L’article offre une discussion de l’affirmation qui ouvrait en 1977 les Fragments d’un discours amoureux de Roland Barthes, selon laquelle le discours amoureux se trouvait dans une condition d’extrême solitude. Afin de comprendre cette affirmation, on commence par un aperçu des caractéristiques du discours amoureux, pour montrer en quelle mesure son incohérence et sa fragmentation lui sont constitutives. Ensuite, on analyse le projet barthésien de restituer une dignité à ce discours et à l’expérience qu’il véhicule — de le soustraire à (...) sa solitude. Pour conclure, on montre pourquoi certaines attaques moralisatrices contemporaines contre l’instabilité de l’expérience amoureuse actuelle, au lieu d’offrir un espace d’écoute au discours amoureux, finissent souvent par le réduire encore au silence. (shrink)

Der Problemrahmen des Konflikts zwischen Liebe und Gerechtigkeit beschäftigt Nietzsche von der zweiten Unzeitgemässen Betrachtung bis zu Also Sprach Zarathustra. Die aktuelle philosophische Debatte ist hauptsächlich auf soziale Gerechtigkeit forkussiert. Nietzsche geht aber darüber hinaus und setzt sich mit jenen Aspekten dieser fragestellung auseinander, die auf ihrem Verstädnis als ethisches Problem in der individuellen Einstellung zur Erkenntnis beruben. Die Spannung zwischen Liebe und Gerechtigkeit erscheint als Grundgestal des inneren Konflikts einer Lebensform, die dem Streben nach Erkenntnis Verpflichtet ist. in diesem (...) Sinn ist Nietzsches Reflexion über jene Problematik mit dem philosophischen Rahmen verbunden, dem Gedanken wie die Lehre ver der "völligen Unverantwortlichkeit des Menschen", amor fati und die ewige Widerkehr des Gleichen zugehören.Nietzsche treats the conflict between love and justice in his works from the second of his Untimely Meditations to Thus Spoke Zarathustra. While current philosophical debates discuss this conflict with reference to social justice, Nietzsche focuses mostly on aspects arising from understanding it as an ethical problem regarding the individual's attitude towards knowledge. He thus treats the conflict between love and justice as the fundamental form of conflict internal to a form of life committed to knowledge, and his reflections are strictly connected with the broader philosophical framework from which emerge his doctrines of 'man's complete lack of responsibility', amor fati, and the eternal return. (shrink)

Come guardò un grande diagnosta e critico della civiltà europea, come lo fu Nietzsche, alle possibili alternative culturali e sociali d’Oltreoceano? E come le giudicò? E, infine, quali furono le prime reazioni di quella stessa America, da cui egli aveva per certi aspetti attinto, alla lettera della sua filosofia? Il volume, curato da Sergio Franzese, e uscito nella collana Nietzscheana del Centro «Colli-Montinari», cerca di rispondere su più fronti, chiarendo il quadro in cui si sviluppò ques...

Celle de Pathos der Distanz est un notion fondamentale de la réflexion que Nietzsche, aux années 80, consacre à la généalogie des valeurs morales et à la corréspondante hiérarchie des hommes. Le Pathos der Distanz, coractérisant et distinguant la forme de vie la plus noble, excellente, est en soi un objection aux revendications d'egalité universelle, puisqu'il s'oppose à la validité universelle des valuers morales. Un aspect plus profond de la valorisation du Pathos der Distanz renvoie au travail de transformation de (...) l'expérience de soi, de récalibration des puissances individuelles ed des potentialités de l'homme . La dissolution des catéegories de la psychologie et de la morale traditionnelles comporte une revision de l'experience méme de soi: Nietzsche essaie d'articular un parcours de réapprentissage, dont l'une de voies d'accès provilégiée est le phénomène affectif d'autoperception du Pathos der Distanz.Der Begriff des Pathos der Distanz ist fundamental für die Überlegungen, die Nietzsche in den 80er Jahern der Genealogie der moarlischen Werte und der zugehörigen Hierarchie der Menschen widmet. Indem es die vornehmste und ausgezeichnete Lebensform charakterisiert, stecht das Pathos der Distanz im Gegensatz zum Anspruch auf universelle gleichheit und allgemeingültige moralische Werte. Ein tieferer Aspekt des Pathos der Distanz liegt in der Transformation der selbsterfahrung und des immer neuren Ins-Gleichgewicht-Kommens der individuellen Kräfte und der Fähigkeiten. Die Auflösung der Kategorien der traditionellen Psychologie und Moral bringt eine Revision der Selbsterfahrung mit sich: Nietzsche veruscht, einen Parcours des Wiedererlemens zu formulieren, zu dessen Hauptwegen das Pathos der Distanz als affektives Phänomen der Selbstwahrnehmung zählt.Pathos der Distanz is a fundamental notion of Nietzsche's reflexions that he concluded in the 80s on the geneology of moral values and corresponding hierarchy of man. By characterising and distinguishing the most noble and excellent form of life, Pathos der Distanz is an objection to universal equality and opposes the universal validity of moral values. A deeper aspect to the valorization of Pathos der Distanz relates to the perspective of transformation of self-experience, to recalibration of individual powers and human capacities. The dissolution of the categories of traditional psychology and morality leads to a revision of self-experience: Nietzsche tries to provide a method of relearning, one of which is the affective phenomenon of self-perception of Pathos der Distanz. (shrink)

Drawing on philosophy, law and political science, and on a wealth of practical experience delivering emergency medical services in conflict-ridden settings, Lepora and Goodin untangle the complexities surrounding compromise and complicity.

After initially emerging in China, the coronavirus outbreak has advanced rapidly. The World Health Organization has recently declared it a pandemic, with Europe becoming its new epicentre. Italy has so far been the most severely hit European country and demand for critical care in the northern region currently exceeds its supply. This raises significant ethical concerns, among which is the allocation of scarce resources. Professionals are considering the prioritisation of patients most likely to survive over those with remote chances, and (...) this news has triggered an intense debate about the right of every individual to access healthcare. The proposed analysis suggests that the national emergency framework in which prioritisation criteria are currently enforced should not lead us to perceive scarce resources allocation as something new. From an ethical perspective, the novelty of the current emergency is not grounded in the devastating effects of scarce resources allocation, which is rife in recent and present clinical practice. Rather, it has to do with the extraordinarily high number of people who find themselves personally affected by the implications of scarce resources allocation and who suddenly realise that the principle of ‘equals should be treated equally’ may no longer be applicable. Along with the need to allocate appropriate additional financial resources to support the healthcare system, and thus to mitigate the scarcity of resources, the analysis insists on the relevance of a medical ethics perspective that does not place the burden of care and choice solely on physicians. (shrink)

The current situation around COVID-19 portrays a threat to us in several ways: It imposes uncertainty, a lack of control and reminds us of our own mortality. People around the world have reacted to these threats in seemingly unrelated ways: From stockpiling yeast and toilet paper to favoring nationalist ideas or endorsing conspiratorial beliefs. According to the General Process Model of Threat and Defense the confrontation with a threat - a discrepant experience - makes humans react with both proximal and (...) distal threat responses. While the proximal response manifests in behavioral inhibition that leads to heightened anxious arousal and vigilance, distal responses seek to lower behavioral inhibition and the associated state of anxiety and vigilance through engaging in distal defenses. In the present research, we propose that the reactions to COVID-19 may represent distal defense strategies to the pandemic (in the form of environmental or group related worldview defenses) and therefore can be explained and forecasted by the model. Thus we hypothesized increased perceived COVID-19 threat perception to lead to a proximal threat response in the form of heightened behavioral inhibition. This, in return, should enhance the use of distal defenses (i.e.: several ingroup biases, system justification and conspiratorial beliefs) overlapping with the reactions observed as a response to COVID-19. This hypothesized mediated effect of increased perceived COVID-19 threat on distal defenses was tested in two pre-registered studies: In Study 1 (N = 358) results showed perceived COVID-19 threat to be related to behavioral inhibition and in turn to be associated with increased distal defenses (i.e., higher entitativity, control restoration motivation, passive party support). In Study 2 (N = 348) we manipulated COVID-19 threat salience and found results suggesting the distal defenses of system justification and conspiratorial beliefs to be mediated by the proximal threat response. The results of the present research hint towards a common mechanism through which the seemingly unrelated reactions to COVID-19 can be explained. The results might help to predict future behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic and design measures to counteract detrimental effects of the pandemic. (shrink)

Medical complicity in torture is prohibited by international law and codes of professional ethics. But in the many countries in which torture is common, doctors frequently are expected to assist unethical acts that they are unable to prevent. Sometimes these doctors face a dilemma: they are asked to provide diagnoses or treatments that respond to genuine health needs but that also make further torture more likely or more effective. The duty to avoid complicity in torture then comes into conflict with (...) the doctor’s duty to care for patients. Sometimes the right thing for a doctor to do requires complicity in torture. Whether this is the case depends on: the expected consequences of the doctor’s actions; the wishes of the patient; and the extent of the doctor’s complicity with wrongdoing. Medical associations can support physicians who face this dilemma while maintaining a commitment to clear principles denouncing torture. (shrink)

Boredom, in cinema as well as in our everyday experience, is usually associated with a generalised loss of meaning or interest. Accordingly, boredom is often perceived as that which ought to be avo...

The first book of the De anima contains Aristotle’s psychological doxography. It is usually divided into two sections: the mere listing of the previous theories on the soul (I.2) and their critical examination (I.3–5). Despite such apparent neatness, various discrepancies emerge and the structure of the doxography remains obscure. To account for such problems and for the general agenda of the psychological doxography, I shall propose a tripartite model, arguing that Aristotle’s grouping of his predecessors’ theories is based on three (...) criteria (motion, cognition and incorporeality), all of which are to be referred back to one overarching criterion (primacy). After collecting some textual evidence in favour of this interpretation, I shall deal with an apparent difficulty faced by the suggested model, namely chapter 4. Based on the results thus reached, I conclude that the doxography of De anima i significantly contributes to the development of Aristotle’s own psychological theory and to defining its role within his wider philosophical project. (shrink)

Epicurus’ original version of atomism takes atoms to be physically indivisible but not completely unanalysable: each atom contains a finite number of minima. This paper explores the nature of the minima by focusing on a specific question: in which sense are the minima minimal? I do so by investigating the notions of parthood and divisibility into parts that are at play in paragraphs 56–59 of the Letter to Herodotus, where the theory of minima is introduced. By focusing on the analogy (...) (noticed by Francesco Verde) between Epicurean minima and Aristotelian limits, I argue that the minima should be understood as the minimal realiser of the atom’s physical functions. This allows me to keep together two very plausible but apparently incompatible claims: (i) the minima are supposed to block the paradoxes of theoretical divisibility, but (ii) their existence and their indivisibility can only be justified in physical (rather than geometrical) terms. (shrink)

Although the term “pre-predicative” (vorprädikativ) is used only two times in Being and Time, it qualifies in an essential way the hermeneutical process in which the existentials of understanding, interpretation and discourse cooperate to structure the phenomenal field into a meaningful horizon. This hermeneutical function represents for Heidegger the precondition for every theoretical-predicative behaviour of Dasein towards being. By means of a conceptual-historical analysis throughout the Twenties, it is possible to point out that Heidegger considers the domain of the pre-predicative (...) identical to the hermeneutical process. Nevertheless, on the basis of some indications that are to be found in Heidegger’s writings, we can trace the contours of a different history of the concept of “pre-predicative”, in which the latter hints at a deeper dimension of the human being – a dimension that can be designated as “pathic” or “prehermeneutical”. To this purpose, it is essential to investigate the concept of “pre-worldly” (vorweltlich), introduced by Heidegger in his first lecture course, his analysis of anxiety in 1929 and, finally, the image of the “great silence” (große Stille) in the later Contributions to Philosophy. (shrink)

In this paper I will present the idea of a phenomenology of the “pathic” by interpreting some passages of Heidegger’s lecture course of 1919, Being and Time and What is Metaphysics? The first part provides a critical discussion of the perspective of AldoMasullo, who denies not only that Heidegger really succeeded in fathoming the pathic sphere, but also that a phenomenology of the pathic in general is possible. In contrast, my purpose is to outline a phenomenology of the pathic in (...) two possible directions of investigation, both inspired by Heidegger. On the one hand, the phenomenology of the “pathic” intends to define the distinctive features of what Heidegger calls experience of the “preworld” (Vorwelt) and to specifically argue for its premeaningful character. On the other hand, this phenomenological approach aims at identifying the transcendental conditions of possibility for experiencing the “prewordly something”: in such a factical experience the hermeneutic capacities of the subject are temporarily suspended, so that the sole Befindlichkeit, understood as the primordial way of access to the phenomenal horizon, is still at work. (shrink)

This paper is an attempt to think through paranoia’s epistemic and affective features, which pervade both the worldview presented in Senecan tragedy and the inner life of many of its protagonists. Drawing upon recent literary-critical work, I argue that paranoia is temporally and epistemically ambivalent: subjects simultaneously attempt to “get ahead” of a looming cataclysm—looking to the future in an attempt to avert disaster—while inevitably “falling behind,” failing to predict or preempt the future in time to protect themselves. Much of (...) Senecan tragedy plays out paranoia’s future-oriented vigilance on the formal level. Foreshadowing, allusions, and meta-literary flourishes serve to render both readers and characters hyperaware of the earth-shattering horrors to come; however, in doing so, they also reveal that this forward-oriented bracing only serves to dredge up negative affect in advance. By contrast, I argue that Seneca’s Phoenissae thematizes in the character of Oedipus not only paranoia’s future-looking vigilance but also its inherent lagging, the failure to know and act in advance. These elements of slowness, stuckness, and delay open a space for stillness, relief, and intimacy, even within a narrative which hurtles toward cataclysm. (shrink)

There is a vast class of things that science has so far almost entirely neglected. They are central to the understanding of physical reality both at an everyday level and at the level of the most fundamental phenomena in physics, yet have traditionally been assumed to be impossible to incorporate into fundamental scientific explanations. They are facts not about what is--the actual--but about what could be: counterfactuals. According to physicist Chiara Marletto, laws about things being possible or impossible may (...) generate an alternative way of providing explanations. This fascinating, far-reaching approach holds promise for revolutionizing the way fundamental physics is formulated, but also for providing essential tools to face existing technological challenges, from delivering the next generation of information-processing devices, beyond the universal quantum computer, to designing AIs. Each chapter in the book delineates how an existing vexed open problem in science can be solved by this radically different approach; and it is augmented by short fictional stories that explicate the main point of the chapter. As Marletto demonstrates, contemplating what is possible can give us a more complete and hopeful picture of the physical world. (shrink)

Friedrich Albert Lange is usually regarded as a representative of physiological neo-Kantianism or as a forerunner of the Marburg school of neo-Kantianism. In this paper I try to reconstruct Lange’s theory of values to argue that his philosophy is better framed as an intermediate point in the development of the two-world theory (facts/values) between Hermann Lotze and Southwestern neo-Kantianism.

The exponential accumulation, processing and accrual of big data in healthcare are only possible through an equally rapidly evolving field of big data analytics. The latter offers the capacity to rationalize, understand and use big data to serve many different purposes, from improved services modelling to prediction of treatment outcomes, to greater patient and disease stratification. In the area of infectious diseases, the application of big data analytics has introduced a number of changes in the information accumulation models. These are (...) discussed by comparing the traditional and new models of data accumulation. Big data analytics is fast becoming a crucial component for the modelling of transmission—aiding infection control measures and policies—emergency response analyses required during local or international outbreaks. However, the application of big data analytics in infectious diseases is coupled with a number of ethical impacts. Four key areas are discussed in this paper: automation and algorithmic reliance impacting freedom of choice, big data analytics complexity impacting informed consent, reliance on profiling impacting individual and group identities and justice/fair access and increased surveillance and population intervention capabilities impacting behavioural norms and practices. Furthermore, the extension of big data analytics to include information derived from personal devices, such as mobile phones and wearables as part of infectious disease frameworks in the near future and their potential ethical impacts are discussed. Considered together, the need for a constructive and transparent inclusion of ethical questioning in this rapidly evolving field becomes an increasing necessity in order to provide a moral foundation for the societal acceptance and responsible development of the technological advancement. (shrink)

In this book, originally published in 2007, Chiara Bottici argues for a philosophical understanding of political myth. Bottici demonstrates that myth is a process, one of continuous work on a basic narrative pattern that responds to a need for significance. Human beings need meaning in order to master the world they live in, but they also need significance in order to live in a world that is less indifferent to them. This is particularly true in the realm of politics. (...) Political myths are narratives through which we orient ourselves, and act and feel about our political world. Bottici shows that in order to come to terms with contemporary phenomena, such as the clash between civilizations, we need a Copernican revolution in political philosophy. If we want to save reason, we need to look at it from the standpoint of myth. (shrink)

This paper focuses on a specific aspect of political imaginaries: political myth. What are political myths? What role do they play within today commoditised political imaginaries? What are the conditions for setting up a critique of them? We will address these questions, by putting forward a theory of political myth which situates itself between psychoanalysis and political philosophy, in line with the tradition of critical theory that many still associate with the name of the Frankfurt School. We will first discuss (...) the notion of political myth by illustrating the contribution of both disciplines to its understanding and then, through a discussion of the notion of social unconscious, we will apply this analysis to a contemporary example of political myth, that of a clash of civilisations. (shrink)

: Autonomous driving systems promise important changes for future of transport, primarily through the reduction of road accidents. However, ethical concerns, in particular, two central issues, will be key to their successful development. First, situations of risk that involve inevitable harm to passengers and/or bystanders, in which some individuals must be sacrificed for the benefit of others. Secondly, and identification responsible parties and liabilities in the event of an accident. Our work addresses the first of these ethical problems. We are (...) interested in investigating how humans respond to critical situations and what reactions they consider to be morally right or at least preferable to others. Our experimental approach relies on the trolley dilemma and knowledge gained from previous research on this. More specifically, our main purpose was to test the difference between what human drivers actually decide to do in an emergency situations whilst driving a realistic simulator and the moral choices they make when they pause to consider what they would do in the same situation and to better understand why these choices may differs. Keywords: Self-driving Cars; Trolley Problem; Moral Choices; Moral Responsibility; Virtual Reality Dilemmi morali nelle automobili a guida autonoma Riassunto: I sistemi di guida autonomi promettono importanti cambiamenti per il futuro dei trasporti, principalmente attraverso la riduzione degli incidenti stradali. Tuttavia, vi sono preoccupazioni etiche, in particolare due questioni centrali, fondamentali per il loro sviluppo. In primo luogo, le situazioni di rischio che comportano inevitabili danni ai passeggeri e/o ai pedoni, ovvero situazioni in cui alcune persone devono essere sacrificate a beneficio di altri. In secondo luogo, l’identificazione delle parti responsabili in caso di incidente. Il nostro lavoro affronta il primo di questi problemi etici. Siamo interessati a studiare come gli umani rispondono a situazioni critiche e quali reazioni considerano moralmente giuste o almeno preferibili. Il nostro approccio sperimentale si basa sul trolley problem e sulle conoscenze acquisite da precedenti ricerche su questo ambito. Più specificamente, il nostro scopo principale è quello di testare la differenza tra ciò che i conducenti umani decidono effettivamente di fare in una situazione di emergenza, mentre guidano un simulatore realistico, e le scelte morali che compiono se posti nella stessa situazione e hanno la possibilità di decidere senza limiti di tempo. Lo scopo è inoltre comprendere come e perché queste scelte possono differire. Parole chiave: Automobili a guida autonoma; Trolley problem; Scelte morali; Responsabilità morale, Realtà virtuale. (shrink)

We develop an account of how mutually inconsistent models of the same target system can provide coherent information about the system. Our account makes use of ideas from the debate surrounding rob...

Friedrich Albert Lange was a neo-Kantian and a socialist. Scholars have questioned whether there is a connection between these two aspects of Lange’s work. The paper argues that such a connection is apparent once Lange’s philosophy is understood in light of Schiller’s Kantianism. According to Lange, Schiller’s aesthetic redemption consists of two tasks: to create the beautiful image of an ideal reality; and to realize this ideal model in the actual world. Accordingly, I show that Lange’s political analysis points to (...) three different types of social evolution: 1) one corresponding to the natural state of humanity, based on Darwin’s and Malthus’s concept of the struggle for survival; 2) one corresponding to ideal evolution, in which all human beings achieve full development of their talents (first task of the esthetic redemption); 3) one corresponding to the actual realization of this ideal, in which human beings advance step by step thanks to social experimentation and the resulting progress in knowledge (second task of esthetic redemption). (shrink)

Displacing the physiological model that had held sway in 19th-century medical thinking, early 20th-century hormone research promoted an understanding of the body and sexual desires in which variations in sex characteristics and non-reproductive sexual behaviours such as homosexuality were attributed to anomalies in the internal secretions produced by the testes or the ovaries. Biotypology, a new brand of medical science conceived and led by the Italian endocrinologist Nicola Pende, employed hormone research to study human types and hormone treatments to normalise (...) individuals who did not conform to accepted medical norms. Latin American medical doctors, eugenicists, and sexologists took up biotypology with enthusiasm. This article considers the case studies of Italy, Argentina, and Brazil, and analyses the work of medical doctors who adopted a biotypological mode of reasoning and employed to various extents hormone therapies in their practice. By focusing on hormone therapies that aimed to normalise secondary sexual characteristics and the sexual instinct, the article suggests that while the existence of normality was contested to the point that a number of medical scientists argued that no such thing existed, the pursuit of normality was carried out in very practical terms through the new medical technologies hormone research had introduced. (shrink)

This study analyses for the first time whether and when moral distress may be related to work-family conflict and burnout. Additionally, this study examines whether resilience and positive refocusing might protect healthcare professionals from the negative effects of moral distress. A total of 153 Italian healthcare professionals completed self-report questionnaires. Simple and moderated mediation models revealed that moral distress was positively related to burnout, directly and indirectly, as mediated by work-family conflict. Highly resilient professionals experienced low work-family conflict, regardless of (...) moral distress levels. Moreover, professionals who frequently used positive refocusing were less vulnerable to burnout following moral distress. (shrink)

In this chapter, I will present an empirical conjecture to the effect that some bodily actions are categorically perceived. These are bodily actions such as grasping or reaching for something, which I am going to call motor actions. My conjecture builds on one recently put forward about how the categorical perception of facial expressions of some emotions works. I shall motivate my own conjecture on the basis of both theoretical and empirical considerations, describe how it could be operationalised and what (...) explanatory gain could be obtained from it. (shrink)

In the philosophy of science and epistemology literature, robustness analysis has become an umbrella term that refers to a variety of strategies. One of the main purposes of this paper is to argue that different strategies rely on different criteria for justifications. More specifically, I will claim that: i) robustness analysis differs from de-idealization even though the two concepts have often been conflated in the literature; ii) the comparison of different model frameworks requires different justifications than the comparison of models (...) that differ only for the assumption under test; iii) the replacement of specific assumptions with different ones can encounter specific difficulties in scientific practice. These claims will be supported by a case study in population ecology and a case study in geographical economics. (shrink)

Objective: Quality of Life is an important predictor of patient's recovery and survival in lung cancer patients. The aim of the present study is to identify 1-year trends of lung cancer patients' QoL after robot-assisted or traditional lobectomy and investigate whether clinical and sociodemographic variables may predict these trends.Methods: An Italian sample of 176 lung cancer patients undergoing lobectomy completed the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire—Core 30 at the pre-hospitalization, 30 days, 4 months, (...) 8 months, and 12 months after surgery. Sociodemographic and clinical characteristics were also collected. The individual change over time of the 15 dimensions of the EORTC QLQ-C30 and the effects of pre-surgery scores of QoL dimensions, type of surgery, perioperative complications, and age on patients' QoL after surgery were studied with the individual growth curve models.Results: Patients had a good recovery after lobectomy: functioning subscales improved over time, while most of the symptoms became less severe over the care process. Perioperative complications, type of surgery, pre-surgery status, and age significantly affected these trends, thus becoming predictors of patients' QoL.Conclusion: This study highlights different 1-year trends of lung cancer patients' QoL. The measurement of pre- and post-surgery QoL and its clinical and sociodemographic covariables would be necessary to better investigate patients' care process and implement personalized medicine in lung cancer hospital divisions. (shrink)