To foster understanding in the psychopathology of patients with anorexia nervosa at the psychological and physiological level, standardized experimental studies on reliable biomarkers are needed, especially due to the lack of disorder-specific samples. To this end, the autonomic nervous system response to a psychosocial stressor was investigated in n = 19 PAN, age, and gender-matched to n = 19 healthy controls. For this purpose, heart rate and heart rate variability parameters were assessed in a cross-sectional study design under two experimental (...) conditions: rest and stress. In addition, psychological indicators of stress were assessed. An 2 × 2 × 8 ANOVA demonstrated similar HR and HRV patterns between PAN and HC at rest. Under stress, PAN demonstrated a blunted HR [condition*time*group: F = 9.326, p = 0.000, η2 = 0.206] and an attenuated HRV response. Significant effects of stress appraisal and BMI on HRV-reactivity were revealed. SA on SDNN = Condition*time*SA = F = 2.676, p = 0.033, η2 = 0.073. BMI on LF/HF-Ratio = Condition*time*BMI = F = 3.339, p = 0.019, η2 = 0.164. Psychological indices suggested higher levels of chronic and appraised stress in PAN relative to HC. Additional analyses demonstrated that ED-symptoms are highly correlated with the latter constructs, as well as with psychological burden, but not with weight. Further, it was shown that abnormalities in reactivity persisted despite normalized ANS activity. Overall, we suggested that besides weight recovery, improvement in stress appraisal could be beneficial for cardiac health. In this light, a combination of therapy and biofeedback training may improve treatment outcomes and regulate stress reactivity. (shrink)

The emerging field of responsible management (RM) studies the integration of sustainability, responsibility, and ethics in managerial practices. Therefore, turning to practice theories for the study of RM appears to hold great promise of conceptual and methodological contribution. We propose a posthumanist practice approach for studying RM-as-practice. Managerial practices are conceived as the agencement of heterogeneous elements (humans, nonhumans, more-than-humans, materials, and discourses) that achieve agency in their being interconnected. Thus, RM is understood as processual, relational, emergent, and sociomaterial. We (...) contribute a framework for the empirical study of RM-as-practice on the basis of three sensitizing concepts: situatedness, sociomateriality, and textures_._ We further discuss the implications of understanding responsibility as response-ability, an engaged practice for relating to the other and the RM researcher’s role as internal to the practice agencement under study, thus, opening the debate on our own response-ability. (shrink)

Wolff's book defends the Kantian idea of a "general logic" whose principles underlie special systems of deductive logic. It thus undermines "logical pluralism," which tolerates the co-existence of divergent systems of modern logic without asking for consistent common principles. Part I of Wolff’s book identifies the formal language in which the most general principles of logic must be expressed. This language turns out to be a version of syllogistic language already used by Aristotle. The universal validity of logical (...) principles, as well as the translatability of other logical languages into this language, are shown to depend only on the meanings of its logical vocabulary. Part II of the book answers the metalogical question concerning the deductive relation between general logic and special logical systems, which also have their own (less general) principles. This part identifies the rules according to which logical rules can be derived from principles. The main result of the book is that the highest principles of logic and metalogics are provided by the syllogistic, when properly understood. (shrink)

Metaphor has a double life. It can be described as a directional process in which a stable, familiar base domain provides inferential structure to a less clearly specified target. But metaphor is also described as a process of finding commonalities, an inherently symmetric process. In this second view, both concepts may be altered by the metaphorical comparison. Whereas most theories of metaphor capture one of these aspects, we offer a model based on structure-mapping that captures both sides of metaphor processing. (...) This predicts (a) an initial processing stage of symmetric alignment; and (b) a later directional phase in which inferences are projected to the target. To test these claims, we collected comprehensibility judgments for forward (e.g., “A rumor is a virus”) and reversed (“A virus is a rumor”) metaphors at early and late stages of processing, using a deadline procedure. We found an advantage for the forward direction late in processing, but no directional preference early in processing. Implications for metaphor theory are discussed. (shrink)

Este capítulo se propone explorar cómo el replanteo de las causas finales en la ciencia natural suscitado por la Revolución Científica impactó en el desarrollo del materialismo y el ateísmo del Siglo de las luces. Con el surgimiento de la ciencia moderna en Europa, en el siglo XVII ocurrieron cambios sustantivos en la concepción de la causalidad. Ciertos estudios pioneros sobre el tema, sostenían que la nueva ciencia anulaba las causas finales y establecía que todos los fenómenos naturales debían explicarse (...) en términos de materia y movimiento (Burtt, 1952:98‒99; Schmitt, 1983:5). Más tarde, otros especialistas —con argumentos más sólidos y pruebas más convincentes— mostraron que la causalidad final no fue anulada por completo; siguió presente en muchos autores, aunque ya no como parte indispensable de la explicación científica, sino como un componente ontológico de la naturaleza (Osler, 1996 y 2001). Ahora bien, ¿qué sucedió con las causas finales en el siglo XVIII europeo, época de profundas turbulencias políticas y controversias filosóficas, en la cual el materialismo, el ateísmo y el deísmo fueron ganando terreno? Para hacer un recorte dentro de la vasta variedad de posiciones existentes en este escenario, comenzaremos por repasar la posición sobre las causas finales de Francis Bacon (1561‒1626), quien fue una figura muy influyente en la Ilustración. 2 Luego, analizaremos la recepción de esa posición por parte de algunos autores británicos (D. Stewart, S. Parker) y franceses en el siglo XVIII (D'Alembert, Naigeon, Diderot, Cabanis). (shrink)

The situation caused by the 2019 coronavirus disease has been representing a great source of concern and a challenge to the psychological well-being of many individuals around the world. For couples in particular, this extraordinary rise in concern, combined with the stress posed by the virus containment measures, such as prolonged cohabitation and lack of support networks, may have increased the likelihood of couple problems. At the same time, however, COVID-19 concerns may have been a stimulus to activate couples’ stress (...) management processes. A couple’s resource, which may have an important role in dealing with COVID-19 concerns and stress, is dyadic coping, i.e., the process through which partners face stress together. Drawing on a sample of 1,823 Italian individuals involved in a couple relationship, the current study tested a serial mediation model in which concerns about COVID-19 predicted psychological well-being, through both explicit stress communication and perceived partner dyadic coping responses. In addition, the study explored whether this dyadic coping process functioned the same way in satisfied and dissatisfied couples. Results showed that concerns about the situation related to COVID-19 significantly threatened individuals’ psychological well-being. However, these concerns positively predicted explicit stress communication, which in turn positively predicted perceived partner’s dyadic coping responses, which finally positively predicted psychological well-being. In addition, in the group of dissatisfied individuals, the association between explicit stress communication and perceived partners’ dyadic coping responses was not significant. The present study adds to the research on couples’ coping by testing for the first time the whole theoretical model of dyadic coping and does so during a global emergency situation. The study also suggests key components of preventive interventions for individuals in couples. (shrink)

Body expression and dance are activities that contribute to the integral well-being of people. In an educational context, the process of evaluating our students implies variations in their moods. This study tackles the states of mind that students perceive before and after the evaluation of a practice in the subject ofBody expression and dance, developed through choreographies, that were, previously rehearsed, and later presented to the rest of the class in a specific session. Our main interest was the obtention of (...) information on the states of mind of the students prior to the evaluation of their choreographies, and again once they had been performed. The study design consisted of two phases: two different choreographies separated by an interval of 2 months. The students were asked about their moods before and after performing their choreographies, which were evaluated. The participants, 167 in total, 35 women and 132 men, aged 18 to 22 years old, filled out a POMS questionnaire, before and after the evaluation of each occasion. Differences were found in the stress-anxiety, vigor-activity, fatigue-immobility scales and the total mood score. In all of them, except for the fatigue-immobility scale, we found a decrease in scores after the performance, compared to scores before. For the Stress-Anxiety factor, lower values were observed in the post-tests in comparison to the pre-tests, and also lower values in the pre- and post-test scores regarding the second choreography. We conclude that the practical evaluation of the subject through choreography modifies the mood states of the students, favoring their well-being after its execution, which is why evaluation through practice is considered a positive element in the educational process. (shrink)

In this article, we tackle the epistemological and ethical issues related to the use of race concepts in the genomics of sport performance and sport-related concussion (SRC). In the first part of the article, we show how the concept of race is ubiquitous in scientific literature, besides the fact that ‘race’ as other analogous population descriptors like ‘ancestry’ and ‘continent’ carry ancestral genetic heterogeneity and therefore they cannot be used to infer any kind of genetic or physiological property. Then, we (...) investigate the question of whether genomics research focusing on racial categories and race-specific genes of sport performance and of risk of health outcomes due to repetitive head impacts (RHI) is justified from an epistemological point of view, arguing that it is not; we show that the evidence supporting the existence of genetic variants determining an elite athlete status or a predisposition to health outcomes after SRC is scarce, and the use of racial categories (e.g. African or Black, Caucasian or White, Asian, etc.) as proxies for genetic variants associated with an elite athlete status/a predisposition to health outcomes after SRC is ill-conceived. In the second part of the article, we analyze the main ethical issues concerning the reification of race concepts in sport genomics, also considering the more general issue of the ethical and social impact of the use of a genetic framework in the explanation of individual differences in sport performance and SRC. (shrink)

ABSTRACT Francis Bacon and René Descartes have traditionally been presented as leaders of opposed philosophical currents. However, more and more studies show important continuities between their philosophies. This article explores one of them: their perspectives on medicine. The dominion over nature and the instinct for self-preservation are the central elements of the theoretical framework within which they inserted their assessments of medicine. Medicine is valued as the most outstanding discipline for its benefits for the care of the human being. Departing (...) from this start-point, one finds further coincidences about the status, practice, and reform of medicine. (shrink)

Using real-world examples and vivid illustrations drawn from other disciplines, An Introduction to Moral Philosophy challenges preconceived notions about morality and demonstrates why ethics matters. From respected philosopher and writer Jonathan Wolff, this edition features a thoughtful and contemporary treatment of the ethics of gender, race, and non-Western moral philosophy, engaging narrative introductions to moral theories and the thinkers behind them.

This paper takes up Axel Honneth’s suggestion that we, in the 21st century Western world, should revisit the Marxian idea of reification; unlike Honneth, however, this paper applies reification to the ways in which humans relate to non-human animals, particularly in the context of scientific experiments. Thinking about these practices through the lens of reification, the paper argues, yields a more helpful understanding of what is regarded as problematic in those practices than the standard animal rights approaches. The second part (...) of the paper offers ways of overcoming reification that go beyond Honneth’s idea of recognition by introducing Iris Murdoch’s idea of attention. This proposed strategy makes the ethical relevance of reification more salient and makes it possible to counter reification through a practice such as attention which, unlike recognition, can be consciously established. (shrink)

Solar radiation management (SRM) has been proposed as a means of mitigating climate change. Although SRM poses new risks, it is sometimes proposed as the ‘lesser evil’. I consider how research and implementation of SRM could be regulated, drawing on what I call a ‘precautionary checklist’, which includes consideration of the longer term political implications of technical change. Particular attention is given to the moral hazard of ‘regulatory drift’, in which strong initial regulation softens through complacency, deliberate deregulation (‘regulatory gift’) (...) and the limited constituency of people with the skills to regulate (‘thin markets’). I propose the strengthening of civil society groups to keep regulators in check. (shrink)

The historiographical narrative describing early modern European philosophy as the confrontation between rationalism and empiricism and its overcoming through the Kantian synthesis had a huge spread in Argentina. This article investigates the genesis of this traditional account in the universities of Córdoba, Buenos Aires and La Plata between 1780 and 1920. It offers an introduction concerning the formation of this narrative in Europe and a survey of the teaching of early modern philosophy in Argentina during that period. It concludes that, (...) although some of its components are found during the nineteenth century, it was only in the second decade of the twentieth century that the traditional narrative was formulated in its entirety, in parallel with the introduction of Kantianism in Argentine. However, the construction of this narrative is not merely explained by this fact but also by the weight that the history of philosophy gained in the syllabus as part of the demands involved in the shaping of the academic philosophical field. Finally, this paper suggests ways to reconfigure and renew the canon. (shrink)

Recent literature on causation invokes a distinction between deviant and default behavior to account for token causation. Critical examination of two prominent attempts to employ a distinction between deviants and defaults reveals that the distinction is far from clear. I clarify and develop the distinction by appeal to the notion of a modally robust process, and show how the distinction can be employed by causal process theorists to respond to cases of causation by omission. This shows that the default/deviant distinction (...) is not so much a tool for counterfactual accounts of causation, but rather for causal process theory. (shrink)

The first part of this paper will provide a reconstruction of Francis Bacon’s interpretation of Academic scepticism, Pyrrhonism, and Dogmatism, and its sources throughout his large corpus. It shall also analyze Bacon’s approach against the background of his intellectual milieu, looking particularly at Renaissance readings of scepticism as developed by Guillaume Salluste du Bartas, Pierre de la Primaudaye, Fulke Greville, and John Davies. It shall show that although Bacon made more references to Academic than to Pyrrhonian Scepticism, like most of (...) his contemporaries, he often misrepresented and mixed the doctrinal components of both currents. The second part of the paper shall offer a complete chronological survey of Bacon’s assessment of scepticism throughout his writings. Following the lead of previous studies by other scholars, I shall support the view that, while he approved of the state of doubt and the suspension of judgment as a provisional necessary stage in the pursuit of knowledge, he rejected the notion of acatalepsia. To this received reading, I shall add the suggestion that Bacon’s criticism of acatalepsia ultimately depends on his view of the historical conditions that surround human nature. I deal with this last point in the third part of the paper, where I shall argue that Bacon’s evaluation of scepticism relied on his adoption of a Protestant and Augustinian view of human nature that informed his overall interpretation of the history of humanity and nature, including the sceptical schools. (shrink)

The classification of algebraic surfaces by the Italian School of algebraic geometry is universally recognized as a breakthrough in 20th century mathematics. The methods by which it was achieved do not, however, meet the modern standard of rigor and therefore appear dubious from a contemporary viewpoint. In this article, we offer a glimpse into the mathematical practice of the three leading exponents of the Italian School of algebraic geometry: Castelnuovo, Enriques, and Severi. We then bring into focus their distinctive conception (...) of rigor and intuition. Unlike what is often assumed today, from their perspective, rigor is neither opposed to intuition nor understood as a unitary phenomenon –Enriques distinguishes between _ small-scale rigor _ and _ large-scale rigor _ and Severi between _ formal rigor _ and _ substantial rigor _. Finally, we turn to the notion of mathematical objectivity. We draw from our case study in order to advance a multi-dimensional analysis of objectivity. Specifically, we s... (shrink)

In this extended prose poem—a text that reads as much as a work of art as important scholarship—Kurt H. Wolff has created a work of phenomenology that goes far beyond the typical methods of empirical social science to embrace field work as an extraordinary openness to being. Including personal letters to Wolff from Hannah Arendt and Hermann Bloch, the book portrays a fertile mind's reckoning with pre-phenomenal being in a way that dances between the realms of intellectual consideration (...) and the surrender of will to the intoxication of lived experience. (shrink)

El propósito de este artículo es analizar debates sobre la educación sexual en la Argentina entre 1910 y 1945, desde una perspectiva de género y enfocados en niños y niñas en procesos de escolarización. Se presentan tres ejes interrelacionados. El primero se centra en el sistema educativo y analiza principios, prescripciones y ponderaciones que se elaboraron en torno a la educación sexual. Para tal fin se analiza la revista La Higiene Escolar, publicación suplementaria del Monitor de Educación Común, y el (...) libro de texto obligatorio Higiene, publicado en 1927 y en circulación hasta la década de 1950.El segundo eje versa sobre la producción impresa de la Liga Argentina de Profilaxis Social, fundada en Buenos Aires en 1921 por un conjunto de médicos y profesores, con el objetivo de divulgar conocimientos sobre enfermedades venéreas y crear una conciencia sanitaria popular, que incluía la educación sexual de niños, niñas y adolescentes.El tercer eje analiza los vínculos entre los integrantes de la Liga con la Asociación Americana de Higiene Social, la Liga Nacional Francesa Contra el Peligro Venéreo y la Oficina Sanitaria de Berlín, que abonaron un discurso común sobre la educación sexual sustentado en el higienismo, la profilaxis y el eugenismo social. (shrink)

Background: Psychological abuse of older people is difficult to recognise; specifically, nursing home residents have been documented to be at higher risk of psychological abuse during daily care, such as during feeding. Healthcare professionals adopt positive and negative verbal prompts to maintain residents’ eating independence; however, negative prompts’ purposes and implications have never been discussed to date. Research aims: To critically analyse negative verbal prompts given during mealtimes as forms of abuse of older individuals and violation of ethical principles. Research (...) design: This is a secondary analysis of three cases of negative prompts that emerged in a large descriptive study based upon focus group methodology and involving 13 nursing homes and 54 healthcare professionals. Participants and research context: This study included 3 out of 13 nursing homes caring for residents with moderate/severe functional dependence in self-feeding mainly due to dementia; in these nursing homes, we conducted three focus groups and 13 healthcare professionals participated. Ethical considerations: This study was conducted in accordance with the Human Subject Research Ethics Committee guidelines after being approved by the Review Board of the Trust. Findings: With the intent of maintaining self-feeding independence, negative verbal prompts have been reported as being used by nursing home teams. By critically analysing these negative prompts, it turned out they could trigger intimidation, depression and anxiety and thus could be considered as forms of abuse; moreover, negative prompts can threaten the ethical principles of (1) autonomy using a paternalist approach, (2) beneficence and non-maleficence as with the intent to act in the best interests of residents (to maintain self-feeding independence) they are harmed in their dignity and (3) justice, given that residents who received negative prompts are treated differently from those who received positive prompts. Discussion: Eating should be a pleasant experience with a positive impact on physiological, psychological and social well-being. However, negative prompting can lead to abuse and violation of basic ethical principles, destroying the healthcare professional resident and relative relationships strongly dependent on trust. Conclusion: Negative verbal prompting must be avoided. (shrink)

A number of schemes have been attempted, both in public health and more generally within social programmes, to pay individuals to behave in ways that are presumed to be good for them or to have other beneficial effects. Such schemes are normally regarded as providing a financial incentive for individuals in order to outweigh contrary motivation. Such schemes have been attacked on the basis that they can ‘crowd out’ intrinsic motivation, as well as on the grounds that they are in (...) some sense ‘corrupt’. In response, they have been defended on the grounds that they can ‘crowd in’ improved motivation. I will argue that these debates have tended to overlook the difficulties individuals can have when attempting to behave against peer group norms. In some cases, financial payments can allow individuals to defend their actions on the grounds that ‘I am only doing it for the money’ in circumstances when it would be difficult to defend their action on their real motivations. Examples of paying children to read books, and paying women to give up smoking in pregnancy, will be discussed. (shrink)

The relation between the Greek and Judeo-Christian traditions is "the great problem" of Western philosophy, according to Emmanuel Levinas. In this book Brian Schroeder, Silvia Benso, and an international group of philosophers address the relationship between Levinas and the world of ancient thought. In addition to philosophy, themes touching on religion, mythology, metaphysics, ontology, epistemology, ethics, and politics are also explored. The volume as a whole provides a unified and extended discussion of how an engagement between Levinas and thinkers (...) from the ancient tradition works to enrich understandings of both. This book opens new pathways in ancient and modern philosophical studies as it illuminates new interpretations of Levinas' ethics and his social and political philosophy. (shrink)

En 1966, Jean Orcibal advirtió la influencia directa del Maestro Eckhart en San Juan de la Cruz, y podemos preguntarnos si sucedió lo mismo con Santa Teresa de Jesús. De ser así, tendrían que haber llegado a España los escritos del Dominico alemán. A través de estas líneas mostraremos, en primer lugar, las vías de transmisión de los textos eckhartianos y cómo estuvieron a disposición de los místicos españoles en el siglo XVI: se hallaban presentes en las ediciones latinas de (...) Tauler y de Ruysbroeck, y en la traducción castellana de las Instituciones. En un segundo momento abordaremos la influencia de Eckhart en San Juan de la Cruz (1542-1591) y en Santa Teresa de Jesús (1515-1582), teniendo en cuenta el estado de la investigación. Por último, señalaremos los grandes temas en los que aparece una ‘confluencia’ de perspectivas y seguramente también una ‘influencia’ del Maestro Eckhart y su escuela en estos grandes escritores y místicos carmelitas del siglo XVI. (shrink)

Background Undergraduate nursing students may experience several ethical challenges during their clinical learning placement that can lead to moral distress and intention to leave the profession. Ethical challenges are complex phenomena and ethical frameworks may help improve their understanding and provide actionable recommendations to enhance students’ readiness for practice. Aim To explore undergraduate nursing students’ ethical challenges experienced during their clinical learning and their suggestions for better ethics education; to illuminate students’ experience against a foundational ethical framework. Research design Qualitative (...) study based on interpretative phenomenology. Semi-structured, in-person or at distance, one-to-one interviews were performed, audio-recorded, and transcribed verbatim. The ‘Dignity-enhancing care framework’ was employed to frame the study findings. Participants and research context Nineteen nursing graduands attending seven sites of one Northwestern Italian University were interviewed. Ethical consideration The study protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of the University of Torino (number 0187646/2023). All participants provided written informed consent. Findings Students experienced several ethical challenges concerning daily practice such as pain control or the decision to restrain patients, and reported deficient professional ethics with healthcare professionals who demonstrated poor caring attitudes and teamwork. Moreover, they perceived professionals poorly committed to their role of educators and complained of poor support in the learning process. When a supportive, dialogical, and relational context lacked, students experienced negative feelings about the profession and the healthcare system and reported the intention to leave the profession. Dialogue with peers, family members or significant others, nursing educators, and clinical nurse supervisors, as well as self-learning activities and discussion-based teaching methods grounded on real scenarios helped to overcome challenging situations. Conclusion While complying with normative standards, nursing education policies should encourage the adoption of dynamic teaching methods and sustain a regular, dialogical approach within and between the clinical and academic contexts to improve readiness for practice. (shrink)

There have been major developments in the understanding of children’s nonhuman concepts, particularly God concepts, within the past two decades, with a body of cross-cultural studies accumulating. Relatively less research has studied those of non-Christian faiths or children’s concepts of popular occult characters. This paper describes two studies, one in Spain and one in England, examining 5- to 10-year-olds’ human and nonhuman agent beliefs. Both settings were secular, but the latter comprised a Muslim majority. Children were given a false-belief task (...) in which they were asked to infer about three humans, three animals and three supernatural beings. Similar false beliefs about humans, with subtle differences in inferences about animals and supernatural beings, were found between the two locations. In London different patterns for God between participants with a family religion, in particular Muslims, and non-affiliates, were identified as well as an association between religious beliefs and practice and inferences about God. Findings are discussed in the light of theory and research on the role of sociocultural inputs in children’s theory of mind development and understanding of agency. (shrink)

Based on new findings about the emergence and transmission of Aristotle’s corpus in late antiquity, the paper tackles a most controversial issue : the relation of Father and Son in Symbols of Nicaea (325) and of Constantinople (381) from the strict point of view of the Greek word and concept οὐσία. The concept is shown to evolve in a few decades from individual οὐσία (e.g., Socrates and Callias), as in the Categories, to οὐσία as immaterial substance as in Metaphysics Lambda. (...) First parchment copies of Aristotle’s Metaphysics and of the corpus, probably kept in Constantinople since about 352 AD, played a possible role. (shrink)

Monsters as a category seem omnipresent in early modern natural philosophy, in what one might call a “long” early modern period stretching from the Renaissance to the late eighteenth century, when the science of teratology emerges. We no longer use this term to refer to developmental anomalies (whether a two-headed calf, an individual suffering from microcephaly or Proteus syndrome) or to “freak occurrences” like Mary Toft’s supposedly giving birth to a litter of rabbits, in Surrey in the early eighteenth-century (Todd (...) 1995). But the term itself has a rich semantic history, coming from the Latin verb monstrare (itself deriving from monere, to remind, warn, advise), “to show,” from which we also get words like “monitor,” “admonish,” “monument” and “premonition”; hence there are proverbs like, in French, le monstre est ce qui montre, difficult to render in English: “the monsters is that which shows.” Scholars have discussed how this “monstrative” dimension of the monster is in fact twofold: on the one hand, and most awkwardly, the monster is an individual who is “pointed at,” who is shown; on the other hand, the monster is a sign, a portent, an omen, and in that sense “shows us” something (on the complex semantic history of the term across Indo-European languages see Ochsner 2005). The latter dimension persists in naturalized form in the early modern period when authors like Bacon, Fontenelle or William Hunter insist that monsters (or anomalies) can show us something of the workings of Nature. (shrink)

This paper will address the nineteenth-century reception of Bacon as an exponent of materialism in Joseph de Maistre and Karl Marx. I will argue that Bacon’s philosophy is “quasi-materialist.” The materialist components of his philosophy were noticed by de Maistre and Marx, who, in addition, pointed out a Baconian materialist heritage. Their construction of Bacon’s figure as the leader of a materialist lineage ascribed to his philosophy a revolutionary import that was contrary to Bacon’s actual leanings. This contrast shows how (...) different the contexts were within which materialism was conceived and valued across the centuries, and how far philosophical and scientific discourses may be transformed by their receptions, to the point that in many cases they could hardly be embraced by the authors of these discourses. (shrink)

Dans un contexte où le recueil de données est devenu massif, l'analyse de ces dernières a pour ambition de mieux décrire et cerner l'imbrication multifactorielle de phénomènes complexes. En ce sens, l'étude des systèmes complexes est aujourd'hui omniprésente, notamment dans les sciences humaines et sociales et celles du vivant. D'ailleurs, l'établissement d'une science de la complexité, visant à regrouper les champs d'étude mobilisant des systèmes complexes, s'est développé depuis les années 1970. En rassemblant des philosophes des sciences, des historiens et (...) des écologues, l'objectif de ce livre est donc de présenter la diversité des perspectives ayant cours dans les développements les plus récents en termes de sources historiques, d'épistémologie, de méthodologie ou d'applications pratiques de la science de la complexité. En réfléchissant à la variété des manières d'aborder cette dernière, cet ouvrage vise à fournir un état des lieux de la pluralité de cette science pour contribuer à l'édification d'un cadre épistémique unifié. L'ouvrage se compose de trois parties : une mise au point épistémologique de la notion de complexité, et en particulier de la controverse autour de la notion d'émergence ("Complexité et émergence"); une analyse des applications des outils de l'approche de la complexité à une pluralité des systèmes, allant de l'écologie aux sociétés humaines ("Enjeux de la complexité"); une analyse des épisodes de l'histoire des sciences de la vie qui ont marqué le développement de l'approche des sciences de la complexité ("Parcours pluridisciplinaires d'épistémologie historique")."--Page 4 of cover. (shrink)

This paper follows up on two previous contributions in Aristotelica (3 and 5) that focused on the early transmission of Phys. 250b13 as a case study. Here, the discussion broadens to general questions about the scribal hands behind Aristotle’s earliest manuscripts J (ms. Vindobonensis Phil. gr. 100) and E (ms. Parisinus gr. 1853), their roles in textual history, and their connections to the earliest reconstructable archetype. Current scholarship holds that while the sources of J and E overlap for the Metaphysics (...) (labeled Π by Jaeger’s 1957 critical apparatus), they diverge entirely for the other works held by both codices, i.e. Physics, De caelo, De generatione et corruptione, Meteorology. How can this be explained? A major, recent development is Ronconi’s (2012) identification of two distinct tenth-century volumes later combined into ms. E. Each has a main early scribe at work. Thereafter, no attempt has been made to differentiate their approaches to the text. In Aristotelica 5, E’s two early scribes are distinguished and labeled, the one, EMet (responsible for the Metaphysics) the other, EPhys (responsible for the Corpus Physicum). The two exhibit differing approaches. Through closer analysis of their methodologies, it is possible to investigate and eventually to detect what I call a “β agenda” in EPhys’s Corpus Physicum, by analogy with the socalled β manuscripts of the Metaphysics. (shrink)

Should scientists value simple theories? Is fruitfulness an important criterion to assess scientific theories? What role moral, social, and political values should have in the assessment of scientific theories? In recent years, there has been an increasing interest among philosophers of science in studying how cognitive and non-cognitive values influence and should influence the assessment and comparison of scientific theories. While cognitive values (such as simplicity and fruitfulness) are features of scientific theories that are indicative of the truth or empirical (...) adequacy of theories, non-cognitive values are moral, political, social, and economic values. Understanding the roles of values in science is a particularly urgent issue. Clarifying the importance of cognitive values is important in order to be able to make accurate comparisons of scientific theories. Understanding the influence of non-cognitive values on science is crucial because moral, social, and political values are involved in many stages of research, such as decisions on methodologies and allocation of funds. Since these decisions affect all the members of the society (scientists, non-experts, and political institutions), understanding the impact of non-cognitive values on these choices is of primary importance. Although a large body of literature has investigated the roles of cognitive and non-cognitive values in theory appraisal, several questions remain to be analysed. In this dissertation, I address four questions by using two main methods, namely the analysis of case studies from evolutionary psychology and the experimental method. First, while philosophers have clarified the importance and roles in theory appraisal of some cognitive values, little or no attention has been paid to other values. In this dissertation, I have started filling this gap by formulating a clear explication and a simple strategy to be employed in theory appraisal for one of the values that have attracted little attention, namely fruitfulness. I have explicated fruitfulness as the ability of programs to extend their content and suggested considering research questions and discovery heuristics to assess this ability. Moreover, I have used my account to assess the fruitfulness of evolutionary psychology. Second, some philosophers of science argue that cognitive values are desirable and relevant to the assessment of theories because they are indicative of the truth or empirical adequacy of theories. However, why is it so? In my dissertation, I develop a context-sensitive approach to values and I argue that in order to understand the ground for the desirability of cognitive values and make an accurate appraisal of theories, we have to consider specific factors of the context in which theories are assessed, such as the availability of methodologies and the way cognitive values are interrelated to each other in that context. Third, philosophers have traditionally argued that the influence of non-cognitive values on scientific reasoning threatens the epistemic authority of science. I have challenged this view and argued that some non-cognitive values can play a cognitive role in science, i.e., they can be epistemically beneficial to the assessment of scientific theories. On the basis of a case study (the account of human mating in evolutionary psychology), I have argued that feminist values have positively contributed to theory appraisal in various ways, such as by raising sensitivity to evidence that was neglected because of gender bias. Fourth, some philosophers have argued that non-cognitive values play a legitimate role in cases of inductive risk, namely cases in which scientists may wrongly assess scientific hypotheses (e.g. accepting a hypothesis that should be rejected) because of some uncertainty due to mixed results or disagreement on the reliability of methodologies. Mistakes can have consequences that can be morally or economically undesirable and non-cognitive values, some philosophers argue, provide the standards to evaluate and compare these possible consequences. However, little is known on how - specifically - non-cognitive values influence this evaluation. To address this issue, I have conducted an experimental study clarifying how personal features, political values, and specific aspects of a risk (e.g. the chance of incurring Type I vs. Type II errors) determine people’s reasoning about cases of inductive risk. On the basis of these results, I have discussed recent institutional calls for the need to align research agendas and technological development to citizens’ values, needs, and expectations. (shrink)

In this commentary I reflect on the significance of our relationships with a natural place from the perspective of animal and environmental ethics. Connecting Candiotto’s article with other environmental thinkers, I explore the importance of particularity and of problematizing anthropocentrism, and end by raising three questions about the broader application of one’s love for a particular place.

The aim of this paper is to examine how much Hume knew about astronomy, in order to understand the reasons for his acceptance of Copernicanism. My contention is that Hume’s positive reception of the Copernican system arises at least from the importance that he gives to three features that he attributes to the Copernican system: beauty, simplicity and uniformity. I also give some evidence that Hume had first-hand knowledge of some sections of Galileo’s Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi del (...) mondo tolemaico e copernicano (1632), where the “sole proofs” of the Copernican system are said to be found. (shrink)

This book on the Tripurārahasya, a South Indian Sanskrit work which occupies a unique place in the Śākta literature, is a study of the Śrīvidyā and Śākta traditions in the context of South Indian intellectual history in the late middle ages. Associated with the religious tradition known as Śrīvidyā and devoted to the cult of the Goddess Tripurā, the text was probably composed between the 13th and the 16th century CE. The analysis of its narrative parts addresses questions about the (...) relationships between Tantric and Purāṇic goddesses. The discussion of its philosophical and theological teachings tackles problems related to the relationships between Sākta and Śaiva traditions. The stylistic devices adopted by the author(s) of the work deal uniquely with doctrinal and ritual elements of the Śrīvidyā through the medium of a literary and poetic language. This stylistic peculiarity distinguishes the Tripurārahasya from many other Tantric texts, characterized by a more technical language. The book is intended for researchers in the field of Asian Studies, Indology, Philosophical, Theological or Religious Studies, Hindu Studies, Tantric Studies and South Asian Religion and Philosophy, in particular those interested in Śākta and Śaiva philosophic-religious traditions. (shrink)

Nos adentramos en el conocimiento metafísico del mundo como dolor en Schopenhauer y su pesimismo trágico, desde una valoración estética de la realidad. Se analiza el mundo en su dualidad trágica esencial Mundo como Voluntad y Representación, se profundiza en el concepto de arte como liberador del mundo como representación. Desde una concepción de la vida como dolor se reflexiona sobre la negación de la voluntad de vivir y la religión como respuesta mítica al dolor del mundo, estimando la contemplación, (...) mística y ascetismo como liberación. Su estética y filosofía supone ser simbiosis entre su pesimismo trágico y la orientalización de Europa en el siglo XIX. (shrink)