The rapid dynamics of COVID-19 calls for quick and effective tracking of virus transmission chains and early detection of outbreaks, especially in the “phase 2” of the pandemic, when lockdown and other restriction measures are progressively withdrawn, in order to avoid or minimize contagion resurgence. For this purpose, contact-tracing apps are being proposed for large scale adoption by many countries. A centralized approach, where data sensed by the app are all sent to a nation-wide server, raises concerns about citizens’ privacy (...) and needlessly strong digital surveillance, thus alerting us to the need to minimize personal data collection and avoiding location tracking. We advocate the conceptual advantage of a decentralized approach, where both contact and location data are collected exclusively in individual citizens’ “personal data stores”, to be shared separately and selectively, voluntarily, only when the citizen has tested positive for COVID-19, and with a privacy preserving level of granularity. This approach better protects the personal sphere of citizens and affords multiple benefits: it allows for detailed information gathering for infected people in a privacy-preserving fashion; and, in turn this enables both contact tracing, and, the early detection of outbreak hotspots on more finely-granulated geographic scale. The decentralized approach is also scalable to large populations, in that only the data of positive patients need be handled at a central level. Our recommendation is two-fold. First to extend existing decentralized architectures with a light touch, in order to manage the collection of location data locally on the device, and allow the user to share spatio-temporal aggregates—if and when they want and for specific aims—with health authorities, for instance. Second, we favour a longer-term pursuit of realizing a Personal Data Store vision, giving users the opportunity to contribute to collective good in the measure they want, enhancing self-awareness, and cultivating collective efforts for rebuilding society. (shrink)

Currently much debate surrounds the significance of cross-cultural variation in mother-infant attachment. Is only one form of attachment “healthy,” or are different types of attachment adaptations to local socioecological conditions? Juvenile mortality rates have been promoted as important features of local environments that shape attachment, which in turn affects later reproductive strategies. To this we add fertility. Fertility changes the environment of a child by influencing the number of potential caregivers and competitors for care, and the cultural ethos regarding the (...) rights of children. Different combinations of fertility and mortality will likely give rise to different attachment forms, and only under one regime (low fertility and mortality) do we expect exclusivity in attachment. (shrink)

Resumen: El objetivo de este artículo es estudiar la inducción analítica como método científico de investigación, es decir, como modo válido de hacer ciencia. En 1934, su creador, el filósofo y sociólogo Florian Znaniecki, afirmó que este era el método que debía ser adoptado en toda investigación sociológica. Su relevancia radica en que se propone encontrar explicaciones globales de los fenómenos sociales a partir de la utilización de técnicas cualitativas de investigación. Aquí adopto una perspectiva histórica que permite inscribir su (...) emergencia y evolución en un contexto mayor del desarrollo de metodologías cualitativas en sociología, para luego reflexionar sobre sus presupuestos epistemológicos y las críticas de las que fue objeto. Por último, realizo un balance de los aportes de esta metodología a la disciplina.: The aim of this article is to study analytic induction as a scientific research method, that is, as a valid way of making science. In 1934, the philosopher and sociologist Florian Znaniecki, its creator, referred to this methodology as the method that should be adopted by any sociological research. Its relevance lies on the fact that its goal is to find global explanations to social phenomena by using qualitative research techniques. I adopt a historical perspective to inscribe this method’s emergency and evolution in a larger context of the development of qualitative methods in sociology, and then reflect upon its epistemological basis and the criticisms made in relation to it. Finally, I evaluate this method’s contributions to the discipline. (shrink)

In the present article, we aimed at describing the diagnostic process in Psychiatry through a phenomenological perspective. We have identified 4 core concepts which may represent the joints of a phenomenologically oriented diagnosis. The "tightrope walking" attitude refers to the psychiatrist's ability to swing between 2 different and sometimes contrasting tendencies (e.g., engagement and disengagement). The "holistic experience" includes all those intuitive, nonverbal, and pre-thematic elements that emerge in the early stages of the clinical encounter as an emanation of the (...) atmospheric quality of the intersubjective space. The "co-construction of symptoms" regards the hermeneutic process behind psychiatric symptoms, involving both the patient as a self-interpreting agent and the clinician as a translator of his/her experience. Finally, by the "evolving typification" we mean that the closer the relationship becomes with the patient, the more specific and nuanced becomes the typification behind psychiatric diagnosis. Each of these concepts will be accompanied by an extract from a clinical case deriving from one of the authors' most recent clinical experiences. (shrink)

Kritik: Peter Remmers, Film als Wissensform. Eine Philosophische Untersuchung der Wahrnehmung filmischer Bewegungsbilder, Berlin/Boston: DeGruyter 2018.

In Plato's Gorgias Callicles argues for a life rooted in insatiable desire and the endless experience of pleasure, justifying this by appealing to nature, with examples of the lion, Xerxes, and Heracles. This essay shows that Callicles' examples undermine his own claims. Socrates examines the effects of Callicles' imperialistic hedonism on the soul. Socrates locates Callicles in Hades twice: first demonstrating that insatiable desire amounts to infinite neediness, then alerting Callicles to the consequences of the hedonistic life. This essay argues (...) that the move into Hades is occasioned by Callicles' own position and that the two myths do philosophical work. In contrast to Callicles, Socrates demonstrates that his life is consonant with nature. It does not depend on an after-life for its satisfaction, but it is not afraid of the possibility of an after-life. Socrates emerges victorious in the contest between the hedonistic and the philosophical life. (shrink)

There is no rigorous philosophy which does not depend on history of philosophy, and which does not acknowledge this dependence; there is no cogent research on history of philosophy which does not take also a philosophical position. This is the credo informing the contributions to this Thesis Eleven special issue on Ágnes Heller. Yet each contribution embodies this afflatus in its specific way, each one discusses Ágnes Heller and with Ágnes Heller according to its own standpoint, whether ethics or epistemology, (...) aesthetics or philosophy of history, (meta)philosophy or history and its vicissitudes. The fundamental tonality being the same, all contributions colour it with their rhythms and styles: a sort of philosophical “suite” inviting us to dance the philosophy of Ágnes Heller. (shrink)

In this article I present a new perspective on the theological concept of justification, by focusing not on the content but on the form of this concept. I start with the semantic overabundance related to justification, with specific reference three meanings: the forensic, the effective, and the ontological-theotic. Then, I confront these meanings with Luther's idea of justification as in his De servo arbitrio. Thanks to this, I stress that the theological concept of justification plays a meta-conceptual function: it affirms (...) the priority of divine justification over any standard condition of conceptualization and thinkability of justification – in specific, the structure of imputative justice. This leads to a reconsideration of the role of this concept as "articulus stantis et cadentis ecclesiæ". (shrink)

Since their first appearance in the late 18th century (Herder, Novalis), and particularly during the golden age between the late 19th and the early 20th century (Vischer, Lipps), the theories of empathy (Einfühlung) have frequently interpreted the ancient issue of the animation of the inanimate on the basis of a hydraulic model of communicating vases: the human subject fills the void object with her/his feelings. The unsustainable psychologistic subjectivism underpinned by such model was radically criticized both by Gestalt theorists and (...) phenomenologists, who rejected the idea of emotional projection and claimed the expressivity peculiar to any entity, both human and non-human. Nevertheless, the notion of empathy is not completely confuted by such criticism, for it does not completely coincide with the hydraulic model. In my paper I will try to show the possibility of a non-subjectivistic version of the Einfühlung referring to the analogical characterology developed in the circle of Lipps’ school (Pfänder, Geiger, Klages). (shrink)

Frederick Beiser’s book is a valuable contribution to the revival of neo-Kantian studies characterizing the past few years: a trend that is blowing the dust off this important, yet hitherto neglected chapter of the history of philosophy. The quality of Beiser’s writing is excellent throughout, showing mastery of an impressive range of sources and treating with equal competence a variety of topics in epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, and philosophy of religion.In part 1, Beiser advances his most original historical claim about neo-Kantianism. (...) He argues that the movement has its origin in what he calls the “lost tradition”, that is, the empirical-psychological approach to Kant’s transcendental philosophy.. (shrink)

Abstract:This paper connects geography, gender studies, and the histories of science and empire. It uses the framework of geography, exploration, and adventure travel to shed light on the interplay of gender, nationalism, and space in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century British society. During this period, the extent of the British Empire reached a peak, as did its sponsorship for exploration, and scores of men and a few women scrambled to fill in the world’s remaining blank spaces. Drawing on archival sources, (...) travel accounts as well as contemporary scholarship, this study investigates the shifting identities of Victorian explorers. It connects British exploration in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to broader societal norms of gender and nationalism, then it shows how female explorers both reaffirmed and challenged these traditional Victorian values. This investigation demonstrates that Victorian explorers were often self- described outsiders in British society who deliberately chose their profession as a vehicle for liberation or escape. Space played a critical role in these agents’ ability to both reaffirm and evade British national identity. British nationalist rhetoric celebrated such figures as quintessential Britons who expanded their nation’s influence and modeled its prestige, strength, dignity, and grace. Yet agents of British exploration operated primarily on the physical, social, and ideological frontiers of British society. On these margins of empire, British understandings of gender and national identity were formed, reaffirmed, challenged, and ultimately transformed. This study contributes to contemporary scholarship by highlighting the value of a spatial lens in histories of science, gender, and empire. (shrink)