Antropologia do espaço, de Filomena Silvano, é umlivro comvocaçãomarcadamente didáctica, mas que constitui uma notável síntese (deveríamos dizer ummapa?) de uma disciplina (a antropologia) que tem vindo a ganhar (pelos motivos que Jameson enunciava) uma.

Two experiments, one on school-aged children and one on adults, explored the mechanisms underlying responses to an image prime followed by graspable objects that were, in certain cases, dangerous. Participants were presented with different primes and objects representing two risk levels . The task required that a natural/artifact categorization task be performed by pressing different keys. In both adults and children graspable objects activated a facilitating motor response, while dangerous objects evoked aversive affordances, generating an interference-effect. Both children and adults (...) were sensitive to the distinction between biological and non-biological hands, however detailed resonant mechanisms related to the hand-prime gender emerged only in adults. Implications for how the concept of “dangerous object” develops and the relationship between resonant mechanisms and perception of danger are discussed. (shrink)

Post-Gibson attempts to set out a definition of affordance generally agree that this notion can be understood as a property of the environment with salience for an organism’s behavior. According to this view, some scholars advocate the idea that affordances are dispositional properties of physical objects that, given suitable circumstances, necessarily actualize related actions. This paper aims at assessing this statement in light of a theory of affordance perception. After years of discontinuity between strands of empirical and theoretical research, the (...) time is ripe for addressing the question of whether the dispositional interpretation of affordance is in accordance with some recent evidence from cognitive science and neuroscience. Following this line, I clarify that there are some cases of affordance-related effects that neither require the actualization of an action, nor the presence of an action-related property bearer in the environment, and that the identification of affordance with physical properties provides only a partial explanation of the wide range of affordance-related effects. Accordingly, I argue in favor of a more general account of affordance perception based on the ability to directly detect perceptual patterns in the environment. (shrink)

The use of robots had already been proven to encourage the promotion of social interaction and skills lacking in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders, who typically have difficulties in recognizing facial expressions and emotions. The main goal of this research is to study the influence of a humanoid robot to develop socio-emotional skills in children with ASD. The children’s performance in game scenarios aiming to develop facial expressions recognition skills is presented. Along the sessions, children who performed the game scenarios (...) with the robot and the experimenter had a significantly better performance than the children who performed the game scenarios without the robot. The main conclusions of this research support that a humanoid robot is a useful tool to develop socio-emotional skills in the intervention of children with ASD, due to the engagement and positive learning outcome observed. (shrink)

This essay aims to show that the concept of landscape does not indicate something static or well-defined in the physical world but is rather the result of a process deriving from our being embodied in the world. Landscape is embodied cognition produced by our subjectivity, which, in turn, constantly hybridises the relationship between inside and outside. The key point, therefore, is to grasp and problematise the interaction between landscape and mindscape. However, this relationship would not be complete without also taking (...) into account the fact that we are integrated in an environment and analysing the fact that we live in an acted environment: our actions are decisive for understanding the environment beginning from the very perception we have of it. Indeed, this perception it itself a true founding act. The specific nature of the walkscape thus allows us to take this dynamic aspect of our relationship with the environment into account before grasping the last fundamental element for achieving a complete understanding of the problem: the currently ongoing transformation that brings us to be immersed not only in natural environments, but also in new digital environments. Taken together, therefore, the concepts of landscape, mindscape and walkscape allow us to clarify the theoretical implications of our being part of an integrated system together with the environment, be it natural or digital. (shrink)

Radical Enactivism holds that the best explanation of basic forms of cognition is provided without involving information of any sort. According to this view, the ability to perceive visual affordances should be accounted for in terms of extensional covariations between variables spanning the agent’s body and the environment. Contrary to Radical Enactivism, I argue that the intensional properties of cognition cannot be ignored, and that the way in which an agent represents the world has consequences on the explanation of basic (...) sensorimotor abilities. To support this claim, I show that the perception of visual affordances is not segregated from higher forms of cognition; rather, it is modulated by the agent’s ability to recognize the semantic identity of the visual target. Accordingly, since the semantic recognition of an object involves a way of representing it under a certain description, it can be inferred that the perception of visual affordances cannot be accounted for without considering the intensional properties of cognition. This poses an explanatory issue for Radical Enactivism. (shrink)

The aim of this essay is to discuss Rorty’s sceptical view of knowledge as representation, particularly as expressed in his Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature and in Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity as a framework for a rereading of Poe’s poetics. Despite the differences in their historical context, this comparative approach discloses Rorty’s and Poe’s shared anti-representationalism, which subverts the accepted notions of the relationship between language and reference on the one hand, and between the world as referent and its (...) poetic representation on the other. (shrink)

Riassunto: Il dibattito in filosofia della mente è caratterizzato dal crescente interesse per nuove forme di eliminativismo, note con il nome di teorie enattiviste radicali della mente. Secondo la concezione enattivista radicale, il contenuto intenzionale di uno stato mentale è empiricamente sottodeterminato, pertanto non può essere utilizzato quale elemento di una spiegazione naturalistica del comportamento. Tuttavia, sebbene il riferimento ai contenuti intenzionali non sia conciliabile con il naturalismo ontologico, esso è invece compatibile con una forma di naturalismo metodologico. Seguendo l’analisi (...) semantica proposta da Carnap per i termini teorici, è possibile concepire uno stato mentale come un veicolo simbolico il cui significato è stabilito per mezzo di osservazioni e scelte convenzionali. Attraverso un caso di studio riguardante le funzioni cognitive della corteccia somatosensoriale, l’articolo fornisce le indicazioni programmatiche per un’interpretazione delle spiegazioni intenzionali del comportamento in accordo con la metodologia delle scienze naturali. Parole chiave: Contenuto mentale; Enattivismo radicale; Intenzionalità; Naturalismo; Teleosemantica; Teoria della spiegazione T he Methodological Status of Intentional Contents: The philosophy of mind debate is characterized by increasing consensus regarding a new type of eliminativism, also known as the radical enactivist theory of mind. According to the radical enactivist view, the intentional content of a mental state is empirically undetermined, therefore it cannot figure as part of a naturalistic explanation of behavior. However, although the notion of intentional content is not compatible with any form of ontological naturalism, it is compatible with a form of methodological naturalism. Following Carnap’s semantic analysis of theoretical concepts, it is possible to conceive of intentional mental states as a symbolic vehicles whose meaning can be conventionally established on the basis of empirical observation. In order to support this claim, I refer to a case study on the cognitive functions of somatosensory cortex. This article provides arguments for building an intentional explanation of behavior based on methodological approaches in the natural sciences. Keywords: Mental Content; Radical Enactivism; Intentionality; Naturalism; Teleosemantics; Theory of Explanation. (shrink)

Il fil rouge che lega le quattro sezioni del volume, che raccoglie le relazioni presentate al convegno internazionale Interactive Imagination (Roma, 6-8 giugno 2016), con l’aggiunta di contributi dei curatori e di studiosi che pure vi hanno partecipato, è la nozione di immaginazione, investigata da diverse prospettive teorico-filosofiche, correlata a quella di ambiente, anch’essa approfondita sotto diversi aspetti. Il tema mediale compare, talvolta esplicito talvolta in filigrana, con sfacce...

The paper examines three examples of Saint Jerome’s contemporary reception. First, in Sous l’invocation de Saint Jérôme, the essay by the French writer and translator Valery Larbaud (1946), Jerome’s life is imagined as the large city of Hiéronymopolis where three itineraries are possible: one that is imaginary to Stridon, Rome, and Bethlehem; one that is iconographical through the paintings of Raffaello, Correggio, and Domenichino, and one that is literary through Jerome’s works, divided into many “city districts,” where an impressive bridge, (...) the Vulgata, connects Jerusalem to Rome. – In the eccentric novel Jérôme ou de la traduction by the French-Canadian writer Jean Marcel (1990), Hieronymus’s famous lion narrates the main episodes of the Saint’s life, especially regarding his translations. This is an existential metaphor for the passage from the ancient eastern world to early Christian Rome. – The poetic movie by the Brasilian director Júlio Bressane, São Jerônimo (1999), is not a biographical reconstruction of Jerome’s life, but rather a fresco, which consists of some moments of his life and some iconic symbols (the skull, the lion, the desert). (shrink)

This paper is an insight on a front-line doctor’s experience of Coronavirus in Italy, in an Internal Medicine ward transformed to a COVID-19 ward. Using content analysis were analyzed 52 destructurated interviews to “Covid clinicians” in the “Ospedale dei Castelli” hospital structure in Rome, Italy. Thematic analysis was performed to recognize common topics in the interviews. Finally, a correlation between the 5 Ovid’s forces and Narrative Medicine scenarios is described. Coronavirus is a “tsunami” by confrontation with the poet Ovid’s five (...) driving forces. Covid-19 never gave health-workers a chance to draw breath for a moment themselves, as presentation and treatment hypotheses changed at dizzying speed, constantly forcing them to modify and adapt established procedures and behavior as the pandemic evolved. Every scenarios present a correlation with at least one positive and one negative force. Many healthcare workers who came face-to-face with the magnitude of this emergency are able in some way to contextualize the social implications of this experience, which paradoxically has some positive aspects, having let them discover newfound courage, resourcefulness, and hope. Negative forces result from too strong positive emotions and they are a signal of deteriorated relationships and an alarm bell of clinician’s burn-out. Covid era has been defined by the lack of emergency preparedness, together with lack of international coordination and media reports generating terror. People can defeat Covid by combatting against terror of the heart, by finding passion and courage and by dealing honestly with the fear of disease and death. (shrink)

Pautas de actuación letrada de los abogados y abogadas de las víctimas de violencia de género. Intervención del letrado o letrada de la víctima en el orden penal, desde el momento previo a la interposición de una denuncia por violencia de género, con solicitud de Orden de Protección, hasta la ejecución de la sentencia condenatoria. Intervención en el orden civil con el inicio de un procedimiento civil ante el Juzgado de Violencia Sobre la Mujer solicitando en su caso las medidas (...) paterno-filiales o la separación o el divorcio. Propuestas desde la Abogacía al Pacto de Estado en materia de violencia de género. Reformas legislativas previstas en respuesta al Pacto de Estado. (shrink)

Devices of direct democracy are an important structural element in Switzerland's political system. In this article, institutions and functions of Switzerland's direct democracy will be presented. Then the author will pursue whether the direct democracy can be used as a device to prevent a dysfunctional parliamentary system of government. He comes to the conclusion that Switzerland's direct democracy is not an exportable good. We know from the Swiss experience that there is no single model that describes how initiatives and referendums (...) function in every state. (shrink)

The last years’ achievements in neuroscience are key for a philosophical analysis focused on the mind-body problem, such as the phenomenological approach.The digital evolution, on the one hand, faces us with the interaction between the world of reality and the world of possibility. This means more than a mere coexistence between these two dimensions. Rather, a concrete feedback occurs among them, and this brings out unprecedented and unavoidable issues with regard to perceptual processes. On the other hand, the digital evolution (...) allows for analyzing data and monitoring environmental systems, thus reasoning in a predictive way, anticipating problems, and checking ex ante their evolution and outcomes.Neuroscience, for its part, with the experiments of Libet and their subsequent interpretations, has highlighted a consciousness of the unconscious made of ballistic and automatic processes, which constitutes the starting phase of our decisions and actions. This further confirmed that sequential and linear thinking is unable to address the brain-environment relationship that is key in understanding any cognitive process.This analysis confirms the relevance of different aspects of Husserl’s phenomenology. There is, however, a “but,” which significantly reduces the extent of adherence to his point of view. Husserl assumed that an implicit horizon precedes or accompanies the acts of conscience. This is the material, impressional, passive, receptive, and, in some way, tacit dimension, strictly connected to the issue of genesis, i.e. the process of constitution of the analyzed entities. Thus, he drew a clear dividing line between this dimension and the phases of the self-controlling, vigilant conscience and its activity. In fact, his approach to the phenomenological problem is mainly oriented toward these phases. (shrink)