This study examines the problem of belief revision, defined as deciding which of several initially accepted sentences to disbelieve, when new information presents a logical inconsistency with the initial set. In the first three experiments, the initial sentence set included a conditional sentence, a non‐conditional (ground) sentence, and an inferred conclusion drawn from the first two. The new information contradicted the inferred conclusion. Results indicated that conditional sentences were more readily abandoned than ground sentences, even when either choice would lead (...) to a consistent belief state, and that this preference was more pronounced when problems used natural language cover stories rather than symbols. The pattern of belief revision choices differed depending on whether the contradicted conclusion from the initial belief set had been a modus ponens or modus tollens inference. Two additional experiments examined alternative model‐theoretic definitions of minimal change to a belief state, using problems that contained multiple models of the initial belief state and of the new information that provided the contradiction. The results indicated that people did not follow any of four formal definitions of minimal change on these problems. The new information and the contradiction it offered was not, for example, used to select a particular model of the initial belief state as a way of reconciling the contradiction. The preferred revision was to retain only those initial sentences that had the same, unambiguous truth value within and across both the initial and new information sets. The study and results are presented in the context of certain logic‐based formalizations of belief revision, syntactic and model‐theoretic representations of belief states, and performance models of human deduction. Principles by which some types of sentences might be more “entrenched” than others in the face of contradiction are also discussed from the perspective of induction and theory revision. (shrink)

A comparative study of Charles S. Peirce’s and Ernst Cassirer’s triadic phenomenological theories of categories. Both Peirce and Cassirer developed, in a mature stage of their philosophical reflection, phenomenological theories on three fundamental categories: Firstness, Secondness, and Thirdness are the names of Peirce’s categories,while Cassirer’s ‚basis phenomena‘ are denominated with the personal pronouns Ich, Du and Es. Prompted by John Michael Krois’s suggestion of an indirect similarity between the two phenomenological theories of categories, this essay aims to find a possible (...) justification for this convergence, thereby reconstructing its metaphysical and epistemological grounding. The study is divided into four sections. In the first part, Peirce’s and Cassirer’s theories of knowledge are compared as expressions of a similar symbolic conception of thought. Secondly, I offer a parallel account of the reasons which led the two philosophers toward a more metaphysical grounding of their symbolic theories, focusing in particular on the relevance of the problem of life in both views. In the third section, I concentrate on the content of the two phenomenological theories and argue that they both represent an attempt to conciliate the tension between the transcendental premises of their symbolic theories of knowledge and the living character of experience. Finally, the reflections of Goethe and Schiller are presented as a possible source of Peirce’s and Cassirer’s triadic phenomenological theories. (shrink)

Mimmo Paladino’s artistic research is characterized by an interest in the language and the relationship between “individual” and “community”. The idea of “individual” Paladino focuses in his work on is placed in the Mediterranean culture, and carries with itself the request of social emancipation — that can be ascribable to some Marxist topics — and the faith in the magical power. Along this route Paladino meets Ernesto De Martino’s South and Magic, Marcel Mauss and Claude Lévi-Strauss’s works. With the same (...) naturalness he makes coincide his sign with those of Matisse and Beuys, overlaps conceptually Spinoza to Jarry, Giordano Bruno to Beuys by getting the common trait in the transgressive dimension. It would be misleading trying to get a unitary route at all costs because only in the idea of the “encounter” apparently causal, that recalls the impracticable and audacious routes of Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit, we can get the meaning of the Paladino’s contaminations with philosophy. (shrink)

Les réformes économiques néolibérales, suite à la crise financière de 1991, ont provoqué des mutations dans l’économie indienne, son développement industriel et agricole. Celles-ci ont touché l’ensemble de la population mais particulièrement, les groupes sociaux classés comme les plus vulnérables, telles que les communautés autochtones adivasi. Du point de vue des politiques publiques, ce qui caractérise les Adivasis, c’est leur désavantage économique et social. Ils font donc partie d’une catégorie sociale ciblée par différents programmes nationaux de développement et de réduction (...) de la pauvreté, notamment par l’intermédiaire du Dongria Kondh Development Agency (DKDA pour son acronyme anglais), département gouvernemental de médiation entre le gouvernement central indien et le groupe autochtone Dongria Kondh. C’est sur ce groupe que porte notre enquête anthropologique. Le présent article, dont les résultats s’appuient sur neuf mois de travail sur le terrain entre 2011 et 2015, vise à mettre en évidence la manière dont les politiques publiques nationales visant les communautés de dongria ont des impacts environnementaux et sociaux significatifs. (shrink)

Le thème de la « relation personnelle à Dieu » peut à la fois être approché comme un lieu théologique parmi d’autres et comme une condition de l’exercice théologique en tant que tel. Cet article propose d’explorer au niveau doctrinal la relation entre ces deux aspects de la « relation personnelle à Dieu ». Il effectue d’abord un rappel des conditions contemporaines du travail de la théologie systématique comme herméneutique du discours religieux. Dans un second temps, il situe la place (...) de la « relation personnelle à Dieu » dans la dogmatique. Finalement, il présente le statut et la place de la « relation personnelle à Dieu » pour l’exercice contemporain de la théologie à partir de trois figures théologiques – la prière, l’amour et le témoignage – sans nier la brisure qui traverse l’existence humaine. (shrink)

Presents a metaphysical foundation for ethics grounded in non-relative, personalist values that can be communicated cross-culturally. Examines the philosophical bases of ethical criteria and applies them to issues in medical practice ranging from genetic engineering to euthanasia.

This document describes the technique and technology currently used to apply cryosurgery, a technic based on low temperatures for medical purposes that allows the controlled destruction of pathological cells and tissues. Cryosurgery is an effective and innocuous process that is painless, safe and economical, applied to multiple specialities in which it provides alternatives to its traditional methods. A search was carried out for articles and bibliographic reviews referring to Cryosurgery and from whose information this technical note was obtained. Research on (...) the application of Cryosurgery presents solid evidence of its benefits. Therefore, it has been used in several countries and health campaigns, showing excellent results, so it is advisable to implement it in health systems. (shrink)

L'idea che la natura venga sistematicamente violata dal progresso e che la sua distruzione metta a repentaglio la sopravvivenza stessa dell'umanità costituisce uno degli assunti base del movimento ecologista radicale. Si tratta di un'idea che recupera una visione mitica ed erronea della storia: prima dell'età moderna l'uomo avrebbe vissuto in armonia con la natura e oggi saremmo chiamati a ricostruire questo equilibrio attraverso politiche capaci di mettere un limite allo sviluppo economico. Tali posizioni non hanno però alcun fondamento nella cultura (...) scientifica attuale, in cui si fa strada la crescente consapevolezza che la natura è data da sistemi aperti, non-lineari, difficilmente spiegabili senza fare ricorso a una nuova teoria della complessità. 13 scienziati, ognuno secondo un punto di vista personale e della propria disciplina, riflettono sul concetto di "natura" partendo dalla scienza per ridefinirlo e gettare le basi di una nuova ecologia. (shrink)

Il saggio discute la lettura proposta da Francesco Novati della figura di san Francesco d’Assisi, a partire dalla interpretazione di quelle di Dante e Giotto. Alla luce dei rapporti con Gabriele d’Annunzio, la lettura novatiana di Francesco rivela una prospettiva che tende a offrire una visione estetizzante, dannunziana e decadente, immagine della modernità e non sempre aderente al messaggio originario. In questo modo Francesco diviene sostenitore di un progetto di riforma interno alla Chiesa che, con spirito dannunziano, supera il dualismo (...) tra materia e spirito per arrivare quasi a un elogio dell’immanenza. Attraverso una sorta di mitizzazione della figura di Francesco, Novati parla del proprio tempo più che di un personaggio vissuto nel passato. The essay discusses Francesco Novati’s reading of the figure of St. Francis of Assisi, starting from the interpretation of those of Dante and Giotto. In the light of the relationship with Gabriele d’Annunzio, the Novati’s reading of St. Francis reveals a perspective that tends to offer an aestheticising view, which is “dannuntian” and decadent, image of modernity that not always adheres to the original message. In this way, St. Francis purposes an inside reform project of the Church, which, with a “dannuntian” spirit, goes beyond the matter-spirit dualism in order to arrive almost to a praise of the immanence. Through such a mythologisation of the figure of St. Francis, Novati talks about his own time more than about a man who lived in the past. (shrink)

According to the author, the Duchampian notion of “inframince” puts photography, its status as well as its artistic use, to the test of its relationship with reality. Far from its documentary function, it is confronted with ultrathin differences, both phenomenal and conceptual, which substantially change the conception of the reality of which it is an image: “thing”, real, object a, simulacrum or other? The text introduces these problems and opens the vision of the image to multiple horizons from this point (...) of view. (shrink)

Les frontières de l’Europe ne s’arrêtent pas aux frontières extérieures de l’Union européenne, ni même aux limites territoriales des États-nations, mais s’étendent de différentes manières à l’intérieur des pays et des sociétés. Le système de gestion de l’asile vise à dissuader et à trier les personnes en quête de protection, empêchant la plupart d’entre elles d’arriver pleinement dans le pays, même des années après s’y être installées. Cette exclusion continue s’opère notamment en maintenant les personnes dans une situation d’incertitude et (...) de limbes juridiques étendues, ainsi qu’à travers des pratiques d’isolement horizontal et vertical, en les logeant dans des endroits reclus, parfois souterrains, éloignés des centres urbains et des réseaux de solidarité. Afin d’analyser la violence (in)directe du « dispositif d’asile suisse », Border Forensics développe de nouvelles méthodes à travers les échelles du territoire, de l’architecture et du corps. (shrink)

Substructural approaches to paradoxes have attracted much attention from the philosophical community in the last decade. In this paper we focus on two substructural logics, named ST and TS, along with two structural cousins, LP and K3. It is well known that LP and K3 are duals in the sense that an inference is valid in one logic just in case the contrapositive is valid in the other logic. As a consequence of this duality, theories based on either logic are (...) tightly connected since many of the arguments for and objections against one theory reappear in the other theory in dual form. The target of the paper is making explicit in exactly what way, if any, ST and TS are dual to one another. The connection will allow us to gain a more fine-grained understanding of these logics and of the theories based on them. In particular, we will obtain new insights on two questions concerning ST which are being intensively discussed in the current literature: whether ST preserves classical logic and whether it is LP in sheep’s clothing. Explaining in what way ST and TS are duals requires comparing these logics at a metainferential level. We provide to this end a uniform proof theory to decide on valid metainferences for each of the four logics. This proof procedure allows us to show in a very simple way how different properties of inferences (unsatisfiability, supersatisfiability and antivalidity) that behave in very different ways for each logic can be captured in terms of the validity of a metainference. (shrink)

Riassunto: Al centro di questo articolo è l’analisi dei fondamenti neurocognitivi dei deficit macrolinguistici, discorsivo-narrativi nello specifico, osservabili nei pazienti affetti da schizofrenia. Tale analisi è condotta in riferimento alle ricerche svolte negli ultimi decenni nell’ambito della psicolinguistica e delle neuroscienze. I risultati di queste ricerche hanno mostrato che alcuni aspetti dei disturbi macroelaborativi che caratterizzano il profilo linguistico dei pazienti schizofrenici possono essere spiegati chiamando in causa i deficit di tre sistemi cognitivi: teoria della mente, funzioni esecutive, memoria semantica. (...) In questo articolo si sostiene che un tale quadro esplicativo vada integrato attraverso il riferimento a un ulteriore processo cognitivo cruciale per l’elaborazione macrolinguistica: la costruzione di scenari. Tale processo è fondamentale per la comprensione e produzione discorsiva in quanto responsabile della costruzione della rappresentazione globale degli eventi del discorso narrativo. Alla luce di queste considerazioni, in questo lavoro si propone che un ruolo cruciale nella spiegazione di alcuni aspetti dei disturbi macrolinguistici nella schizofrenia sia svolto da una compromissione nel processo di costruzione di scenari mentali e si avanza l’ipotesi che tale compromissione sia determinata, a sua volta, da problematiche che agiscono sul piano del funzionamento delle aree cerebrali preposte alla percezione e all’assemblaggio multimodale delle rappresentazioni sensomotorie. Parole chiave: Abilità macrolinguistiche; Costruzione di scenari; Elaborazione discorsiva: Embodied Cognition; Narrazione; Schizofrenia; Percezione; Modelli mentali The role scenario building in the explanation of macrolinguistic disorders in schizophrenia: This article analyzes the neurocognitive foundations of macrolinguistic deficits, specifically narrative, observable in patients with schizophrenia. This analysis is conducted with reference to the investigations carried out in recent decades in the field of psycholinguistics and neuroscience. The results of these investigations showed that some aspects of macrolinguistic deficits of schizophrenics can be explained in terms of impairments of three cognitive systems: theory of mind, executive functions, and semantic memory. In this article, it is suggested that this explanatory framework has to be integrated with the reference to a further cognitive process: scenarios construction. Such process turns out to be critical for discourse comprehension and production as it is responsible for the building of the global representation of events of a narrative. In the light of these considerations, it is claimed that a crucial role in the explanation of some aspects of macrolinguistic disorders in schizophrenia is played by an impairment in the process of constructing mental scenarios. The hypothesis is that this impairment is, in turn, determined by problems affecting the brain areas responsible for the perception and multimodal assembly of sensorimotor representations. Keywords: Discourse Processing; Embodied Cognition; Macrolinguistic Skills; Scenario Building; Narrative; Schizophrenia; Perception; Mental Models. (shrink)

Destini che si incrociano: quello di Borges con quello di altri pionieri del modernismo in letteratura, come T.S.Eliot e P.Valéry. Un senso del moderno opposto e complementare a quello del romanticismo e dello psicologismo. Lucidità del pensiero e della tradizione che il soggettivismo sfrenato uccide in una confusa dialettica: proposito di creare un'estetica che sradichi ";l'eccezionale supremazia che oggigiorno usa attribuirsi all'io";. Si scopre così il legame tra Borges e lo gnosticismo, inteso come cristianesimo tragico che si pone agli albori (...) del medioevo. Il netto dualismo di anima e corpo, l'assoluta trascendenza del divino, la lateralità dell'io, rappresentano il nucleo di quella che può definirsi la tragedia della modernità. Ma grazie alla mediazione del pensiero medievale non è una tragicità psicologica o distruttiva ma ricerca di una tradizione. Nella metafora del labirinto, emblema dei destini che si incrociano e luogo privilegiato in cui il soggetto prova l'angoscia della scelta , si consuma la tragedia dell'io che scopre la consapevolezza dei propri limiti: ";essere una cosa è, inesorabilmente, non essere tutte le altre cose";. (shrink)

This essay revisits a debate about literary fiction’s ability to depict the consequences of climate change. Philosopher McKenzie Wark’s 2017 essay, ‘On the Obsolescence of the Bourgeois Novel in the Anthropocene’, offers one of many critiques of climate fiction, such as Amitav Ghosh’s influential book, The Great Derangement. But while Ghosh sees a shortcoming in contemporary novels in their lack of representation of major climate events, Wark emphasises the importance of collective action, conversation, and connection, beyond the limits of literature. (...) Since Wark’s intervention, the global School Strike for Climate in 2019 and 2020 brought more participatory post-literary forms to represent climate change. Jean- Luc Nancy’s theory of participation, that there is no mimesis without participation (methexis), sees a tense relation between the two rather than an opposition or conflict. I argue that Wark, by not undervaluing participation, disrupts a hierarchy that privileges the imitator at the expense of the imitation. To explore this relation, I consider how the slogan ‘there is no Planet B’ forms a snapshot of our twenty- first-century mimetic condition, from which no imitative representation will save us. Can Wark expand the vision of another relational kind of femininity in her later writing to support the demand to take part in transformational action against climate catastrophe, beyond mimetic representation carried in the form of the novel? (shrink)