Plutarque nous raconte [VP I.1, 12.4.4–5] que le grand Varron s’adressa un jour à un certain Tarutius, connu pour ses talents de mathématicien et d’astrologue, pour déterminer le jour et l’heure de la naissance de Romulus « de la même manière que l’on tire l’analyse des problèmes géométriques» [ὥσπερ αἱ τῶν γεωμετρικῶν ὑφηγοῦνται προβλημάτων ἀναλύσεις]. Or, puisque dans la science astrologique ancienne on pouvait prédire, en prenant le jour et l’heure de la naissance d’un homme, ce que lui ré...

Les conditions d’identité jouent un rôle fondamental dans le débat sur le statut épistémologique des diagrammes. À cet égard, les détracteurs comme les partisans de leur utilisation en tant que moyens de preuve partagent un même présupposé, qui consiste à étendre aux diagrammes la distinction entre type et token, normalement appliquée aux mots. Dans cet article, nous entendons discuter ce présupposé. Dans la première partie, nous montrerons que la distinction entre type et token, en tant que critère d’identité des mots, (...) ne fait pas consensus en philosophie du langage. Nous verrons, en particulier, comment David Kaplan a rejeté ce critère et proposé une approche alternative, inspirée de la conception de la monnaie courante développée par Kripke. Dans la deuxième partie, nous étudierons la possibilité d’étendre aux diagrammes l’approche kaplanienne, par moyen de quelques considérations de caractère historique concernant la transmission des textes mathématiques grecs. (shrink)

This study aimed to evaluate if eye blinks can be used to discriminate players with different performance in a session of Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) Tetris. To that end, we developed a state-of-the-art method for blink extraction from EAR measures, which is robust enough to be used with data collected by a low-grade webcam such as the ones widely available on laptop computers. Our results show a significant decrease in blink rate per minute (blinks/m) during the first minute of playing (...) Tetris. After having defined 3 groups of proficiency based on in-game performance (Novices, Intermediates, and Experts) we found out that expert players display a significantly lower decrease in blinks/m compared to novices during the first minute of gameplay, which shows that Tetris players' proficiency can be detected by looking at eye blinks/m variations during the early phase of a game session. This difference in blinks/m is observed throughout the entire game session, which supports the general conclusion that proficient Tetris players have a lower decrease in blinks/m, even when playing more difficult levels. Finally, we offer some interpretations of this effect and the relationship that our results may have with the visual cognitive workload experienced during the gameplay. (shrink)

This article aims first at showing that Russell's general doctrine according to which all mathematics is deducible ‘by logical principles from logical principles’ does not require a preliminary reduction of all mathematics to arithmetic. In the Principles, mechanics (part VII), geometry (part VI), analysis (part IV–V) and magnitude theory (part III) are to be all directly derived from the theory of relations, without being first reduced to arithmetic (part II). The epistemological importance of this point cannot be overestimated: Russell's logicism (...) does not only contain the claim that mathematics is no more than logic, it also contains the claim that the differences between the various mathematical sciences can be logically justified—and thus, that, contrary to the arithmetization stance, analysis, geometry and mechanics are not merely outgrowths of arithmetic. The second aim of this article is to set out the neglected Russellian theory of quantity. The topic is obviously linked with the first, since the mere existence of a doctrine of magnitude, in a work dated from 1903, is a sign of a distrust vis-à-vis the arithmetization programme. After having shown that, despite the works of Cantor, Dedekind and Weierstrass, many mathematicians at the end of the 19th Century elaborated various axiomatic theories of the magnitude, I will try to define the peculiarity of the Russellian approach. I will lay stress on the continuity of the logicist's thought on this point: Whitehead, in the Principia, deepens and generalizes the first Russellian 1903 theory. (shrink)

In Die Zahlen (1888), Dedekind defines an infinite set as a set that is isomorphic with one of its proper parts. In The World and the Individual (1900), the American philosopher Josiah Royce relates Dedekind’s notion to Fichte’s and Hegel’s concept of Self defined as an entity that reflects itself into itself. The first aim of this article is to explain Royce’s analysis and to put it in its proper context, that of a critique of Bradley’s mystical idealism. The second (...) aim is to urge a shift in focus in Dedekind’s scholarship: instead of addressing the question of the relationship between mathematics and philosophy in Dedekind’s work through the supposed intentions of its author, it is more fruitful to analyze the reception that philosophers have made of his texts. (shrink)

Ce livre retrace le cheminement du chercheur: le journal de ses intuitions, ses espoirs, ses doutes, ses certitudes, - jusqu'au silence d'avril 1908. Il replace la quete dans l'activite d'ensemble du savant: monographies, cours de linguistique generale, travaux de mythographie. Il la situe dans un paysage intellectuel scrupuleusement balise. Par dela des considerations d'une technicite souvent rebutante, et non exemptes de contradictions (parfois flagrantes), il s'attache a suivre le fil d'une quete autant mystique que linguistique. Par surcroit il donne a (...) lire le texte de Lucrece (accompagne de sa traduction), et la facon dont le transfigurent les Cahiers (dont une part importante est reproduite en fac simile). Il en soumet la lecture a certaines epreuves (dont un test informatique), qui demontrent que le phenomene echappe a la prison binaire qu'evoquait R. Barthes (son/graphie, demontre/indemontrable...), et reste d'une implacable actualite: qu'il pose dans toute son acuite la problematique d'une ecriture. Reste largement meconnu, Saussure le sera-t-il moins apres ce livre? Une chose est sure: on ne pourra, une fois ces pages refermees, conserver le meme regard sur celui qui fut en linguistique, selon le mot de Benveniste, une 'autre facon de commencer'. (shrink)

Melatonin, the neuro‐hormone synthesized during the night, has recently seen an unexpected extension of its functional implications toward type 2 diabetes development, visual functions, sleep disturbances, and depression. Transgenic mouse models were instrumental for the establishment of the link between melatonin and these major human diseases. Most of the actions of melatonin are mediated by two types of G protein‐coupled receptors, named MT1 and MT2, which are expressed in many different organs and tissues. Understanding the pharmacology and function of mouse (...) MT1 and MT2 receptors, including MT1/MT2 heteromers, will be of crucial importance to evaluate the relevance of these mouse models for future therapeutic developments. This review will critically discuss these aspects, and give some perspectives including the generation of new mouse models. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:Advances in Peircean Mathematics: The Colombian School ed. by Fernando ZalameaGianluca CaterinaFernando Zalamea (Ed.) Advances in Peircean Mathematics: The Colombian School Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2022. 212 pp. (incl. index).The volume Advances in Peircean Mathematics is an important, very much needed contribution towards a deeper understanding of the impact of Peirce's work especially in the fields of mathematics, logic, and semiotic. It fills a gap in the current (...) literature by recasting some of [End Page 373] Peirce's profound mathematical insights into a formal framework. This is a finely edited editorial project, which summarizes the work of more than two decades done by a group of scholars—the Colombian School—lead by Fernando Zalamea, a pioneer of Peirce studies, and pragmatism in general, in Latin America.The structure of the volume unfolds in three dense chapters, each corresponding to a specific mathematical context connected to various aspects of Peirce's work. Broadly speaking, in the first chapter, Gustavo Arengas proposes the theory of higher category theory as a natural framework to represent the main traits of Peirce's semiotic; in the second chapter, Francisco Vargas develops a thorough set-theoretical model of Peirce's continuum; in the third chapter, Arnold Oostra, in a truly Peircean spirit, formalizes the notion of Intuitionistic Existential Graphs, emphasizing the idea that intuitionistic logic is the most natural context to represent and understand Peirce's diagrammatic logic. The fourth and last chapter, penned by Zalamea, provides the reader with a solid summary of the main results presented in the volume along with a robust road map to navigate through the technical details of the text.Mathematics, as implied by the title of the volume, is at the core of this project, and the authors do not shy away from the complexity, details, and depth of it in order to shed light on some of the most fundamental and groundbreaking nature of Peirce's ideas. That level of rigor and formal soundness is certainly one of the strengths of the volume, although readers who may not be acquainted with at least some basic notions of category theory or with the mathematics of Peirce's work, may find some of the text a bit terse—this is not a casual reading and it does require a certain level of commitment in order to appreciate the depth of the provided insights. On the other hand, all the background material is clearly laid out, making the volume a self-contained work which can be thoroughly enjoyed by a general audience.The real upshot of recasting some of Peirce's intuitions within the fabric of formal mathematics is not only that of providing the instruments to clarify those ideas, but also that of highlighting the role that Peirce's work has been playing in the development of modern mathematics in many relevant aspects, from the very genesis of category theory—which today is widely regarded as a necessary and unifying language in several fields of the mathematical and physical sciences—to the development of non-standard analysis, just to mention a few of them.An elegant instance of such perspective is offered by Gustavo Arengas in the first chapter, where it is argued that ∞-categories can be used to model the natural order of hierarchies implicit in Peirce's conception of the basic triadic relation between sign, object, and interpreter. What, at first glance, may seem just a simple analogy, unfolds onto a methodical and enlightening analysis of Peirce's semiotic, as the author builds [End Page 374] the connections with the relevant categorical constructions in a precise manner. Most of the rest of the chapter focuses on Peirce's notions of the pragmatic and pragmaticist maxim, and the use of basic structures such as monads, limits, presheaves and sheaves as the natural environment to better convey their meaning, both from a mathematical and a philosophical perspective. The reader will find it interesting to realize that, by delving deeper into the understanding of the relational nature of category theory, a great chunk of Peirce's work can be seen as fundamentally intertwined with the apparatus and the language of modern mathematics... (shrink)

Jean Nicod (1893–1924) is a French philosopher and logician who worked with Russell during the First World War. His PhD, with a preface from Russell, was published under the title La géométrie dans le monde sensible in 1924, the year of his untimely death. The book did not have the impact he deserved. In this paper, I discuss the methodological aspect of Nicod’s approach. My aim is twofold. I would first like to show that Nicod’s definition of various notions of (...) equivalence between theories anticipates, in many respects, the (syntactic and semantic) model-theoretic notion of interpretation of a theory into another. I would secondly like to present the philosophical agenda that led Nicod to elaborate his logical framework: the defense of rationalism against Bergson’s attacks. (shrink)

This article has two purposes: first, to describe some archival discoveries about Nicod’s family background, academic development and political life; and second, to publish and comment on a newly discovered article by Nicod about Russell. This article acclaims not only Russell’s achievements in logic and philosophy—as one might expect from such a devoted protégé as Nicod—but also (albeit only in glimpses permitted by France’s wartime censorship) his anti-war politics and writings. As the reader will realize, the two objectives are connected: (...) what the archives reveal and what the article illustrates is a hitherto underappreciated level of political awareness and pacifist commitment in Nicod. (shrink)

Jean Nicod (1893–1924) is a French philosopher and logician who worked with Russell during the First World War. His PhD, with a preface from Russell, was published under the titleLa géométrie dans le monde sensiblein 1924, the year of his untimely death. The book did not have the impact he deserved. In this paper, I discuss the methodological aspect of Nicod’s approach. My aim is twofold. I would first like to show that Nicod’s definition of various notions of equivalence between (...) theories anticipates, in many respects, the (syntactic and semantic) model-theoretic notion of interpretation of a theory into another. I would secondly like to present the philosophical agenda that led Nicod to elaborate his logical framework: the defense of rationalism against Bergson’s attacks. (shrink)

Humans are by nature social beings tuned to communicate and interact from the very beginning of their lives. The sense of touch represents the most direct and intimate channel of communication and a powerful means of connection between the self and the others. In our digital age, the development and diffusion of internet-based technologies and virtual environments offer new opportunities of communication overcoming physical distance. It however, happens that social interactions are often mediated, and the tactile aspects of communication are (...) overlooked, thus diminishing the feeling of social presence, which may contribute to an increased sense of social disconnection and loneliness. The current manuscript aims to review the extant literature about the socio-affective dimension of touch and current advancements in interactive virtual environments in order to provide a new perspective on multisensory virtual communication. Specifically, we suggest that interpersonal affective touch might critically impact virtual social exchanges, promoting a sense of co-presence and social connection between individuals, possibly overcoming feelings of sensory loneliness. This topic of investigation will be of crucial relevance from a theoretical perspective aiming to understand how we integrate multisensory signals in processing and making sense of interpersonal exchanges, this is important in both typical and atypical populations. Moreover, it will pave the way to promising applications by exploring the possibility to use technical innovations to communicate more interactively in the case of people who suffer from social isolation and disconnection from others. (shrink)

To illustrate the view that a speaker can have a partial understanding of a concept, Burge uses the example of Leibniz’s and Newton’s understanding of the concept of derivative. In a recent article, Sheldon Smith criticizes this example and maintains that Newton’s and Leibniz’s use of their derivative symbols does not univocally determine their references. The present article aims at challenging Smith’s analysis. It first shows that Smith misconstrues Burge’s position. It second suggests that the philosophical lessons one should draw (...) from the practice of the historians of philosophy are more ambivalent than what Smith thinks. (shrink)

Educational Theory, Volume 72, Issue 1, Page 31-46, February 2022.

Classical first-order logic \ is commonly used to study logical connections between statements, that is sentences that in every context have an associated truth-value. Inquisitive first-order logic \ is a conservative extension of \ which captures not only connections between statements, but also between questions. In this paper we prove the disjunction and existence properties for \ relative to inquisitive disjunction Open image in new window and inquisitive existential quantifier \. Moreover we extend these results to several families of theories, (...) among which the one in the language of \. To this end, we initiate a model-theoretic approach to the study of \. In particular, we develop a toolkit of basic constructions in order to transform and combine models of \. (shrink)

Classical first-order logic \ is commonly used to study logical connections between statements, that is sentences that in every context have an associated truth-value. Inquisitive first-order logic \ is a conservative extension of \ which captures not only connections between statements, but also between questions. In this paper we prove the disjunction and existence properties for \ relative to inquisitive disjunction Open image in new window and inquisitive existential quantifier \. Moreover we extend these results to several families of theories, (...) among which the one in the language of \. To this end, we initiate a model-theoretic approach to the study of \. In particular, we develop a toolkit of basic constructions in order to transform and combine models of \. (shrink)

Despite the significant attention gained by the concept of creating shared value (CSV) over the past decade, there is a lack of empirical research on corporate practices that achieve social and environmental benefits through CSV dynamics. Through an in-depth single case study, this research explores open innovation (OI) practices contributing to the grand challenge of climate change and their role as microfoundations in the three CSV dynamics proposed by Porter and Kramer: (1) reconceiving products and markets; (2) redefining productivity in (...) the value chain; and (3) enabling local cluster development. Building on a 3-year (October 2019–October 2022) interaction with Enel—a very large company in the renewable energy sector—we collected qualitative data on the OI practices implemented in the construction, operating, and repurposing phases of three of its industrial sites. Employing a three-step data analysis process, the study identified 29 OI practices across the sites, which have been grouped into 11 CSV microfoundations. Our findings contribute to understanding the organizational factors in sustainable value creation by bridging the gap between CSV and OI literature and confirm the effectiveness of OI models for addressing societal challenges like climate change. (shrink)

Les stratégies de Bayle et de Hume devant la question de l’athéisme sont bien plus proches qu'on ne le croit généralement. Cet accord découle de l’influence constante que Bayle exerça sur Hume. Pour Bayle et pour Hume, l’athéisme et le scepticisme sont très étroitement liés – celui-là n’est qu’une forme du celui-ci. La force des Dialogues sur la religion naturelle de Hume ressort précisément de cette alliance entre athéisme et scepticisme qui, puisant la plupart de ses arguments chez Bayle, aboutit (...) à une critique de la théologie fondée sur une analyse sans concession des fondements épistémologiques de la croyance, tout en se gardant, comme le Straton de Bayle, de réduire l’athéisme à un dogmatisme métaphysique abstrait. (shrink)

This article proposes to reconceive moral education on the model of spiritual practice. Such an education would be defined not by its content—that is, explicit instruction about moral rules or particular virtues—but rather by the form of its constituent activities. Drawing on the works of both Plato and Foucault, the article addresses questions about the epistemic complexity of virtue raised in Mark E. Jonas and Yoshiaka Nakzawa’s A Platonic Theory of Moral Education. It then goes on to suggest that the (...) form of spiritual practice is uniquely suited to the cultivation of virtue understood on their Platonic model. (shrink)

In this paper, we report on an experiment with The Walking Dead (TWD), which is a narrative-driven adventure game with morally charged decisions set in a post-apocalyptic world filled with zombies. This study aimed to identify physiological markers of moral decisions and non-moral decisions using infrared thermal imaging (ITI). ITI is a non-invasive tool used to capture thermal variations due to blood flow in specific body regions that might be caused by sympathetic activity. Results show that moral decisions seem to (...) elicit a significant decrease in temperature in the chin region 20 seconds after participants are presented with a moral decision. However, given the small sample involved, and the lack of significance in other regions, future studies might be needed to confirm the results obtained in this work. (shrink)

The different experience of unemployment and of poverty in the two main Western economic systems (roughly, Europe and the US) demonstrates that a simple economic approach to these problems does not exist. In this paper I deal with the question of the impact of technological change on productive activities, employment and income distribution.The main idea is the following: technological progress may lead to an impoverishment of the disadvantaged people in a free-market society, as a consequence of their inability to adjust (...) their skills to the new requirements of the labour market. By contrast, a just society, grounded on moral principles, recognizes that the distributive criterion has to take into account not only individual contributions to production, but also the relative needs of the individuals. In that context, everyone should be better off after a technological change, since it is fair that everyone gains some advantage from a generalized improvement in the productive conditions of society. A policy that adopts this perspective should provide an effective guard against the danger of social exclusion that strikes modern societies. (shrink)

Staging, writing, editing – war. In the sequence of these three acts, the path of this essay unfolds. From the play La guerre de Troie n’aura pas lieu we get the idea that war is a spectral presence hovering everywhere. As difficult as it is to see, it appears inescapable. Its ambivalence questions the human gaze itself in its in-ability to see war coming, even when the signs are more than evident. The analysis of the regimes of visibility that, yesterday (...) as today, superintend the event of a conflict constitutes the point of arrival of this interrogation. (shrink)

This essay explores the concept of responsibility with respect to today’s ecological and pandemic crisis. A fundamental category is identified in the ‘strategic repentance’, i.e. the ability to reconsider previous decisions taken following environmental feedback resulting from one’s activities. The model of this careful and circumspect behavior can be traced back on the one hand to the animal kingdom, on the other hand to the artistic domain. Thus, the bat and Michelangelo the sculptor become masters of a new action scheme, (...) which is based on feedback rings and on in-progress revision of previously adopted strategies. (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)

The paper aims at comparing Wittgenstein’s discussion of color exclusion in his to Johnson’s doctrine of determinable and determinate expounded in his. I first summarize Wittgenstein’s developments about the incompatibility of elementary propositions and about the logic of color statements. In the second part, I present and discuss Johnson’s doctrine in relation to Wittgenstein’s development. In a third conclusive moment, drawing on a early work of Prior, I argue that the distinction made by Wittgenstein and Johnson between predication and determination (...) should be looked at from a long term historical perspective. (shrink)

Based on the interpretation of the passage that Kant dedicates to the typic of the pure practical power of judgment, the author gives a central place to what, in his view, constitutes the heart of the problem of Kantian critical philosophy, namely, to demonstrate that reason, in its practical use can be effectively moral. This provides the basis to hold that the solution offered by Kant to this severe problem consolidates the subordination of the theorical use of reason to the (...) practical one, which is identified with the subordination of truth to freedom. The conclusion is that said subordination, which would irreversibly change the course of philosophy, is only possible by means of a rupture of the experience that places action and consequently human life in the face of a representation of the real, that goes beyond, from freedom and history, what the categories of understanding show us truth of nature. (shrink)

Nella conferenza su Le cinéma et la nouvelle psychologie Merleau-Ponty introduce una singolare, ma decisiva notazione sull’arte filmica, legandola alla nozione di “ritmo”. Tale nozione dà avvio a una riflessione sull’immagine e sul rapporto tra l’immagine e lo sguardo dello spettatore al cinema. Nel presente articolo, l’uso che Merleau-Ponty ne fa e il senso di questa operazione saranno letti in riferimento alla riflessione di Émile Benveniste sul ritmo e ad alcune annotazioni contenute nei corsi di Merleau-Ponty al Collège de France, (...) di qualche anno successivi alla conferenza, su Le monde sensible et le monde de l’expression e quello sulle Recherches sur l’usage littéraire du langage. Dans le texte de sa conférence sur Le cinéma et la nouvelle psychologie, Merleau-Ponty introduit une lecture, singulière mais décisive, de l’art filmique, en la rapprochant de la notion de « rythme ». Cette notion engage une réflexion sur l’image et sur le rapport entre l’image et le regard du spectateur au cinéma. Dans cet article, l’utilisation que Merleau-Ponty en fait et le sens de cette opération seront lus à partir de la réflexion d’Émile Benveniste sur le rythme et à partir de certaines notes présentes dans les cours de Merleau-Ponty au Collège de France sur Le monde sensible et le monde de l’expression et sur les Recherches sur l’usage littéraire du langage, qui suivent de quelques années la conférence.In the text of his lecture on “Film and the new psychology,” Merleau-Ponty introduces a singular and decisive reading of filmic art, approaching the notion of “rhythm.” This notion engages in a reflection on image and on the relation between the image and the gaze of the spectator at the cinema. In this article, Merleau-Ponty’s actual usage of this notion and the meaning of this operation will be read starting from the reflection of Émile Benveniste on rhythm as well as certain notes presented in Merleau-Ponty’s courses at the Collège de France on The sensible world and the world of expression and Research on the literary usages of language, that follow some years after the lecture. (shrink)

The recent edition, established in 2005 by Giuseppina Matino, of the Panegyricus on Emperor Anastasius by Procopius from Gaza gives the opportunity to discuss about the ecdotical methods until now adopted for the constitutio textus of Procopian works. The errors present in the Italian translation show the complexity of the text often rich in images and figures.