In human groups performing oscillatory tasks, it has been observed that the frequency of participants' oscillations reduces when compared to that acquired in solo. This experimental observation is not captured by the standard Kuramoto oscillators, often employed to model human synchronization. In this work, we aim at capturing this observed phenomenon by proposing three alternative modifications of the standard Kuramoto model that are based on three different biologically-relevant hypotheses underlying group synchronization. The three models are tuned, validated and compared against (...) experiments on a group synchronization task, which is a multi-agent extension of the so-called mirror game. (shrink)

Proprioception has a crucial role in promoting or hindering motor learning. In particular, an intact position sense strongly correlates with the chances of recovery after stroke. A great majority of neurological patients present both motor dysfunctions and impairments in kinesthesia, but traditional robot and virtual reality training techniques focus either in recovering motor functions or in assessing proprioceptive deficits. An open challenge is to implement effective and reliable tests and training protocols for proprioception that go beyond the mere position sense (...) evaluation and exploit the intrinsic bidirectionality of the kinesthetic sense, which refers to both sense of position and sense of movement. Modulated haptic interaction has a leading role in promoting sensorimotor integration and it is a natural way to enhance volitional effort. Therefore, we designed a preliminary clinical study to test a new proprioception-based motor training technique for augmenting kinesthetic awareness via haptic feedback. The feedback was provided by a robotic manipulandum and the test involved 7 chronic hemiparetic subjects over three weeks. The protocol included evaluation sessions, that consisted of a psychometric estimate of the subject’s kinesthetic sensation, and training sessions, in which the subject executed planar reaching movements in the absence of vision and under a minimally assistive haptic guidance made by sequences of graded force pulses. The bidirectional haptic interaction between the subject and the robot was optimally adapted to each participant in order to achieve a uniform task difficulty over the workspace. All the subjects consistently improved in the perceptual scores as a consequence of training. Moreover, they could minimize the level of haptic guidance in time. Results suggest that the proposed method is effective in enhancing kinesthetic acuity, but the level of impairment may affect the ability of subjects to retain their improvement in time. (shrink)

(English:) This contribution attempts a first non-normative approach to the problem of the classic, its definition and its meaning in an age of globalization. It reviews a series of common representations of the classic (and other analogous or contrary terms), stressing the programmatic-ideological aspect that generally characterizes them. Classic, actually, tends to be a foundational category, and therefore rests on delimitations that determine its exclusiveness as opposed to something else. This paper, in particular, criticizes the last boundary of the exclusivity (...) of the classic, that is, its normative opposition to fashion and actuality. On the contrary, it is argued that there is a substantial link between classic, actuality and fashion. On the basis of this connection, two deflationary definitions of the classic are proposed: the first regards it as part of the broader process of construction of historical identity by concrete individuals. The second, on the other hand, conceives it as a product of art, and, therefore, of a formative process of abilities, skills, taste, by which the classic becomes the object of technical, aesthetic and teleological judgments. -/- (Spanish:) En esta contribución se intenta una primera aproximación no normativa al problema del clásico, su definición y su significado en una era de globalización. Se revisa una serie de representaciones comunes sobre lo clásico (y otros términos análogos o contrarios), se destaca el aspecto programático-ideológico que por lo general las caracteriza. Clásico, en efecto, tiende a ser una categoría fundacional, por lo cual se apoya en delimitaciones que determinan su exclusividad por oposición a otra cosa. En este trabajo, en particular, se critica la última frontera de la exclusividad de lo clásico, es decir, su oposición normativa a la moda y la actualidad. Por el contrario, se argumenta que existe un vínculo sustancial entre el clásico, la actualidad y la moda. A partir de esta conexión, se proponen dos definiciones deflacionarias del clásico: la primera lo considera parte del proceso más amplio de construcción de la identidad histórica por parte de individuos concretos. El segundo, en cambio, lo concibe como un producto del arte, y, por tanto, de un proceso de formación de competencias, habilidades, gusto, por el cual el clásico se convierte en objeto de juicios técnicos, estéticos y teleológicos. (shrink)

En la actualidad el pensamiento de Maquiavelo ha estado ligado a una praxis política que se juzga como mala desde el punto de vista ético. El secretario florentino, alejándose de la tradición estoica que marcó la filosofía política de la antigüedad y gran parte del medioevo, separa la política de la moral planteando un realismo político que evalúa los actos como eficientes o ineficientes, útiles o inútiles, fructíferos o infructíferos, tomando distancia de aquella calificación de bueno o malo. Sin embargo, (...) este simple acto, que no es más que la teorización y la explicitación de algo que se ha hecho desde siempre en la historia política, le valió ser tildado de hereje o que incluso su apellido se transformase en un término que hasta el día de hoy tiene una carga negativa en términos morales. Este artículo se adentra en aquellas interpretaciones, elementos históricos, teológicos y filosóficos del pensamiento de Maquiavelo, que con o sin intención, llevaron a que el secretario florentino fuera entendido como un pensador que hace apología de las malas praxis, acercándolo incluso a ideas heréticas. Palabras clave_: _Maquiavelo– Antimaquiavelismo - Realismo político – Herejía. (shrink)

Objectives: Investigate and identify the relationship between physical exercise and cognitive performance measured by using different cognitive tests taken from Cambridge Brain Science.Methods: Thirty subjects, divided into two groups, undergo twelve cognitive tests from CBS. A comparison between the pre- and post-exercise results in terms of cognitive performance differences is carried out. Regression analysis between Heart Rate Variability features and CBS tests results is performed.Results: In most CBS tests, there is an improvement, or at least a confirmation, of the subject's (...) cognitive ability, for both groups. Reasoning, concentration, and planning tests seem to undergo critical positive changes. The regression analysis, performed by using a set of different algorithms, has demonstrated that it is possible, by monitoring the HRV during the exercise, to predict to some extent the cognitive performance, i.e., the CBS tests results. The best performing regression algorithms are Simple Linear and REPTree. The statistical analysis has proved that physical activity is statistically useful for the subjects in improving their cognitive performance.Conclusions: This study has numerically appraised the improvement, the conservation, or the worsening on different aspects of cognition. The found mathematical relationship between physical exercise and cognitive performance suggests that it is possible to predict the beneficial effect of various exercises on executive and attentive control. (shrink)

Motor learning can be defined as a process that leads to relatively permanent changes in motor behavior through repeated interactions with the environment. Different strategies can be adopted to achieve motor learning: movements can be overtly practiced leading to an amelioration of motor performance; alternatively, covert strategies (e.g., action observation) can promote neuroplastic changes in the motor system even in the absence of real movement execution. However, whether a training regularly alternating action observation and execution (i.e., Action Observation Training, AOT) (...) may surpass the pure motor practice (MP) and observational learning (OL) remains to be established. To address this issue, we enrolled 54 subjects requiring them to learn tying nautical knots via one out of three types of training (AOT, MP, OL) with the scope to investigate which element mostly contributes to motor learning. We evaluated the overall improvement of each group, along with the predictive role that neuropsychological indexes exert on each treatment outcome. The AOT group exhibited the highest performance improvement (42%), indicating that the regular alternation between observation and execution biases participants toward a better performance. The reiteration of this sequence provides an incremental, adjunct value that super-adds onto the efficacy of motor practice or observational learning in isolation (42% > 25% + 10%, i.e., OL + MP). These findings extend the use of the AOT from clinical and rehabilitative contexts to daily routines requiring the learning and perfectioning of new motor skills such as sports training, music, and occupational activities requiring fine motor control. (shrink)

Ideologies, worldviews, or simply personal theories, often acquire a distorted and pathological character, and become a factor of alienation rather than an epistemic resource and an aid for personal existence. This paper attempts to better define the limits and characteristics of this experience, which we call distorted intellectual beliefs, or general conceptual beliefs (GB), while trying to highlight both its sometimes dramatic background and its personal and social consequences, which are no less potentially deleterious. We believe that such experiences should (...) not be confused tout court with a broader and more complex phenomenon, such as extremism and politico-religious radicalism, but are a specific typology of that broader and multifaceted fact that is self-deception. We hypothesize that the self-deception implicit in experiences of intellectual distortion produces a cognitive dissonance of which the subject is normally, though with varying intensity, aware (or may become aware through honest introspection). The phenomenon occurs in two extreme forms: one is normal (sporadic), the other is exceptional (systematic). The passage from one to the other is a complex process of escalation and de-escalation, on which multiple external and internal variables act. In its ascending path, it essentially coincides with a process of psychological polarization and cognitive "de-pluralization", while its descending phase marks a return to reality and a "re-pluralization", where the subject returns to being what he basically is, namely, an active and tireless meaning seeker. In the central part of the chapter, similarities and differences between processes of deradicalization and phenomena of religious deconversion are analyzed, with reference, among others, to the case of the Austro-Hungarian writer Arthur Koestler. -/- An abridged version of this text has been delivered for the Workshop "Explaining Extreme Belief and Extreme Behavior", September 15-16, 2022, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. I am grateful to David Konstan (NYU) for reading and commenting on a first version of this chapter and to Rik Peels (VUA) for his comments and questions during the Workshop. I would also like to thank my bachelor's and master's students at UDG, who discussed these topics at length with during semester 2022-B. (shrink)

The knowledge of truth, in Plato, is an experience that calls for conversion of the soul (μεταστροφή, περιστροφή). The basic feature of this experience consists in some sort of connection, which is constantly at work, between rational arguments and their non-rational conditions, briefly, lógos and páthos. How does this connection show up in Plato? Its crucial importance emerges many times at both narrative (récit) and theoretical level. In the three parts of my contribution, I show how logos-pathos intertwines with Plato's (...) notion of conversion considered as a double-sided phenomenon, as both "process" of moral education and "noetic event". (shrink)

Ideologies, worldviews, or simply personal theories, often acquire a distorted and pathological character, and become a factor of alienation rather than an epistemic resource and an aid for personal existence. This paper attempts to better define the limits and characteristics of this experience, which we call distorted intellectual beliefs, or general conceptual beliefs (GB), while trying to highlight both its sometimes dramatic background and its personal and social consequences, which are no less potentially deleterious. We believe that such experiences should (...) not be confused tout court with a broader and more complex phenomenon, such as extremism and politico-religious radicalism, but are a specific typology of that broader and multifaceted fact that is self-deception. We hypothesize that the self-deception implicit in experiences of intellectual distortion produces a cognitive dissonance of which the subject is normally, though with varying intensity, aware (or may become aware through honest introspection). The phenomenon occurs in two forms: one is normal (sporadic), the other is exceptional (systematic). The passage from one to the other is a complex process of escalation and de-escalation, on which multiple external and internal variables act. In its ascending path, it essentially coincides with a process of psychological polarization and cognitive "de-pluralization", while its descending phase marks a return to reality and a "re-pluralization", where the subject returns to being what he basically is, namely, an active and tireless meaning seeker. In the central part of the chapter, similarities and differences between processes of deradicalization and phenomena of religious deconversion are analyzed, with reference, among others, to the case of the Austro-Hungarian writer Arthur Koestler. -/- An abridged version of this text has been delivered for the Workshop "Explaining Extreme Belief and Extreme Behavior", September 15-16, 2022, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. I am grateful to David Konstan (NYU) for reading and commenting on a first version of this chapter and to Rik Peels (VUA) for his comments and questions during the Workshop. I would also like to thank my bachelor's and master's students at UDG, who discussed these topics at length with during semester 2022-B. (shrink)

The paper provides both a description of conspiracy beliefs and an insight into their cultural significance. On one side, it highlights their specific formal features, on the other, and this constitutes its peculiarity in the recent literature on the topic, it considers them within the broader genre of general conceptual beliefs, whose main characteristics are weak methodology and logical structure, strong affective and dispositional constraints, epistemic closure and mauvaise foi, and whose main function is practical and self-representative (not epistemic). The (...) paper also claims that political theory and social sciences had some influence in legitimizing certain ideas and stereotypes that are exacerbated in conspiracy beliefs, while other te(le)ological conceptions, such as finalism and providence, may be an important source of ideas that turn out to be widely spread in contemporary criticism towards those same beliefs. (shrink)

Les premiers Séminaires de Jacques Lacan (1953-1959) offrent une élaboration systématique des notions de l’Imaginaire et du Symbolique, mais font référence de façon seulement sporadique à la notion du Réel. Malgré la rareté des références, la conception du Réel que l’on peut en déduire est précise et cohérente, et confirmée par les séminaires successifs – au moins jusqu’au Séminaire XI (1964). Le Réel est à comprendre comme une matière indéterminée qui, tout en pâtissant du signifiant, lui résiste. Ceci constitue une (...) innovation, de la part de Lacan, par rapport au concept philosophique classique de la matière (du moins tel qu’on le trouve chez Aristote, pour qui la matière n’offre aucune résistance à sa propre mise en forme) et prépare la base pour la théorie de l’objet a en tant que signifiant de la castration du sujet opérée par le langage, telle qu’elle est élaborée à la fin du Séminaire VI (1958-1959) et dans le Séminaire X (1962-1963). (shrink)

Léon Brunschvicg's contribution to philosophical thought in fin-de-siècle France receives full explication in the first English-language study on his work. Arguing that Brunschvicg is crucial to understanding the philosophical schools which took root in 20th-century France, Pietro Terzi locates Brunschvicg alongside his contemporary Henri Bergson, as well as the range of thinkers he taught and influenced, including Lévinas, Merleau-Ponty, de Beauvoir, and Sartre. Brunschvicg's deep engagement with debates concerning spiritualism and rationalism, neo-Kantian philosophy, and the role of mathematics in (...) philosophy made him the perfect supervisor for a whole host of nascent philosophical ideas which were forming in the work of his students. Terzi outlines Brunchvicg's defence of neo-Kantian judgement, historical analysis and the inextricability of the natural and humanist sciences to any rigorous system of philosophy, with wide-ranging implications for contemporary scholarship. (shrink)

Léon Brunschvicg's contribution to philosophical thought in fin-de-siècle France receives full explication in the first English-language study on his work. Arguing that Brunschvicg is crucial to understanding the philosophical schools which took root in 20th-century France, Pietro Terzi locates Brunschvicg alongside his contemporary Henri Bergson, as well as the range of thinkers he taught and influenced, including Lévinas, Merleau-Ponty, de Beauvoir, and Sartre. Brunschvicg's deep engagement with debates concerning spiritualism and rationalism, neo-Kantian philosophy, and the role of mathematics in (...) philosophy made him the perfect supervisor for a whole host of nascent philosophical ideas which were forming in the work of his students. Terzi outlines Brunchvicg's defence of neo-Kantian judgement, historical analysis and the inextricability of the natural and humanist sciences to any rigorous system of philosophy, with wide-ranging implications for contemporary scholarship. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Prima parte – Descrizione del sermonarioNel 1494 Johann Meder, francescano osservante, affronta il compito di predicare la Quaresima a Basilea. Davanti all'interrogativo su come conquistare l'attenzione degli ascoltatori, vincendone la distrazione senza diventare un "adulterator verbi Dei," concepisce un ciclo profondamente innovativo, dato alle stampe l'anno successivo. Nella stessa città un altro ciclo di predicazione sui generis vede la luce in concomitanza alle prediche di Meder: in quei giorni (...) infatti viene pubblicato a Basilea il Narrenschiff di Sebastian Brant, testo di immediato successo, rapidamente tradotto e diffuso in tutta Europa. Lo studio dei due testi mostra precisi contatti e convergenze di interessi tra il predicatore francescano e Brant, tra pulpito e tipografia. Se il Narrenschiff si caratterizza fin da subito per le sue xilografie, che annoverano tra gli autori il giovane Dürer, è proprio il comune interesse per l'uso delle immagini a caratterizzare il rapporto tra Brant e Meder. Basti qui anticipare che le prediche di Meder vengono stampate con un corredo di xilografie, opera di uno dei migliori illustratori del tempo influenzati da Dürer, che rendono questa edizione un unicum nel panorama dei sermonari alla fine del Quattrocento.L'intreccio di questi fatti accresce l'interesse di una ricerca che indaghi come si comporta un predicatore osservante nella Basilea di Brant e Dürer. Pur essendo state già notate alcune particolarità del sermonario di Meder, questo testo ha ricevuto finora un'attenzione solo cursoria. Questo articolo si propone di mettere in luce quattro elementi: nella prima parte l'architettura generale del quaresimale, in maniera particolare il suo impianto teatrale; nella seconda parte la sincronia tra predicazione e Narrenschiff, il rapporto tra Meder e Brant e le caratteristiche dell'edizione del Quadragesimale novum come sermonario illustrato.1. Basilea 1494: il Narrenschiff e un ciclo di prediche quaresimaliIl volto di Basilea lungo il XV secolo è segnato da tre avvenimenti determinanti: il concilio, l'università, la stampa. Li evochiamo rapidamente per la loro incidenza sull'identità e lo spessore culturale della città. Il concilio pose per diversi anni Basilea al centro della cristianità, permettendole di assumere un ruolo e una notorietà europea. Uno dei frutti del nuovo profilo assunto dalla città fu la nascita dell'università, la quale, dopo una prima breve esperienza , venne rifondata su più solide basi nel 1460, contribuendo a creare le condizioni favorevoli per il precoce impianto della stampa e il suo rapido sviluppo, che rese Basilea presto uno dei centri di eccellenza, soprattutto per i libri illustrati.Dentro a queste coordinate si colloca Brant, nato a Strasburgo nel 1457 e giunto come studente nel 1475 a Basilea, dove si licenzia in diritto nel 1484 e diviene doctor utiusque iuris nel 1489. All'università Brant ricopre la cattedra sia di diritto che di poesia, affiancando all'insegnamento il lavoro presso diversi editori, fino al 1501, quando torna a Strasburgo, dove morirà nel 1521. Se nel 1494 Brant è ormai un esperto protagonista nella vita di Basilea, Meder vi si è inserito da poco, dall'anno precedente. È un uomo intorno ai sessant'anni e un predicatore esperto, con un curriculum ormai ventennale in diversi conventi francescani lungo la valle del Reno, tra Magonza e Basilea, dove risiederà fino al 1502.Nei giorni di Carnevale del febbraio del 1494, alla vigilia della Quaresima, viene pubblicato il Narrenschiff. Come è noto si tratta di una satira morale che, capitolo dopo capitolo, passa in rassegna le follie del mondo, soprattutto cittadino. È una critica alla follia non ancora capace di quell'ironia che sarà di Erasmo, ma che, pur condannando tutto e tutti, crede possibile l'azione educatrice della sapienza e dunque il 'rinsavimento' dei folli. Se si chiede chi siano i folli, la risposta di Brant è tutti, e la prima follia è non volerselo sentire dire. Proprio per questo Brant ha costruito uno spiegel nel quale ognuno possa vedere la propria follia, perché l'inizio della sapienza è il riconoscimento della stoltezza e della.. (shrink)

1. De mundi sensibilis atque intelligibilis forma et principiis -- 2. De igne, Nova dilucidatio, Monadologia physica.

In this article, I aim to analyse the way in which Jan Patočka explores the being of the dead in his text “Phenomenology of life after death.” I wish to show that this seminal text offers the solution to three main difficulties regarding the being of the dead: those difficulties concern their form of being, their possibility to transform themselves and their ability to act. Following this analysis, I propose a three‑folded thesis: firstly, the being of the dead can be (...) grasped not only through privation but also through more positive forms; secondly, the dead persons can continue to transform themselves when being construed by the living; and thirdly, their action can be prolonged even though they cannot act. (shrink)

Le but de cette contribution c'est d'analyser la lecture derridienne du Monsieur Teste de Valéry afin de montrer que, par cette figure énigmatique, Derrida a voulu proposer une déconstruction double : une déconstruction de l’égologie souveraine au moyen de l’hétérologie contre-souveraine et vice-versa.

In fin-de-siècle France, we witness a strange circulation of concepts between philosophy, theoretical and experimental psychology, and the borderline realm of what we would now call meta- or parapsychology. This was a time characterized by a complex process of redefinition of the disciplinary frontiers between philosophy and psychology, which favoured the birth of hybrid conceptualities and stark oppositions as well. Furthermore, the great scientific advances in physics, physiology, and psychology fostered hope for a full rational explanation of reality, even of (...) its most unfathomable layers and seemingly bizarre phenomena. Focusing on the case of Émile Boirac’s research on what he termed ‘cryptopsychism’, notably in his book Our Hidden Forces, this article aims to show how Kantian notions and models of consciousness belonging to the canon of French spiritualist philosophical psychology were taken up by scientists such as Pierre Janet and ended up being assimilated and discussed in the more obscure and precarious realm of scientific inquiry into metapsychical phenomena. Far from being a mere historical curiosity, this quest for a scientific account of the latent and subconscious life of the mind sheds light on the intricate relationship between philosophy and the human sciences between the 19th and 20th centuries. (shrink)

Questo contributo mette in luce la molteplice funzione politica di uno schema agiografico centrale nella rappresentazione della giovinezza di Bernardino da Siena: il suo servizio durante la peste del 1400 presso l’Ospedale di Santa Maria della Scala di Siena. La memoria di questo episodio si prestava ad essere utilizzata tanto dall’Osservanza minoritica quanto in diversi contesti locali. In questo racconto Bernardino è presentato come capace di rispondere ai bisogni della città non solo attraverso le proprie virtù, ma radunando altre persone (...) e convincendole a impegnarsi per il bene comune, anche a rischio della propria vita. L’episodio, così come è raccontato dagli agiografi, incorpora la prima predica fatta dal giovane Bernardino ai membri della confraternita dell’Ospedale. Il testo indica programmaticamente la necessità per i laici di anteporre il bonum commune al bonum proprium e delinea un ruolo di leadership dei frati dell’Osservanza nel cuore delle città. Inoltre, se a Siena la memoria della peste del 1400 serviva a sottolineare il rapporto tra il santo e le istituzioni della città, la raffigurazione di tale episodio in alcuni affreschi dipinti a Lodi nel 1476 non soltanto veicolava un modello di spiritualità laicale ma serviva a promuovere e legittimare la riforma ospedaliera in corso a Lodi. (shrink)

Note biografiche -- Opere filosofiche theologiche e varie -- Le questioni I-V del De "conscientia" in relazione alle fonti.

The essay focuses, firstly, on the notion of evil in William James’ Varieties of Religious Experience (VRE). James identified evil with a pathological mental fact, “depression”, and analyzed it according to different thresholds and degrees of symptomatic severity: from the more conscious, intellectualized and, apparently, superficial cases to the more painful and obscure, which, according to his view, were also the deepest ones. The second aim of this essay is to cast light on James’ theory of religious conversion. According to (...) James, once the believer has reached a new mental balance and experienced a lasting happiness thanks to his change of mind, evil comes again to him under the form of a persistent and warning memory of the past troubling experience, a memory that is functional to preserve his new belief-system. We define this memory and its role as “functional atheism” and propose to transpose this notion from the uncertain realm of inner experience, where James originally put it, to the narrative and neurocognitive grounds, where it may lead to more original and wider developments. (shrink)

Ineffability in Plato is a conundrum. There are at least four dimensions of ineffability in Platonic texts: epistemic (divine), strategic (religious), unspeakability and incommunicability. In this paper, I deal only with the first dimension, which is strictly epistemic in kind, and defend that Plato rejects divine ineffability, namely, the belief that the knowledge of the divine in general is inaccessible to the human mind. Several crucial passages attest to this rejection unequivocally. They show that Plato attached a great philosophical relevance (...) to what I call the equivalenceprinciple, namely, the interdependence or specularity between human and divine intelligence. The assertion of this principle represents the Platonic path to absolute knowledge, which I try to locate in the broader context of the history of philosophy, from early philosophers to Hegel. (shrink)