A novel and versatile polarization-entanglement scheme is adopted to investigate the violation of the EPR local realism for a non-maximally entangled two-photon system according to the recent “nonlocality proof” by Lucien Hardy. In this context the adoption of a sophisticated detection method allows direct determination of any “element of physical reality” (viz., determined “with probability equal to unity” in the words of Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen) for the pair system within complete measurements that are largely insensitive to the detector quantum-efficiencies (...) and noise. (shrink)

Objective: Mindfulness disposition is associated with various psychological factors and prevent emotional distress in chronic diseases. In the present study, we analyzed the key role of mindfulness dispositions in protecting the individual against psychological distress consequent to COVID-19 social distancing and quarantining. Methods: An online survey was launched on March 13, 2020, with 6,412 responses by April 6, 2020. Socio-demographic information, exposure to the pandemic, and quarantining were assessed together with psychological distress and mindfulness disposition. Multivariate linear regression analysis was (...) performed to study the influence of predictive factors on psychological distress and quality of life in Italian responders during the early days of lockdown. Pearson correlations were calculated to study the relations between mindfulness and psychiatric symptoms. Results: Multivariate linear regression run on socio-demographics, COVID-19-related variables, and mindfulness disposition as moderators of overall psychological distress showed that mindfulness was the best predictor of psychological distress (β = -0.504; p =.000). High negative correlations were found between mindfulness disposition and overall Global Severity Index (r = -.637; p =.000), while moderate to high associations were found between mindfulness and all SCL-90 sub-scales. Discussion: Findings showed that high dispositional mindfulness enhances well-being and helps in dealing with stressful situations such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Mindfulness-based mental training could represent an effective intervention to stem the post-traumatic psychopathological beginnings and preventing the onset of chronic mental disorders. (shrink)

The Sphere Model of Consciousness (SMC) delineates a sphere-shaped matrix that aims to describe the phenomenology of experience using geometric coordinates. According to SMC, an experience of overcoming of the habitual self and the conditioning of memories could be placed at the center of the matrix, which can be then called the Place of Pre-Existence (PPE). The PPE is causally associated with self-determination. In this context, we suggest that silence could be considered as an intentional state enabling self-perception to be (...) focused on the “here and now,” which in turn improves perception of one’s own body in space. To investigate these hypotheses grounded in the model, the current preliminary study examined the Place of Pre-Existence Technique (PPEt), in which practitioners are guided to focus on a self-defined aim; reach a state of detachment from the habitual self; envision the future. 481 volunteers PPEt practitioners completed self-report questionnaires before and after an intensive 3-day meditative training. We analyzed the possibly relationship between subjective experiences related to physical, emotional, mental, temporal, and spatial aspects, as well as self-determination and silence, before and after training. The results indicated a shift from a prevailing influence of mental dimension on the other aspects of experience, to a prevailing influence of spatial dimension. Silence was reported more often following the training, and predominantly related to the mental and emotional experiences. The results are discussed in relation to the shift from Narrative to Minimal Self and to increased balance among the considered dimensions. (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)

Questo saggio, risultato del lavoro seminariale svolto presso la Fondazione Centro Studi Campostrini, avanza una proposta teoricasulla base di un’ipotesi. L’ipotesi è che quando usiamo il vocabolariodella credenza diciamo qualcosa di specifico e irriducibile adaltre nozioni. Alla ricerca del nucleo di irriducibilità e specificitàdella credenza Giuseppe Di Salvatore scarta tutte quelle forme dicredenza che dipendono in maniera più o meno diretta da unaconsiderazione in termini di conoscenza o da un’implicazione dellaverità. Se alcuni tipi di giustificazione della credenza possono essereutili (...) a individuarne l’irriducibilità, solo le credenze primitive, unacomplessa nozione di “credenza soggettiva” e un originale modellofiduciario della credenza fungono da buoni candidati per difenderela specificità della credenza. Dopo la discussione di alcune tesi diLudwig Wittgenstein e il ricorso a fonti eterogenee, da William Jamesa Henry Habberley Price fino a Niklas Luhmann, l’autore proponela nozione originale di “credenza progressiva” come il migliorcandidato che confermi l’ipotesi di partenza. In essa una precisaidea di rischio e la fiducia, al cui dibattito è dedicata un’ampiaattenzione, contribuiscono a delineare la credenza progressivainsieme ad alcuni suoi aspetti soggettivi, così profilandola comeuna postura sperimentale. Il saggio si completa con una riflessionesulla peculiarità della questione filosofica della credenza religiosa,la quale viene approcciata nella sua preliminare generalità, quindiconfrontata con la credenza progressiva. (shrink)

Il saggio approfondisce l’opera di due artisti fondamentali degli ultimi decenni, ovvero Antoni Tàpies e Bill Viola. La loro produzione artistica riesce a sfuggire alla condanna che Th. W. Adorno fa di tutti quei movimenti che rimettono in questione il concetto di arte e la nozione di opera. Questi due artisti salvano lo statuto dell’arte nella società post-industriale, vale a dire in un momento in cui le trasformazioni profonde del sistema culturale rischiano di minacciare la sopravvivenza della creazione artistica, come (...) se la razionalità estetica non potesse che abdicare davanti alla razionalità strumentale. Sono pochi i pittori che come Antoni Tàpies riescono a infondere alla materia inanimata un’irradiazione e una capacità di evocazione tanto intense, mentre per Bill Viola tutte le opere d’arte rappresentano cose invisibili e la stessa tecnologia digitale non è altro che una forma più pura per avvicinarsi a quelle realtà non fisiche e non visibili che stanno sotto alle cose visibili del mondo. La scommessa di Tàpies e Viola riguarda la sopravvivenza dell’arte nell’universo mercantile di una società sempre più amministrata e sottoposta agli imperativi economici; la loro produzione pare mirata a renderci consapevoli della nostra mortalità, offrendo immagini in grado di mettere in connessione la dimensione sensibile e quella spirituale, il visibile e l’invisibile, aprendo lo spazio a una trascendenza che sembrava completamente svanita. (shrink)

A fronte del quotidiano rincorrersi di nuovi interrogativi che esigono una risposta dalla bioetica, si assiste alla difficoltà di trovare un solido fondamento al giudizio etico in bioetica. Si confrontano e si scontrano, infatti, teorie etiche tra di loro non sovrapponibili né conciliabili, che portano a soluzioni pratiche tra di loro divergenti e spesso, troppo spesso, dimentiche della centralità della persona umana. Edè proprio la riflessione sulla persona umana, con i suoi diritti, ma anche con i suoi doveri, secondo la (...) lettura del personalismo ontologicamente fondato, il filo conduttore dei contributi contenuti in questo volume...(Dalla quarta di copertina)- In sommario: La nuova genetica - La clonazione umana: aspetti tecnici e considerazioni - Le basi biologiche della sessualità - Natura e interpretazione dei disordini sessuali: l'omosessualità - I disorientamenti sessuali: il ruolo dell'educatore - La sindrome da immunodeficienza acquisita - Orientamenti metodologici nell'educazione sessuale. (shrink)

The paper proposes a new understanding of the notion of “aura” as it emerges, including similarities and differences, in the aesthetic thought of Walter Benjamin and Theodor W. Adorno. In particular, the paper shows how, not only in Adorno but already in Benjamin, such a concept designates also the capacity of artwork to refers, by its own internal, to an irreducible otherness. In this perspective, in a world increasingly dominated by a tendency to homologation and mercification – with the resulting (...) identification of art and cultural industry –, contemporary art looks like a continuous oscillation between the will to deny aura and, other times, the awareness of its necessary survival, closely related (in particular, according to Adorno) to the recognition of the need to “save” not only the appearance but also, by that very fact, the aesthetic autonomy. (shrink)