This article contributes to the environmental justice debate by analysing the case of the ILVA steel plant in Taranto, Italy. It accounts for the radical polarisation of the public debate between industrialists and environmentalists. These dominant perspectives are polarised but not politicised. In the reading of the crisis, both fronts adopt similar techno-scientific arguments while failing to problematise the multiple dimensions of environmental injustice and to connect the crisis to broader social relations of production. This article contends, therefore, that the (...) environmental debate in Taranto unfolds in a post-political situation, where technical narratives prevail at the expense of more political positions. In this context, any attempts to politicise the public debate is either absorbed by the dominant views or marginalised. (shrink)

This article analyzes the encounter story of Paul and Lydia (Acts 16:13-15) as a concrete example of the practice of reciprocal gift exchange. The exchange of “gifts” between the two took place when Paul preached the Christian faith and baptized Lydia, and she reciprocated by giving Paul a ride. This study employs a social science approach by taking a repertoire of gift exchanges from the ancient Greco-Roman world to be applied to this story, and biblical studies for interpretation. From (...) the repertoire of exchanges available, we chose χάρις to apply to this story. The concept of χάρις reflects a reciprocal exchange that involves two actions at once, namely the giving of a “gift” and the receiving of it with gratitude in return. The reciprocal gift exchange between Paul and Lydia shows that a gift demands a response (reciprocity). However, the reciprocal exchange between the two was not exploitative, as it took place within the framework of Christ’s χάρις. Through the gift of Christ’s χάρις, they concretely share χάρις with one another. In this context, Paul and Lydia not only demonstrated their identity as followers of Christ but also strengthened their bonds as brothers and sisters. Abstrak Artikel ini menganalisa kisah pertemuan Paulus dan Lidia (Kis. 16:13-15) sebagai sebuah contoh konkret dari praktik pertukaran hadiah atau pemberian timbal balik. Pertukaran “hadiah” antara keduanya terjadi ketika Paulus mengajarkan iman Kristen dan membaptis Lidia, dan Lidia membalasnya dengan memberikan tumpangan kepada Paulus. Studi ini menggunakan pendekatan ilmu sosial dengan memakai repertoar pertukaran hadiah atau pemberian timbal balik dari tradisi dunia Yunani-Romawi kuno untuk diterapkan dalam penafsiran biblis. Dari repertoar pertukaran yang tersedia, studi ini memilih χάρις untuk diterapkan dalam kisah tersebut. Konsep χάρις mencerminkan pertukaran timbal balik yang melibatkan dua tindakan sekaligus, yakni pemberian “hadiah” dan penerimaan dengan rasa syukur sebagai balasannya. Pertukaran hadiah timbal balik antara Paulus dan Lidia menunjukkan bahwa sejatinya sebuah pemberian menuntut tanggapan (resiprositas). Namun pertukaran timbal balik antara keduanya tidak bersifat eksploitatif, karena terjadi dalam bingkai χάρις Kristus. Melalui pemberian χάρις Kristus, mereka secara konkret berbagi χάρις terhadap satu sama lain. Dalam konteks ini, Paulus dan Lidia tidak hanya menunjukkan identitas mereka sebagai pengikut Kristus, tetapi juga memperkuat ikatan mereka sebagai saudara seiman. Kata-kata kunci: Paul, Lidya, χάρις, pertukaran timbal-balik, Kis 16: 13-15, budaya Yunani-Romawi. (shrink)

Transformations are not only conditioned by facts encompassing narrower or wider panoramas: from concentrating on death and one (political) role (the ode of Horace), through recalling Cleopatra’s mature life and love (the drama of Shakespeare), to creating an image embracing the heroine’s whole life with its numerous roles, but as a mother and a daughter in the first place, because even her lovers resemble a father and a child (the fictional biography of Karen Essex). Above all, they appear to be (...) more connected with different attitudes towards universal references lying within human cognitive abilities. Horace’s didactic opposition of contradictory patterns leads to the victory of one of them — and it is a linear pattern, as an equivalent of modern myth, which is accepted by the author himself. In Shakespeare, it takes a form of tragedy resulting from the fragmentary character of each pattern, one of which introduces change (archaic myth) and the other constancy (modern myth), and from a painful attempt to combine them. In Essex, the vision of the world in which archaic myth, strongly represented by a child, triumphs is utopian. Irrespective of the differences, all the works realize the essential role played by images developed by heroes, and especially by authors, in human cognition. (shrink)

The COVID-19 pandemic and its related policies (e.g., stay at home and social distancing orders) have increased people’s use of digital technology, such as social media. Researchers have, in turn, utilized artificial intelligence to analyze social media data for public health surveillance. For example, through machine learning and natural language processing, they have monitored social media data to examine public knowledge and behavior. This paper explores the ethical considerations of using artificial intelligence to monitor social media to understand the public’s (...) perspectives and behaviors surrounding COVID-19, including potential risks and benefits of an AI-driven approach. Importantly, investigators and ethics committees have a role in ensuring that researchers adhere to ethical principles of respect for persons, beneficence, and justice in a way that moves science forward while ensuring public safety and confidence in the process. (shrink)

Section 1 articulates a genus‐species claim: that knowledge is a kind of success from ability. Equivalently: In cases of knowledge, S’s success in believing the truth is attributable to S’s ability. That idea is then applied to questions about the nature and value of knowledge. Section 2 asks what it would take to turn the genus‐species claim into a proper theory of knowledge; that is, into informative, necessary and sufficient conditions. That question is raised in the context of an important (...) line of objection against even the genus‐species claim; namely, that there is no way to understand the attribution relation so that it does all the work that it is supposed to do. Section 3 reviews several extant proposals for understanding the attribution relation, and argues that none of them are adequate for answering the objection. Section 4 proposes a different way of understanding the relation, and shows how the resulting view does resolve the objection. Section 5 completes the new account by proposing a way to understand intellectual abilities. Section 6 briefly addresses Barn Façade cases and lottery propositions. Section 7 briefly addresses a question about the scope of knowledge; in particular, it shows how the new view allows a neo‐Moorean response to skepticism. (shrink)

Starting symbolically from a place of transit and mobility such as the Galleria in Naples, I look at the pace of immigration movements to Italy from both ex-colonial territories and other countries. Precarity characterizes the migrant condition in Italy: entrance and stay permits; work and housing, which are difficult to obtain and always temporary; bureaucratic control is severe and the right to citizenship is distant. The collective amnesia of the colonial enterprise obscures the fact that at least some of the (...) guests of today were the hosts of yesterday. I analyse these, and other aspects, in the literature of migration that in recent decades has emerged in Italy, focusing on women's writing and confronting the problem of how long it will take for this literature to receive recognition in the Italian literary canon. In women's narratives, precarity emerges in the journey of emigration, described as a real odyssey; in tensions over identity and language; in contrasting cultures of departure and cultures of destination; in the problematic concept of ‘home’. Racial and gender differences subsumed in the colour of skin are a recurrent motif. For women, hardships may be more deeply felt: isolation and loneliness is augmented by the distance from children and family; the relationship between past and present more troublesome as it often leads to a double oppression. independence is more fiercely fought for in the affirmation of identity. Finally, I show that, alongside conditions of isolation and despair, strength and hope in the new life emerge from these writings, touching on the importance of writing in Italian and on the motives leading to this choice. (shrink)

El objetivo del presente estudio es describir dos experiencias de implementaci ó n de un programa de intervenci ó n dirigido a j ó venes y adolescentes españoles y dominicanos. El programa se desarrolla mediante la estrategia de gamificaci ó n a travé s del videojuego "Aislados" que contribuye al desarrollo del aprendizaje social y emocional. Se comparan las experiencias, incluyendo los resultados de autopercepci ó n en ambos contextos.

A influência da família no desenvolvimento da criança e do adolescente é um foco importante de pesquisa atualmente. Para estudar a relação entre a interação familiar e a auto-estima de adolescentes, 111 alunos (13 e 14 anos), de três escolas particulares de Porto União (SC) responderam a Escala de A..

In this article the author will present various links between business and ethics. The idea of responsibility, used to describe legal, economic and ethical aspects, forms the main, unifying thread. The author uses it to analyze three aspects of human activity. The first, subjective, concerns self-responsibility, where individuals are striving to satisfy their needs and to achieve happiness. The second, the encounter with the Other, embraces two meanings: responsibility for and towards the Other. The third, social, extends the idea of (...) responsibility onto the historical community we belong to. The idea of co-responsibility is not confined to our life span but it embraces future generations as well. The author will pinpoint an important element in creating the foundations of a given community, i.e. regulations that form its basis, especially the principle of justice, encompassing the distribution of goods. Many contemporary authors underline this ethical, political and economic aspect (Rawls, communitarians, Ricoeur, Habermas). The main thesis the author would like to substantiate is as follows: in business activities the ethical conduct of the individual is not sufficient. It needs to be broadened to encompass other perspectives because contemporary societies are based on the idea of co-responsibility inhabiting many dimensions. (shrink)

The Green Revolution is often seen as epitomising the dawn of scientific and technological advancement and modernity in the agricultural sector across developing countries, a process that unfolded from the 1940s through to the 1980s. Despite the time that has elapsed, this episode of the past continues to resonate today, and still shapes the institutions and practices of agricultural science and technology. In Brazil, China, and India, narratives of science-led agricultural transformations portray that period in glorifying terms—entailing pressing national imperatives, (...) unprecedented achievements, and heroic individuals or organizations. These “epic narratives” draw on the past to produce meaning and empower the actors that deploy them. Epic narratives are reproduced over time and perpetuate a conviction about the heroic power of science and technology in agricultural development. By crafting history and cultivating a sense of scientific nationalism, exceptionalism, and heritage, these epic narratives sustain power-knowledge relations in agricultural science and technology, which are underpinned by a hegemonic modernization paradigm. Unravelling the processes of assemblage and reproduction of epic narratives helps us make sense of how science and technology actors draw on their subjective representations of the past to assert their position in the field at present. This includes making claims about their credentials to envision and deliver sustainable solutions for agriculture into the future. (shrink)

In response to the paper by Cotnoir and Bacon published in RSL 2/2012, we would like to add some remarks regarding supplementation principles. It is known that in a classical mereology, the Strong Supplementation Principle (SSP) together with antisymmetry enforces the Weak Supplementation Principle (WSP). Instead, in the nonwellfounded mereology, the failure of extensionality causes the failure of antisymmetry (Cotnoir, 2010), hence the investigated model is also nonantisymmetric. Cotnoir supposes that the failure of antisymmetry implies the failure of (WSP) when (...) (PP1) is applied, however gives no explicit argument, which we would like to supply in this paper. Additionally, when (PP2) is applied, (SSP) implies (WSP), hence the failure of antisymmetry does not necessarily imply the failure of (WSP). (shrink)

Como propiciar um estado permanente de criação filosófica no ensino da Filosofia entre os estudantes do Ensino Superior? Eis o objetivo deste artigo. Essa questão está previamente acompanhada por dois argumentos: um deles relativo ao fato de que o ensino prevê uma atitude de abertura, disposição e curiosidade, condições essas indispensáveis à aprendizagem. O segundo, decorrente do primeiro, é que o ensino de Filosofia está intimamente vinculado à natureza própria da Filosofia que, distante da busca pela verdade como afirmação ou (...) detenção de um saber, resulta da experiência de alguém que é perguntado pela verdade, em certa atitude que se expressa no “cuidado de si mesmo” conduzindo a uma transformação, como vem apresentado por Michel Foucault em sua obra “A Hermenêutica do Sujeito”. Argumentaremos que o filosofar pode ser intensificado pela arte e, nesse aspecto, iremos estabelecer relações entre experiência filosófica e música como paisagem sonora. Essa conexão estimula entre os alunos a construção de realidades materiais e imateriais – paisagens – de modo que habitem seu universo de memórias afetivas, intelectuais, poéticas, musicais e filosóficas. Em sintonia com essa forma de pensar, será apresentado o conceito de pensamento-sentimento desenvolvido pela filósofa portuguesa Paula Cristina Pereira, que exibe grande fecundidade na direção do acesso às matrizes fundantes de nossa condição antropológica existencial. Nesse diálogo entre filosofia e música, escuta musical e experiência filosófica suscitam-se possibilidades para um ensino de filosofia habitado pelo sensível e pelos sentidos da vida em tempos tão difíceis como na atualidade, porque extremamente fugazes, dispersos, “líquidos” e carentes de densidade e dignidade humana. Palavras-chave: Ensino de Filosofia. Filosofia e Educação. Arte e Filosofia. Paisagem Sonora. Pensamento-Sentimento. (shrink)

Developmental Task Attainment in Adolescents from Families with a Recovering Alcoholic or Active Alcoholic Father The problem under consideration is the issue of adolescent developmental tasks in families with alcohol-related problems, especially in families which contain one or more treated alcoholics. In the present work it was hypothesised that the treatment of alcoholic fathers would be one of the more important protective factors in families coping with alcoholism. The participants of the study included 91 children, aged 17-18. The research sample (...) was comprised of three groups: 31 children of active alcoholics, 30 children of treated alcoholics, and 30 children of non-alcoholic parents. In general, the results of the study highlight the roles of temperament and parenting practices in the progress of developmental tasks. The data revealed that family characteristics were correlated to the predictors of these tasks. The groups used in the study were differed according to the factors of their developmental tasks. (shrink)

Mentalization is a form of social cognition that enables to perceive and interpret human behaviour in terms of intentional mental states and is influenced by social context. Hence, we examined mentalization related to specific attachment relationships. This study involved 115 participants who reported their relationship-specific and global attachment styles, and perspective-taking tendency towards their attachment figures. Reading the Mind in the Eyes Task-Revised was used as a proxy for mentalization disregarding relationships. The results showed that perspective-taking was associated with relationship-specific (...) attachment avoidance whereas global characteristics of mentalization were not related to attachment quality. Our findings indicate that the link between attachment quality and mentalization is relationship-specific. (shrink)

Multiple sclerosis significantly affects how patients maintain the resources they consider important. The aim of this paper is to describe the moderation effect of time since diagnosis on the evaluation of resources by patients with multiple sclerosis, on the basis of S.E. Hobfoll’s Conservation of Resources theory. The study was conducted using paper and pencil methods and involved 77 patients, of whom 32 received their diagnosis less than four years ago, and 45 more than four years ago. The patients’ resource (...) evaluation was investigated using the Polish adaptation of the COR questionnaire. Patients who received their diagnosis more than four years ago were more likely to consider vital and spiritual resources to be more important. In patients diagnosed less than four years ago, the loss of economic, political, and vital resources was significant. It is shown moderation effect of time since diagnosis. The results may for the basis for further research. (shrink)

The second major thesis of the book follows closely on the first: that the analysis of skeptical arguments is philosophically useful and important, and should therefore have a central role in the methodology of philosophy, and especially in the methodology of epistemology. A close analysis of skeptical arguments highlights our pre-theoretically plausible, but ultimately mistaken, assumptions about the nature of knowledge and evidence. Skeptical arguments are powerful just because their assumptions are so plausible pre-theoretically. But the arguments show us where (...) those assumptions lead, and thereby force us to rethink those assumptions. On this view, skeptical arguments constitute theoretical problems rather than practical problems. There is no “practical” or “existential” problem of skepticism. Rather, skeptical arguments show us that we need to rethink our assumptions about knowledge and evidence, and replace them with something better. (shrink)

Components of artificial intelligence (AI) for analysing social big data, such as natural language processing (NLP) algorithms, have improved the timeliness and robustness of health data. NLP techniques have been implemented to analyse large volumes of text from social media platforms to gain insights on disease symptoms, understand barriers to care and predict disease outbreaks. However, AI-based decisions may contain biases that could misrepresent populations, skew results or lead to errors. Bias, within the scope of this paper, is described as (...) the difference between the predictive values and true values within the modelling of an algorithm. Bias within algorithms may lead to inaccurate healthcare outcomes and exacerbate health disparities when results derived from these biased algorithms are applied to health interventions. Researchers who implement these algorithms must consider when and how bias may arise. This paper explores algorithmic biases as a result of data collection, labelling and modelling of NLP algorithms. Researchers have a role in ensuring that efforts towards combating bias are enforced, especially when drawing health conclusions derived from social media posts that are linguistically diverse. Through the implementation of open collaboration, auditing processes and the development of guidelines, researchers may be able to reduce bias and improve NLP algorithms that improve health surveillance. (shrink)

The new system of axioms we propose is based on the foundational theory of De Giorgi et al. Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, Preprints di Matematica 26: 1 (1996) slightly modified. In that paper (which is dedicated to a new axiomatic framework for mathematics, informatics and logic) the authors use two kinds of primitive notions: relations and qualities. Since their system is based on the distribution paradigm, they start from distinction. We propose to shift the perspective and to start from (...) unity and then from within unity to pass to distinction; to this end we apply ideas of Lesniewski, Nijhoff International Philosophy Series 44 (1992). We introduce only one kind of entity as a primitive notion, namely relations, and treat qualities as articulations of relations. The new concept of "primary relation" permits the introduction of a dynamic, non-standard form of identity, which we hope will find application in various fields where self-referential structures are required. (shrink)

Wird die Verbindung von Materie und Form, Begrifflichkeit und Sinnlichkeit, von Sinnlichem und Unsinnlichem zum Problem, so geistert in der Geschichte der Philosophie seit der Antike der Begriff des Schemas herum und ist auch heutzutage etwa in Theorien der Verkörperung zentral. Während Kant das Schema als Bedingung der Bedeutungsentstehung versteht und in kritischer Absicht von Bildern, Zeichen und Symbolen abgrenzt, ordnen Maimon, Hamann, Herder, Hegel und später Plessner dem Schematismus sinnliche und sprachliche Prozesse einer Morphogenese zu. Diese Revisionen geben Anlass (...) zu einer neuen Theorie des Schematismus, in welcher der Versinnlichung der Status einer transzendentalen Bedingung der Verkörperung zukommt. So verstanden hat Versinnlichung als systematischer Kern der aktuellen Sprach- und Erkenntnistheorie zu gelten. (shrink)

The authors investigate the contemporary idea of noosphere (the conceptual and ideological basis for considering the coming ecological crisis). The authors arrive at the conclusion that the concept of human plays the central role in ecology as all the ecological problems rest upon the problem of mankind’s moral imperative. Therefore the authors claim, applying among others Vernadsky’s views, that the idea of human in the field of ecology should be today revised.