Neuroimaging and psychophysiological techniques have proved to be useful in comprehending the extent to which the visual modality is pervasive in mental imagery, and in comprehending the specificity of images generated through other sensory modalities. Although further research is needed to understand the nature of mental images, data attained by means of these techniques suggest that mental imagery requires at least two distinct processing components.

Research question and aimClinical Ethics Committees (CECs) aim to support healthcare professionals (HPs) and healthcare organizations to deal with the ethical issues of clinical practice. In 2020,...

This study investigated how young Italian people experienced the period of peak spread of COVID-19 in their country by probing their emotions, thoughts, events, and actions related to interpersonal and community bonds. This approach to the pandemic will highlight social dimensions that characterized contextual interactions from the specific perspective of Community Psychology. The aim was to investigate young people's experiences because they are the most fragile group due to their difficulty staying home and apart from their peers and because they (...) are, at the same time, the most potentially dangerous people due to their urge to gather in groups. The research involved 568 university students, 475 females, and 93 males, with an average age of 21.82 years. The collected data were analyzed with the Grounded Theory Methodology, using the Atlas 8.0 software. From the textual data, representative codes were defined and grouped into 10 categories, which reflect the individuals' prosocial attitudes, behaviors, and values. These categories formed three macro-categories, called: “Collective Dimensions,” which includes Connectedness, Solidarity, Italian-ness, Social Problems, and Collective Mourning; “Prosocial Orientation,” which includes Trust and Hope; and “Collective Values,” which includes Values of Freedom, Respect of Social Rules, and Civic-Mindedness. All these macro-categories are indicative of the shared feelings experienced by Italians during the first time of the pandemic. Further practical implications of these results will be discussed, including a consideration of the risk of developing distress and improving well-being, as well as promoting preventive behaviors. (shrink)

The present work looks at what we call “the multiverse of quantification”, where visible and invisible numbers permeate all aspects and venues of life. We review the contributions of different authors who focus on the roles of quantification in society, with the aim of capturing different and sometimes separate voices. Several scholars, including economists, jurists, philosophers, sociologists, communication and data scientists, express concerns or identify critical areas of our relationship with new technologies of ‘numericization’. While mindful of the important specificities (...) of the different families of quantification, we use our broad and holistic canvas to explore possible spaces for a more systematic investigation of incumbent and novel quantifications, as to increase communication among disciplinary communities, and among these and society, in the pursuit a democratic agency and self-defence. (shrink)

Drawing on shared research experiences and collaborative projects, this book offers a broad and timely perspective on research on the hand and its current challenges. It especially emphasizes the interdisciplinary context in which researchers need to be trained in contemporary science. From language to psychology, from neurology to the social sciences, and from art to philosophy and religion, the chapters discuss various aspects involved in hand research and therapy. On the basis of concrete and validated case studies, they approach hand (...) function and gestures from different perspectives – not only neurological and medical, but also philosophical, evolutionary and anthropological. By highlighting the overlaps between different areas of research, the book seeks to foster better communication between researchers, and ultimately a better understanding of hand function and its recovery. It offers essential information and inspirations for students, researchers and practitioners in the fields of psychology, epistemology, bioengineering, neuroscience, anthropology and bioethics. (shrink)

Recent studies reported the development of psychological distress symptoms in patients who recovered from COVID-19. However, evidence is still scarce and new data are needed to define the exact risk and protective factors that can explain the variability in symptoms manifestation. In this study, we enrolled 257 patients who recovered from COVID-19 and we evaluated the levels of psychological distress through the Symptoms Checklist-90-R scale. Data concerning illness-related variables were collected from medical records, while the presence of subjective cognitive difficulties, (...) both before and after the illness, as well as the level of the cognitive reserve, were assessed over a clinical interview. Results revealed that being female and reporting the presence of subjective cognitive difficulties after COVID-19 were associated with higher levels of psychological distress. At the same time, being admitted to the hospital and having a high CR were protective factors. Adding new information to this emerging research field, our results highlight the importance of a complete psychological and cognitive assessment in patients with COVID-19. (shrink)

Come mostrare quel che non deve essere predicato, né fondato? Che vuol dire convertirsi da un modo di vita a un altro? Può un’etica dell’accettazione significare qualcosa di diverso da un’etica della rassegnazione? L’autrice dell’articolo cercherà di offrire una risposta a simili domande, centrali per la riflessione di Wittgenstein sulla "forma di vita", a partire da una sua certa somiglianza con l’interrogativo metodologico sollevato dall’universo della credenza religiosa.

In this paper, I will investigate the notion of mind within the “Extended Mind” theory, as it is defended by Andy Clark. The aim is to provide an explanation of its key ideas and to highlight some of its consequences. In the first part I will briefly explain the main features of Clark's theory. In the second part, I will discuss his account of the nature of language and its relationship to cognition, and I will relate it with the arguments (...) for cognitive and mental extension. Then I will use my analysis of Clark's arguments in order to individuate some problems, which characterize his philosophical position. Although I am sympathetic with his theory, I will argue that it is nonetheless committed to a narrow account of cognition and mind. For this reason, I will propose a way to integrate Clark's theory within a semiotic and pragmatist framework inspired by C.S. Peirce. I suggest that, if we conceive the cognition as a semiotic sense-making process, we can provide a broad account of cognition and a fully externalist position about the mind. (shrink)

Recreational Drugs European Network (ReDNet) project aims to use the Psychonaut Web Mapping Project database (Psychonaut Web Mapping Group, 2009) containing novel psychoactive compounds usually not mentioned in the scientific literature and thus unknown to clinicians as a unique source of information. The database will be used to develop an integrated ICT prevention approach targeted at vulnerable individuals and focused on novel synthetic and herbal compounds and combinations. Particular care will be taken in keeping the health professionals working directly with (...) young people showing problematic behaviors regularly updated in terms of novel compounds and combinations as well. A user-friendly project website will be developed aimed primarily at delivering the information/prevention approaches, but will also be a way of communicating with project partners and relevant stakeholders (e.g. thematic forum facilities, instant messages, blogs, video chat, wikiblog, newsletters distributed via mailing list). The website will support various ICT prevention tools, including an SMS alert service. Different areas and sections will be aimed specifically at the different target groups. -/- . (shrink)

Caterina può apparire arrabbiata, ma anche un brano musicale può manifestare emozioni: un passaggio triste, una marcia gioiosa, una modulazione che apre a nuovi sentimenti. Anche gli oggetti inanimati possono manifestare emozioni che pure, a differenza di quanto accade per persone e animali, non possono esperire. Sebbene le attribuzioni di emozioni agli oggetti inanimati possano essere trattate, in linea di principio, come esempi di metafore, esse sembrano invero catturare un’esperienza reale. Per quanto anche un bollitore possa fischiare gioiosamente o un (...) salice piangente apparire malinconico, non vi è dubbio che le opere d’arte siano particolarmente suscettibili di manifestare emozioni - essere espressive di emozioni1. Tra queste, la musica occupa da sempre una posizione privilegiata. Un brano musicale, che in quanto oggetto inanimato non può provare alcunché, è nondimeno in grado di raggiungere straordinarie vette di espressività emotiva. Ciò avviene del tutto indipendentemente da vari elementi - il testo, il titolo del brano o il programma di sala che lo accompagna - i cui eventuali significati emotivi espliciti possono semmai innestarsi, arricchendoli o persino contraddicendoli, su quelli di per sé manifestati della cosiddetta “musica pura”. (shrink)

L'A. si interroga con Tommaso sul dogma trinitario che pone una difficoltà molto grande soprattutto rispetto alla questione degli universali: come è possibile che il Padre sia Dio, allo stesso tempo una persona e allo stesso tempo che la paternità sia una relazione? Questi predicati che si applicano alla Trinità sono predicati con le stesse modalità con cui si usano tutti gli altri? L'A. esamina i modelli G-S e S-I e distingue la dimensione concettuale da quella ontologica, per delineare cosa (...) sia l'essere in una specie e in un genere, per concludere sull'impossibilità di applicare il modello universale-particolare a Dio. L'Aquinate propone un'alternativa ai modelli G-S e S-I che trova insufficienti: propone un modello che può essere chiamato comune-proprio: una cosa può essere comune in due modi distinti, da una parte numericamente, dall'altra secondo la definizione. Quindi communitas secundum rem, che è quella della natura divina; communitas secundum rationem, che è quella del concetto di relazione divina e persona divina. Il concetto di relazione divina è in ultima istanza diverso da quello di animal. (shrink)

L'etica, secondo Wittgenstein, ha a che fare con la mostrazione di un modo di vivere, inteso vuoi come disposizione complessiva del soggetto, vuoi come "habitus". In questo libro, Marta Cassina ripercorre le forme di questa mostrazione nell'opera del filosofo, argomentando, in primo luogo, che il modo di vivere indicato nel "Tractatus" come il contrassegno indicibile della vita giusta e felice debba essere compreso, man mano che il pensiero di Wittgenstein matura, come un "fare" e un uso condiviso della vita; (...) che questo uso, inoltre, possa essere letto nelle sue implicazioni teoretiche e nella maniera della sua genesi attraverso le "lenti" della credenza religiosa e della grammatica del voto di fede. (shrink)

This paper faces the problem of the guilt’s ambivalence, torn between responsibility and temptation, self-affirmation and strangeness to himself. Following Kierkegaard’s and Ricoeur’s thinking, we try to sound out this indissoluble polarity by means of analysis of adamitic myth, in which the sinner conscience rationally confesses to itself this terrible experience, the perception of being sinner, wicked, and of being at the same time deceived, victim of a pre-existent and irresistible evil.

Psychiatry and the sciences of mental health are currently in search of new methodological and conceptual foundations, and philosophy is actively involved in the quest, as the recent increase of interdisciplinary research initiatives and publications testifies (see eg. Fulford, this volume for a review). Among the different philosophical schools, phenomenology is a long-term ally for psychiatry. In the past, the work of authors such as Karl Jaspers have provided the very foundations of the di...

La venerabile metafora del buon macellaio ha resistito allo scorrere del tempo molto meglio di altre fantasiose immagini della metafisica platonica: buona parte dell’ontologia contemporanea riposa tuttora sulla distinzione tra venature dell’Essere – quei confini nello spazio, nel tempo, nei mondi che effettivamente demarcherebbero entità ontologicamente autonome – e semplici linee-guida, sovraimposte dagli esseri umani per “ritagliare” nella realtà oggetti socialmente utili o cognitivamente s...

La diffusione, la presenza, la lettura di Francis Bacon negli ambienti libertini francesi della prima metà del secolo XVII è molto più ampia di quanto non sia stato finora sottolineato: in particolare, negli ambienti libertini, oltre al Novum Organum e al De augmentis scientiarum, venivano letti e ricercati i Saggi e capitoli non secondari del De sapientia veterum e della Historia vita et mortis. La Mothe La Vayer, i fratelli Dupuy, Gassend, tra gli altri, ma anche Mersenne, Descartes, Pascal conoscono (...) e usano gli scritti del Lord Cancelliere, come dimostra la loro circolazione sia pubblica che clandestina. La critica al principio di autorità, al consensum gentium, l’importanza della storia, la riapproprazione della filosofia antica di tradizione atomistica, spesso usata in funzione antiaristotelica, l’uso delle favole antiche come ratio docendi, l’uso costante e maturo di Machiavelli e soprattutto la critica incessante alla superstizione sono tutti temi che spiegano non solo la diffusione del filosofo inglese in Franciam ma anche le molteplici e precoci traduzioni in francese delle sue opere. (shrink)

[1] Introduzione, lessico -- [2] Index locorum, lista di frequenza, distribuzione dei lemmi.

Questo articolo si inserisce nell’ambito dei più recenti studi baconiani che hanno determinato una revisione critica della fortuna di Francis Bacon , la pubblicazione di nuove opere o parti di opere inedite e uno studio attento del lessico e del vocabolario baconiano. Per quanto riguarda la seconda metà del ‘700 e l’‘800, la fortuna e l’incidenza del pensiero baconiano è quasi tutta da studiare, schiacciata com’è dal giudizio moralistico sulla sua ‘caduta’ . In merito alla fortuna di Francis Bacon in (...) Italia nel XVIII e XIX secolo ho analizzato due dei possibili autori che alle opere del filosofo inglese diedero attenzione: Cesare Beccaria e Vincenzo Gioberti. (shrink)

In this essay, I aim to examine Hölderlin’s theory of composition according to the thesis on the compatibility of poetic and philosophical practices. I interpret Hölderlin’s poetological fragments as a response to the epistolary exchange he had held with his master Schiller a few years earlier, concerning the dialectic between philosophy and poetry, enthusiasm and sobriety. I argue that Hölderlin’s fragments prompt us to consider poetry and philosophy as poiesis-based practices. Identifying creativity as their common destination allows one to postulate (...) the interaction between the two disciplines. I finally argue that aesthetics could be the place for this interaction. Hölderlin outlines a productive, namely aesthetic, theory of creation, in which boundaries between philosophy and poetry seem to interact rather than exclude. (shrink)

The purpose of this essay is to address the problem of the relationship between translation and art by relying on F. Hölderlin’s and W. Benjamin’s theories of translation. These theories, which at first appear to be opposed, are actually very close since they discuss both art and translation as marked by a linguistic and theoretical renunciation. In the first section, I demonstrate in what sense this relationship is fundamental for an aesthetic consideration of translation. The second section discusses the two (...) main reasons for the divergence between art and translation, focusing especially on the philosophical limitations of Hölderlin’s theory as indicated in Benjamin’s The task of the translator. In the third section, I deal with the commonalities of the two theories, which are both marked by the notion of linguistic failure. I argue that Benjamin’s juvenile essay On language as such can be approached from a confrontation with Hölderlin’s lyric Patmos. In the fourth and last section, I conclude that the concept of the linguistic renunciation can mark both Hölderlin’s and Benjamin’s theories of translation. I finally argue that renunciation can be attributed to both art and translation, which are therefore intimately related critical activities. (shrink)

The purpose of this essay is to address the problem of the relationship between translation and art by relying on F. Hölderlin’s and W. Benjamin’s theories of trans- lation. These theories, which at first appear to be opposed, are actually very close since they discuss both art and translation as marked by a linguistic and theoretical renunciation. In the first section, I demonstrate in what sense this relationship is fundamental for an aesthetic consideration of translation. The second section discusses the (...) two main reasons for the divergence between art and translation, focusing especially on the philosophical limitations of Hölderlin’s theory as indicated in Benjamin’s The task of the translator. In the third section, I deal with the commonalities of the two theories, which are both marked by the notion of lin- guistic failure. I argue that Benjamin’s juvenile essay On language as such can be approached from a confrontation with Hölderlin’s lyric Patmos. In the fourth and last section, I conclude that the concept of the linguistic renunciation can mark both Hölderlin’s and Benjamin’s theories of translation. I finally argue that renun- ciation can be attributed to both art and translation, which are therefore inti- mately related critical activities. (shrink)

The paper is devoted to the development of Emmanuel Lévinas’ philosophy of the subject as expounded in his Autrement qu’être ou au-délà de l’essence. Levinas claims that the subject is good but emerges from a formless substrate; for this reason it belongs to something which can described as anonymous, dark, ignorant, sensual — the otherness. An attempt to define the structure of the subject as an abstract entity is only possible in virtue of the fact that its form has been (...) separated from something that is difficult not only to describe but also to understand, even by intuition. In this sense one may say that the subject discovers itself as the Other. The subject discovers its own belonging to the Otherness which precedes the process of becoming its own. Finally, the subject knows that the only way to be Itself is to take responsibility for the otherness through which it establishes its subjectivity as such. (shrink)

The Discounting Inventory, originally developed in polish language, allows the measurement of individual differences in the delay, probabilistic, effort, and social discounting rates. The present study attempted to validate the DI’s psychometric properties using German university students and to compare the results to those from a sample of Polish university students. Over four hundred participants completed the DI and traditional discounting measures. A confirmatory factor analyses indicated that the original four-factor model of the DI provided an excellent fit for the (...) German data and internal consistency was high. These outcomes were similar, if not superior, to those from the Polish sample. DI scores strongly correlated with traditional discounting measures scores in both samples, replicating previous results. These findings indicate that the DI is a valid measure for use in a sample from another cultural setting, which is potentially useful to both researchers and practitioners. (shrink)

Recensione a "Tracce dell’informe. L’indecostruibile e la filosofia dell’evento in Jacques Derrida", opera prima di Sergio Genovesi, pubblicata da Mimesis Edizioni per la collana "Eterotopie".