Mirror neurons may play a role in representing not only signs but also their meaning. Because actions are the only aspect of behavior that are inter-individually accessible, interpreting meanings in terms of actions might explain how meanings can be shared. Behavioral evidence and artificial life simulations suggest that seeing objects or processing words referring to objects automatically activates motor actions.

Several attempts, which have recently tried to empower again the philosophical crossing between phenomenology and hermeneutics, call for a re-examination of the main topics and themes at stake in such a project, which has dominated in many ways part of the 20th Century Continental Philosophy. However, given such a perspective, what I would like to show in the following essay is that, far from insisting again on the primacy of the thought of an author like Hans-Georg Gadamer, it could be (...) of higher suitability to address the thought of another philosopher: Paul Ricoeur. Particularly, by reconsidering the main steps of his phenomenological- hermeneutical project, I would like to stress how Ricoeur’s philosophy, in comparison to Gadamer’s approach, is not only able to display a larger spectrum of confrontations, but also a stronger theoretical structure, which has its pivotal point in the notion of an interpretative deconstruction of the titanic subject through the appropriative mediation of the narrative text. (shrink)

In this article I intend to trace and discuss a contradiction, which – I believe – lies in Arendt’s thought: the one between her concept of plurality and her concept of power. In a more specific way, I will argue that Arendt, by admitting only an intransitive understanding of power, betrays her vision of plurality, as this one cannot exclude a transitive conception of power. Furthermore, I will try to detect how this same contradiction reflects itself in another topical place (...) of Arendt’s thought, i.e. her critical opposition to political representation. Here the direction of my arguing can be expressed by a simple question: isn’t maybe representation a much more adequate way to correspond plurality than Arendt’s tendency to acclaim an aggregative and quasi-organic collective participation? (shrink)

In questo testo desidero discutere da un’ottica strutturale il punto di consistenza della differenza tra paradigma del multiculturalismo e paradigma dell’interculturalità. Il primo esprime se stesso come differenziazione tra ordini culturali, che prevede comunque la presenza di un ordine o di un meta-ordine globale, il quale governa, in qualità di fondamento universale, lo svolgersi della coesistenza. Il secondo nega proprio questa possibilità, prevedendo come unica strada percorribile il lavoro contingente e situazionale di “traduzione” da un ordine culturale a un altro. (...) Questo testo si propone di valutare proprio le ragioni in base alle quali del paradigma dell’interculturalità possa essere un candidato migliore per illuminare, ma anche per sottoporre a critica, la struttura titanica della globalizzazione. (shrink)

Georg Ernst Stahl is one of the most outstanding physicians and naturalists of the so‐called Frühaufklärung in Germany. His scientific, philosophical, and ideological influence was deep and widespread in almost all the German states. As a professor at the University of Halle, the First Royal Physician in Berlin, and president of the Higher Medical Board of Prussia, he created a Stahlian school of medicine and chemistry, shaping some branches of medical thought, as well as of pure and applied chemistry. In (...) the history of chemistry his name is generally associated with the theory of phlogiston, and in the history of medicine he is described as a vitalist. (shrink)

إنّ الإنسان يستطيع أن يتجرّد من كلّ شيء إلا من نفسه التي هي عماد شخصيته وأساس ذاته، وإذا كانت الحقائق الكونية والمعارف المتنوعة تصل إلينا بالوساطة، فهناك حقيقة واحدة ندركها إدراكًا مباشرًا، ولا نشكّ فيها لحظة؛ لأن عملها دائمًا يشهد بوجودها، ألا وهي النفس، فالتفكير هو الدليل القاطع على وجود النفس. فَجُلّ اهتمام ابن سينا كان إثبات حقيقة مغايرة للجسم ومتميّزة عنه كلّ التميز، ولكي يثبت وجود هذه الحقيقة اعتمد على بعض الظواهر التي لا يمكن تفسيرها تفسيرًا ماديًّا، ورأى أنها (...) تستلزم قوة كامنة ومبدأ خفيًا هو النفس. يجيب هذا الكتاب عن الأسئلة الآتية، كما هي في فلسفة ابن سينا المنتشرة في كتبه الفلسفية: ما حقيقة الإنسان؟ وما الغاية من وجوده؟ ما تصوُّر ابن سينا للنفس؟ من أين جاءت النفس؟ وما علاقتها بالبدن؟ وما مصيرها بعد موت الإنسان؟ ما علاقة الإنسان بالله، والكون، والآخر في المجتمع؟ ما مسؤولية الإنسان؟ وما حدود هذه المسؤولية؟ كيف يُحقّق الإنسانُ سعادته؟. (shrink)

One of the difficulties nurses experience in clinical practice in relation to ethical issues in connection with young oncology patients is moral distress. In this descriptive correlational study, the Moral Distress Scale-Paediatric Version (MDS-PV) was translated from the original language and tested on a conventional sample of nurses working in paediatric oncology and haematology wards, in six north paediatric hospitals of Italy. 13.7% of the total respondents claimed that they had changed unit or hospital due to moral distress. The items (...) with the highest mean intensity in the sample were almost all connected with medical and nursing competence and have considerably higher values than frequency. The instrument was found to be reliable. The results confirmed the validity of the MDS-PV (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.959). This study represents the first small-scale attempt to validate MDS-PV for use in paediatric oncology-ematology nurses in Italy. (shrink)

ABSTRACTGrounded in Emotional Cascade Theory, we explored whether rumination and multisensory imagery-based cognitions moderated the relationships between affect and both odds of non-suicidal self-injury, and frequency of the behaviour. A sample of 393 university students completed self-report questionnaires assessing the constructs of interest. Contrary to expectations, rumination did not emerge as a significant moderator of the affect-NSSI relationship. However, the relationship between affect and frequency of NSSI was moderated by the use of imagery. Further, the relationship between negative affect and (...) NSSI was moderated by positive affect, underscoring the need to consider both negative and positive affect in models of NSSI. Most youth who self-injured reported thinking in images while the urge to self-injure was strong, with 53% thinking in images at least half the time. Future work is needed to explore how positive and negative affect work in concert to govern NSSI, and how imagery might eit... (shrink)

BackgroundTitles and abstracts are the most read sections of biomedical papers. It is therefore important that abstracts transparently report both the beneficial and adverse effects of health care interventions and do not mislead the reader. Misleading reporting, interpretation, or extrapolation of study results is called “spin”. In this study, we will assess whether adverse effects of orthodontic interventions were reported or considered in the abstracts of both Cochrane and non-Cochrane reviews and whether spin was identified and what type of spin.MethodsEligibility (...) criteria were defined for the type of study designs, participants, interventions, outcomes, and settings. We will include systematic reviews of clinical orthodontic interventions published in the five leading orthodontic journals and in the Cochrane Database. Empty reviews will be excluded. We will manually search eligible reviews published between 1 August 2009 and 31 July 2019. Data collection forms were developed a priori. All study selection and data extraction procedures will be conducted by two reviewers independently. Our main outcomes will be the prevalence of reported or considered adverse effects of orthodontic interventions in the abstract of systematic reviews and the prevalence of “spin” related to these adverse effects. We will also record the prevalence of three subtypes of spin, i.e., misleading reporting, misleading interpretation, and misleading extrapolation-related spin. All statistics will be calculated for the following groups: (1) all journals individually, (2) all journals together, and (3) the five leading orthodontic journals and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews separately. Generalized linear models will be developed to compare the various groups.DiscussionWe expect that our results will raise the awareness of the importance of reporting and considering of adverse effects and the presence of the phenomenon of spin related to these effects in abstracts of systematic reviews of orthodontic interventions. This is important, because an incomplete and inadequate reporting, interpretation, or extrapolation of findings on adverse effects in abstracts of systematic reviews can mislead readers and could lead to inadequate clinical practice. Our findings could result in policy implications for making judgments about the acceptance for publication of systematic reviews of orthodontic interventions. (shrink)

ABSTRACTThe discursive analysis of criminal organizations’ family dynamics and ideological devices may provide important insights into the inner functioning of these groups. In this article, we describe and analyze a specific set of discursive strategies and the thematic narratives emerging from a TV interview with Giuseppe Riina, a member of Cosa Nostra and the son of one of the most important mafia bosses. Our analyses demonstrate the existence of recurring ideological devices such as reductionism, amoralism, familism, verticalism, normalism, victimism and (...) religious relativism. The results are discussed in light of previous research that examines how discursive strategies and narratives may represent powerful tools for understanding criminal organizations. Family-related discourses, in particular, reveal meanings, values and ideas that contribute to constructing criminal organizations’ internal structure, as well as their relationship with the external world. (shrink)

Philosophy; philosophical theology; philosophical anthropology; history.