v. 1. Dall'antico al moderno -- v. 2. L'età contemporanea -- v. 3. Teoria e metodo.

Aging is characterized by the decline and deterioration of functional cells and results in a wide variety of molecular damages and reduced physical and mental capacity. The knowledge on aging process is important because life expectancy is expected to rise until 2050. Aging cannot be considered a homogeneous process and includes different trajectories characterized by states of fitness, frailty, and disability. Frailty is a dynamic condition put between a normal functional state and disability, with reduced capacity to cope with stressors. (...) This geriatric syndrome affects physical, neuropsychological, and social domains and is driven by emotional and spiritual components. Sarcopenia is considered one of the determinants and the biological substrates of physical frailty. Physical and cognitive frailty are separately approached during daily clinical practice. The concept of motoric cognitive syndrome has partially changed this scenario, opening interesting windows toward future approaches. Thus, the purpose of this manuscript is to provide an excursus on current clinical practice, enforced by aneddoctical cases. The analysis of the current state of the art seems to support the urgent need of comprehensive organizational model incorporating physical and cognitive spheres in the same umbrella. (shrink)

We study a regularized version of Van Hove’s 1952 model, in which a quantum field interacts linearly with sources of finite width lying at fixed positions. We show that the central result of Van Hove’s 1952 paper on the foundations of Quantum Field Theory, the orthogonality between the spaces of state vectors which correspond to different values of the parameters of the theory, disappears when a well-defined model is considered. We comment on the implications of our results for the contemporary (...) relevance of Van Hove’s article. (shrink)

First, the article illustrates the concept of ‘cultural heritage’ as traditionally meant, namely relying on a historically consolidated narrative. Next, it undertakes a broader conceptual analysis and deals with three distinct issues: (i) the fact that the conceptualizations and uses of heritage largely depend on long lasting dichotomies (e.g., tangible/intangible, natural/cultural); (ii) the way in which cultural backgrounds shape the dynamics of valuing and approaching heritage; (iii) the temporal framing of heritage, which today, in the Anthropocene, also points towards how (...) to deal with a future of uncertainty. Lastly, it introduces the notion of epistemic heritage, (i.e., the existence of multiple cultural ways of knowing), investigating its implications for both how cultural heritage is conceived and the future approached. (shrink)

During the COVID-19 pandemic, scientific experts advised governments for measures to be promptly taken; they also helped people to understand the situation. They carried out this role in the face of a worldwide emergency, when scientific understanding was still underway. Public scientific disputes also arose, creating confusion among people. This article highlights the importance of experts’ epistemic stance under these circumstances. It suggests they should embrace the intellectual virtue of epistemic humility, regulating their epistemic behavior and communication accordingly. In so (...) doing, they would also favour the functioning of the broad network of knowledge-based experts, which is required to properly address all the aspects of the global pandemic. (shrink)

Complex crises like the coronavirus pandemic are showing us that modern societies are becoming increasingly unable to live in equilibrium with nature. These crises are the result of multiple causes, which interact at different scales and across different domains. Therefore, investigating their proximate causes is not enough to fully understand them. It is also crucial to take into account the structural factors involved. As concerns the global pandemic, I suggest four levels of analysis: (i) the surface or “proximate” level of (...) the crisis; (ii) the human–environment–animal interface, as pointed out by the One Health approach; (iii) the broader socioeconomic context; and (iv) the deeper or worldview level. Furthermore, I argue that there is the need for a mindset shift if we want to properly trace causality. Much more attention must be given to the study of multilevel connecting patterns and nonlinear mechanisms as the producers of emergent global effects. (shrink)

Various notions of independence of observables have been proposed within the algebraic framework of quantum field theory. We discuss relationships between these and the recently introduced notion of logical independence in a general operator-algebraic context. We show that C*-independence implies an analogue of classical independence.

In French, the word « expérience » has two different meanings, which often merge into each other: whether one hears it as « to experience » or as « to experiment », one will take it towards lay knowledge and techniques of struggle, or towards scientific protocols and techniques of governance. This article rides on this ambiguity, putting the two sides of this notion to the service, and to the test, of an analysis of practices and policies dealing with the (...) issue of drugs. On this specific question, the two meanings of political « expérience » are both maximally divergent and intimately tied to each other. (shrink)

This textbook covers all the essentials, weaving together the latest theory with the experimental techniques, instrumentation, and observational methods astronomers use to study high-energy radiation from space.

This paper considers the rediscovery of Hegel currently taking place in the analytic philosophy. Going back to the Hegelian texts themselves, I will try to show how they can help to decisively solve some problems of contemporary philosophy. I will concentrate on the theme of knowledge, and especially mathematical knowledge, in relation to Hegelian dialectical logic.

Dans la carte des conflits numériques – logiciel libre, open source, théorie de la propriété –Échelle Inconnue relate son expérience de bataille pour le QR-code (encodeur et décodeur libre en ligne, donc gratuit et réalisable par tous) contre le système de « Flash code » payant, érigé comme standard national, commercialisé par Orange. Ce récit, victorieux dans la ville de Rouen, a amené une vingtaine de collectivités territoriales à préférer utiliser le site d’Échelle Inconnue pour élaborer leur code, amenant Orange (...) à abandonner ses rêves de code fermé et payant. (shrink)

Cybernetic governmentality weakens the capacity of resistant subjectivities to struggle against neoliberal rationality because digitalized subjectivation processes are constantly pushed towards the logics of the market and into codifications of competitive evaluation. Despite the potential for new forms of collectivity contained in the concept of virtuality, technological evolution has disseminated a systemic form of digitality that operates not through collective procedures but through subjective-individualistic ones. Hence arises a danger that was indicated by Deleuze decades ago: that of confusing the virtual (...) with the possible. By constructing a genealogy that is built around Pierre Levy’s optimistic representation of cyberspace, Bernard Stiegler’s work on the contemporary disenchantment of the computerized world, Baudrillard’s metaphysics of code and Antoinette Rouvroy’s analysis of algorithmic governmentality, we will demonstrate that digitality is between us and that this amounts to an irreversible fact entailing a critical confrontation with its current manifestation. (shrink)

The author, starting from what is currently known about cup-marks and their distribution in the north-western Italian alpine area, formulated a hypothesis on their material and ritual functions in the Neolithic period. It is conceivable that cup-marks were originally carved in connection with the ritual use of Amanita muscaria, and that they may later have assumed other functions as well.

Hegel i Nietzsche twierdzili, że żyją w czasach przełomu, który wymusi pojawienie się nowego etapu w dziejach ludzkości. Sytuację człowieka współczesnego określa „fakt” roztrzaskania dotychczasowych horyzontów oraz konieczność stworzenia, lub odkrycia, horyzontów nowych. Postulują oni zatem ustanowienie nowego celu ludzkości. Filozofia polityki winna stać się częścią tego ogólnokulturowego projektu. Tym samym rzucają wyzwanie współczesnej filozofii politycznej, która zrzeka się prawa do ustanawiania takiego celu. Obaj są też przekonani – znów wbrew twierdzeniom współczesnym – że cel ów może i powinien być (...) ugruntowany w naturze całej rzeczywistości i w naturze człowieka. W ich założeniu ma to być cel człowieka empirycznego, historycznego, człowieka, który osiągnął bolesną świadomość tego, że to on był twórcą tych wartości, które dotąd uznawał za obiektywne. Potrzeba sformułowania nowego celu każe Heglowi i Nietzschemu powrócić do klasycznego pojmowania filozofii polityki, do postrzegania w doskonałości człowieka ideału, któremu ma być podporządkowana polityczna działalność. Właściwe rozumienie miejsca człowieka w świecie, ujęcie go jako istoty stwarzającej horyzonty i przekształcającej zgodnie z nimi rzeczywistość, pozwala według nich dotrzeć do prawdy o bycie jako całości, do konstytuującej go zasady samo-rozwoju, będącego zarazem samo-przezwyciężaniem i samo-przekraczaniem. Zaakceptowanie tej prawdy o świecie pozwala ugruntować w nim ideał doskonałości, który można od tej pory ujmować jako istotowy cel człowieka, i żądać podporządkowaniu mu całej kulturowej działalności, w tym także – filozoficzno-politycznej teorii i praktyki. (shrink)