SUMMARYThis essay provides a contextualised analysis of a set of texts that Marsilio Ficino collected in one of his extant working notebooks—Florence, Biblioteca Riccardiana, MS 92—and probably used as a textual basis for his Commentary on Plato's Symposium. In this context, I will discuss Ficino's treatment of his sources, investigating specific facets of his reading and excerpting practices. Special emphasis will be placed on the Latin section of the manuscript, containing a set of hitherto unexplored excerpts from Plotinus's Enneads. The (...) study of this aspect of Ficino's work aims to shed light on his methodology as well as on his philosophical outlook. More generally, the article will provide further information on Renaissance reading practices. More specifically, it will offer new insight into the study of the genesis of Ficino's commentary. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Der Islam Jahrgang: 93 Heft: 2 Seiten: 413-432.

Studying trust in the context of human-robot interaction is of great importance given the increasing relevance and presence of robotic agents in the social sphere, including educational and clinical. We investigated the acquisition, loss and restoration of trust when preschool and school-age children played with either a human or a humanoid robot in-vivo. The relationship between trust and the representation of the quality of attachment relationships, Theory of Mind, and executive function skills was also investigated. Additionally, to outline children’s beliefs (...) about the mental competencies of the robot, we further evaluated the attribution of mental states to the interactive agent. In general, no substantial differences were found in children’s trust in the play-partner as a function of agency (human or robot). Nevertheless, 3-years-olds showed a trend toward trusting the human more than the robot, as opposed to 7-years-olds, who displayed the reverse pattern. These findings align with results showing that, for 3 and 7-year-olds, the cognitive ability to switch was significantly associated with trust restoration in the human and the robot, respectively. Additionally, supporting previous findings, we found a dichotomy between attributions of mental states to the human and robot and children’s behavior: while attributing to the robot significantly lower mental states than the human, in the trusting game children behaved in a similar way when they related to the human and the robot. Altogether, the results of this study highlight that similar psychological mechanisms are at play when children are to establish a novel trustful relationship with a human and robot partner. Furthermore, the findings shed light on the interplay – during development – between children’s quality of attachment relationships and the development of a Theory of Mind, which act differently on trust dynamics as a function of the children’s age as well as the interactive partner’s nature (human vs. robot). (shrink)

Movement perception and its role in aesthetic experience have been often studied, within empirical aesthetics, in relation to the human body. No such specificity has been defined in neuroimaging studies with respect to contents lacking a human form. The aim of this work was to explore, through functional magnetic imaging (fMRI), how perceived movement is processed during the aesthetic judgment of paintings using two types of content: human subjects and scenes of nature. Participants, untutored in the arts, were shown the (...) stimuli and asked to make aesthetic judgments. Additionally, they were instructed to observe the paintings and to rate their perceived movement in separate blocks. Observation highlighted spontaneous processes associated with aesthetic experience, whereas movement judgment outlined activations specifically related to movement processing. The ratings recorded during aesthetic judgment revealed that nature scenes received higher scored than human content paintings. The imaging data showed similar activation, relative to baseline, for all stimuli in the three tasks, including activation of occipito-temporal areas, posterior parietal and premotor cortices. Contrast analyses within aesthetic judgment task showed that human content activated, relative to nature, precuneus, fusiform gyrus and posterior temporal areas, whose activation was prominent for dynamic human paintings. In contrast, nature scenes activated, relative to human stimuli, occipital and posterior parietal cortex/precuneus, involved in visuospatial exploration and pragmatic coding of movement, as well as central insula. Static nature paintings further activated, relative to dynamic nature stimuli, central and posterior insula. Besides insular activation, which was specific for aesthetic judgment, we found a large overlap in the activation pattern characterizing each stimulus dimension (content and dynamism) across observation, aesthetic judgment and movement judgment tasks. These findings support the idea that the aesthetic evaluation of artworks depicting both human subjects and nature scenes involves a motor component, and that the associated neural processes occur quite spontaneously in the viewer. Furthermore, considering the functional roles of posterior and central insula, we suggest that nature paintings may evoke aesthetic processes requiring an additional proprioceptive and sensori-motor component implemented by “motor accessibility” to the represented scenario, which is needed to judge the aesthetic value of the observed painting. (shrink)

The Test Your Memory is a brief self-administered, cognitive screening test, currently used in several settings. It requires minimal administrator supervision and the computation of the final test score takes approximately 2 min. We assessed the discrimination ability of the Italian version of the TYM in detecting Mild Cognitive Impairment in clinical setting. TYM-I was administered to 94 MCI patients and 134 healthy controls. The clinical diagnosis of MCI was considered as the gold standard. An extended formal neuropsychological test battery (...) was used to define MCI subtypes. Receiver Operating Characteristic analyses were conducted to find the optimal cut-off and measure discrimination ability of TYM-I in detecting MCI. TYM-I had a similar area under the curve point estimate as Mini Mental State Examination. A TYM-I score lower or equal to 36 was found to be optimal cut off to detect MCI. The TYM-I showed the highest discrimination ability among individuals aged more than 70 and high educational level. The amnestic MCI subtype patients, compared to non-amnestic MCI patients, had worse performance in recall, orientation and visuospatial abilities TYM-I subscores. The TYM-I is a valid screening test in detecting cognitive dysfunction, easily carried out in clinical practice. The TYM-I subscores may allow to identify amnestic and non-amnestic MCI subtypes. (shrink)

Previous studies have highlighted that temporal source memory can be influenced by factors such as the individual’s age and the emotional valence of the event to be remembered. In this study, we investigated how the different points of view (POVs) from which an event is presented could interact with the relationship between age-related differences and emotional valence on temporal source memory. One hundred and forty-one younger adults (aged 18–30) and 90 older adults (aged 65–74) were presented with a series of (...) emotional videos shot from different POVs (first vs. third-person) in three sessions. In the fourth session, participants were asked to indicate in which session (1, 2, or 3) they viewed each video. The results indicated that the first-person POV amplified the effects of the emotional valence on temporal source memory. Only in this experimental condition, older adults “pushed away” negative stimuli by perceiving them as more distant in time, and “kept closer” positive stimuli by perceiving them as more recent. In comparison, younger adults “kept closer” positive stimuli. These findings add to the existing literature on the positivity effect on temporal source memory and highlighted the importance of considering the POV in relation to the emotional valence. (shrink)

This book argues that God can be found within the edifice of the scientific understanding of physics, cosmology, biology and philosophy. It is a rewarding read that asks the Big Questions which humans have pondered since the dawn of the modern human mind, including: Why and how does the universe exist? From where do the laws of physics come? How did life and mind arise from inanimate matter on Earth? Science and religion have a common interest in the answers to (...) such questions, yet many scientists and believers have been at odds for centuries. The author and contributors present a program for moving beyond the vastly different perspectives of reality offered by science and religion. Historical proofs for the existence of God are considered in light of the possibility that the universe may be only one in an eternal multiverse that contains an infinite number of other universes. Readers will find a modification of St. Augustine’s Argument from Truth for the existence of the necessary, self-sufficient being commonly referred to as God. This book is suited to all with an interest in the crossing points of science and religion, providing much food for thought and reflection. If in the end, you cannot accede to philosophy’s proofs, or theism’s invitation to faith, perhaps you will nevertheless say ‘yes’ to the amazing universe in which we live. (shrink)

A más de 300 años de la primera edición del Leviatán, las lecturas acerca de las pasiones allí descritas deben realizarse teniendo en cuenta cambios históricos, políticos y discursivos. Aún así, continúa siendo posible hacer un rastreo conceptual de algunas de las pasiones aquí tratadas, sobre todo de las que en la actualidad participan con efervescencia de la vida pública. ¿Qué valor podemos rescatar de ellas a más de 300 años? Al consistir la presente obra de un tratado de filosofía (...) política sobre los orígenes y desarrollos del pacto social, es posible comprender estas pasiones, en principio, desde sus valores contractuales. Cada una de ellas representa un valor en la relación con los otros, formas de ser y de estar en el mundo de los propios sujetos en contrato. Reflexionamos con especificidad aquí sobre la indignación, sobre su potencial político y jurídico para contornear los bordes del contrato, pero también sobre su potencial hermenéutico, habilitando otros modos de recorrer la lectura a través de la pregunta por las injusticias, los mecanismos de devolución legítimos ante ellas exigidos y el uso de la violencia racionalizada. (shrink)

Previous studies consistently showed age-related differences in temporal judgment and temporal memory. Importantly, emotional valence plays a crucial role in older adults’ information processing. In this study, we examined the effects of emotions at the intersection between time and memory, analysing age-related differences in a temporal source memory task. Twenty-five younger adults (age range 18–35), 25 old adults (age range 65–74), and 25 old–old adults (age range 75–84) saw a series of emotional pictures in three sessions separated by a one-day (...) rest period. In the fourth session, participants were asked to indicate in which session (1, 2, or 3) they saw each picture. Results showed that old–old adults tended to collocate negative pictures distant in time, while positive stimuli were remembered as more recent than real, compared to neutral pictures. To a lower extent, people over 65 showed the same pattern of results. In contrast, emotional valence did not affect younger adults’ temporal positioning of stimuli. Current findings fit well with the Socio-Emotional Selectivity Theory’s assumptions and extended the literature on the positivity effect to temporal source memory. (shrink)

This article, corresponding to a part of the restitution of a financed international research project between France, Brazil, Canada, Italy and Belgium, aims to offer a modelisation and qualitative evaluation of mediation care settings based on an original methodological tool that involves identifying the typical games at the foundations of creativity, following a multidisciplinary perspective. Therapeutic mediations are settings or devices organised around a “pliable medium”, often artistic, like painting, modeling, writing, ​and theatre, which are very widespread in institutional practices, (...) both in France and abroad. The scientific objectives of this research consist in a multi-disciplinary exploration (anthropology, criminology, neuroscience, clinical psychology) of the process of creative symbolisation understood as a process of transformation involving play. According to this orientation, play can be defined as a psychic process whereby a subjective experience can be explored with pleasure, and consequently symbolised and appropriated. Our fundamental and original hypothesis is that play is at the source of the creative process, conceived as a work of metabolisation by the psyche of playful experiences during the different stages of life. The review of the understanding of play in psychoanalysis, anthropology, criminology and neuroscience emphasises the richness of this model and the importance of reflecting on the typical games in the field of psychic care. A clinical example of treatment in a pictorial therapeutic mediation setting of a child with psychotic disorders makes it possible to identify a number of typical games as well as the modalities of interpretation of the therapists through play. These multidisciplinary studies lead to the presentation of a general table of typical games, and these first results highlight the richness of identifying typical games in clinical settings. Ultimately, the multidisciplinary approach shows the interest of the model of play in the evaluation of therapeutic mediation settings, with a convergence of the different disciplines emphasising the pertinence of this model. The scientific impact of this research overlaps with its societal impact, through the development of innovative tools for evaluating therapeutic mediations, in order to take account of the evolution of the different forms of social expression of psychic suffering. (shrink)

Purpose of this text is to present some critiques on the theories of Ernesto Laclau on populism, in particular way on those present in La ragione populista. The text is divided essentially in three parts, in the first one I will brefly illustrate the recent story of Argentina as it is fundamental to understand the development of the thought of the Latin American philosopher. In the second part of the essay I will present the main theoretical proposals within La ragione (...) populista. The last part of the text will be dedicated to a close examination of two central elements of Laclau's theory; the minimum unit of analysis chosen, and the relation between populism and institutions. Almost the whole texts that I will use, in order to underline some critical issues in the Laclausian's thought, come from the Latin American's framework, which in the last decade could experience merits and limits both on Laclau's thought and on populisms which really exist, or existed, today in Latin America. (shrink)

MacIntyre è il grande avversario lottatore contro modernità e post-modernità. Egli scopre, ed argomenta, che all'origine della affermazione "moderna" c'è una grande truffa fondata sulla presunzione di liberarsi dalla soggezione alla storia, intesa sia come Tradizione sia come metodo con una sua epistemologia per comprendere l'uomo e il suo operare. L'epilogo di tale pretesa è sotto gli occhi: un razionalismo autoreferenziale che non ha più contatto con la realtà e che proprio per questo si riduce a delirio di onnipotenza o (...) di potenza decaduta per resistenza indebita di storia e tradizioni "portatrici solo di oscurantismo!". La realtà porta, invece, a scoprire l'identità dell'uomo come «io» contestualizzato, che nasce da una storia, una storia di amore, e si realizza in un contesto di condizioni e condizionamenti, con cui bisogna sempre fare i conti se si desidera essere lealmente attenti a cogliere le notizie che da essa provengono per comprendere chi è questo essere speciale e particolare. Anche altri filosofi hanno risposto alla "pretesa modernista", però spesso o con un atteggiamento di «falso irenismo», teorizzando un dialogo con cui, prendendo a prestito il metodo illuministico, si è cercato di asserirne "dialetticamente" la falsità, cercando di trattenerne, invece, "le cose buone"; oppure ponendosi come pensatori alternativi al pensiero "comunista" distruttore della «comunità» e della «persona». Secondo MacIntyre, l'errore di questi è nel non aver inteso che la falsità "moderna" è proprio nel suo metodo che ha posto come a-priori non negoziabile, in ogni riflessione e ricerca, il rifiuto della storia, della concretezza, del particolare, della tradizione, propugnando che solo la "spersonalizzazione", la "universalizzazione", insomma: solo il regno della "ragion pura" e auto-purificatasi ha ragione e dignità di essere l'a-priori per eccellenza nella ricerca filosofica. Il «personalismo», nella versione europea, non raramente è incorso in questa confusione. (shrink)

After a short presentation on the figure and work of Novatian to give context to the evidence, this article examines the sources on the episcopal consecration of Novatian as a rival to Cornelius, the bishop of Rome. We learn of this from Photius’ Bibliothecae codices 182 and 280, which preserves fragments of the lost works against the Novatians of Eulogius, Chalcedonian patriarch of Alexandria, which draw in turn on the lost Acta Nouatiani. This study proposes to identify Tibur (Tivoli) as (...) the episcopal see of one of the three prelates who consecrated Novatian, thus allowing us to include in the episcopal succession of that Church two more names (one certain, the other fictitious, perhaps referring to one of Novatian’s entourage) for the middle of the third century. This is unique for an Italian see outside the city of Rome. (shrink)

This paper addresses the modern crisis of the philosophical project that conceived of literature as mathesis universalis. In the digital universe, literature maintains its relationship with truth, which is no longer considered as transcending the process of knowing, but as given in unity with it. The new statute of the text is captured well by Carlo Sini’s idea of “foglio-mondo” (“world-page”). Sini suggests that the desacralized text is not situated “outside” of truth; it does not become, as happens in many (...) postmodern thinkers, play, deceit, and gratuitous narration. Rather, “foglio-mondo” is the text freed from the tutelage of transcendental truth to become an “event” of truth. Questo intervento affronta il problema della crisi moderna del progetto filosofico della letteratura come mathesis universalis. Nell'universo digitale la letteratura mantiene il suo rapporto con la verità che non viene più considerata trascendente il processo della conoscenza, ma data in unità ad esso. Il nuovo statuto del testo è bene indicato dall'espressione di Carlo Sini “foglio-mondo." Il testo desacralizzato non viene a situarsi per Sini “fuori” dalla verità, non diventa, come in tanti pensatori postmoderni, gioco, menzogna, narrazione gratuita. Il “foglio-mondo” è piuttosto il testo che si è liberato dalla tutela della verità trascendente per diventare “evento” di verità. (shrink)