The DAMA project is an observatory for rare processes and it is operative deep underground at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory of the I.N.F.N. In particular, the DAMA/LIBRA (Large sodium Iodide Bulk for RAre processes) set-up consists of highly radiopure NaI(Tl) detectors for a total sensitive exposed mass of ≃250 kg. Recent results, obtained by this set-up by exploiting the model independent annual modulation signature of Dark Matter (DM) particles, have confirmed and improved those obtained by the former DAMA/NaI experiment. (...) A model independent evidence for the presence of Dark Matter particles in the galactic halo is cumulatively obtained at 8.2 σ C.L. No systematics or side reactions able to account for the measured modulation amplitude and to contemporaneously satisfy all the many specific requirements of the signature have been found or suggested by anyone over more than a decade. An example of one of the many possible model dependent corollary quests for the candidate particles and for the related astrophysical, nuclear and particle physics scenarios is presented considering the whole cumulative exposure. Future perspectives are shortly addressed. (shrink)

Searches for non-paulian nuclear processes, i.e. processes normally forbidden by the Pauli–Exclusion–Principle (PEP) with highly radiopure NaI(Tl) scintillators allow the test of this fundamental principle with high sensitivity. Status and perspectives are addressed.

Nonostante non tutti gli studiosi concordino sul valore e sulla validità della testimonianza di Agostino, non si può oggi mettere in dubbio che questi ebbe una conoscenza molto precisa non solo della dottrina manichea, ma anche delle pratiche rituali in uso nelle comunità delle sette, e in modo particolare di quelle che si imponevano agli Uditori. Del resto, egli stesso non manca di definirsi esperto dell’affare manicheo al fine di affermare l’autorità del suo modo di procedere nella polemica.Certo non si (...) può cercare in questi testi antimanichei un’esposizione serena né uno studio sistematico del catechismo manicheo poiché tali scritti hanno il carattere di un’“opera d’assalto” che Agostino, al di là degli aspetti anche caricaturali che mette in luce esponendo la dottrina avversa, dedica a quanti, come lui, corrono il rischio di essere sedotti e intrappolati da tale dottrina eretica.Quella lunga permanenza nella setta, nove anni come lui stesso afferma, e l’attività dispiegata al suo servizio permise ad Agostino di avere una larga conoscenza dell’organizzazione interna delle comunità, delle riunioni liturgiche e della catechesi, infine dei rapporti tra le due professiones che costituivano la chiesa manichea, i laici, Uditori o Catecumeni da una parte e, dall’altra, i religiosi, Eletti o Santi, tenuti, quest’ultimi, ad osservare rigide regole ascetiche raggruppate sotto tre capi, tria signacula appunto, relativi a tre ordini di attività, corrispondenti ad altrettanti organi quali bocca, mano, seno, ai quali il perfetto manicheo apporrà come un sigillo che rispetterà scrupolosamente.In particolare, lo studio del “sigillo della bocca”, quello, cioè, che ordina di astenersi dalle cibarie carnee e sanguinolente; dal vino; dalle bevande fermentate come la birra; nonché dai pensieri malvagi; dai discorsi menzogneri, violenti o blasfemi , permette di ricostruire, sempre attraverso la polemica agostiniana, la problematicità degli aspetti legati alle pratiche e alle abitudini alimentari della setta.Apporre un sigillo alla bocca, così come alla mano o al seno, significa chiudere, per usare una metafora cara al medioevo, le porte dei sensi: occhi, orecchie, naso, bocca, mani. Viceversa, aprirle o lasciarle aperte equivale a provocare e a permettere l’irruzione al proprio interno dei “demoni esteriori”, e, quindi, esporsi a peccare. Operare la “chiusura dei sensi” significa perciò sottrarsi alle sollecitazioni della carne e del mondo, rifiutando il male e conservando, così, la propria anima integralmente pura e buona quale essa è per essenza.Di fatto, la regola dei “tre sigilli” non viene osservata nel suo rigore più stretto che dai fedeli giunti o chiamati alla perfezione, dagli “Eletti” e dai “Santi”. Meno severe sono, infatti, le leggi che regolano il comportamento dei semplici credenti, degli “Uditori” o dei “Catecumeni”. La delineazione di quella che senza dubbio si potrebbe definire una sorta di “doppia morale”, una duplice regola di condotta, emerge chiaramente nei passi relativi alle pratiche alimentari, laddove, per esempio, Agostino fa notare come agli Uditori, per esempio, sia permesso persino dedicarsi ad attività profane quali l’agricoltura e tutto ciò che ad essa consegue come seminare e raccogliere, operazioni ritenute sacrileghe dagli Eletti, o, ancora, poter mangiar carne e bere vino.Diversamente vanno, invece, le cose per i “Perfetti”, il cui regime di sussistenza è ridotto allo stretto indispensabile secondo uno stile di vita improntato al digiuno, alla preghiera e all’astinenza. Sono così loro proibiti i cibi grassi, le bevande inebrianti ed ogni gesto dannoso perpetuato nei confronti dei vegetali.Tali proibizioni alimentari, discussi da Agostino nell’oris signaculum, la cui critica occupa da sola i tre quarti dello sviluppo dedicato ai tre sigilli nel suo De moribus manichaeorum, sono fonte di grande interesse per il vescovo d’Ippona il quale non manca di prendere in esame, spesso con tono sarcastico, ciascun aspetto di questi rigidi precetti rivelandone quelle che per lui sono immancabili contraddizioni: «Smettete ... di lusingare gli ignoranti celebrando il sigillo della bocca come qualcosa di grande. A meno che per caso non riteniate il mangiare crne e il non bere vino un sigillo della bocca degno di ammirazione e lode».Il colore, l’odore e il sapore, tre criteri che guidano e orientano i manichei nella scelta dei cibi e che corrispondono ad altrettanti organi sensoriali, la vista, l’olfatto sentinella del terzo dei sensi chiamati in causa, quello del gusto, divengono per Agostino occasione non solo di riflessione ma di spunto polemico al fine di dimostrare come, spesso, limitarsi a giudicare la bontà o meno di un cibo servendosi di solo uno di questi sensi alla volta , porti a cadere in terribili errori di giudizio. Del resto, Dio non è qualcosa di materiale che possa essere percepito con i sensi ed è, dunque, assurdo ritenere che lo si possa scoprire con la vista, con l’olfatto, o con il gusto. (shrink)

En este artículo nos proponemos mostrar, por un lado, que resulta factible (y esclarecedor) explicar el capítulo “Of personal identity” del Treatise of Human Nature de David Hume a partir de la obra Sei personaggi in cerca d’autore de Luigi Pirandello, así como esta última obra a partir del texto de Hume; y, por otro lado, que tomando como eje la comparación de la mente con el teatro que propone Hume en dicho capítulo es también posible individuar, según el modo (...) en el que se piensa la relación del pensamiento y la experiencia con el sujeto, dos grandes corrientes en la filosofía moderna: una que podríamos denominar teatro de Autor y otra teatro sin Autor. (shrink)

La evolución orgánica es objeto de discusión en los ámbitos religiosos, con defensores y detractores. Entre los científicos no existen dudas acerca de la evolución orgánica como un hecho debidamente comprobado, que incluso es admitido dentro de la Iglesia católica. Las implicancias metafísicas de este hecho científico no necesariamente abonan una visión materialista, sino todo lo contrario, e incluso tales implicancias son perfectamente compatibles con la perspectiva aristotélico-tomista y hasta refuerzan los conceptos de creación y providencia.

O artigo objetiva compreender como o termo “espiritualidade” tem sido utilizado na área da saúde, discutindo os problemas decorrentes e as possíveis adversidades de sua polissemia. Para tanto, dividimos o estudo em três partes. Na primeira, apresentamos as diferentes definições de “espiritualidade” nas ciências humanas, sua relação histórica com a teologia cristã, e recente ressignificação pela Nova Era. Na sequência, demonstramos como a maior parte das produções sobre a temática na área da saúde adota uma concepção reificada e essencializada de (...) espiritualidade. Na terceira, discutimos as principais fragilidades identificadas no estudo. O termo espiritualidade está sendo utilizado nas ciências médicas para que a religião adentre seus espaços, inclusive de políticas públicas, ainda que de modo secularizado. Um paralelo com a fenomenologia da religião foi traçado para demonstrar as consequências da má conceituação de uma categoria em longo prazo. Por fim, identificamos uma supervalorização da dimensão psicológica da espiritualidade em detrimento das dimensões morais e rituais. (shrink)

This study described the relationships between academic class and student moral sensitivity and reasoning and between curriculum design components for ethics education and student moral sensitivity and reasoning. The data were collected from freshman (n = 506) and senior students (n = 440) in eight baccalaureate nursing programs in South Korea by survey; the survey consisted of the Korean Moral Sensitivity Questionnaire and the Korean Defining Issues Test. The results showed that moral sensitivity scores in patient-oriented care and conflict were (...) higher in senior students than in freshman students. Furthermore, more hours of ethics content were associated with higher principled thinking scores of senior students. Nursing education in South Korea may have an impact on developing student moral sensitivity. Planned ethics content in nursing curricula is necessary to improve moral sensitivity and moral reasoning of students. (shrink)

En este artículo nos proponemos realizar una lectura de la sección «Anthropologie» de la Enzyklopädie hegeliana con el objetivo de mostrar la particular concepción de lo humano que, incluso a pesar de su autor, se desprende de ella. Para esto analizaremos algunos fenómenos (el niño en el vientre materno, el sonambulismo magnético, etc.) abordados por Hegel en dicha sección. Concluiremos que el «alma» (Seele), objeto específico de la «Anthropologie», cumple la misma función limítrofe (entre naturaleza y espíritu, sensibilidad y entendimiento, (...) etc.) que ha cumplido la imaginación a lo largo de la historia de la metafísica. (shrink)

En este artículo me propongo mostrar que el Péri Archôn de Damascio representa, más allá de las intenciones del autor, la implosión de la metafísica neoplatónica y, al mismo tiempo, el intento más riguroso pero también más desgarrador por mantenerla a flote y asegurar la fundamentación ordenada de la realidad. En este sentido, toda la obra está animada por un doble movimiento: por un lado, la postulación de un Absoluto incoordinado (lo Inefable); por el otro, la postulación en última instancia (...) de algún tipo de coordinación con el Todo. Sostendré, valiéndome de una comparación con algunas tesis de E. Lévinas, que el peligro que ha entrevisto Damascio, con una conciencia mucho más acentuada que sus predecesores, es que la postulación de lo Inefable, en tanto absolutamente incoordinado e irrelativo, conduce a la desfundamentación radical del Ser. Ante este peligro, Damascio se ha visto obligado a retroceder y a relativizar de algún modo a lo Inefable. (shrink)

El objetivo de este artículo consiste en mostrar que no basta con cuestionar las opiniones establecidas y con argumentar dialécticamente para adoptar una actitud filosófica; es preciso además matar al Padre, es decir asumir un nombre propio, un lugar de enunciación que conlleva una colisión más o menos polémica con los pensadores con quienes dialogamos. Si Sócrates representa la figura del tábano que cuestiona y persuade, el Extranjero del Sofista representa la figura del parricida. Sostendré entonces que la actitud filosófica (...) solo puede explicarse en toda su amplitud y profundidad a partir de estas dos figuras. Asimismo, mostraré que la institución académica tiende a privilegiar la figura del tábano en detrimento de la figura del parricida. (shrink)

En el presente artículo se realiza un análisis de ciertos aspectos del pensamiento cartesiano que están implícitos en la Quinta Parte del Discurso del Método, los que serán tomados en cuenta para acceder al alcance que tienen algunos supuestos filosóficos de la teoría lingüística de N. Chomsky. Para ésto, se desarrollan los siguientes aspectos: breve reseña de la filosofía cartesiana; resumen de la Quinta Parte del Discurso del Método; especificación de la concepción "racionalista" de la lingüística de Chomsky; determinación del (...) valor sistemático que posee su apelación al racionalismo filosófico. (shrink)

In an old paper of our group in Milano a formalism was introduced for the continuous monitoring of a system during a certain interval of time in the framework of a somewhat generalized approach to quantum mechanics. The outcome was a distribution of probability on the space of all the possible continuous histories of a set of quantities to be considered as a kind of coarse grained approximation to some ordinary quantum observables commuting or not. In fact the main aim (...) was the introduction of a classical level in the context of QM, treating formally a set of basic quantities, to be considered as beables in the sense of Bell, as continuously taken under observation. However the effect of such assumption was a permanent modification of the Liouville-von Neumann equation for the statistical operator by the introduction of a dissipative term which is in conflict with basic conservation rules in all reasonable models we had considered. Difficulties were even encountered for a relativistic extension of the formalism. In this paper I propose a modified version of the original formalism which seems to overcome both difficulties. First I study the simple models of an harmonic oscillator and a free scalar field in which a coarse grain position and a coarse grained field respectively are treated as beables. Then I consider the more realistic case of spinor electrodynamics in which only certain coarse grained electric and magnetic fields are introduced as classical variables and no matter related quantities. (shrink)

This article aims at demonstrating that the theory of potency developed by Giorgio Agamben lacks a fundamental aspect. The Italian philosopher has pointed out the amphibious nature of potency. However, his analysis does not cover the act, thus failing to observe its amphibious nature. We will demonstrate that this insufficiency lies at the root of several problems –whether ontological, political, aesthetic, ethical, etc.– found in Agamben’s thinking.

RESUMEN Según Furio Jesi y Giorgio Agamben, la máquina antropológica es un dispositivo histórico que produce imágenes del hombre. En este artículo nos proponemos retomar esta categoría y mostrar que existen dos grandes modelos de máquina según la naturaleza de la imagen generada: la máquina teológica-bíblica, que funciona hasta el siglo XIX y que produce al hombre como ícono; la máquina ateológica, posterior a la muerte de Dios, que produce al hombre como fantasma. ABSTRACT According to Furio Jesi and Giorgio (...) Agamben, the anthropological machine is a historical dispositive that produces images of man. This paper aims at returning to this category and demonstrating that two models of the machine can be found depending on the nature of the image produced: the theological-biblical machine that operates until 19th century and that produces man as icon, and the a-theological machine, after disappearance of God, that produces man as phantasm. (shrink)

Resumen En este artículo nos proponemos mostrar que el nacimiento virginal de Jesús se ha constituido, en su sentido dogmático, a partir de una obliteración de la placenta. Para las culturas primitivas, la placenta era considerada un doble o un gemelo del feto. Mostraremos que el peligro de introducir la figura de la placenta en los relatos del nacimiento virginal implicaba la posibilidad de que existiese un doble o un a/ter ego del Salvador. Para nosotros, este doble o gemelo coincide (...) con la figura del Anticristo.This article aims at demonstrating that the virgin birth of Christ has been construed, in its dogmatic sense, based on the obliteration of the placenta. Primitive cultures regarded the placenta as a double or twin of the fetus. We will demonstrate that introducing the placenta into virgin birth narratives dangerously implied the potential of a double or alter ego of the Saviour. In our view, this double or twin brother refers to the Antichrist. (shrink)

Light as divine source of truth and excellence is a pervasive metaphor in St. Augustine. This paper examines the distinction between two lights and two eyes: corporeal and incorporeal light, which correspond to the bodily eye and the eye of the soul, respectively. The paper also puts forward a political reading of this light-optic tension.

En este artículo nos proponemos analizar, desde una perspectiva lógica y ontológica, la noción de una “cuarta persona de la Trinidad”, tal como aparece en el De fide orthodoxa y De imaginibus de Juan de Damasco. Sostendremos que esta “cuarta persona” pone en cuestión la lógica de la teología trinitaria. En la medida en que es irreductible a lo divino y a lo humano, así como a la materia y al espíritu, la cuarta persona posee una naturaleza extra-ontológica que exige (...) para expresarse, consecuentemente, una cuarta persona extra-gramatical más allá de la sintaxis. (shrink)

There are thirteen instances of the term schema throughout the chapter “Le panoptism”, from Surveiller et punir. We consider that the meaning of this technical term found in Foucault’s work refers to the philosophy of Kant. Gilles Deleuze is one of the few thinkers who noticed the connection between the issue of power and the Kantian schema. Considering that the diagram is analogous to the Kantian schema and the schema —as in Kritik der reinen Vernunft— is a product of imagination, (...) which is the Foucauldian term that corresponds to imagination? This question itself leads to an ontology. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate that Foucauldian archeology and genealogy require a political and historical ontology of imagination, which has been partially outlined by Deleuze, but never thought in connection with the imagination. (shrink)

En este artículo me propongo demostrar la tesis de que el hades es el logos. Para esto examinaré las nociones de psyche, eidolon y soma en la poesía homérica y el cambio semántico que sufren con Platón. Mostraré también, a partir de Hegel, que el logos implica la muerte de la cosa nombrada y un horror ante la desaparición del ser animado. Este horror encuentra su objeto específico en el cadáver. Por último, basándome en Blanchot explicaré que este miedo antropogénico (...) genera dos efectos al interior del logos: la idea y el espectro. (shrink)

En la famosa “Lettre à un critique sévère”, Gilles Deleuze sugiere que existen dos maneras de leer un libro: una que supone un proceso de interpretación y comentario y otra que supone un proceso de experimentación y devenir. En este artículo nos proponemos mostrar que la primera modalidad de lectura es característica de la filosofía entendida como especialización, mientras que la segunda es característica de la filosofía entendida como experimentación. Asimismo, mostraremos que la primera modalidad obedece a un impulso retrospectivo (...) mientras que la segunda a un impulso prospectivo. (shrink)

En Homo sacer I. Il potere sovrano e la nuda vita, Giorgio Agamben recuerda una expresión que le dirigiera Walter Benjamin a Pierre Klossowski e, indirectamente, al grupo Acéphale: vous travaillez pour le fascisme. En este artículo quisiéramos mostrar que es el pensamiento político-ontológico del propio Agamben, y también en cierto sentido el de Benjamin – quien ha influido de modo decisivo en el filósofo italiano –, el que en verdad corre el riesgo de trabajar para el fascismo. Mostraremos por (...) eso la necesidad de distinguir dos niveles de lo político: un nivel trascendental y un nivel empírico. Si no se atiende a esta distinción, argumentaremos, se corre el riesgo de trabajar, efectivamente, para el fascismo. (shrink)

Resumen El concepto de “quiasmo” es fundamental en la filosofía del “último” Merleau-Ponty. Me interesa retomar este concepto para mostrar que, en la nueva ontología esbozada en Le visible et l’invisible y en las notas de la misma época, su función guarda correspondencia con la tarea que, a lo largo de la historia de la filosofía, ha desempeñado la imaginación. En este sentido, una ontología del quiasmo supone por necesidad pensar una ontología de la imaginación. Además, este concepto permite arrojar (...) una luz nueva sobre el problema de la subjetividad.The concept of “chiasm” is central to the philosophy of the “late” Merleau-Ponty. My aim is to retrieve this concept in order to show that, within the framework of the new ontology outlined in Le visible et l’invisible and the notes written during the same period, its function corresponds to the function that imagination has performed throughout the history of philosophy. Thus, an ontology of chiasm necessarily involves reflecting upon an ontology of imagination. Furthermore, the concept of chiasm enables us to shed new light on the problem of subjectivity. (shrink)

This work presents the concepts of translation and conservative translation between logics. By using algebraic semantics we introduce several conservative translations involving the classical propositional calculus and the many-valued calculi of Post and Lukasiewicz.

RésuméLa croyance que l'on est (ou pas) dans un état de douleur est singulière en ceci qu'elle semble pouvoir être qualifiée d'infaillibilité ou d'incorrigibilité logique, de même que le cogito. Mais comment se peut-il que l'existence d'une croyance (vraie) et l'existence du fait qui est l'objet de cette croyance puisssent constituer la même existence? Je propose ici une réponse à cette question. Parfois, une croyance peut être un désir.

A record of the words and teachings of Confucius, _The Analects_ is considered the most reliable expression of Confucian thought. However, the original meaning of Confucius's teachings have been filtered and interpreted by the commentaries of Confucianists of later ages, particularly the Neo-Confucianists of the Song dynasty, not altogether without distortion.In this monumental translation by Professor D. C. Lau, an attempt has been made to interpret the sayings as they stand. The corpus of the sayings is taken as an organic (...) whole and the final test of the interpretation rests on the internal consistency it exhibits. In other words, _The Analects_ is read in the light of _The Analects._This results in a truer understanding of Confucius' thought than the traditional interpretation and paves the way for a re-assessment of its importance in the history of Chinese thought and its relevance to the present day world.This volume also contains an introduction to the life and teachings of Confucius, and three appendices on the events in the life of Confucius, on his disciples, and on the composition of _The Analects._. (shrink)

A formalism developed in previous papers for the description of continual observations of some quantities in the framework of quantum mechanics is reobtained and generalized, starting from a more axiomatic point of view. The statistics of the observations of continuous state trajectories is treated from the beginning as a generalized stochastic process in the sense of Gel'fand. An effect-valued measure and an operation-valued measure on the σ-algebra generated by the cylinder sets in the space of trajectories are introduced. The properties (...) of the characteristic functional for the “operation-valued stochastic process” are discussed and, through a suitableansatz, a significant class of such processes is explicitly constructed, which contains the examples of the preceding papers as particular cases. (shrink)

We propose a kernel method for using combinations of features across example pairs in learning pairwise classifiers. Pairwise classifiers, which identify whether two examples belong to the same class or not, are important components in duplicate detection, entity matching, and other clustering applications. Existing methods for learning pairwise classifiers from labeled training data are based on string edit distance or common features between two examples. However, if two examples from the same class have few common features, these methods have difficulties (...) in finding these pairs and achieving high recall. One typical example is to check whether two abbreviated author names in different citations refer to the same person or not. Since similarities between examples from the same class become close to zero, classifiers fail to distinguish positive pairs from negative pairs. One approach to avoiding the problem of zero similarities is using conjunctions of different features across examples, but implementing this idea straightforwardly makes the computational cost prohibitive for practical problems. Using a kernel on pair instances, our method can use feature conjunctions across examples without actually doing feature mappings, which are computationally expensive. The kernel is a tensor product of two inner products on the original feature space. The corresponding feature mapping generates conjunctions of features only across the two different examples while that of the conventional polynomial kernel also generates conjunctions of features from the same example, which are irrelevant to pairwise classification and cause deterioration of accuracy. Our experiments on the author matching problem show that this method can give a precision 4 to 8 times higher than that of previous methods at medium recall levels. (shrink)

t. 1. Introduction générale, témoignages, discours aus Corinthiens, sur la fortune.

This is a study of a crucial and controversial topic in metaphysics and the philosophy of science: the status of the laws of nature. D. M. Armstrong works out clearly and in comprehensive detail a largely original view that laws are relations between properties or universals. The theory is continuous with the views on universals and more generally with the scientific realism that Professor Armstrong has advanced in earlier publications. He begins here by mounting an attack on the orthodox and (...) sceptical view deriving from Hume that laws assert no more than a regularity of coincidence between instances of properties. In doing so he presents what may become the definitive statement of the case against this position. Professor Armstrong then goes on to establish his own theory in a systematic manner defending it against the most likely objections, and extending both it and the related theory of universals to cover functional and statistical laws. This treatment of the subject is refreshingly concise and vivid: it will both stimulate vigorous professional debate and make an excellent student text. (shrink)

In this short text, a distinguished philosopher turns his attention to one of the oldest and most fundamental philosophical problems of all: How it is that we are able to sort and classify different things as being of the same natural class? Professor Armstrong carefully sets out six major theories—ancient, modern, and contemporary—and assesses the strengths and weaknesses of each. Recognizing that there are no final victories or defeats in metaphysics, Armstrong nonetheless defends a traditional account of universals as the (...) most satisfactory theory we have.This study is written for advanced students, but as Armstrong goes considerably beyond his earlier work on this topic, it will interest professional scholars as well. Carefully plotted and clearly written, Universals is both a paradigm of exposition and a case study on the value of careful analysis of fundamental issues in philosophy. (shrink)