This anthology contains selected papers from the 'Science as Culture' conference held at Lake Como, and Pavia University Italy, 15-19 September 1999. The conference, attended by about 220 individuals from thirty countries, was a joint venture of the International History, Philosophy and Science Teaching Group (its fifth conference) and the History of Physics and Physics Teaching Division of the European Physical Society (its eighth conference). The magnificient Villa Olmo, on the lakeshore, provided a memorable location for the presentors of the (...) 160 papers and the audience that discussed them. The conference was part of local celebrations of the bicentenary of Alessandro Volta's creation of the battery in 1799. Volta was born in Como in 1745, and for forty years from 1778 he was professor of experimental physics at Pavia University. The conference was fortunate to have had the generous financial support of the Italian government's Volta Bicentenary Fund, Lombardy region, Pavia University, Italian Research Council, and Kluwer Academic Publishers. The papers included here, have or will be, published in the journal Science & Education, the inaugural volume (1992) of which was a landmark in the history of science education publication, because it was the first journal in the field devoted to contributions from historical, philosophical and sociological scholarship. Clearly these 'foundational' disciplines inform numerous theoretical, curricular and pedagogical debates in science education. Contemporary Concerns The reseach promoted by the International and European Groups, and by the journal, is central to science education programmes in most areas of the world. (shrink)

The enormous increasing of connections between people and the noteworthy enlargement of domains and methods in sciences have augmented extraordinarily the cardinality of the set of meaningful human symbols. We know that complexity is always on the way to become complication, i.e. a non-tractable topic. For this reason scholars engage themselves more and more in attempting to tame plurality and chaos. In this book distinguished scientists, philosophers and historians of science reflect on the topic from a multidisciplinary point of view. (...) Is it possible to dominate complexity through reductionism? Are there other conceptual instruments useful to take account of complexity? What is complexity in biology, mathematics, physics and philosophy of mind? These are some of the questions which are faced in this volume. (shrink)

A new critical perspective is proposed regarding the ways in which human life is based on anthropocentrism and speciesism. Criticism of human violence and dominion over other living beings is presented, starting from personal experience and moving into an analysis of the ideological subtratum of human culture, taking into consideration philosophy, science, and religion. An assessment of the antispeciesist position of primitive Christianity is briefly discussed.

In this brief paper, starting from recent works, we analyze from conceptual point of view this basic question: can be the nature of quantum entangled states interpreted ontologically or epistemologically? According some works, the degrees of freedom of quantum systems permit us to establish a possible classification between factorizables and entangled states. We suggest, that the "choice" of degree of freedom, even if mathematically justified introduces epistemic element, not only in the systems but also in their classification. We retain, instead, (...) that there are not two classes of quantum states, entangled and factorizables, but only a single classes of states: the entangled states. In fact, the factorizable states become entangled for a different choice of their degrees of freedom. In the same way, there are not partitions of quantum system which have an ontological superior status with respect to any other. For all these reasons, both mathematical tools utilized are responsible of improper classification of quantum systems. Finally, we argue that we cannot speak about a classification of quantum systems: all the quantum states exhibit a unique objective nature, they are all entangled states. (shrink)

After the publication of Jaques Derrida’s book, L’animal que donc je suis, anti-speciesism has been looking for a theoretical foundation for its ethical content. In my opinion, the defect of all these philosophical perspectives is that they still reduce animals to objects of human philosophy. Here, I develop a new framework in which animals are considered as subjects of their own philosophy. In analogy to the concept of ethnophilosophy, the concept of speciophilosophy is here introduced. The different ways of thinking (...) between humans and other animals are outlined, by explaining the difference between verbal reasoning and thinking through images. Human philosophies are shown to be anthropocentric ideologies, related to carnivorism. Subsequently, animal speciophilosophies are discussed and a dialogical symphilosophein among all living beings is proposed to be the extension of the so-called philosophy of dialogue. Finally, it is shown how this perspective was present in the original Christian ethics. (shrink)

In this paper we have shown how the consideration of a chaotic mechanics supplies a redefinition of special-relativistic space-time. In particular chaotic time means no possibility of defining temporal ordering and implies a breakdown of causality. The new chaotic transformations among "undetermined" space-time coordinates are no more linear and homogeneous. The principles of inertia and of energy-impulse conservation are no longer well defined and in any case no more invariant.

Eger's contribution towards a reapprochment of Hermeneutics, Science and Science Education is very welcome. His focus on the problem of misconceptions is relevant. All the same in our opinion some not minor points need a clarification. We will try to argue that: a) Hermeneutics cannot be reduced to a semantical interpretation of science texts; its phenomenological aspects have to be taken in account. b) Science has an unavoidable historical dimension; original papers and advanced textbooks are the real depositaries of scientific (...) research. Standard textbooks are a caricature not worth it of a hermeneutical analysis. c) A parallelism can be traced between two dicothomies: the lifeworld of hermeneutics and the scienceworld of epistemology on one side and the extraordinary and the normal science on the other. d) For an overcoming of the misconceptions' problem we propose that the previous dicothomies be bridged through a hermeneutical phenomenological approach to science education that stresses the alternative, historical interpretations of natural phenomena. (shrink)

This paper develops Richard Wollheim’s claim that the proper appreciation of a picture involves not only enjoying a seeing-in experience but also abiding by a standard of correctness. While scholars have so far focused on what fixes the standard, thereby discussing the alternative between intentions and causal mechanisms, the paper focuses on what the standard does, that is, establishing which kinds, individuals, features and standpoints are relevant to the understanding of pictures. It is argued that, while standards concerning kinds, individuals (...) and features can be relevant also to ordinary perception, standards concerning standpoints are specific to pictorial experience. Drawing on all this, the paper proposes an ontology of depiction according to which a picture is constituted by both its visual appearance and its standard of correctness. (shrink)

Our usual method" is an expression that Aristotle uses in a passage of the Politics (I.1, 1252a17-20) to describe the technique of subdividing a composite object of study into the elements that make it up, in order to study the possible combinations. What theory is the basis for this method? Is it really a usual method for Aristotle? Enrico Rini responds to these questions, starting with the analysis of some passages of the Aristotelian corpus that refer to concepts of (...) the part and the whole. From these passages, Rini attempts to extrapolate a theory that Aristotle states explicitly only on occasion. The mereology that emerges from this study is not a formal theory, unlike the logical mereology present today, and therefore takes into account different types of the whole and the part, with a scope that has applications for the field of biology. (shrink)

Vanity and pride have been condemned by Christian thinkers for centuries. Therefore, it may seem curious that Paul-Henri Thiry, Baron d’Holbach, one of the fiercest critics of religion, decried these passions. Holbach’s work is interspersed with remarks about vanity and pride which have gone unnoticed in the literature. This chapter analyzes Holbach’s account of vanity, delving into the role it plays in the establishment and maintenance of religion. I show that the desire for prestige is at the very core of (...) religious practices, which aim to justify the alleged superiority of man over nature. Holbach’s well-known critique of religion, therefore, cannot be fully understood without reference to his lesser known account of vanity and pride. The study of these passions is also essential to grasping Holbach’s conception of philosophy and how the philosophe should be: an individual free from prejudices, who has abandoned every trace of vanity in order to move forward in their journey towards the truth. (shrink)

This paper considers two different kinds of philosophical interpretations of the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. On the one hand, Eternal Sunshine as a thought experiment that can function as an argument against utilitarianism. On the other hand, Eternal Sunshine as an instance of the genre of the remarriage comedy. I will argue that these two kinds of interpretations are in conflict. More specifically, Eternal Sunshine, understood as a comedy of remarriage, cannot function as an argument against utilitarianism, (...) at least in the sense specified by Grau and Wartenberg. Finally, I will suggest a different way in which Eternal Sunshine, understood as a comedy of remarriage, might function as an argument against utilitarianism. (shrink)

The World Health Organization has published a global priority list of antibiotic-resistant bacteria to guide research and development of new antibiotics. Every pathogen on this list requires R&D activity, but some are more attractive for private sector investments, as evidenced by the current antibacterial pipeline. A “pipeline coordinator” is a governmental/non-profit organization that closely tracks the antibacterial pipeline and actively supports R&D across all priority pathogens employing new financing tools.

In the first part of this paper, published in issue 1 of Augustinianum 63 (2023), 9-45, we examined the question of whether Irenaeus of Lyons depended on the Exposition of Logia about the Lord of Papias of Hierapolis. In this second and final part we focus on the way Irenaeus used information which, since the first decades of the second century, had been attributed to presbyters of Asia and then in particular on the way he identifies the succession of presbyters (...) with that of bishops (primarily in Rome). He links the latter with Christian origins but also profoundly alters the function traditionally attributed to the presbyters themselves, within a system he devised in order to respond to urgent problems, in a context quite different from the era in which the traditions to which he appeals were born. (shrink)

This paper explores some phenomenological consequences of the ontological affinity between films and pop songs. Given the central place of the recording technology in both films and pop songs, one can wonder whether pop songs can elicit from their listeners the same kind of experience that films elicit from their spectators. In other words, one can wonder whether pop songs encourage us to play a ‘game of make-believe’ analogous to that we play when we engage with films. The main part (...) of the paper is meant to provide a positive answer to this question. The remaining sections illustrate and test the proposed account by contrasting paradigmatic pop songs with borderline cases. (shrink)

Both perception and imagination seem to play a crucial role in our engagement with fiction films but whether they really do so, and which role they possibly play, is controversial. On the one hand, a fiction film, as film, is a depiction that invites us to perceive the events portrayed. On the other hand, as fiction, it invites us to imagine the story told. Thus, after watching the film Alien, one might say that one saw Ripley fighting the monster but (...) one might also say that one imagined Ripley fighting the monster. Are these two reports compatible? If they are, how can we combine them so to make sense of them? If, instead, they are not, which of them should we give up? (shrink)

Il volume affronta i complessi problemi sollevati dalla musica a studiosi, critici, filosofi, e che riguardano cio che ruota attorno a questa arte dalle molteplici facce. Punto chiave della riflessione sono le avanguardie del Novecento, poiché le sue profonde trasformazioni mettono a nudo ed evidenziano, a volte in modo drammatico, gli interrogativi di fondo a cui la musica ci ha sempre posto di fronte. Il tema centrale è il rapporto tra una supposta universalità dell'esperienza musicale in senso lato e la (...) sua innegabile storicità, tema su cui si dibatte nel pensiero occidentale sin dai tempi di Pitagora. Pur essendo un linguaggio chiuso nella sua specificita, la musica ci spinge di continuo ad andare oltre: allude sempre a qualcosa che sta al di fuori dei suoni stessi e ci invita a esplorare i luoghi a cui segretamente tende"--Back cover. (shrink)

In this paper I argue that Rawlsians have largely misunderstood the idea of an overlapping consensus of reasonable comprehensive doctrines, thereby failing to delineate in an appropriate way the place of comprehensive doctrines in political liberalism. My argument rests on two core claims. The first claim is that (i) political liberalism is committed to three theses about the overlapping consensus. The first thesis concerns the subject of the overlapping consensus; the second thesis concerns the function of the overlapping consensus; the (...) third thesis explains how the overlapping consensus can serve its function in accordance with political liberalism’s commitment to epistemic neutrality. The second claim on which my argument relies is empirical: (ii) Rawlsians typically deny at least one of the three theses to which political liberalism is committed. Based on (i) and (ii), I conclude that Rawlsians have hitherto provided unconvincing accounts of the place of comprehensive doctrines in political liberalism. (shrink)

The idea of an ?inversion principle?, and the name itself, originated in the work of Paul Lorenzen in the 1950s, as a method to generate new admissible rules within a certain syntactic context. Some fifteen years later, the idea was taken up by Dag Prawitz to devise a strategy of normalization for natural deduction calculi (this being an analogue of Gentzen's cut-elimination theorem for sequent calculi). Later, Prawitz used the inversion principle again, attributing it with a semantic role. Still working (...) in natural deduction calculi, he formulated a general type of schematic introduction rules to be matched ? thanks to the idea supporting the inversion principle ? by a corresponding general schematic Elimination rule. This was an attempt to provide a solution to the problem suggested by the often quoted note of Gentzen. According to Gentzen ?it should be possible to display the elimination rules as unique functions of the corresponding introduction rules on the basis of certain requirements?. Many people have since worked on this topic, which can be appropriately seen as the birthplace of what are now referred to as ?general elimination rules?, recently studied thoroughly by Sara Negri and Jan von Plato. In this study, we retrace the main threads of this chapter of proof-theoretical investigation, using Lorenzen's original framework as a general guide. (shrink)

Este estudio trata de la relación de Bruno y Vico con el Barroco, ubicado el autor en una perspectiva acerca de la modernidad desde la que autores como Bruno, Leibniz o Vico son estudiados en virtud del señalamiento de un “lenguaje filosófico barroco”. Se trata de estudiar la posibilidad de vislumbrar un conjunto de respuestas a la crisis del fundamento que no sean sólo “expresivas” de ésta, sino “constructivas”.Palabras clave: Vico, Bruno, Leibniz, modernidad, Barroco, metaforología.This paper is focussed on the (...) relationship between Bruno, Vico and the Baroque. Its author assumes a perspective about modernity that studies figures such as Bruno, Leibniz or Vico under the light of a “philosophical baroque language”. The aim is to point out a possible a set of responses to the crisis of foundations, that would not only be “expressive”, but “constructive”.Keywords: Vico, Bruno, Leibniz, modernity, Baroque, metaphorology. (shrink)

This article examines how theology and social science can contribute to the specific task of talking about God in management without compromising the integrity of the Triune God. To talk about God in management studies initially requires a discussion on the character of modernity and about whether modernity is absence or transformation of religious forms; to follow is an examination of the governing assumptions operating in social theory from a religious perspective. The conclusion is that without the correct hermeneutics, what (...) management scholars mean by God cannot be more than an idea. (shrink)

'Io poi ho sempre pensato--scrive Henri Matisse nel 1935--che gran parte della bellezza di un quadro derivi dalla lotta impegnata dall'artista con i limiti del suo mezzo espressivo.'" Le sue parole riassumono bene il tema di questo libro, la lotta dell'artista con la materia dell'arte, dunque il ruolo fondamentale della costruzione concreta dell'arte rispetto all'idea. L'opera d'arte--una composizione, un romanzo, un dipinto, una scultura, un film--è il risultato di un atto intellettuale consapevole--dunque di un'idea--dove tuttavia entra in gioco l'azione concreta, (...) materiale del fare artistico, che inevitabilmente pervade e condiziona l'opera fin dal momento in cui essa inizia a prendere forma sul pentagramma, sulle righe, sulla tela, sulla pellicola. L'immagine iniziale o idea può mantenere inalterata la sua forza oppure trasformarsi nel corso del lavoro, ma il più delle volte serve soprattutto da stimolo, perché a poco a poco--come scrive Italo Calvino--la materia resta padrona del campo e offre il suo prezioso, indispensabile alimento all'immaginazione. È solo mentre si scrive o dipinge che la fantasia dona i suoi frutti, in astratto la materia è ancora troppo lontana per suggerire combinazioni, accostamenti, soluzioni, scoperte. Le testimonianze dei maggiori protagonisti delle arti del '900, qui ampiamente riportate, confermano nella sostanza la tesi del libro: anche il pittore più desideroso di trasmettere un messaggio e di contribuire attraverso la sua arte alla crescita civile della società, quando riflette sul proprio lavoro difficilmente può negare che l'opera sia il risultato talvolta inatteso di un percorso accidentato nel quale l'azione concreta, materiale del fare artistico entra in gioco giungendo in alcuni casi a modificare in modo radicale le intenzioni originali. L'arte--scrivono Fellini, Mirò, Calvino, Stravinsky e tanti altri--si fa facendola. Sul piano interpretativo ciò comporta un radicale ridimensionamento del ruolo messianico dell'artista, il quale spesso non ha alcuna intenzione o pretesa di comunicare qualcosa di fondamentale, è perso in questo mondo esattamente come tutti noi. 'Giornalisti curiosi e amatori di pittura'--scrive Picasso--vengono a vederci per trarre da noi verità dogmatiche o definizioni che potrebbero spiegare loro la nostra arte, mettendo in rilievo il suo valore pedagogico, valore che io nego categoricamente. Noi facciamo della pittura. Vorrebbero forse che, per aggiunta, noi fossimo fabbricanti di verità e di massime?'"--Back cover. (shrink)

Medical discoveries have led to an unprecedented level of competence in the field, but it is as if the patient is finding it increasingly difficult to get the right holistic care. Medicine must be put on a path towards being humanised.