To what extent does perceptual language reflect universals of experience and cognition, and to what extent is it shaped by particular cultural preoccupations? This paper investigates the universality~relativity of perceptual language by examining the use of basic perception terms in spontaneous conversation across 13 diverse languages and cultures. We analyze the frequency of perception words to test two universalist hypotheses: that sight is always a dominant sense, and that the relative ranking of the senses will be the same across different (...) cultures. We find that references to sight outstrip references to the other senses, suggesting a pan-human preoccupation with visual phenomena. However, the relative frequency of the other senses was found to vary cross-linguistically. Cultural relativity was conspicuous as exemplified by the high ranking of smell in Semai, an Aslian language. Together these results suggest a place for both universal constraints and cultural shaping of the language of perception. (shrink)

Qu'est-ce que la beauté? DOTOLI Giovanni part de la définition qu'en donne Charles Chaumont dans son livre Le secret de la beauté : "Apparemment, la beauté est la chose du monde à la fois la plus importante et la plus superflue". Si l'auteur est d'accord avec cette définition, du moins pour la première partie, il n'est pas sans savoir que, comme son opposé, la laideur, la beauté est profondément ambiguë. De ce postulat, découle une réflexion qui interroge la nature (...) de la beauté, son rôle essentiel dans la construction du monde et de notre vie quotidienne, son utilité, ainsi que sa part d'individualité comme de collectivité. Au cours de l'histoire, la beauté a été liée principalement à deux entités : l'art d'une part, et le corps humain de l'autre, en particulier le corps féminin. Mais il est nécessaire de dépasser ce simple constat pour comprendre la beauté. Cet ouvrage tente donc de découvrir les secrets cachés de la beauté et de démontrer en quoi la beauté est "le salut du monde". (shrink)

Se l'attenzione maggiore degli studiosi si è da sempre concentrata sulle Dionisiache, non di meno negli ultimi vent'anni si assiste a un rinnovato interesse per l'altro poema esametrico attribuito a Nonno, la Parafrasi del Vangelo di Giovanni; ciò soprattutto per merito di Enrico Livrea e della sua scuola fiorentina, di cui anche l'autore di questo volume fa parte. Esso rappresenta una tappa ulteriore – dopo l'edizione del Canto I (De Stefani), del Canto II (Livrea), del Canto XVIII (Livrea) e (...) del Canto XX (Accorinti) – in quello che si annuncia come un progetto di edizione critica commentata di tutti canti del poema sacro nonniano: progetto certamente ambizioso ma indispensabile per fare luce piena su un momento fondamentale dell'epica tardoantica. Diversamente dalla poesia centonaria, Nonno, pur seguendo dappresso la Vorlage evangelica, volle fare opera in qualche misura originale e ci riuscì, pur con uno stile che non si potrebbe immaginare più contrastante rispetto alla austera sobrietà del dettato giovanneo. Il volume di Agosti, sostenuto da una ricchissima e pressocché completa bibliografia, si apre con una Introduzione assai ampia e decisamente pregevole per la capacità dimostrata dallo studioso di inquadrare il poema nonniano nell'ambito vasto dell'epica tardoantica non solo greca ma anche latina: da questo punto di vista illuminanti appaiono i raffronti con Giovenco, Aratore, Claudiano, Prudenzio, Commodiano, oltre che, naturalmente, con Gregorio Nazianzeno, Eudocia e gli Homerocentones. Convinto che il Nonno parafraste sia il medesimo autore delle Dionisiache, Agosti ritiene decisamente superata la tesi contraria, e intelligentemente si limita a rilevare la straordinaria affinità fra i due poemi non solo a livello stilistico, linguistico e metrico, ma anche – aspetto forse ancora più sorprendente – sotto il profilo concettuale: «Vi sono elementi di chiaro influsso cristiano nelle D. e d'altra parte la figura di Cristo tende ad assumere alcuni tratti bacchici nella P.» (p. 46). Una tesi, questa, che viene corroborata con numerosi raffronti puntuali nelle dense note di commento. Essendo gran parte del Canto Quinto, corrispondente al quinto capitolo del vangelo giovanneo, dedicato al miracolo del paralitico guarito nella piscina di Bethesda, viene affrontato il problema dello spazio dedicato ai miracoli di guarigione nel mondo pagano e cristiano del V secolo, in particolare nell'ambiente egizio dove Nonno visse e operò (ma molto cauto si mostra, a mio avviso saggiamente, l'Autore nei confronti di identificazioni troppo incerte, come quella che vorrebbe Nonno vescovo di Edessa). Il lettore deduce dalle sue considerazioni come nulla di sorprendente o di aberrante l'uomo tardoantico potesse scorgere nel racconto di Giovanni, che anzi non discorda da analoghe imprese attribuite ad Asclepio, il dio guaritore ϰατεξοχήν, ma anche a taumaturghi come Apollonio di Tiana: si trattava, se mai, di una sorta di concorrenza fra Cristo e i suoi omologhi e rivali pagani. Allo stesso modo, Agosti pensa che il pubblico della Parafrasi e quello delle Dionisiache fosse in sostanza il medesimo, forse con una percentuale cristiana maggiore nel primo caso e minore nel secondo. Ovviamente si rimane nel campo delle ipotesi, ma certo il sincretismo del tempo poteva forse spingersi tanto avanti da giustificare simile osmosi, anche se appare lecito dubitare che cristiani convinti giungessero a tollerare l'incredibile ampiezza del poema a gloria di Dioniso, e, viceversa, che a un pubblico pagano potesse veramente interessare il vangelo di Giovanni – di cui per altro Agosti segnala qualche risonanza in ambiente neoplatonico. Meritorie appaiono anche le osservazioni sul retroterra esegetico del poema sacro, «più vicino all'esegesi che alla parafrasi stricto sensu» (p. 111), con particolare riferimento al commento giovanneo di Cirillo d'Alessandria: una consonanza del resto già osservata da altri studiosi della Parafrasi. Nelle note l'Autore cita numerosi passi da Cirillo, non nascondendosi comunque la notevole libertà con cui Nonno – il cui intento primario non dovette certo essere teologico – se ne servì. Non meno interessanti le considerazioni su alcuni punti di contatto con la liturgia, tema di cui Agosti segnala la non secondaria importanza per una valutazione corretta e completa dell'epica cristiana. (shrink)

In classical and Christian literature mountain symbolism takes many forms deriving from height and center. In so far as mountains are tall, lofty, and rise abruptly to touch heaven, they form part of the symbolism of transcendence and, in so far as they are often numinous places where the gods have revealed their presence, they share in the symbolism of manifestation. According to Gospel’s tradition, in Nonnus’ Paraphrase of St. John’s Gospel, the mountain, visible home of the invisible God, situated (...) next to the deity on account of its high peak and solitude, takes on a symbolic value in revealing the role of Christ and his future elevation on the Cross. (shrink)

Nous avons voulu procéder à une reformulation de la célèbre énigme de Cedric Price qui remettait en question les promesses de la technologie. Nous avons donc formulé la provocation suivante : « Le design est la réponse, mais quelle était la question? ». Dans ce cas, quelle pourrait être la promesse du design? Nous posons une autre question : « Si le design n’est pas la réponse, qu’est-ce qu’il pourrait être? » Quelle que soit la réponse, nous disons clairement que (...) ce que le design peut faire est de répondre aux échos de notre relation avec tous et tout ce qui se trouve sur la planète que nous partageons – notre maison commune – et de se demander ce qui pourrait ne pas advenir dans un monde-sans-nous – un monde impensable. (shrink)

Humanitarian organisations often work alongside those responsible for serious wrongdoing. In these circumstances, accusations of moral complicity are sometimes levelled at decision makers. These accusations can carry a strong if unfocused moral charge and are frequently the source of significant moral unease. In this paper, we explore the meaning and usefulness of complicity and its relation to moral accountability. We also examine the impact of concerns about complicity on the motivation of humanitarian staff and the risk that complicity may lead (...) to a retreat into moral narcissism. Moral narcissism is the possibility that where humanitarian actors inadvertently become implicated in wrongdoing, they may focus more on their image as self-consciously good actors than on the interests of potential beneficiaries. Moral narcissism can be triggered where accusations of complicity are made and can slew decision making. We look at three interventions by Médecins Sans Frontières that gave rise to questions of complicity. We question its decision-guiding usefulness. Drawing on recent thought, we suggest that complicity can helpfully draw attention to the presence of moral conflict and to the way International Non-Governmental Organisations can be drawn into unintentional wrongdoing. We acknowledge the moral challenge that complicity presents to humanitarian staff but argue that complicity does not help INGOs make tough decisions in morally compromising situations as to whether they should continue with an intervention or pull out. (shrink)

Das Buch ist den vier ältesten illustrierten und mit Kommentarkatenen versehenen Hss. des Buches Hiob gewidmet, die zwischen dem 9. und dem 11. Jh. entstanden sind: Patmos, Johanneskloster, Cod. 171 (nachfolgend Patm.); Rom, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Cod. Vat. gr. 749 (Vat.); Sinai, Katharinenkloster, Cod. 3 (Sin.); Venedig, Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, Cod. gr. 538 (Ven.). Insgesamt sind 15 illustrierte griechische Katenenhss. allein des Buches Hiob erhalten (siehe die Übersicht p. 9–11). Das in ihnen enthaltene Bildmaterial zu Hiob wird ergänzt durch Illustrationen (...) in weiteren Mss. unterschiedlichen Textinhalts (p. 11–14). Während seitens der Textkritik fundamentale Arbeit zur wissenschaftlichen Erschließung des griechischen Hiob-Textes und seiner Kommentare geleistet wurde, stellt das Buch von Bernabò (B.) die erste nennenswerte Publikation mit primär kunstwissenschaftlicher Ausrichtung dar. Rund 2000 (p. VII), überwiegend noch unpublizierte, byzantinische Miniaturen zum Buch Hiob sind überkommen, was erahnen läßt, welcher Schatz auf diesem Gebiet zukünftig noch zu heben ist. Ursprünglich war eine komplette Publikation der bebilderten Hiob-Mss. im Rahmen des Corpus of the Illustrations in the Manuscripts of the Septuagint der Universität Princeton geplant – ein Projekt, das vor allem wegen seines erheblichen Umfangs nicht hat realisiert werden können. Kurt Weitzmann hatte bis zu seinem Tod im Jahre 1993 Bildmaterial in großem Umfang zusammengetragen. Dieses konnte B. nicht nur für sein Buch verwenden, sondern löste mit selbigem gleichzeitig das seinem Lehrer noch zu Lebzeiten gegebene Versprechen ein, das gemeinsam begonnene Projekt nach dessen Tod fortzuführen (p. X–XI). Im Aufbau, wenngleich nicht in Seitenumfang und Buchformat, richtet sich die vorliegende Publikation nach den bereits er-schienenen Bänden des Princetoner Corpus. (shrink)

Community consultation is increasingly recommended, and in some cases, required by ethical review boards for research that involves higher levels of ethical risk such as international research and research with vulnerable populations. In designing a randomised control trial of a mental health intervention using a wait list control, we consulted the community where the research would be undertaken prior to finalising the study protocol. The study sites were two conflict-affected locations: Grozny in the Chechen Republic and Kitchanga in eastern Democratic (...) Republic of Congo. (shrink)

The ArgumentBy the beginning of the fourteenth century, medicine had acquired a cultural role in addition to its traditional functions as a therapeutic art. Medical subject matter infiltrated the religious discourse via the new thirteenth-century encyclopedic literature. Preachers came to employ in their moral analogies a wider range of medical topics, using sophisticated medical examples and citations attributed to recognized medical authorities. These developments coincided with the growing prestige of medicine as an academic discipline.

La dialectique hégélienne, en tant que négation de la négation, est souvent interprétée comme irrémédiablement téléologique, comme une froide mécanique qui rejette hors du sens toute contingence. Mérite-t-elle pour cela d'être abandonnée? Si la dialectique est bien ce qui meut tout donné, montrant qu'il ne peut résider en repos en lui-même, abandonner la dialectique revient à se résigner à la factualité et à renoncer à la promesse d'émancipation, de dépassement de ce monde donné, dont la pensée hégélienne est porteuse. Il (...) faudrait alors penser la dialectique sans la téléologie. Mais l'effort de Hegel n'est-il pas déjà de libérer autant qu'il est possible la dialectique de toute téléologie? De fait, si l'on se tourne vers deux auteurs qui ont critiqué et profondément réformé la dialectique hégélienne - Giovanni Gentile et Theodor Adorno - on se rend compte à l'examen de leur tentative que leur volonté de sauver la totalité de la contingence et leur refus conjoint de toute perspective téléologique conduit la dialectique à, en quelque sorte, s'écrouler sur elle-même. Ces deux formes " d'auto-destruction " de la dialectique montrent ainsi par l'absurde que la téléologie minimale conservée par Hegel n'a pour fonction que de préserver la dialectique. On peut alors interpréter la dialectique plutôt comme principe de détermination que comme moteur d'une téléologie prise en son sens plein ; c'est peut-être ce que nous le suggère la référence à Aristote par laquelle Hegel choisit de clore son Encyclopédie des Sciences philosophiques. La dialectique hégélienne reposerait ainsi sur une téléologie minimale au-delà de laquelle on ne peut aller sans renoncer à la dialectique elle-même. (shrink)

El propósito de la presente comunicación es visualizar la gestación del neoplatonismo cristiano en el pensamiento agustiniano. Para ello nos inspiramos en lo afirmado por Giovanni Reale en su Introducción al Agustín de Werner Beierwaltes: “la cifra emblemática del pensamiento fi osófico de Agustín en sentido global es la expresada por él mismo en la clara fórmula: credo ut intellegam, intellego ut credam”, ‘círculo hermenéutico’ expresado por primera vez en Contra Academicos, III, 20, 43 y en De ordine, II, (...) 9, 26”. Para dar cumplimiento al objetivo propuesto, apelamos a Confessiones, VII y a Ennéadas, I, 6; I, 8. La simultaneidad de la lectura de Plotino y la audición de los Sermones del Obispo Ambrosio, destacadas en la obra de Pierre Courcelle Recherches sur les Confessions de saint Augustin no es compartida por todos los estudiosos, entre ellos O’ Meara. El planteo de Courcelle, ¿viene a zanjar la disputa P. Alfaric, Ch. Boyer? Agustín ¿se convirtió antes al neoplatonismo que al cristianismo? O ¿fue a la inversa? Para concluir nos referiremos explícitamente al balance que el mismo Agustín hace de lo qué encontró y de lo que no encontró en los Libri platonicorum para culminar con la importancia del Misterio del Verbo Encarnado en la vida de Agustín y la luz que proyecta sobre su propuesta filosófica. (shrink)

The Sienese Bernardino Albizeschi, the acclaimed Franciscan preacher, theologian and missionary was a key figure in the promulgation of the Observant movement in Central and Northern Italy. His relatively quick canonization only six years after his death was the result of the joint efforts of the Republic of Siena, princes and signori from different parts of Europe and the Franciscans, including Giovanni da Capestrano, general vicar of the Cismontan Observant family, who, among several other tasks related to the canonization, (...) was active in the registration of the miracles of his predecessor. A number of sources testify to his veneration in... (shrink)

A partire dalla produzione saggistica e letteraria di Umberto Eco, l’articolo analizzerà l’immaginario del Medioevo inteso come culla di ogni genere di millenarismo. La trattazione prenderà avvio dal suo saggio Palinsesto su Beato ; tenendo conto dell’originalità della prospettiva strutturalista di Eco, si confronterà l’ultima riedizione di questo scritto con un quadro bibliografico sul ruolo dell’Apocalisse di San Giovanni in seno alla tradizione occidentale. Il primo riferimento sarà la tesi genealogica di Karl Löwith, il quale nel suo Significato e (...) fine della storia affermò che le moderne filosofie della storia rispondono alla stessa ispirazione millenarista della cultura cristiana. Il secondo confronto sarà con uno dei ritratti dell’eresiarca Fra Dolcino; nella fattispecie, sarà considerata la prospettiva del filosofo socialista Antonio Labriola, elaborata a fine Ottocento per distinguere le applicazioni scientifiche del materialismo storico dai suoi fraintendimenti escatologici. Questi due opposti interlocutori condurranno a problematizzare l’interpretazione del millenarismo per come rappresentato da Umberto Eco ne Il nome della rosa. Il romanzo intende infatti l’apocalittica dolciniana come la prefigurazione del terrorismo degli Anni di Piombo? O si tratta di una mera strizzata d’occhio, un gioco con il lettore, il quale è chiamato a non confidare troppo nella potenza simbolica delle analogie? Considering Umberto Eco’s articles and novels, the paper will examine the imaginary of the Middle Age as the cradle of every kind of millenarianism. The analysis will start from Eco’s essay Palinsesto su Beato. Looking at the originality of his structuralist view, I will compare the last editing of this text with a bibliographical framework about the role of the Apocalypse of St. John in the Western tradition. The first reference will be the genealogical thesis of Karl Löwith, who in Meaning in History affirmed that the modern philosophies of history have the same eschatological aim of the Christian culture. The second comparison will be with a portrait of the medieval heresiarch Fra Dolcino. In this case, I will consider the perspective of the socialist philosopher Antonio Labriola, who elaborated it at the end of the XIX Century to distinguish the scientific applications of historical materialism from his eschatological misinterpretations. These two opposite references will drive me to problematize the representation of millenarianism as it was depicted by Umberto Eco in his The Name of the Rose. Indeed, is Dulcinian millenarianism intended by the novel as a prefiguration of the political terrorism in Italy during the Years of Lead? Or is this only a wink, a joking interaction with the reader, who should be careful to rely not on the symbolic strength of analogies? (shrink)

Ce texte a déjà paru dans J. Lageira & G. Lamarche-Vadel, Appropriations créatives et critiques, Sesto San Giovanni, Mimesis, 2018, pp. 137-161. Nous remercions Luc Gwiazdzinski de nous avoir autorisé à le reproduire ici. La saturation, il y a un moment où cela vient dans ce repas qu'on appelle vie : il ne faut qu'une goutte alors, pour faire déborder la coupe du dégoût. Sainte Beuve « Sans lumière, pas de ville la nuit mais trop de lumière tue la (...) nuit ». Cette sage pensée issue d'une - Géographie – Nouvel article. (shrink)

A partir de la afirmación en la que Ortega dice que el científico se aloja en el ser humano, el texto pretende, por un lado y desde una perspectiva fenomenológica, abordar el vínculo entre las ciencias naturales y las ciencias humanas y sociales y, por otro lado, analizar las consecuencias de las maneras en las que estos dos grupos de ciencias se han relacionado a fin de imaginar la posición que tanto las ciencias naturales como las humanas y sociales deben (...) ocupar. From a phenomenological perspective and begining with the statement from Ortega saying that a scientist lives inside a human being, this text has a twofold structure. First, the author analyzes the relationship among natural sciences and human and social sciences. Second, the author analyzes the consequences of the different ways in which bothsciences have interrelated, in order to imagine the place that either natural sciences, and social sciences and humanities, should occupy. (shrink)

The purpose of this paper is methodological. I begin by showing the methodological frailties of both the heart and brain approach to the criteria of death used in connection with organ transplantation. I then clarify what a definition is. Finally, I propose to abandon the definition of death, and suggest a pragmatic definition of ‘explantability window’.

Reseña del libro: Giovanni Reale. Invitación al pensamiento antiguo. San Pablo, Océano Azul, 2017. 134 p.

Over these last few years once again the relationship between biology and information has been debated with great liveliness. The crucial points concern the meaning of the term ‘information’ and whether the so-called “information talk” is really necessary inside biology.I will proceed by first commenting on some points of the debate (§ 2), then showing that a biophysical account of the process from the nucleotide sequences to the correlated amino acid sequences is possible (§ 3). In this way, I will (...) suggest that a satisfying account of that process can be offered without entering the quicksand of information. (shrink)

Databases play a fundamental role in today’s world, being used by most companies, especially those that offer services through the Internet. Today there is a wide variety of database models, each adapted for use according to the specific requirements of each application. Traditionally, the relational models with centralized architectures have been used mostly due to their simplicity and general-purpose query language, which made relational systems suitable for almost any application. However, with the growth of the Internet in recent decades, both (...) in the number of users and in the amount of information, those centralized models began to suffer availability and scalability issues. To address those issues, the use of decentralized architectures and alternative database models began to arise, eventually replacing relational databases and centralized architectures when the requirements on availability and scalability are high. Those database models alternative to the traditional relational model are grouped under the name of NoSQL. In this article, we present a NoSQL database developed as an end of degree work, with a flexible data model based on documents and a fully decentralized architecture based on the Gossip protocol for node discovery and a distributed hash table, in particular the rendezvous hashing algorithm, used to distribute and replicate the data across all the nodes. The main goals of the system are to achieve high availability and high scalability. High availability is achieved thanks to the replication of the data, while high scalability is achieved by its decentralized architecture, which allows multiple entry points from the requests, and the data distribution, effectively increasing the database capacity by increasing the number of nodes. (shrink)

En este ensayo se hace una valoración de la situación actual de la estética y se estudia cuál es la aportación del pensamiento del filósofo español X. Zubiri a la misma. Para ello se reconstruye a grandes rasgos la historia del pensamiento estético hasta el momento actual de modo que sean claramente perceptibles las aportaciones a la estética de la propuesta del pensador español, a la vez que las posibilidades que abre para un desarrollo ulterior de esta disciplina. Para mostrar (...) las aportaciones a la estética de Zubiri se exponen las características fundamentales de su pensamiento en las que destaca su raigambre estrictamente metafísica. Esta raigambre metafísica permite evitar un reduccionismo hermenéutico de la estética tal y como ocurre según el autor en muchas propuestas actuales. Por otro lado, la propuesta zubiriana de incardinar lo estético en una facultad sustantiva como es el sentimiento afectante, permite evitar el intelectualismo y rescatar la autonomía de la dimensión estética de la realidad sin reducirla al bien ni el ser neutro. La propuesta es una alternativa a la teoría de Max Scheler que, no obstante, vuelve a hacerse cargo de la estructura transcendental de la realidad como ocurría en la gran tradición metafísica occidental. (shrink)

El ejercicio filosófico de raíz marxista en Chile tiene un capítulo escrito por los intelectuales comunistas de la década del 60 del siglo XX. Uno de ellos, Sergio Vuskovic, se abocó a discutir con las tesis althusserianas que identificaron la teorización de Marx como un antihumanismo teórico. Para oponerse a tal perspectiva, Vuskovic realiza una operación teórica al interior de la obra de Marx con el objetivo de afirmar la categoría de sujeto, así como la interna relación entre ejercicio teórico (...) y praxis socio-histórica. Chilean communist intellectuals of the 1960's wrote a chapter of the history of Marxist philosophy. One of them was Sergio Vuskovic who focused on discussing Marx's theories according to Althusser's thesis of anti-humanism. By affirming the subject category and the internal relationship between "theoretical operation" and socio-historical praxis within Marx's philosophy, Vuskovic opposes Althusser's perspective. (shrink)

The aims of my paper are to set out Aquinas’s arguments in favour of the thesis of God as Subsistent Being itself; set out the arguments against; and propose a fresh reading of that thesis that takes into account both Thomistic doctrine and the criticisms of it. In this way, I shall proceed as in a medieval quaestio, with arguments in favour, sed contra and respondeo.