Affective information can be retrieved simply by measuring words co‐occurrences in linguistic contexts. Lenci and colleagues demonstrate that the affective measures retrieved from linguistic occurrences predict words’ concreteness: abstract words are more heavily loaded with affective information than concrete ones. These results challenge the Affective grounding hypothesis, suggesting that abstract concepts may be ungrounded and coded only linguistically, and that their affective load may be a linguistic factor.

Il passaggio dalle tradizioni metaforiche ai diversi linguaggi come momento per individuare gli oggetti di cui è possibile parlare in campo politico.

The article has two main aims: 1) the discussion of some contemporary interpretations of the last chapter of the Phenomenology of Spirit and, more generally, of the whole Hegelian system, as an expression of a metaphysics of the absolute; 2) the analysis of the relationship between absolute knowing and finitude (considered primarily as a manifestation of the historical dimension of knowledge). With respect to the first point, the article discusses two theses about absolute knowing: the first considers Hegel's absolute as (...) a 'metaphysical object', the second highlights the untenability of the Hegelian claim that philosophy is the absolute knowledge of the absolute. Against the first argument, it is shown that it is not possible to conceive of absolute knowing as an object, highlighting the negative function and the historical character of the process of manifestation of the spirit. With respect to the second point, the article considers the relationship between absolute knowing and the finite dimension of consciousness, arguing that absolute knowing is a form of knowledge of consciousness and that it is realized by the historical and finite process of the development of humanity. (shrink)

The evolutionary and comparative perspective represents a persuasive view to naturalize aesthetics - however, only if we avoid one of the most common prejudice. Precisely, the preliminary reduction of the aesthetic experience to the mere sensory perception. The paper falsifies this reductive framework reconstructing the zone of proximal evolution concerning the aesthetic and artistic dimension. In particular, we take as reference point the mind of the chimpanzee, at the same time unable to make art and limited to inescapable sensory and (...) perceptual constrains. (shrink)

This paper analyzes the connection between Hegel’s theory of objective thinking and language. The current interpretative trend considers the conceptual only in a formal and propositional manner and it understands the Hegelian theory of truth in the light of semantic inferentialism. In contrast with this interpretative trend, the paper argues for two claims. 1) Hegel’s notion of concept (Begriff) does not overlap with the structure of the proposition. 2) Language plays an essential and systematic role in Hegel’s philosophy, but language (...) can not be understood as the highest form of rational understanding. As for the Hegelian theory of truth, the paper criticizes the disjunction between the logical-formal perspective and the ontological perspective. For Hegel, the concept defines the unity of subjectivity and objectivity. The correlate ontological monism represents, on the one hand, a critique of Kant’s cognitive dualism. On the other hand, Hegel’s ontological monism provides a theory of truth which constitutes an immanent criticism of the knowledge forms of the consciousness (Bewusstsein). From this point of view, language as well as the “social practice” of giving and asking for reasons show their onesidedness, because they still constitute a “subjective” sphere of knowledge. (shrink)

The paper analyses Bratman’s planning theory of intention and action, trying to assess its merits in relation to contemporary debates about the constitution of agency. After discussing the limits of the so called belief-desire model in representing the agent’s standpoint, the paper focuses on how planning states can sustain an alternative view based on self-governing strategies allegedly capable of supporting a distinctive sense of personal continuity over time. It ends up with the discussion of some related concerns pertaining to metaphysics (...) and diachronic rationality, in particular the apparent tension between synchronic and diachronic rational pressure over planning deliberation. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:A Short ReplyGianluca MoriWhile thanking Thomas Lennon for the interest he has shown in my work—and without going into details of interpretation which cannot bear discussion in this context—I would like to make a few remarks on factual questions raised by his response.1) Lennon's text (p. 338): "The text that Bayle and Mori erroneously take to be Saint-Evremond's is in fact from Jean-François Sarasin."While it is not certain that (...) Bayle and I "erroneously" take this text to be Saint-Evremond's, it is certain that Lennon erroneously takes it to be Sarasin's. In fact, the text quoted by Bayle is not taken from Sarasin's Discours sur Epicure, but, as Bayle explicitly points out ("Xénophanes," K, note 124), from a "Discours des ennuis et des déplaisirs." This "Discours" is chapter 5 of De l'usage de la vie, a text published in many editions of Saint-Evremond's works (see the Barbin 1692 in-4° ed., Seconde Partie, p. 326). The paternity of De l'usage de la vie is doubtful and controversial, but it possibly contains some passages taken from Saint-Evremond's unpublished manuscripts, especially in chapters 3-6, as reported by an important source quoted by Ternois in Saint-Evremond, Œuvres en prose, IV, 3-4, note 1.2) Lennon's text (pp. 338-39): "The significance of two of the other texts advanced by Mori is fully vitiated, for in them Bayle makes the same mistake."In my article, I did not fail to state that these texts (OD I, 158 and Dict., "Epicure," M) are taken from an apocryphal source. On page 329 I wrote: "[Bayle] mistakenly attributes to [Saint-Evremond] a text on Epicurus's morals [i.e., Sarasin's Discours] included in that volume." However, it was absolutely impossible, for seventeenth-century readers, to distinguish between Saint-Evremond's original and apocryphal texts: the author himself—as is widely known—did not want to clarify this point (with a few exceptions, including the Saint-Evremoniana, which, as we have seen, Bayle never attributed to Saint-Evremond). [End Page 343] And this is true for all editions: there is no significant difference between genuine and pirated editions, since no official edition, authorized and revised by the author, existed before Des Maizeaux's posthumous one. From this point of view, virtually nobody (before 1705) could "study" Saint-Evremond's texts. (On this connection it should be added that I never claimed that Bayle "studied" Saint-Evremond, but only that he read his available works and made up his mind on them, and particularly on the Conversation du Maréchal d'Hocquincourt—which should be at the core of the present debate—long before reading Cotolendi).3) Lennon's text (p. 336): "As Mori acknowledges elsewhere, Labrousse thinks Le Vassor was a left-wing Anglican who failed to understand Bayle's calvinist perspective."Concerning Le Vassor, I "acknowledge" Labrousse's opinion only to reject it with a detailed argument (Bayle philosophe, 262, note 341).Gianluca MoriUniversità del Piemonte OrientaleCopyright © 2004 The Journal of the History of Ideas, Inc.... (shrink)

Riassunto: Negli ultimi anni alcuni studi cruciali condotti nell’ambito della psicologia cognitiva, della psicologia sociale e della psicologia dei media, e più in generale nelle scienze neurocognitive, hanno dimostrato che la finzione è in grado di favorire processi di apprendimento relativi alla cognizione sociale, in particolare rendendo possibile l’acquisizione di credenze, lo sviluppo di competenze sociali, il cambiamento degli atteggiamenti. Questo articolo esamina criticamente i risultati sperimentali più rilevanti relativi all’apprendimento dalla finzione e integra in un quadro teorico unitario i (...) diversi meccanismi cognitivi coinvolti. Parole chiave: Simulazione; Finzione; Credenze; Vigilanza epistemica; Riflessione Fiction and Social Cognition: In recent years several crucial studies in cognitive psychology, social psychology, media psychology, and more generally in the neurocognitive sciences, have shown that fiction can facilitate learning processes related to social cognition. In particular these studies indicate that fiction enables the acquisition of beliefs, the development of social skills, and attitude change. This article discusses the most important experimental results for learning through fiction, and integrates the cognitive mechanisms engaged by fiction in a consistent theoretical framework. Keywords: Simulation; Fiction; Beliefs; Epistemic Vigilance; Reflection. (shrink)

El presente artículo se centra en Marsilio Ficino y Leonardo da Vinci. Ambos autores describen la producción humana de artefactos como principios transformadores que afectan el mundo a partir de un punto de vista tanto técnico como estético. En este sentido, manus y risus se convierten en bastiones de una antropología típicamente renacentista, según la cual el homo faber se eleva a ese estado divino que juega un importante papel en la filosofía de Nicolás de Cusa; mientras la mano humana (...) es el principio transformador activo, la sonrisa es el signo de un trabajo cumplido. En suma, estos dos aspectos revelan un proceso de espiritualización de la realidad, i.e., la perfecta interpenetración de la belleza con la virtud y la verdad. Este trabajo explorará las similitudes entre los dos autores también en relación con el retrato Ginevra de’ Benci, de Leonardo da Vinci; una muy especial “sermón pintado” con el fondo del cuadro, siendo un tratamiento filosófico conciso en el que se lee “virtutem forma decorat”, fórmula que Ficino evoca en su Convivium. (shrink)

This monographic section questions the concept of domesticity, and some of its concrete developments, both as a principle of order and as a device through which historically and culturally variable differences and meanings are articulated – starting with those associated with it from the very beginning, namely the values of stability, solidity and centredness. The essays collected here challenge the idea of a separation between domestic and political space, which is made to coincide tout court with that between private and (...) public space. For a long time, this dichotomy relegated domesticity to a politically irrelevant dimension. Instead, it is the home as a political form that is here investigated and questioned. (shrink)

The paper suggests a theoretical re-reading of Utopia. Usually dismissed as a pathological form of politics, it deals with the borders of modern political semantics and raises important issues about contemporary political theory. Bloch’s notion of Utopia helps to reframe the discussion about the ambiguous meaning of this term and introduce philosophical interpretations of this concept. Drawing from heterogeneous philosophical material, it is argued that the problem of the death of Utopia arises when a particular form of subjective cognition, confronting (...) contingency, is asked to open up for the prospect of progressive and democratic expectations. Utopia thus acquires an ambivalent position by articulating contemporary political reason. (shrink)

Il metodo indiziario pone l’investigatore di fronte a un caso esemplare. Quest’ultimo, sulla scorta di indizi rivelatori, permette di rileggere la realtà, formulando ipotesi euristiche che accrescono le nostre competenze conoscitive. Lo aveva ben inteso Peirce teorizzando la cosiddetta inferenza ipotetica; ma, come ricorda Ginzburg, anche Freud, nei suoi studi su Michelangelo, aveva tematizzato come il metodo psicoanalitico, attraverso la sua vocazione allo studio dei dettagli (gli scarti obliati della coscienza), si avvicini ai fenomeni abduttivi tipici delle detection stories, mediante (...) cui si portano allo scoperto le reali operazioni subliminali della coscienza. Assai significativo è che qualcosa di analogo avvenga anche nella produzione fantascientifica di P.K. Dick: i suoi romanzi, al cospetto delle falle, delle incongruenze della logica sociale imperante, sono delle efficaci retroduzioni attraverso cui la realtà del quotidiano si rivela come una grande fantasmagoria mercificata; mentre i mondi immaginifici partoriti dalla mente dello scrittore si mostrano come proiezioni distopiche della realtà politica americana. Questa riscoperta, che si fonda sull’effetto sorpresa prodotto dal caso anomalo (inteso quale sintomo rivelatore), come avviene in modo esemplare nel romanzo Time Out of Joint, può essere intesa come il risultato di una vera e propria “critica dell’informazione spuria”. Critica dell’ideologia, realismo e Science Fiction qui trovano una sorprendente alleanza, che fa di Dick un autore tutt’altro che disimpegnato o impolitico. (shrink)