This paper aims to review different discourses within the emerging field of ethical reflection on nanotechnology. I will start by analysing the early stages of this debate, showing how it has been focused on searching for legitimacy for this sphere of moral inquiry. I will then characterise an ethical approach, common to many authors, which frames ethical issues in terms of risks and benefits. This approach identifies normative issues where there are conflicts of interest or where challenges to the fundamental (...) values of our society arise. In response to the limitations of this approach, other commentators have called for more profound analysis of the limits of our knowledge, and have appealed to values, such as sustainability or responsibility, which should, they suggest, inform nanotechnological development (I will define this approach as a “sophisticated form of prudence”). After showing the ways in which these frameworks are limited, I will examine more recent developments in debates on nanoethics which call for the contextualisation of ethical discourse in its ontological, epistemic and socio-economic and political reflections. Such contextualisation thus involves inquiry into the ‘metaphysical research program’ (MRP) of nanotechnology/ies and analysis of the socio-economic, political and historical reality of nano. These ideas offer genuinely new insights into the kind of approach required for nanoethical reflection: they recover a sense of the present alongside the need to engage with the past, while avoiding speculation on the future. (shrink)

The paper presents a historical-epistemological analysis of the notion of “spontaneous symmetry breaking”, which I believe today provides a template for conceiving the relationship between symmetry and asymmetry in physics as well as in other areas of the natural sciences. The central thesis of the paper is that spontaneous symmetry breaking represents an instance of “narrative knowing” in the sense developed by recent research in history and philosophy of science SI narrative in science, Studies in history and philosophy of science, (...) 2017a). Spontaneous symmetry breaking is best understood as a hybrid narrative comprising formulas, verbal statements, images, and at times also other media. This flexible notion can be deployed in different variations, allowing to explain a broad range of non-symmetric phenomena or models as resulting from processes of loss of symmetry. I will support this thesis by first analysing in detail the way in which spontaneous symmetry breaking, and in particular electroweak symmetry breakdown, are presented in today’s physics textbooks and reference works, and then by reconstructing the emergence of the hybrid construct from the late 1950s until the 1970s, when spontaneous symmetry breaking definitively established itself as a key physical notion. (shrink)

What are the most useful lenses to wear and from which positioning is most effective to speak today, in order to answer the need for a paradigm shift within the critical thinking concerning the culture of Capitalism? An increasing number of authors support an interdisciplinary approach carried out, not only in academic environments, by political ecology and ecofeminism, connecting the critique of capitalism with that of patriarchy, and re-establishing a relationship between theory and praxis, in which the latter produces knowledge (...) through embodied experience. The following article agrees with this hypothesis, but its aim is not so much to delineate the contours of what feminist political ecology is and what new conceptual categories it introduces, but to understand instead what is the dialectical necessity that produces this approach and what it distances itself from. To do so, I will use the process of resignifying the category of vulnerability in the contemporary feminist debate in the poststructuralist approach, as an antithetical example to the feminist political ecology lens and posture. The aim is to begin paving an autonomous path for this critical matter, beginning by delineating the antagonism toward poststructural feminism as one of the conflicts which produces it. (shrink)

The new scientific acquisitions are numerous and even more are their future promises. The debate on bio-technologies involves the fundamental rights of the individual and the advancements in research must merge with the supremacy of the human being on the interests both of the ‘science’ and of society at large. In the attempt to combine ‘democracy’ with techno-scientific issues, Law has turned from pure technical rules into a tool meant to fill cognitive gaps and its role is showing to be (...) not only crucial, but also innovative for legal professionals themselves. (shrink)

According to Vallicella's 'Relations, Monism, and the Vindication of Bradley's Regress' (2002), if relations are to relate their relata, some special operator must do the relating. No other options will do. In this paper we reject Vallicella's conclusion by considering an important option that becomes visible only if we hold onto a precise distinction between the following three feature-pairs of relations: internality/externality, universality/particularity, relata-specificity/relata-unspecificity. The conclusion we reach is that if external relations are to relate their relata, they must be (...) relata-specific (and no special operator is needed). As it eschews unmereological complexes, this outcome is of relevance to defenders of the extensionality of composition. (shrink)

Twenty years after the outbreak of the threat posed by international jihadist terrorism, which triggered the need for democracies to balance fundamental rights and security needs, 9/11 and the Rise of Global Anti-Terrorism Law offers an overview of counter-terrorism and of the interplay among the main actors involved in the field since 2001. This book aims to give a picture of the complex and evolving interaction between the international, regional and domestic levels in framing counter-terrorism law and policies. Targeting scholars, (...) researchers and students of international, comparative and constitutional law, it is a valuable resource to understand the theoretical and practical issues arising from the interaction of several levels in counter-terrorism measures. It also provides an in-depth analysis of the role of the United Nations Security Council. (shrink)

An argument that the major metaphysical theories of facts give us no good reason to accept facts in our catalog of the world. -/- In this book Arianna Betti argues that we have no good reason to accept facts in our catalog of the world, at least as they are described by the two major metaphysical theories of facts. She claims that neither of these theories is tenable—neither the theory according to which facts are special structured building blocks of (...) reality nor the theory according to which facts are whatever is named by certain expressions of the form “the fact that such and such.” There is reality, and there are entities in reality that we are able to name, but, Betti contends, among these entities there are no facts. -/- Drawing on metaphysics, the philosophy of language, and linguistics, Betti examines the main arguments in favor of and against facts of the two major sorts, which she distinguishes as compositional and propositional, giving special attention to methodological presuppositions. She criticizes compositional facts (facts as special structured building blocks of reality) and the central argument for them, Armstrong's truthmaker argument. She then criticizes propositional facts (facts as whatever is named in “the fact that” statements) and what she calls the argument from nominal reference, which draws on Quine's criterion of ontological commitment. Betti argues that metaphysicians should stop worrying about facts, and philosophers in general should stop arguing for or against entities on the basis of how we use language. (shrink)

Is it necessary to contrast the spreading process of genetic engineering in the agri-food stuff sector? Can EU rules really consider the impact of this brand new technologies on biology and, consequently, on public health? Despite the general trend, a firm opposition is what is happening in some Regions of Italy, where GMOs production and placing on the market are foibidden.

A puzzle arises when combining two individually plausible, yet jointly incompatible, norms of inquiry. On the one hand, it seems that one shouldn’t inquire into a question while believing an answer to that question. But, on the other hand, it seems rational to inquire into a question while believing its answer, if one is seeking confirmation. Millson (2021), who has recently identified this puzzle, suggests a possible solution, though he notes that it comes with significant costs. I offer an alternative (...) solution, which doesn’t involve these costs. The best way to resolve the puzzle is to reject the prohibition on inquiring into a question while believing an answer to it. Resolving the puzzle in this way makes salient two fruitful areas in the epistemology of inquiry which merit further investigation. The first concerns the nature of the inquiring attitudes and the second concerns the aim(s) of inquiry. (shrink)

Much of the recent work on epistemology of inquiry defends two related theses. First, inquiry into a question rationally prohibits believing an answer to that question. Second, knowledge is the aim of inquiry. I develop a series of cases which indicate that inquiry is not as narrow as these views suggest. These cases can be accommodated if we take a broader approach and understand inquiry as aiming at epistemic improvement, described more generally. This approach captures a wider range of inquiring (...) phenomena because it accounts for forms of epistemic improvement that fall short of, or go beyond, coming to know the answer to a question. (shrink)

Throughout more than two millennia philosophers adhered massively to ideal standards of scientific rationality going back ultimately to Aristotle’s Analytica posteriora. These standards got progressively shaped by and adapted to new scientific needs and tendencies. Nevertheless, a core of conditions capturing the fundamentals of what a proper science should look like remained remarkably constant all along. Call this cluster of conditions the Classical Model of Science. In this paper we will do two things. First of all, we will propose a (...) general and systematized account of the Classical Model of Science. Secondly, we will offer an analysis of the philosophical significance of this model at different historical junctures by giving an overview of the connections it has had with a number of important topics. The latter include the analytic-synthetic distinction, the axiomatic method, the hierarchical order of sciences and the status of logic as a science. Our claim is that particularly fruitful insights are gained by seeing themes such as these against the background of the Classical Model of Science. In an appendix we deal with the historiographical background of this model by considering the systematizations of Aristotle’s theory of science offered by Heinrich Scholz, and in his footsteps by Evert W. Beth. (shrink)

Predictive genetic testing for susceptibility to psychiatric conditions is likely to become part of standard practice. Because the onset of most psychiatric diseases is in late adolescence or early adulthood, testing minors could lead to early identification that may prevent or delay the development of these disorders. However, due to their complex aetiology, psychiatric genetic testing does not provide the immediate medical benefits that current guidelines require for testing minors. While several authors have argued non-medical benefits may play a crucial (...) role in favour of predictive testing for other conditions, little research has explored such a role in psychiatric disorders. This paper outlines the potential non-medical benefits and harms of psychiatric genetic testing in minors in order to consider whether the non-medical benefits could ever make such testing appropriate. Five non-medical themes arise in the literature: psychological impacts, autonomy/self-determination, implications of the biomedical approach, use of financial and intellectual resources, and discrimination. Non-medical benefits were prominent in all of them, suggesting that psychiatric genetic testing in minors may be appropriate in some circumstances. Further research needs to empirically assess these potential non-medical benefits, incorporate minors in the debate, and include normative reflection to evaluate the very purposes and motivations of psychiatric genetic testing in minors. (shrink)

This chapter has two aims. The first aim is to present an overview of Bolzano's universe from the point of view of his metaphysics and its relationship to logic, relying fundamentally on Bolzano's Wissenschaftslehre. The author's preferred reading of Bolzano is one according to which he is a 'platonistic nominalist': a platonist about propositions and a nominalist about properties. Bolzano's nominalistic tendencies are particularly conspicuous in his mereological analyses, which play a major role in every aspect of his philosophy. The (...) author's second aim is to answer the open question of whether in Bolzano there is any 'ontology of truth'. This chapter argues for a negative answer. Bolzano does not make room for any special object which plays the role of the counterpart of a truth-bearer, or at least his propositions do not connect semantically in a direct way to anything that would count as such a special object. (shrink)

Abstract In his paper “The Opposite of Human Enhancement: Nanotechnology and the Blind Chicken problem” ( Nanoethics 2: 305-36, 2008) Thompson argued that technological attempts to reduce or eliminate selected non-human animals’ capabilities (animal disenhancements) in order to solve or mitigate animal welfare problems in animals’ use pose a philosophical conundrum, because there is a contradiction between rational arguments in favor of these technological interventions and intuitions against them. In her response “Animal Disenhancement and the Non-Identity Problem: A Response to (...) Thompson” ( Nanoethics 5:43–48, 2011), Palmer maintained that the philosophical conundrum is even deeper if we introduce the non-identity problem into the discussion. In my brief response, I claim that in order to avoid the pitfalls of speculative ethics, empirical facts related to the technologies involved as well as costs for the non-human animals have to be taken into account. Depending on which changes we are referring to, ethical problems can be seen very differently. Widening the consideration to the socio-economic context in which non-human animals are currently used by humans, I challenge the idea of genuine philosophical conundrums from an antispeciesist and abolitionist perspective. Only in a context of exploitation, in which non-human animals are deprived of basic rights and their existence is totally dependent on human exploitation, the contradictions between improvement of welfare and disenhancement of capabilities make sense. Content Type Journal Article Category Critical Discussion Notes Pages 1-12 DOI 10.1007/s11569-012-0139-1 Authors Arianna Ferrari, KIT/ITAS (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology/Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis), Karlsruhe, Germany Journal NanoEthics Online ISSN 1871-4765 Print ISSN 1871-4757. (shrink)

This article develops a new approach for theorizing about hermeneutical injustice. According to a dominant view, hermeneutical injustice results from a hermeneutical gap: one lacks the conceptual tools needed to make sense of, or to communicate, important social experience, where this lack is a result of an injustice in the background social methods used to determine hermeneutical resources. I argue that this approach is incomplete. It fails to capture an important species of hermeneutical injustice which doesn’t result from a lack (...) of hermeneutical resources, but from the overabundance of distorting and oppressive concepts which function to crowd-out, defeat, or preempt the application of a more accurate hermeneutical resource. I propose a broader analysis that better respects the dynamic relationship between hermeneutical resources and the social and political contexts in which they are implemented. (shrink)

The article investigates the influence that the theological debates on divine grace have exercised on the evolution of Dante’s reflection on the relationship between nobility of the soul and natural predisposition, from the Vita nuova to the Commedia. If in his youthful work, commenting the sonnet Negli occhi porta la mia donna amore, Dante had attributed to Beatrice the ability to «induce Love in potentiality where he is not» (Vn. 12, 6) - an ability that Augustine’s doctrine of grace had (...) reserved to God -, in Le dolci rime d’amor and, above all, in the IV book of the Convivio, Dante affirms, with Guinizelli, the essential correlation between a «gentle heart» and love, that is to say the necessity of a natural predisposition for the purpose of possessing nobility, i. e. the divine «grace» (Cv. IV XX 7). Finally, in the Commedia, the poet returns to freeing God’s gift from any preventive natural disposition, as demonstrated not only by the repeated references to the twins Jacob and Esau, destined to opposite fates by virtue of the «grace» with which God «at his own pleasure endows each creature differently» (Pd. XXXII, vv. 65-6), but also by the XXX canto of Purgatorio, where Dante no longer appears uncertain whether to attribute his genius to a «good star» or to «a better thing» (If. XXVI, vv. 21-24), but clearly affirms its dependence on the «largess of celestial graces» (v. 112). (shrink)

A Bilingual International Conference on the History and Actuality of the Polish Contribution, from the Lvov-Warsaw school to phenomenology, to Twentieth Century Philosophy. Colloque international bilingue portant sur l'histoire et l'actualité de la contribution polonaise, de l'école de Lvov-Varsovie à la phénoménologie, à la philosophie du vingtième siècle.

La Segunda Guerra Mundial y las atrocidades cometidas en investigaciones con los prisioneros en los campos de concentración nazis y japoneses, despertaron la conciencia por el desarrollo de los derechos humanos que se habían conquistado paulatinamente a lo largo de la historia. Por ello se conforman una serie de leyes, normas y declaraciones donde se tratan los aspectos bioéticos en los ensayos clínicos. Se debe prestar vital atención a la relación médico-paciente en el curso de las investigaciones y considerar la (...) relación beneficio/riesgo cuando se va a experimentar en seres humanos. La retinopatía diabética proliferativa es una de las afecciones oftalmológicas que más ensayos ha suscitado. El objetivo de este trabajo consiste en analizar algunos aspectos éticos en la experimentación en pacientes con esta afección. The Second World War and the atrocities committed in research with prisoners in Japanese and Nazi concentration camps, awakened consciousness for the development of human rights that had gradually been conquered throughout history. That´s why a series of laws, rules and statements that deal with bioethical aspects in clinical trials, were passed. Special attention must be given to the doctor-patient relationship during the research and consider the benefit/risk ratio when conducting experiments on human beings. Proliferative Diabetic Retinopathy is one of the ophthalmological disorders that has given rise to more trials. The research goal is to analyze some ethical aspects when experimenting on patients with this condition. (shrink)

Le théâtre dans l'oeuvre et la pensée de Foucault, ce n'est ni une simple métaphore pour caractériser des événements de sens ou des ruptures pratiques, ni un concept esthétisant qui dédoublerait l'idée de vérité pour la vider de ses prétentions épistémologiques, ni un réservoir d'exemples colorés pour illustrer des expériences historiques. Le théâtre, c'est un opérateur philosophique, une manière de penser autrement. Cet ouvrage montre à quel point, au fil des récits de Foucault, la vérité trouve dans l'histoire l'élément moins (...) de sa réalisation que de sa mise en scène et, partant, de son indéfinie fragmentation : pluralité des voix, dramatiques des prises de parole, résistances et rébellions des corps, spectacles du pouvoir, tragique des vérités impossibles. Si le chemin que trace la vérité dans la vie des hommes relève à ce point de la représentation, du drame ou de la farce, c'est qu'elle n'est pas le reflet calme des choses. La vérité, c'est un trouble critique dans l'expérience de soi, c'est une performance politique. S'appuyant non seulement sur ses ouvrages publiés mais aussi sur un ensemble d'inédits, ce livre déploie le theatrum philosophicum de Foucault, et, plus largement, de la pensée contemporaine. (shrink)

Le corps traverse la pensée de Michel Foucault comme un fil rouge. Cadavre ouvert sur la table d'autopsie, masse opaque au miroir de laquelle l'homme, objet/sujet des sciences humaines, aperçoit son reflet fondateur et inquiétant. Corps morcelé du supplicié, corps "infâme" face au corps surpuissant du roi. Corps de l'ouvrier rendu docile par les techniques disciplinaires. Corps agité de la convulsionnaire, tordu de l'hystérique face aux demandes de vérité du médecin ou du confesseur. Corps du sage antique, rompu aux pratiques (...) diététiques ou éthiques. Corps utopique, double, imaginaire. A travers cette panoplie bigarrée, la question de la vérité du corps est mise hors jeu. Il n'existe pas un concept univoque, une nature essentielle du corps. Seulement des histoires, des récits de batailles. Car si le corps est bien le lieu d'inscription du pouvoir, il en est aussi l'instance de contestation, de vérification, d'altération. Le corps fait valoir partout la résistance grimaçante et rieuse de l'immanence. (shrink)

Nurses die by suicide at a higher rate than the general population. Previous studies have observed mental health problems, including substance use, as a prominent antecedent before death. The purpose of this study was to explore the characteristics of nurses who died by suicide documented in the death investigation narratives from the National Violent Death Reporting System from 2003 to 2017 using thematic analysis and natural language processing. One thousand three hundred and fifty-eight subjects met these inclusion criteria. Narratives from (...) 601 subjects were thematically analyzed and 2544 individual narratives were analyzed using natural language processing. The analyses revealed five themes: “mental health treatment,” “poor general health and chronic pain,” “substance use,” “worsening mental health after bereavement,” and “repeating a family member's suicide.” Mental health/substance use, chronic illness, and chronic pain were seen to coexist in a complex, interdependent manner that appeared to be entangled in the nurses' narratives before death. These findings echo the need for reducing the stigmatization of mental health problems in nursing and removing barriers to help-seeking behaviors as early preventative interventions. Future research is needed to determine if a comprehensive healthcare integration approach to address these entangled problems would reduce suicide vulnerability in nurses and improve their quality of life. (shrink)

In the unpublished manuscript of a lecture course probably given by Foucault at the École normale supérieure of Paris in 1954–5 (‘On Anthropology’; the dating is still uncertain), Foucault undertakes an erudite and detailed reconstruction of the history of anthropological knowledge, from modernity (Descartes and Malebranche) to 20th-century Nietzschean commentaries (Jaspers and Heidegger), including analyses by Kant, Feuerbach, and Dilthey, among others. My article explores this lecture course to emphasize the importance of anthropological criticism for the young Foucault, addressing in (...) particular the anti-anthropological significance of the encounter with Nietzsche’s philosophy, which becomes an output power ( puissance de sortie) both of the figure of man and the notion of truth in which he was involved. These unpublished manuscripts will therefore allow me to find a common thread in Foucault’s work in the 1950s and 1960s (and even beyond): the exploration of new potentialities for thought opened by ‘the death of man’. (shrink)

A partire dal corso al Collège de France L’ermeneutica del soggetto , l'analisi del complesso rapporto fra retorica e filosofia permette a Foucault di riformulare la questione della verità dal punto di vista delle pratiche di veridizione. Rispetto alla filosofia, la retorica è il modo d’essere altro del discorso attraverso il quale la parr ē sia può definirsi nella sua differenza costitutiva: la messa alla prova di una parola che sia “performance” creativa, una drammatica del vero come potenza di alterazione.

Is there a specificity peculiar to the “Foucault archives” that makes them a sensitive object for philosophical and critical thought today? Can we use the “Foucault case” to reflect more broadly on the question of the philosophical archive / archives – what does the creation of archives for philosophers imply in terms of the reception and re-actualisation of their thought? In this article, we will start with a description of the multiple Foucault archives existing today and the history of their (...) composition, as well as an initial discussion of their possible uses. We would then like to start from the concrete, material experience of the archives in order to ask a question that is more than methodological, ethico-political: would there be a “good use” of the archives of and by philosophers? More specifically, is there a “Foucaultian exception” which would require the Foucaultian, and probably philosophical, archives to be used in a broad sense, in a “different” way? We will plead for the construction of an ethic which is rather an “aesthetic” of the philosophical archives: the ability to bring out through the work on archives not something like “the good and true identity” of their author, but points of diffraction, unexpected faces, new writings. (shrink)