This article delves into Blaise Pascal’s religious philosophy, focusing on his use of the phrase “Scio cui credidi” (I know whom I have believed) to explore his understanding of faith. It analyzes Pascal’s “Memorial” and the “Summary of the Life of Jesus Christ”, highlighting how Christ is central to Pascal’s belief system. The discussion reveals the transformational nature of Pascal’s faith, particularly after his mystical experience on November 23, 1654. This experience is crucial in understanding his shift from a philosophical (...) to a deeply personal, Christ-centered faith. The article underscores Pascal’s journey from a scientific and philosophical perspective to an intimate, emotional resonance with Christian faith, demonstrating how his personal encounters with the divine profoundly shaped his religious perspective. (shrink)

In his Lectures on the History of Philosophy, Hegel characterizes Arabic/Islamic philosophy as ‘Oriental’. The meaning and motivation of this characterization are not obvious. In this paper, I address his treatment and outline the key ideas that lead Hegel to describe Islamic philosophy as ‘Oriental’. By highlighting similarities and differences in relation to Oriental philosophy, I shed light on Hegel's approach to Islamic philosophy, which is connected to his view of Oriental philosophy, the East and Islam in its various aspects, (...) and to his more general view of the history of philosophy and of the Absolute as spirit. (shrink)

Le Souffle de la Terre/The Pulse of the Earth is an on-going sound work (1996–20–) by the artist L. Abenavoli. She outlines the sonification methods employed in the making of the work in an analysis of its technical and conceptual features. The work is described in terms of her artistic objectives.

The Scottish philosopher David Hume had a major influence on the Founding Fathers. While Hume was friends with Benjamin Franklin (who stayed at Humes home on one of his visits to Edinburgh), his real influence came from the fact that his works were widely read and passionately discussed in what would become the United States. Chapters include a biography of the affable Scot, a discussion of the philosophical schools that he is most associated with, an in-depth examination of his seminal (...) "A Treatise of Human Nature," and a discussion of his importance to early American history. (shrink)

This chapter contains sections titled: Introduction I Education, Capability and Equal Participation in Society II Capability Equality in Education: Elements of a Fundamental Educational Entitlement III Elements of a Fundamental Educational Entitlement for Students with Disabilities and Special Educational Needs IV Towards a Principled Framework for a Just Distribution of Educational Resources to Students with Disabilities and Special Educational Needs Notes References.

This study investigates the effectiveness of pedagogical practices used to teach business ethics. The business community has greatly increased its demands for better ethics education in business programs. Educators have generally agreed that the ethical principles of business people have declined. It is important, then, to examine how common methods of instruction used in business ethics could contribute to the development of higher levels of moral judgment competence for students. To determine the effectiveness of these methods, moral judgment competence levels (...) for undergraduate and graduate students from three institutions were measured and compared based upon the pedagogical method used in a business class. Significant differences were found for moral reasoning and moral competence scores depending on the method used for ethics instruction. Students in classes with more highly integrated ethics coverage scored higher in moral reasoning and moral competence. (shrink)

In her recent pamphlet Special Educational Needs: a new look (2005) Mary Warnock has called for a radical review of special needs education and a substantial reconsideration of the assumptions upon which the current educational framework is based. The latter, she maintains, is hindered by a contradiction between the intention to treat all learners as the same and that of responding adequately to the needs arising from their individual differences. The tension highlighted by Warnock, which is central to the debate (...) in special and inclusive education, is also referred to as the ‘dilemma of difference’. This consists in the seemingly unavoidable choice between, on the one hand, identifying children's differences in order to provide for them differentially, with the risk of labelling and dividing, and, on the other, accentuating the ‘sameness’ and offering common provision, with the risk of not making available what is relevant to, and needed by, individual children. In this paper, I argue that the capability approach developed by Amartya Sen provides an innovative and important perspective for re-examining the dilemma of difference in significant ways. In particular, I maintain that reconceptualising disability and special needs through the capability approach makes possible the overcoming of the tension at the core of the dilemma of difference, whilst at the same time inscribing the debate within an ethical, normative framework based upon justice and equality. (shrink)

abstract Emerging from the political activism of disabled people's movements and mainly theorised by the scholar Michael Oliver, the social model of disability is central to current debates in Disability Studies as well as to related perspectives on inclusive education. This article presents a philosophical critique of the social model of disability and outlines some of its theoretical problems. It argues that in conceptualising disability as unilaterally socially caused, the social model presents a partial and, to a certain extent, flawed (...) understanding of the relation between impairment, disability and society, thus setting a framework that needs clarifications and extensions and presents limits to the achievement of its own aim of inclusion. This article concludes by suggesting that, despite its theoretical limits, the social model acts as a powerful and important reminder to face issues of inclusion as fundamental, moral issues. (shrink)

A partir de la afirmación de que el capitalismo prosigue su expansión, el autor se pregunta cómo llevar a cabo una lucha anticapitalista en esas condiciones. Rescata que éste fue el contexto de los primeros socialistas, pre-marxistas o utópicos, y que esta radicalidad anticapitalista se encuentra hoy en la protesta ecologista. Introduce el concepto de "discrepancia radical" con el derroche capitalista, que amenaza para la vida de la especie humana y de la naturaleza. Acude el autor en su tesis al (...) Segundo Tratado sobre el Gobierno Civil, de John Locke, para luego postular los elementos políticos de una discrepancia radical y la necesidad de redefinir el papel militante de la izquierda. (shrink)

El autor recupera el planteamiento de Jacques Maritain respecto de la presencia que deben tener en la teoría democrática los pequeños grupos dinámicos libremente organizados, o “minoría de choque” que desatan luchas de emancipación y materializan su crítica, a través de una acción práctica, movimientista y asambleísta, orientada al autogobierno. Analiza el artículo su legitimidad en las condiciones actuales del neoliberalismo y la globalización.

Réunit des textes d'auteurs français des XVIIe et XVIIIe s. évoquant Saint-Augustin.

The ideal of educational equality is fundamentally grounded in the egalitarian principle that social and institutional arrangements should be designed to give equal consideration to all. However, beyond this broad stipulation, the precise content of the ideal of educational equality is more difficult to determine. In this article, I aim to contribute to the debate on equality in education by dealing with the current, contentious issue of provision for students with disabilities and special educational needs. Thus, the paper addresses the (...) question of what constitutes a just provision for these students, and it provides an answer in terms of the capability approach, as developed by Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum. (shrink)

In the provocative discussions comprising this collection, scholars Ronald A. Bosco and Joel Myerson and Buddhist leader Daisaku Ikeda explore the multifaceted, enduring legacy of Emerson, Thoreau, and Whitman. In the process they challenge and inspire the reader to do as these great figures once did—to look deep inside oneself to discover potential for growth, to encounter the natural world with reverence and delight, and to express themselves with poetry and imagination. With great appreciation for the timeless and universal (...) relevance of the American Renaissance, Bosco, Myerson, and Ikeda encourage each person to lead lives of greatness and to do nothing less than create Waldens of their own. (shrink)

RESUMENEl ensayo intenta mostrar la peculiar importancia que el arte, desde finales del s. XVI, concede al afecto y la atención que paralelamente le dedica la reflexión filosófica, hasta llegar a la obra de Baruch Spinoza. No pretende hacer una historia sino destacar ciertos registros que permitan pensar el valor concedido al afecto, concebido sin sublimaciones, desde su raíz corporal.PALABRAS CLAVEFILOSOFÍA DEL ARTE, AFECTO, SPINOZAABSTRACTThis paper intends to show the specific value which art has attached to affection as well as (...) the attention it is subject of on the part of philosophical reflections from the end of XVI century to Baruch Spinoza’s works. The essay doesn´t attempt to draw a historical process, but rather to highlight some aspects which may allow us to consider the importance attached to bodily affections without any sublimation.KEYWORDSPHILOSOPHY OF ART, AFFECTION, SPINOZA. (shrink)

1. Itinerari cinquecenteschi -- 2. Itinerari secenteschi.

Philip Graham’s biography of Baroness Mary Warnock, Mary Warnock. Ethics, Education and Public Policy in Post-War Britain, is a rich and well-researched account of Warnock’s life and work, set agai...

The harmful effects of Covid 19 on children living in poverty have refocused attention on the complex nature of child poverty and the vexed question of its relationship to education. The paper examines a tension at the heart of much discussion of child poverty and education. On the one hand, education is often regarded as essential for children’s flourishing and a means by which children can “escape” poverty; yet on the other hand, education systems, institutions, and practices, often reflect and (...) entrench the disadvantages associated with poverty. Narratives concerning education as an escape from poverty tend not to deal in any depth with the injustices associated with poverty, stressing instead the transformative potential of education. By contrast, largely sociological analyses of the ways in which schooling reproduces inequalities tend to stop short of developing a normative account of how education can contribute to transforming the structural injustices related to poverty and its effects on children’s lives. In working to move beyond this analytic impasse, the paper shows how the cluster of concepts, which Robeyns (2018) locates as central to the capability approach, give insights which help to address these two different lacunae. The notion of conversion factors highlights the significance of taking account of existing relationships in education, while the distinction between capabilities and functionings helps guide practices regarding the education of children living in poverty. Drawing on literature on the heightened inequalities associated with poor children’s experience of lack of schooling during the COVID pandemic, the paper sketches some of the ways in which sociological analysis and normative evaluation can be linked in taking forward an “ethically engaged political philosophy” (Wolff, 2018) to discuss child poverty and education in real schools. (shrink)

A large body of literature agrees that persons with schizophrenia suffer from a Theory of Mind deficit. However, most empirical studies have focused on third-person, egocentric ToM, underestimating other facets of this complex cognitive skill. Aim of this research is to examine the ToM of schizophrenic persons considering its various aspects, to determine whether some components are more impaired than others.We developed a Theory of Mind Assessment Scale and administered it to 22 persons with a DSM-IV diagnosis of schizophrenia and (...) a matching control group. Th.o.m.a.s. is a semi-structured interview which allows a multi-component measurement of ToM. Both groups were also administered a few existing ToM tasks and the schizophrenic subjects were administered the Positive and Negative Symptoms Scale and the WAIS-R.The schizophrenic persons performed worse than control at all the ToM measurements; however, these deficits appeared to be differently distributed among different components of ToM.Our conclusion is that ToM deficits are not unitary in schizophrenia, which also testifies to the importance of a complete and articulated investigation of ToM. (shrink)