The goal is to present how shared decision-making in paediatric oncology occurs from the viewpoints of parents and physicians. Eight Swiss Pediatric Oncology Group centres participated in this prospective study. The sample comprised a parent and physician of the minor patient. Surveys were statistically analysed by comparing physicians’ and parents’ perspectives and by evaluating factors associated with children’s actual involvement. Perspectives of ninety-one parents and twenty physicians were obtained for 151 children. Results indicate that for six aspects of information provision (...) examined, parents’ and physicians’ perceptions differed. Moreover, parents felt that the children were more competent to understand diagnosis and prognosis, assessed the disease of the children as worse, and reported higher satisfaction with decision-making on the part of the children. A patient’s age and gender predicted involvement. Older children and girls were more likely to be involved. In the decision-making process, parents held a less active role than they actually wanted. Physicians should take measures to ensure that provided information is understood correctly. Furthermore, they should work towards creating awareness for systematic differences between parents and physicians with respect to the perception of the child, the disease, and shared decision-making. (shrink)

More than many other Austrians, Mises tried to found aprioristic methodology on a well defined and developed epistemology. Although references to Kant are scattered rather unsystematically throughout his works, he nevertheless used an unequivocal Kantian terminology. He explicitly defended the existence of ‘a priori knowledge’, ‘synthetic a priori propositions’, ‘the category of action’, and so forth.

This book engages in an analytical and realistic enquiry into legal interpretation and a selection of related matters including legal gaps, judicial fictions, judicial precedent, legal defeasibility, and legislation. Chapter 1 provides an outline of the central theoretical and methodological tenets of analytical realism. Chapter 2 presents a conceptual apparatus concerning the phenomenon of legal interpretation, which it subsequently applies to investigate the truth-in-legal-interpretation issue. Chapters 3 to 6 argue for a theory of legal interpretation - pragmatic realism - by (...) outlining a theory of interpretive games, revisiting the debate between literalism and contextualism in contemporary philosophy of language, and underscoring the many shortcomings of the container-retrieval view and pragmatic formalism. In turn, Chapter 7, focusing on comparative legal theory, advocates an interpretation-sensitive theory of legal gaps, as opposed to purely normativist ones. Chapter 8 explores the connection between judicial reasoning and judicial fictions, casting light on the structure and purpose of fictional reasoning. Chapter 9 provides an analytical enquiry into judicial precedent, examining a variety of ideal-typical systems in terms of their normative or de iure relevance. Chapter 10 addresses defeasibility and legal indeterminacy. In closing, Chapter 11 highlights the central tenets of a realistic theory of legislation. (shrink)

This study presents some observations related to a phenomenological-based research aimed to document the influence of the home environment on the human creative sphere. The main objective is to study the links between literary creation and housing of the individual who is generating it, with the aim to highlight some recurrences which make it possible to show how the relationship of writers and “creative people” with their own homes reveals the presence of special “psychological types”. We are presenting here only (...) one example for each of these main “types”. The phenomenological discipline records every single experience as irreducible to a objectified science, but does not deny that it could establish a set of examples from which to draw intersubjective considerations. We studied, therefore, a large number (cases) of experiential reports, without, as claimed by Brentano and Husserl in Crisis of European Sciences, abstracting an objective fact, but recurrences of experience. The research has been carried out with some students of the Polytechnic of Milan in recent years. The purpose of this analysis is also to record the ways in which a place is influencing individual sensibility (mainly of writers) through the analysis of his works, and to highlight “recurrent types” in relation to this connection. (shrink)

The aim of our study is to test the fit of an explanatory model of the frequency of the phenomenon of choking under pressure in archers, focusing on both the individual components (anxiety, coping styles, and decentralization) and environmental components (perception of coach assistance). 115 competitive athletes including 72 males (62.6%) and 43 females (37.4%) participated in the study, with average age of 39 years (±15.47). Participants reported personal data and completed measures of self-consciousness, anxiety, coping styles, and decentering. The (...) ruminative component of concern was found to be the factor directly influencing the frequency of choking episodes in performance. Two significant mediations of personal coping style were also identified on the effects of anxiety on brooding thinking and on the athlete's ability to decentralize. The latter personal self-regulative component has been shown to be able to strongly limit the frequency of choking under pressure. Finally, among the environmental components, a further facilitating influence for the athlete resulted in the perception of being supported by the coach. The results therefore suggest that the athlete in choking should not face alone the hard upcoming period, but should preferably be supported with an articulated program focused on the cognitive remodeling of disturbing thoughts, on the strengthening of the capacity of decentralization, on the enhancement of the relationship of support and trust with the coach. (shrink)

In this article the author provides new external evidence demonstrating that the correspondence between the philosopher Seneca and the apostle Paul is a forgery. The author compares archaeological data offered by inscriptions, graffiti and regionarii with information conveyed by the apocryphal letters. The setting of the epistles, as well as information about the duration and damages of the Neronian fire, contrast with the archaeological data, indicating that the text should be considered a forgery. The contribution shows that the forger worked (...) rather in a literary mode. Conversely, the only archaeological date that scholars have brought to support authenticity is probably not a Christian inscription and does not prove anything regarding a meeting between Seneca and Paul or Seneca’s conversion. The origin of the correspondence should instead be traced to the cult of the apostles Paul and Peter during the 3rd and 4th centuries. (shrink)

In recent years, the veracity of the tradition of the martyrdom of the apostles Peter and Paul has been disputed; recently, Brent Donald Shaw denied the historicity of the persecution of Christians. In this article, the author analyzes the texts of Tacitus and Suetonius as well as other texts omitted by Shaw and demonstrates the inconsistency of the hypotheses put forward by negationist scholars from a theoretical and historical point of view.

The volume collects the most important papers Pierluigi Donini wrote in the last three decades with the aim of promoting a better assessment of post-hellenistic philosophy. The philosophical relevance of post-hellenistic philosophy is now widely (though not yet universally) recognized. Yet much remains to be done. The common practice of focusing each single school in itself detracts from a balanced assessment of the strategies exploited by many philosophers of the period. On the assumption that debates among schools play a (...) major role in the philosophy of the commentators, Donini concentrates on the interaction between leading Aristotelians and Platonists and demonstrates that the developments of both systems of thought were heavily influenced by a continuous confrontation between the two schools.And whereas in cases such as Alcinous and Aspasius this is basically uncontroversial, for other authors such us Alexander, Antiochus and Plutarch the pioneering work of Donini paves the way for a better understanding of their doctrines and definitely confirms the intellectual importance of the first imperial age, when the foundations were laid of versions of both Aristotelianism and Platonism which were bound to influence the whole history of European thought, from Late Antiquity onwards. (shrink)

The paper purports to provide an analytical treatment of the truth and legal interpretation issue. In the first part, it lays down a conceptual apparatus meant to capture the main aspects of the legal interpretation phenomenon, with particular attention paid to the several kinds of linguistic outputs resulting from interpretive activities. In the second part, it recalls three different notions of truth, focussing, so far as systemic truth is concerned, on the difference between deductive and rhetorical normative systems. In the (...) third, and last, part, it shows in which ways the phenomenon of legal interpretation encompasses truth-apt entities, leaving the choice between austere and liberal alethic pluralism to the reader. A few, final remarks address the formalism/scepticism problem. (shrink)

La storia della nascita, utilizzo e declino delle notazioni scientifiche costituisce un’area di indagine importante che può aiutare le nostre analisi del pensiero scientifico e la sua evoluzione. […] this history constitutes a mirror of past and present conditions in mathematics which can be made to bear on the notational problems now confronting mathematics. The successes and failures of the past will contribute to a more speedy solutions of the notational problems of the present times.Questa storia, ovviamente, coinvolge anche le (...) notazioni della logica. Il presente contributo intende proporre un nuovo insieme di simboli per una particolare teoria logica: la Mereologia Formale, in considerazione del fatto che questa teoria, pur avendo avuto trattazioni sistematiche, non ha allo stato attuale ancora raggiunto un sistema di notazioni condiviso dagli studiosi. Tale stato dell’arte è espressione, da un lato, di un legame della teoria al suo nascere con la notazione polacca, e del suo confronto con la Teoria Assiomatica degli Insiemi; dall’altro, del fatto che essa ha ricevuto solo in tempi recenti sistematiche applicazioni alle scienze.94 In tale prospettiva ho ritenuto necessario definire in primo luogo dei criteri attraverso cui procedere alla costruzione del sistema di simboli. Criteri desunti in parte dalla storia delle notazioni scientifiche nella loro evoluzione, in parte dalla pratica personale nell’uso di strumenti formali. (shrink)

This study was aimed at predicting individual differences in text reading fluency. The basic proposal included two factors, i.e., the ability to decode letter strings (measured by discrete pseudo-word reading) and integration of the various sub-components involved in reading (measured by Rapid Automatized Naming, RAN). Subsequently, a third factor was added to the model, i.e., naming of discrete digits. In order to use homogeneous measures, all contributing variables considered the entire processing of the item, including pronunciation time. The model, which (...) was based on commonality analysis, was applied to data from a group of 43 typically developing readers (11- to 13-year-olds) and a group of 25 chronologically matched dyslexic children. In typically developing readers, both orthographic decoding and integration of reading sub-components contributed significantly to the overall prediction of text reading fluency. The model prediction was higher (from ca. 37% to 52% of the explained variance) when we included the naming of discrete digits variable, which had a suppressive effect on pseudo-word reading. In the dyslexic readers, the variance explained by the two-factor model was high (69%) and did not change when the third factor was added. The lack of a suppression effect was likely due to the prominent individual differences in poor orthographic decoding of the dyslexic children. Analyses on data from both groups of children were replicated by using patches of colours as stimuli (both in the RAN task and in the discrete naming task) obtaining similar results. We conclude that it is possible to predict much of the variance in text-reading fluency using basic processes, such as orthographic decoding and integration of reading sub-components, even without taking into consideration higher-order linguistic factors such as lexical, semantic and contextual abilities. The approach validity of using proximal vs distal causes to predict reading fluency is discussed. (shrink)

In a series of essays published from the late 1920s up to the mid-1960s, Hans Kelsen carried out a radical critique of natural law theory. The present paper purports to provide an analytical reconstruction and critical assessment of such a critique. It contains two parts. Part one surveys the fundamentals of Kelsen’s argumentative strategy against natural law and its theorists. Part two considers, in turn, two critical reactions to Kelsen’s criticisms: by Edgar Bodenheimer, on behalf of traditional natural law theory; (...) by Robert P. George, on behalf of “the new natural law theory”. As the analysis suggests, Kelsen’s critique stands up to the criticisms. (shrink)

The paper settles an open question concerning Negri-style labeled sequent calculi for modal logics and also, indirectly, other proof systems which make (more or less) explicit use of semantic parameters in the syntax and are thus subsumed by labeled calculi, like Brünnler’s deep sequent calculi, Poggiolesi’s tree-hypersequent calculi and Fitting’s prefixed tableau systems. Specifically, the main result we prove (through a semantic argument) is that labeled calculi for the modal logics K and D remain complete w.r.t. valid sequents whose relational (...) part encodes a tree-like structure, when the unique rule which contains an harmful implicit contraction—by which the condition that the premises be less complex than the conclusion is violated—is modified into a contraction-free one respecting the latter condition, thus making the proof-search space finite. (shrink)

Questo saggio illustra il dibattito sui rapporti tra scienza e democrazia oscilla tra la tesi di una loro “armonia” e di un inevitabile “conflitto”. Per i difensori dell’armonia, tra scienza e democrazia vi è un rapporto di implicazione reciproca: la crescita della conoscenza scientifica richiede la libertà tipica delle democrazie. Per i sostenitori del loro inevitabile conflitto, invece, il progresso civile potrebbe avvenire solo denunciando il non riconosciuto autoritarismo della scienza. Tra questi estremi, sono molte le visioni più sfumate della (...) relazione tra società democratiche e ricerca scientifica. (shrink)

Despite the variety of banalities that are often associated with trips and vacations as mass consumption, the study of tourism – due to the commitment of social, economic, political and cultural energy - remains one of the predominant inputs for understanding contemporary society and the new social hierarchies that distinguish it. Tourism, which is increasingly seen as a process that has become integral to social and cultural life, also plays an essential role in the social and spatial dialectic that gives (...) meaning to the places. Focusing tourism through the lens of "productive consumption" developed by Cultural Studies, the paper moves from the assumption that responsible tourism can be analyzed in the broader paradigm of relational goods to explore the role of responsible tourism as a possible way of sustainable and responsible development.A pesar de la variedad de banalidades que a menudo se asocian con los viajes y las vacaciones, como el consumo de masas, el estudio del turismo –debido al compromiso de la energía social, económica, política y cultural– sigue siendo una de las fuentes predominantes para la comprensión de la sociedad contemporánea y las nuevas jerarquías sociales que la distinguen. El turismo, que se está viendo cada vez más como un proceso que forma parte integral de la vida social y cultural, también juega un papel esencial en la dialéctica social y espacial que da sentido a los lugares. Analizando el turismo desde el punto de vista del consumo productivo desarrollado por los estudios culturales, el artículo parte de la asunción de que el turismo responsable puede ser analizado en el paradigma más amplio de bienes relacionales para explorar el papel del turismo responsable como una forma posible de desarrollo sostenible y responsable. (shrink)

L’essai traite l’héritage de l’idéalisme allemand chez Rosenzweig dans la perspective particulière de la théorie de la reconnaissance. Dans le premier paragraphe il trace les contours d’une théorie de la reconnaissance dans L’Étoile de la Rédemption à travers le thème du temps dans le rapport entre aimant et aimée, les formes du langage de la reconnaissance et la communauté comme résultat de la reconnaissance ouverte envers la rédemption. Le deuxième paragraphe développe une confrontation synthétique avec les modèles fichtéen et hégélien (...) de la reconnaissance pour montrer qu’on peut utilement lire Rosenzweig du point de vue d’une théorie de la reconnaissance et lire les théories idéalistes de la reconnaissance du point de vue de Rosenzweig. La conclusion met en lumière quelques idées fondamentales de Schelling à la base des points décisifs de l’originalité de la théorie de Rosenzweig centrée sur l’amour capable de vaincre la mort. (shrink)

In a previous study we examined reading, spelling, and maths skills in an unselected group of 129 Italian children attending fifth grade by testing various cognitive predictors; results showed a high degree of predictors’ selectivity for each of these three behaviors. In the present study, we focused on the specificity of the predictors by performing cross-analyses on the same dataset; i.e., we predicted spelling and maths skills based on reading predictors, reading based on maths predictors and so on. Results indicated (...) that some predictors, such as the Orthographic Decision and the Arithmetic Facts tests, predicted reading, spelling and maths skills in similar ways, while others predicted different behaviors but only for a specific parameter, such as fluency but not accuracy, and still others were specific for a single behavior. To interpret these results, we propose a novel model of learning skills separately considering factors in terms of competence, performance and acquisition. Reading, spelling and calculation skills would depend on the development of discrete and different abstract competences. By contrast, overlap among behaviors would be accounted for by defective acquisition in automatized responses to individual “instances”; this latter skill is item specific but domain independent. Finally, performance factors implied in task’s characteristics may contribute to the partial association among learning skills. It is proposed that this new model may provide a useful base for interpreting the diffuse presence of comorbidities among learning disorders. (shrink)

Pierluigi Piovanelli | : Tacite est le seul témoin explicite d’une persécution des « chrétiens » de Rome à la suite du célèbre incendie de la capitale, en 64 de notre ère, une catastrophe dont la population aurait attribué la responsabilité criminelle à l’empereur Néron, si les adeptes de cette « superstition pernicieuse » originaire de la Judée n’avaient pas été opportunément identifiés comme les coupables. Si, d’un côté, il est facile de comprendre la nécessité pour le pouvoir impérial (...) de trouver rapidement des boucs émissaires, de l’autre, il n’est pas aisé de concevoir les raisons qui firent que le choix se porte sur les membres d’un groupe sectaire judéen tout à fait marginal. L’examen de quelques textes clés de Flavius Josèphe et des écrits apocalyptiques contemporains permet de mieux comprendre quelles étaient les attentes des milieux radicaux judéens et quelle était la perception que les Romains pouvaient avoir de ceux qui, à leurs yeux, n’étaient que des agitateurs et des brigands. | : Tacitus is the only witness to the persecution of the “Christians” in Rome following the famous fire of 64 CE that severely burned the capital city ; a catastrophe for which Nero would have been considered responsible had the followers of that “most mischievous superstition” of Judean origins not been identified as the culprits. If, on the one hand, it is easy to understand the urgency for the imperial power to find scapegoats, on the other hand, it is not so easy to imagine the reasons why the members of a Judean sectarian, marginal group were eventually chosen. A new look at a series of key passages from the writings of Josephus and contemporary apocalyptic texts allow us to have a better understanding of the expectations at work among the members of Judean radical groups, as well as the perception that Romans could have had of those who, in their opinion, were simply agitators and bandits. (shrink)

We aim at clarifying to what extent the work of the English mathematician George Boole on the algebra of logic is taken into consideration and discussed in the work of early Husserl, focusing in particular on Husserl’s lecture “Über die neueren Forschungen zur deduktiven Logik” of 1895, in which an entire section is devoted to Boole. We confront Husserl’s representation of the problem-solving processes with the analysis of “symbolic reasoning” proposed by George Boole in the Laws of Thought and try (...) to show how and why Husserl, while praising Boole’s calculus, strongly criticizes his attempt at a philosophical clarification and justification of it. (shrink)

This monograph examines the relationship between science and democracy. The author argues that there is no clear-cut division between science and the rest of society. Rather, scientists and laypeople form a single community of inquiry, which aims at the truth. To defend his theory, the author shows that science and society are both heterogeneous and fragmented. They display variable and shifting alliances between components. He also explains how information flow between science and society is bi-directional through “transactional” processes. In other (...) words, science and society mutually define themselves. The author also explains how science is both objective and laden with values. Coverage includes a wide range of topics, such as: the ideal of value-free science, the is/ought divide, “thick terms” and the language of science, inductive risk, the dichotomy between pure science and applied science, constructivism and the philosophy of risk. It also looks at the concepts of truth and objectivity, the autonomy of science, moral and social inquiry, perfectionism and democracy, and the role of experts in democratic societies. The style is philosophical, but the book features many examples and case-studies. It will appeal to philosophers of science, those in science and technology studies as well as interested general readers. (shrink)

In this paper the relationship between Gaia theory and fact/value dualism must be understood from two angles: I shall use Gaia as a case study to show the philosophical limits of dualism, and I shall also use the discussion of fact/value dualism to clarify the contents of Gaia theory. My basic thesis is that Lovelock is right when rejecting the suggestion that he should clear his theory of evaluative considerations. He is right because in his theory facts and moral values (...) are strictly interwoven and therefore cannot be conceptually separated. I shall show this point by arguing that if we dropped the evaluative components from Gaia theory we would not have the same theory cleared of those evaluative components. Instead we would have a theory with a different empirical meaning and different explanatory characteristics. (shrink)

La struttura e l’argomentazione del libro Lambda della Metafisica sono condizionate dalla questione della possibilità di stabilire se esista o no un unico principio comune a tutte quante le sostanze possibili, sensibili e sovrasensibili. La discussione del libro, non conclusiva, lascia indeciso il problema: un esito spiegabile riferendo la formulazione di questo - e l’origine del libro - alla situazione di Aristotele negli anni dell’Academia, dove l’accettazione di princìpi comuni a tutte le cose si accompagnava alla convinzione che ci fosse (...) un’unica scienza generale per tutte le sostanze. Nel libro Lambda la classica distinzione aristotelica tra la fisica e la filosofia prima non riesce perciò ad essere stabilita. (shrink)

We aim at clarifying to what extent the work of the German mathematician Ernst Schröder on the algebra of logic is taken into consideration and rehashed in the work of the early Husserl, focusing on Husserl’s 1891 Review of the first volume of Schröder’s monumental Vorlesungen über die Algebra der Logik and on Husserl’s text Der Folgerungskalkül und die Inhaltslogik written in the same year. We will try to show how and why Husserl, while praising Schröder’s calculus, strongly criticizes Schröder’s (...) attempt at a philosophical clarification and justification of it. (shrink)

In this book the most important aristotelian passages concerning the question of determinism are thoroughly reexamined: chapter 9 of de interpretatione, chapter 3 of Metaphysics's book VI, several chapters from the Ethics, as well as some texts from the aristotelian commentator Alexander of Aphrodisias. This is the author's main contention: "In Aristotle's view the world of social relations and of human behaviours really is always highly undetermined; but this is mainly due to the unpredictable intersections of the different causal series (...) issuing from each agent involved, while in each of these series at least one element tends to remain constant (indeed, it is the most stable element in every situation): the personal character of the human agent and the kind of response this character offers to the new situations that constantly arise.". (shrink)

LetSKP be the intermediate prepositional logic obtained by adding toI (intuitionistic p.l.) the axiom schemes:S = (( ) ) (Scott), andKP = ()()() (Kreisel-Putnam). Using Kripke's semantics, we prove:1) SKP has the finite model property; 2) SKP has the disjunction property. In the last section of the paper we give some results about Scott's logic S = I+S.