Recent years have yielded many discussions on how to endow autonomous agents with the ability to make ethical decisions, and the need for explicit ethical reasoning and transparency is a persistent theme in this literature. We present a modular and transparent approach to equip autonomous agents with the ability to comply with ethical prescriptions, while still enacting pre-learned optimal behaviour. Our approach relies on a normative supervisor module, that integrates a theorem prover for defeasible deontic logic within the control loop (...) of a reinforcement learning agent. The supervisor operates as both an event recorder and an on-the-fly compliance checker w.r.t. an external norm base. We successfully evaluated our approach with several tests using variations of the game Pac-Man, subject to a variety of “ethical” constraints. (shrink)

According to the Simple View of intentional action famously refuted by Bratman , φ-ing is intentional only if the agent intended to φ. In this paper I show that none of five different objections to Bratman's counter-example – McCann's , Garcia's , Sverdlik's , Stout's , and Adams's – works. Therefore Bratman's contention that SV is false still stands.

According to the Simple View of intentional action famously refuted by Bratman, φ-ing is intentional only if the agent intended to φ. In this paper I show that none of five different objections to Bratman's counter-example – McCann's, Garcia's, Sverdlik's, Stout's, and Adams's – works. Therefore Bratman's contention that SV is false still stands.

The correspondence between Leibniz and Samuel Clarke was probably the most famous and influential philosophical exchange of the eighteenth century. It focused on the clash between the Newtonian and Leibnizian world systems, involving disputes in physics, theology, and metaphysics. Vailati's book provides a comprehensive overview and commentary on this important body of letters. He not only identifies and evaluates the various arguments, but situates the views advanced by the correspondence in the context of their principal writings.

Frankfurt sets out to refute the principle according to which ‘a person is morally responsible for what he has done only if he could have done otherwise’. Frankfurt devises a counterexample in which an agent is intuitively responsible even though she could not have done otherwise: Suppose someone – Black, let us say – wants Jones to perform a certain action. Black is prepared to go to considerable lengths to get his way, but he prefers to avoid showing his hand (...) unnecessarily. So he waits until Jones is about to make up his mind what to do, and he does nothing unless it is clear to him that Jones is going to decide to do something other than what he wants him to do. If it does become clear that Jones is going to decide to do something else, Black takes effective steps to ensure that Jones decides to do, and that he does do, what he wants him to do. Whatever Jones's initial preferences and inclinations, then, Black will have his way … Now suppose that Black never has to show his hand because Jones, for reasons of his own, decides to perform and does perform the very action Black wants him to perform. In that case, it seems clear, Jones will bear precisely …. (shrink)

The role of the microenvironment in cancer development is being increasingly appreciated. This paper will review data that highlight an emerging distinction between two different entities: the microenvironment that altered/preneoplastic/neoplastic cells find in the tissue where they reside, and the peculiar microenvironment inside the focal lesion (tumor) that these cells contribute to create. While alteration in the tissue environment can contribute to the selective clonal expansion of altered cells to form focal proliferative lesions, the atypical, non‐integrated growth pattern that defines (...) such focal lesions leads to the appearance of what is correctly referred to as the tumor microenvironment. The latter represents a new and unique biological milieu, characterized by hypoxia, acidosis and other biochemical and metabolic alterations, including genetic instability, that can set the stage for tumor progression to occur. Thus, the two microenvironments act in sequence and play complementary roles in the development of overt neoplasia. This distinction has important implications for the understanding of disease pathogenesis and for the management of preneoplastic/neoplastic lesions at various stages of cancer development. BioEssays 29:738–744, 2007. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

Interaction between geology and mining was a decisive element for the development of stratigraphy during the eighteenth century in Germany, Sweden, England, and also Italy. This paper analyses the importance of mining background and experience, and interest in mining, among some eighteenth-century Italian scholars who studied mountains and other terrestrial reliefs paying particular attention to their rocks, strata and formations. Several primary sources are examined, from the early case of Antonio Vallisneri-who, being a physician, used the mines and the quarries (...) as necessary tools of his 'anatomy' of the mountains-up to the geological travels in the Alps and the Apennines promoted in the late eighteenth century with mining perspectives. Rigorous empirical approaches to the study of the Earth's surface-shown by scientists such as Luigi Ferdinando Marsili, Giovanni Targioni Tozzetti and Giovanni Arduino-are here investigated in the light of their mining expertise. This practical knowledge was an essential element of their theoretical work on the 'classification' of mountains. (shrink)

In higher eukaryotes, circadian behaviour patterns have been dissected at the molecular level in Drosophila and, more recently, in the mouse. Considerable progress has been made in identifying some of the molecular components of the clock in the fly, where two genes, period (per) and timeless (tim), are essential for behavioural rhythmicity. The PER and TIM proteins show circadian cycles in abundance, and are part of a negative feedback loop with their own mRNAs. Within the pacemaker neurons, the PER and (...) TIM products are believed to form a complex which allows them to translocate to the nucleus, but how they repress their own transcription is unclear. TIM is rapidly degraded by light, a feature which permits a compelling molecular description of both behavioural light entrainment and phase responses to light pulses. The regulation of per and tim is altered in different Drosophila tissues, however, and comparative analyses of the two genes outside the Diptera reveals further unusual patterns of tissue‐specific regulation. Evolution appears to have modified the way in which the two genes are utilised to generate circadian phenotypes. More recently, the cloning of mouse clock genes, including putative per homologues, opens up exciting possibilities for mammalian molecular chronobiology. (shrink)

In higher eukaryotes, circadian behaviour patterns have been dissected at the molecular level in Drosophila and, more recently, in the mouse. Considerable progress has been made in identifying some of the molecular components of the clock in the fly, where two genes, period (per) and timeless (tim), are essential for behavioural rhythmicity. The PER and TIM proteins show circadian cycles in abundance, and are part of a negative feedback loop with their own mRNAs. Within the pacemaker neurons, the PER and (...) TIM products are believed to form a complex which allows them to translocate to the nucleus, but how they repress their own transcription is unclear. TIM is rapidly degraded by light, a feature which permits a compelling molecular description of both behavioural light entrainment and phase responses to light pulses. The regulation of per and tim is altered in different Drosophila tissues, however, and comparative analyses of the two genes outside the Diptera reveals further unusual patterns of tissue‐specific regulation. Evolution appears to have modified the way in which the two genes are utilised to generate circadian phenotypes. More recently, the cloning of mouse clock genes, including putative per homologues, opens up exciting possibilities for mammalian molecular chronobiology. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Leibniz and Clarke on Miracles EZIO VAILATI IN ONE OF THE MOST tense moments of the exchange with Clarke, answering the accusation of removing God from the world, Leibniz curtly told his interlocutor he had explained the continual dependence of creation on God better than any other: But, says the author, this is all that I contended for. To this I answer: your humble servant for that, sir. (...) Our dispute consists in many other things. The question is, whether God does not act in the most regular and most perfect manner? Whether his machine is liable to disorders, which he is obliged to mend by extraordinary means? Whether the will of God can act without reason? Whether space is an absolute being? Also concerning the nature of miracles; and many such things, which make a wide difference between us.' ' Leibniz to Clarke, third letter, section 16, in A. Robinet, ed., Correspondance Leibniz-Clarke (Paris, 1957), 56-57. In the rest of the essay, the following abbreviations are used. S. Clarke, The Works (New York, 1978) = W, followed by volume and page. C. I. Gerhard, ed., Die Philosophische Schriften yon G. W. Leibniz (Hildesheim, 1961) = GP, followed by volume and page. C. I. Gerhard, ed., Die Mathematische Schriften yon G. W. Leibniz (Hildesheim, 1963) = GM, followed by volume and page. L. Loemker, ed., G. W. Leibniz. Philosophical Papers and Letters (Dordrecht, 1976) = L, followed by page. P. Remnant and J. Bennett, trans. & eds., G. W. Leibniz. New Essays on Human Understanding = NE, followed by book, chapter, and section. A. Robinet, ed., CorrtsporldangtLeibniz-Clarke (Paris, 1957) = CI, followed by letter number and section for Clarke's letters to Leibniz; Lz, followed by letter number and section for Leibniz's letters to Clarke; R, followed by page number, for other material. Since I refer to Clarke's and Leibniz's letters by letter number and paragraph, the reader can consult any edition of the Leibniz-Clarke correspondence. The most common edition of the correspondence in English is H. G. Alexander, ed., The Leibniz-Clarke Corresporu~gnge(Manchester, 1956). In addition to the correspondence it contains a helpful introduction, Clarke's appendix to the correspondence, relevant extracts from Newton's works and from Leibniz's letters relating to the correspondence, all translated into English. Robinet's edition is in effect a critical edition, containing the correspondence, various drafts by Leibniz, and relevant letters by Leibniz and his correspondents. However, it does not contain Clarke's appendix to his edition of the correspondence. Alexander's and Robinet's editions complement each other. However, neither contains Clarke's own marginal additions to the Boyle Lectures, in which he explicitly refers to Leibniz or to the correspondence. [563] 564 JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY 33:4 OCTOBER i99 5 At first sight, the reference to miracles as one of the main issues of the correspondence may seem odd. When thinking about miracles and the seventeenth century, one is likely to think about Spinoza's impassioned attempt to prove that they are impossible.' Indeed, one may even think of miracles as belonging to an odd and antiquated frame of thought in fundamental antithesis with the new world-view brought about by modern science and soon to be swept away. However, this view would be wrong. Many of the philosopherscientists who directly brought about the scientific revolution, or like Clarke were closely associated with it, did believe in miracles and engaged in debates concerning their possibility and their evidential role in support of Christianity.3 Furthermore, in both Leibniz and Clarke the topic of miracles was connected with significant metaphysical issues of the power of creatures and the nature of natural laws. On these Clarke and Leibniz disagreed deeply, and consequently to a large extent the issue of miracles became a rallying cry for a deeper confrontation. In this essay, we shall look first at Clarke's and Leibniz's views on miracles in works preceding their exchange, and then at the correspondence itself. 1. CLARKE Since Clarke was a divine, it is not surprising that the motivations behind his interest in miracles were mainly apologetic. However, it would be a mistake to attribute that interest merely to his... (shrink)

Der Aufsatz sucht die Berechtigung der Leibnizschen Unterscheidung zwischen notwendigen und kontingenten Aussagen nachzuweisen. Das entscheidende Problem ist für den Autor die Frage nach der Verbindung zwischen dem Subjektbegriff und seinen Teilbegriffen, Teilbegriffe, ohne die der Subjektbegriff nicht gedacht werden kann, kommen ihm wesentlich und notwendig zu. Teilbegriffe, deren Zukommen jedoch nur bei Hinzunahme externer Bedingungen -letzlich des göttlichen Willens und seiner Wahl der besten Welt -begründet werden kann, kommen in kontingenter Weise zu. Notwendige Sätze können durch eine Analyse der (...) Begriffe in endlich vielen Schritten bewiesen werden, kontingente Sätze erfordern eine unendliche Analyse und sind deshalb nicht beweisbar. Leibniz' Annahme kontingenter Aussagen beruht daher nach der Überzeugung des Autors nicht auf der Unterscheidung zwischen Möglichkeit und Existenz, wie z. B. Russell geglaubt hat, sondern auf der Unterscheidung von Wesensbegriffen und Individualbegriffen. Mit Hilfe dieser Unterscheidung ist die Annahme kontingenter Aussagen nach der Meinung des Autors zu rechtfertigen. (shrink)

Les designers et théoriciens Ezio Manzini et Virginia Tassinari répondent à la question posée par le titre du dossier, Design is the answer, but what was the question? Si, d’une part, se pose la question de l’impact social et politique du design et de sa responsabilité dans les changements sociaux, de l’autre s’impose une réflexion sur les modes d’action du design et sur les fondements de cette action. Dans cette perspective, Manzini met en avant les pratiques d’ engendrement et (...) d’ engagement comme stratégies d’action communes et communautaires, alors que Tassinari explique comment la définition du designing (plus que du design) comme une action politique nécessite une remise en question du cadre épistémologique qui la fonde. (shrink)

Jewish monotheism forbids every representation of God. In ancient Greece, on the contrary, great sculptural art was mainly representation of several gods. I wonder whether, according to Hermann Cohen, sculpture and paganism are necessarily bound together. What, then, is the meaning of artistic representation of Jesus Christ? Is he the ideal of an unification of God and Man?

1. Il pensiero -- 2. Fondi manoscritti e opere a stampa.

1. Elementi metodologici e storici.--2. Struttura logico-dialettica dell'esperienza morale.

This paper provides a philosophical analysis and a new edition of an anonymous Epitome of John Dumbleton’s solution to the semantic paradoxes. The first part of this paper briefly presents Dumbleton’s cassationist solution to the semantic paradoxes, which the English philosopher proposes in his Summa Logicae, written in the 1330s–40s. The second part investigates the solution to various types of insolubles proposed by the anonymous author of the Epitome. The third part provides a new critical edition of the Latin text (...) – a first edition was edited by Bottin in 1978 – and an English translation. (shrink)

The digital revolution has generated huge changes in the world of work, with relevant implications for the Human Resources Management function. New challenges arise in facing digital work, digital employees, and digital management, such that the connection between new technologies and HRM is now described as electronic HRM. Challenges and connection entail the possibility to review the notion of HRM itself, examining new research perspectives and lines of interpretation following a Critical Management Studies approach, thus developing a more contextualized view (...) in conceiving HRM, a more expansive consideration of stakeholders, and a longer-term perspective in approaching the results of digital transformation and HRM outcomes. The article analyzes a specific organizational case, involving a multinational enterprise, and explores how the case study enhances the understanding of HRM as a social practice embedded in specific situated contexts. Such a conception enables the engagement of multiple rationalities, related to both internal and external stakeholders, overcoming a “mere antiperformance stance” and achieving forms of reconstructive reflexivity concerning the interconnection between the digital age, HRM, and the innovative generation of social value through an authentic corporate responsibility. (shrink)

Franz Rosenzweig devoted particular attention to the problem of individuality in Hermann Cohen’s philosophy. He writes that, in comparison with the individuality of the man of religion, “the human being about which aesthetics knew [...] fades now in all its aesthetic individuality to a ‘mere type’”. This statement is actually based on Cohen’s writings: in Ästhetik des reinen Gefühls, Cohen explicitly maintains that the human being that is the object of artistic representation is not a type, but rather an individual. (...) Just three years later, however, in his first book about philosophy of religion, Der Begriff der Religion im System der Philosophie, Cohen states that the human being that is represented by art is not really an individual; only the man of religion is really individual; the human being represented by art is merely a type. In this paper my aim is to argue for the thesis that these opposite statements belong to different points of view. From an aesthetic point of view the human being represented by art has to be considered as truly individual, but the systematic overview adopted in Der Begriff der Religion can teach us that the individuality of the human being represented by art can’t be maintained from a different point of view than the aesthetic one. (shrink)

La dimension immatérielle de notre réalité, grâce aux prothèses informatiques et médiatiques, est devenue de plus en plus étendue et puissante. Cet article suggère que la prétendue « dématérialisation » comporte le recel des conditions matérielles nécessaires à son propre essor. Il examine le rôle joué par la logistique dans ce processus de refoulement systématique de la jointure entre matériel et immatériel. Permettant que la marchandise puisse « apparaître » presque magiquement sur les rayons des magasins ou directement chez nous, (...) et que les déchets puissent « disparaître » tout aussi magiquement, l’organisation logistique actuelle repose sur un mix unique de transparence et d’opacisation. (shrink)

We think less than we think. My thesis moves from this suspicion to show that standard accounts of intentional action can't explain the whole of agency. Causalist accounts such as Davidson's and Bratman's, according to which an action can be intentional only if it is caused by a particular mental state of the agent, don't work for every kind of action. So-called automatic actions, effortless performances over which the agent doesn't deliberate, and to which she doesn't need to pay attention, (...) constitute exceptions to the causalist framework, or so I argue in this thesis. Not all actions are the result of a mental struggle, painful hesitation, or the weighting of evidence. Through practice, many performances become second nature. Think of familiar cases such as one's morning routines and habits: turning on the radio, brushing your teeth. Think of the highly skilled performances involved in sport and music: Jarrett's improvised piano playing, the footballer's touch. Think of agents' spontaneous reactions to their environment: ducking a blow, smiling. Psychological research has long acknowledged the distinctiveness and importance of automatic actions, while philosophy has so far explained them together with the rest of agency. Intuition tells us that automatic actions are intentional actions of ours all the same (I have run a survey which shows that this intuition is widely shared): not only our own autonomous deeds for which we are held responsible, but also necessary components in the execution and satisfaction of our general plans and goals. But do standard causal accounts deliver on the intentionality of automatic actions? I think not. Because, in automatic cases, standard appeals to intentions, beliefs, desires, and psychological states in general ring hollow. We just act: we don't think, either consciously or unconsciously. On the reductive side, Davidson's view can't but appeal to, at best, unconscious psychological states, the presence and causal role of which is, I argue, inferred from the needs of a theory, rather than from evidence in the world. On the non-reductive side, Bratman agrees, with his refutation of the Simple View, that we can't just attach an intention to every action that we want to explain. But Bratman’s own Single Phenomenon View, appealing to the mysterious notion of 'motivational potential', merely acknowledges the need for refinement without actually providing one. So I propose my own account of intentional action, the 'guidance view', according to which automatic actions are intentional: differently from Davidson and Bratman, who only offer necessary conditions in order to avoid the problem of causal deviance, I offer a full-blown account: E's phi-ing is intentional if and only If phi-ing is under E's guidance. This account resembles one developed by Frankfurt, with the crucial difference that Frankfurt – taking 'acting with an intention' and 'acting intentionally' to be synonymous – thinks that guidance is sufficient only for some movement being an action, but not for some movement being an intentional action. I argue that, on the other hand, Frankfurt's concept of guidance can be developed so that it is sufficient for intentional action too. In Chapter One I present and defend my definition of ‘automatic action’. In Chapter Two I show that such understanding of automatic actions finds confirmation in empirical psychology. In Chapter Three I show that Davidson's reductive account of intentional action does not work for automatic actions. In Chapter Four I show that the two most influential non-reductive accounts of intentional action, the Simple View and Bratman's Single Phenomenon View, don't work either. And in Chapter Five I put forward and defend my positive thesis, the 'guidance view'. Also, in the Appendix I present the findings of my survey on the intentionality of automatic actions. (shrink)

Este livro poderia de facto definir-se também "Razão e Lógicas da Totalidade do Real na filosofia africana contemporânea". Quatro objectivos, por assim dizer, se vislumbram logo duma leitura atenta deste texto: antes de mais a preocupação dos autores de propor nos nossos dias, uma leitura transversal da filosofia africana moderna e contemporânea a partir, diríamos, do conceito da "razão". Trata-se, neste caso, de introduzir os leitores não na história da filosofia africana como tal, mas somente, como especifica Ezio Bono, (...) de delinear "algumas questões principais que consideram ser mais significativas e recorrentes no actual debate" da filosofia africana moderna e contemporânea e a sua "traversée" (Bidima), por assim dizer, no âmbito moçambicano (José Castiano). Este texto, cuja vocação principal é transformar-se, "grosso modo", numa espécie de "Humanidades Clássicas Africanas" (Cheikh Anta Diop), se quer sintético e ao mesmo tempo panorâmico. Ele é sintético, pois os autores partem duma leitura temática (a razão). Ele é também panorâmico, já que partindo deste focus temático, eles oferecem uma visão global desta matéria, do ponto de vista histórico, teorético, epistemológico, cultural, panafricano (Procesi) e particular moçambicano (Bono e Castiano). (shrink)

A central topic in Cohen’s Ästhetik des reinen Gefühls is the artistic representation of the human figure; in Cohen’s reflections on this topic, the nude has a fundamental importance. The first aim of this paper is to examine Cohen’s theses on the role of the nude in figurative arts, as well as his comments about sculptural and pictorial works representing nude figures. This will bring us to take into consideration Cohen’s judgement about eroticism in art. Some brief considerations about the (...) nude in contemporary art, and above all in photography, will be expressed in order to evaluate the topicality of Cohen’s aesthetics concerning this theme. These considerations, however, will make it necessary to rethink Cohen’s judgement regarding eroticism in art. (shrink)

The COVID-19 pandemic played as a booster to the cultural, social, and economic transformations triggered by the 4.0 Industrial Revolution, increasing the diffusion and employment of technological devices and requiring to reconsider the traditional approach to work and organization. Dealing with an emblematic organizational case, the article highlights the main key capabilities requested to face the current scenario, suggesting transformed attitudes needed to cope with the unfolding complex, uncertain, changing digital and blended world. The findings, gathered through an extensive survey (...) involving 500 people who started working at a distance during the 2020 lockdown period, underline the main actionable skills to be achieved for enhancing agile work, hybrid professional roles and new work, and organizational and managerial cultures. (shrink)

Il concetto dell'anima svolge nel pensiero di Michel Henry un'importantissima funzione di filo conduttore nell'esame di alcuni momenti fondamentali della storia della filosofia. Dal momento che le interpretazioni henriane del pensiero dei filosofi del passato hanno sempre uno scopo teoretico, lo studio di questo utilizzo del tema dell'anima in funzione di filo conduttore permette sia di comprendere meglio alcuni aspetti importanti delle tesi filosofiche di Henry, sia di valutarne con maggiore consapevolezza l'importanza per lafilosofia e per la cultura di oggi.

Cohen deals with the question of the possibility for art to represent God or the divine in some of his works, throughout all his philosophical production, but obviously above all in his main aesthetic work, sthetik des reinen Gefhls. We can state that in Cohen's works this problem is posed with reference to three different religious fields: Greek polytheism, Jewish monotheism and Christianity. The topic of this essay will be Cohen's thought about the artistic representation of the divine in Christianity (...) or in Christian art through the representation of Jesus. This topic will be examined with reference both to Kants Begrndung der sthetik and to sthetik des reinen Gefhls ; whereas in Kants Begrndung der sthetik Cohen devotes to the representation of Jesus just a short consideration in the historical introduction of the book, in sthetik des reinen Gefhls the representation of Jesus is object of far more attention. Here, Cohen's answer to the question of the possibility to represent the divine through the representation of Jesus is that Jesus' divinity, in the artistic representation of his figure, can only have a metaphorical value, the real meaning of which is that Jesus' story is the ideal story of the human being; in Kants Begrndung der sthetik and in other writings of the 80s, on the contrary, the idea of incarnation and of the divinity of Jesus is object of a different appreciation by Cohen. The comparison between these different stances can be a contribution to the comprehension of the changes in Cohen's view of Christianity through the years. (shrink)