philosophy applied to concrete and specific practical issues. Climate change is an area where scholars from very different provenances should cooperate on equal terms, having in view a common, and really important, purpose – contribute to preventing great burdens and even the extinction of humankind and the destruction of hospitable and valuable non-human nature. (shrink)

This paper critiques Dagfinn Follesdal's influential interpretation of the Husserlian noema as a Fregean sense. Though other philosophers have argued that Follesdal's interpretation is mistaken, this paper demonstrates that the origin of the error is a fundamental misunderstanding, on Follesdal's part, of Husserlian terminology. The paper also examines the views of David Woodruff Smith and Ronald McIntyre who, influenced by Follesdal, mistakenly read the Husserl of the "Ideas" as a linguistically motivated philosopher. The paper concludes that, if Follesdal and his (...) followers were correct, certain methodological implications would follow for Husserlian phenomenology that would lead to its demise. (shrink)

In this essay, we argue that there exist obvious parallels between questions that inform philosophy of chemistry and the so-called hard problem of consciousness in philosophy of mind. These include questions regarding the emergence of higher-level phenomena from lower-level physical states, the reduction of higher-level phenomena to lower-level physical states, and 'downward causation'. We, therefore, propose that the 'hard problem' of consciousness should be approached in a manner similar to that used to address parallel problems in philosophy of chemistry. Thus, (...) our contribution begins by scrutinizing the ways chemists and quantum chemists think about and use different levels of organization and chemical relations and relata and then investigates the problem of 'downward causation' as it relates to the question of emergence. We demonstrate that the science of the transformation of 'substances', namely chemistry, enables us to go beyond substantialism and to develop, instead, a non-substantialist account of levels of reality. Similarly, the 'hard problem' of consciousness will require that we transcend traditional emergentism and its substantialist conception of mind. As with chemical phenomena, mental phenomena must be examined in terms of the relationality of wholes and parts, and this will require the development of a mereology that explains how parts and wholes may co-define each other. Like the non-classical and non-transitive mereology that has been proposed for quantum chemistry, an extended mereology for philosophy of mind must be one that entangles the whole, its parts, and the environment, thus rendering 'downward causation' into a relational concept. This proposal is neither a reductionist analysis that only needs the parts to define the whole, nor a merely holistic description within which the whole is necessary to define the parts. Rather, we propose that the parts, the whole, and the environment co-define each other so that our understanding of parts, wholes, and environment as independent concepts must itself be altered. (shrink)

This paper defends an interpretation of Husserl''s theory of language, specifically as it appears in the Logical Investigations, as an example of a larger body of theories dubbed ''language as calculus''. Although this particular interpretation has been previously defended by other authors, such as Hintikka and Kusch, this paper proposes to contribute to the discussion by arguing that what makes this interpretation plausible are Husserl''s distinction between the notions of meaning-intention and meaning-fulfillment, his view that meaning is instantiated through meaning-intending (...) acts of transcendental consciousness, and his view that the content of meaning-intending acts is ideal meaning simpliciter. As well, the paper argues that the phenomenological method of reduction itself presupposes the notion that reality as such can be reached by subtracting the influence of the language of the natural attitude and its ontological commitments and it, thus, presupposes the conception of language as a reinterpretable calculus. (shrink)

As a theoretical extension of other previous studies, this work represents an improvement of the notions about the relationship between adolescence and Mafia. The research has been aiming at exploring teenagers’ universe within specific social contexts where the presence of criminal organizations is significant, focusing the attention on the modalities through which evolutionary tasks are coped with in contexts with high Mafia density and often characterized by a perception of social space that makes personal, financial, and political development problematic. The (...) research has involved 93 teenagers who live in southern regions where the presence of Mafia organizations is significant. Six focus groups have been carried out, recorded, and transcribed. Verbalizations were analyzed through appropriate qualitative templates, which allowed detecting of three thematic macro-areas: representations of Mafia, emotions connected to it, and planning skills. The qualitative analy.. (shrink)

This paper examines whether classical extensional mereology is adequate for formalizing the whole–parts relation in quantum chemical systems. Although other philosophers have argued that classical extensional and summative mereology does not adequately formalize whole–parts relation within organic wholes and social wholes, such critiques often assume that summative mereology is appropriate for formalizing the whole–parts relation in inorganic wholes such as atoms and molecules. However, my discussion of atoms and molecules as they are conceptualized in quantum chemistry will establish that standard (...) mereology cannot adequately fulfill this task, since the properties and behavior of such wholes are context-dependent and cannot simply be reduced to the summative properties of their parts. To the extent that philosophers of chemistry have called for the development of an alternative mereology for quantum chemical systems, this paper ends by proposing behavioral mereology as a promising step in that direction. According to behavioral mereology, considerations of what constitutes a part of a whole is dependent upon the observable behavior displayed by these entities. Thus, relationality and context-dependence are stipulated from the outset and this makes behavioral mereology particularly well-suited as a mereology of quantum chemical wholes. The question of which mereology is appropriate for formalizing the whole–parts relation in quantum chemical systems is relevant to contemporary philosophy of chemistry, since this issue is related to the more general questions of the reducibility of chemical wholes to their parts and of the reducibility of chemistry to physics, which have been of central importance within the philosophy of chemistry for several decades. More generally, this paper puts contemporary discussions of mereology within the philosophy of chemistry into a broader historical and philosophical context. In doing so, this paper also bridges the gap between formal mereology, conceived as a branch of formal ontology, and “applied” mereology, conceived as a branch of philosophy of science. (shrink)

In attempting to clarify both the concept of toleration and its role in contemporary society several authors have interpreted it as based on the notion of respect for persons. Persons are due respect as moral agents and as such should be allowed to make their own choices, even if the content of those choices meets with our disapproval. According to a classical understanding of toleration, one can be said to tolerate something if one disapproves of it (this is commonly called (...) the ‘objection component’ of toleration); has the power to interfere with it (the ‘power component’); and yet abstains from interfering in the light of certain overriding reasons (the ‘acceptance component’ or ‘non-interference component’). Respecting people as autonomous and as able to formulate and follow a plan of life, individually or collectively, might well be thought to give us a reason for showing tolerance by supplying a basis for its acceptance component. However, the idea that toleration is an outcome of respect, rather than a distinct and sometimes conflicting notion, is far from uncontroversial. Indeed, the ideal of respect has sometimes been seen as incompatible with the objection component of toleration, which presupposes a negative evaluation and therefore seems to imply the other’s inferiority.The relation between respect and toleration therefore stands in need of further philosophical analysis. The articles in this collection aim to advance that analysis by addressing some of the core philosophical problems affecting the relative normative roles of respect and toleration understood as contemporary liberal democratic ideals. (shrink)

Although many consider professional ethics in the food supply chain an essential topic that should be covered in any degree program, few higher education institutions currently include a module on ethics in their study programs. Instead, ethics is taught in tandem to the core curriculum and is often embedded in the contents of other modules rather than treated as a subject in its own right. Ethics, however, is important enough to warrant a different teaching and educational approach. This book provides (...) support for development of a course in ethics for food studies education. The book is divided into 3 sections, each containing several chapters: Section 1 includes chapters that identify and discuss several ethical issues along the food chain, with particular attention given to issues in the food industry and in consumer behavior; Section 2 includes chapters that present the basis of a code of conduct in the food profession, as well as descriptions of existing codes of conduct for food industry and food scientist professionals. These include codes for the ethics of publishing, and also ethics in risk communication; Section 3 includes chapters based on case studies with examples of teaching approaches currently used in teaching food ethics. These approaches are easy to implement and have already been tested and confirmed as successful examples that engage students in this topic. (shrink)

Analyzes the philosophical thought of Simone Weil. Pp. 279-286, "Un'ebrea antisemita?, " discuss the Jewish philosopher's apparent antisemitism, her intransigence towards Judaism in comparison with other religions, and her persistent selection of negative examples from Jewish history.

Human beings are among the species with the best color perception of all mammals. Yet, transparency can be perceived in scenes in which color cues point to opacity. Why do we ignore such color cues? Here we argue that colors, rather than being passively registered, must be actively recreated and then bound to other stimulus attributes. In this process, the visual system faces fundamental problems, some of which are logically impossible to solve. The resulting unreliability of color perception may go (...) some way toward explaining why color cues cannot usually veto transparency percepts. Other stimulus attributes, however, affect transparency perception strongly even though they are not processed in foolproof ways either. How come? We argue that our trichromatic color perception is likely to have been a late, and for that reason less than fully integrated, addition to an already existing visual system that was colorblind to red and green. (shrink)

Resumen: En el siguiente análisis intentamos, por una parte, contextualizar la loa El divino Narciso de sor Juana Inés de Cruz dentro de los paradigmas estéticos y culturales de su época. Y por otra, reactualizar la lectura crítica de ella desde la perspectiva de una retórica o poética subalterna, entendiendo esto último como la deconstrucción literaria y su posterior reorganización de las significaciones que justificaron el colonialismo. Lo anterior tiene por finalidad dar cuenta cómo, mediante la manipulación precisa de los (...) códigos hegemónicos, se logra invertir los contenidos simbólicos de una de las representaciones más tempranas y persistentes del continente americano: la figura América-mujer, imagen que naturalizó y justificó su alteridad.: In the following analysis, we tried first to contextualize La loa El Divino Narciso from Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz within esthetical and cultural paradigms of her time. Then, we tried to update her critical reading from the perspective of a subordinate rhetoric or poetics. We understand it as the literary deconstruction and subsequent reorganization of the meanings that justified colonialism. This approach has the purpose of accounting for the way in which accurate manipulation of hegemonic codes makes it possible to reverse the symbolic contents of one of the earliest and most persistent representations of the American continent: the America-woman figure. This image naturalized and justified its otherness. (shrink)

The Light Subject Constraint in Spoken Spanish The purpose of this study is to explore Chafe's hypothesis that grammatical subjects obey the light subject constraint. The data consists of six half-an-hour semiformal interviews with Caracas native speakers recorded in 1987. Chafe's hypothesis is based on the claim that in any given clause one of the referents receives the unique and special status of grammatical subject. Subjects show two types of restrictions: i) from the information load perspective, they tend to code (...) given or accessible rather than new information; and ii) from a referential viewpoint, they can have three degrees of importance: primary, secondary or trivial. Information load and referential importance combined constitute the LSC: Chafe's findings prove that in English subjects tend, on the one hand, to be given or accessible and, on the other, of primary or secondary importance. Heavy subjects, on the contrary, tend to be of trivial importance. Broderick 1999 confirms the LSC's existence in a conversational English corpus. All subjects in the corpus have been coded according to information load and referential importance. The results of the analysis show that spoken Spanish also conforms to LSC. (shrink)

Recently, a number of scholars have warned against the risk of a new form of deliberately deceptive communication companies use to assure stakeholders of their good intentions in the adoption and development of digital technologies and advanced information systems based on artificial intelligence. This corporate behaviour, defined as machinewashing, in an attempt to empower engagement processes in the stakeholders’ network and satisfy stakeholder expectations with regard to the ethical implications of the use of artificial intelligence, has, in the final instance, (...) the prevailing purpose of achieving better levels of corporate performance and reputation. However, thus far, scholars have not provided any empirical studies on the existence of corporate machinewashing strategies, and there is a significant lack of clarity as to how to measure machinewashing. Utilising the corporate digital responsibility theory, this paper offers an original methodological contribution to the nascent research field dedicated to machinewashing behaviour. Particularly, this paper provides considerations for detecting machinewashing through an analysis based on the comparison between the information capacity of the reporting and the information reliability level as a proxy for machinewashing strategies and, thus, for the real impact of digitalisation strategies on stakeholders. To this end, we conducted an exploratory content analysis of the reports of 10 Italian-listed companies from 10 different industries. Overall, looking at the gap between what companies say about the impact of digitalisation from an ethical perspective, and what really happens, our results define a possible path for identifying machinewashing, the fields where it happens and the practices that companies use in order to realise these strategies. (shrink)

The significant social and cultural transformations which took place in recent decades brought about significant changes in the way couples interact and deal with “the risk of bonding”. The vulnerability that characterizes the couple in post-modernity is the consequence of these changes. The application of a co-therapy model with couples in crisis is based on the premise of mutual gift, which has to be understood as both an exchange of expertise and professionalism to the benefit of the couple, and as (...) a bond of unity between co-therapists. The work that follows suggests some reflections which originate from the co-therapy model. The novelty of this model originates from the fact that the clinical work is based on two connected and complementary aspects: a deep attention towards the patient and a deep attention towards the relationship between the co-therapists. Both of these aspects are characterized by the dimension of gift. In this clinical model therapists transform any specific suffering lived by the couple in a positive relational experience between themselves which then becomes an example for the couple. Thus, for example, the inability to understand each other that the couple lives is contrasted by the capacity to listen to each other in a deep and authentic way by the therapists; the attitude of prevailing over each other in the couple, is counterbalanced by the therapists’ attention towards each other. And so on. This act of “overturning the limit” seems to reveal the therapeutic potential that a model of co-therapy, based on a new humanism, can offer to the clinical work with couples in crisis. (shrink)

El artículo propone un análisis del tratamiento kantiano de la �Tercera antinomia de la razón pura� (en la que se examina la posibilidad de conciliar la libertad trascendental con el determinismo natural), a fin de mostrar el carácter infundado de aquella interpretación que sostiene que la resolución crítica de dicha antinomia supone un desplazamiento respecto de los términos cosmológicos en los que el conflicto es planteado originariamente. A través de un análisis pormenorizado de las fuentes, procuraremos establecer que el conflicto (...) analizado en la �Tercera antinomia� no es de carácter exclusivamente cosmológico, sino que constituye asimismo �y en igual medida� un conflicto práctico y, en segundo lugar, que la solución crítica no es desarrollada en términos exclusivamente prácticos, sino que involucra asimismo aspectos directamente vinculados con la cuestión cosmológica inicialmente formulada. (shrink)

Las observaciones que Kant formula en sus obras críticas acerca de la existencia de la cosa en sí han dado lugar a importantes objeciones y agudas discusiones entre los intérpretes. En este trabajo proponemos una reflexión acerca de la posibilidad de establecer el estatus epistemológico correspondiente a dichas observaciones, haciendo uso del concepto kantiano de creencia doctrinal.

Na dinâmica do campo religioso brasileiro, novas formas de crer surgem, algumas religiões têm maior expansão - como algumas correntes evangélicas - e religiões tradicionais - como o catolicismo - vão-se “desencantando”. Este artigo pretende, a partir dos dados sobre religião da Pesquisa de Orçamentos Familiares (POF/IBGE, 2009), publicados em estudo da Fundação Getúlio Vargas - FGV (NERI, 2011), discutir a composição deste novo mapa religioso. Em relação às igrejas cristãs, o estudo da FGV mostrou, em termos quantitativos, a diminuição (...) do número de católicos, a estabilização do percentual de evangélicos pentecostais e o crescimento dos evangélicos não-pentecostais. Partindo da evolução histórica dos dados estatísticos sobre religião no Brasil, analisar-se-á, inicialmente, o declínio numérico do catolicismo, suas implicações e perspectivas. Em seguida buscar-se-á, através de uma análise crítica das conclusões do estudo da FGV sobre o campo protestante brasileiro, interpretar as possibilidades e os limites do uso dos dados da pesquisa para a compreensão da dinâmica do campo religioso brasileiro. Nesta via, o panorama religioso brasileiro deve ser interpretado além dos dados estatísticos. Palavras-chave: Pluralidade Religiosa. Campo Religioso Brasileiro. Catolicismo. Pentecostalismo. Demografia das Religiões.The article shows that within the Brazilian religious field new ways of believe have emerged. In this way, it also shows that some religions are in expansion – as some evangelical movements and traditional religions while some traditional religions – like Catholicism – are in a process of disenchantment. This article aims, from the 2009 Household Budget Survey – Pesquisa de Orçamentos Familiares (POF/IBGE, 2009) – data on religion published in a recent study elaborated by Fundação Getúlio Vargas (NERI, 2011), discuss the composition of this new religious map. Regarding the Christian churches, the FGV` study showed, in quantitative terms, the decrease in the number of Catholics, the stabilization of Pentecostal evangelicals’ percentage and the growth of non-Pentecostal evangelicals. Initially, based on the historical development of statistics on religion in Brazil, the numerical decline of Catholicism, its implications and perspectives will be analyzed. Basing on a critical analysis of the FGV’s study conclusions about the Brazilian protestant field numbers, the article will interpret the possibilities and limitations of using survey data for understanding the Brazilian religious field dynamics. In this way, the Brazilian religious landscape should be interpreted beyond the statistics Keywords: Religious Plurality. Brazilian Religious Field. Catholicism. Pentecostalism. Demography of Religions. (shrink)

Summary The anniversary of the death of Pietro Tacchini (1838?1905), one of the pioneers of solar physics in Italy, is commemorared by this account of his major creation, the Società degli Spettroscopisti Italiani (1871). Established to promote cooperation among solar spectroscopists engaged in the study of the solar chromosphere, it was the first scientific Society devoted to spectroscopy and its astronomical applications. Its journal, the Memorie, collected most of the important works on solar physics by Angelo Secchi SJ (1818?1878), Tacchini (...) himself, and many other protagonists of the newly born astrophysics. A brief history of the Society and its development draws on many previously unexploited archival sources, in order to show its role in raising astrophysics to the status of a scientific discipline, in the context of the astronomical research of that time in Italy and abroad, especially in the USA. (shrink)