This paper studies whether incentivizing performance with competition and cooperation-based incentive schemes, rather than individual compensation, affects peer effects on subsequent risk behaviour. We run a laboratory experiment in which we introduce three different compensation schemes—piece rate, the equal-split-sharing-rule and a tournament—associated with a real effort task and we measure risk behaviour both before and after the effort task. We find that competition more than halves peer influence on risk behaviour compared with piece-rate compensation and in some specifications produces negative (...) peer effects. Competition also significantly reduces an individual’s feeling of attachment to their peers and self-reported peer influence. (shrink)

Resumen El presente texto pretende dar una validez teórica a la noción de verdad involucrada en la utilización del polígrafo. En este sentido, se analiza el concepto de “Aletheia” desarrollado por el filósofo M. Heidegger, pasando desde su primera versión como “ocupación” hasta la última como “contemplación”. También, se presenta el concepto de “ser en el mundo” como un modo de conocer práctico, y en consecuencia, al cuerpo como depositario de una memoria tácita que posteriormente induce y promueve un modo (...) de ser particular. Logrando así, finalmente, obtener un concepto de verdad que vincula las reacciones corporales registradas por el polígrafo y el hecho vivido. Palabras clave: trasfondo tácito; familiaridad;verdad; fenomenología. A Corporeal Notion of TruthThis text endeavors to grant theoretical validity to the notion of truth involved in the use of the polygraph. In this sense the concept of “Aletheia”, developed by the philosopher M. Heidegger, is analyzed starting from its first version as “occupation” to the last one as “contemplation”. Likewise, the concept of “being in the world” is introduced as a means towards practical knowledge and, in consequence, the body as depositary of an implicit memory which later will induce and promote a particular mode of being. Finally we thus obtain a concept of truth that connects bodily reactions registered by the polygraph and the deed that took place. Keywords : Tacit background; Familiarity;Truth;Phenomenology. (shrink)

Farmers’ markets (FMs) represent a crucial player in urban food systems, being the interconnection of local agricultural production and consumption, and serving as spaces for both economic exchange and community building. Despite their transformative potential, there is a scarcity of research that comprehensively investigates the dynamics of FMs network structure and the influence of the actors shaping FMs. The present article delves into the network of relationships within FMs in the Italian city of Bologna. This study adopts the Social Network (...) Analysis (SNA) methodology applied with the Net-Map tool. The research objectives are to visualise the underlying network structure, map the dynamics, and identify the key actors who play pivotal roles in Bologna’s FMs and their level of influence. The research carried out interviews with ten FMs stakeholders, revealing the network of relationships between 54 actors, divided into three categories—civil society, food economy and public administration. Actors were linked by a total of 428 relationships across three types of networks: support, economic, and hindering. Findings indicate a strong support network structure characterised by varying degrees of centrality among different actors. Farmers emerge as a central node due to their pivotal role in providing fresh, local produce. Additionally, local institutions contribute significantly to FMs resilience and growth. Our research demonstrates the importance of recognising the embeddedness of FMs within the local context. By understanding the network structure and influential actors in FMs, policymakers can devise more effective policies for promoting local agriculture, and enhancing the sustainability of urban–rural exchanges. In conclusion, the present study offers valuable insights into the network dynamics of FMs, highlighting their crucial role in the sustainable development of urban and local food systems. (shrink)

This essay aims at providing a brief analysis of John Dewey’s 1896 essay The reflex arc concept in psychology by identifying in it “proto-aesthetic” elements that will be thematized in an explicitly aesthetic sense only, almost forty years later, in Art as experience. This latter can be indeed considered both as a hapax and an apex of a path in which Dewey progressively focuses on matters that can be deemed properly aesthetic and of which The reflex arc concept in psychology (...) can be seen as one of the first steps. Our analysis will attempt at showing this connection by spanning the reflex arc idea, amended by Dewey in this essay, and that of “an” experience as a proper aesthetic experience through the fundamental concept of coordination. (shrink)

In this paper, after a brief historical overview, we will make a programmatic and paradigmatic comparison through analogy, between cartography and design. These two subjects both share three fundamental characteristics: a captivating appearance, usefulness, and also are ubiquitous in everyday life. This is particularly evident nowadays in mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets that are featured with a touchscreen technology. The paradigmaticity of such a comparison stands in the planning, and organizational quality, common to the two above mentioned subject (...) areas. We will maintain that such a quality creates new aesthetics horizons, made possible as a result of great usability, functionality and interactivity. These features are achieved through the interdisciplinary cooperation between a careful design activity and a formal organization of symbols. These materialize into what we claim to be the «pass key» to this new kind of aesthetic experience rooted in the everyday and marked by immediacy: the interface. (shrink)

In health communication, metaphor can be considered as a reasoning device to let people understand an abstract concept in terms of a concrete one (Lakoff and Johnson 1980; Bowdle and Gentner 2005). Both the positive and negative communicative effects of metaphors have been largely pointed out in a variety of medical fields, from oncology (Semino et al. 2016, 2018) to mental health (Frezza and Zoccolotti 2019). The use of metaphors in vaccine communication has been less considered, though it might be (...) crucial to let people understand vaccination as an important collective health phenomenon. A previous study (Scherer et al. 2015) focused on the communicative effects of conventional metaphors for vaccination, but not specifically on novel metaphors deliberately used to explain the concept of population immunity in vaccination. We hypothesized that metaphors used to explain vaccination as a collective phenomenon could improve the communicative aims of pro-vaccination texts in many respects, ranging from understandability to trust in expertise. We designed a study to test the hypothesis: two groups of participants were presented with a text about vaccination as a collective phenomenon, described in either literal or metaphorical terms. They were asked to evaluate the text on different communicative aspects from both an individual and a collective point of view. The results confirmed the hypothesis that metaphor is an effective reasoning device and that it also enhances the overall communicative effects of the message, in terms of understandability, persuasion, feeling of control over the health situation, trust in expertise, and uptake of experts’ advice. However, the results show that this effect is significantly nuanced in the individual vs. collective response type. (shrink)

This volume provides an extensive overview of the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence for the Sustainable Development Goals. The authors are experts contributing with perspectives from different fields. The comprehensive collection of chapters illustrates the pressing governance problems related to using AI for the SDGs, and case studies describing how AI is advancing and can advance the achievement of the Goals. Students, scholars, and practitioners working on AI for SDGs, the ethical governance of AI, sustainability, and the fourth revolution can find (...) this book a helpful reference. (shrink)

This annual edited volume presents an overview of cutting-edge research areas within digital ethics as defined by the Digital Governance Research Group of the University of Oxford. It identifies new challenges and opportunities of influence in setting the research agenda in the field. The 2022 edition of the Yearbook presents research on the following topics: autonomous weapons, cyber weapons, digital sovereignty, smart cities, artificial intelligence for the Sustainable Development Goals, vaccine passports, and sociotechnical pragmatism as an approach to technology. This (...) text appeals to students, researchers, and professionals in the field. (shrink)

This paper deals with the interpretation of Sophocles’ _Antigone_ as developed by Jacques Lacan in the Book VII of the _Seminar_. In contrast with traditional ethical analyses from Aristotle to Kant, the author emphasizes the absolute and radical desire of Antigone, whose fulfillment leads to the ultimate limit of life. In spite of her extreme rigidity, Antigone represents the possibility of assuming ethically one’s own desire, accepting its paradoxical dimension. Therefore, the psychoanalytic interpretation of the tragedy Antigone leads to accept (...) desire’s destabilizing force. From this point of view, the practice of analysis finds an effective contribution in the experience of tragedy: in this sense, it is possible to highlight the relationship between an action and the desire that inhabits it. Through the contrasting readings given by Slavoj Žižek and Massimo Recalcati, this paper is aimed to show how the ethical dimension of Sophocles’ _Antigone_ does not match with the ideals of traditional ethics, but allows us to explore the limit of human desire. (shrink)

This paper studies internal (or intra-)mathematical explanations, namely those proofs of mathematical theorems that seem to explain the theorem they prove. The goal of the paper is a rigorous analysis of these explanations. This will be done in two steps. First, we will show how to move from informal proofs of mathematical theorems to a formal presentation that involves proof trees, together with a decomposition of their elements; secondly we will show that those mathematical proofs that are regarded as having (...) explanatory power all display an increase of conceptual complexity from the assumptions to the conclusion. (shrink)

Through this contribution I aim to explore the horizons and limits of digital medicine in light of an embodied approach to the issue of care. I will sketch the historical background of digital medicine and show the contemporary status of this interdisciplinary field, as well as its applications and outcomes. Then, I will address a critique of the computational theory of mind (CTM) upon which many contemporary mental health apps are designed. This approach to the mind is inscribed into the (...) modern trend of neuromania, which conceives the embodied, living human being as a mere series of data analyses and algorithms, with the brain as the seat of the person. Drawing on continental philosophy and classical phenomenology I will develop a notion of health conceived as a moral enterprise, showing how wellbeing and vitality are not reducible to a product made by technologies or doctors, but rather they are the results of an embodied encounter. As such, empathy and person-centered care cannot be achieved by digital medicine. They are the result of a journey into the regions of recognition, embodied presence and the aliveness constituting the person. Finally, I will show how the issue of care cannot be separated from an embodied encounter between people, especially in case of dementia. (shrink)

Drilling wells in urban spaces requires special types of rigs that do not conflict with the surrounding environment. For this, a mutation of the current drilling equipment is necessary into what can be defined as an “urbanized drilling rig.” Noise reduction, small footprint, and “good looking” rigs all help persuade the general public to accept the presence of drilling rigs in their neighborhood. This article reviews international projects that aim to integrate drilling with the urban infrastructures with a special focus (...) on geothermal projects. Case studies are presented where tailored drilling rigs and new technology have already been implemented. The review aids the analysis of the main urban-related technical aspects of modern drilling rigs. Finally, the new trends in integrating architecture, urbanism, and drilling rig design are discussed. (shrink)

Criminal liability for acts committed by AI systems has recently become a hot legal topic. This paper includes three different contributions. The first contribution is an analysis of the extent to which an AI system can satisfy the requirements for criminal liability: accomplishing an actus reus, having the corresponding mens rea, possessing the cognitive capacities needed for responsibility. The second contribution is a discussion of criminal activity accomplished by an AI entity, with reference to a recent case involving an online (...) bot, the Random Darknet Shopper. This discussion will provide the context for the analysis of commonalities and differences between criminal activities by humans and by artificial systems. The third contribution concerns the evaluation of different ways of addressing criminal activities by AI systems in a regulatory perspective. (shrink)

Metaphor has been considered as a cognitive process, independent of the verbal versus visual mode, through which an unknown conceptual domain is understood in terms of another known conceptual domain. Metaphor might instead be viewed as a cognitive process, dependent on the mode, which leads to genuinely new knowledge via ignorance. First, I argue that there are two main senses of ignorance at stake when we understand a metaphor: we ignore some existing properties of the known domain in the sense (...) that we disregard or neglect them; we ignore some “non-existing” properties of the known domain in the sense that they are not a piece of information belonging to the known domain, but emerge in metaphor interpretation. Secondly, I consider a metaphor as a reasoning device, guiding the interpreters along a path of inferences to a conclusion, which attributes to the target some properties of the source. In this path, interpreters might discover the ignored existing properties of the known domain and/or recover the “non-existing” properties, inferring or imagining the missing piece of information. Finally, I argue that, especially in visual metaphors, this process is guided by a “sentiment of rationality”, tracking a disruption of existing familiar conceptualisations of objects and/or actions and a recovery of ignored properties. (shrink)

In recent years, bioethical discourse around the topic of ‘genetic enhancement’ has become increasingly politicized. We fear there is too much focus on the semantic question of whether we should call particular practices and emerging bio-technologies such as CRISPR ‘eugenics’, rather than the more important question of how we should view them from the perspective of ethics and policy. Here, we address the question of whether ‘eugenics’ can be defended and how proponents and critics of enhancement should engage with each (...) other. (shrink)

Developmental System Theory is a theoretical reinterpretation of biological phenomena challenging the conventional gene-centered account of development and evolution. In this paper, I focus on Griffiths and Gray’s version of Developmental Systems Theory and I particularly analyze their reconceptualization of inheritance. First, I present their concept of expanded and diffused inheritance; then, I examine and criticize their refusal of the multiple inheritance system model; finally, I present and contrast Griffiths and Gray’s extension of what they call the “causal parity thesis” (...) from development to evolution. I argue that their proposal is an interesting and programmatic philosophical perspective on biological phenomena but, because of their commitment to holism, fails to provide both more heuristic tools for empirical investigation in biology and a more realistic representation of the biological world. (shrink)

This chapter provides an overview of six topics related to governance, ethical, legal, and social implications of artificial intelligence (AI) for sustainable development goals (SDGs) initiatives. We identified six common challenges and related opportunities to mitigate such challenges, as referred to by the authors analysing the chapters provided in the book The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence for the Sustainable Development Goals. They are (1) governance and collaboration, (2) private investments and the role of big tech companies, (3) AI and communities, (...) (4) AI and individuals, (5) jobs and skills, and (6) impact assessment. (shrink)

"Heidegger [...] è uno di quei filosofi che non si possono solo studiare, ma esigono dal proprio lettore uno sforzo interpretativo che, nella più autentica tradizione ermeneutica è anche partecipazione attiva all'impresa del pensiero [...]. Francesca Brencio [...] si presenta, con questo lavoro, come una mente filosofica che bene coglie lo "spirito del proprio tempo", [...] praticando una storia della filosofia che è ermeneutica rigorosa e al tempo stesso non dogmatica [...]. Brencio sta offrendo il proprio importante contributo, modificando (...) in modo originale un approccio e uno stile tipico della tradizione continentale (in senso lato) e tedesca (in senso stretto), ma rimanendo aperta ad altri contributi". Dalla Prefazione di Paolo Diego Bubbio. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to investigate Nishida Kitarō’s way of philosophizing in the light of the concept of “transition” in order to deepen our understanding of both Nishida’s philosophy and our thinking about and in transitions, using the concept of “boundary” or “border” (Grenze) as a catalyst. For that purpose, we focus on Nishida’s essay “Place” (「場所」), passing through different parts of the text as if through successive gates on a path of transition between one place and the (...) next, until we reach the final place of “absolute nothingness.” Dwelling on this place, we turn our attention to its internal structure and try to depict it along the outlines of a boundary, following the movements taking place in Nishida’s essay. The second part proposes an interpretation of the place of nothingness as an interminable practice of boundary-crossing that doesn’t come to a halt in a final, all-encompassing place, but dynamically situates itself on countless intersecting planes. After a more or less abstract analysis of the concept of “boundary,” we will apply and concretize this approach by using the example of the skin. To this end, we expose five main features of the skin as boundary: permeability, enclosure, excessiveness, interstitiality and reciprocal self-formation. (shrink)