Metabolic pathways underlying brain function remain largely unexplored during neurodevelopment, predominantly due to the lack of feasible techniques for use with awake infants. Broadband near-infrared spectroscopy provides the opportunity to explore the relationship between cerebral energy metabolism and blood oxygenation/haemodynamics through the measurement of changes in the oxidation state of mitochondrial respiratory chain enzyme cytochrome-c-oxidase alongside haemodynamic changes. We used a bNIRS system to measure ΔoxCCO and haemodynamics during functional activation in a group of 42 typically developing infants aged between (...) 4 and 7 months. bNIRS measurements were made over the right hemisphere over temporal, parietal and central cortical regions, in response to social and non-social visual and auditory stimuli. Both ΔoxCCO and Δ[HbO2] displayed larger activation for the social condition in comparison to the non-social condition. Integration of haemodynamic and metabolic signals revealed networks of stimulus-selective cortical regions that were not apparent from analysis of the individual bNIRS signals. These results provide the first spatially resolved measures of cerebral metabolic activity alongside haemodynamics during functional activation in infants. Measuring synchronised changes in metabolism and haemodynamics have the potential for uncovering the development of cortical specialisation in early infancy. (shrink)

We invited five Cavell scholars to write on this topic. What follows is a vibrant exchange among Paola Marrati, Andrew Norris, Jörg Volbers, Cary Wolfe and Thomas Dumm addressing the question whether, in the contemporary political context, Cavell’s skepticism and his Emersonian perfectionism amount to a politics at all.

Μελέτη συλλογῆς δακτυλιολίθων, πού συγκροτήθηκε στήν Αἴγυπτο καί στεγάζεται στό Μουσεῖο 'Αλεξανδρείας. Περιέχει μερικά ἑλληνιστικά δείγματα, πολλά ρωμαϊκά αὐτοκρατορικῶν χρόνων, ὕστερών χρόνων ἀκόμη καί σύγχρονα. 'Ορισμένα εἶναι ἐξαιρετικῆς τέχνης : μιά προτομή πτολεμαϊκῶν χρόνων τῆς Ἴσιδας, ἤ ἕνα πορτραῖτο τοῦ Σεπτιμίου Σεβήρου καί τῆς οἰκογενείας του. Πολλά συνδέονται ἀπό τό θέμα τους (ἰσιακή τριάδα, κανωπικά ἀγγεῖα, σύνθετα ἑλληνοαιγυπτιακά σχήματα, μαγικές σφραγίδες) ἤ τήν τεχνοτροπία μέ τήν ἑλληνορωμαϊκή Αἴγυπτο.

This text was first published in Theory, Culture & Society, May 13, 2015. For a special issue of Body & Society on ‘Rhythm, Movement, Embodiment', Paola Crespi presents two previously untranslated texts, Rudolf Bode's ‘Rhythm and its Importance for Education' and Rudolf Laban's ‘Eurhythmy and Kakorhythmy'. In the following interview she uncovers further unpublished and untranslated sources and she discusses some of the main themes of these texts in relation to the more widely known text - Danse, théâtre et (...) spectacle vivant – GALERIE – Nouvel article. (shrink)

This book charts the multidimensional course of what has come to be known as the “Vegetal Turn” in environmental humanities - a wave of theoretical and practical interest in the complexities and peculiarities of plant life and plant-human relations. The Vegetal turn consists of increasingly sophisticated, inter- and trans-disciplinary, inter- and trans-cultural explorations of the multiple systems and networks of communication, intelligence, technical-operational capabilities, and relations articulated by and via plants - as well as the ethical, economic, cultural, and political (...) dimensions of plant-human interactions and practices. The volume includes contributions from philosophy and the humanities more generally that explore and reflect on the history, prospects, and applications of four main themes that the Vegetal Turn has brought to general attention: the mind of plants, and what their peculiar mentality can tell us about mind more generally; plant personhood and/or moral standing, and the justifications and implications of attributions thereof; plant relationships with humans, plant-based human relationships, and the ethics of human practices with or regarding plants - from agriculture to the arts, from forest management to urban design ; as well as the rights and/or political representation of plant life and the other life-forms that depend on it, human as well as non-human, present and future. (shrink)

In this study, Paola Marrati approaches—in an extremely insightful, rigorous, and well-argued way—the question of the philosophical sources of Derrida's thought through a consideration of his reading of both Husserl and Heidegger. A central focus of the book is the analysis of the concepts of genesis and trace as they define Derrida's thinking of historicity, time, and subjectivity. Notions such as the contamination of the empirical and the transcendental, dissemination and writing, are explained as key categories establishing a guiding (...) thread that runs through Derrida's early and later works. Whereas in his discussion of Husserl Derrida problematizes the relationship between the ideality of meaning and the singularity of its historical production, in his interpretation of Heidegger he challenges the very idea of the originary finitude of temporality. This book is essential reading not only for those interested in the philosophical roots of deconstruction, but for all those interested in the central questions of history and temporality, subjectivity and language, that pervade contemporary debates in cultural, literary, and visual theory alike. (shrink)

De re aedificatoria by Leon Battista Alberti, Trattato di Architettura by Filarete, Trattati di architettura, ingegneria e arte militare by Francesco di Giorgio Martini, and Leonardo da Vinci’s works of engineering and inventions exemplify the ways in which fifteenth-century Italian thinkers could blend speculative and rational approaches. Libellus vere aureus was published in Leuven in 1516. Mambrino Roseo praised the simple, earnest people of Garamanti in Institutione del prencipe christiano, dating to 1543. The first version of More’s Latin text in (...) vernacular Italian was published in Venice in 1548, and the first translation into English by Ralph Robinson was printed in London in... (shrink)

This book takes the reader on a philosophical quest to understand the dark side of emotions. The chapters are devoted to the analysis of negative emotions and are organized in a historical manner, spanning the period from ancient Greece to the present time. Each chapter addresses analytical questions about specific emotions generally considered to be unfavorable and classified as negative. The general aim of the volume is to describe the polymorphous and context-sensitive nature of negative emotions as well as changes (...) in the ways people have interpreted these emotions across different epochs. The editors speak of ‘the dark side of the emotions’ because their goal is to capture the ambivalent – unstable and shadowy – aspects of emotions. A number of studies have taken the categorial distinction between positive and negative emotions for granted, suggesting that negative emotions are especially significant for our psychological experience because they signal difficult situations. For this reason, the editors stress the importance of raising analytical questions about the valence of particular emotions and focussing on the features that make these emotions ambivalent: how – despite their negativity – such emotions may turn out to be positive. This opens up a perspective in which each emotion can be understood as a complex interlacing of negative and positive properties. The collection presents a thoughtful dialogue between philosophy and contemporary scientific research. It offers the reader insight by illuminating the dark side of the emotions. (shrink)

How much do animals matter--morally? Can we keep considering them as second class beings, to be used merely for our benefit? Or, should we offer them some form of moral egalitarianism? Inserting itself into the passionate debate over animal rights, this fascinating, provocative work by renowned scholar Paola Cavalieri advances a radical proposal: that we extend basic human rights to the nonhuman animals we currently treat as "things." Cavalieri first goes back in time, tracing the roots of the debate (...) from the 1970s, then explores not only the ethical but also the scientific viewpoints, examining the debate's precedents in mainstream Western philosophy. She considers the main proposals of reform that recently have been advanced within the framework of today's prevailing ethical perspectives. Are these proposals satisfying? Cavalieri says no, claiming that it is necessary to go beyond the traditional opposition between utilitarianism and Kantianism and focus on the question of fundamental moral protection. In the case of human beings, such protection is granted within the widely shared moral doctrine of universal human rights' theory. Cavalieri argues that if we examine closely this theory, we will discover that its very logic extends to nonhuman animals as beings who are owed basic moral and legal rights and that, as a result, human rights are not human after all. (shrink)

This review has already been published in Theory, Culture and Society, June 17, 2015. We gratefully thank Paola Crespi for the permission to reproduce it. Eleni IKONIADOU, The Rhythmic Event. Art, Media, and the Sonic, Cambridge, MIT Press, 2014, 117 pages. A much-needed contribution to the field of media philosophy, sound and digital studies, this book is petit and extremely dense. Part of Brian Massumi and Erin Manning's Technologies of Livedion series with MIT Press, - Recensions.

The present study aims at exploring whether the level of well-being vary as a function of fertility status in different phases of the ovulatory cycle. We investigated the multidimensional well-being, including the cognitive component of subjective well-being related to judgments about one’s life satisfaction, the psychological well-being concerning the full growth and self-realization of the individual, and self-esteem, that is the personal judgment of overall self-worth and is recognized as one indicator of well-being. On the basis of the cycle phase (...) estimation at the moment of the experiment, one hundred and sixteen normally cycling women were divided into “fertile” and “non-fertile” groups and were administered the Psychological Well-Being Scale, the Basic Self-Esteem Scale and the Satisfaction with Life Scale. A Multivariate Analysis of Variance has been performed to examine whether there were differences between groups according to their ovulatory phase. All dimensions of psychological well-being, self-esteem and satisfaction with life were found to be stable in the different phases of the menstrual cycle. The implications of these results are discussed. (shrink)

The article evaluates the Domain Postulate of the Classical Model of Science and the related Aristotelian prohibition rule on kind-crossing as interpretative tools in the history of the development of mathematics into a general science of quantities. Special reference is made to Proclus’ commentary to Euclid’s first book of Elements , to the sixteenth century translations of Euclid’s work into Latin and to the works of Stevin, Wallis, Viète and Descartes. The prohibition rule on kind-crossing formulated by Aristotle in Posterior (...) analytics is used to distinguish between conceptions that share the same name but are substantively different: for example the search for a broader genus including all mathematical objects; the search for a common character of different species of mathematical objects; and the effort to treat magnitudes as numbers. (shrink)

Ci troviamo in un’epoca di grandi mutamenti e di veloce evoluzione della comunicazione scientifica. Alla chiusura e inaccessibilità di testi, dati e processi di qualità si sostituisce la richiesta corale di trasparenza, equità e democraticità. All’idea di una scienza competitiva ed esclusiva si sostituisce quella di una scienza collaborativa in cui la condivisione dei risultati è il valore fondante e punto di forza per un più veloce sviluppo. Cambia e viene messo in discussione il ruolo degli editori commerciali che devono (...) reinventarsi in questo nuovo contesto, cambiano gli equilibri di potere fra editor, revisori ed autori. Gli strumenti per rispondere a questa richiesta corale di trasparenza sono tutti a nostra disposizione, ma ancora da parte delle comunità scientifiche si avverte qualche difficoltà a recepire le nuove modalità di pratica, validazione e disseminazione della ricerca. Ancora si assiste a una certa diffidenza e forse sgomento di fronte ai pubblici possibili e ad un ciclo di vita delle ricerche che è potenzialmente infinito. Sulle spalle dei giganti, citava Newton. E ciò è soprattutto vero se vengono eliminate le barriere economiche e legali che hanno fino ad ora rappresentato un ostacolo, o per lo meno un rallentamento per lo sviluppo della ricerca scientifica. "Doctor Virtualis" è una rivista umanistica, di settore, che ha abbracciato in tempi piuttosto lontani la filosofia dell’apertura promossa dall’ateneo che oggi si è rivelata vincente. La sua storia è la storia della piattaforma di riviste che la ospita alla quale la rivista ha aderito fin dal primo anno. We are in an era of rapid evolution of scholarly communication. The inaccessibility of quality texts, data, and processes is being replaced by a choral demand for transparency, equity, and democraticity. The idea of a competitive and exclusive science is replaced by that of a collaborative science in which the sharing of results is the founding value and strength for faster development. The role of commercial publishers who must reinvent themselves in this new context changes and is challenged; the balance of power between editors, reviewers and authors changes. The tools for responding to this choral demand for transparency are all at our disposal, but still from the scientific communities there is some difficulty in taking on board the new ways of practicing, validating and disseminating research. There is still some distrust and perhaps dismay in front of possible audiences and a research life cycle that is potentially never-ending. On the shoulders of giants, Newton quoted. And this is especially true if the economic and legal barriers that have hitherto been an obstacle, or at least a slowdown to the development of scientific research are removed. Doctor Virtualis is a humanistic journal that embraced in rather distant times the philosophy of openness promoted by the university that has proved successful today. Its story is the story of the journal platform that hosts it to which the journal has joined since its first year. (shrink)

My aim in this note is to shed light on ways of interpreting Kant’s Formula of Universal Law (FUL), by looking at relevant similarities and differences between Pauline Kleingeld and Mark Timmons. I identify both their readings as a formal interpretation of Kant’s FUL, in contrast to the substantive interpretations that favor a robust conception of rational agency as a necessary requirement for moral deliberation. I highlight the benefits that arise from Kleingled’s interpretation in showing the immediacy involved in the (...) volitional self-contradiction when universalizing a maxim. Alongside Timmons, I address a question as to whether Kleingeld’s interpretation is completely free from at least a minimal set of assumptions about practical deliberation more broadly, that seem to play a role in generating the volitational self-contradiction she is defending. I close by raising some skeptical worries about the capacity of this kind of contradiction to translate into a moral judgment triggering action. (shrink)

‘Social Purity’ appears in a part of the French and Anglo-Saxon nineteenth-twentieth century’s feminisms, as a mean for many claims: from the full recognition of sexual difference in Hubertine Auclert’s social and ‘differentialist’ republicanism in France to Josephine Butler’s refusal of any purity imposed from above in England, until the absolute turn of the idea of women’s moral superiority and the equal and opposite force to the final exit from ‘the social’ by the American ‘New Womanism’, individualizing and de-feminizing the (...) act of sexual liberation. All this in a continuous play of actions and reactions, sometimes paradoxical, weaving together suffragism and anti-suffragism, contestation of the conjugal complementarity and the never overcome temptations of hetero or self-control. (shrink)

The article suggests that A Fragment on Government can be read as Bentham's contribution to the American Controversy. Though the contemporary vicissitudes are never mentioned in the text, Bentham's intellectual relationship with John Lind shows his interest in them. It is argued that Bentham criticizes the political discourses adopted both by the Americans and the supporters of the British Government. Bentham's legal positivism appears to be both a way of interpreting the constitutional aspect of the imperial relationship, and the basis (...) of a new science of sovereignty. (shrink)

Objective: To describe the use of infographics in different areas of educational centers. Methodology: Mixed, descriptive, and non-experimental. Thirty-two research reports on the subject were retrieved. Also, examples of the different uses that educational institutions have made were identified. Results: The trend in research is to report on using infographics within the teaching-learning process. Although, the institutions have diversified their application in tutoring, institutional communication, and Schools for Parents. Conclusion: It is necessary to analyze the applications given in educational centers (...) and encourage the use of interactive infographics. (shrink)

The paper discusses some difficulties that life in Anthropocene poses to our ethical thinking. It describes the sort of ethical task that individuals find themselves confronting when dealing with the planetary environmental quandaries that characterise the new epoch. It then asks what, given the situation, would count as environmentally virtuous ways of looking at and going about our lives, and how relevant virtues can be developed. It is argued that the practice of gardening is distinctively conducive to that objective. Finally, (...) some garden virtues that will be of special importance in the Anthropocene, but have so far been largely neglected by environmental ethicists, are listed and described. (shrink)

ABSTRACTThe paper focuses on the gradual separation between materialism and mechanism in early modern German philosophy. In Germany the distinction between the two concepts, originally introduced by Leibniz, was definitively stated by Wolff who was the first to provide a definition of the new philosophical term Materialismus, and of the related philosophical sect. In the first part I describe the initial identification of mechanism and materialism in German philosophy between the last decades of the seventeenth century and 1720. Mechanism is (...) here mostly conceived within a monistic metaphysics of body, which refers mainly to Hobbes and to some interpretations of Spinoza’s pantheism. This tight connection between a mechanical explanation of nature and the Deus sive natura issue leads to a negative judgement on mechanism and its materialistic implications, both charged with a form of more or less explicit atheism. In the second part I describe the gradual emancipation in Germany of mechanism fro... (shrink)

This paper tackles the question of whether the order of concepts was still a relevant aspect of scientific rigour in the 19th and 20th centuries, especially in the case of authors who were deeply influenced by the Leibnizian project of a universal characteristic. Three case studies will be taken into account: Hermann Graßmann, Giuseppe Peano and Kurt Gödel. The main claim will be that the choice of primitive concepts was not only a question of convenience in modern hypothetico-deductive investigations, but (...) sometimes also the result of philosophical investigations onto the foundation of scienti­fic disciplines. The question of the "right" order of concepts is an ideal to be followed rather than a task that can be fulfilled, but remains nonetheless an essential part of the axiomatic enterprise. This paper aims to question whether there is in fact such a stark contrast, as there is often claimed to be in the literature, between the debates relating to the right order of concepts and the foundational questions concerning modern axiomatics. The scientific rupture determined by the appearance of hypothetico-deductive systems in mathema­tics and logic should thus not be dissociated from some relevant continuities concerning the ideal of knowledge as the search for a general theory of concepts deriving from some fundamental elements. (shrink)

An alchemical Arabic treatise alternatively entitled Miftāḥ al-ḥikma, Miftāḥ jannāt al-khuld, Sirr al-asrār and Sirr al-sārr wa-sirr al-asrār is attributed in its manuscripts to two different authors: al-Iznīqī and Jābir b. Ḥayyān. In this article I briefly discuss some characteristic aspects of the treatise and its significance for the history of alchemy. These aspects include its ancient and important sources, such as the Muṣḥaf al-jamā‛a and the Kitāb al-Ḥabīb, and its connection with the tradition of the artists and the activity (...) of the workshop and laboratory, which first comes to the fore in Greek alchemy and later in Islamic alchemy. Furthermore, the work includes references to alchemical physical theories in which the influence of Islamic theology may perhaps be traced. This article, which summarises the results of investigations carried out over the last few years, could be considered as a kind of introduction to the edition and translation of the text currently in progress. (shrink)

Developmental research typically relies on face-to-face testing at laboratories, childcare centers, museums or playgroups. Current social distancing measures have led to a halt in research. Although face-to-face interaction is considered essential for research involving young children, current technology provides viable alternatives. This paper introduces an accessible, replicable and easy to follow method to conduct online developmental research with young children employing a word-learning task as an exemplar, including a detailed workflow and step-by-step guide to using easily accessible programs and platforms. (...) Four-year-old children's performance on a word-learning task delivered online vs. face-to-face is provided as a method validation. Children's performance on the word-learning task was predominantly consistent across delivery modes, with only slight variation in performance between modes. The implications of these similar results across face-to-face and online methods are discussed alongside avenues for further research. Importantly, this paper presents an emerging methodological approach for the online administration of developmental science both within and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic, adding a new tool to current and future developmental scientist's toolkits. (shrink)

The comparison between Prop. 2, 34, 91-92 and Virg. ecl. 10, 18 allows to argue that Gallus treated Adonis in his love elegy and that he used this character as an exemplum, in the same way of his future followers, in particular Propertius and Ovid. It is possible that he imitated Euphor. fr. 43 Pow., and for this reason we can try to reconstruct his relationship with the models and his freedom in in adapting them to the new elegiac poetry.

The Shield of Heracles by Hesiod and Homer’s Iliad, XVIII show how mimesis should be considered: it is a process that should be seen different according to the levels that it refers to. There is one object constructed by a craftsman, after that a poet may write about this object and its construction. Then yet another poet could write, on the model of the previous text, his poem with his personal idea. Explaining first, the meaning of representation, arts and mimesis (...) in Plato and in Aristotle, I would like to explain how mimesis was considered according to the terms of form and representation. After that I would carry out a textual analysis of The Shield of Heracles and Iliad, to demonstrate that even if Hesiod’s text is quite similar to Homer’s, the context, the meaning, the background of the authors and the narrative structures are different. The different levels of pertinence and the different points of view demonstrate that mimesis is not a process that produces hierarchy in retrospect, but it is something heading to the direction of what “it is not created yet”. (shrink)

: Emotions are currently at the center of a lively international and interdisciplinary debate. The first sections of this essay present a synthetic overview of its key features. The main sections provide a re-examination of one of the most historically significant developments in the field of affective studies. René Descartes’ approach to the study of emotions implies a positive assessment of the role of the body and a remarkable attenuation of his classical dualism that allows an innovative perspective on the (...) subject. He inaugurated a new scientific style of research, which is one of the original sources of some key concepts of the current research. Keywords: Emotions; René Descartes; Embodied Cognition; Classification of Emotions; Philosophy of Emotions Le emozioni di Descartes: dal corpo al corpo Riassunto: Le emozioni sono attualmente al centro di un dibattito internazionale e interdisciplinare molto vivace, di cui la prima sezione del saggio presenta una panoramica sintetica. La sezione principale propone un’analisi critica di uno dei passaggi storicamente più significativi nel campo dello studio dei fenomeni emotivi. L’approccio di Descartes al tema delle emozioni presuppone una considerazione positiva del ruolo del corpo e una notevole attenuazione del dualismo per cui è noto, consentendo così una prospettiva innovativa al tema. Descartes inaugura un nuovo stile di ricerca che è alle origini di alcuni concetti chiave della ricerca contemporanea. Parole chiave: Emozioni; René Descartes; Conoscenza incarnata; Classificazione delle emozioni; Filosofia delle emozioni. (shrink)

Este trabajo de investigación se ocupa de un análisis sociocrítico de la puesta en forma de la novela Auto de fe del escritor austriaco Elías Canetti. El análisis se centra en el tratamiento crítico de la realidad y la visión desesperanzada que Canetti objetiva en la obra sobre los procesos de modernidad. Elías Canetti, desde una posición realista crítica, evalúa descarnadamente la confianza ciega en el ideal ilustrado, a partir de una modernidad exacerbada que se materializa en la axiología del (...) héroe problemático. (shrink)

The essay presents an analysis of most of the approaches to the theme of solidarity between generations. For several decades the time of generations has met the history of ideas. Today, at the intersection of conceptual history and general sociology, and of the analysis of cultural processes and social history, a political reflection is taking place about the "political generation" as a paradigm unavoidably characterized by a kind of semantic vagueness. The same reflection is also confronted with the relationship of (...) complicity or conflict between generations characterized by the growing weight acquired by the issue of intergenerational solidarity. This, in turn, is reflected both in the space of life relationships between old, adults and young people, and, in terms of history, among the living, the dead and the unborn. The so-called "non-contemporaneity of contemporary" is imposing its logic, but it requires new forms of understanding and representation of today's global dynamics. (shrink)