John Searle’s account of collective intentions in action appears to have all the theoretical pros of the non-reductivist view on collective intentionality without the metaphysical cons of committing to the existence of group minds. According to Searle, when we collectively intend to do something together, we intend to cooperate in order to reach a collective goal. Intentions in the first-person plural form therefore have a particular psychological form or mode, for the we-intender conceives of his or her intended actions as (...) singular contributions by means of which – or: by way of which – a collective goal is pursued. Accordingly, we-intentions are held to have a psychological mode with a “collective goal by means of singular contribution” structure, which makes them primitive and irreducible to intentions in the I-form. It is further contended that, albeit primitive and irreducible, we-intentions are not the mental states of an alleged group mind but always of an individual’s mind. This paper targets Searle’s claim of irreducibility by developing an argument whose aim is to show that, pace Searle, it is possible to track the idea of intentions with a psychological mode structured in terms of “collective goal by means of singular contribution” back to the concept of intentions in the I-form. The argument mainly relies on the idea that Searle’s technical expressions “being a collective goal by means of singular contribution intention in action” or “being a collective goal by way of singular contribution intention in action” are susceptible to conceptual analysis. The upshot of this analysis is that we-intentions can be reduced to complex bundles of mental states, all of which come in the first-person singular form. If this argument is sound, Searlean we-intentions do not belong to a primitive kind of mental states. (shrink)

It is often assumed that habits and aesthetic experiences are fundamentally and irreconcilably opposed. Typically, aesthetic experiences are considered to necessitate non-habitual behavior and to provoke unexpected mental states and extraordinary affective sensations. This article challenges this assumption. Moving beyond potential structural analogies between habitual behavior and aesthetic experience, I focus on two key aspects. Firstly, I argue that the experience of beauty and aesthetic experiences in general actually depend on certain habits, specifically those engaged in aesthetic agency and appreciation, (...) which I term «aesthetic habits». Secondly, I propose that habits have an aesthetic origin, as they virtuously evolve and adapt to their environment. This transformative capacity, along with their ability to resonate with specific situational demands, embodies an improvisational quality that should be encouraged, reflecting the inherently unpredictable and uncontrollable nature of aesthetic experience. (shrink)

Background Dignity is a central human value supported by nurses’ professional ethics. In previous studies, nurses in clinical practice have experienced that dignity increased their work well-being and pride of work. Dignity is also strictly interweaved to professional identity in the different nursing’ roles, but little is known about dignity among public health nurses and primary care settings. Purpose This study aimed to describe the perceptions of nursing's professional dignity of public health nurses in primary care in Finland. Research design (...) An inductive qualitative descriptive approach with semi-structured focus group interviews was utilised. Participants and research context Twenty-seven Finnish public health nurses were interviewed via eight semi-structured focus group interviews in primary health care settings. Ethical considerations Before data collection, research permissions were obtained from participating health care centres. This type of research in Finland, with competent adult participants, does not require ethical pre-assessment but written and oral informed consent obtained before the interviews. Findings Based on our findings, public health nurses perceived that professional dignity was (1) part of their self-respect, an observed daily value based on their acknowledged competence. Besides, they perceived that (2) service users’ trust in public health nurses was a strong expression of professional dignity, and it could be uncovered when recipients of care utilised their services. In addition, public health nurses experienced that (3) professional dignity was an expression of different intertwined interprofessional and social factors. Discussion and conclusion Professional dignity is simultaneously an essential prerequisite and an outcome of public health nurses’ work. In future, more information would be needed to implement strategies in primary health care to foster nurses’ professional dignity also in international public health arenas. (shrink)

Neste trabalho, analisamos a argumentação de Girolamo Cardano presente em De subtilitate, no Livro II, em que o autor questiona a teoria dos quatro elementos. Conforme Cardano, o fogo não deveria mais ser considerado um elemento, mas apenas o ar, a água e a terra. Consideramos a maioria dos argumentos discutidos, mas nosso foco está naquele argumento de que Cardano lançou mão do processo de destilação para negar ao fogo um lugar entre os elementos. Para atingir nossos objetivos consideramos também (...) outras duas obras de Cardano: De rerum varietate e De secretis. Em De rerum varietate, encontramos estudos sobre o fogo e sobre a destilação que são relevantes para nossa análise. Por sua vez, em De secretis, identificamos considerações de Cardano sobre a forma com que investigava questões de filosofia natural. Entre outras discussões, procuramos destacar que Cardano unia em suas investigações teoria e prática, o que refletia um contexto bem determinado de uma “ciência” de caráter mais operativo, marcada pela magia natural. (shrink)

The paper offers a systematic reconstruction of the relations that, in Husserl’s work, bind together our shared social world (“the spiritual world”) with shared intentionality. It is claimed that, by sharing experiences, persons create social reasons and that these reasons impose a normative structure on the social world. Because there are two ways in which persons can share experiences (depending on whether these experiences rest on mutual communication or on group’s identity), social normativity comes in two kinds. It is either (...) directed (it has an addressee) or it is collective or absolute (it applies to all group members). Social normativity should be distinguished from axiological normativity: The first is grounded in shared intentionality, the second in values. (shrink)

This paper presents a purely pragmatic account of quotation which, it is argued, will be able to accommodate all relevant linguistic phenomena. Given that it is more parsimonious to explain the data by reference to pragmatic principles only than to explain them by reference to both pragmatic and semantic principles, as is common in the literature, I conclude that the account of quotation I present is to be preferred to the more standard accounts (including the alternative theories of quotation, discussed (...) here). (shrink)

In his theory of truthmaker content, Kit Fine has provided many insights concerning the relation of aboutness, allowing us to understand why a unique subject matter can be associated to a sentence, what is the relation between the subject matter of a sentence and its truth conditions, and why necessary sentences can be distinguished with respect to what they are about. The aim of this chapter is to consider these insights critically, compare them to the notion of subject matter developed (...) by Lewis, and put forward a unified account giving us the resources to overcome some of their limits. The resulting theory characterizes the relation of aboutness by combining in a consistent framework Lewis’s intuition on how sentences are related to the questions they possibly answer with Fine’s intuition on how sentences are related to their truthmakers. (shrink)

The value of solidarity, which implies mutual concern and support, is often conveyed in our everyday moral and political language. But what is its conceptual relationship with justice? Influential positions in this debate may argue for the opposition between the two concepts: justice is impartial and universal, while solidarity is partial and limited. The present paper aims to shortly explore a range of theories that may exemplify possible answers to this position, from communitarian and realist views, which ultimately confirm the (...) opposition, to political solidarities, which claim an instrumental need for solidarity as a reaction to injustices. Special attention will be paid to Habermas’s compatibilist account of solidarity as the “reverse side” of justice. The paper contends that a compelling answer should preserve the difference between the two spheres and the essential features of solidarity by also sketching a concept of solidarity as a social duty arising from our moral interdependence. (shrink)

This contribution traces the interpretations of Jn 8: 32 in the first centuries up to Origen, who represents in this case, as in general for ancient patristic literature, a fundamental watershed. Each passage is illuminated by setting it in the context of exegesis and controversy. Passages which at first glance may seem unconnected are grouped together in this perspective to reveal interesting points of contact.

This contribution focuses attention on the lexical and syntactic features of the Latin version of the Letters to Cledonius: In the passages examined it highlights the differences between the translation and the Greek text, recreates the practices and the strategies of the translator, with particular reference to the two Letters and in some cases to other of Gregory of Nazianzen's texts as reported in Laur. San Marco 584. Lastly the article evaluates the genuineness of the Latin text that was handed (...) down and the possible supply to the constitution of the Greek text. (shrink)

The expressive nature of musical improvisation is dissected, navigatingbetween two predominant theses: The Transparency Thesis (1) which proposes thatexpressiveness in improvisation transparently reflects the musician’s subjectiveaffectivity, and the Objective-Generic Expressiveness Thesis (2) asserting that ithinges only on the musicpractice’s objective components. This article challenges boththeses, arguing against (1) by emphasizing that musical expressivity transcends a merenatural outburst, and counteracting (2) by highlighting that it is not merely anenactment of objective expressive topoi. Introducing a novel perspective through theconceptual pair of (social) (...) Habitusand (individual) habit, a third stance is defended:the specific expressiveness in improvised music is significantly impacted by itsimprovisational quality, whereby the expressiveness emerges from the manipulationand transformation of an expressive Habitus within the musical performance’scontingent situation. (shrink)

Mereological atomism is the thesis that everything is ultimately composed of atomic parts, i.e., parts without proper parts. Typically, this thesis is characterized by an axiom stating that everything has atomic parts. The present paper argues that the success of this standard characterization depends on how the notions of sum and composition are defined. In particular, we put forward a novel definition of mereological sum that: (i) is not equivalent to existing definitions in the literature, if no strong decomposition principle (...) is assumed; (ii) can be used to argue that the standard characterization of atomism fails, because having atomic parts is not sufficient to be a sum of atoms; and (iii) provides a purely mereological distinction between structured and unstructured wholes, contributing to the ongoing debate on this crucial topic. (shrink)

In this essay I am going to attempt to resuscitate the logical problem of evil. Since the problem is well known I will be brief in motivating it. It is widely held within the field of philosophy of religion that the problem of evil in its logical form is a dead end. That is, it is accepted that there is no logical incoherence in supposing that a perfectly loving and all-powerful god exists alongside the existence of evil. One of the (...) accepted arguments for the dissolvement of this issue is Alvin Plantinga’s Free Will Defence. I believe that Plantinga’s defence is not the successful argument that scholars in the field have taken it to be. I attempt a demonstration of an inner conflict in Plantinga’s argument that thoroughly undermines the strength of his argument. I show that Plantinga’s argument attempts to smuggle in the possibility of middle knowledge through his concept of transworld depravity. The conclusion of my argument is that Plantinga’s status as solving the logical problem is not warranted and it should be given serious attention. (shrink)

Over the last few decades, the notion of medicina mentis has enjoyed increasing currency in studies of the philosophy and science of early modernity. The conception of the soul or mind, in its rela...

El tema del presente texto es la cuestión del estatuto ontológico del arte y del papel que, con respecto a tal estatuto, juega la relación entre arte y poder político. Para ello voy a traer a colación las obras de dos autores clásicos en este tema: Las cartas sobre la educación estética de la humanidad (1795) de J. C. F. Schiller, y el H. Marcuse de los escritos sobre la dimensión estética, en particular de los ensayos titulados La dimensión estética (...) (1978), Ensayo sobre la liberación (1969) y Arte y revolución, que es un capítulo del libro Contrarrevolución y revuelta (1972). Se trata de textos muy vinculados a las épocas en las cuales fueron escritos, los años sucesivos a la Revolución francesa en el caso de Schiller, y, por lo que concierne a Marcuse, los años de los movimientos libertarios juveniles de protesta, es decir, los años sesenta y setenta del siglo pasado. En ellos, sin embargo, y como en todo buen clásico, aparecen temas y argumentaciones que todavía hoy constituyen una buena herramienta para discutir filosóficamente la relación entre arte, estética y política. (shrink)

Este ensayo se ocupa de discutir el renacimiento de la tradición republicana en los últimos años, particularmente gracias a pensadores como Quentin Skinner, Maurizio Viroli y Philip Pettit. Se aborda esta tradición en sus principales elementos constitutivos, a saber: 1) el concepto de república propiamente dicho; 2) el papel central de las virtudes cívicas; 3) la concepción republicana de libertad; y 4) el concepto de gobierno de las leyes. Se desarrolla, en primer lugar, un breve análisis de estos cuatros elementos, (...) al mismo tiempo que se ponen en evidencia algunos problemas históricos y teóricos. A continuación, se compara la posición de los teóricos republicanos, tanto clásicos como contemporáneos, con la propia de la tradición liberal-democrática, que, para aquéllos, constituye el principal blanco de esta polémica. Finalmente, se introduce una nueva corriente de pensamiento que los neo-republicanos dejan, curiosamente, de lado: el constitucionalismo. (shrink)

A fine Settecento, quando l’ingresso della musica nel «sistema delle arti» era un evento ancora recente, il fondatore della Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung, Friedrich Rochlitz, individuava il motivo della maggiore discrepanza nei giudizi in materia musica le rispetto alle altre arti nel fatto che essa sarebbe priva di punti di riferimento visibili. «La musica», egli affermava, «nulla ha divisibile (Sichtbares) cui si possano confrontare le sue opere, o da cui possa scaturire una qualche concordanza nelle valutazioni». Mentre per esempio possiamo valutare (...) la differenza di valore tra due raffigurazioni di una rosa perché abbiamo visto la rosa reale, nella musica, argomentava Rochlitz, dobbiamo affidarci alla nostra sensibilità introspettiva, il che rende il compito del giudizio assai difficile. Non intendo qui commentare questo argomento. Piuttosto mi interessa mettere in discussione l’idea che la musica non abbia a che fare con la dimensione del visibile. Anche dando per scontata l’idea che la musica sia un’arte, o un campo di pratiche, legato in modo fondamentale ai suoni e all’ascolto, non è inutile interrogarsi sul contributo della dimensione visiva all’esperienza musicale. Questo articolo presenterà quindi alcune considerazioni circa gli aspetti visivi della produzione e della ricezione della musica. La prima parte concerne la possibilità di visualizzare l’opera intesa come tipo ideale strutturale. La seconda parte discute il ruolo della visione nell’esecuzione delle opere musicali. La terza parte si sofferma brevemente sul ruolo della visualizzazione immaginativa e del vedere performativo nelle pratiche dell’improvvisazione. La conclusione propone un rapido riferimento all’iconologia musicale. (shrink)

Wittgenstein has often explored language games that have to do with musical objects of different sizes (phrases, themes, formal sections or entire works). These games can refer to a technical language or to common parlance and correspond to different targets. One of these coincides with the intention to suggest a way of conceiving musical understanding. His model takes the form of the invitation to "hear (something) as (something)": typically, to hear a musical passage as an introduction or as a conclusion (...) or in a certain tonality. However one may ask to what extent or in what terms (literal or metaphorical) these procedures, and usually the intervention of language games, is requested by our common ways of understanding music. This article shows through the use of some examples that aspectual perception inherent to musical understanding does not require language games as a necessary condition (although in many cases the link between them seems very strong), in contradiction with the thesis of an essential linguistic character of music. At a basic level, it seems more appropriate to insist on the notion of a game: to understand music means to enter into the orbit of "music games" which show an autonomous functioning. Language games have, however, an important function when we develop this comprehension in the light of the criteria of judgment that substantiate the manner in which music is incorporated in and operates within specific forms of life. (shrink)

In this paper, we investigate the relationship between two decidable interval-based temporal description logics that have been proposed in the literature, T L-ALCF and ALCF. Although many aspects of these two logics are quite similar, the two logics suggest two rather different paradigms for representing temporal conceptual knowledge. In this paper, we exhibit a reduction from T L-ALCF concepts to ALCF concepts that serves two purposes: first, it nicely illustrates the relationship between the two knowledge representation paradigms; and second, it (...) provides a tight PSPACE upper bound for T L-ALCF concept satisfiabiliy, whose complexity was previously unknown. (shrink)

Rudolf Pannwitz è una delle più complesse, ma spesso sottovalutate figure intellettuali dell'area germanofona, autore linguisticamente sapido di una bibliografia enorme e poliedrica, il quale ha raccolto in vita la stima di personalità tra le più importanti del panorama culturale europeo. Né si può trascurare una biografia contrastata, sofferta, eccentrica, che solo nella sua ultima fase consentirà una sistemazione matura del pensiero. Questo volume ricostruisce compiutamente per la prima volta la dottrina filosofica pannwitziana; quella filosofia che per autodichiarazione risulta essere (...) la categoria cui appartiene ciò che di più importante la sua persona ha espresso. La formulazione definitiva coincide col grande dittico della maturità - costituito dalle opere Der Aufbau der Natur e Das Werk des Menschen - che introduce la distinzione fondamentale tra mondo disponibile e mondo prodotto. Ma Pannwitz è anche un grande europeo. Particolare attenzione è allora riservata alla sua filosofia politica, il cui carattere profetico è in alcuni passaggi sorprendente, e che prospetta soluzioni che anticipano in modo appassionato e vibrante i capisaldi del dibattito a venire. In prima traduzione italiana con originale tedesco a fronte viene proposto in appendice il testo Aufgaben Europas, una relazione pubblica tenuta da Pannwitz nel 1955. (shrink)

L’articolo si propone di ricostruire criticamente il processo di crisi e trasformazione del concetto di impero a ridosso delle rivoluzioni settecentesche. A partire dalla Histoire des deux Indes di Raynal, e dalla critica illuminista ai differenti modelli imperiali, Pandolfi delinea il passaggio dal colonialismo classico – costruito attorno al rapporto tra coloni, selvaggi e schiavi – a una fase contraddistinta invece dallo sfruttamento indiretto della forza lavoro. La trattazione porta alla luce l’ambivalenza illuminista nei confronti della questione dell’impero, dimostrando come (...) l’opera di Raynal intersechi e restituisca al lettore le tensioni fondanti della seconda metà del Settecento. Così, ripercorrendo l’analisi di Diderot, l’autore dimostra come l’avanzamento morale dell’umanità sia il prodotto della costante interazione tra la retorica imperialista del commercio e le rivoluzioni che, in luoghi e momenti diversi, hanno attraversato lo spazio coloniale. (shrink)

En los Estados constitucionales modernos, se encuentra un conspicuo set de derechos, principios y valores éticos. En el presente trabajo se insiste en la necesidad de tener muy presente las investigaciones relativas a la racionalidad, el conflicto y los valores. Precisamente, porque los derechos se ..

Le recours aux esclaves n’a pas eu seulement des motivations économiques, l’exploitation sexuelle aussi faisait partie des raisons esclavagistes. Dans le monde musulman et ses harem, certes, mais aussi chez les chrétiens. Depuis la mise en place par l’Eglise, au milieu du Moyen Age, du contrôle sexuel de ses fidèles, nombre de chrétiens trouvèrent dans la servante domestique, et en particulier dans l’esclave, l’échappatoire qu’ils désiraient. Le dossier florentin portant sur les derniers siècle du Moyen Age, et en particulier des (...) correspondances privées, éclairent un sujet gardé secret. Les informations sérielles provenant de la Péninsule Ibérique, font apparaître l’ampleur d’un phénomène déjà connu pour les Amériques. Des législations différentes déterminaient le destin des enfants nés de ces unions ancillaires: le plus souvent abandonnés à Florence, vendus, affranchis ou gardés comme esclaves en Espagne. (shrink)

In the present article, I intend to examine the importance of Engel’s mimicry for the corporeal visualization of affects, showing the links with its roots in the early German Enlightenment. If the body serves as a picture of the soul, the aim of this essay is to understand how Engel’s mimicry turns this correspondence to its own purpose, enhancing its role as a privileged observatory of the human mind as well as a building site of a historical form of humanity.

The purpose of this paper is not to provide an overall picture of care ethics, but, rather, to reflect upon the concept of care, which has gained significance in particular scientific contexts. Undoubtedly, the importance of the subject of care represents a challenge on the level of fundamental philosophical positions and a diversified look into the occurring forms of the psychological and social suffering, dependency, and vulnerability. I will shed light on tenets that are considered central to the care ethics (...) and that have led to the setting up of the relationship between care and democracy. By introducing the basic aspects of Carol Gilligan’s and Joan Tronto’s theories, I will emphasize their vocation to be politically relevant. A discussion on the relationship between care and justice on the one hand, and needs and rights on the other, will follow. Can hearing voices of care make democracy more just? How can care ethics provide a concrete support for democracy? On the political level, care ethics builds on the assumptions of the necessary relatedness and equality between individuals who are decisive in the light of the welfare state perspective. Upon closer examination, one may see that the setting up of these relationships is not new to the liberal perspective. Liberalism is historically rooted in the fundamental interconnection between freedom and equality. Virtues such as care and meekness can be formulated in the language of politics, but they still remain unpolitical. On the one hand, engaging in a critical reflection upon such virtues might be an indispensable measuring instrument for distinguishing a good democracy from a bad one. On the other hand, care ethics does not prove to be a real alternative to the ethics of justice. In this regard, care ethics seems to show its feet of clay. (shrink)

For patients with multiple sclerosis, deficits in gait significantly reduce the quality of life. Using the concept of muscle synergies, this study investigated the modular organization of motor control during level and inclined walking in MS patients compared with healthy participants to identify the potential demand-specific adjustments in motor control in MSP. We hypothesized a widening of the time-dependent activation patterns in MSP to increase the overlap of temporally-adjacent muscle synergies, especially during inclined walking, as a strategy to increase the (...) robustness of motor control, thus compensating pathology-related deficits. We analyzed temporal gait parameters and muscle synergies from myoelectric signals of 13 ipsilateral leg muscles using non-negative matrix factorization. Compared with HP, MSP demonstrated a widening in the time-dependent coefficients, as well as altered relative muscle contribution, in certain synergies during level and inclined walking. Moreover, inclined walking revealed a demand-specific adjustment in the modular organization in MSP, resulting in an extra synergy compared with HP. This further increased the overlap of temporally-adjacent muscle synergies to provide sufficient robustness in motor control to accomplish the more demanding motor task while coping with pathology-related motor deficits during walking. (shrink)

Jerrold Levinson has elegantly defended a proposal for the ethical evaluation of popular songs, which looks at the ‘personal qualities’ a song exhibits. I claim that the personal-qualities theory of artistic expression importantly contributes to explaining how songs get to have their meanings, yet that it does not very profitably extend to their ethical evaluation. I propose that the notion of a work’s ethical perspective best generates a central way of ethically evaluating popular songs, by properly linking the ethical evaluation (...) of songs to their meanings. Reference to songs’ ethical perspectives proves able to (a) enjoy broad scope; (b) produce charitable ethical assessments; (c) generate fine-grained and comparative attributions of ethical value; and (d) deal, better than the personal-qualities view, with songs that include multiple characters, manifest despicable personae without explicitly condemning them, or exhibit a persona that eschews ethical evaluation. Investigating the theoretical centrality of this type of ethical judgment also provides us with an opportunity to better understand what construing the meaning of songs—and more generally works of art—involves: when relevant, the proper construal of works’ ethical perspectives’ objects, and of the perspectives themselves as often presenting us with outlooks just for our consideration, not approval. I close by suggesting a possible relationship between our song preferences and our sense of self, via David Hume’s notion of pride: the songs we favour help us with self-perception and -assessment, and perhaps with self-construction. (shrink)

The article Social epistemological conception of delusion, written by Kengo Miyazon and Alessandro Salice, was originally published electronically on the publisher’s internet portal on 17 September 2020 without open access.