In The Metaphysics of Love, however, Stella Sandford argues that an over-emphasis on ethics in the reception of Levinas's thought has concealed the basis and ...

The present study had two goals: to test the validity of Planned Happenstance Career Inventory in the Italian context and to explore the relations between PHC skills and vocational identity processes within a sample of 472 undergraduate students attending university in the southern of Italy. Moreover, we examined relations between the PHCI and measures of vocational identity processes. With regard to the first goal, results show that for the Italian version of the instrument was confirmed the multifactor structure of the (...) original version. The multi-group analyses showed that invariance between genders is supported. Convergent validity and divergent validity of the measure were reported. Concerning the second goal, the skills of planned happenstance show different associations with Vocational Identity Dimensions. As hypothesized, the exploration and commitment dimensions of vocational identity status are positive related to Planned Happenstance Skills. These findings suggest implications for career guidance and counseling. (shrink)

Music is by default a key element of every kind of Entertainment. Actually, the two terms are almost synonymous in the geographical area of the East - especially during the late medieval period - and there is a plethora of relevant evidence in the rescued literature and musicological sources to support this argument. It seems that there is a mutual and interactive “dialogue” between the two terms. This is an ideological and philosophical dialogue, as well as a completely fundamental and (...) practical one: the musicians channel in abundance and mainly ensure the pleasure of the people who participate in any type of entertainment; and they do so through both their presence and their performance. However, at the same time, in order to acquire the ability to act in this way, i.e. to bring the “entertaining” dimension of music to the forefront, they themselves have to be in a position to experience music as pleasure, to grasp the multiple gratifications which are hidden at the very core of every kind of music. In both circumstances we can refer to two high level conquests of the Spirit and the Art: the pleasure of Music and music for Pleasure. In the present article Ι will attempt a first approach of the issue and an outline of its twofold dimension. (shrink)

The excavation of a ceramic workshop in the region of the ancient town of Corfu brought to light many elements connected with ceramic production. The workshop was in operation from the 5th to the 3rd c. BC. Among the remains of vases and other objects was a large number of small objects, chiefly of bronze and bone. A group of thirty-seven objects was identified, which could hâve been used by the potters and painters of the workshop as tools. A comparison (...) of these tools with those employed by contemporary potters produced interesting facts about their utilisation. Lastly, the places where the tools were found made it possible to clarify precisely the way in which the ancient workshop operated. (shrink)

Culture is the result of the actions taken in order to communicate with our selves, our society and the environment or nature, which hosts us. This simplification of culture creates a number of paradoxes and complexities but it still gives a good meaningful landscape. Image of course is an element sensed by a sensor with limited spectrum (visible light only) being the human eye.

Um das Ansehen von medizinischen Forschern ist es in der westlichen Welt nicht überall gut bestellt. In den 1990er-Jahren gelangte das Thema »Medizinischer Forschungsbetrug« erstmals in den USA in das öffentliche Bewusstsein. Eine Debatte um begünstigende Strukturen und denkbare Kontrollinstrumente zur Eindämmung von Missbrauch entbrannte – in Deutschland blieb ein solcher Diskurs bis zur Jahrhundertwende zunächst aus. Der Band nimmt wissenschaftlich arbeitende Ärzte, die ethischen Anforderungen, denen sie sich ausgesetzt sehen, und das System, in dem sie arbeiten, in den Fokus. (...) Stella Elaine Urbans Analyse von Betrugsfällen deckt wissenschaftsimmanente und individuelle Fallstricke auf, die unredliche Forschung begünstigen. Es zeigt sich, dass die wissenschaftliche Integrität unterstützt und geschützt werden muss, um das Vertrauen in die Medizin wiederherzustellen. (shrink)

Merleau-Ponty, Varela, Nagarjuna. Une triangulation possibleDans cet article, on voudrait mettre en évidence une triangulation possible entre Maurice Merleau-Ponty, le biologiste chilien Francisco Varela et le philosophebouddhiste de l’Antiquité Nagarjuna. L’objectif de cette perspective réside dans l’urgence d’une étude de la dynamique du réel, et même de la sensibilité en général.Dans The Embodied Mind, le « projet neuro-phénoménologique » et « l’urgence énactive » de Varela se joignent à la pratique bouddhiste Mahayana de Nagarjuna, à laquelle le biologiste consacre une (...) grande partie de son oeuvre. Ce rapprochement révèle l’intérêt de Varela pour l’ontologie bouddhiste, non substantielle et permanente, ce qui, non seulement le conduit jusqu’aux ultimes conséquences de la chair merleaupontienne, mais accroît aussi sa compréhension de la signification de cette chair.Dans les années précédant le développement de son ontologie, Merleau-Ponty se consacre à l’anthologie intitulée Les philosophes célèbres et décide d’y inclure un chapitre sur la philosophie orientale. Il y montre la nécessité d’un retour à l’Orient en tant qu’il a souvent été le précurseur et le « résonateur de notre rapport avec l’être ». Le présent travail se demande à quoi Merleau-Ponty fait allusion quand il nous invite « à mesurer les possibilités que nous nous sommes fermés en devenant ‘‘occidentaux’’ et, peut-être, à les rouvrir », afin d’établir la possibilité d’une convergence entre la chair, la constitution bouddhiste de la réalité et le projet énactif varélien.Merleau-Ponty, Varela, Nagarjuna. A Possible TriangulationIn this article, we would like to bring to light a possible triangulation between Maurice Merleau-Ponty, the Chilean biologist, Francisco Varela, and the ancientBuddhist philosopher, Nagarjuna. The purpose of doing this lies in the urgency of a study of the dynamic of the real and even of the sensible in general.In The Embodied Mind, Varela’s “neuro-phenomenological project” and the “enactive urgency” are joined to the Nagarjuna’s Mahayana Buddhist practice, to which the biologist devotes a large part of this work. This intersection reveals Varela’s interest in Buddhist ontology, an ontology that is non-substantialist and permanent. It leads not only to the ultimate consequences of Merleau-Ponty’s idea of the flesh, but also it adds its way of understanding to the significance of this flesh.In the years preceding the development of his ontology, Merleau-Ponty devoted himself to the anthology called Les philosophes célèbres. He decides to include in it a chapter on oriental philosophy. He shows there the necessity of a return to the Orient insofar as the East has often been the precursor and the “resonator of our relation to being.” The present work asks to what is Merleau-Ponty alluding when he invites us “to take stock of the possibilities in which we are enclosed by becoming ‘Western’ and perhaps we should reopen these possibilities” in order to establish the possibility of a convergence between the flesh, the Buddhist constitution of reality, and Varela’s enactive project. (shrink)

Adult humans show exceptional relational ability relative to other species. In this research, we trace the development of this ability in young children. We used a task widely used in comparative research—the relational match-to-sample task, which requires participants to notice and match the identity relation: for example, AA should match BB instead of CD. Despite the simplicity of this relation, children under 4 years of age failed to pass this test (Experiment 1), and their performance did not improve even with (...) initial feedback (Experiment 2). In Experiments 3 and 4, we found that two kinds of symbolic-linguistic experience can facilitate relational reasoning in young children. Our findings suggest that children learn to become adept analogical thinkers, and that language fosters this learning in at least two distinct ways. (shrink)

Prior research has investigated the recruitment of inhibition in the use of science/mathematics concepts in tasks that require the rejection of a conflicting, nonscientific initial concept. The present research examines if inhibition is the only EF skill recruited in such tasks and investigates whether shifting is also involved. It also investigates whether inhibition and/or shifting are recruited in tasks in which the use of science/mathematics concepts does not require the rejection of an initial concept, or which require only the use (...) of initial concepts. One hundred and thirty‐three third‐ and fifth‐grade children participated in two inhibition and shifting tasks and two science and mathematics conceptual understanding and conceptual change (CU&C) tasks. All the tasks were on‐line, and performance was measured in accuracy and RTs. The CU&C tasks involved the use of initial concepts and of science/mathematics concepts which required conceptual changes for their initial formation. Only in one of the tasks the use of the science/mathematics concepts required the concurrent rejection of an initial concept. The results confirmed that in this task inhibition was recruited and also showed that the speed of shifting was a significant predictor of performance. Shifting was a significant predictor of performance in all the tasks, regardless of whether they involved science/mathematics or initial concepts. It is argued that shifting is likely to be recruited in complex tasks that require multiple comparisons of stimuli and the entertainment of different perspectives. Inhibition seems to be a more selective cognitive skill likely to be recruited when the use of science/mathematics concepts requires the rejection of a conflicting initial concept. (shrink)

M. Lipman and P. Freire are two thinkers who support the practice of liberty. Liberty is liberty to learn to think, and to exist in communities of dialogue, questioning, and search. This is the project that leads human beings to understand themselves and recognize others. Without liberty there..

Critical phenomenology is gaining currency as a progressive philosophy of emancipation, but there is no consensus on what its “criticality” entails. From a Derridean perspective, critique can be said to involve radical self-interrogation; a philosophy that questions its own conditions of possibility or grounds is one that opens itself to its auto-deconstruction. Deconstruction produces undecidability, however, which means that the philosophy in question can no longer account for its political claims or its normative force. This is the predicament in which (...) critical phenomenology, like any other critical theory, will find itself when it takes its critical injunction to heart. (shrink)