Aims and background: The present work assessed the impact of two decrees on ethics committees in Italy, aimed at bringing the national laws on the conduct of clinical trials into line with the rest of the EC, and regulating and facilitating not-for-profit research.Material and methods: Prospectively collected data from an Italian multicentre study were examined with respect to the ethics review process. Administrative and time elements of the review process were audited. Main outcome measures were time between the application submission (...) and the ethics committee definitive opinion, type and number of application submission forms, number of ethics committees that refused fee exemption, and time between the ethics committee approval and the administrative authorisation.Results: A total of 134 local research ethics committees were approached. Application submission procedures and application forms varied greatly; paper submission was mandatory. The median time from submission to approval was 72 days. Only two LRECs refused the fee exemption. The median time from LREC approval to administrative agreement was 50 days and only 9.6% of local authorities came to a verbal agreement with the sponsor.Conclusions: Italian LRECs are still not sufficiently efficient in complying with the Directive 2001/20/EC requirement . Better coordination of LRECs work is needed although the optimal level of coordination between them is still not known. In the meantime, national guidelines are needed concerning the application of Directive 2001/20/EC. The behaviour of Italian LRECs towards not-for-profit research was excellent although only the fee exemption was requested. (shrink)

Recent advances in neuroscience have paved the way to innovative applications that cognitively augment and enhance humans in a variety of contexts. This paper aims at providing a snapshot of the current state of the art and a motivated forecast of the most likely developments in the next two decades. Firstly, we survey the main neuroscience technologies for both observing and influencing brain activity, which are necessary ingredients for human cognitive augmentation. We also compare and contrast such technologies, as their (...) individual characteristics (e.g., spatio-temporal resolution, invasiveness, portability, energy requirements and cost) influence their current and future role in human cognitive augmentation. Secondly, we chart the state of the art on neurotechnologies for human cognitive augmentation, keeping an eye both on the applications that already exist and those that are emerging or are likely to emerge in the next two decades. Particularly, we consider applications in the areas of communication, cognitive enhancement, memory, attention monitoring/enhancement, situation awareness and complex problem solving, and we look at what fraction of the population might benefit from such technologies and at the demands they impose in terms of user training. Thirdly, we briefly review the ethical issues associated with current neuroscience technologies. These are important because they may differentially influence both present and future research on (and adoption of) neurotechnologies for human cognitive augmentation: an inferior technology with no significant ethical issues may thrive while a superior technology causing widespread ethical concerns may end up being outlawed. Finally, based on the lessons learned in our analysis, using past trends and considering other related forecasts, we attempt to forecast the most likely future developments of neuroscience technology for human cognitive augmentation and provide informed recommendations for promising future research and exploitation avenues. (shrink)

A reconstruction of Johnson's main contributions to philosophy is provided. Johnson's theories are grounded on his distinction between "substantives" and "adjectives", which governs the oppositions between (1) particular and universal, (2) determinandum and determinans in thought, (3) acts of separation and discrimination, (4) subject and predicate, (5) thing and quality, (6) substance and determination, (7) proposition and fact, (8) external and internal relations, (9) extension and intension. While substantives divide between continuants and occurrents, adjectives are fundamentally distinguishable into determinables and (...) determinates. The immediate (Stout, Broad) and later (Prior, Carnap, Searle, Armstrong, Hautamäki and Johansson) reception of Johnson's distinction between determinables and determinates is also discussed. (shrink)

Когда у человека или у группы людей о чем-либо складываются некие представления, то всегда очень неплохо знать то, как такие представления возникли. А также то, как они сложились у того, кто в итоге оказался источником информации.

Este artigo tem por objetivo ilustrar a relação de Marx com a filosofia hegeliana a partir do conceito de alienação. A autora procura demonstrar que o lugar metodológico deste conceito na argumentação filosófica de Hegel e Marx representa a diferença entre as concepções idealista e materialista respectivas. Porém, sublinha igualmente a semelhança entre ambos pensadores que têm no conceito de alienação os limites da tematização filosófica do mundo concreto.

The paper aims to sketch Kant’s response to the mind-body problem in his first work, Thoughts on the true estimation of living forces (1747). This is accomplished by first examining the origins of the problem in Descartes, then exploring the traditional responses to the problem, occasionalism, pre-established harmony, and physical influx. Finally, the paper positions Kant as a proponent of physical influx and highlights the unique features and challenges of his perspective.

Издание представляет результаты исследования малоизученной темы социально-экономических доктрин консерватизма. Оно отражает их развитие от времени выражения их в виде утопий, погруженных в более общие социально-философские и политические учения.

Il libro ricostruisce la vita e il pensiero di Jean Guitton (1901-1999), il grande amico di Paolo VI, a quasi ventʼanni dalla sua morte. La vicenda umana di questo scrittore e filosofo cristiano ha attraversato quasi integralmente il XX secolo quale testimone diretto di eventi epocali: i primi tentativi ecumenici, le due guerre mondiali, le radicalizzazioni ideologiche del secondo dopoguerra, lʼera atomica e il Concilio Vaticano II. Il primo capitolo del volume è dedicato alla ricostruzione della vita di Guitton e (...) alle sue prime sintesi accademiche; ed esso fanno seguito altri due capitoli che trattano della sua antropologia (il tempo, il pudore, l'amore umano) e della sua cristologia filosofica (le condizioni di possibilità della rivelazione, la filosofia della risurrezione, la sua innovativa mariologia). Ne viene il ritratto di un pensiero di impronta umanista, ben radicato nella tradizione francese e che forse, come già lamentava Yves Congar nel 1963, non ha avuto, fino ad oggi, quellʼattenzione e quellʼaccoglienza che sembra meritare. (shrink)

I pragmatisti -- De Sarlo e la sua scuola -- Benussi e la psicologia della Gestalt -- Presenze -- Inediti.

O presente artigo emergiu de uma reflexão sobre os percalços que afligem e chocam os professores, sobretudo no início da carreira, entre os quais se destaca tanto nos estudos quanto nos relatos propalados pelos próprios professores, a violência manifestada dentro e fora das salas de aula. Dada essa constatação e a evidente necessidade de sua superação para além de medidas efêmeras, esta pesquisa traça dois objetivos igualmente relevantes: a) incitar a discussão da violência no momento da formação docente inicial, bem (...) como o surgimento de novos estudos acerca dessa temática no âmbito da pesquisa acadêmica; e b) transgredir a tradição de pesquisas que consistem em recomendar prescrições a serem aplicadas sobre como banir a violência escolar, desconsiderando as peculiaridades de cada contexto. Tais objetivos são provenientes da seguinte questão norteadora: quais estratégias são desenvolvidas nos cursos de licenciatura que visam à preparação do futuro professor para lidar com o fenômeno da violência na escola básica? Intentando responder a essa questão e, portanto, contemplar os objetivos delineados optou-se pela análise de material bibliográfico especializado, sistematicamente selecionado, como procedimento metodológico. Como principal resultado, verificou-se que a discussão da temática da violência escolar na formação inicial é algo ainda escasso na prática e incipiente na esfera da pesquisa. Assim sendo, enfatiza-se a importância do fortalecimento de tal discussão a fim de que, ao ingressarem na carreira docente, futuros professores sintam-se devidamente subsidiados para enfrentarem os desafios cotidianos que venham a se manifestar ao longo do exercício da profissão. (shrink)

In ‘Choosing Ends’, Schmidtz defines a new kind of end to join the familiar categories of final, instrumental and constitutive ends: namely, maieutic ends. A maieutic end is an end which ‘gives birth to’ another end. For example, Kate wants to have a goal in life, in particular a career; so having a career is a maieutic end which ‘gives birth to’ her career in medicine. ….

Aristotle claims man is a political animal and that the polis exists by nature. Taking literally his analogy between the legislator and the craftsman, Aristotle's critics contend that he 'blunders' because the polis is artificial, devised by a legislator/founder and imposed on a people. We defend Aristotle's claims by showing, first, how Aristotle's claim that man is by nature an animal possessing logos -- speech/reason -- grounds his account of the natural development of the polis out of the earliest partnerships (...) (which the critics concede are natural); second, that the person who first brought people together in a polis may well have done so without realizing the scope of his actions; and, finally, that the developmental process is clearly one of praxis (action), not poisis (making, the imposition of a form on matter). Aristotle's claims are evidenced by the Homeric hero Philoctetes, whom one critic takes to disprove Aristotle's theses. (shrink)