BackgroundCaregivers may play a fundamental role in the clinical pathway of cancer patients. They provide emotional, informational, and functional support as well as practical assistance, and they might help mediate the interaction and communication with the oncologists when care options are discussed, or decisions are made. Little is known about the impact of dyadic dynamics on patient-doctor communication, patient's satisfaction, or adherence to the therapies. This study protocol aims to evaluate the efficacy of a psychological support intervention on patients-caregivers relationship (...) and their alignment in the treatment decision-making process and estimate related improvement in patient' compliance/adherence to treatments.MethodsA total of 102 patients-caregivers' dyads will be involved, among breast and prostate cancer patients. The study entails a pre- post- evaluation through psychological questionnaires, with a randomization of participants in two conditions, the experimental one in which subjects participate in a psychological support consultation, and the control one, where dyads do not receive any intervention. A follow up after 6 months from the enrollment is planned.DiscussionA positive impact of the psychological support intervention on patients' anxiety, depression, distress, and perceived social support is expected. Such improvements can directly affect patients' satisfaction and adherence to treatments. Data gathered from this study may inform health care providers, policy makers, and public health managers about the importance of caregiver's involvement in the cancer care pathway, and the best way to manage it. A further impact is to develop a specific intervention protocol to support caregivers' involvement in cancer care pathway, improve patient's wellbeing, the interaction with physicians and the compliance with the cancer treatment. (shrink)

The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic had a negative psychological impact on the population at scale, yet it is possible that vulnerable patient populations may experience a heavier burden with increased feelings of anxiety and distress. Cancer patients have to trade-off between the fear of exposing themselves to the virus and the need to continue life-saving medical procedures. The present study investigated the prevalence of generalized anxiety and post-traumatic stress symptoms in a population of Italian cancer patients and healthy participants in (...) the months following the COVID-19 outbreak. Using standardized measures of PTSS and generalized anxiety, we found that patients experienced higher levels of adverse mental health outcomes. Several variables were found to negatively affect PTSS and anxiety in this population, including the younger age of respondents, having children, and the impossibility to attend regular medical check-ups. These findings stress the importance of maintaining a clear and regular communication with patients throughout future waves of the pandemic and ensure continuity of care in this vulnerable population. Furthermore, this study indicates the need to establish psychological interventions aimed at patients with cancer, targeting especially younger generations who are more likely to experience adverse psychological outcomes. (shrink)

De nobis ipsis silemus: About ourselves — we keep silent. If we violate this prudent rule by the least modest of literary exercises — the autobiography — we must be able to say that we do so to bear witness. From my intellectual vocation of physician and philosopher, I have received the Chinese blessing of “living in interesting times.” I received two degrees in 1962 and spent thirty years developing a previously unimaginable encounter between medicine and humanism. That which follows (...) tells the story of the development of bioethics in Ibero-America from the perspective of a testifying witness. (shrink)

Through the reconstruction of Leibniz's theory of the degrees of knowledge, this e-book investigates and explores the intrinsic relationship of imagination with space and time. The inquiry into this relationship defines the logic of imagination that characterizes both human and non-human animals, albeit differently, making them two different species of imaginative animals. -/- Lucia Oliveri explains how the emergence of language in human animals goes hand in hand with the emergence of thought and a different form of rationality constituted (...) by logical inferences based on identity and contradiction, principles that are out of reach of the imagination. The e-book concludes that the presence of innate principles in human animals transforms the way in which they sense-perceive the world, thereby constantly increasing the distinction between human and non-human animals. -/- Keywords: human and non-human animals, Leibniz and Locke on ideas, Leibniz on bodies, Leibniz on conceivability, Leibniz on degrees of knowledge, Leibniz on degrees of perception, Leibniz on innate ideas, Leibniz on modality, Leibniz on similarity and congruence, Leibniz on space and time, Leibniz’s philosophy of language, theory of types. (shrink)

This paper attempts to show that mathematical knowledge does not grow by a simple process of accumulation and that it is possible to provide a quasi-empirical (in Lakatos's sense) account of mathematical theories. Arguments supporting the first thesis are based on the study of the changes occurred within Eudidean geometry from the time of Euclid to that of Hilbert; whereas those in favour of the second arise from reflections on the criteria for refutation of mathematical theories.

The present article aims at showing that it is possible to construct a realist philosophy of mathematics which commits one neither to dream the dreams of Platonism nor to reduce the word ''realism'' to mere noise. It is argued that mathematics is a science of patterns, where patterns are not objects (or properties of objects), but aspects, or aspects of aspects, etc. of objects. (The notion of aspect originates from ideas sketched by Wittgenstein in the Philosophical Investigations.).

There are two axes of Leibniz’s philosophy about bodies that are deeply inter- twined, as this paper shows: the scientific investigation of bodies due to the application of mathematics to nature – Leibniz’s mixed mathematics – and the issue of matter/bodies ide- alism. This intertwinement raises an issue: How did Leibniz frame the relationship between mathematics, natural sciences, and metaphysics? Due to the increasing application of mathe- matics to natural sciences, especially physics, philosophers of the early modern period used the (...) reliability of mathematics to predict phenomena as the basis to infer the metaphysical outlook of nature. I argue that although Leibniz thought metaphysics must be scientifically informed and that mathematics is a valuable instrument to understand nature, metaphysics is more fun- damental than mathematics and natural sciences. By highlighting the foundational relation be- tween metaphysics and the sciences, this paper showcases an argument for the reality of bodies: the ideality of bodies, necessary for epistemic purposes, is not proof that they are not real. Keywords: Metaphysics, Application of Mathematics, Body, Idealism, Fundamentality. (shrink)

Reasoning with diagrams is considered to be a peculiar form of reasoning. Diagrams are often associated with imagistic representations conveyed by spatial arrangements of lines, points, figures, or letters that can be manipulated to obtain knowledge on a subject matter. Reasoning with diagrams is not just ‘peculiar’ because reasoners use spatially arranged characters to obtain knowledge – diagrams apparently have cognitive surplus: they enable a quasi-intuitive form of knowledge. The present paper analyses the issue of diagrams’ cognitive value by enquiring (...) into the tradition of symbolic cognition developed by Leibniz, Lambert, and Kant. The proposal resulting from this enquiry is to question the idea that the cognitive value of diagrams lies solely in allowing evidence for inferences. The imaginative dimension of diagrams connects reasoning to doxastic attitudes of meditation and enquiry. (shrink)

G. W. Leibniz on Making Knowledge Sensible · G. W. Leibniz’s contribution to logic and a propositional theory of truth, based on the idea that concepts are composed of definitional notes, has been considered the core of his philosophical system and metaphysics. However, Leibniz thought that there are other forms of knowledge that are perceptual and, therefore, non-propositional and non-conceptual. This essay explores forms of non-conceptual knowledge and argues that they depend on the imagination. Despite the distinction between conceptual and (...) non-conceptual forms of knowledge, there are two senses in which conceptual knowledge depends on non-conceptual knowledge : there is a constitutive sense in which non-conceptual knowledge has a constitutive function because it allows one to conceive of beings in concreto, and thus anchors human knowledge to reality ; there is a second sense in which non-conceptual knowledge has the function of making imaginable intellectual concepts that could not be other- wise represented by the human mind. The essay shows that these functions are interrelated. (shrink)

Reasoning with diagrams is considered to be a peculiar form of reasoning. Diagrams are often associated with imagistic representations conveyed by spatial arrangements of lines, points, figures, or letters that can be manipulated to obtain knowledge on a subject matter. Reasoning with diagrams is not just ‘peculiar’ because reasoners use spatially arranged characters to obtain knowledge – diagrams apparently have cognitive surplus: they enable a quasi-intuitive form of knowledge. The present paper analyses the issue of diagrams’ cognitive value by enquiring (...) into the tradition of symbolic cognition developed by Leibniz, Lambert, and Kant. The proposal resulting from this enquiry is to question the idea that the cognitive value of diagrams lies solely in allowing evidence for inferences. The imaginative dimension of diagrams connects reasoning to doxastic attitudes of meditation and enquiry. (shrink)

Reasoning with diagrams is considered to be a peculiar form of reasoning. Diagrams are often associated with imagistic representations conveyed by spatial arrangements of lines, points, figures, or letters that can be manipulated to obtain knowledge on a subject matter. Reasoning with diagrams is not just ‘peculiar’ because reasoners use spatially arranged characters to obtain knowledge – diagrams apparently have cognitive surplus: they enable a quasi-intuitive form of knowledge. The present paper analyses the issue of diagrams’ cognitive value by enquiring (...) into the tradition of symbolic cognition developed by Leibniz, Lambert, and Kant. The proposal resulting from this enquiry is to question the idea that the cognitive value of diagrams lies solely in allowing evidence for inferences. The imaginative dimension of diagrams connects reasoning to doxastic attitudes of meditation and enquiry. (shrink)

The present paper aims at showing that there are times when set theoretical knowledge increases in a non-cumulative way. In other words, what we call ‘set theory’ is not one theory which grows by simple addition of a theorem after the other, but a finite sequence of theories T1, ..., Tn in which Ti+1, for 1 ≤ i < n, supersedes Ti. This thesis has a great philosophical significance because it implies that there is a sense in which mathematical theories, (...) like the theories belonging to the empirical sciences, are fallible and that, consequently, mathematical knowledge has a quasi-empirical nature. The way I have chosen to provide evidence in favour of the correctness of the main thesis of this article consists in arguing that Cantor–Zermelo set theory is a Lakatosian Mathematical Research Programme (MRP). (shrink)

Eine Untersuchung der Präpositionen bei Leibniz kann aufgrund ihrer synkatego-rematischen Natur zeigen, in welchem Sinne die Sprache - als strukturiertes, bedeutendes Zeichensystem – das logische Verhältnis unter den Notionen ausdrü-cken kann, und damit der Zusammenhang zwischen Grammatik und Semantik einerseits, und Logik anderseits, erhellen. Meiner Ansicht nach bekommt auch Leibniz' Versuch des Aufbaus einer characteristica universalis dank dieser Per-spektive ein neues Forschungsinteresse. Um das Interesse für diese Redeteile zu wecken, werde ich zuvor in einem kurzen Exkurs die vorgängige Tradition dar-stellen. (...) Das Ziel ist, zu zeigen, was die Unterscheidung zwischen Kategoremen und Synkategoremen innerhalb der Tradition der sogenannten Mentalsprache im-pliziert; welche Fragen ihre Analyse erhoben hat und was diese Unterscheidung bei einem für Leibniz wichtigen Denker, wie Joachim Jungius, bedeutet. Beson-ders zeige ich, wie die Unterscheidung Kategoreme – Synkategoreme der zwi-schen Begriff und modi des Begreifens entspricht. Danach analysiere ich die viel-fältige Betrachtung dieser Redeteile bei Leibniz in Bezug auf seine Zurückfüh-rung der Präpositionen auf eine räumliche Grundbedeutung. Zum Schluss versu-che ich zu zeigen, warum diese Redeteile als cogitationes caecae bei Leibniz interpretiert werden können und welche Schlüsse man aus dieser Bestimmung im Rahmen von Leibniz‟ Sprachphilosophie ziehen darf. (shrink)

Destutt de Tracy zielt darauf ab, zu erklären, wie inter- und transsubjektive Prozesse auf das einzelne Individuum wirken und es gestalten. Dafür braucht er eine externalistische Sprachtheorie und eine sensualistische kognitive Architektur, nach der Denken Empfinden ist. Das Denken ist relational, aber wird nicht auf kognitiver Ebene durch sprachähnliche Strukturen – durch die Syntax und Semantik einer Mentalsprache – implementiert. Obwohl Externalismus und sensualistische Architektur in eine inkohärente Theorie zu münden scheinen, versucht Destutt de Tracy die Spannung durch seine Entwicklungsgeschichte (...) zu lösen, nach der Systematizität als assoziativ und symbolisch, aber nicht als sprachlich analysiert wird. Zum Denken ist eine Sprache notwendig, aber das Denken ist keine Mentalsprache. -/- „[Wir sind] fast gänzlich das Werk Der Umstände, die uns umgeben.“ [Ideenlehre I, 273/388]. (shrink)

The topic of my paper is the virtual controversy between Leibniz and Lockeover concepts and ideas. At the end of the 17th century John Locke made a crucial contribution to semantics and philosophy: An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. The work represents a decisive turning point for the discussion about ideas and innatism. Indeed, Locke’s aim was to dismantle the Cartesian theory according to which ideas are innate in our soul. Against this onto-epistemological thesis, Locke maintains that all our knowledge starts (...) off with experience: ideas are mental representations depending on subjects’ sensual experiences and reflection skills. Some years later, in his notes on Locke’s Essay, Leibniz writes that Locke dealt with a fundamental topic: human understanding and the limits of human knowledge (NE p. 4). All we can find out about the world is determined by answering the question about what we can know; nonetheless, Leibniz argues in favor of innate ideas. My thesis is that in his opinion Locke’s empiricism can be conciliated with the assumption that there are innate ideas. (shrink)

In the years 1675-84, Leibniz sought to disprove Descartes’s account of clear and distinct perception by implementing a three-step argumentative strategy. The first part of the paper reconstructs the argument and highlights what aspects of Descartes’s epistemology it addresses. The reconstruction shows that the argument is based on conceivability errors. These are a kind of symbolic cognition that prove Descartes’s clear and distinct perception as introspectively indistinguishable from Leibniz’s symbolic cognition. The second part of the paper explores the epistemic implication (...) of the indistinguishability between clear and distinct perception and symbolic cognition: the mind constitutively depends on products of the imagination. My conclusion addresses the role of the imagination in symbolization. Symbolization does not exceed imagination; it rather is an idealized use of cognitive surrogates, like characters, to submit to the imagination what is not subject to it. (shrink)

The present collection of essays aims at casting light on important elements of Wittgenstein's thought and intellectual development. Some of Wittgenstein's ideas are here discussed using the «Tractatus» as a frame of reference, others by relating them to the views of G. Frege, G.E.M. Anscombe and D. Davidson.

L’ouverture en juin 2010 des paris sportifs, hippiques et de poker en ligne constituait une véritable révolution culturelle auprès des joueurs et des professionnels du secteur. Il s’agissait essentiellement d’encadrer et de réguler en France les jeux d’argent et de hasard sur Internet, notamment par la création de l’Arjel , lutter contre les sites illégaux basés à l’étranger et protéger les joueurs du risque de dépendance. De très fortes retombées financières étaient également attendues par l’État. Au-delà de ces attentes économiques, (...) pas toujours tenues, un an et demi plus tard, le gouvernement semble hésiter sur sa politique de gestion de la cyberdépendance. D’un côté, en légalisant les jeux d’argent en ligne, l’État français incite implicitement les joueurs-parieurs à se connecter et à miser sur Internet massivement. Dans le même temps, les responsables politiques créent des organismes de sensibilisation face au danger que représente la dépendance informatique, fortement relayée par des médias, volontiers alarmistes. Ce paradoxe communicationnel s’inscrit alors dans l’analyse d’un double discours fortement controversé, incitant et diabolisant simultanément auprès des joueurs la pratique des jeux d’argent en ligne.The launch of online poker and betting on sports and horse-racing in June 2010 was a real cultural revolution for punters and professionals in the gambling sector. The aim was essentially to control and regulate online betting and gambling, especially with the introduction of ARJEL , to take action against illegal sites based abroad and to protect gamblers from the risk of addiction. The State also anticipated very substantial tax revenues. But over and above these financial expectations, not all of which had been realised a year and a half later, the government seems to be hesitating on its policy for managing cyber-addiction. On the one hand, by legalising online gambling, the French State is implicitly encouraging gamblers to log on and place bets on a massive scale. But at the same time, the authorities are setting up agencies to raise awareness on the dangers of Internet addiction, to a chorus of often alarmist media attention. This communicational paradox is therefore directly relevant to the analysis of a dual and highly controversial discourse that encourages online gambling while simultaneously demonising the practice. (shrink)

La cyberdépendance est un phénomène dont l’étude relève, encore aujourd’hui, largement de la psychologie. En abordant cette problématique sous l’angle pluridisciplinaire des sciences de l’information et de la communication, ce nouvel objet peut permettre la mise à distance de discours convenus sur la technophilie, mais également, sur une certaine technophobie. Ainsi, en abordant l’univers des jeux vidéo et d’Internet, il est désormais possible de prendre la mesure de la croissance multiforme des mondes virtuels, mais aussi et surtout, des risques inhérents (...) de dépendance, liés à ces pratiques et, plus largement, aux usages des techniques de l’information et de la communication. L’intérêt de notre démarche serait donc de relativiser, d’une part, un discours particulièrement élogieux à l’égard des nouvelles technologies, mais dans le même temps, montrer que la technique, aussi puissante soit-elle, reste tributaire de variables culturelles fortes. Les résultats d’une enquête empirique permettront alors de mieux comprendre comment s’articulent les relations entre l’individu, la technique et la culture, en montrant comment cette dernière parvient finalement à canaliser la technique.Studies on Internet addiction are still largely confined to the field of psychology. However, addressing this new object from the multidisciplinary angle of the information and communication sciences can help to step back from conventional discourses on technophilia, but also on some instances of technophobia. Investigating the world of video and Internet games makes it possible to take stock of the many-faceted growth of virtual worlds, but also, and especially, of the inherent addictiveness of game playing and the use of information and communication technologies in general. The value of our approach lies therefore in taking an objective view of the consistently eulogistic discourse on new technologies while showing at the same time that technology, for all its power, will always be dependent on strongly marked cultural variables. The results of our empirical investigation shed light on the interaction of relationships between people, technology and culture, to show that, ultimately, it is culture that channels technology and not the reverse. (shrink)

This edited collection casts light on central issues within contemporary philosophy of mathematics such as the realism/anti-realism dispute; the relationship between logic and metaphysics; and the question of whether mathematics is a science of objects or structures. The discussions offered in the papers involve an in-depth investigation of, among other things, the notions of mathematical truth, proof, and grounding; and, often, a special emphasis is placed on considerations relating to mathematical practice. A distinguishing feature of the book is the multicultural (...) nature of the community that has produced it. Philosophers, logicians, and mathematicians have all contributed high-quality articles which will prove valuable to researchers and students alike. (shrink)

This edited collection casts light on central issues within contemporary philosophy of mathematics such as the realism/anti-realism dispute; the relationship between logic and metaphysics; and the question of whether mathematics is a science of objects or structures. The discussions offered in the papers involve an in-depth investigation of, among other things, the notions of mathematical truth, proof, and grounding; and, often, a special emphasis is placed on considerations relating to mathematical practice. A distinguishing feature of the book is the multicultural (...) nature of the community that has produced it. Philosophers, logicians, and mathematicians have all contributed high-quality articles which will prove valuable to researchers and students alike. (shrink)