Lo Stato, Il sovrano, Repubblica o monarchia, di A.C. de Meis.--Lettere di F. Fiorentino a Silvio Spaventa sullo Stato moderno.

Recently, there have been discussions about whether or not inter-collegiate football should be eliminated in the US. This article philosophically assesses the arguments for its elimination as well as the arguments proffered against its elimination. While a variety of arguments are discussed, a new one is brought into the foray of philosophical investigation, one that combines the unfairness and economic arguments: the health care and medical costs to others argument. It is believed that this argument is sufficient to justify the (...) elimination of inter-collegiate football. (shrink)

_Uncovers clues regarding the inner life of Machiavelli's political leaders._.

About 35 years ago Wheeler introduced the motto “law without law” to highlight the possibility that Physics may be understood only following regularity principles and few relevant facts, rather than relying on a treatment in terms of fundamental theories. Such a proposal can be seen as part of a more general attempt summarized by the slogan “it from bit”, which privileges the information as the basic ingredient. Apparently it seems that it is possible to obtain, without the use of physical (...) laws, some important results in an easy way, for instance, the probability distribution of the canonical ensemble. In this paper we will present a general discussion on those ideas of Wheeler’s that originated the motto “law without law”. In particular we will show how the claimed simplicity is only apparent and it is rather easy to produce wrong results. We will show that it is possible to obtain some of the results treated by Wheeler in the realm of the statistical mechanics, using precise assumptions and nontrivial results of probability theory, mainly concerning ergodicity and limit theorems. (shrink)

A philosophical assessment of Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion, exposing some errors of reasoning that undermine part of the foundation of his atheism. Distinctions between theism, atheism and agnosticism are also provided and explored for their significance to Dawkins’ argument.

In this paper I shall discuss various philosophical theories of collective punishment: marxian annihilism, metaphysical collectivism and methodological individualism. After refuting metaphysical collectivism and its modified version, I defend a modification of methodological individualism.

(2014). Connecting Personal History and Organizational Context: Suggestions for Developing Educational Programs for Youth Soccer Coaches. World Futures: Vol. 70, No. 2, pp. 140-156.

Psychedelics have been recognized as model interventions for studying altered states of consciousness. However, few empirical studies of the shamanic state of consciousness, which is anecdotally similar to the psychedelic state, exist. We investigated the neural correlates of shamanic trance using high-density electroencephalography (EEG) in 24 shamanic practitioners and 24 healthy controls during rest, shamanic drumming, and classical music listening, followed by an assessment of altered states of consciousness. EEG data were used to assess changes in absolute power, connectivity, signal (...) diversity, and criticality, which were correlated with assessment measures. We also compared assessment scores to those of individuals in a previous study under the influence of psychedelics. Shamanic practitioners were significantly different from controls in several domains of altered states of consciousness, with scores comparable to or exceeding that of healthy volunteers under the influence of psychedelics. Practitioners also displayed increased gamma power during drumming that positively correlated with elementary visual alterations. Furthermore, shamanic practitioners had decreased low alpha and increased low beta connectivity during drumming and classical music and decreased neural signal diversity in the gamma band during drumming that inversely correlated with insightfulness. Finally, criticality in practitioners was increased during drumming in the low and high beta and gamma bands, with increases in the low beta band correlating with complex imagery and elementary visual alterations. These findings suggest that psychedelic drug-induced and non-pharmacologic alterations in consciousness have overlapping phenomenal traits but are distinct states of consciousness, as reflected by the unique brain-related changes during shamanic trance compared to previous literature investigating the psychedelic state. (shrink)

This article is a critical philosophical assessment of John Searle’s theory of human rights as it is articulated both in his earlier book, The Construction of Social Reality and especially in his more recent book, Making the Social World.

In quantity discrimination tasks, adults, infants and animals have been sometimes observed to process number only after all continuous variables, such as area or density, have been controlled for. This has been taken as evidence that processing number may be more cognitively demanding than processing continuous variables. We tested this hypothesis by training mosquitofish to discriminate two items from three in three different conditions. In one condition, continuous variables were controlled while numerical information was available; in another, the number was (...) kept constant and information relating to continuous variables was available; in the third condition, stimuli differed for both number and continuous quantities. Fish learned to discriminate more quickly when both number and continuous information were available compared to when they could use continuous information only or number only; there was no difference in the learning rate between the two latter conditions. Our results do not support the hypothesis that processing numbers imposes a higher cognitive load than processing continuous variables. Rather, they suggest that availability of multiple information sources may facilitate discrimination learning. (shrink)

Introduction : approaching Plato's dialogues -- The mouthpiece interpretation -- The anti-mouthpiece interpretation -- A Socratic interpretation of the concept of art as mimesis -- Conclusion : appreciating Plato's dialogues.

We compute the effect of collapse models on neutrino oscillations. The effect of the collapse is to modify the evolution of the spatial part of the wave function and we will show that this indirectly amounts to a change on the flavor components. For the analysis we use the mass proportional CSL model, and perform the calculation to second order perturbation theory. As we will show, the CSL effect is very small—mainly due to the very small mass of neutrinos—and practically (...) undetectable. (shrink)

Heroism and Wisdom is an interdisciplinary work dissecting the lives, philosophies, and works of fourteen historically significant Italian figures to examine the topics of Italian history, culture, and moral psychology of notions such as practical wisdom, heroism, authenticity, honor, will to power, and leading a meaningful human life.

O objetivo deste artigo foi compreender como o Estado se apropriou de dispositivos legais para legitimar as suas ações punitivas e jurídicas contra a oposição política, em especial, os militantes do Partido Comunista Brasileiro no Paraná em 1975, quando foram presos e indiciados pelo Inquérito Policial-Militar 745, que apurou o envolvimento dos comunistas na suposta reorganização do partido no Estado. Além do IPM, também utilizamos como fonte de pesquisa o Relatório Especial de Informações 1/75 que destacou a importância dos trabalhos (...) da polícia política efetuados no Estado, a fim de conter o avanço do comunismo. (shrink)

The history of scholarship, philosophical or otherwise, about Plato and his writings reveals a quandary pertaining to the interpretation of the contents of Plato's dialogues. To understand Plato one must come to terms with this problem: how ought Plato's writings to be interpreted?

This paper explicates and challenges John Rawl's argument concerning a rule-utilitarian theory of punishment. In so doing, it argues in favour of a retributivist theory of punishment, one that seeks to justify, not only particular forms of punishment, but the institution of punishment itself. Some crucial objections to retributivism are then considered: one regarding the adverse effects of punishment on the innocent, another concerning proportional punishment, a third pertaining to vengeance and retribution, a Marxian concern with retributive punishment, and a (...) concern with the concept of desert. Each objection is deflected in order to ward-off what seem to be the most serious criticisms of a retributivist view of punishment and to clarify the depth of the retributivist position. (shrink)

Review of Lee Braver's 2012 book, Groundless Grounds: A Study of Wittgenstein and Heidegger.

In his famous essay, "A Puzzle About Belief," Saul Kripke poses a puzzle regarding belief. In this paper I shall first describe Kripke's puzzle. Second, I shall introduce and examine five positions one might take in attempting to solve Kripke's Puzzle. In so doing, I shall show why each of these attempts fails to solve Kripke's Puzzle. The significance of this analysis is that if Kripke's Puzzle remains unresolved, then (as Kripke himself claims) the normal apparatus for belief ascription needs (...) rethinking. (shrink)

In Terrorism: A Philosophical Analysis,2 I analyzed philosophically and normatively the nature of terrorism in a way that does not beg the moral question against it. I also analyzed the conditions...

Este trabajo presenta seis ponencias en torno a los problemas que atraviesan distintos sectores de la población en situación de vulnerabilidad social en el goce de sus derechos humanos en el contexto de la pandemia global de COVID-19. Las exposiciones reflexionan sobre los prejuicios y vulnerabilidades que atraviesan las personas adultas mayores; las violencias de género en contextos de aislamiento; las personas en contextos de movilidad excluidas de las medidas de protección; el tratamiento y priorización de las personas con discapacidad (...) en los centros de derivación de COVID-19; la protección de las garantías penales en la administración de justicia durante los juicios de lesa humanidad llevados en forma remota; y el avance de las causas por crímenes de lesa humanidad durante la pandemia. (shrink)

This paper seeks to provide a philosophical analysis of the features of an excellent professor, but a well-balanced one, professionally speaking. What makes for excellence in research, teaching and service is explored in some detail, with attention paid to the contexts of four-year colleges and comprehensive universities in the united states.

This essay argues that Alvin I. Goldman's truth-linked theory of group knowledge (veritism) omits individual components of social cognition, that all group based theories of knowledge lead to scepticism, and that if any sense is to be made of social knowledge, it must be done on individualist lines. I argue that Goldman's veritism can be reconstructed by adopting a reliabilist theory,social reliabilism. And I argue that Goldman's objections to a particular sort of consensualism are not telling. So there are now (...) two plausible and competing theories of social knowledge-social reliabilism and consensualism. (shrink)

Social interaction, especially for older people living alone is a challenge currently facing human-robot interaction (HRI). There has been little research on user preference towards HRI interfaces. In this paper, we took both objective observations and participants’ opinions into account in studying older users with a robot partner. The developed dual-modal robot interface offered older users options of speech or touch screen to perform tasks. Fifteen people aged from 70 to 89 years old, participated. We analyzed the spontaneous actions of (...) the participants, including their attentional activities and conversational activities, the temporal characteristics of these social behaviours, as well as questionnaires. It has been revealed that social engagement with the robot demonstrated by older people was no different from what might be expected towards a human partner. This study is an early attempt to reveal the social connections between human beings and a personal robot in real life. (shrink)

Initially identified as a key phosphoinositide that controls membrane trafficking at the Golgi complex, phosphatidylinositol‐4‐phosphate (PI4P) has emerged as a key molecule in the regulation of a diverse array of cellular functions. In this review we will discuss selected examples of the findings that in the last few years have significantly increased our awareness of the regulation and roles of PI4P in the Golgi complex and beyond. We will also highlight the role of PI4P in infection and cancer. We believe (...) that, with the increasing number of regulators and effectors of PI4P identified, the time is ripe for a more integrated approach of study. A first step in this direction is the delineation of PI4P‐centered molecular networks that we provide using data from low and high throughput studies in yeast and mammals. (shrink)

Purpose: This study is aimed to preliminary investigate whether transcranial alternating current stimulation could affect explosive power considering genetic background in sport subjects.Methods: Seventeen healthy sports volunteers with at least 3 years of sports activities participated in the experiment. After 2 weeks of familiarization performed without any stimulation, each participant received either 50 Hz-tACS or sham-tACS. Before and after stimulation, subjects performed the following tests: the squat jump with the hands on the hips ; countermovement jump with the hands on (...) the hips ; countermovement jump with arm swing ; 15-s Bosco’s test; seated backward overhead medicine ball throw ; seated chest pass throw with a 3-kg rubber medicine ball; and hand-grip test. Additionally, saliva samples were collected from each participant. Genotyping analysis was carried out by polymerase chain reaction.Results: No significant differences were found in sport performance of subjects after 50 Hz-tACS. Additionally, we did not find any influence of genetic background on tACS-related effect on physical performance. These results suggest that tACS at gamma frequency is not able to induce an after-effect modulating sport performance. Further investigations with larger sample size are needed in order to understand the potential role of non-invasive brain stimulation techniques in motor performances.Conclusions: Gamma-tACS applied before the physical performance fails to improve explosive power in sport subjects. (shrink)

This paper is an elaboration of my previous paper published in Philosophy, ‘Making Sense of retributivism,’ which was a criticism of John Rawls' attempt in ‘Two Concepts of Rules’ to develop a rule utilitarian theory of punishment wherein utilitarianism is best construed as a justificatory basis for the institution of punishment and retributivism is best construed as serving as a justificatory basis for particular forms of punishment. I challenge this claim, arguing that retributivism must and can provide a justification both (...) for the institution of punishment and for particular forms of punishment. In the end, I develop an analysis of the nature of desert as responsibility and proportionality. This notion of desert makes the best sense of retributivism. (shrink)

This paper is offered as a tribute to Joel Feinberg. The first section of the paper applies Feinberg's analysis of freedom of expression to a contemporary case of academic freedom. The second section engages Feinberg's work on rights and punishment. The paper ends with numerous quotations from Feinberg's vast array of writings, words that express his ideas on a number of important problems that occupied his mind throughout his fruitful and influential career.