Two different copies of the influental Jewish philosophical and theological Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed, one in Hebrew and a second in Latin, are recorded in Pico’s library. A third copy, probably also belonged to him, is now the ms. Kassel, Universitätsbibliothek - Landesbibliothek und Murhardsche Bibliothek der Stadt, 2° theol. 67. The manuscript now in Kassel shows that Pico was not only a reader of Maimonides’ Guide but also a translator. Numerous passages have in fact been revised by Pico (...) in order to improve the latin translation evidently considered not particularly correct. (shrink)

Some of the manuscripts once part of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola’s collection transmit autograph notes, which have been useful to reconstruct his library. A peculiar case is represented by the notes transmitted in a codex containing the Latin translation of Moses Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed. These notes are actual corrections to the translation made mostly on the basis of a comparison with the Hebrew text, while in some other cases they derive from a specific interpretation. The aim of (...) this paper is to present some characteristics of the textual revisions, in particular with reference to the Hebrew source. The palaeographic data demonstrate Pico’s direct involvement, which leads to the question of the authorship of these notes, namely if they were the result of an autonomous work or of a collaboration with some other scholar. (shrink)

The book examines the life and the writings of Gabriele Biondo, a secular priest who lived in the little town of Modigliana between the second half of the fifteenth century and the first decades of the sixteenth century. Through a careful examination of his writings and the sources he used, this book allows the reader to obtain a more precise understanding of Biondo, his background, his life, his movements, the difficulties that he encountered (mainly with the ecclesiastical authorities and the (...) other members of the clergy, but also with civic leaders), and the main events of his life. Additionally, Biondo was the leader of a minor following formed by nuns, secular women, and laymen. Therefore, this book illustrates Biondo’s pastoral activity, the ideas and principles that supported his actions, and the objectives he was pursuing. Given these various objectives, this book is of interest to those scholars and academics interested in the religious tensions that swept through Europe in the years immediately preceding the Protestant Reformation and who, consequently, seek to investigate Biondo’s personal and complex answer to these tensions. (shrink)

In 2011, van Dijck and Fias described a positional SNARC effect: the SPoARC. To-be-remembered items presented centrally on a screen seemed to acquire a left-to-right spatial dimension. If confirmed, this spatialization could be crucial for immediate memory theories. However, given the intricate links between visual and spatial dimensions, this effect could be due to the visual presentation, which could have probed the left-to-right direction of reading/writing. To allow a generalization of this effect, we adapted van Dijck and Fias's task using (...) an auditory version of Sternberg's paradigm. Lists of five consonants were auditorily presented at a rate of 3 s/item. A SPoARC effect was observed. The consequences are discussed first from an immediate memory perspective, putting forward the view that order could be coded through spatialization, and then in terms of similarities between SPoARC and SNARC. (shrink)

There is ample evidence from literature and clinical practice indicating mathematical difficulties in individuals with ADHD, even when there is no concomitant diagnosis of developmental dyscalculia. What factors underlie these difficulties is still an open question. Research on dyscalculia and neurotypical development suggests visual perception of numerosity (the number sense) as a building block for math learning. Participants with lower numerosity estimation thresholds (higher precision) are often those with higher math capabilities. Strangely, the role of numerosity perception in math skills (...) in ADHD has been neglected, leaving open the question whether math difficulties in ADHD also originate from a deficitary visual number sense. In the current study we psychophysically measured numerosity thresholds and accuracy in a sample of children/adolescents with ADHD, but not concomitant dyscalculia (N = 20, 8–16 years). Math abilities were also measured by tasks indexing different mathematical competences. Numerosity performance and math scores were then compared to those obtained from an age-matched control group (N = 20). Bayesian statistics indicated no difference between ADHD and controls on numerosity perception, despite many of the symbolic math tasks being impaired in participants with ADHD. Moreover, the math deficits showed by the group with ADHD remained substantial even when numerosity thresholds were statistically regressed out. Overall, these results indicate that math difficulties in ADHD are unlikely to originate from an impaired visual number sense. (shrink)

In this commentary, we discuss an important pattern of results in the literature on the neural basis of expertise: decrease of cerebral activation at the beginning of acquisition of expertise and functional cerebral reorganization as a consequence of years of practice. We show how these two results can be integrated with the neural reuse framework.

This is the first book to provide a coherent overview over the ethical implications of AI-related technologies in medicine. It explores how these technologies transform practices, relationships, and environments in the clinical field. It provides an introduction into ethical issues such as data security and privacy protection, bias and algorithmic fairness, trust and transparency, challenges to the doctor-patient relationship, and new perspectives for informed consent. The book focuses on the transformative impact that technology is having on medicine, and discusses several (...) strategies for dealing with the resulting challenges. It also introduces innovative methods of ethics research for addressing existing desiderata and future challenges. This book is written to inform health care professionals, policy-makers, and researchers in medicine, health sciences, nursing science, social sciences, and ethics, but may also function as a primary textbook for graduate as well as undergraduate university courses. (shrink)

Risk and crisis communication (RCC) is a current ethical issue subject to controversy, mainly due to the tension between individual liberty (a core component of fairness) and effectiveness. In this paper we propose a consistent definition of the RCC process in public health emergencies (PHERCC), which comprises six key elements: evidence, initiator, channel, publics, message, and feedback. Based on these elements and on a detailed analysis of their role in PHERCC, we present an ethical framework to help design, govern and (...) evaluate PHERCC strategies. The framework aims to facilitate RCC, incorporating effectiveness, autonomy, and fairness. It comprises five operational ethical principles: openness, transparency, inclusivity, understandability, and privacy. The resulting matrix helps understanding the interplay between the PHERCC process and the principles of the framework. The paper includes suggestions and recommendations for the implementation of the PHERCC matrix. (shrink)

Cognitive Science, Volume 46, Issue 5, May 2022.

New quotations recently published by P. Canart from a Vatican manuscript and identified as texts of Michael Psellos are examined, textual corrections and interpretations are proposed and further parallels presented that confirm the Psellian authorship put forward by the editor.

New quotations recently published by P. Canart from a Vatican manuscript and identified as texts of Michael Psellos are examined, textual corrections and interpretations are proposed and further parallels presented that confirm the Psellian authorship put forward by the editor.

This handbook is currently in development, with individual articles publishing online in advance of print publication. At this time, we cannot add information about unpublished articles in this handbook, however the table of contents will continue to grow as additional articles pass through the review process and are added to the site. Please note that the online publication date for this handbook is the date that the first article in the title was published online.

Giovanni Mion defends the idea that knowledge is context relative, but, in contrast to current versions of epistemic contextualism, on his view, knowledge is relative to contexts that are objective. Following Christopher Gauker’s conception of what a context is, Mion argues that knowledge is relative to the speakers’ conversational goals; and since the best way to achieve the goals of a conversation depends upon the way the world really is, it follows that participants in a conversation might be unaware (...) of the content of the context that truly governs their conversation. Finally, Mion uses objective contexts to explain why practical interests have epistemic significance. According to him, if we assume that the primary function of language is not to share thoughts, but to achieve practical goals, and, accordingly, that knowledge attributions play primarily an action-guiding role (as opposed to a mind-revealing role), then we are in a better position to understand why knowledge is not just a matter of theoretical factors, but it is also a matter of how much is at stake. (shrink)

La 4e de couverture indique : "Questo lavoro di Giovanni Scirocco è una delle prime ricerche storiche sull'opera di Norberto Bobbio che si avvale in modo siste- matico delle carte del suo archivio personale conservate presso il Centro Studi Piero Gobetti di Torino. Argomento dello studio è il giudizio sulla guerra giusta nelle varie fasi dell'itinerario politico e culturale del filosofo a partire dal 1961, quando Bobbio in colloquio con Günther Anders matura la convinzione che di fronte alla guerra (...) nucleare siamo tutti potenzialmente obiettori di coscienza, fino alle posizioni da lui assunte di fronte alla Guerra del Golfo nel 1991 e alla guerra "umanitaria" con la Serbia nel 1999. In poche agili ma dense pagine il lettore può seguire lo svolgersi nel tempo delle argomentazioni di Bobbio, illustrate con documenti d'archivio e corroborate da una scelta intelligente e felice di brani tratti dai principali saggi bobbiani sulla pace e la guerra: la prefazione al libro "Essere e non essere. Diario di Hiroshima e Nagasaki" di Anders, "Il conflitto termonucleare e le tradizionali giustificazioni della guerra", "Filosofia della guerra nell'era atomica", "Diritto e guerra", "Il problema della guerra e le vie della pace".". (shrink)

Emotions and personhood are important notions within the field of mental health care. How they are related is less evident. This book provides a framework for understanding the important and complex relationship between our emotional wellbeing and our sense of self, drawing on psychopathology, philosophy, and phenomenology.

How can we better understand and treat those suffering from schizophrenia and manic-depressive illnesses? This important new book takes us into the world of those suffering from such disorders. Using self descriptions, its emphasis is not on how mental health professionals view sufferers, but on how the patients themselves experience their disorder. A new volume in the International Perspectives in Philosophy and Psychiatry series, this book will be of great interest to all those working with sufferers from such disorders - (...) helping them to better understand their mental lives, and providing important insights into how best to treat them. (shrink)