Parmenides and Melissus employ different deductive styles for their different kinds of argumentation. The former’s poem flows in an interesting sequence of passages: contents foreword, methodological premises, krisis, conclusions and corollaries. The latter, however, organizes an extensive process of deduction to show the characteristics of what is. In both cases, the strength of their argument rests on their deductive form, on the syntactical level of their texts: the formal structure of their reasonings help to identify the features and logical intersections (...) of their thoughts. On the one hand, Parmenides uses modal reasoning, enforcing the employment of the principle of the excluded middle. On the other hand, Melissus radicalizes the use of modal reasoning and employs counterfactual statements in order to develop his doctrine of what is. Despite their differences, both deserve a place in the Stone Age of logic and theory of argumentation due to their common ambition to demonstrate what is. (shrink)

Species are considered the basic unit of biological classification and evolution. Hence, they are used as a benchmark in several fields, although the ontological status of such a category has always been a matter of debate. This paper aims to discuss the problem of the definition of species within the new mechanistic approach. Nevertheless, the boundary between entities, activities, and mechanisms remains difficult to establish and always requires an analysis of what is meant by explanation. As a case study, the (...) paper describes the debate concerning the species category by considering different kingdoms: Animals, Bacteria, and Fungi. The inherently biological differences between those groups prevent the use of a single, universally applicable concept of species that could fit the mechanisms responsible for the variability present in these kingdoms. The same issue is encountered within each group, as highlighted through a focus on mammals and microbes. This controversy has given rise to opposite approaches, namely: monism, which looks for a single definition that might account for all species, and pluralism, which admits that different groups of organisms require somewhat different definitions. In order to develop an adequate definition of species, we propose to apply a new mechanistic framework, which considers the ontic-epistemic dimensions of scientific explanation in close parallel. The apt correlation between epistemic and the ontic aspects highlights the way in which the concept of species and the reference to data are strictly co-determined. This suggests that the concept of species is better understandable within a dual ontic-epistemic approach. (shrink)

Indice: 1. Astronomia e tecnica di Ilario Altobelli; 2. Altobelli e i sistemi di mondo; 3. Altobelli e Regiomontano nella Demonstratio Ostendens artem dirigendi; 4. Conclusioni. Ilario Altobelli nasce nel 1610 nella regione italiana delle Marche, precisamente a Montecchio. Fu frate minore conventuale, ben presto occupato in incarichi didattici e pastorali dell’Ordine prima e come annalista poi2. La sua attività si svolse soprattutto tra Fermo, Ancona e Verona. Conosciuto per l’abilità retorica, fu teologo presso vari cardinali e fu il cardinale (...) Conti ad Ancona a mostrargli il Sidereus nuncius di Galileo 3. Altobelli si occupava infatti di matematica e di astronomia, ed ebbe... (shrink)

…sit necessaria sciencia mathematice ad bona anime procuranda.Scientific humanism in the 15th and 16th century witnessed the spread of Greek and Arabic mathematics, whose reading was disciplined by philological research, enriched by the practical sense of abacus masters and diffused by the press. This doesn't mean that before this time many of these works were totally unknown. Around the 13th century mathematics scholars were already familiar with the work of Theodosius, Archimedes, Vitruvius, the Banū Mūsā brothers and so on; however, (...) these works were confined to small intellectual circles, and turned into an object for philosophical speculation.This was the case of... (shrink)

This book offers twelve examples, from 1600-2000, of the development of scientific ideas that were shaped by religious factors. Understood in this way, the development of science is deeply influenced by theological ways of thought.

The aim of this paper is to reconstruct the logical structure of Melissus philosophy, building on Laks Most’s translation and Barnes’ seminal work on the Samian. This will allow us to shed some light on the subtle argumentations of Melissus. On top of that, we frame Melissus’ metaphysics employing modern logical instruments. On one side, this reformulation makes clear a few assumptions hidden in the deductions made by the Samian; on the other side, our paper shows that contemporary analytic metaphysics (...) has forerunners dating back 2500 years. (shrink)

Evidence is accumulating that individual and environmental factors in childhood and adolescence should be considered when investigating adult health and aging-related processes. The data required for this is gathered by comprehensive long-term longitudinal studies. This article describes the protocol of the Zurich Longitudinal Studies, a set of three comprehensive cohort studies on child growth, health, and development that are currently expanding into adulthood. Between 1954 and 1961, 445 healthy infants were enrolled in the first ZLS cohort. Their physical, motor, cognitive, (...) and social development and their environment were assessed comprehensively across childhood, adolescence, and into young adulthood. In the 1970s, two further cohorts were added to the ZLS and assessed with largely matched study protocols: Between 1974 and 1979, the second ZLS cohort included 265 infants, and between 1970 and 2002, the third ZLS cohort included 327 children of participants of the first ZLS cohort. Since 2019, the participants of the three ZLS cohorts have been traced and invited to participate in a first wave of assessments in adulthood to investigate their current health and development. This article describes the ZLS study protocol and discusses opportunities, methodological and conceptual challenges, and limitations arising from a long-term longitudinal cohort recruited from a study about development in early life. In the future, the ZLS will provide data to investigate childhood antecedents of adult health outcomes and, ultimately, will help respond to the frequent call of scientists to shift the focus of aging research into the first decades of life and, thus, to take a lifespan perspective on aging. (shrink)

Italian Sounding—i. e., the Italian appearance of a product or service brand irrespective of its country of origin—represents a global market phenomenon affecting a wide range of economic sectors, particularly the agro-food sector. Although its economic impact has been repeatedly stressed from different points of view, systematic scientific knowledge regarding its social–psychological bases is lacking. Three studies carried out in three different countries address this literature gap. Different consumer groups are targeted regarding major product categories pre-selected categories, which are the (...) major Italian food goods within the specific country according to piloting. In each study, the main independent variable has been manipulated by presenting real product images, whose “Italianness” degree is effectively manipulated by the main study variable across three or four levels. Main hypotheses are tested via a survey with the specific product images administered to samples in Italy, China, and the USA. Across the three studies, results show that Made in Italy products, compared to the other ones, are advantaged in terms of the main dependent variables: reputation profile, general reputation, attitude, and willingness to pay. Moreover, Italian Sounding products are endowed with corresponding significant advantages when compared to the Generic Foreign by non-Italian samples. Results reveal the specific social–psychological profile of Italian Sounding products in terms of either weaknesses or strengths when compared to both Made in Italy products and Generic Foreign ones, differently in the eyes of Italian and non-Italian consumers across different countries. Finally, consistently across the three studies, the extent to which a food product is perceived to be Italian increases consumers' WTP for that product, and this effect is consistently mediated by the product's reputation. (shrink)

This paper presents an intuitive explanation about why and how Rawlsian Theory of Justice (Rawls in A theory of justice, Harvard University Press, Harvard, 1971) provides the foundations to a solution for algorithmic bias. The contribution of the paper is to discuss and show why Rawlsian ideas in their original form (e.g. the veil of ignorance, original position, and allowing inequalities that serve the worst-off) are relevant to operationalize fairness for algorithmic decision making. The paper also explains how this leads (...) to a specific MinMaxfairness solution, which addresses the basic challenges of algorithmic justice. We combine substantive elements of Rawlsian perspective with an intuitive explanation in order to provide accessible and practical insights. The goal is to propose and motivate why and how the MinMaxfairness solution derived from Rawlsian principles overcomes some of the current challenges for algorithmic bias and highlight the benefits provided when compared to other approaches. The paper presents and discusses the solution by building a bridge between the qualitative theoretical aspects and the quantitative technical approach. (shrink)

Platelets have important hemostatic functions in repairing blood vessels upon tissue injury. Cytokines, growth factors, and metabolites stored in platelet α‐granules and dense granules are released upon platelet activation and clotting. Emerging evidence indicates that such platelet‐derived signaling factors are instrumental in guiding tissue regeneration. Here, we discuss the important roles of platelet‐secreted signaling factors in skeletal muscle regeneration. Chemokines secreted by platelets in the early phase after injury are needed to recruit neutrophils to injured muscles, and impeding this early (...) step of muscle regeneration exacerbates inflammation at later stages, compromises neo‐angiogenesis and the growth of newly formed myofibers, and reduces post‐injury muscle force production. Platelets also contribute to the recruitment of pro‐regenerative stromal cells from the adipose tissue, and the platelet releasate may also regulate the metabolism and proliferation of muscle satellite cells, which sustain myogenesis. Therefore, harnessing the signaling functions of platelets and the platelet secretome may provide new avenues for promoting skeletal muscle regeneration in health and disease. (shrink)

Trata-se de uma tradução direta do texto em francês do filósofo Paul Ricoeur para o português, que está no livro De la métaphysique à la rhétorique, essais à la mémoire de Chaïm Perelman avec un inédit sur la logique em 1986, e corresponde a uma conferência realizada por Paul Ricoeur em 1970 no Instituto de Estudos Avançados na Bélgica. O tema da presente conferência esclarece conceitos importantes utilizados por Paul Ricoeur, fortalecendo seu pressuposto antropológico que considera como a atividade fundamental (...) humana a interpretação. (shrink)

Synaptophysin (Syp) was the first synaptic vesicle (SV) protein to be cloned. Since its discovery in 1985, it has been used by us and by many laboratories around the world as an invaluable marker to study the distribution of synapses in the brain and to uncover the basic features of the life cycle of SVs. Although single gene ablation of Syp does not lead to an overt phenotype, a large body of experimental data both in vitro and in vivo indicate (...) that Syp (alone or in association with homologous proteins) is involved in multiple, important aspects of SV exo‐endocytosis, including regulation of SNARE assembly into the fusion core complex, formation of the fusion pore initiating neurotransmitter release, activation of SV endocytosis and SV biogenesis. In this article, we summarise the main results of the studies on Syp carried out by our and other laboratories, and explain why we believe that Syp plays a major role in SV trafficking. BioEssays 26:445–453, 2004. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

Análise dos processos de formação do professor. Situa inicialmente as alternativas de constituição dos agentes do sistema político administrativo da educação do final do período imperial para focalizar as estratégias formativas adotadas pela Escola Complementar, analisando para tanto entrevistas, documentos iconográficos e escritos. A delimitação espacial do estudo é a Província de São Pedro do Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil.

Discute a instrução pública a partir de seus agentes e os processos formativos de seleção, instrução, contratação, especialização e diferenciação que ao longo do tempo constituíram o professor contribuindo para a formação do cidadão e institucionalização da educação no Rio Grande do Sul.

The purpose of this scoping review is to investigate the value of creative arts therapies in healthy older adults. This article aims to shed light on current knowledge concerning the effectiveness of art therapies for the prevention of common age-related conditions using the definition of art therapy provided by the American Art Therapy Association, as well as Cohen’s conceptual framework for the psychological conceptualization of the relationship between the arts and health in later life. The objective is to carefully capture (...) subthreshold situations of distress, which are often not taken into account and primarily involve psychological aspects that are crucial in the multidimensional perspective of healthy aging. Twelve articles were selected and examined following an initial electronic search on 3 databases. A thematic analysis of the results identified four major themes: improving cognitive performance and proprioception; enhancing self-identity and meaningful life; reducing feelings of loneliness and depressive symptoms; and the importance of socialization. All these aspects constitute the basis for preventing psychological distress and enhancing mental well-being for healthy aging. (shrink)

In recent years, Reichenbach's 1920 conception of the principles of coordination has attracted increased attention after Michael Friedman's attempt to revive Reichenbach's idea of a "relativized a priori". This paper follows the origin and development of this idea in the framework of Reichenbach's distinction between the axioms of coordination and the axioms of connection. It suggests a further differentiation among the coordinating axioms and accordingly proposes a different account of Reichenbach's "relativized a priori".

This highly multidisciplinary collection discusses an increasingly important topic among scholars in science and technology studies: objectivity in science. It features eleven essays on scientific objectivity from a variety of perspectives, including philosophy of science, history of science, and feminist philosophy. Topics addressed in the book include the nature and value of scientific objectivity, the history of objectivity, and objectivity in scientific journals and communities. Taken individually, the essays supply new methodological tools for theorizing what is valuable in the pursuit (...) of objective knowledge and for investigating its history. The essays offer many starting points, while suggesting new avenues of research. Taken collectively, the essays exemplify the very virtues of objectivity that they theorize—in reading them together, the reader can sense various anxieties about the dangerously subjective in our age and locate commonalities of concern as well as differences of approach. As a result, the volume offers an expansive vision of a research community seeking a communal understanding of its own methods and its own epistemic anxieties, struggling to enunciate the key problems of knowledge of our time and offer insight into how to overcome them. -/- (Contributors: Alex Csiszar, Scott Edgar, Peter Galison, Ian Hacking, Sandra Harding, Moira Howes, Paolo Savoia, Judy Segal, Joan Steigerwald, and Alison Wylie). (shrink)

La nouvelle édition des Éléments de rythmanalyse et autres essais sur les temporalités, parue grâce à Claire Revol en 2019 chez Eterotopia, vient d'être traduite en portugais par Flávia Martins, professeur de géographie à l'UFF, et Michel Moreaux, docteur en géographie de l'UERJ. L'ouvrage est publié par l'éditeur Consequência. Cette préface est une invitation à la lecture des Éléments de rythmanalyse : introduction à la connaissance des rythmes, d'Henri Lefebvre. Nous souhaitons que cette œuvre aux multiples - Sociologie – Nouvel (...) article. (shrink)

“There`s only beauty if there is an interlocutor. The beauty of the lagoon is always someone” (Mãe, 2017, p.40). Valter Hugo Mãe expresses our desire in the making of this paper to share our experience of meeting refugee children, as part of an ongoing research project dedicated to exploring the conditions in which they live in Baixada Fluminense, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and the influences they bring with them from their birth countries. In the process of conducting this research, we (...) were surprised by a group of children who belong to the Warao ethnic group, and who have been welcomed by the municipality of Nova Iguaçu, which is part of Baixada Fluminense. The Warao are indigenous peoples from the North of Venezuela and their name means “canoe,” given their close relationship with water. A group of displaced Warao children and their families arrived in Nova Iguaçu after having “camped” out in the surroundings of Novo Rio bus station for a few weeks, followed by a sojourn in a public shelter, where the differences between them and the existing members of the institution led to conflict. Through a religious institution’s initiative, the families then found shelter in a small farm in the city of Japeri. They stayed there for six months, but once again were threatened by the prospect of eviction, after which they were finally welcomed in the city of Nova Iguaçu. The families–five interconnected units–expressed the wish to remain together and a social service institution found them a closed school building, which was modified to accommodate the group. When the Covid pandemic struck, the research and study group GEPELID began following the daily routine of these children at the shelter school and at the Marambaia welfare center. In their meetings with the Warao, the researchers were struck by their references to the Buriti tree as the “tree of life,” and the depths of its implications for their identity. In exploring this concept, the research group’s experience of radical cultural difference revealed the extent to which research in the human sciences is always a meeting with the other, and the relation between researcher and subjects an occasion for dialogue. (shrink)

Resenha do livro Filosofia da Ancestralidade de Eduardo David de Oliveira.

Trata-se de investigar os tipos de tropas, tal como apresentados por Maquiavel, procurando compreender as características que destacam as tropas próprias. Feito isso, assumiremos o debate entre o que é público e o que é particular, tal como posto na Arte da Guerra, relacionando-o ao tema da guerra. Tal objetivo diz respeito à investigação anunciada por Maquiavel e que relaciona a vida civil à vida militar. Procurar-se-á mostrar a perspectiva do autor sobre o uso público da guerra tanto quanto as (...) consequências desastrosas de seu uso particular. Pretende-se, em tal percurso, evidenciar a guerra como ponto central do pensamento maquiaveliano, diretamente relacionada aos fundamentos da política, assim como o interesse de Maquiavel em pensar os problemas de seu tempo e abordá-los por uma perspectiva filosófica. A pesquisa se restringe a investigar o tema a partir do Príncipe, dos Discursos sobre a Primeira Década de Tito Lívio e da Arte da Guerra. (shrink)

In his Scientific Representation (2008), van Fraassen argues that measuring is a form of representation. In fact, every measurement pinpoints its target in accordance with specific operational rules within an already-constructed theoretical space, in which certain conceptual interconnections can be represented. Reichenbach’s 1920 account of coordination is particularly interesting in this connection. Even though recent reassessments of this account do not do full justice to some important elements lying behind it, they do have the merit of focusing on a different (...) aspect of his early work that traditional interpretations of relativized a priori principles have unfortunately neglected in favour of a more “structural” role for coordination. In Reichenbach’s early work, however, the idea of coordination was employed not only to indicate theory-specific fundamental principles such as the ones suggested in the literature on conventional principles in science, but also to refer to more “basic” assumptions. In Reichenbach, these principles are preconditions both of the individuation of physical magnitudes and of their measurement, and, as such, they are necessary to approach the world in the first instance. This paper aims to reassess Reichenbach’s approach to coordination and to the representation of physical quantities in light of recent literature on measurement and scientific representation. (shrink)

This paper is the result of my participation in a discussion event of Problema. Anuario de filosofía y teoría del derecho entitled “The Construction of Precedent in Civil Law: Debates, Concepts and Challenges”. Several colleagues with a vast knowledge on the subject of judicial precedent participated in this seminar, which also delved into the widely debated aspects of judicial precedent focused on the case of Chile. The entire discussion aimed at proposing solutions, as well as shedding some light on some (...) of its important aspects.Starting from such transcendental concepts as, rationality and argumentative use, it is possible to find certain problems arising from the improper use of the above concepts, which in turn leads us to stare decisis, a term that if used incorrectly may result in an act against the internal independence of judges. (shrink)

In the early 1920s, Hans Reichenbach and Kurt Lewin presented two topological accounts of time that appear to be interrelated in more than one respect. Despite their different approaches, their underlying idea is that time order is derived from specific structural properties of the world. In both works, moreover, the notion of genidentity--i.e., identity through or over time--plays a crucial role. Although it is well known that Reichenbach borrowed this notion from Kurt Lewin, not much has been written about their (...) relationship, nor about the way Lewin implemented this notion in his own work in order to ground his topology. This paper examines these two early versions of the topology of time, and follows the extent of Lewin’s influence on Reichenbach’s proposal. (shrink)

The negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on individuals’ psychosocial functioning was widely attested during the last year. However, the extent to which individual differences are associated with adaptive and maladaptive outcomes during quarantine in Italy remains largely unexplored. Using a person-oriented approach, the present study explored the association of personality profiles, based on three broad individual dispositions and two self-efficacy beliefs in the emotional area, with adaptive and maladaptive outcomes during the first Italian lockdown. In doing so, we focused (...) also on how different age groups differently faced the pandemic. The study was conducted through an online survey from May to June 2020 and included 1341 participants living in Italy, divided into two groups: 737 young adults aged 18–35 and 604 adults aged 36–60 years old. Latent Profile Analysis identified three personality profiles: resilient, vulnerable, and moderate. A subsequent path analysis model showed that the resilient profile was positively associated with prosocial behavior as an indicator of adaptive outcome, and negatively associated with three maladaptive outcomes: interpersonal aggression, depressive symptoms, and anxiety problems. Contrarily, the vulnerable profile resulted negatively associated with prosocial behavior and positively associated with the three maladaptive outcomes. Finally, regarding age group differences, young adults belonging to the vulnerable profile showed a greater association especially with interpersonal aggression, depression, and anxiety problems, as compared to adults belonging to the same profile. Overall, the results of the present study highlighted the importance to analyze individual functioning during an isolation period by using a person-oriented approach. Findings evidenced the existence of three different profiles and subsequent path analysis revealed, especially for the vulnerable profile and young adults, a greater maladaptive consequence of the quarantine. The practical implications will be discussed. (shrink)

Es conocido el efecto de espectacularización derivado del proceso de colonialización-mundialización de la cultura: una vez que la actividad local ingresa en la economía política mundial de la cultura, cada acontecimiento se vuelve espectáculo , con su doble aspecto de “estrellato” y “museificación”. En efecto, ante la multiplicación de modos de vida que circulan en las redes telecomunicacionales, Estados e industrias culturales buscan por un lado preservar formas sociales y culturales que se consideran en peligro y, por otro, difundir y (...) explicar esas mismas formas. En este marco, el museo ha aparecido últimamente como uno de los dispositivos privilegiados para afrontar este doble propósito. Analizaré aquí un museo que se resiste a petrificar aquello que pretende cuidar, así como a extraer el núcleo de su razón de ser únicamente de las motivaciones económicas asociadas a la inversión en cultura. Me refiero al Museo-Taller Ferrowhite, ubicado en Ingeniero White, provincia de Buenos Aires. Propongo que se trata de un museo que se sabe un artefacto cultural hiper complejo, capaz de identificar la tensión que él mismo encarna, como institución estatal, al intentar contar la (su) historia y proponer un sentido para el rescate de esa historia en el presente. (shrink)