This paper focuses on the relationship between Kant and the traditional view of dignity. I argue that some amendments to Sensen’s description of the traditional paradigm enable us to see more clearly both where Kant adheres to the latter and where his view is original. First, a consideration of Pufendorf’s use of dignity suggests (1) that, contrary to Sensen’s reconstruction, the traditional paradigm does not entail a connection between dignity and duties to oneself, and (2) that Pufendorf’s understanding of dignity (...) as a kind of esteem, as opposed to price, provides a crucial mediation between the traditional view and Kant’s view. Finally, I argue that the traditional understanding of dignity also includes a subordinate justificatory element that helps to explain Kant’s use of dignity in the Doctrine of Virtue. (shrink)

We explore relationships between phenomenology and developmental psychology through an in-depth analysis of a particular problem in social cognition: the most fundamental access to other minds. In the first part of the paper, we examine how developmental science can benefit phenomenology. We explicate the connection between cognitive psychology and developmental phenomenology as a form of constructive phenomenological psychology. Nativism in contemporary science constitutes a strong impulse to conceive of the possibility of an innate ability to perceive others’ mental states, an (...) idea which also has a transcendental implication. In the second part, we consider how phenomenology can contribute to developmental science. Phenomenology can go beyond the necessary evaluation and reinterpretation of experimental results. Some phenomenological notions and theories can be put forward on a par with alternative cognitive-psychological models and compete with them on grounds of empirical adequacy. For example, Husserl and Merleau-Ponty’s notion of pairing can constitute a viable account of how infants access other minds. We outline a number of ways in which this account can be tested and can thus contribute to generating empirical knowledge. (shrink)

The goal of this paper is to show that a particular view of emotion sharing and a specific hypothesis on infant social perception strengthen each other. The view of emotion sharing is called “the straightforward view.” The hypothesis on infant social perception is called “the pairing account.” The straightforward view suggests that participants in emotion sharing undergo one and the same overarching emotion. The pairing account posits that infants perceive others’ embodied experiences as belonging to someone other than the self (...) through a process of assimilation to, and accommodation of, their own embodied experience. The connection between the two theories lies in the domain-general process of association by similarity, which functions both in the individuation of a unitary emotion and in the interpretation of the sensory stimulus. By elaborating on this connection, the straightforward view becomes more solid from the cognitive-developmental standpoint and the pairing account expands its explanatory power. Since the straightforward view requires minimal forms of self- and other-awareness, the paper provides a characterization of the developmental origin of the sense of us, i.e., the experience of self and other as co-subjects of a shared emotional state. (shrink)

In his ‘Pricing Carbon for Climate Justice’, Alexandre Sayegh develops the connections between climate justice and climate economics. More specifically, the paper focuses on how ‘market-based instr...

Da uno dei padri fondatori dell’Italia come nazione, un veloce e agile compendio su filosofia, politica risorgimentale e musica, centrato sulle idee e i gusti artistici mazziniani e ambientato nel panorama melodrammatico della prima metà dell’Ottocento, governato dalla maestosa figura di Gioacchino Rossini. Il volume è arricchito anche da un altro breve estratto mazziniano riguardante la musica, proveniente da Dell’Arte in Italia – A proposito del “Marco Visconti” di Tommaso Grossi (1835).

The present work has the aim to understand the role of the emotions in the aesthetical experience. Most modern theories refer to a componential approach to emotion, indicating that an emotional event consists of several components: cognitive appraisal, physiological arousal, expression, action tendency and subjective feeling. This model is applied to the so called utilitarian emotions. Is that possible to adopt the model also to the aesthetic emotions? We will analyze every step of the componential approach trying to compare it (...) with the process underling aesthetic emotion, highlighting similarities and differences. (shrink)

The set of unary functions of complexity classes defined by using bounded primitive recursion is inductively characterized by means of bounded iteration. Elementary unary functions, linear space computable unary functions and polynomial space computable unary functions are then inductively characterized using only composition and bounded iteration.

One of the main positions in the contemporary debate on joint attention is John Campbell’s relationalist account. This account has been welcomed as extremely promising in some strands of philosophy and cognitive science, but it has recently been subject to renewed criticism. In this paper, I take a sympathetic approach toward Campbell’s relationalism and I provide support for it by means of a naturalistic theory of the individuation of joint-attentional states. I start from examining some recent objections raised against Campbell’s (...) account. I suggest that, although these objections do not undermine the account, they point to questions that current relationalism leaves unanswered. Specifically, current relationalism does not provide an explanation of the psychological processes through which a joint-attentional experience is individuated, i.e., assembled and experienced, in such a way that it can constitute an immediate justification for a coordinated action. I propose that such an explanation can be found in a phenomenological-interactionist approach to shared intentionality. (shrink)

Cyberbullying is associated with the expansion of digital devices and the Internet. In Italy and other European and non-European countries, the phenomenon is growing. Young people who suffer from cyberbullying develop psychopathological symptoms of anxiety, depression, and social phobia that can lead to extreme acts, such as suicide. The pressure, the sense of isolation, and helplessness experienced by cyber-victims also affect their family and the school context. Cyberbullying is acted through digital tools, it is often anonymous, and aims to destroy (...) and psychologically humiliate the victim. There are various forms of cyberbullying that involve different reactions and consequences. However, few studies have focused on adolescents’ perception of cyberbullying. Youths often engage in aggressive behaviors, ignoring the feelings and reactions of the victims. Based on these considerations, our article aims to provide a general overview of the spread of the phenomenon and to understand the various types of cyberbullying and its consequences on victims. We will also illustrate a brief evaluation conducted in Italian schools investigating the perception of cyberbullying in a sample of 600 Italian adolescents. Our work aims to investigate the cognition and the personal perception of youths about cyberbullying and its consequences and to promote educational interventions within and outside the context of school. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie Jahrgang: 65 Heft: 1 Seiten: 67-88.

Can everyone be wise? Is wisdom open to all or an exception reserved for a few, or perhaps for none? In this context, what is the role of the ‘example’ and the ‘imitation’? Aim of my paper is to reflect on these questions in reference to Ancient Cynicism. Specifically, my goal is to analyze whether the Cynic wisdom and, consequently, life (bios) – characterized by a complete opposition to that of the common man – was intended for everyone or only (...) for exceptional individuals, for specific types of people. In examining this aspect, I will focus particularly on the example represented by the life of the first Cynic, Diogenes of Sinope. I will show how it has been differently interpreted and understood throughout the long history of Cynicism. My attention will be primarily on Onesicritus of Astypalaea, who, contrary to certain modern simplifications and negations, represents a very interesting case in the history of Cynicism. He was a Cynic who did not live cynically. Therefore, more generally, I will demonstrate how differently Cynic philosophy could not only be followed but also reinterpreted: another sign of the theoretical fertility of this philosophical movement. (shrink)

Skepticism toward the existence of neonatal differential imitation is fostered by views that assign it an excessive significance, making it foundational for social cognition. Moreover, a misleading theoretical framework may generate unwarranted expectations about the kinds of findings experimentalists are supposed to look for. Hence we propose a theoretical analysis that may help experimentalists address the empirical question of whether early differential imitation really exists. We distinguish three models of early imitation. The first posits automatic visuo-motor links evolved for sociocognitive (...) functions and we call it Genetically Programmed Direct Matching. The second is Meltzoff and Moore’s Active Intermodal Matching, which postulates a comparison between the acts of self and other. The third is the alternative we propose and we call it “Association by Similarity Theory”, as it relies on the tacit functioning of this domain-general process. AST describes early imitation merely as the differential induction or elicitation of behaviors that already tend to occur spontaneously. We focus on the contrast between AIM and AST, and argue that AST is preferable to AIM for two reasons. First, AST is more parsimonious and more plausible, especially because it does not require infants to be able to recognize self-other similarities. Second, whereas the extant findings tend to disqualify AIM, AST can account for them adequately. Furthermore, we suggest that AST has the potential to give new impulse to empirical research because it discriminates promising lines of inquiry from unproductive ones. (shrink)

We propose that in pictures both the extended limbs of actors and the ground are involved in gestalts for movement. Limbs extend to suggest more motion literally when a dancer is in air and refer to a canonical pose when on the ground. A running pony’s curled limbs off the ground depict fast action literally. A horse’s flying-gallop off the ground suggests speedy motion metaphorically. Cast shadows indicate the actor’s location with respect to the ground. We consider extended and curled (...) limbs, on-ground and off, in literal and metaphoric pictures. (shrink)

The present article examines radical methodological individualism as defended by Berlin, Popper and Hayek. We stress two dogmas: social nominalism (according to which individuals are the only admissible denizens of social ontology), and the invisible hand. We claim that the two dogmas do not logically coincide, contrary to what usually held by individualistic ideology.

Realist ontologies about history stress that entities such as documents, their sources, and events whom they are talking about are objectively given in the ontological reality of social history, beyond our skills to recognize them. Thus, how is it possible to understand the extension of the ontological independence of historical findings and where does our (mis)interpretations of those findings begin? As every realist ontological commitment must provide us with a suitable tool to solve the age-old problem of findings’ reliability, in (...) this paper we analyze how such realist views, like Searle’s Collective Intentionality, cannot be a solution, meanwhile, on the other hand, other realist purposes could represent valid alternatives. In fact, Searle’s theory surely accounts for the constitution of such social objects as false historical acts, but its definition of function of status (FS) as “X count as Y in C” permits, even only in principle, that the same entity X, which has counted as Y, in the far-off times historical context C0, could “re-count” as Y  Y in a more recent context Ct  C0, after an involuntary forgery too. Being by definition iterative, FS could iterate clamorous twists, also ad libitum, making future historians’ shared intentionality lose the contact with the reality of original status’ functions. On the contrary, Ferraris’ Documentality satisfies this historical reliability test, because its definition of a social object as inscription of an act distinguishes between what a fact/event/object X of the past has been, and what characteristics this same X must possess to become a document, discerning, this way, voluntary from unintentional effects of the creation of an object/event/fact, to instantiate a social fact, or to cause an historical event, and their different taxa of historicity. (shrink)

The topic of this article is to develop an alternative, ontologically settled, problematic intuition about how to establish theoretical criteria of (non) conceptuality of an intentional content which kind of properties must an object possess to be able to furnish a full formal satisfaction to a conceptualization process? Are there any objects upon which our concepts can only go in vain in a sort of non conceptual short circuit’s breakdown in the very same act, in order to be caught in (...) a perceptual process? To give one or more answers to these questions, the article analyzes some examples of thing which are very difficult to conceive immediate y by means of predicative concept, the so -called Odradek object (O/o),taking inspiration by the case of a Kafka’ s famous tale character.It is possible to show the existence of almost a odd phenomenon of optical illusion in which the behaviour of perceptual structure of certain objects is very clear y similar to an O/o s one (Frisby’s effect in the Waterfall illusion, for example). Nevertheless, conclusions of the article will show how the reasons to believe in the plausibility of this hypothesis are more a priori and conceptually based than psychologically and experimentally inspired. (shrink)

Journal Name: Philologus Issue: Ahead of print.

Although with “aura” Benjamin designates more a “family”, or a “constellation” of phenomena, than a univocal concept, the analogical traits of these phenomena are grounded in an aesthetic unity of sense. The aesthetic (as distinguished from the “artistic”) understanding of “aura” is not juxtaposed to the “anthropological, perceptual-mnemonic, and visionary” dimension of it (Bratu Hansen), but it is rather its root. As a transcendental aspect of perception and imagination, though, the aura marks our experience in different ways, according to determinate (...) historical conditions. If, in a post-traditional society, every attempt to produce auratic experiences is doomed to produce phony auratic phenomena, the potentialities of the aura are nevertheless not exhausted: the “room-for-play” (Spielraum) of experimentation invoked by Benjamin can be maintained open only in the interplay of auratic and non-auratic polarities: attention vs. distraction, distance vs. nearness, tactile vs. optical, determined vs. undetermined. (shrink)

If it is true that at the core of the Enlightenment project was an attempt to discover a new definition of human nature itself, there is no doubt that for a long time, and today more than ever, there is a similar urgency to find a different vision of humanity, since the prevailing one – heir of the Enlightenment – is perceived from many sides as in need of a profound revision, if not catastrophic. if we are living in the (...) ruins of modernity, we should neither attempt to embalm them, nor to raze them to the ground. This article maintains that Kant’s work on the reflecting judgment can offer precious resources to reshape that image of humanity that we feel is now inadequate in the face of the complexity of our forms of life, without the need to abandon ourselves to old and new longings for the absolute. (shrink)

Ogni volta che leggo uno scritto di Danto resto colpito dalla cultura, dai piaceri dell’intelligenza e dai sentimenti che vi circolano. Ogni volta imparo qualcosa di vitale, nel senso di qualcosa che fa venire in mente altre idee. Danto è incapace di annoiare. Ha una mente pirotecnica e avventurosa, e una scrittura inconfondibile. Forse, proprio per questo tradurre il suo libro, The Transfiguration of the Commonplace, non è stato facile: si è trattato, sì, di tradurre un libro di filosofia, a...

Definire l’arte? Danto è un filosofo pirotecnico, acuto e colto, e da quasi trent’anni è anche l’influente critico d’arte del settimanale radical newyorkese «The Nation». Per quanto Danto lamenti una certa disattenzione nei suoi confronti da parte dei critici e degli storici dell’arte, è invece persuaso — a ragione, anche se forse limitatamente al mondo anglo-americano — che il suo famoso articolo del 1964, The Artworld, — poi sostanzialmente rielaborato in forme diverse — «really did become...

Through a comparison between Arthur Danto’s philosophy of art and Kantian aesthetic reflection, this article identifies the place from which Danto can underestimate the aesthetic experience and its alleged irrelevance in relation to art. I argue, first, that this position of Danto is crossed by some internal contradictions in his thought. Furthermore, based on the comparison with Kant, I examine the thesis of the “end of the history of art” advanced by Danto, considering in particular two aspects. I argue: (a) (...) that Danto surreptitiously or parasitically uses in his critical activity a notion of aesthetic experience which his philosophical argument, and in particular his “aesthetic of meanings”, cannot legitimize; (b) that his thesis relating to the end of art history is symptomatic of a wider problem, which involves our forms of life, and which finds a particularly significant statement in Friedrich von Hayek’s neoliberal thought. The attempt at a neoliberal anthropology of homo œconomicus implies the tendency to absorb within it the very meaning of the experience that has long been at the center of aesthetic and artistic experience. This totalizing colonization of human forms of life appropriates some exemplary characteristics of aesthetic and artistic experience, perverting them, starting with the presumed generation of spontaneous orders, which we know are framed in an ideological horizon that is anything but obvious or natural. My thesis is that Danto’s idea of a post-historical art is one of the symptoms of this condition. (shrink)

La filosofia analitica dell’arte si presta facilmente a essere esposta nei grossi manuali che grandi e piccole case editrici anglosassoni pubblicano ogni anno: come quelli della serie Companions to Philosophy della Blackwell, o gli Handbooks della Oxford. In ciascuno di questi manuali ci sono importanti sezioni dedicate al tema “Ontologia dell’(opera d’) arte”. Nel manuale della Oxford, per esempio, Stephen Davis scrive che «L’ontologia dell’arte consiste nella materia, nella forma e nel modo...

_Abstract_: In philosophy and cognitive science, the tension between cognitivism and the 4E-Cognition approach is both deep and polarizing. A lack of serious engagement with the theoretical and empirical work generated by the opposing framework seems problematic on both sides. In this paper, we closely discuss data on early socio-cognitive development produced by an influential nativist current of thought in the cognitivist paradigm. We consider these data from the point of view of a 4E-Cognition perspective called “the pairing hypothesis”, which (...) originates in phenomenological philosophy. We show that a close examination of these cognitivist-nativist data strengthens the phenomenological 4E-Cognition perspective by significantly expanding the range of findings it can account for. By addressing the debate between rich and lean explanations in early social cognition, we corroborate the idea that careful interaction between cognitivism and the 4E-Cognition approach can lead to progress in cognitive science. _Keywords_: Development of Social Cognition; Cognitivist Nativism; Direct Social Perception; Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences; Action Production and Perception _Spiegazioni ricche o parsimoniose? Un’alternativa fenomenologica per lo sviluppo della prima cognizione sociale_ _Riassunto_: Un’accesa e radicale tensione nelle scienze cognitive è quella tra il cognitivismo e il cosiddetto approccio delle quattro E (_Embodied, Enactive, Embedded_ e _Extended_). La mancanza di una riflessione aperta e sostanziale sul lavoro teorico ed empirico proposto dall’approccio opposto appare problematica da entrambe le parti. Il presente contributo analizza a fondo le evidenze empiriche presentate da una delle maggiori correnti innatiste del paradigma cognitivista nello studio dello sviluppo socio-cognitivo. Queste evidenze sperimentali vengono esaminate dal punto di vista della “ipotesi dell’appaiamento”, ipotesi inserita nel quadro della prospettiva teorica 4E e che proviene dalla filosofia fenomenologica. Il presente contributo mostra come una considerazione approfondita dei dati generati dal cognitivismo innatista può rafforzare il potere esplicativo della prospettiva fenomenologica 4E, ampliandone in misura significativa la gamma di evidenze scientifiche che essa può contribuire a spiegare. Affrontando il dibattito sullo sviluppo della prima cognizione sociale tra spiegazioni ricche e parsimoniose, viene corroborata l’idea che un’attenta interazione tra cognitivismo e approccio 4E può essere un modo per far progredire le scienze cognitive. _Parole chiave_: Sviluppo della cognizione sociale; Innatismo cognitivo; Percezione sociale diretta; Fenomenologia e scienze cognitive; Produzione e percezione di azioni. (shrink)

In order to appreciate the rich implications of the transcendental reduction, one has to distinguish the different contexts where it acquires different meanings. The present paper focuses on a particular epistemological context and clarifies the contribution of the reduction within this context. The contribution consists in the formulation and solution of the problem of exhibiting the evidence supporting the belief in the world’s existence. In a nutshell, world-experience grounds the world-belief and world-experience entails a bedrock of experience legitimizing the positing (...) of others. I argue that this contribution is possibly an enduring achievement of Husserl’s transcendental philosophy against common objections that are raised against it. I show that both the necessity and the viability of the transcendental reduction are a consequence of the general structure of critical examination. Overall, a picture of Husserl’s philosophy emerges that emphasizes embodiment, intersubjectivity, and facticity without giving up the rigor of radical epistemological analysis, aiming at overcoming both naïve pseudo-problems and subtle forms of dogmatism. (shrink)

O texto busca reconstituir alguns momentos fundamentais da leitura negriana de Espinosa, mostrando como ela se presta a uma releitura da modernidade filosófica bem como abre-se para a reflexão política contemporânea. Por fim, são apontados certos aspectos problemáticos da interpretação de Negri.

The aim of this article is to discuss how Spinoza’s Theological- Political Treatise and Political Treatise deal with the development of a free and pacific commonwealth, taking into account both a comparison with the irenic tradition of Erasmus and the original position of Spinoza’s republicanism within the Dutch context of that period. To approach this issue, comparing Spinoza’s idea of security with the Hobbesian one can also be useful in order to demonstrate that security and freedom are not antithetical in (...) Spinoza but rather support each other. Consequently, the role of peace and concord within the Political Treatise shall be considered the result of a collective self-emendation process of social interactions and political institutions. In this perspective, Spinoza’s concept of peace seems a very original attempt to build a free political community, where democratic institutions are both the cause and effect of pacific relationships among citizens. (shrink)

During the period from Benjamin Constants's discourse on The Liberty of Ancients Compared with that of Moderns to Isaiah Berlin's Two Concepts of Liberty a reconstruction of the modern concept of liberty has been developed, based upon three theoretical pillars: individualism, commercial society, representative government. This concept has dominated the historiographical debate for a long time, as only in the last years the emergence of a neo-republican idea of liberty has questioned it; however, not even this neo-republican version has really (...) undermined the conceptual frame of liberalism, thus becoming an internal variant of the “liberty of Moderns”. Therefore it is a very important task to address directly to some early-modern thinkers and theoretical contexts, in order to reopen the debate on the genesis of modern liberties, and more in general to consider political modernity as a non-pacified space, within which different visions confront and conflict with each other. (shrink)