As part of the seminar Re-reading Petrarch in the Digital Age –taught at the University of Oregon in Winter 2014– a digital close reading of Francesco Petrarca’s Rerum Vulgarium Fragmenta led to a series of parallel and entwined activities and projects. Deeply integrated with the Oregon Petrarch Open Book Project, the course was oriented towards the encoding of Petrarca’s masterpiece based on the implementation of a network of different themes. The various occurrences and data obtained from the encoding were collected (...) into an online database that is still operating and updatable. The results of this qualitative data collection were also compared with a quantitative computer-based research of selected keywords extracted from the various themes. From the beginning of the seminar, the class was divided into groups and each of them read the Rvf focusing on one of themes chosen while at the same time paying attention to the others. The different groups considered these themes as interrelated and interdependent. The poet is the sphere in which all the topics emerge in their specific connotations. However, his sphere is related to, dependent on and intersected with the other four spheres. The encoding allowed measuring the different manifestations, levels and meanings of the intersecting relationships. The study of the visual interpretation of the Rvf in the Inc. Queriniano G V 15 paralleled the close reading and encoding activity and helped students to develop a visual rendering of their themes and a pointed and original and creative interpretation of Petrarca’s masterpiece. (shrink)

Dans cet article, je discute quatre contributions récentes sur Leo Strauss écrites par des chercheurs italiens : celles de M. Farnesi Camellone (1), de M. Menon (2), d’A. Ghibellini et la mienne (3). Il s’agit ici de clarifier les raisons pour lesquelles, dans plusieurs études italiennes des deux dernières décennies, Strauss a été étudié davantage comme philosophe que comme penseur politique au sens strict. La principale réside à mon avis dans la relation que Strauss lui-même a établie entre le « (...) problème de la possibilité de la philosophie », relatif à la séparation de l’épistémé d’avec la doxa, et la nécessité de « l’écriture réticente ». L’écriture réticente est un outil méthodologique permettant de contrôler le conflit généré par la question philosophique de la justice, un conflit aux conséquences potentiellement exorbitantes pour la philosophie en tant que mode de vie. (shrink)

The debate over the place of religion in secular, democratic societies dominates philosophical and intellectual discourse. These arguments often polarize around simplistic reductions, making efforts at reconciliation impossible. Yet more rational stances do exist, positions that broker a peace between relativism and religion in people's public, private, and ethical lives. _Christianity, Truth, and Weakening Faith_ advances just such a dialogue, featuring the collaboration of two major philosophers known for their progressive approach to this issue. Seeking unity over difference, Gianni Vattimo (...) and René Girard turn to Max Weber, Eric Auerbach, and Marcel Gauchet, among others, in their exploration of truth and liberty, relativism and faith, and the tensions of a world filled with new forms of religiously inspired violence. Vattimo and Girard ultimately conclude that secularism and the involvement of religion in governance are, in essence, produced by Christianity. In other words, Christianity is "the religion of the exit from religion," and democracy, civil rights, the free market, and individual freedoms are all facilitated by Christian culture. Through an exchange that is both intimate and enlightening, Vattimo and Girard share their unparalleled insight into the relationships among religion, modernity, and the role of Christianity, especially as it exists in our multicultural world. (shrink)

The principle of belief persistence, or conservativity principle, states that ’\Nhen changing beliefs in response to new evidence, you should continue to believe as many of the old beliefs as possible' (Harman, 1986, p. 46). In particular, this means that if an individual gets new information, she has to accommodate it in her new belief set (the set of propositions she believes), and, if the new information is not inconsistent with the old belief set, then (1) the individual has to (...) maintain all the beliefs she previously had and (2) the change should be minimal in the sense that every proposition in the new belief set must be deducible from the union of the old belief set and the new information (see, e.g., Gardenfors, 1988; Stalnaker, 1984). We focus on this minimal notion of belief persistence and characterize it both semantically and syntactically. A ’possible world' semantic formalization of the principle easily comes to mind. The set of all the propositions that the individual believes corresponds to the set of states of the world that she considers possible and is a subset of the set of states that are not ruled out by the individual's information (or knowledge). It is required that, if the individual considers a state possible and her new information does not exclude this state, then she continue to consider it possible. Furthermore, if the individual regards a particular state as impossible, then she should continue to regard it as impossible unless her new information excludes all the states that she previously regarded as possible. This is closely related to the.. (shrink)

In On a Discovery, Kant depicts monads as simple beings that are thought in the idea as the ground of appearances. He argues that his account of monads is partially in line with both Leibniz's monadology and his own critical philosophy. However, in the Critique of Pure Reason, Kant appears to depart from the monadologies of his predecessors. In this article, I make sense of Kant's late subscription to a version of Leibniz's monadology by arguing that Kant considers monads to (...) be the objects represented through cosmological and psychological ideas posited by reason in its search for the unconditioned conditions of appearances. In particular, I point to what I take to be two instances of what Kant calls “objects in the idea” in the Critique of Pure Reason, namely (a) the substratum of matter qua ground of external appearances, and (b) the soul qua ground of internal appearances. Drawing on Kant's reply to Eberhard and the Transcendental Dialectic of the first Critique, I highlight the merely regulative—and yet fundamental—role that monads conceived as objects of reason play in Kant's critical philosophy. (shrink)

La pedagogia utilizza sempre più spesso il termine formazione. Ciò richiede però un atteggiamento critico capace di riconoscere le diverse valenze del termine, i diversi contesti d'uso, il ricco e problematico spessore teoretico. Occorre che la riflessione pedagogica coniughi il pensare alla formazione con un pensare la formazione capace di accogliere le suggestioni e i contributi provenienti da diversi autori e discipline. In questa prospettiva si colloca l'approfondimento della realtà della coscienza svolto da Bernard Lonergan (1904-1984), filosofo e teologo canadese, (...) gesuita. Egli ha elaborato, nel corso degli anni, un pensiero molto articolato sulla vita coscienziale, in cui appare chiaro il legame con la dimensione della formazione. La coscienza è intrinsecamente segnata da un processo formativo, così come la formazione non si realizza pienamente se non attraverso una appropriazione operata dal soggetto del proprio dinamismo coscienziale. Inoltre l'approfondimento del pensiero coscienziale svela in Lonergan la presenza di elementi che concorrono a costituire una vera e propria 'filosofia' della formazione. La formazione risulta essere, nella sua peculiarità, nella sua essenza, una risignificazione costitutiva del soggetto. (shrink)

ABSTRACT Nanotechnologies are an expression of the human ability to control and manipulate matter on a very small scale. Their use will enable an even and constant monitoring of human organisms, in a new and perhaps less invasive way. Debates at all levels – national, European and international – have pointed out the common difficulty of giving a complete, clear definition of nanotechnologies. This is primarily due to the variety of their components, to the fact that there is not just (...) one technology but several. The most significant medical applications of nanotechnologies are in the diagnostic and the therapeutic fields, eg biosensors and molecular imaging, providing diagnosis and drug delivery with no invasive methods involved. Like any other emerging field, such technologies imply new possibilities for improving health but, on the other hand, they are still at an experimental stage and therefore should be implemented under rigorous safety testing before going on general release. For this purpose, the ethical, legal and social implications (ELSI) of nanotechnologies have been elaborated by study groups, in order to develop solutions before the results of the tests are diffused into medical practice. The aim of this paper is to define some of the ethical issues concerning biomedical applications and to evaluate whether there is a need for new or additional guidelines and regulations. (shrink)

Taking as its point of departure the existing critical literature on the intersections between René Girard’s and Giorgio Agamben’s anthropogenetic theories, this essay aims to add further considerations to the debate by discussing some of Agamben’s intuitions within a Girardian paradigmatic explanatory framework. I show how by regressing the archeological analysis to a pre-institutional and pre-legal moment, and by re-examining the antinomic structure of the sacred in its genetic organizing form, one can account more cogently for certain key issues relevant (...) to Agamben’s theoretical project, such as the “paradox of sovereignty,” the nature of the “state of exception,” and the dissociation between culpa and individual responsibility in archaic law, as recently discussed in Karman. I also put forward arguments concerning the limitations of Agamben’s immanent ontology to account for the zoe/bios distinction as a key structural element of his particular take on biopolitics, viewing this specifically in the light. (shrink)

The literature suggests that the moral sense is based on innate abilities. In fact, it has been shown that children show the capacity for moral discernment, emotions and prosocial motivations from an early age. However, the moral sense is a complex construct of an evolutionary and social nature that evolves under the influence of interpersonal relationships. The emergence and development of moral sense is a challenge that has prompted many research studies with the aim of achieving a clear comprehension of (...) moral development. However, success has been scarce, and studies relevant to this subject are limited. Thus, a systematic review of studies relevant to this topic was conducted to clearly establish how moral sense emerges and develops. An Ovid search was conducted to retrieve relevant items for this systematic review. The databases that were electronically visited are Cross-reference, Google Scholar and PubMed. Strict inclusion and exclusion criteria were imposed on the retrieved items to retain only relevant resources. Twenty-six studies were found valid for inclusion in this systematic review. The results of these studies were presented differently: In order to effectively analyze the selected papers and bring out the results more clearly, a categorization of the approaches adopted in the studies was carried out. The approaches identified were: “Natural Moral Sense,” “Social Relationships and Moral Development,” and “Environmental Factors and Moral Development.” The evidence that emerged from the analysis of the papers was collected to produce a general basic model that explains moral development while also serving as a link between the various studies. First, moral sense is found to be innate in humans; individuals can naturally respond morally to various dilemmas. As seen among children and young infants, moral sense naturally exists. Second, it can be socially nurtured through social interactions and exposure to various environmental factors. Various research studies were reviewed in this systematic review to obtain a consensus on how moral sense emerges and develops. From the systematic review, the moral sense is found to be innate. However, moral development is fostered by social interactions and environmental factors. (shrink)

The aim of this special collection of essays, titled Intersubjectivity, Desire, and Mimetic Theory: René Girard and Psychoanalysis, is to reappraise the relationship between René Girard's thought and the psychoanalytic tradition. The tripartite structure of the title clearly echoes the English title of Girard's first book, Deceit, Desire and the Novel, with which he introduced the psychological dynamics of mimetic desire as represented in modern European novels.1 Through the reference to the intentionally broad notions of "intersubjectivity," "desire," and "mimetic theory," (...) our title also signals the intention to cover the multifarious aspects and issues that inform Girard's thinking in relation to core issues of... (shrink)

El presente articuLo pretende encuadrar y definir las implicaciones éticas reLativas a La aplicación biomédica de las nanotecnologías, a través de La vaLoración deL estado del arte.Las nanotecnologías, expresiÓn de La habilidad humana de manipuLar la materia a escala atómico/molecular se presentan como un instrumento capaz de modificar la investigaciÓn científica y la medicina de manera radicaL.Debates a todo nivel han subrayado las dificultades de darles una definición clara y unívoca, a causa de la convergencia de diversos ámbitos del saber (...) comprendidos en ellas.No obstante que Las nanotecnoLogías estén ya presentes en las ciencias computacionaLes y en La eLectrÓnica, es en eL ámbito médico-sanitario que se proyectan Las aplicaciones más entusiastas: instrumentos de diagnóstico y suministración de fármacos menos invasivos y más eficaces. Estas tecnoLogías se presentan al mismo tiempo como terapias pero también como instrumentos de prevención únicos, Las mismas características que hacen peculiar eL empLeo de las nano tecnologías en medicina, sugieren también precauciones: por una parte la dimensión mínima de las nanopartículasfacilita su ingreso en el organismo humano, traspasando las defensas naturales del organismo, agilizando una distribuciÓn de los fármacos altamente precisa. Por otra parte, estas mismas características pueden revelarse dañinas para el organismo humano .Dado que se trata de tecnología en rápida progresiÓn cuyos adelantos no son fáciles de predecir. los riesgos, aunque sÓlo aquellos potenciales, deben ser cuidadosamente valorados ya sea para las aplicaciones presentes como para aquellas futuras.Por tanto, encuadrar las implicaciones bioéticas de las nanotecnologías significa comprender y valorar su impacto sobre la salud humana. (shrink)

This article examines the evolution of peer review and the modern editorial processes of scholarly journals by analyzing a novel data set derived from the Royal Society’s archives and covering 1865-1965, that is, the historical period in which refereeing became firmly established. Our analysis reveals how the Royal Society’s editorial processes coped with both an increasing reliance on refereeing and a growth in submissions, while maintaining collective responsibility and minimizing research waste. By engaging more of its fellows in editorial activity, (...) the society was able to establish an equilibrium of number of submissions per reviewer that was relatively stable over time. Nevertheless, our analysis shows that the distribution of editorial work was significantly uneven. Our findings reveal interesting parallels with current concerns about the scale and distribution of peer review work and suggest the strategic importance of the management of the editorial process to achieve a creative mix of community commitment and professional responsibility that is essential in contemporary journals. (shrink)

Para John Stuart Mill prazer e felicidade não são a mesma coisa, pois uma determinada quantidade de prazer desfrutado não significa necessariamente que a pessoa alcance a felicidade na mesma proporção. A felicidade seria um apanhado geral de bem estar presente não apenas no indivíduo, mas em toda a sociedade na qual ele vive. Desta forma Mill compreende que não pode haver uma sociedade onde todos os indivíduos tenham uma quantidade ilimitada de prazeres e que sendo assim existiram pessoas sofrendo (...) e infelizes dentro da sociedade. Contudo essa situação se alterna com o tempo entre os indivíduos, e seu ponto de vista valoriza o somatório do bem estar presente entre todas as pessoas, levando ao seu princípio da maior felicidade. Felicidade esta que não é igual a presente na escola das virtudes ou mesmo na deontológica, ela se diferencia por abordar outras questões como a razão para promover o bem, a implementação do princípio da prevenção de danos, da ajuda aos inocentes e a consideração de que os números efetivamente contam, ou seja, sua preocupação vai além do aspecto individual. Para tanto, a felicidade não pode estar desvinculada da moralidade, assim a análise das consequências das ações em pro da maior felicidade não deve contrapor os princípios morais da sociedade humana. Esses princípios morais servem como um guia para o julgamento das ações humanas, que por sua vez se são considerados corretos e bons, tendem ao caminho do prazer e consequentemente da felicidade do ponto de vista utilitarista de Mill. (shrink)

Introduction -- Australia : 1788-2001 -- Kelsen : authorised constitutional change -- Application of Kelsen's account -- Raz : continuity of social form -- Application of Raz's account.

Egregious, unfair, unethical, and immoral are all adjectives that the public and shareholder activists use to describe separation payments, which are payments made to executives who leave firms for various reasons. Such complaints often cite corporate governance issues as well, noting the potentially problematic relationships between executives' and board members' compensation levels. However, some studies of separation pay agreements suggest a lack of any significant relationship between the quality of corporate governance and separation payments. Using a unique, hand-collected dataset pertaining (...) to actual payouts received by the top executives who left their posts between 2002 and 2013 in Italy, this study reveals instead that better quality corporate governance, in both internal and external dimensions, helps regulate the level of separation payments. In turn, it can offset stakeholders' perceptions of unfairness and the resulting negative consequences for the firm; such governance also can help minimise the prevalence of pay-for-failure cases. (shrink)

The overarching theme of causality in behavioral genetics is discussed on epistemological grounds. Evidence is offered in favor of a continuum spectrum in causality, in contrast to discrimination between causal factors and associations. The risk of invalidating exploratory studies in behavior genetics is discussed, especially for the potential impact on those fields of medicine interested in complex behaviors.

Conscientious objection in the health care field—that is, refusal on the part of a medical professional to perform or cooperate in a procedure when it violates his or her conscience—is a growing concern for international legislators and a source of contentious debates among ethicists and the general public. Recognizing a general right to conscientious objection based on individual liberty, and thus a subjective right, could have negative consequences. Conscientious objection in health care settings should be fully protected, however, when the (...) objection is based on principles that are fundamental to the medical profession and the legal system. Examples from Italy and other nations show how protections there safeguard conscientious objection when a health professional objects to taking a human life. National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 12.4 (Winter 2012): 611–620. (shrink)

A Second level Master in “Clinical Bioethics Consultation” has been organized in Italy to offer an opportunity to offer an adequate training to carry out an ethics consultation in different health fields. The master has been promoted and realized by different institutions: Catholic University of Sacred Hearth in Rome, Insubria University in Varese, “Federico II” University in Naples, Lanza Foundation in Padua and the Local Health and Social Care Unit n.7 in Veneto Region. The aim of the master is train (...) ethics consultants to offer help regarding a correct decision, which will take by others. The choice must be as much as possible shared between patient, family and health care team. Ethics consultation can be primarily request by the physicians, nurses and health care staff such as support about a choice that wants to be the most appropriate and to clarify a dilemma between different options. Secondly an ethics consultation can be demand by the patient and the family members to find a clarification about their dilemmas and future choices. Also the administrative staff could ask the consultation, when it need to better explain ad example about a specific clinical case or a question concerned the health policy. (shrink)