This original web-based database was developed at the University of Lausanne as part of the international research project “Drawings of gods”, which explores children's representations of supernatural agents. Its primary purpose is to store and organize data and metadata to be easily accessible to all affiliated researchers. However, anyone interested in the matter can view the drawings, as they were made publicly available. At present, our corpus is composed of over 5'100 drawings collected in different parts of the world and (...) yet constantly developing. (shrink)

During his late period, Nietzsche is particularly concerned with the value that mankind attributes to truth. In dealing with that topic, Nietzsche is not primarly interested in the metaphysical disputes on truth, but rather in the effects that the "will to truth" has on the human being. In fact, he argues that the "faith in a value as such of truth" influenced Western culture and started the anthropological degeneration of the human type that characterizes European morality. To call into question (...) the value of truth is therefore necessary, if one wants to help mankind to find her way in the labyrinth of nihilism. -/- In this new addition to Nietzsche scholarship, Gori explores the origin and aim of the philosopher's late perspectival thought by merging the theoretical with the historical approach, with a special focus on the epistemological debate that influenced Nietzsche. As a result, the book provides a contextual reading of the issue that supports the idea that Nietzsche’s attitude in addressing the problem of truth is, in a broad sense, pragmatic. (shrink)

This contribution deals with the quasi-oxymoron of a historical a priori, as it was originally conceived by Edmund Husserl and, later, by Michel Foucault. It wants to discover the relevance of this historical a priori by setting up two series of opposites: namely, one in which the concept is contrasted with the objective a priori as in Husserl and the other in which it is contrasted with the formal a priori as in Foucault. Now some interpretations identify Husserl’s concept of (...) the historical a priori with Foucault’s concept of the formal a priori. In criticism of such a simplifying identification, this contribution makes a distinction between a critical and a therapeutic aspect of the historical a priori. The plurality and historicity of this concept in Foucault does certainly prevent a return to its original evidence. Nevertheless, Foucault fully endorses with Husserl the critical aspect by which this historical a priori is freed from the subreptitious substitution by epistemological constructs. Only when it is recognized that the concept of the historical a priori is defined in Husserl as well as in Foucault in contradistinction to a subreptitiously substituted concept of the a priori, will the program of a critique of such a subreption, which is enclosed in the concept of the historical a priori, be disclosed. This program constitutes the philosophical relevance of the historical a priori as a guiding concept of historical epistemology. (shrink)

Friedrich Nietzsche’s criticism towards the substance-concept „I“ plays an important role in his late thought, and can be properly understood by making reference to the 19th century debate on the scientific psychology. Friedrich Lange and Ernst Mach gave an important contribution to that debate. Both of them developed the ideas of Gustav Fechner, and thought about a „psychology without soul“, i.e. an investigation that gives up with the old metaphysics of substance in dealing with the mind-body problem. In this paper (...) I shall deal with both Lange and Mach (whose writings has been read by Nietzsche), in order to shed some light on Nietzsche’s rejection of the „I“ in philosophy. (shrink)

To date, COVID-19 has spread across the world, changing our way of life and forcing us to wear face masks. This report demonstrates that face masks influence the human ability to infer emotions by observing facial configurations. Specifically, a mask obstructing a face limits the ability of people of all ages to infer emotions expressed by facial features, but the difficulties associated with the mask’s use are significantly pronounced in children aged between 3 and 5 years old. These findings are (...) of essential importance, as they suggest that we live in a time that may potentially affect the development of social and emotion reasoning, and young children’s future social abilities should be monitored to assess the true impact of the use of masks. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to shed light on Nietzsche’s late investigation of the Western human being, with particular reference to Twilight of the Idols. I shall argue that this investigation can be seen as a “pragmatic anthropology,” according to the meaning that Kant gave to this notion in 1798. Although the paper focuses on Nietzsche’s thought, an analysis of Kant’s anthropology and the comparison between and Nietzsche’s late views of the human being, will show both their differences and (...) similarities on the topic. (shrink)

The paper aims to investigate some aspects of Ernst Mach’s epistemology in the light of the problem of human orientation in relation to the world (Weltorientierung), which is a main topic of Western philosophy since Kant. As will be argued, Mach has been concerned with that problem, insofar as he developed an original pragmatist epistemology. In order to support my argument, I firstly investigate whether Mach defended a nominalist or a realist account of knowledge and compare his view to those (...) elaborated by other pragmatist thinkers, such as W. James, H. Vaihinger and H. Poincaré. Secondly, the question of what does it mean, for Mach, to orient ourselves in science is addressed. Finally, it will be argued that, although Mach tried to keep his epistemology restricted to a mere operational and economical account of science, that question involves the wider plane of practical philosophy. (shrink)

In this paper we will be concerned with the interpretability logic of PA and in particular with the fact that this logic, which is denoted by ILM, does not have the interpolation property. An example for this fact seems to emerge from the fact that ILM cannot express Σ₁-ness. This suggests a way to extend the expressive power of interpretability logic, namely, by an additional operator for Σ₁-ness, which might give us a logic with the interpolation property. We will formulate (...) this extension, give an axiomatization which is modally complete and arithmetically complete (although for proofs of these theorems we refer to an earlier paper), and investigate interpolation. We show that this logic still does not have the interpolation property. (shrink)

At the beginning of the twentieth century, theorists developed approaches to Nietzsche’s philosophy that provided an alternative to the received view, some of them suggesting that his view of truth may be his most important and original contribution. It has further been argued that Vaihinger’s fictionalism is the paradigm within which Nietzsche’s view can be properly contextualized. As will be shown, this idea is both viable and fruitful for solving certain interpretive issues raised in recent Nietzsche scholarship.

This paper focuses on sections of Nietzsche's Twilight of the Idols that deal with Goethe, with the aim of reflecting on the anthropological ideal that Nietzsche outlines in his late period. I give particular attention to the way in which Nietzsche deals with concepts such as "German", "(good) European", and "free spirit", connecting them in a coherent picture. Finally, I argue that the Renaissance plays an important role in Nietzsche's anthropological project, for it helps to define the spiritual strength that (...) characterizes the healthy type of man whom Nietzsche thought destined to realize his late philosophy. (shrink)

Hans Kleinpeter provided a popularization of both Ernst Mach's thought and the scientific philosophy that forerun the foundation of the Vienna Circle. Between 1912 and 1913 Kleinpeter published the articles that one finds here in their first Italian translation; they concern a comparison between Mach's epistemology and Nietzsche's thought, and are thus an original contribution to the reception of the latter's philosophy. In these texts Kleinpeter anticipates some of the ideas he later presented in his work devoted to the 'Phenomenalistic' (...) worldview, whose - according to him - Nietzsche has been one of the main upholders, as much as Mach. (shrink)

The provability logic of a theory T captures the structural behavior of formalized provability in T as provable in T itself. Like provability, one can formalize the notion of relative interpretability giving rise to interpretability logics. Where provability logics are the same for all moderately sound theories of some minimal strength, interpretability logics do show variations.The logic IL is defined as the collection of modal principles that are provable in any moderately sound theory of some minimal strength. In this article (...) we raise the previously known lower bound of IL by exhibiting two series of principles which are shown to be provable in any such theory. Moreover, we compute the collection of frame conditions for both series. (shrink)

La noción de perspectivismo, presente en la producción tardía de Nietzsche, delimita un ámbito particularmente interesante y fértil. En efecto, esta metáfora visual, que el filósofo utiliza antes que nada en referencia a la dimensión epistémica, encierra profundas consecuencias hermenéuticas y prácticas. Los ensayos de este volumen dan cuenta de esta doble implicancia. El primero, poniendo la investigación filológica al servicio de la reflexión filosófica, propone una discusión contextual de la dicotomía "hechos-interpretaciones", estrechamente ligada al perspectivismo nietzscheano. El segundo lleva (...) la atención del plano teórico al plano práctico y se concentra en el tema de la moral gregaria, que en el quinto libro de la "Ciencia jovial" Nietzsche presenta unido indisolublemente al perspectivismo y al fenomenalismo de la conciencia. Estas incursiones en el pensamiento de Nietzsche y en sus lecturas permiten antes que nada volver a considerar algunas célebres cuestiones de su reflexión madura y tomar nota de la riqueza de su pensamiento, en contraste con las malas interpretaciones que han visto en su perspectivismo la expresión de un mero relativismo y un nihilismo epistemológicos. (shrink)

ITA: Quello del “buon europeo” è in Nietzsche un tema significativo, che si presenta originariamente connesso alle riflessioni di Nietzsche sulla cultura europea, arricchendosi col tempo di una portata filosofica che si lega agli obiettivi del suo pensiero maturo. Scopo del presente articolo è di mostrare la genesi e l’evoluzione di tale concetto, a partire dalle sue prime occorrenze in Umano, troppo umano I fino al suo compiuto sviluppo negli scritti del 1885-87. Tale studio permetterà di evidenziare il particolare valore (...) che Nietzsche attribuisce ai “buoni europei”, in quanto promotori dello sviluppo spirituale conseguente alla compiuta liberazione della morale cristiana. ENG: The “good European” is a rich and important topic in Nietzsche. It is first related to Nietzsche’s early reflections on European culture, and during the 1880’s it gains philosophical value, being strictly connected with the purposes of Nietzsche’s mature thought. The aim of this paper is to track the genesis and development of the notion of “good European”, from Human, all too Human I to Nietzsche’s writings from the years 1885-1887. That investigation shall particularly show the meaning and value that Nietzsche attributes to the good Europeans; as for him, they are in fact the leaders of the spiritual development that follows the overcoming of Christian morality. (shrink)

The paper explores the consistency between William James's and Friedrich Nietzsche's approaches towards the general philosophical issue of relativism. As will be shown, Nietzsche as much as James attempted to develop a non-nihilist strategy for dealing with the problem of truth based on the idea that a revaluaton of that notion is in fact possible on practical i.e. experiential basis.

Aim of this paper is to reflect on the anthropological ideal Nietzsche outlines in his late period. The way Nietzsche deals with concepts such as “German”, “(good) European”, and “free spirit” in the sections of Twilight of the Idols which deal with Goethe will be especially considered. Furthermore, I shall argue that Renaissance plays an important role in Nietzsche’s anthropological project, for it helps to define the spiritual strength which characterizes the health type of man to which Nietzsche destined his (...) late philosophical wisdom and gay science. (shrink)

The paper provides a thorough account of the relationship between Ernst Mach’s thought and that of an apparently more intellectually distant near-contemporary, Friedrich Nietzsche. The consistency of their views is in fact substantial, as I try to show within the paper. Despite their interests being different, both Mach and Nietzsche were concerned with the same issues about our intellectual relationship with the external world, dealing with the same questions and pursuing a common aim of eliminating worn-out philosophical conceptions. Moreover, it (...) can be argued that both Mach and Nietzsche converged on what we now know as the problem of realism versus anti-realism in the philosophy of science, and that they both rejected ‘representational’ (realist) conceptions of science in favour of a certain sort of pragmatic anti-realism, whose focus was on the role science plays as a means of orientation. (shrink)

In this paper I discuss the role played by Ernst Mach on Nietzsche’s thought. Starting from the contents of his Beiträge zur Analyse der Empfindungen, I’ll show the close similarities between their view on both human knowledge and the scientific world description. In his writing on science Nietzsche shares Mach’s critique to the 19th century mechanism and its metaphysical ground, as much as his way of defining the substantial notions such as matter, ego and free will. Moreover, my investigation will (...) make it clear that Mach cannot be seen as a direct source of Nietzsche’s thought, since the latter wrote many times on the same subjects long before his first reading one of his works. Rather, it is possible to consider the writings of Lange, Spir and Spencer as the first sources of Nietzsche’s views on the main themes Mach dealt with in his work from 1886. (shrink)

L'articolo si propone di accostarsi alla figura di Ernst Mach seguendo la stessa metodologia storico-critica da lui utilizzata. Essa permette di contestualizzarne la figura e l'opera in un momento significativo della storia della filosofia occidentale, ma anche di ridefinire alcuni concetti fondamentali del suo pensiero. Scopo ulteriore della ricerca è di osservare da una diversa prospettiva la questione relativa al valore filosofico del lavoro epistemologico di Mach, mostrando come esso possa essere affermato senza bisogno di uscire dai confini da lui (...) stesso tracciati. (shrink)

The paper explores the issue of moral relativism in Nietzsche, and tries to argue that Nietzsche's attitude towards moral values does not support a radical relativism according to which since (i) every moral interpretation is relative to a judging perspective, and (ii) an absolute viewpoint is lacking, then (iii) every moral interpretation seems to be as true, valid or justified as the others. On the contrary, Nietzsche's perspectivism leaves space for a rank order among values, whose establishment is considered by (...) Nietzsche as the future task of the philosopher. (shrink)

The paper addresses the issue of scientific realism in Mach, and his pragmatist approach to epistemology. Firstly, Eric Banks’s interpretation of Mach as a direct realist about particulars will be explored and discussed. Secondly, Sami Pihlström’s pragmatic realism will be considered, and it will be suggested that this view can be more viably attributed to Mach. Finally, in the light of Mach’s 1910 paper on Sensory Elements and Scientific Concepts, it will be argued that Mach’s agnosticism was probably stronger than (...) any moderate form of realism he could have been committed to, and that he was a radical pragmatist in refusing to be concerned with any kind of metaphysical issue. (shrink)

During the second decade of the 20th century Hans Kleinpeter, an Austrian scholar devoted to the development of the modern science, published some brief papers on Nietzsche’s thought. Kleinpeter has been one of the main upholders of Mach’s epistemology and probably the first who connected his ideas with the philosophy of Nietzsche. In his book on Der Phänomenalismus (1913) he described a new world view that arose in the 19th century, a perspective that ‒ according to him ‒ completely contrasted (...) the mechanistic and metaphysical world view of the old school of scientific inquiry. The main outcome of the scientists whose name was related with this perspective (e.g. Clifford, Maxwell, Kirchoff and, obviously, Mach himself) has been the refusal of the absolute value of any “truth”. Kleinpeter’s statements on this topic are a good example of the rising of a Scientific Philosophy, whose development involved many scientists and thinkers that later set up the Verein Ernst Mach and the Wiener Kreis. On the other hand, his interest on Nietzsche is a relevant case of reception of the latter’s thought, that Kleinpeter puts into the context of the contemporary epistemology. In fact, he considers Nietzsche as one of the main upholders of the phenomenalistic world view, and states that he «took part at the same renewal of philosophical investigation that arose from the latest results of scientific inquiry» during the 19th century. A renewal whose main outcomes has been presented by John Stallo in his book on The Concepts and Theories of Modern Physics (1881), which Kleinpeter translated in German and published in 1901. According to Kleinpeter, in Nietzsche’s writings (mostly unpublished) one can find a theory of knowledge quite close to the one presented by both Mach and the new born Pragmatism, i.e. the complete refusal of an absolute truth and, therefore, the development of an antimetaphysical world view. In my paper I’ll discuss the main statements presented by Kleinpeter on this topic and show which of Nietzsche’s ideas has actually been in compliance with the main outcomes of late 19th century science. Thus, I’ll carry out a reconstruction of an unfamiliar side of the first period of reception of the philosophy of Nietzsche and its relevance to the development of a new (scientific) world view. (shrink)

In this paper I deal with Nietzsche's theory of knowledge in the context of 19th century epistemology. In particular, I argue that, even though Nietzsche shows the ontological lack of content of truths (both on the theoretic and on the moral plane), he nevertheless leaves the space for a practical use of them, in a way that can be compared with William James' pragmatism. I thus deal with Nietzsche's and James' concept of "truth", and show their relationship with some outcomes (...) of Ernst Mach's epistemology. (shrink)

Like bundles of homogeneous light or particles that are scattered in physics experiments, says Goris, the homogeneous field of metaphysics was dispersed in the 14th century. He connects that dispersion to the contemporary rejection of metaphysics. His topics are the analysis of concepts, the contested primacy, scattering the homogeneous field of me.

The essays in Invisibility in Visual and Material Culture contribute pioneering and revelatory insights into the phenomenon of invisibility, forging new and multi-disciplinary approaches at the intersection of aesthetics, technology, representation and politics. Importantly, they acknowledge the complex interaction between invisibility and its opposite, visibility, arguing that the one cannot be fully grasped without the other. Considering these entanglements across different media forms, the chapters reveal that the invisible affects many cultural domains, from digital communication and operative images to the (...) activism of social movements, as well as to identity, race, gender and class issues. Whether the subject is comic books, photographic provocations, biometric and brainwave sensing technologies, letters, or a cinematic diary, the analyses in this book engage critically and theoretically with the topic of invisibility and thus represent the first scholarly study to identify its importance for the field of visual culture. (shrink)

This paper is devoted to a comparison between Ernst Mach's and Friedrich Nietzsche's anti-metaphysical approach to scientific and philosophical concepts. By making reference to Mach’s early essay on the conservation of energy (Die Geschichte und die Wurzel des Satzes von der Erhaltung der Arbeit, 1872), I argue that Nietzsche shares with him the idea that the concepts we adopt are only useful fictions developed during the history of humankind and its culture. This idea is fundamental for the development of modern (...) science, since Mach’s epistemology contributed to give up the mechanistic (Newtonian) view of physics. (shrink)

This study attempts a reconstruction of the philosophy of the unfinished _Opus tripartitum_ of Meister Eckhart. One new feature is the 'hermeneutic approach' to the question of Eckhart's philosophy, another is the recognition that the concept of Unity plays a decisive role in the organisation of his metaphysics, to the extent, indeed, that one can speak of a metaphysics of the One. Eckhart's metaphysics is determined to a contemplation of the divine, which in this thinking of Unity is understood as (...) the principle and end of all things. Yet, at the same time Eckhart's thinking of Unity marks the boundaries of the _ratio naturalis_. In this way his thought combines a supreme trust in the effectivity of reason with a negative theology of the purest sort. By a systematic reading of linked texts of Meister Eckhart the trail of his philosophy of the One is followed down into the German sermons. (shrink)

The doctrine of being developed by the Franciscan theologian Peter of Oriol 1is highly original. The present contribution will analyse this doctrine from a distinct point of view. It is mainly interested in Aureoli's description of the concept of being as an implicit concept and reads his doctrine of being exclusively in this regard. The interest of the idea that the concept of being is entirely implicit lies in the particularity that the Franciscan also holds the concept of being to (...) be the first concept known by reason. Peter of Oriol hence presents us with a doctrine of implicit knowledge of being as the unannullable condition, the conditio sine qua non of explicit knowledge. (shrink)

The attribution of De vocatione omnium gentium to Prosper of Aquitaine, from the 17th century, has been the object of multiple debates, the results of whichare consolidated in the introduction to the critical edition of the tractate found in CSEL 97 (OAW 2009) in which the manuscript tradition was represented by a forked crest. The editors have considered the variae lectiones as errors, which differentiate two lines of transmission, not incorporated into the text of the edition. The variae lectiones, however, (...) according to the claims of Franco Gori, would be due, rather, to the intentional and intelligent interventions of a proofreader or an editor, perhaps by the author himself. (shrink)

In deze bijdrage worden twee alternatieve visies op de verhouding van geloof en weten geschetst aan de hand van twee middeleeuwse denkers: Bernardus van Clairvaux en Thomas van Aquino. De auteur betoogt dat zowel de ‘rationalistische’ positie van Thomas van Aquino als de ‘anti-rationalistische’ positie van Bernardus van Clairvaux beide, geloof en rede, als op waarheid betrokken zien, waarmee zicht wordt geboden op het wijsgerige belang van dit vermeende anti-rationalisme.

Arne Grøn’s reading of Søren Kierkegaard’s authorship revolves around existential challenges of human identity. The 35 essays that constitute this book are written over three decades and are characterized by combining careful attention to the augmentative detail of Kierkegaard’s text with a constant focus on issues in contemporary philosophy. Contrary to many approaches to Kierkegaard’s authorship, Grøn does not read Kierkegaard in opposition to Hegel. The work of the Danish thinker is read as a critical development of Hegelian phenomenology with (...) particular attention to existential aspects of human experience. Anxiety and despair are the primary existential phenomena that Kierkegaard examines throughout his authorship, and Grøn uses these negative phenomena to argue for the basically ethical aim of Kierkegaard’s work. In Grøn’s reading, Kierkegaard conceives human selfhood not merely as relational, but also a process of becoming the self that one is through the otherness of self-experience, that is, the body, the world, other people, and God. This book should be of interest to philosophers, theologians, literary studies scholars, and anyone with an interest not only in Kierkegaard, but also in human identity. (shrink)

The paper explores Nietzsche's observations on language in Human, All Too Human I, 11; reflects on the anti-realist position that Nietzsche defends in that aphorism; and focuses on the role she plays in his later investigation on Western culture and its anthropology. As will be argued, Nietzsche's criticism towards common sense realism is consistent with some pragmatist epistemologies developed during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century. This treat of " timeliness " does not limit Nietzsche's originality on the topic. In fact, (...) the idea that philosophy can contrast the metaphysical commitment of common sense can be seen as the theoretical tool that allows Nietzsche to operate on the development of European culture and society. (shrink)

Hans Kleinpeter’s letters to Ernst Mach held in the Deutsches Museum Archive in Munich are of the greatest importance in order to learn some details of the relationship between these scholars. In the three letters here entirely published for the first time, Kleinpeter shows his interest for Nietzsche’s thought, and states that some of the latter’s ideas are in compliance with Mach’s epistemology.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused unexpected and unavoidable changes in daily life worldwide. Governments and communities found ways to mitigate the impact of these changes, but many solutions were inaccessible to people with visual impairments. This work aimed to investigate how blind individuals subjectively experienced the restrictions and isolation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. To this end, a group of twenty-seven blind and seventeen sighted people took part in a survey addressing how COVID-19 impacted life practically and psychologically, how it affected (...) their daily habits, and how it changed their experiences of themselves and others. Results demonstrated that both sighted and blind individuals had a hard time adapting to the new situation. However, while sighted people struggled more with personal and social aspects, the frustration of the blind population derived mostly from more practical and logistical issues. Likely as consequences, results showed that blind people engaged more in their inner life and experienced fear and anger as main emotions. This study suggests that changes in life associated with COVID-19 have been subjectively experienced differently based on the presence or not of blindness, and that tailored future interventions should be considered to take care of the different needs of blind individuals. (shrink)

L'originalité du projet henryen réside dans une série de substitutions : substitution, à la "question de l'être", de la "question de l'agir" ; substitution, à une philosophie du voir, d'une analytique de l'affectivité ; substitution, à une herméneutique du sens, d'une architectonique de la force. En reconduisant ce triple geste à ses fondements temporels et en en retraçant la genèse au prisme de nombreux manuscrits, l'objectif de ce livre est de montrer qu'il donne naissance à la figure inédite d'un "vitalisme (...) phénoménologique ", dont la profondeur métaphysique et la portée pratique destinent Michel Henry à devenir un interlocuteur majeur dans les débats contemporains autour du problème de la "vie". (shrink)