Summary The genealogy of observation as a philosophical term goes back to the ancient Greek astronomical and medical traditions, and the revival of the concept in the Renaissance also happened in the astronomical and medical context. This essay focuses primarily on the medical genealogy of the concept of observation. In ancient Greek culture, an elaboration of the concept of observation (tērēsis) first emerged in the Hellenistic age with the medical sect of the Empirics, to be further developed by the ancient (...) Sceptics. Basically unknown in the Middle Ages, the Empirics’ conceptualisation of tērēsis trickled back into Western medicine in the fourteenth century, but its meaning seems to have been fully recovered by European scholars only in the 1560s, concomitantly with the first Latin translation of the works of Sextus Empiricus. As a category originally associated with medical Scepticism, observatio was a new entry in early modern philosophy. Although the term gained wide currency in general scholarly usage in the seventeenth century, its assimilation into standard philosophical language was very slow. In fact, observatio does not even appear as an entry in the philosophical dictionaries until the eighteenth century—with one significant exception, the medical lexica, which featured the lemma, reporting its ancient Empiric definition, as early as 1564. (shrink)

In The Political Philosophy of Fénelon, Ryan Hanley argues that Fénelon was a realist who aimed to elevate and educate self-love—rather than resist it—in order to avoid tyranny. This roundtable article examines two of Fenelon’s arguments for how self-love, well-directed, could circumvent a king’s absolutist and tyrannical inclinations: 1) the king’s need to be loved and to love in turn, and 2) the relationship between faith and politics / church and state. Contrasting Fénelon with Machiavelli, I question whether the ruler’s (...) “need-love” for his people leaves him susceptible to forms of domination or at least, as Machiavelli warned, renders them politically weak. Given Hanley’s interest to recover Fénelon for the present day, I conclude by arguing that the thinker’s insights about the limiting role of well-directed self-love are inescapably tied to his critiques of absolutism. The same need-love of the people, I argue, cannot similarly check executive power under democracy. Nonetheless, Fénelon’s perspective remains valuable, as does Hanley’s project of recovery, since democracies continue to reckon with particular problems raised by self-love. (shrink)

In his defenses of empire, Alexis de Tocqueville emphasized the need to achieve grandeur for France, and his writings on Algeria have shaped our understanding of his political career. In pursuing empire abroad as a remedy for weak politics at home, scholars maintain that Tocqueville abandoned the participatory politics of Democracy in America. This essay argues, however, that the focus on Tocqueville’s international turn has obscured his interest in the greatness of domestic party politics. It demonstrates that Tocqueville championed a (...) version of grandeur tied to the latent energies of the lower classes and distinct from the Bonapartism and aristocratic nostalgia that characterized his thoughts on empire. This version of grandeur was a political reclamation of disagreement and debate that supported great party opposition to counter the malaise of bourgeois rule. The essay concludes by comparing Tocqueville’s attitude toward foreign others, whose freedoms had to be sacrificed to the cause of French nationalism, with his description of the lower classes within his own nation, whose inclusion in the franchise could foster great politics. This comparison enables us to draw modest lessons for interpreting political grandeur in the present day. (shrink)

Parliament the Mirror of the Nation is a fascinating study of diversity. It maps Victorian Britain’s diverse and divergent responses to the challenge of achieving a representative Parliament. These...

In the early decades of the 20th century, women's access to the historical discipline followed fundamentally two paths. For the first time, some (a small minority) entered the profession as academic historians; others worked outside or on the margins of academia, pursuing their research interests as independent scholars. What did being an independent scholar mean for these women? Was it always a form of externally imposed marginalization? My paper argues that this is not the case. First of all, being an (...) independent scholar did not necessarily mean marginality. Some of these women scholars exerted a deep influence on 20th century historiography, and their work is still influential today. Quite apart from posthumous fame, moreover, it should be noted that the lack of academic affiliation did not necessarily preclude for some of these women the possibility of recognition and influence during their lives. Secondly, we should be careful not to assume that being an independent scholar was invariably an externally imposed marginalization. Some of these women scholars can be defined as ‘obligatory amateurs,’ because they were frustrated in their attempt to pursue an academic career. But others, in contrast, deliberately chose independent scholarship over an academic job, and can thus be defined ‘amateurs by choice.’ What was the motivation behind this choice? I argue that an important factor was the resilience of the amateur tradition in historical writing. The amateur tradition offered a strong counterbalance to women's marginality in academia and a source of positive values and models for their participation in the intellectual life. (shrink)

Partendo dall’idea che il vero punto di partenza della Critica del Giudizio non sia la questione del giudizio di gusto, o della bellezza, ma la questione delle facoltà dell’anima e del loro sistema, l’autrice ha cercato di stabilire un legame tra la fisionomia del giudizio di gusto e la fisionomia ulteriore e più nuova che sensibilità, intelletto e ragione acquisiscono nella Critica del Giudizio in rapporto alle due Critiche precedenti. Il sentimento del piacere e dispiacere deve essere interpretato come una (...) ulteriore funzione del giudicare, una ulteriore presupposizione trascendentale dell’esperienza, che prepara sia il lavoro dell’intelletto che conosce scientificamente, sia il lavoro della ragione che giudica eticamente. Questa condizione ulteriore, così peculiarmente soggettiva, comporta una nozione di soggettività tale da suggerire un sistema delle facoltà quale incrocio del piano costitutivo e di quello riflettente/riflessivo delle condizioni dell’esperienza. (shrink)

Le ricerche di Gianna Gigliotti mostrano come Kant – filosofo dell’esperienza in tutte le sue forme, teorico della conoscenza e dell’etica come conoscenza – abbia potuto essere interlocutore di correnti fondamentali della filosofia del diciannovesimo e del ventesimo secolo, e come i suoi testi siano ancora oggi stimolo fecondo per la ricerca storiografica. Attraverso la ricerca sui più importanti temi del neokantismo e della fenomenologia, i concetti di a priori e di trascendentale risultano essere stati una sfida decisiva per (...) il pensiero di Cohen, Natorp, Rickert, Husserl, Cassirer. E gli studi sulla genesi e gli sviluppi del neokantismo e della fenomenologia rivelano quanto il confronto con le opere di Kant, lette col massimo rigore storico e filologico, sia stato vitale per il pensiero contemporaneo. *** Die Forschungen Gianna Gigliottis zeigen, wie Kant – der Philosoph der Erfahrung in all ihren Formen, der Theoretiker des Wissens und der Ethik als Wissen – der Wegbereiter grundlegender Strömungen der Philosophie des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts sein konnte und wie seine Texte noch heute einen fruchtbaren Anreiz für die historiographische Forschung bilden. In der Erforschung der wichtigsten Themen des Neokantismus und der Phänomenologie zeigt sich, dass die Konzepte des Apriori und des Transzendentalen entscheidende Herausforderungen für das Denken Cohens, Natorps, Rickerts, Husserls und Cassirers darstellten. Überdies verdeutlichen die Studien über die Entstehung und Entwicklung des Neokantismus und der Phänomenologie die entscheidende Bedeutung der Werke Kants für das zeitgenössische Denken, im Vergleich gelesen mit größter historischer und philologischer Sorgfalt. (shrink)

L’interpretazione che Natorp ha dato della filosofia di Platone è prevalentemente considerata una paradossale forzatura entro la cornice del pensiero kantiano. Senza sfumare l’importanza del quadro di riferimento cui Natorp si attiene, e della versione continuistica della storia della ragione che lo caratterizza, il saggio intende tuttavia suggerire che alla fisionomia di questo quadro abbia contribuito, invece, proprio la diretta lettura dei testi platonici da parte di un Natorp che orgogliosamente si definisce un «filologo della scuola di Bonn». In particolare, (...) esaminando l’interpretazione del Teeteto, si mettono in luce sfumature significative della questione cruciale nel neokantismo marburghese circa il ruolo della sensibilità nella struttura della conoscenza. (shrink)

Objective: To identify the frequency and nature of care conflict dilemmas that United States long-term care providers encounter, response strategies, and use of ethics resources to assist with dispute resolution. Design: An online cross-sectional survey was distributed to the Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine (AMDA). Results: Two-thirds of participants, primarily medical directors, have rejected surrogate instructions and 71% have managed family conflict. Conflict over treatment decisions and issues interpreting advance directives were frequently reported. Half of facilities lack a (...) formal dispute mediation policy. Only five respondents have called an ethics consult for assistance. Conclusion: Ethically tense care conflicts commonly arise in long-term and post-acute care facilities. Few facility procedures incorporate ethics resources into actual practice. Recommendations are made to create actionable policy, increase access to ethics services, and support staff skill development in order to improve the end-of-life care experiences for patients, families, and care facility staff. (shrink)

Between the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century, the cultural atmosphere in Italy was influenced by the Ideologists and still conditioned by the followers of the sensualistic tradition. The new philosophy encountered fierce opposition; philosophers refused to come to term with the fundamental texts of Criticism, which were beyond their reach also because of the language. But besides this theoretical opposition to Criticism, that was strongly influenced by the French negative interpretation of Kant, there were (...) also scholars who began to translate Kant’s writings. Interesting is that they were not philosophers but government officials with a good knowledge of the German language. (shrink)