How can the forensic scientist rationally justify performing a sequence of tests and analyses in a particular case? When is it worth performing a test or analysis on an item? Currently, there is a large void in logical frameworks for making rational decisions in forensic science. The aim of this paper is to fill this void by presenting a step-by-step guide on how to apply Bayesian decision theory to routine decision problems encountered by forensic scientists on performing or not performing (...) a particular laboratory test or analysis. A decision-theoretic framework, composed of actions, states of nature, and utilities, models this problem, and an influence diagram translates its notions into a probabilistic graphical network. Within this framework, the expected value of information (EVOI) for the submission of an item to a particular test or analysis addresses the above questions. The development of a classical case example on whether to perform presumptive tests for blood before submitting the item for a DNA analysis illustrates the use of this model for source level questions in forensic biology (i.e., questions that ask whether a crime stain consisting of a particular body fluid comes from a particular person). We show how to construct an influence diagram for this example, and how sensitivity analyses lead to an optimal analytical sequence. The key idea is to show that such a Bayesian decisional approach provides a coherent framework for justifying the optimal analytical sequence for a particular case in forensic science. (shrink)

The concept of scaffolding has wide resonance in several scientific fields. Here we attempt to adopt it for the study of development. In this perspective, the embryo is conceived as an integral whole, comprised of several hierarchical modules as in a recurrent circularity of emerging patterns. Within the developmental hierarchy, each module yields an inter-level relationship that makes it possible for the scaffolding to mediate the production of selectable variations. A wide range of genetic, cellular and morphological mechanisms allows the (...) scaffolding to integrate these modular variations into a functionally coordinate unit. A genetic scaffolding accounts for the inherited invariance of pattern formation during the embryo’s growth. At higher level, cells behave as agents endowed with the capacity to interpret any scaffolding variation as signs. The full hierarchy of a multi-level scaffolding is eventually attained when the embryo acquires the capacity to impose a number of developmental constraints on its constituting parts in a top-down direction. The acquisition of this capacity allows a semiotic threshold to emerge between the living cellular world and the underlying non-living molecular world. As this boundary is gradually defined during development, cells enter into new functional relationships, while, at the same time, are relieved from their physical determinism. The resulting constraints can thus become the driving forces that upgrade embryonic scaffolding from the simple molecular signalling to the complexity of sign recognition proper of a cellular community. In this semiotic perspective, the apparent goal directness of any developmental strategy should no longer be accounted for by a predetermined genetic program, but by the gradual definition of the relationships selected amongst the ones historically explored. (shrink)

Meister Eckhart escribió textos en alemán y en latín. Pero, fuera del ámbito de los estudios eckhartianos, es conocido sobre todo por su obra alemana. De la obra latina, los textos menos frecuentados son los llamados “sermones latinos”: una serie de notas o borradores que podrían haber servido como material preparatorio para lo que en el _Prologus generalis in Opus tripartitum_ el mismo Eckhart llama el _Opus sermonum_, del que no tenemos más noticia que la del _Prologus_ mencionado. En castellano, (...) el destino de la obra latina de Eckhart no ha sido hasta ahora demasiado afortunado. Pocas son las traducciones. Y, en cuanto a los “sermones latinos”, ninguno ha sido traducido todavía. Ofrecemos la traducción de uno de estos sermones, el XXXVII, en el que Eckhart comenta un texto de Pablo (Efesios 4, 1-6): _Unus deus et pater omnium_. En el estudio preliminar se ofrece (1) una introducción a la obra latina de Eckhart en general y, en particular, a los “sermones latinos” y (2) un comentario del texto traducido. (shrink)

_ Source: _Volume 29, Issue 1, pp 86 - 102 The aim of this paper is to give an overview of the place that Hobbes assigns to optics in the context of his classification of sciences and disciplinary boundaries. To do this, I will begin with an account of Hobbes’s conception of philosophy or science, and particularly his distinction between true and hypothetical knowledge. I will also show that in his demarcation between mathematics or geometry and natural philosophy Hobbes was (...) influenced by Galileo’s _Dialogue_. I then analyse the consequences of this distinction for optics, and conclude by clarifying its status among the scientific disciplines. (shrink)

Germ cells are cross-roads of development and evolution. They define the origin of every new generation and, at the same time, represent the biological end-product of any mature organism. Germ cells are endowed with the following capacities: to store a self-descriptive program, to accumulate a protein-synthesizing machinery, and to incorporate enough nourishment to sustain embryonic development. To accomplish this goal, germ cells do not simply unfold a pre-determined program or realize a sole instructive role. On the contrary, due to the (...) complexity of their cytoarchitecture and the nature of the soma-to-germ interactions, they are heavily involved in processes of sign recognition and meaningful tissue exploration. At each stage of their inward migration, germ plasma membranes act as semiotic interfaces allowing cells to interact with the surrounding extracellular milieu and experience the compatibility of selected developmental sequences. The question of which signaling pathways are activated at each developmental stage does not result from a strictly predetermined program instructing germ cell stemness. Rather, each developmental sequence is an open-ended semiotic relationship explored and gradually defined during evolution by the context-dependency of specific cell-to-cell interactions. In this way, any structural and functional novelty that has emerged in the course of germ cell interactions may be interpreted as an exaptation fixed in the species genome in response to specific environmental constraints. (shrink)

In [10] it is claimed that the set of predicate tautologies of all complete BL-chains and the set of all standard tautologies coincide. As noticed in [11], this claim is wrong. In this paper we show that a complete BL-chain B satisfies all standard BL-tautologies iff for any transfinite sequence of elements of B, the condition ∧i ∈ I = 2 holds in B.

The heristic argument with which Meno questions the possibility of inquiry and knowledge is tackled by Socrates through the reference to an archaic and religious doctrine, according to which the soul is immortal and has seen all things. Through this reference Socrates actually wants to affirm the affinity between the soul and the world of forms. So behind the myth of the prenatal vision of forms by the soul Plato intends to assert the ontological condition of the soul, that is, (...) its affinity to forms. (shrink)

Durante los años menemistas, las políticas públicas de memoria estuvieron orientadas principalmente a “pasar la página”. Los mayores exponentes de esta postura fueron los indultos a los jerarcas de las Fuerzas Armadas de la última dictadura militar (1976-1983), decretados y publicados entre los años 1989 y 1991. Años después, otro suceso volvió a hacerla particularmente visible: el intento de demoler los edificios de la ESMA y colocar en su lugar un monumento a la “reconciliación nacional”. Esto despertó gran polémica con (...) los organismos de DDHH, con la oposición y dentro de la propia alianza gobernante y fue, además, el puntapié inicial para lo que hoy es el Sitio de la Memoria ex-ESMA. Sin embargo, hubo otras políticas culturales en este período que también son una muestra del afán de dejar atrás la memoria sobre los años de violencia política y represión, y que pasaron más desapercibidos. Este artículo propone un análisis del caso de los monumentos referidos al bombardeo a Plaza de Mayo del 16 de junio de 1955, atentado perpetrado por miembros de las Fuerzas Armadas en el que murieron más de 300 personas, colocados en la década de 1990. Tomando como caso análogo lo propuesto para el predio de la ESMA, se analizará el texto de los decretos –y en segundo plano el de los indultos en el año 1991– en relación al contenido de los memoriales. (shrink)

Ever since Facebook appeared circa 2004, social network sites have gained more and more presence and importance in our daily lives. At the very core of SNS lies the necessity to create a profile; this profile becomes our digital persona or our digital avatar. Since what we do online matters and ever increasingly affects the offline world, our online identity becomes in turn increasingly important. But how does our personal identity—how do we—relate to our digital avatars? This paper explores the (...) possible form and extent of the connection in between both identities. For this purpose, I propose to think about personal identity in terms of a narrative theory of the self, as well as in a relational manner through the concept of recognition. Employing this framework I intend to pinpoint the elements of our digital avatars, and the SNS dynamics as a whole, that can be related to the process of becoming who we are. (shrink)

This article replies to the critical note by Trabattoni («Elenchos», xxxiii (2012) pp. 69-107). The author defends his interpretation of Plato's Theaetetus against Trabattoni's objections, arguing that the maieutic and peirastic character of the dialogue explains its negative or aporetic conclusion. For the failure of all the attempts to define knowledge in the dialogue doesn't mean that, according to Plato, knowledge is not possible for men or that it can be identified with doxa; on the contrary, Plato clearly states that (...) the philosopher, i.e. the dialectician, is absolutely able to attain the perfect knowledge of the forms. The subsequent failures in the Theaetetus, particularly the last two, depend on the admission of an "additive model'' according to which knowledge is "doxa plus something'', an epistemological attitude that is explicitly rejected in the Meno. (shrink)

Biological and Neuroscientific Foundations of Philosophy is an authoritative text addressing both academicians and students, and proposes an integrated and holistic view of scientific study and presents a new paradigm by which to study philosophy. It highlights, in a systematic and sufficiently simple manner, the fundamental role of neuroscience, neuropsychology and biology within philosophical reflection.

L’Autore di questo libro è noto per le sue vitrioliche critiche al web e in generale alla comunicazione elettronica. Ma questo libro è la prova che non si tratta di neo-luddismo, vale a dire di una opposizione a priori all’innovazione tecnologica. L’Autore semplicemente richiama il dovere di valutare le “ricadute” del progresso tecnico, sia sociali che psicologico-individuali. L’eccesso delle informazioni, rapide e varie, può determinare una grave de-concentrazione, ansia immotivata, disorientamento. In questo libro si indicano le condizioni per un progresso (...) tecnico non alienante, in cui l’equilibrio fra ragione ed emotività sia garantita, in vista di un nuovo umanesimo. (shrink)

This volume relating to the [university] preparatory course aims to give a summary exposition... about the origins and developments of existentialist thought in the 19th and 20th centuries, its internal diversification and opposition, and its relations with Marxism--Translated from back cover.

Although the term ontology is absent from Plato’s works, his thinking undoubtedly belongs to the prehistory of this discipline. In his dialogues, one finds many observations concerning what exists and how it exists. Plato’s metaphysics is based on the fundamental distinction between two kinds of entities, namely intelligible forms and sensible particulars. This diairesis is presented in different but all compatible ways. The ontological difference between forms and sensible objects implies a causal priority: according to Plato, this priority corresponds to (...) the proteron-hysteron scheme mentioned by Aristotle. The last part of the essay is devoted to the idea of the good and the problems related to its ontological status. (shrink)

Cet article est consacré à la théorie des causes de Plutarque dans ses rapports avec le platonisme des premiers siècles de l’époque impériale. Le texte le plus important se trouve dans les chapitres 47-48 du dialogue De defectu oraculorum, où Plutarque présente une théorie dualiste des causes, qui admet deux genres de cause : d’une part la cause divine et rationnelle, qui comprend la cause finale et la cause efficiente, d’autre part la cause nécessaire et matérielle, qui comprend la matière (...) et la cause instrumentale. Cette version de la théorie des causes dépend, de manière directe ou indirecte, du Timée de Platon. Dans d’autres ouvrages, comme le De animae procreatione, Plutarque ajoute deux causes différentes, à savoir la cause paradigmatique, qui s’identifie avec le monde des idées ou avec dieu lui-même, et la cause du mouvement, représentée par l’âme pré-cosmique irrationnelle. Il est intéressant de remarquer que, dans son exposition de la théorie des causes, Plutarque emploie la description prépositionnelle, très répandue dans les écoles philosophiques : l’agent est donc to hyph’hou, le paradigme to pros ho, la matière to ex hou, alors que la cause finale est indiquée avec la formule to dia ho. (shrink)

Ciò che in Weber grandeggia è il senso del problema, la consapevolezza problematica che si esprime in una serie di domande insistenti, che tornano come motivi di fondo in tutti i suoi scritti e cercano una verifica empirica, una base di validità intersoggettiva: perché gli uomini obbediscono? Quali sono le conseguenze dell’etica, intesa come etica vissuta, sul comportamento economico? In che senso è possibile conciliare le procedure standardizzate e impersonali della routine amministrativa con la decisione politica e l’innovazione tecnologica? Quale (...) sarà l’avvenire del capitalismo e del suo peculiare «spirito»? Che cosa accadrà al regno delle idee, ai grandi valori della tradizione liberale che costituiscono, secondo Weber, il nucleo della civiltà occidentale? (shrink)

Being in force in 70 countries around the world and covering more than two thirds of world trade, the 1980 United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods is considered to be the most successful convention promoting international trade. According to many commentators, this success is due to the fact that, amongst others, the Convention does not directly impact the domestic law of the various legal systems, as it applies only to international â?? as opposed to purely (...) domestic â?? contracts. The Convention, in other words, does not impose changes in the domestic law, which makes it easier for States to adopt the Convention. This does not mean, however, that the Convention does not have any impact on the domestic law at all. This book analyzes â?? through 24 country reports, as well as a general report submitted to the 1st Intermediate Congress of the International Academy of Comparative Law held in November 2008 in Mexico City â?? to what extent the Convention de facto influences the domestic legal system. In particular, the book examines the Convention's impact on legal education, on the practice of law, as well as on the style of court decisions. (shrink)

ABSTRACTAmong the most forceful and provocative criticisms that have been leveled at US drone strikes against alleged terrorists far from conventional battlefields has been Jeremy Waldron's charge that they cannot be justified in terms of a neutral principle that most reasonable people would accept. In essence, Waldron asks ‘whether we are comfortable with [such a norm] in the hands of our enemies’. He thinks most people will say ‘no’ and that this is a reason not to embrace a permissive norm (...) in the first place. We will argue that a key assumption in Waldron's argument is highly contestable, and that if it is challenged, the whole argument can be turned inside out to provide support for a limited drone program aimed at terrorist leaders. In essence, if the suspected terrorists who are the targets of drone strikes are understood to be combatants rather than civilians, as the US government has forcefully argued that they should be, then the norm permitting strikes against them is the humanitarian principle.. (shrink)