This contribution claims that the two fundamental notions of causation at work in the health sciences are manipulative and mechanistic, and investigates what kinds of evidence matter for the assessment of causal relations. This article is a development of our 2007 article, ‘Plurality of Causality’, where we argue for a pluralistic account of causation with an eye to econometrics and a single medical example. The present contribution has a wider focus, and considers the notion of evidence within a whole range (...) of disciplines belonging to the health sciences. Section 1 addresses the relations between kinds of evidence and causal accounts, and it is shown how different notions of causation can be employed in various medical cases. Section 2 calls attention to issues crucial for any adequate epistemological theory of causation, such as the distinctions between types and tokens, observational and experimental regimes, explanation and prediction. Lastly, the notion of context is articulated, highlighted in its role in the assessment of causal links. All these issues are tackled in the framework of what we label a ‘bottom–up’ epistemology. (shrink)

Polarity Items are linguistic expressions known for being a ‘lexically controlled’ phenomenon. In this paper we show how their behavior can be implemented in a deductive system. Further- more, we point out some possible directions to recast the deductive solution into a Tree Ad- joining Grammar system. In particular, we suggest to compare the proof system developed for Multimodal Categorial Grammar (Moot & Puite, 1999) with the Partial Proof Trees proposed in (Joshi & Kulick, 1997).

The article presents the first results we have obtained studying natural reasoning from a proof-theoretic perspective. In particular we focus our attention on monotonic reasoning. Our system consists of two parts: (i) A Formal Grammar – a multimodal version of classical Categorial Grammar – which while syntactically analysing linguistic expressions given as input, computes semantic information (In particular information about the monotonicity properties of the components of the input string are displayed.); (ii) A simple Natural Logic which derives (monotonicity) inferences (...) using as vehicle the parsed output. The monotonicity markers assigned in the lexicon are propagated through the proofs via a combination of the structural and the logical rules for the unary operators of Multimodal Categorial Grammar (MMCG) [Moo97]. We have chosen to work with an expressive ‘grammar logic’, in order to avoid the use of extra-logical marking devices and extra-logical structural reasoning. Having MMCG as parser, our system is able to make the derivations simply within the logic. This new approach makes the implementation of the theory an easier task. We have implemented the theoretical results, so far obtained, using Grail, a theorem prover for Categorial Grammar Logics [Moo98]. (shrink)

This article focuses on the assessment of mechanistic relations with specific attention to medicine, where mechanistic models are widely employed. I first survey recent contributions in the philosophical literature on mechanistic causation, and then take issue with Federica Russo and Jon Williamson’s thesis that two types of evidence, probabilistic and mechanistic, are at stake in the health sciences. I argue instead that a distinction should be drawn between previously acquired knowledge of mechanisms and yet-to-be-discovered knowledge of mechanisms and that both (...) probabilistic evidence and manipulation are essential with respect to newly discovered mechanisms. (shrink)

The meaning of matter is determined by our interpretations. Even food has its own frequencies, which can be aligned with the specific notes of a musical scale. When presented with a dish we might ask not only “how does it taste?” but also “how does it sound?.” Gastrofonia is defined not as the musical accompaniment to a cooking demonstration, but the actual sound of it: music is made by food. Built upon an experiment initiated by John Cage to try to (...) make music with objects, gastrofonia examines sound as a possible connection among the visual and material arts. Combining music with taste, musician Roy Paci identified a biosonic perception of food. This chapter aims to analyze the case of gastrofonia in light of the increased scientific and artistic interest in food characterizing our contemporary society, that is, an orthorexic society where food has become a specific form of language, a communicative vehicle through which we express our identity, interests, social-ethical choices, and new concepts of art. From a sociosemiotic perspective, the gastrofonic dish is an example of a textual polyphonic discourse combining different languages, related to the five senses in a performance that becomes a form of shared communication. (shrink)

This is a personal recollection of Lyman Tower Sargent that stresses his enormous contribution—personal and academic—to the community of utopian studies. After a brief recollection of our academic interactions, the short contribution pays homage to a “social dreamer” who is aware that utopia can be dangerous but is equally sure that it is absolutely essential if we are to survive.

i. M is positive in M . ii. M is positive (negative) in P Q iff M is positive (negative) in P . iii. M is positive (negative) in P Q iff M is positive (negative) in Q, and P denotes..

This article focuses on the significance of space in the display of hegemonic power in the La Scala opera house in the years 1776–1850s. More specifically, it traces the changes in the use of space from Napoleon’s attempt to “democratise” La Scala by attacking the display of hegemonic hierarchy and subverting the status quo, to the Habsburgs’ attempt to “restore” a display of hegemonic rule. The analysis of primary findings demonstrates that the space of the opera house was reshaped not (...) only physically through renovation but also by imposing rules and structuring attendance during performances. The social significance of La Scala’s theatrical space is also explored by identifying the means the Habsburg authorities used to control it as part of their response to the rise of the Risorgimento. The article thus traces the historical shifts in the political functions of space in La Scala from its early role of displaying aristocratic authority through the period of Napoleonic democratisation and finally the Hapsburgs’ restoration politics of surveillance. (shrink)

This book examines the role of note-taking in ancient education as a pedagogical method, by taking readers on a stimulating analysis of lectures by ancient philosophers that were recorded by their students.

The essay analyses utopia as a key concept to investigate modern politics. It argues that looking at the works of Machiavelli and More in order to retrace the utopia-realism nexus permits to develop a valuable analytical tool to interpret the outset of political modernity.

In this article, I deal with the concept of aesthetics in its broader sense: the ability of feeling, thinking, and creating. My theory is that this aesthetics was born 40,000 years ago in the Paleolitical caves and that it has been characterizing human creativity from its remote origins up to now. Following this theory, we should not define human creativity as a greater cleverness than that of other living species; however, we should think of it as a refined aesthetic ability (...) of mind in connecting different worlds, enacting different levels of communication, and creating images and symbols. (shrink)

A theater that heals is not a theater that offers answers and ?medicines? that guarantee to cure weaknesses and fragilities people meet but it is an open organization, which questions itself, which brings out ambivalence and ambiguity, diversity, weaknesses, and which leaves room for possible interpretations and narratives, the play of imagination, and the development of innovative and creative processes of people in society.

Putting into question the usefulness and the adequacy of the Wave metaphor as a key to understand the complexity of the feminist movement and its history, the author critically recounts the salient nodes around which the feminist movement has discussed on the transnational level the issue of wage for housework and the nexus production/reproduction in the long 1968, critically rethinking the differences between women and the different experiences of oppression in capitalist society. In particular, the essay analyzes the way in (...) which the dichotomy redistribution/recognition has constituted an inseparable nexus in feminist reflections and has redefined the relationship between gender, class and ethnicity/race, showing the centrality of the intersections between them for the movement and feminist theory. (shrink)

Current research on choice overload has been mainly conducted with choice options not associated with specific brands. This study investigates whether the presence of brand names in the choice set affects the occurrence of choice overload. Across four studies, we find that when choosing among an overabundance of alternatives, participants express more positive feelings (i.e., higher satisfaction/confidence, lower regret and difficulty) when all the options of the choice set are associated with familiar brands, rather than unfamiliar brands or no brand (...) at all. We also find that choice overload only appears in the absence of brand names, but disappears when all options contain brand names—either familiar or unfamiliar. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. (shrink)

Psychometric and emotional intelligence are considered as two separate theoretical constructs, although each one has been found to correlate to a certain degree with measures of creativity. The aim of the present study was to analyze whether individual differences such as age and gender, together with psychometric intelligence and emotional competence (EC) predicted creativity. We selected a sample of 376 participants aged 12–88 (mean age = 30.28 years, SD = 19.09 years; 224 females) to evaluate relationships between these constructs across (...) lifespan. Participants were administered the Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test-2, the Short Profile of EC, the Creativity Style Questionnaire Revised (CSQ-R) and the Creative Achievement Questionnaire (CAQ). T -test on gender differences evidenced that males had higher creativity achievements compared to females. A path analysis was applied to examine the relationships between the CAQ and CSQ-R scores as dependent variables and the potential predictors assessed. Results showed that CSQ-R was significantly predicted by interpersonal emotional competence and marginally by educational level ( p = 0.058) and intrapersonal emotional competence ( p = 0.051). On the other hand, the CAQ score was significantly predicted by gender, age, and composite IQ. Discussion is focused on possible theoretical implications. (shrink)

We define a potentialist system of ‐structures, i.e., a collection of possible worlds in the language of connected by a binary accessibility relation, achieving a potentialist account of the full background set‐theoretic universe V. The definition involves Berkeley cardinals, the strongest known large cardinal axioms, inconsistent with the Axiom of Choice. In fact, as background theory we assume just. It turns out that the propositional modal assertions which are valid at every world of our system are exactly those in the (...) modal theory. Moreover, we characterize the worlds satisfying the potentialist maximality principle, and thus the modal theory, both for assertions in the language of and for assertions in the full potentialist language. (shrink)

The notion of causal evidence in medicine has been the subject of wide philosophical debate in recent years. The notion of evidence has been discussed mostly in connection with Evidence Based Medicine and, more in general, with the assessment of causal nexus in medical, and especially research contexts. “Manipulative evidence” is one of the notions of causal evidence that has stimulated much debate. It has been defined in slightly different ways, attributed different relevance, and recently placed at the core of (...) Gillies’ “action-related theory of causality”, a view specifically meant to address causation in medicine. While in general sympathetic to Gillies’ account, and totally convinced of the relevance of manipulative evidence and different sorts of interventions in the biomedical sciences, we believe that some further qualifications are needed to allow the notion of manipulative evidence to better express features of medical practice. In particular, we provide some qualification of the role of “interventional evidence” proposed by Gillies, suggesting a distinction between “interventional evidence” and “evidence for interventions”. A case study from research on rare diseases is analyzed in depth and a multifaceted notion of manipulative evidence put forward that allows better understanding of what manipulations in medical contexts amount to and what their targets are. (shrink)

In medical research, the ethical principle of respect for persons is operationalized into the process of informed consent. The consent tools should be contextualized and adapted to the different socio-cultural environment, especially when research crosses the traditional boundaries and reaches poor communities. We look at the challenges experienced in the malaria Quinact trial, conducted in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and describe some lessons learned, related to the definition of acceptable representative, the role of independent witness and the impact of (...) socio-economic vulnerability. To ensure children's protection, consent is required by the parents or, in their absence, by a legally mandated representative. In our setting, children's responsibility is often entrusted permanently or temporarily to relatives or friends without a tribunal mandate. Hence, a notion of ‘culturally acceptable representative’ under supervision of the local Ethics Committee may be more suitable. To ensure protection of illiterate subjects, an independent witness is required to confirm that the consent was freely given. However, in low-literacy contexts, potential witnesses often don't have any previous relationship with patient and there may be power-unbalance in their relationship, rather than genuine dialogue. In poor communities, trial participation may be seen as an opportunity to secure access to healthcare. Poverty may also lead to ‘competition’ to access the research-related benefits, with a risk of disturbance at societal or household level. Adjusting consent procedures to sociocultural and socioeconomic realities is essential for fulfilling the underlying ethical principles. This requires a collaborative dialogue between researchers, regulators and ethics committees. (shrink)