The Sociology of religion, like other sciences, has the objective of pursuing and finding the truth of the phenomenon it studies, not so much in reference to the reality of the noumenon but rather in the veracity of the relative psycho-sociological mediations, as direct object of its approach. Thus it contributes to the complete and concrete knowledge of its own contents and of those, it shares with other sciences . Such perspective is tested by its history and proved by the (...) epistemological precedences, but also by the present applications. For this reason, the sociology of religion demands a rigorous application: from the operazionality of the concepts, to the characterization of the dimensions, till the structural, dynamic and relational features of its own content. It finds therefore the effectiveness of its method: by getting the 'constants' and 'regularities' of the manifestations of the 'religious phenomenon', evidencing the objectivity as predicate of truth of the mediations and by putting into effect the perspective of validation or of the falsification of its results. (shrink)

Laberthonnière, L. Da Teoria dell'educazione.--Foerster, F. W. Da I compiti essenziali dell'educazione.--Maritain, J. Da L'educazione al bivio.--Spranger, E. Da La difesa della pedagogia Europea.--Carlini, A. Da La nostra scuola.--Stefanini, L. Da Personalismo educativo.

The recent in vitro derivation of gamete‐like cells from mouse embryonic stem (mES) cells is a major breakthrough and lays down several challenges, both for the further scientific investigation and for the bioethical and biolegal discourse. We refer here to these cells as gamete‐like (sperm‐like or oocyte‐like, respectively), because at present there is still no evidence that these cells behave fully like bona fide sperm or oocytes, lacking the fundamental proof, i.e. combination with a normally derived gamete of the opposite (...) sex to yield a normal individual. However, the results published so far do show that these cells share some defining features of gametes. We discuss these results in the light of the bioethical and legal questions that are likely to arise would the same process become possible with human embryonic stem (hES) cells. (shrink)

For many years, psychological–clinical research has been aiming at studying the Mafia from different viewpoints: the man of honor's inner world, relational and psychopathological structures of his family matrices, connections between inner and social worlds, interiorized and social rules. Today, however, a complex phenomenon has come to light, which concerns the great connection between the Mafia and financial crime, and for us as researchers it is very interesting and complicated to analyze, because it involves the study of psychological peculiarities that (...) can be specifically found in the numerous illegalities. The crossbreeding of the various criminalities, which are always more interacting and merging and less isolated, makes this picture even more complex. (shrink)

The “DNA is a program” metaphor is still widely used in Molecular Biology and its popularization. There are good historical reasons for the use of such a metaphor or theoretical model. Yet we argue that both the metaphor and the model are essentially inadequate also from the point of view of Physics and Computer Science. Relevant work has already been done, in Biology, criticizing the programming paradigm. We will refer to empirical evidence and theoretical writings in Biology, although our arguments (...) will be mostly based on a comparison with the use of differential methods (in Molecular Biology: a mutation or alike is observed or induced and its phenotypic consequences are observed) as applied in Computer Science and in Physics, where this fundamental tool for empirical investigation originated and acquired a well-justified status. In particular, as we will argue, the programming paradigm is not theoretically sound as a causal(as in Physics) or deductive(as in Programming) framework for relating the genome to the phenotype, in contrast to the physicalist and computational grounds that this paradigm claims to propose. (shrink)

In their 2002 seminal paper Hauser, Chomsky and Fitch hypothesize that recursion is the only human-specific and language-specific mechanism of the faculty of language. While debate focused primarily on the meaning of recursion in the hypothesis and on the human-specific and syntax-specific character of recursion, the present work focuses on the claim that recursion is language-specific. We argue that there are recursive structures in the domain of motor intentionality by way of extending John R. Searle’s analysis of intentional action. We (...) then discuss evidence from cognitive science and neuroscience supporting the claim that motor-intentional recursion is language-independent and suggest some explanatory hypotheses: linguistic recursion is embodied in sensory-motor processing; linguistic and motor-intentional recursions are distinct and mutually independent mechanisms. Finally, we propose some reflections about the epistemic status of HCF as presenting an empirically falsifiable hypothesis, and on the possibility of testing recursion in different cognitive domains. (shrink)

In Speech Acts, John Searle argues that institutional facts presuppose, for their existence, the existence of certain institutions (understood as systems of constitutive rules). In this paper I extend Searle’s theory of institutional facts arguing that a further level is needed for the investigation of the structure of institutional reality: the level of meta-institutional concepts. The meta-institutional concepts are concepts that go beyond (Greek: metá) the institutions of which they are conditions of possibility. An example of meta-institutional concept is the (...) concept of game. In a culture which does not have the concept of game, we could move the chess-men according to the rules of chess, we could also perform a castling, but it would be impossible to play chess. (shrink)

We analyze the results from three different risk attitude elicitation methods. First, the broadly used test by Holt and Laury, HL, second, the lottery-panel task by Sabater-Grande and Georgantzis, SG, and third, responses to a survey question on self-assessment of general attitude towards risk. The first and the second task are implemented with real monetary incentives, while the third concerns all domains in life in general. Like in previous studies, the correlation of decisions across tasks is low and usually statistically (...) non-significant. However, when we consider only subjects whose behavior across the panels of the SG task is compatible with constant relative risk aversion, the correlation between HL and self-assessed risk attitude becomes significant. Furthermore, the correlation between HL and SG also increases for CRRA-compatible subjects, although it remains statistically non-significant. (shrink)

This short paper is meant to be an introduction to the ‘Letter to Alan Turing’ that follows it. It summarizes some basic ideas in information theory and very informally hints at their mathematical properties. In order to introduce Turing’s two main theoretical contributions, in Theory of Computation and in Morphogenesis (an analysis of the dynamics of forms), the fundamental divide between discrete vs. continuous structures in mathematics is presented, as it is also a divide in his scientific life. The reader (...) who is familiar with these notions, and is convinced that they (and their differences) are relevant in the mathematical understanding of phenomena, may skip this introduction and go directly to the Letter. (shrink)

This article provides an original exploration of the self-identified populist coalition leading the Italian government between 2018 and 2019. The analysis, informed by a governmentality approach, starts by scrutinising the economic, social, and cultural issues framed as political “problems” by the coalition, also highlighting the tensions underlying such constructions. The second step charts how this political subject sought to address those problems by deploying an array of political technologies. From examining these two dimensions, the article then can discern the composite (...) rationality—techno-sovereignism—that drove precariously the coalition’s art of government. Finally, the article sketches out some forms of contestation against the techno-sovereignist operations, whose significance may stretch beyond the Italian borders. Overall, although the Italian populist coalition turned out to be ephemeral, the dynamics that characterized its emergence and functioning could still be used heuristically to understand the interactions and reciprocal adjustments possibly used by right-wing and technocratic populist groups to exert political power conjointly. (shrink)

We review here some recent data about glucose‐6‐phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD), the first and key regulatory enzyme of the pentose phosphate pathway. New evidence has been presented to suggest that malaria is a selective agent for G6PD deficiency, which is the most common enzymopathy in man, and that G6PD deficiency, generally considered to be a mild and benign condition, is significantly disadvantageous in certain environmental conditions. At the molecular level, the enzyme structure has recently been elucidated and mechanisms regulating G6PD gene (...) expression have been determined. A G6PD knock‐out mutation introduced in mouse cells makes them exquisitely sensitive to oxidative stress, indicating that this ubiquitous metabolic enzyme has a major role in the defence against oxidative stress, even in eukaryotic nucleated cells, which have several alternative routes for providing the same protection. Because of the high prevalence of G6PD deficiency in many populations, it is expected that these findings will prompt further studies to ascertain the putative role of G6PD deficiency in conditions such as carcinogenesis and ageing. (shrink)

This short essay explores the importance of fear and violence in the genesis and life of constitutions, with a particular focus on the case of secession. Secession has been seen as a taboo and until recently constitutions tried to avoid mentioning it, considering such a phenomenon as an extra legal fact. A turning point has been represented by the famous Reference of the Canadian Supreme Court on Québec. Finally, in the last part of this work I shall try to present (...) some arguments in favour of the explicit constitutionalization of a secession clause in multi-national federalisms. (shrink)

Abstract:Starting from the Iberian reaction to Machiavelli's ideas about religion and war, this article compares and connects Spanish and Portuguese theories of empire in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Writings by Francisco de Vitoria, Martín de Azpilcueta, and Juan de Solórzano Pereira, as well as by less well-known thinkers, are used to trace the main legal and theological debates over empire that developed across the Iberian world. It is argued that the exchange of ideas about war and religion between Spain (...) and Portugal culminated in the theorization of a single global empire during the period of the Iberian Union (1580–1640). (shrink)

Generally, when thinking of artifacts, one imagines “technical artifacts”. Technical artifacts are those artifacts that perform a mere causal function. Their purpose is to instrumentally help and support an action, not to change behaviour. However, technical artifacts do not exhaust the set of artifacts. Alongside technical artifacts there are also artifacts that we can call “cognitive artifacts”. Cognitive artifacts are all those artifacts that operate upon information in order to improve human cognitive performances. Artifacts of a further, different kind are (...) what we may call “regulatory artifacts”; that is, material artifacts devised and made to regulate behaviour. Consider a roundabout, a traffic light or a speed bump. These artifacts do not make us stronger, faster, or more intelligent. They are placed on the road surface to regulate traffic. This article investigates artifacts of this third kind and, especially, the functions that they perform. (shrink)

Nel presente testo cercherò principalmente di esplicitare la correlazione tra le mie ricerche, così come ho cercato di riassumerle nel testo su La ragionevole efficacia della matematica, e l’impostazione vareliana nei confronti delle scienze cognitive. Nel tentativo di far questo, intendo prendere spunto da un aneddoto che, a dire il vero, pare sia effettivamente accaduto. Si racconta che, intorno ai sette o otto anni, il piccolo Gauss si trovò di fronte un maestro severissimo che, come puniz...

Dans la mythologie grecque, Prométhée - le 'prévoyant' - déroba le feu aux dieux et le transmit aux hommes. Zeus, courroucé par ce transfert technologique, condamna Prométhée à un châtiment itéré à l'identique, à l'infini, algorithmique. Le problème que pose l'ancien mythe est celui des limites de la connaissance. En termes modernes, jusqu'à quel point pouvons-nous transformer la nature sans une connaissance des conséquences de nos actions sur elle? Cette question nous pousse à analyser les limites des sciences : à (...) une techno-science devenue toujours plus invasive, la science répond en se donnant à elle-même des limites"--Page 4 of cover. (shrink)

The proofs of universally quantified statements, in mathematics, are given as “schemata” or as “prototypes” which may be applied to each specific instance of the quantified variable. Type Theory allows to turn into a rigorous notion this informal intuition described by many, including Herbrand. In this constructive approach where propositions are types, proofs are viewed as terms of λ-calculus and act as “proof-schemata”, as for universally quantified types. We examine here the critical case of Impredicative Type Theory, i. e. Girard's (...) system F, where type-quantification ranges over all types. Coherence and decidability properties are proved for prototype proofs in this impredicative context. (shrink)

En el presente ensayo, el autor, partiendo del libro de John R. Searle The Construction of Social Reality, estudia la ontología social del último Searle poniendo en evidencia las novedades respecto a la teoría de los hechos institucionales formulada por el propio Searle en los años sesenta. Es así novedosa la cuestión que se plantea sobre la fundación de la realidad institucional: ¿Cómo pueden existir objetos institucionales en un mundo que se compone totalmente de partículas físicas en campos de fuerza? (...) Es novedosa también la delimitación trazada por Searle entre dos de los rasgos de las entidades institucionales: la socialidad y la simbolicidad. Es novedosa la definición que da Searle de las "reglas constitutivas", no como reglas que constituyen el objeto del cual son regla, sino como reglas que adscriben funciones. Y es finalmente novedosa la postura de Searle sobre el nexo entre los performativos y los estados de cosas institucionales, y en concreto la consideración de los estados de cosas producidos por performativos como estados de cosas institucionales. El ensayo termina con una crítica a la tesis de Searle sobre la exhaustividad del paradigma bruto vs. institucional. (shrink)

Se l'attenzione maggiore degli studiosi si è da sempre concentrata sulle Dionisiache, non di meno negli ultimi vent'anni si assiste a un rinnovato interesse per l'altro poema esametrico attribuito a Nonno, la Parafrasi del Vangelo di Giovanni; ciò soprattutto per merito di Enrico Livrea e della sua scuola fiorentina, di cui anche l'autore di questo volume fa parte. Esso rappresenta una tappa ulteriore – dopo l'edizione del Canto I (De Stefani), del Canto II (Livrea), del Canto XVIII (Livrea) e del (...) Canto XX (Accorinti) – in quello che si annuncia come un progetto di edizione critica commentata di tutti canti del poema sacro nonniano: progetto certamente ambizioso ma indispensabile per fare luce piena su un momento fondamentale dell'epica tardoantica. Diversamente dalla poesia centonaria, Nonno, pur seguendo dappresso la Vorlage evangelica, volle fare opera in qualche misura originale e ci riuscì, pur con uno stile che non si potrebbe immaginare più contrastante rispetto alla austera sobrietà del dettato giovanneo. Il volume di Agosti, sostenuto da una ricchissima e pressocché completa bibliografia, si apre con una Introduzione assai ampia e decisamente pregevole per la capacità dimostrata dallo studioso di inquadrare il poema nonniano nell'ambito vasto dell'epica tardoantica non solo greca ma anche latina: da questo punto di vista illuminanti appaiono i raffronti con Giovenco, Aratore, Claudiano, Prudenzio, Commodiano, oltre che, naturalmente, con Gregorio Nazianzeno, Eudocia e gli Homerocentones. Convinto che il Nonno parafraste sia il medesimo autore delle Dionisiache, Agosti ritiene decisamente superata la tesi contraria, e intelligentemente si limita a rilevare la straordinaria affinità fra i due poemi non solo a livello stilistico, linguistico e metrico, ma anche – aspetto forse ancora più sorprendente – sotto il profilo concettuale: «Vi sono elementi di chiaro influsso cristiano nelle D. e d'altra parte la figura di Cristo tende ad assumere alcuni tratti bacchici nella P.» (p. 46). Una tesi, questa, che viene corroborata con numerosi raffronti puntuali nelle dense note di commento. Essendo gran parte del Canto Quinto, corrispondente al quinto capitolo del vangelo giovanneo, dedicato al miracolo del paralitico guarito nella piscina di Bethesda, viene affrontato il problema dello spazio dedicato ai miracoli di guarigione nel mondo pagano e cristiano del V secolo, in particolare nell'ambiente egizio dove Nonno visse e operò (ma molto cauto si mostra, a mio avviso saggiamente, l'Autore nei confronti di identificazioni troppo incerte, come quella che vorrebbe Nonno vescovo di Edessa). Il lettore deduce dalle sue considerazioni come nulla di sorprendente o di aberrante l'uomo tardoantico potesse scorgere nel racconto di Giovanni, che anzi non discorda da analoghe imprese attribuite ad Asclepio, il dio guaritore ϰατεξοχήν, ma anche a taumaturghi come Apollonio di Tiana: si trattava, se mai, di una sorta di concorrenza fra Cristo e i suoi omologhi e rivali pagani. Allo stesso modo, Agosti pensa che il pubblico della Parafrasi e quello delle Dionisiache fosse in sostanza il medesimo, forse con una percentuale cristiana maggiore nel primo caso e minore nel secondo. Ovviamente si rimane nel campo delle ipotesi, ma certo il sincretismo del tempo poteva forse spingersi tanto avanti da giustificare simile osmosi, anche se appare lecito dubitare che cristiani convinti giungessero a tollerare l'incredibile ampiezza del poema a gloria di Dioniso, e, viceversa, che a un pubblico pagano potesse veramente interessare il vangelo di Giovanni – di cui per altro Agosti segnala qualche risonanza in ambiente neoplatonico. Meritorie appaiono anche le osservazioni sul retroterra esegetico del poema sacro, «più vicino all'esegesi che alla parafrasi stricto sensu» (p. 111), con particolare riferimento al commento giovanneo di Cirillo d'Alessandria: una consonanza del resto già osservata da altri studiosi della Parafrasi. Nelle note l'Autore cita numerosi passi da Cirillo, non nascondendosi comunque la notevole libertà con cui Nonno – il cui intento primario non dovette certo essere teologico – se ne servì. Non meno interessanti le considerazioni su alcuni punti di contatto con la liturgia, tema di cui Agosti segnala la non secondaria importanza per una valutazione corretta e completa dell'epica cristiana. (shrink)

This paper is a research around an aspect of contemporary history of culture, regarding modern fascination for the primitive word and the search for the primitive through study of the artistic productions of the mentally ill. In my work this problem is analyzed by the point of view of the book of Robert Volmat _L’art psychopathologique_. _L’art psyichopathologique _is a remarkable example to observe the problem of primitivism in its connections with psychology, anthropology and philosophical research on artistic expression.