The analysis of the status of the constitutive metaphor in science is considered along with the examination of some principal models of metaphors among biology, medicine and neurosciences. This allows to highlight the two ages of the scientific metaphor, the crossover between metaphors and models, and some open questions about the hidden ideologies concealed in the scientific theoretical terms that come from the use of metaphors.

In the context of astrophysical modeling at the solar system scale, we investigate the modalities implied by taking into account different levels of detail at which phenomena can be considered. In particular, by framing the analysis in terms of the how-possibly/how-actually distinction, we address the debated question as to whether the degree of plausibility is tightly linked to the degree of detail. On the grounds of concrete examples, we argue that, also in the astrophysical context examined, this is not necessarily (...) the case. (shrink)

Aging is characterized by the decline and deterioration of functional cells and results in a wide variety of molecular damages and reduced physical and mental capacity. The knowledge on aging process is important because life expectancy is expected to rise until 2050. Aging cannot be considered a homogeneous process and includes different trajectories characterized by states of fitness, frailty, and disability. Frailty is a dynamic condition put between a normal functional state and disability, with reduced capacity to cope with stressors. (...) This geriatric syndrome affects physical, neuropsychological, and social domains and is driven by emotional and spiritual components. Sarcopenia is considered one of the determinants and the biological substrates of physical frailty. Physical and cognitive frailty are separately approached during daily clinical practice. The concept of motoric cognitive syndrome has partially changed this scenario, opening interesting windows toward future approaches. Thus, the purpose of this manuscript is to provide an excursus on current clinical practice, enforced by aneddoctical cases. The analysis of the current state of the art seems to support the urgent need of comprehensive organizational model incorporating physical and cognitive spheres in the same umbrella. (shrink)

Maria Triassi,1 Elena Giancotti,2 Antonio Nardone,1 Giulia Mancini,3 Fabiana Rubba1 1Public, Preventive and Social Medicine School, University Federico II of Naples, Naples, Italy; 2Procurement and Transplantation Coordination, Naples, Italy; 3Sociology Unit, G D'annunzio University, Chieti-Pescara, Italy Introduction: The growing disparity between organ availability for transplantation and the number of patients in need has challenged the donation and transplantation community to develop innovative processes, ideas, and techniques to bridge this gap. Advances in the sharing of best practices in the (...) donation community have contributed greatly to this aim over the past 5 years. Studies published during the past five years were analyzed to gain insight on the evolving organizational areas and tools that the procurement and transplantation pathways have been focused on. The hypothesis assessed is that networking and efficacious handling of this complex path may be ameliorated by an adaptive organizational toolbox. Methods: A thorough search has been conducted using various databases, ie, Cochrane library, PubMed, EMBASE, Federico II University Open Archive. The evidence was considered following the Effective Practice and Organization of Care Group checklist. Prevalent organizational attitudes and areas were assessed, and various scenarios were analyzed. Initially, all titles and abstracts were screened. In the next phase, the full text of all abstracts considered potentially relevant by at least one of the reviewers was evaluated. Inconsistencies in decision-making within this second phase were solved based on consensus between both reviewers. In this phase, for every study we defined whether the organization was considered relevant and what the scenario was. The information was extracted from each study based on bibliographic details. As many as 1,071 studies were analyzed, and 81 were selected as potentially relevant. Results: We found three prevalent areas of interest focused on organizational elements: global organizational strategies scenario, clinical hospital organization, and citizenship and social scenario. Conclusion: We reached the conclusion that organization has a central role in different scenarios of procurement and transplantation in a continuum from government to hospital and finally among citizens. A standardized hospital pathway definitely remains the essential step in order to ameliorate either procurement or transplantation. Keywords: transplant procurement, management, organizational tool, network. (shrink)

The relationship between smell and politics could appear obscure; and yet, when it comes to smell, questions about freedom and constriction, social and ontological mingling or distinctions, clearly arise. In this paper, I will especially focus on the domain of food as a clear example for describing some of the political ambivalences characterizing the sense of smell. The aim is to pave the way for a more detailed ‘sociopolitical aesthetics of smell’ to come. I will stress epistemological and social features (...) of odors in order to highlight their ambivalence in knowledge and community life. Perceivers and odors will emerge as mingled bodies, highlighting an ongoing process of material as well as emotional affection. Moreover, I will present some relevant examples of smell as social status symbols in relation to the aesthetic values linked to class hierarchy. Consumerism and scented goods will be lastly discussed in order to shade light on contemporary perceptual phenomena and their role in the socioeconomic dimension. (shrink)

The place occupied by Kant’s philosophical ideas in the reflections of the Russian philosopher, Nikolay Strakhov, needs further study. The material for a historical-philosophical reconstruction of Strakhov’s reception of Kant’s philosophy is the Russian thinker’s home library catalogue, his correspondence and his own philosophical works. Among Strakhov’s interlocutors were not only philosophers and natural scientists, but also writers, including Fyodor Dostoevsky, Leo Tolstoy and Afanasy Fet, who in many ways determined the cultural and intellectual horizon of the epoch. The many (...) years of correspondence with the last two writers went a long way to shape and develop Strakhov’s perception of Kant as a thinker. Indeed, without a virtual dialogue with Kant no modern philosophical system can be built. Strakhov’s reflections on the Kantian style of thinking, adoption of Kantian criticism as the model of epistemic analysis in many ways determined the features of his own philosophical work and became a catalyst of renewed interest in Russia in the Kantian philosophy in the last third of the nineteenth century. (shrink)

A common approach for measuring the effectiveness of an education system or a school is the estimation of the impact that school interventions have on students’ academic performance. However, the latest trends aim to extend the focus beyond students’ acquisition of knowledge and skills, and to consider aspects such as well-being in the academic context. For this reason, the 2015 edition of the international assessment system PISA incorporated a new tool aimed at evaluating the socio-affective variables related to the well-being (...) of students. It is based on a definition focused on the five dimensions proposed in PISA theoretical framework: cognitive, psychological, social, physical and material. The main purpose of this study is to identify the well-being components that significantly affect student academic performance and to estimate the magnitude of school effects on the well-being of students in OECD countries, the school effect being understood as the ability of schools to increase subjective student well-being. To achieve this goal, we analyzed the responses of 234,000 students from thirty-five OECD countries to PISA 2015 questionnaires. Specifically, we considered non-cognitive variables in the questionnaires and student performance in science. The results indicated that the cognitive well-being dimension, composed of enjoyment of science, self-efficacy and instrumental motivation, as well as the test anxiety all had a consistent relationship with student performance across countries. In addition, the school effect, estimated through a two-level hierarchical linear model, in terms of student well-being was systematically low. While the school effect accounted for approximately 25% of the variance in the results for the cognitive dimension, only 5-9% of variance in well-being indicators was attributable to it. This suggests that the influence of school on student welfare is weak, and the effect is similar across countries. The present study contributes to the general discussion currently underway about the definition of well-being and the connection between well-being and achievement. The results highlighted two complementary concerns: there is a clear need to promote socio-emotional education in schools, and it is important to develop a rigorous framework for well-being assessment. The implications of the results and proposals for future studies are discussed. (shrink)

Fictions feature prominently in several of Hume’s important arguments about the external world. For example, Hume is clear that there would be no belief in the continued existence of objects, were it not for the fictions that are causally responsible for effecting this belief. Interpreters of Hume on the topic of fiction generally argue that the formation of fiction requires the possession of general ideas and the use of language. Drawing upon recent attempts in the literature to advance this claim, (...) I offer reasons for why this general approach is undesirable. By examining Hume’s comments on the capabilities of children, this paper advances a novel approach to the topic of fictions in Hume’s philosophy that separates the matter of fiction formation from the use of language, arguing instead that it is not the use of language that establishes fictions; fictions exert their influence upon the mind before the use of language becomes available to us. (shrink)

El presente texto pretende reivindicar agencias materiales en las prácticas de la pintura al óleo. El artículo comienza presentando algunos debates sobre la importancia de la materialidad desde una estética posthumana, relacional y ecológica inspirada por las teorías de los nuevos materialismos y sus distintos anclajes (la teoría del actor-red, las epistemologías feministas de la tecno-ciencia, la ontología orientada a los objetos o la cultura material post fenomenológica). A continuación, presentaré algunos ejemplos de mediaciones o hibridaciones socio-técnicas en la pintura (...) al óleo donde agencias humanas y no humanas se involucran para articular y sostener los cuadros; pero también para traicionar, interrumpir y asombrar las intenciones de sus autores, la estabilidad de sus pigmentos y la autenticidad de su apreciación estética. Finalmente, desplegaré un proceso de ontogénesis material de un instrumento pictórico, la paleta, como agenciamiento esperanzador para abandonar los dualismos de la modernidad estética. (shrink)

The article discusses the challenges, benefits, and risks that, from a bioethical perspective, arise because of the the development of eHealth projects. The conceptual framework of the research is based on H. Jonas’ principles of the ethics of responsibility and B.G. Yudin’s anthropological ideas on human beings as agents who constantly change their own boundaries in the “zone of phase transitions.” The article focuses on the events taking place in the zone of phase transitions between humans and machines in eHealth. (...) It is shown that for innovative practices related to digitalization and datafication in medicine, it is needed to rethink central bioethical concepts of personal autonomy and informed consent. In particular, the concept of broad or open informed consent is discussed, which allows the idea of moral responsibility in the field of biomedical technologies to be extended to events of uncertain future. The authors draw attention to the problems associated with the emergence of new autonomous subjects/agents in relationship between doctors and patients. The humanization of machines occurring in eHealth is accompanied by a counter trend – the formation of conceptions and practices of the quantified self. There emerges the practices of self-care and bio-power caused by the datafication and digitization of personality. The authors conclude that bioethics should proactively develop norms for the evolving interaction between doctor and patients. (shrink)

With the Science of Logic, Hegel poses a radical challenge to philosophy: a self-presentation of thought that, by not assuming anything outside itself, achieves its self-knowledge. From the possibility of such a project depends that of the autonomy of thought, that is, of a thought that gives itself its own law.Some classical readings consider this enterprise to be unsuccesful or not to be fully accomplished in the Logic. According to Dieter Henrich, Hegel's Logic would fall into a circle, because would (...) be burdened by the presupposition of the structure of thought itself, which should rather result from the logical process. For Robert B. Pippin or Terry Pinkard, instead, the instance of autonomy of thought would be realized not in the logic, but only at the level of the spirit.In contrast to such interpretations, we will try to show that precisely in the Logic the thought determines itself as autonomous. In its self-presentation thought, that has itself as its object, produces its own structures, which are not prior to the movement. And once it has come to know itself as such a process, thought ceases to presuppose itself as an object and poses its own form for itself. (shrink)

A proper understanding of the moral and political significance of migration requires a focus on global inequalities. More specifically, it requires a focus on those global inequalities that affect people’s ability to participate in the production of economic goods and non-economic goods. We call cooperative infrastructures the complex material and immaterial technologies that allow human beings to cooperate in order to generate human goods. By enabling migrants to access high-quality cooperative infrastructures, migration contributes to the diffusion of technical and socio-political (...) innovations. In this way, it positively affects the ability of individuals from poorer countries to participate in the production of human goods, to benefit from such production, and to contribute to human development. Migration can also damage the material and immateri al components of the cooperative infrastructures accessible in both the host and sending countries; these potential downsides of migration should not be ignored, although arguably they can often be neutralized, alleviated, or compensated. (shrink)

The purpose of the study is to justify the feasibility and prospects of including case technology in the process of independent training of cadets in a military higher educational institution. Scientific novelty lies in justifying the increase in the effectiveness of independent training through the implementation of case study technology. The article analyzes the impact of case technology on the development of professionalism of future officers, determines the stages of work on cases, examines the activities of cadets and the tasks (...) that are solved during each stage. As a result, the approaches to the organization of independent training of cadets in the process of implementing the case-training technology are identified; the capability of case technology, as a means of forming competencies such as design, organizational and communicative, is indicated; the features of the cadets' activity aimed at the formation of the above-mentioned competencies are revealed. (shrink)

In this article I provide an account of the way in which the domain of spoken communication is metaphorically constructed in English, on the basis of the analysis of over 450 metaphorical references to speech activity in a corpus of contemporary written British English. I show how spoken communication is mainly structured via a set of source domains that conventionally apply to a wide variety of target domains, such as the source domains of MOTION, PHYSICAL TRANSFER, PHYSICAL CONSTRUCTION, and PHYSICAL (...) SUPPORT. Each of these source domains structures a particular aspect of speech activity, such as the achievement of communicative goals, the expression of meanings and ideas, the performance of speech acts, the negotiation of mutual relationships, and so on. I suggest that the particular conceptual mappings that underlie the main patterns in my data are best seen in terms of Grady's (1997) notion of primary metaphors, that is, as simple, basic mappings that have a firm experiential basis and that apply to a wide range of different areas of experience (e.g., "HELP/ASSISTANCE IS SUPPORT"). However, I also show that the main primary metaphors involved in structuring the domain of speech activity can be combined into a single overall physical scenario in which interactants can move in different directions, place themselves in different positions in relation to each other, come into contact with each other in different ways, physically produce texts/utterances/speech acts, physically pass texts/utterances/speech acts to each other, and make meanings visible to each other in different ways. Finally, I argue that a corpus-based methodology has much to offer to metaphor research, particularly in the extrapolation of conceptual metaphors from linguistic data. (shrink)

The subject of the analysis of this paper is the Andean civilization view by the Peruvian author of the XVI century Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala, a Quechua Indian by origin, who became a Catholic monk, as well as a translator and mediator between two civilizations: European, personalized by Spanish administration and Catholic Church present in the conquered lands, and Andean civilization, represented by local population speaking native Quechua and other Native American languages. The collision of two worlds is clearly (...) visible in the Chronicle «El primer nueva corónica y buen gobierno», which belongs to this author. This literary monument is an invaluable document because it describes in Medieval Spanish a disappearing world left behind, due to the lack of writing, having only artifacts of material culture and proto-hieroglyphic recording tools. The main methods of this research – analysis, synthesis, generalization. Analyzing the statements of the author of the Chronicle, who is trying to reconcile the two worlds, it is possible to recreate the panorama of the life of Andean society of that era and the sociolinguistic situation developed in it. The novelty of the study can be considered the combination of cultural and sociolinguistic approaches in the analysis of the material. The conclusion reached by the authors of the article is that the death of the Andean civilization was inevitable under the onslaught of the European one. But the Andean world, native languages and culture have not disappeared, and today are being revived, since the Peruvian society has formed a request to restore the social functions of native languages in full. (shrink)

The author examines the impact of the technological capabilities of medicine to review the boundaries between enhancement and therapy, artificial and natural, normal and supernormal, revealed the relationship of medicalization trends and development of the «quantified self» movement, revealed some «garage biology» ideas in connection with the development of different practices of human transformation.

The philosophy of culture and the philosophy of history were the popular topics of the developing Russian history of philosophy in the 19th and early 20th centuries. In the following article, A. I. Herzen’s socio-cultural project is examined and compared with the Slavophiles’Christian communal socialism. Herzen’s type of socialism appears to be a specific variant of the Russian national culture as the Slavophiles depicted.

Perfectionism has been studied for almost 30 years. In the present study, we investigated the internal validity of The Perfectionism Inventory in an occupation that encourages perfectionistic tendencies in own behavior or in students' behavior. We collected data from a large sample of schoolteachers recruited using a snowball sampling approach, and we analyzed the factor structure of the PI using confirmatory factor analyses. We found that the 8-factor structure of PI provided a reasonable fit root mean square error of approximation (...) [RMSEA = 0.055, 90% CI = ; SRMR = 0.071]. However, additional analyses revealed problematic divergent validity only in the case of the scales associated with self-evaluative perfectionism, not in the case of the scales associated with conscientious perfectionism. We found that teachers displayed distinguishably different forms of perfectionism only when it referred to own person, not when it referred to perfectionism imposed to others. Based on these findings, we suggested that the PI could provide a useful framework for investigating the role of conscientious-related forms of perfectionism in the development of teacher beliefs regarding their school behavior. (shrink)

This paper presents a historical reinterpretation of the Cairo papyrus n. 65445 which includes an elegant epigram concerning the creation of a γέρας intended for Lagids sovereigns. Starting from the editions of the text proposed by the philologists and from insights advanced by the archaeologists, the paper focuses on the elements that offer valuable economic and political data; these allow us to corroborate the identification of the excellent characters mentioned in the papyrus (a Ptolemy and an Arsinoe). The origin of (...) the marble, the function and the location of the original structure are interpreted as indicators of a historical and economic context of the Ptolemaic kingdom in the second quarter of the third century B. C. (shrink)

The article reveals the consequent process of the Кantian empirical cognition. Separating a priori and empirical knowledge, the philosopher gives grounds for a more detailed analysis of empirical and pure experience. Since Kant denies empiricism, the question arises what is an experience for him? I think that spatio-temporal relations that play a leading role in his theory of experience can be analyzed on the transcendental level as the concept of magnitude, while the sensations of space and time, in turn, can (...) be pretty good described from the perspective of a physiology of empirical experience. Kant’s phenomenological approach allows for a description of the mechanism of perception, beginning with the pure intuitions, which underlie mathematics, and ending with empirical sensations. Thus, I claim that it is possible to reconstruct a certain scale of perceptions: there are intuitions of space and time on the transcendental level, which gives the possibility of applying mathematics to nature. This level becomes a starting point for the subsequent stage of presentation of mathematical time and geometric space. The process results in empirical judgments which don’t have an apodictic character any more. (shrink)

The research subject in the present article is A. Comte’s and H. Spencer’s beliefs, who are considered the representatives of early positivism. The particular emphasis is made on the ethnicity issues. A. Comte distinguished three stages of the human consciousness elevating: theological or fictitious, metaphysic or abstract, positive or real. The scientist claimed the quality of a society as a whole is directly related to the level of the individual development. Moreover, moral ideas, which have to be free from theology (...) and metaphysics and based on the new philosophy of positive thinking, have a powerful influence on the society development. As a result, moral principles have to be guided by social solidarity and be a society’s logical controller. However, the societal progress rejected the scientist’s notion. According to H. Spencer, social morality arises from natural one whereby altruism and social equity are built on the concern of the kind preservation. The higher the society is organized, the greater the level of the equity is. The researcher provides the example illustrating an ideal society in which a well-functioning organ evolves better than others which in turn means “social equity” principle is implemented. The scientific novelty of the article is determined by the first comparative analysis of A. Comte’s and H. Spencer’s moral-ethnical concepts as well as defining the most controversial theses in their theories. There has been found out that the key difference in the philosophers’ ideas is their seeing into the real nature of morality, having its ground either in the human mind (Comte) or natural environment (Spencer). The definition of the society as an entity with its characteristics resembling a biological organism is considered to be significantly similar in their views. Secondly discovered similarity is the definition of the human history as a progressive process in which individual human mind, morality and a society as an entity are evolving simultaneously. The present paper also puts forward the conclusion that the ideas about the history as a progressive process resulted at a “positive” stage turned out to be the most debatable issues. (shrink)

This article aims to analyze the manifestation of the universal axiological cultural category of sinfulness in the media space. The study's subject was this category's properties and functions, which are actualized when represented in digital media. In accordance with this goal, we used such methods as continuous sampling and observation of the facts of the representation of cultural categories, which allowed us to determine the linguistic material for analysis and a statistical method for quantitative analysis. The content analysis of the (...) units selected for the study was used to identify the role, properties, and main functions of the universal axiological category of sinfulness. The novelty of the research lies in the fact that, for the first time, the universal nature of the category of sinfulness, its functions and properties, represented in media publications, were considered. Main conclusions: the study of the facts of actualization of the category of sinfulness in the media space allowed us to assert that the phenomenon under study is associated with topics such as politics, crime (in news media), and the assessment of citizens' behavior and morality (in religious media). These facts indicate that the primary function of the category of sinfulness is regulatory, aimed at evaluating and correcting the actions of members of society, as well as creating public opinion. In addition, the article proves that the category of sinfulness has transcultural properties, penetrating and being realized in all cultural layers, from local to global. In these cultural layers, the nature of the category acquires a different shade. In particular, at the global level, the category of sinfulness acquires the meaning of guilt, which is a consequence of the significant influence of Western culture on the global culture. It seems that the revealed properties of the category indicate its high importance for modern Russian society. The established regulatory function will make it possible to apply this category, including within the framework of regulating and managing public opinion and promoting basic values. (shrink)

The historical factors as well as the units of the cultural knowledge which are considered to have provided Chateaubriand’s books, and “The Genius of Christianity” in particular, with the success and the content are the subject of the present article. The following historical reasons which attracted the readers’ attention to the book have been defined: the disappointment of the society with the atheistic ideals of the revolution, the need for religious cult restoring, the authorities’ desire to stop strife in the (...) country and build relationships with Catholic Europe. The semantic content of the work also contributed to its popularity because it responded to the request of finding logic in the religion, had an emotional impact and dealt with the relevant issues of the morality by means of the cultural category of sinfulness. Scientific novelty of the research implies the following: the cultural category of sinfulness objectified in F.R. Chateaubriand’s book “The Genius of Christianity” having been analyzed for the first time as well as the author’s approach to the understanding and cultural information streamlining having been identified. More over cultural-historical factors promoting the book’s prominence among Chateaubriand’s contemporaries have been studied. The author’s using rational way while explaining the basis of the sin, resorting to the strict argumentation and the evidence-based methods, denying religious irrationality have been set. The conducted research has shown the key factors leading to the book’s relevance: the society’s necessity of the religion revival, the authorities’ support of this tendency specified by the political environment. (shrink)

This essay analyzes how the Benedictine monk Benito Jerónimo Feijoo (1676–1764), one of the most popular Spanish natural philosophers in Europe and America, discussed amorous attraction. In an attempt to reconcile Catholic dogma with empirical knowledge, Feijoo explained the origin of love as the result of wave-like interactions between sensual stimulus, imagination, nerve fibers, and the heart. His physiological model considered men and women to be equal in their internal constituents, which had important consequences for a possible science of matching. (...) First, a possible match could only be known by a physical encounter; second, love bonds could be controlled by training the imagination; third, a harmonious society with happy marriages required accepting the intellectual equality of the sexes. The essay suggests how our knowledge about the nature of emotions influences the way we imagine an ideal society, as it is ultimately about the forces that attract and separate people, as well as the mechanisms to control them. (shrink)

Mouvement et corporéité chez Patočka.Les origines aristotéliciennes du concept de mouvement ontologiquePatočka reconnaît dans le mouvement vital de l’existence humaine le fondement ontolotique de l’ouverture-au-monde et à l’Être entier comme totalité de ce qui est: par rapport à Heidegger par contre, Patočka entrevoit dans la corporéité une dimension ontologique fondamentale pour la donation même de l’existence actuelle. C’est dans ce sens que le mouvement de l’existence prend chez Patočka une dimension ontologique fondamentale: il représente, en dernière instance, un facteur déterminant (...) pour l’apparaître et la donation et le devenir actuel de l’existence, qui trouve précisément dans la corporéité le fondement ultime de sa manifestation.Le phénoménologue aveugle aperçoit chez Aristote la découverte très innovante (par rapport à la tradition philosophique qui l’avait précédé) d’un rapport dynamique et coessentiel entre l’Être et le mouvement: au cours du développement, je chercherai à montrer de quelle manière cette découverte assume pour Patočka une pertinence philosophique fondamentale, contribuant à la théorisation de l’idée de mouvement au sens ontologique. Il s’agira donc de montrer comment, à partir de l’analyse de la conception aristotélicienne du mouvement de sa relation avec la notion de substance,Patočka a élaboré sa propre idée de mouvement ontologique et de corporéité.Movement and Corporeality in Patočka.The Aristotelian Origins of the Concept of Ontological MovementPatočka recognized in the vital movement of human existence the ontological ground of the openness-to-the-world and to Being as a whole as the totality of thatwhich is. Unlike Heidegger, however, Patočka caught a glimpse in corporeality of a ontological dimension fundamental for the givenness of actual existence. It is in this sense that the movement of existence takes on a fundamental ontological dimension in Patočka: it represents, in a final analysis, a determining factor for the appearing and the givenness and the actual becoming of existence, which finds precisely in corporeality the ultimate ground of its manifestation.The blind phenomenologist glimpsed in Aristotle the very innovative discovery (with respect to the philosophical tradition that had preceded him) of a dynamic and coessential relationship between Being and movement. In the course of my argument, I will seek to show in what way this discovery assumes a fundamental philosophical pertinence for Patočka, contributing to the theorization of the idea of movement in an ontological sense. I will show how, following from the analysis of the Aristotelian conception of movement and of its relation with the notion of substance, Patočka elaborated his own idea of ontological movement and corporeality. (shrink)