Gothic literature—a genre brimming with madness, supernaturalism, and psychological terror—offers innumerable case studies potentially representing how psychiatric patients perceive their treatment from healthcare professionals. Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s famous 1892 short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” offers a poignant example of this through its fictional narrator, a diarist many interpret to be suffering from postpartum depression. The fiction here does not stray far from reality: Gilman orchestrated her diarist’s experience to mirror her own, as both real author and fictional character suffocated from (...) a melancholy only made worse by their physicians’ insistence on following the “Rest Cure.” While this instruction to cease all work and activity was a prevalent depression treatment at the time, Gilman, through “The Yellow Wallpaper,” reveals how the intervention ultimately harmed more than helped because it overlooked her—and, by extension, her fictional diarist’s— unique needs and identities. Today, while the ineffective Rest Cure no longer exists, applying observations from “The Yellow Wallpaper” to clinical research calls attention to underrepresentation in treatment development, a costly problem that could be mitigated by mindful incorporation of intersectionality theory into study designs. (shrink)

This essay discusses the ethical challenges and dilemmas in allocating scarce medical resources during the COVID-19 pandemic, using the German legislative process as a starting point. It is guided by the right to non-discrimination of people with disability and generally contrasts utilitarian and rights-based principles of allocation. Three approaches that were suggested in the German discussion, are presented, the lottery principle, the first come first served principle and the probability to survive principle. Arguments in favour and against each principle are (...) discussed. The focus is on the utilitarian probability to survive principle, which was adopted in German legislation in 2022, and its discriminatory potential against people with disability. The essay suggests ways to mitigate the concerns of discrimination related to the probability to survive principle. It concludes that resolving the triage dilemma requires a balanced approach between utilitarian and rights-based concerns, which promotes both maximising the number of patients surviving and the right not to be discriminated against and be treated equally. It calls for a further debate on how many ethical values such as equity, fairness and non-discrimination we are willing to sacrifice for a higher number of survivors and when we are willing to sacrifice survivors to secure ethical values. (shrink)

Network analysis views complex systems as networks with well-defined structural properties that account for their complexity. These characteristics, which include scale-free behavior, small worlds and communities, are not to be found in networks such as random graphs and lattices that do not correspond to complex systems. They provide therefore a robust ground for claiming the existence of “complex networks” as a non-trivial subset of networks. The theory of complex networks has thus been successful in making systematically explicit relevant marks of (...) complexity in the form of structural properties, and this success is at the root of its current popularity. Much less systematic has been, on the other hand, the definition of the properties of the building components of complex networks. The obvious assumption is that these components must be nodes and links. Generally, however, the internal structure of nodes is not taken into account, and links are serendipitously identified by the perspective with which one looks at the network to be analyzed. For instance, if the nodes are Web pages that contain information about scientific papers, one point of view will match the relevant links with hyperlinks to similar Web pages, and another with citations of other articles. We intend to contribute here a systematic approach to the identification of the components of a complex network that is based on information theory. The approach hinges on some recent results arising from the convergence between the theory of complex networks and probabilistic techniques for content mining. At its core there is the idea that nodes in a complex network correspond to basic information units from which links are extracted via methods of machine learning. Hence the links themselves are viewed as emergent properties, similarly to the broader structural properties mentioned above. Indeed, beside rounding up the theory, this approach based on learning has clear practical benefits, in that it makes networks emerge from arbitrary information domains. We provide examples and applications in a variety of contexts, starting from an information-theoretic reconstruction of the well-known distinction between “strong links” and “weak links” and then delving into specific applications such as business process management and analysis of policy making. (shrink)

Physical appearance influences our perceptions, judgments, and decision making about others. While the current literature with regard to the perceptions and judgments of nondisabled people’s attractiveness is robust, the research investigating the perceived physical attractiveness and judgments of physically disabled individuals is scarce. Therefore, in the current study, we investigated whether people with physical disabilities are perceived by the opposite sex as more or less attractive relative to nondisabled individuals. Our results, based on over 675 participants, showed a positive effect (...) for women’s attractiveness ratings of men with physical disabilities, but not men’s attractiveness ratings of physically disabled women. Moreover, social desirability bias was positively associated with attractiveness ratings of physically disabled individuals, meaning those with higher tendency to be viewed favorably by others rated physically disabled individuals more attractive. Finally, our results revealed that attractiveness ratings of individuals with physical disabilities are positively associated with extroversion and empathy in both men and women, and positively with agreeableness and negatively with neuroticism in women. In conclusion, our study showed women rate men with physical disabilities as higher on attractiveness than nondisabled men, which is also influenced by their social desirability bias. (shrink)

Depue & Morrone-Strupinsky's (D&M-S's) model of affiliation meets the criteria advanced for the definition of behavior systems and endophenotypes. We argue that its application in psychiatry could be useful for identifying a biological pathophysiology common to a variety of conditions that are currently classified in very different categories of psychiatric nosography, including autism, schizoid personality, primary psychopathy, and dismissing attachment.

Argues that affirming the irreducible differences between men and women can lead to more transformative politics than the struggle for abstract equality between the sexes. In The Symbolic Order of the Mother Luisa Muraro identifies the bond between mother and child as ontologically fundamental to the development of culture and politics, and therefore as key to achieving truly emancipatory political change. Both corporeal development and language acquisition, which are the sources of all thinking, begin in this relationship. However, Western civilization (...) has been defined by men, and Muraro recalls the admiration and envy she felt for the great philosophers as she strove to become one herself, as well as the desire for independence that opposed her to her mother. This conflict between philosophy and culture on the one hand and the relationship with the mother on the other constitutes the root of patriarchy’s symbolic disorder, which blocks women’s (and men’s) access to genuine freedom. Muraro appeals to the feminist practice of gratitude to the mother and the recognition of her authority as a model of unconditional nurture and support that must be restored. This, she argues, is the symbolic order of the mother that must overcome the disorder of patriarchy. The mediating power of the mother tongue constitutes a symbolic order that comes before all others, for both women and men. Luisa Muraro is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Verona, Italy. Francesca Novello is an instructor at the University of Oklahoma. Timothy S. Murphy is Houston-Truax-Wentz Professor and Regents Professor of English at Oklahoma State University. (shrink)

A general obligation to make aggregate research results available to participants has been widely supported in the bioethics literature. However, dementia research presents several challenges to this perspective, particularly because of the fear associated with developing dementia. The authors argue that considerations of respect for persons, beneficence, and justice fail to justify an obligation to make aggregate research results available to participants in dementia research. Nevertheless, there are positive reasons in favor of making aggregate research results available; when the decision (...) is made to do so, it is critical that a clear strategy for communicating results is developed, including what support will be provided to participants receiving aggregate research results. (shrink)

A cavallo tra i due concili di Costanza e Basilea, che hanno fortemente influito sul giudizio della Chiesa in relazione alle donne visionarie, si staglia la figura di Francesca Bussa dei Ponziani. Le visioni politiche di Francesca rappresentano un fulgido esempio di come i modelli brigidini e cateriniani siano stati ripresi e rimodellati su un nuovo, mutato contesto storico. La sua consolidata autorità le consentì di ammonire a più riprese papa Eugenio IV riguardo alla sua partecipazione al concilio (...) di Basilea, intervenendo attivamente nello scenario religioso e politico romano. (shrink)

The identity and the existence of genes has been challenged by postgenomic discoveries. Specifically, the consideration of molecular and cellular phenomena in which genes are embedded has proved relevant for their understanding. In response to these challenges, I will argue that the complexity of genetic phenomena supports the weak emergence of genes from the DNA. In Section 2, I will expose what genes are taken to be in the postgenomic world. In Section 3, I will present the relevant account of (...) emergence. I consider weak emergence as in Franklin and Knox, for which a phenomenon is emergent when it displays novelty and robustness. In Section 4, I will argue that genes are weakly emergent since they are novel, improving explanations, and robust in respect to some perturbations. Then, I will conclude in Section 5 that genes’ emergence is a way to allow genes’ flexibility and context dependency, without compromising their existence. (shrink)

The main purpose of Le Nouveau Cynée, published by Emeric Crucé in 1623, is to find a better way to establish an enduring peace in the whole world. This pacifist utopia is very interesting, because it contains for the first time the idea of avoiding war, by establishing an international arbitration court settled in Venice. The court is an assembly with representatives of all States, even the Turkish Empire. The assembly is called to discuss any kind of controversy which may (...) rise among the States and to vote for a solution. The Crucé’ work had a remarkable success immediately. It inspired many authors to reflect upon peace, but it then soon afterwards disappeared. (shrink)

dialectical frameworks (ADFs) are generalizations of Dung argumentation frameworks where arbitrary relationships among arguments can be formalized. This additional expressibility comes with the price of higher computational complexity, thus an understanding of potentially easier subclasses is essential. Compared to Dung argumentation frameworks, where several subclasses such as acyclic and symmetric frameworks are well understood, there has been no in-depth analysis for ADFs in such direction yet (with the notable exception of bipolar ADFs). In this work, we introduce certain subclasses of (...) ADFs and investigate their properties. In particular, we show that for acyclic ADFs, the different semantics coincide. On the other hand, we show that the concept of symmetry is less powerful for ADFs and further restrictions are required to achieve results that are similar to the known ones for Dung’s frameworks. A particular such subclass (support-free symmetric ADFs) turns out to be closely related to argumentation frameworks with collective attacks (SETAFs); we investigate this relation in detail and obtain as a by-product that even for SETAFs symmetry is less powerful than for AFs. We also discuss the role of odd-length cycles in the subclasses we have introduced. Finally, we analyse the expressiveness of the ADF subclasses we introduce in terms of signatures. (shrink)

The volume Socrates and the Socratic Dialogue, recently edited by Ch. Moore and A. Stavru (Brill, 2018), favours the pluralistic approach to the sources that has gained increasing acceptance over the last decades, and thus shares the choice not to limit the study of Socrates to the canonical ‘quartet’ Aristophanes, Plato, Xenophon, and Aristotle. Indeed, the volume partly continues an existing trend, but at the same time proves to reinforce it by further refining and scrutinising this field of research. The (...) very welcome result is a collection of essays that provides a rich and nuanced picture of Socrates from the Old Comedy to Neoplatonism, based on Socratic literature as well as non-Socratic material – the latter including both non-Socratic authors and non-Socratic passages by Socratic authors. Because of the variety of themes and the number of contributions, which present a vast range of methodological approaches, the work offers a privileged point of view for investigating the ongoing advancements in our understanding of Socratism. Rather than providing a thorough presentation of all chapters, which would inevitably oversimplify their content, this paper attempts to highlight – also through the comparison with the existing literature – the main results of the analysis conducted and their specific contribution to the field. (shrink)

La tâche de cette contribution est de situer le traité de Philon d’Alexandrie Alexander vel De ratione quam habere etiam bruta animalia dans le panorama des options philosophiques antiques concernant le statut des animaux et d’interpréter les thèses spécifiques de l’auteur. Dans un premier temps, les positions de Philon et d’Alexandre, les protagonistes du traité, seront brièvement examinées. Ensuite, nous tenterons de retracer leur contexte philosophique : les thèses de Philon, qui exclut les animaux de la rationalité et de la (...) pertinence éthique, semblent faire écho aux positions stoïciennes et se démarquer de la tradition aristotélicienne et platonicienne, cette dernière étant assumée par Alexandre. Dans la dernière partie, l’analyse de cette hypothèse sera étendue à d’autres aspects du corpus philonien, liés surtout aux instances bibliques. Le but est de vérifier si, en dernière analyse, Philon peut être associé au stoïcisme impérial en ce qui concerne la domination homme-animal et au-delà. (shrink)

During his multiannual reflection Sismondi seems reluctant to define his concept of city, while devoting most of his energy to the importance of cities self-government – starting with his famous Histoire des Républiques italiennes au Moyen Age. This essay tries to frame his reflection in the intersection between his economic and constitutional proposals. In the background stands a continuous dialogue with Adam Smith, revisited through the relationship that the canton of Geneva has had during the Restoration with its rural population.

In Poggiolesi we have introduced a rigorous definition of the notion of complete and immediate formal grounding; in the present paper our aim is to construct a logic for the notion of complete and immediate formal grounding based on that definition. Our logic will have the form of a calculus of natural deduction, will be proved to be sound and complete and will allow us to have fine-grained grounding principles.

In his examination of the concepts of evil and impermanence, entitled “Evil and the Problem of Impermanence in Medieval Japanese Philosophy”, Yujin Nagasawa addresses four responses to the problem of impermanence, arguing that the only satisfactory response to the problem leads to an implication about supernaturalism. As Nagasawa puts it, “the problem of impermanence can be construed as a partial argument for supernaturalism and against naturalism”. In response to Nagasawa, I will take up the challenge of naturalism by trying to (...) deconstruct the arguments against indifferentism in order to reformulate and thus strengthen Nagasawa’s response to the problem of impermanence. I will then turn to the radicalization of this thesis by drawing out implications through a comparison with Dōgen’s thought. (shrink)

Die Autorin analysiert die politische Konzeption des Messias als König und Gesetzgeber bei Maimonides in seinen Briefen, in Pereq Heleq sowie in Mishneh Torah. Besonderes Augenmerk liegt auf folgenden Schwerpunkten: a) die Konzeption des König-Philosophen bei Platon und Aristoteles; b) die karäischen Einflüsse auf Pereq Heleq sowie die Einflüsse der Mu'taziliten und der Ash'ariten durch die karäische Vermittlung; c) die individuelle und gemeinschaftliche Dimension des ́olam ha-ba im Werk Maimonides'; d.) die Beziehung zwischen Philosophie und Gesetz im Mishneh Torah und (...) deren eschatologische Konzeption im Vergleich zu Al-Farabis politischen und religionsphilosophischen Werken. Die Analyse basiert auf einer ausführlichen Lektüre der jüdischen, arabischen und judäoarabischen Quellen. Ziel der Autorin ist es, eine Lücke zu schließen in der politisch-philosophischen Kette zwischen Platon, Aristoteles, Al-Farabi und Maimonides in Bezug auf den messianischen König. Anhand der Denkstrukturen der jüdisch-islamischen Epoche zwischen dem 8. und dem 12. Jahrhundert wird der politische Charakter des König-Messias sowie seine spezifische Darstellung im intellektuellen Milieu von Maimonides konstruiert. (shrink)

L’article analyse les témoignages stoïciens qui définissent la divinité comme «intellect» et comme «âme du monde», et qui permettent de déterminer les contenus de la pensée divine comme logoi, c’est-à-dire certains «discours» ou «raisonnements». En premier lieu, on examine les mots νοερόν, et νοητόν pour établir à quelles réalités les Stoïciens confèrent les caractères d’intelligence et d’intelligibilité et comment ils décrivent la pensée scientifique à laquelle ils comparent la pensée divine. En second lieu, on examine la théorie des raisons séminales (...) et ses relations historiques avec le problème des objets de la pensée divine. Enfin, on tente de montrer que les Stoïciens, tout en suivant la théologie démiurgique du Timée, unifient ce que Platon a tenu bien séparé : le Démiurge lui-même, l’âme du monde, le «vivant intelligible». (shrink)

Il contributo intende ricostruire il dibattito storiografico intorno all’eredità di Averroè a partire dalla sua nascita, con la riscoperta di Averroè da parte dell’orientalismo francese arrivando fino agli intellettuali arabo-musulmani contemporanei, che hanno fatto del filosofo di Cordoba un rappresentante dell’illuminismo ante litteram. Scopo del saggio è dunque quello di ripercorrere brevemente la storia di questo dibattito per mettere in luce l’uso esplicitamente politico e ideologico di un autore medievale e, in ultima analisi, sottolineare che ogni storia delle filosofia porta (...) con sé uno sguardo orientato e mai neutro sulla propria tradizione. This paper aims to outline the historical debate about the Averroes’ heritage since its beginning, with the revival of Averroes by French Orientalism coming up to contemporary Arab-Muslim intellectuals, who made this author an Enlightenment’s representative before its time. The aim of the contribution is therefore to recall briefly the history of this debate to highlight the political and ideological utilization of a medieval author and, ultimately, to emphasize that every history of philosophy implies a view oriented and never neutral on its tradition. (shrink)

Mediation is a key concept in the thought of Simone Weil. The paper addresses this topic exploring Weil's writings between 1920s-1940s. At first, Weil reinterprets the Cartesian legacy and sees mediation as a practical instance in the relationship between the subject and the world, in terms of “perception” and “work”. At a later moment, Weil shifts the focus to the desire for the good, which she believes to be a more original way to understand the ego-world relationship. The experience of (...) affliction, then, becomes central: it transforms desire into detachment, and it enables attention, opening up an horizon of transcendence. In the last part of her writings, Weil frames mediation within a global reinterpretation of Platonism. Thus, based on the Platonic dualistic framework, a “metaphysics of mediation” emerges, with an emphasis on the role of the intermediaries. (shrink)

The goal of this article is to introduce a philosophical analysis of a widely neglected condition which affects between 3% and 18% of the population. People affected by this condition experience a lower level of wellbeing than the average population and are discriminated against in both their professional and their personal life. I will argue that this form of discrimination should be taken more seriously in philosophical debate and that social, legal and medical measures ought to be taken in order (...) to improve the quality of life of people affected by this condition. (shrink)