Authors De Marco and colleagues have presented a new model on the concept of invasiveness, redefining both its technical definition and practical implementation.1 While the authors raise valid critiques regarding the discrepancy in definitions, I cannot help but wonder about the purpose of redefining terms for which little confusion, if any, exists? This commentary seeks to scrutinise the rationale supporting the new model in the absence of significant clinical confusion and to explore the implications for clinical practice. Initially, one may (...) notice there is no mention of clinical relevancy, confusion among patients or whether the discrepancy in terms is causing miscommunication. It seems reasonable that some clinical confusion may exist, but so too does a similar imbalance of terms when speaking technically across the specialties; take depression and its definition as a primary example. While I certainly agree with the illustration of non-invasive prenatal testing being compared with venous blood draws as a disparity in terminology, little evidence suggests confusion concerning the nosology.2 The medical community, including both physicians and patients, recognises that the terminology is specifically used within the …. (shrink)

This chapter contains section titled: Direct Passions Pleasure and Desire Reason and Passion References Further Reading.

The American Journal of Bioethics, Volume 11, Issue 6, Page 60-62, June 2011.

Acknowledgments I wish to express my gratitude to Dr. Jakob Amstutz for his continual feedback during my writing of this work. ...

An investigation into the concept of life in Michel Foucault's work leads both to a more precise understanding of the development of his work and to the elaboration of a critical look at recent interpretations of his thought, especially in relation to the readings of the concept of biopolitics that oscillate between a positive and a negative interpretation of this concept. The analyzes of this term, which have proliferated among recent readings of Foucault's work, seem to lack a more accurate (...) understanding of the problem of life, from which largely results the very acuity of Foucault's reflections on biopower. What above all guides this brief and incipient reflection on Foucault’s notion of life is Muhle's (2021) finding that Foucault does not attribute an ontological status to the notion of life and that this life plays a double role (Gegenstand and Funktionsmodell) regarding its implication in biopower, as well as Mauer's assumption (2015) that Foucault turns to the notion of life in order to deviate from the concept of man, i.e., from humanism. These two hypotheses help us not only to shed light on the elaboration of Foucault's thought as a whole, particularly with regard to biopower, but also on recent readings of the notion of biopolitics. (shrink)

The chapter 'Of power' of Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding is a very fine discussion of agency and a very complex piece of philosophy. It is the result of the superimposition of at least three layers of text (those of the first, second and fifth editions of the Essay), expressive of widely differing views of the same matters. The argument concerning agency and free will that it puts forward (as it now stands, reporting Locke's last word on the subject) is (...) thus beset with problems, and even inconsistencies. But these textual and analytical difficulties should not hide from us the relevance and, in a way, the deep coherence of Locke's philosophy of action. In what follows, I will attempt to cast some light on this complicated interpretive and conceptual matter, by a careful reading of some parts of Locke's discussion. The first section shows how accounting for the evaluation and choice of remote goods, in terms of their real value and in preference to smaller, nearer ones, is a crucial problem for Locke's philosophy of action. The second section reads Locke's move from an internalist to an externalist view of motivation as a first, conceptually complex step towards such an account; and shows how this is linked to a change in the concept of will. The third and fourth sections reconstruct Locke's account (a pattern of suspension and examination of occurrent desire); discuss the role of the motivational and normative concept of happiness; and cast some doubt on the consistency of Locke's position. (shrink)

O problema do critério é um dos mais importantes da epistemologia. A resposta que se dá a ele definirá um aspecto fundamental das teorias do conhecimento. Neste ensaio, o problema do critério é apresentado e algumas das conseqüências geradas pela aceitação de exigências metaepistemicas são analisadas. Em especial, essas conseqüências são avaliadas em relação ao infinitismo – a teoria epistemológica segundo a qual as razões que sustentam nossas crenças devem ser infinitas em número e não-repetidas. Ao final, sustenta-se que cláusulas (...) que exigem que a metajustificação seja necessária para o conhecimento não apenas tornam as teorias epistemológicas mais plausíveis, mas também que a ausência de tais exigências acaba criando problemas muito difíceis, como o assim chamado “problema do conhecimento fácil”. PALAVRAS-CHAVE – Infinitismo. Problema do critério. Metajustificação. Conhecimento. Metaconhecimento. Ceticismo. ABSTRACT This essay discusses the Problem of the Criterion, one of the most important problems in Epistemology. The answer given to this problem will shape a fundamental aspect of theories of knowledge. It also analyzes some of the consequences epistemological theories may face in accepting metaepistemological requirements. These consequences are given special consideration with regard to Infinitism, the epistemological theory according to which the reasons that support our beliefs must be infinite and non-repeating. Finally, this essay claims not only that those propositions that require metajustification make any theory, even Infinitism, more plausible, but also that the absence of such requirements creates difficult problems, such as the so-called “Problem of Easy Knowledge.” KEY WORDS – Infinitism. Problem of the Criterion. Metajustification. Knowledge. Metaknowledge. Skepticism. (shrink)

In thirteen essays from different aesthetic traditions, Aesthetic Apprehensions: Silences and Absences in False Familiarities problematizes our habituated customs of seeing and reading the familiar to focus on that which cannot easily be comprehended but may be sensed through encounters with the ruptures and gaps that quietly beckon our attention.

The collection of Coptic literary papyri of the Egyptian Museum of Turin is one of the most important in the world, if not for the number of codices, certainly for their contribution to the knowledge of Coptic literature and codicology. This paper makes an exhaustive list of the codices and of the works that they contain, with reference to their publication, especially that of Francesco Rossi , who could read more than is visible today. The tables provided are useful because (...) the papyri have been set in different order , after Rossi’s publication. (shrink)

No artigo que se segue, temos por objetivo proceder uma análise comparativista entre a narrativa literária das tragédias de Sófocles e a filosofia de Aristóteles. Propomos uma leitura que tende a evidenciar a existência de uma proto-ética no universo mítico-trágico escrito pelo tragediógrafo de Colona e sua validação filosófica desenvolvida na obra ética do filósofo de Estagira. Desta forma, as personagens das tragédias de Sófocles serão compreendidas como metáforas do agir ético pensado e sistematizado por Aristóteles na sua Ethica Nicomachea. (...) Assim procedendo, pensamos lançar uma possibilidade interpretativa sobre o processo de formação do entimento da ética ao longo da construção da consciência histórica do homem e da solidificação do agir-ético no campo da filosófia, sendo a literatura, neste caso, ferramenta fundamenal para se perceber o processo histórico das transformações sócio-culturais próprias do período transitorial da Grécia Arcaica para a Grécia Clássica e da gradativa racionalização do universo político da Grécia. (shrink)

O artigo apresenta uma análise sobre o processo de transformação das mentalidades do homem grego na transição dos universos arcaico e clássico. Neste sentido, analisa-se a gradativa laicização dos processos sociopolíticos no universo cultural do dito período de transição a partir da efetivação do lógos como meio de reconhecimento da realidade e efetivação política na pólis. Analisar-se-á, ainda, numa perspectiva de história das mentalidades, o processo que levará o homem ao reconhecimento das suas historicidade e eticidade. As fontes escolhidas para (...) o debate proposto são as tragédias sofoclianas, em especial Édipo Rei, e a ética aristotélica. (shrink)

According to libertarianism about free will, at least some of the choices we make are free and undetermined. Many libertarians also accept the thesis that, before we make an undetermined choice, there is a nontrivial objective probability that we will make that choice. In the literature on free will, the ascription of objective probabilities is sometimes justified via an “Argument from Motivation,” which adverts to the fact that typically, in situations of choice, we are more motivated to choose some options (...) over others. In this paper, I will examine this argument and I will argue that it is unsound, as one of its premises is at odds with a widely accepted principle governing the evolution of objective probabilities over time. (shrink)

The purpose of this essay is to show that the version of epistemological infinitism defended by Peter Klein is externalistic in character. I present the most important questions infinitism is supposed to resolve and also present the fundamental difference regarding internalism and externalism in epistemology. I conclude with an indication of what would be the best way to understand infinitism and how to evade the problems that emerge from Klein’s externalist infinitism.

Following upon Bruno Latour’s famous injunction that ‘we have never been modern’, Graham Harvey has recently added that perhaps ‘we have always been animists.’ With the massive ecosystem destruction that is underway in the Anthropocene, this realization could represent a necessary paradigm shift to address anthropogenic climate change. If the expropriation and destruction intrinsic to the modern division between a world of cultural values attributed exclusively to humans and a world of inanimate matter devoid of value has become untenable, then (...) showing the illusory nature of this divide should open the way for a transvaluation of values capable of developing an animistic relational ontology to replace the dualisms of the Western paradigm. Developing the four traits typical of animistic cultures – personhood, relationality, location and ontological boundary crossing – a postmodern ‘machinic animism’ is defended as a new ecological paradigm for the Anthropocene. (shrink)

Analytic metaphysics displays a meta-metaphysical pattern: A shift toward a foundational conception of the aims and methods of metaphysical enquiry and away from a pragmatic understanding of foundational questions of metaphysics. Pragmatism looms large in Carnap’s and Quine’s metaphysics, across the differences between ontological pluralism and antirealism and extensionalist ontological realism. The two philosophers share the pairing of a deflationary take on ontology and a pragmatist rendering of foundational issues. In particular, Quine complements his quantification-based ontology, which denies ontological pluralism, (...) with a pragmatic understanding of cognitive and explanatory significance. This pattern is traceable in Lewis’s modal realism. A different line in analytic meta-metaphysics is characterized by easing of pragmatist commitments and redefining the object of enquiry, from what there is to what is fundamental. I give and discuss examples of this different theoretical line and illustrate their contribution to the ineludible task of a philosophical revision of pragmatism. (shrink)

Este artigo se divide em quatro partes. Inicialmente apresentamos a noção de biopolítica de modo introdutório, considerando a relação entre poder soberano e biopoder. Voltamo-nos para a elaboração foucaultiana do termo de modo a esclarecer, em linhas gerais, seu sentido. Essa breve análise da noção de biopolítica encaminha-nos para o conceito de tanatopolítica, que aparece, na segunda parte do texto, como epíteto da derivação funesta da biopolítica. Na terceira parte, a partir de uma perspectiva biopolítica, lançamos luz sobre a crise (...) que enfrentamos. Trata-se de um esforço de evidenciar o sentido biopolítico da crise atual, considerando o conteúdo das reflexões de Foucault. Finalmente, na quarta parte, atualizamos o debate acerca da biopolítica por meio de uma análise da noção de imunidade formulada por Esposito, a qual fornece uma importante chave interpretativa da pandemia atual. (shrink)

It seems opportune to commemorate in ‘Augustinianum’ the centenary of the birth of Alan Turing, insofar as he is an outstanding figure whose theoritical insight gave birth to the computer revolution of the twentieth centur y. His theories are equally important for the methodology supporting studies in the humanities.

The rapid and dramatic changes that have marked contemporary history inspired one of the most notable operas of the late twentieth century. Philip Glass's Akhnaten - an elegy on the theme of intolerance - gives a symbolic treatment to a well-known story of suppression and counter-suppression in Ancient Egypt. The visionary pharaoh Akhnaten overthrows the established order, religion and priesthood, abolishing in the process the images of the old gods. Soon, however, he himself is toppled from power; the images of (...) the gods he venerated are destroyed, along with his own portraits, and the old regime he had subverted establishes itself anew. Strategies of repression and suppression frequently involve eliminating the images of undesirables and obliterating their names. Recent history contains many examples of such tactics which still sometimes echo in the collective memory. A series of well-known photographs shows Joseph Stalin posing with the cream of the communist leadership – the Executive Committee from the early days of the Soviet Union, when it appeared to promise so much. As the Soviet regime grew ever more totalitarian and Stalin became more and more like the autocratic ruler of a vast empire, the portraits of various “troublesome” Committee members were airbrushed from the photos, just as they themselves disappeared from the political scene. The fate of Stalin's own images was no different, toppled and destroyed by the angry mob after the collapse of the communist regimes of Eastern Europe. (shrink)

El principal objetivo del presente ensayo es analizar los conceptos y praxis del Mundo Mapuche y del País Mapuche las cuales, es posible argüir, constituyen la síntesis de la demanda y propuesta de parte significativa del movimiento mapuche autonomista. Síntesis que conlleva una modificación cualitativa en la estructuración de los marcos cognitivos del movimiento, lo que ha significado la articulación embrionaria de una visión mapuche de la realidad que trascendería la dimensión social y política del movimiento para instalarse como elemento (...) de índole más estructural, que ya no sólo enfrenta crecientemente a dos identidades distintas, sino que, también, a dos proyectos de sociedad, a dos países, a dos pueblos encapsulados en un mismo territorio geográfico, pero culturalmente diferenciados. La aproximación al sujeto de estudio se realizará a través de la aplicación de algunos elementos de las teorías de los movimientos sociales, específicamente los marcos cognitivos, y además, desde el concepto de memoria colectiva. (shrink)

Microinjection of frog oocytes, a technique whose usefulness for studies on gene expression is already established, may be similarly helpful for the unraveling of several enigmas of cellular metabolism and its organization.

A central issue of cognitive neuroscience is to understand how a large collection of coupled neurons combines external signals with internal memories into new coherent patterns of meaning. An external stimulus localized at some input spreads over a large assembly of coupled neurons, building up a collective state univocally corresponding to the stimulus. Thus, the synchronization of spike trains of many individual neurons is the basis of a coherent perception. Based on recent investigations of homoclinic chaotic systems and their synchronization, (...) a novel conjecture for the dynamics of single neurons and, consequently, for neuron assemblies is formulated. Homoclinic chaos is proposed as a suitable way to code information in time by trains of equal spikes occurring at apparently erratic times. In order to classify the set of different perceptions, the percept space can be given a metric structure by introducing a distance measure between distinct percepts. The distance in percept space is conjugate to the duration of the perception in the sense that an uncertainty relation in percept space is associated with time-limited perceptions. This coding of different percepts by synchronized spike trains entails fundamental quantum features which are not restricted to microscopic phenomena. It is conjectured that they are related to the details of the perceptual chain rather than depending on Planck's action. (shrink)

Philosopher of science Bruno Latour defines the image as “any sign, work of art, inscription or painting serving as a mediation to reach something else.” According to this definition, mediation could very well be a synonym for image. In this article, I would like to use Latour’s work to argue for the crucial role that images play in overcoming a certain modern worldview that has divided the world into ontological essences that separate subject and object, nature and culture. It is (...) precisely the erasure of the mediations, the images that connect these different forms of life together, that has led to the positing of the modern constitution of autonomous essences, cut off from the many agencies that give them life. Using the art installations of artist Tomas Saraceno, this article will show that it is precisely this mediating role of art that lends it such an interdisciplinary and phenomenological role in allowing the invisible webs connecting earth and sky, nature and culture, human and non-human, to be seen. (shrink)