Suffering, defined as a state of undergoing pain, distress or hardship, is a multidimensional concept; it can entail physical, psychological and spiritual distress that prompts the sufferer to seek medical attention. As a construct originating from and unique to each patient, no patient’s suffering is equal to another’s or completely reducible to any generalizable frame of understanding. As it happens in a common medical encounter, the suffering patient requires an anamnesis provided by attentive and comprehensive listening to both the said (...) and unsaid parts of his or her discourse interpreted through the hermeneutical skills of the physician. Suffering can then be decoded into a complex construct, which can guide the formulation of a strategy to help patient coping by attempting to find meaning in it. To help this search for meaning, one may employ philosophic therapy, bibliotherapy and counseling, among other approaches. Suffering-based medicine (SBM) thus circumvents the limitations of the reductionistic Allopathic medical frame of understanding of disease. Such an attitude should be a common goal for all scientific medicine practitioners, as it complements and does not conflict with any of its therapeutic modalities. Furthermore, medical education should include humanistic disciplines to empower physicians to better understand their patients’ experience of suffering. (shrink)

In this paper I interpret Montaigne’s essay, “On Educating Children”, as a pedagogical text through its performance of a distinct epistolary function, one that addresses the letter-recipient for the purpose of shaping the ideas, actions, and beliefs of that individual. At the same time, I also read “On Educating Children” within the context of the wider project of Montaigne’s Essays, which, as I suggest, is an ethical-aesthetic project of self-fashioning and self-cultivation. The net result is an interpretation of teaching as (...) an ethical-aesthetic practice of the self, one that is in concert with the interpretation of Montaigne’s writing of the Essays as a similar practice of the self. In order to build this case, I employ Michel Foucault’s fourfold schema of ethical subjectivity, mapping that schema onto “On Educating Children”, so as to reveal a unique pedagogy of self-formation—a pedagogy that works as much upon the self of the teacher as it does the self of the student. (shrink)

Riassunto: L’uomo ha sempre riflettuto su se stesso e sulla sua identità e la sua riflessione si è strutturata attraverso molteplici forme espressive. Le domande esistenziali nascono nell’uomo con il suo esistere. Il pensiero filosofico occidentale ha egemonizzato il campo filosofico e antropologico imponendo le proprie categorlie di pensiero come le uniche razionali e scientifiche in nome di una presunta superiorità legata a un’idea di sviluppo fondata su un modello prettamente economico. In questo articolo si cercherà di decostruire le certezze (...) scientifiche del pensiero filosofico occidentale e analizzare criticamente il suo primato evidenziando come esistano diverse forme e rappresentazioni dell’esistenza umana. Il pensiero filosofico africano ci offre una prospettiva di lettura dell’essere che contrasta con la visione antropologica occidentale, ma allo stesso tempo ha una sua dignità e coerenza logica fondata su presupposti antropologici propri. Nata come resistenza al dominio del pensiero filosofico e antropologico occidentale, la filosofia africana si è sviluppata e contaminata dalle riflessioni che l’hanno preceduta. Non esiste un pensiero puro, poiché tutte le riflessioni umane sono ibride e nascono dall’incontro e dallo scontro con le altre posizioni filosofiche. Forse è venuto il tempo per riformulare il pensiero filosofico e antropologico da un punto di vista interculturale.: Man has always reflected on himself and his identity. His reflection has been structured through multiple forms of expression. In fact, existential questions arise in man with his existence. Western philosophical thought has dominated the philosophical and anthropological field by imposing its own categories of thought as the only rational and scientific ones, in the name of an alleged superiority linked to an idea of development based on a purely economic model. This article attempts to deconstruct the scientific c certainties of Western philosophical thought and critically analyzes its primacy by highlighting how there are different forms and representations of human existence. African philosophical thought offers a perspective that contrasts with the Western anthropological vision, having its dignity and its logical coherence based on its own anthropological assumptions. Born as resistance to the domination of Western philosophical and anthropological thought, African philosophy has developed and has been contaminated by the reflections that preceded it. All human reflections are hybrid and arise from the encounter and confrontation with other philosophical positions. Perhaps the time has come to reformulate philosophical and anthropological thought from an intercultural point of view. (shrink)

Lo económico como espacio de indeterminación o de conflicto. Análisis de un tratado monetario bajomedieval: el De moneta de Nicolás de Oresme. Resumen de tesis de doctorado en Filosofía de Julián Giglio.

Reimagining the call to teach: A witness to teachers and teaching, by David T. Hansen, Teachers College Press, 2021, 192 pp., USD29.95 (pbk), ISBN 978-0807765463David Hansen and the call the teach:...

David Hansen and The Call to Teach takes stock of the far-reaching impact of Hansen's teaching and scholarship. The essays in this volume explore the influence Hansen's work has had on our understanding of a whole host of important themes, including the moral dimensions of teaching, educational research, teacher education, and the philosophy of education.

In this paper I provide an introduction to the special issue on the Philosophical Novel for Children by pointing to a lacuna in the theoretical field of philosophy for/with children, suggesting that the field is in need of more research on the philosophical novel given its status as the curricular centerpiece of Matthew Lipman’s vision of P4/WC. I describe the genesis of the idea for this special issue, emerging as it did first from a series of questions and experiences which (...) I encountered while working with Lipman’s philosophical novels as a P4/WC practitioner, then through a scholarly exploration of Lipman’s model theory of the philosophical novel for children, and culminating in the presentation of several of the papers published here at a special symposium on the philosophical novel for children at a meeting of the American Philosophical Association. I conclude with a preview of the papers in this special issue, highlighting several shared themes and concerns. (shrink)

El presente trabajo analiza las últimas páginas del tratado De ludo globi de Nicolás de Cusa. Más específicamente, se centra en el ejemplo monetario utilizado por el Cusano, en donde el autor plantea una metáfora en donde Dios es presentado como un omnipotente acuñador de moneda, mientras que el hombre como un cambista. A partir de una propuesta inversa, que va de la gnoseología cusana al ejemplo, se propone comprender la concepción monetaria subyacente en el ejemplo. Para el análisis se (...) vincula esta obra con un sermón predicado años antes durante su obispado en Bresanona, así como rastrear importantes factores contextuales, y antecedentes teóricos. (shrink)

With his ‘event-based classification’, the late Peter Birks provided a coherent and principled framework for the civil law of obligations. In this article, ‘restitution’ is considered in the context of his taxonomy and two main propositions are advanced. The first proposition is that ‘gain-related recovery’ is the most adequate description of restitution as a legal response. The second proposition is that the term ‘restitution’ qualifies the mechanism of taking away the defendant's benefit without any direct reference to the immediate purpose (...) of the award and therefore has both a ‘giving up’ and a ‘giving back’ function. Those theories which distinguish these two functions, it is argued, confuse the mechanism of the right realized with the aim of the response awarded. Restitution as a legal response can be applied to reach different aims, such as giving back wealth mistakenly transferred by the claimant to the defendant or surrendering profits wrongfully obtained by the defendant. Yet, the right to restitution which is realized in court operates always in the same fashion: it transfers to the claimant wealth up to the level of the defendant's benefit. This interpretation tackles the criticism of those favourable to ‘disgorgement’, that is ‘giving up’, as an independent legal response and shows that their concerns are justified, but do not affect the consistency of the event-based classification. (shrink)

Varios autores han señalado las referencias explícitas e implícitas en la obra de Nicolás de Oresme al _Defensor pacis_ de Marsilio de Padua. Algunos de ellos han planteado a partir de las mismas la existencia de un “giro marsiliano”. Si bien dicha presencia es clara, no se ha explorado en profundidad el grado de apego de Oresme a los postulados marisilianos. Un análisis de factores contextuales, así como un análisis textual del _De moneta_ y del _Livre de Politique_ permiten establecer (...) algunas diferencias, de las cuales surge un modelo que presenta ciertos límites al apego de Oresme a los postulados del Paduano. (shrink)

Se presenta una Reseña del libro 'Oikonomía. Los orígenes de la reflexión económica en Grecia' de Carlos Martín, publicado por la Editorial de la Universidad de San Martín (Argentina).

ObjectiveStress can play a role in the onset and exacerbation of psoriasis. Psychological interventions to reduce stress have been shown to improve psychological and psoriasis-related outcomes. This pilot randomised study investigated the feasibility of a brief interaction with a Paro robot to reduce stress and improve skin parameters, after a stressor, in patients with psoriasis.MethodsAround 25 patients with psoriasis participated in a laboratory stress task, before being randomised to either interact with a Paro robot or sit quietly for 30 min. (...) Raman spectroscopy and trans-epidermal water loss were measured at baseline, after the stressor and after the intervention as indexes of acute skin changes. Psychological variables, including self-reported stress and affect, were also measured at the three time-points.ResultsNo statistically significant differences between the two conditions were found for any of the outcomes measured. However, effect sizes suggest significance could be possible with a larger sample size. Changes in the psychological and Raman spectroscopy outcomes across the experimental session were found, indicating the feasibility of the procedures.ConclusionThis pilot study showed that a brief interaction with a Paro robot was a feasible intervention for patients with psoriasis, but future trials should broaden the inclusion criteria to try to increase recruitment rates. Studying people who are highly stressed, depressed or who are stress-responders may increase the power of the intervention to show effects using a longer-term intervention. (shrink)

This essay attempts to retrieve the notion of ‘common sense’ within the writings of Descartes and Montaigne. I suggest that both writers represent distinct traditions in which the notion is employed. Descartes represents a modernist tradition in which common sense is understood to be a cognitive faculty, while Montaigne represents a humanist tradition in which common sense is understood as a political virtue. I also suggest that both writers work with the notion as a way of responding to diversity in (...) the world. The paper concludes with a discussion of how the notion of common sense employed by Descartes and Montaigne emerges out of the scholastic tradition and the assertion that both writers are responding to the educational consequences of scholasticism. I also discuss how the reconstruction of Descartes in this paper can provide some ground for raising new questions about the Cartesian project and educational philosophy. Finally, I gesture toward the idea that the humanist tradition with its understanding of common sense as political virtue can provide benefit for contemporary responses to diversity. (shrink)

This essay attempts to retrieve the notion of ‘common sense’ within the writings of Descartes and Montaigne. I suggest that both writers represent distinct traditions in which the notion is employed. Descartes represents a modernist tradition in which common sense is understood to be a cognitive faculty, while Montaigne represents a humanist tradition in which common sense is understood as a political virtue. I also suggest that both writers work with the notion as a way of responding to diversity in (...) the world. The paper concludes with a discussion of how the notion of common sense employed by Descartes and Montaigne emerges out of the scholastic tradition and the assertion that both writers are responding to the educational consequences of scholasticism. I also discuss how the reconstruction of Descartes in this paper can provide some ground for raising new questions about the Cartesian project and educational philosophy. Finally, I gesture toward the idea that the humanist tradition with its understanding of common sense as political virtue can provide benefit for contemporary responses to diversity. (shrink)

Nel 2011 il National Theatre di Londra celebrava il trentesimo anniversario della produzione dell’ Oresteia (Agamennon, Choefori e Eumenides) con una grande mostra che raccontava il lungo processo di creazione di uno degli allestimenti più famosi del teatro inglese degli ultimi quarant’anni; si tratta dell’adattamento e della traduzione della Trilogia di Eschilo a opera del poeta e scrittore inglese Tony Harrison, con la regia di Peter Hall (direttore del Teatro Nazionale dal 1973 al 1988) e le scene e le maschere (...) di Jocelyn Herbert. Questa mostra curata da Cathy Courtney, arrivava sette anni dopo la grande esposizione dedicata alla scenografa inglese intitolata Jocelyn Herbert at the National (2004).Il presente saggio racconta il lungo percorso creativo che ha portato alla definizione, oltre che di un’originale traduzione, anche di un particolare allestimento scenico che prevedeva l’uso di maschere per i soli attori uomini, create dalla Herbert, una delle più famose stage designer britanniche. I materiali preparatori sono stati messi a disposizione online negli ultimi anni, grazie a un progetto di digitalizzazione del National Theatre in collaborazione con Google Culture Institute. Proprio alle maschere della Herbert e alle diverse proposte e trattamenti della maschera greca in chiave contemporanea è dedicato un contributo critico finale che le affianca comparativamente sia a quelle del mascheraio e studioso di teatro greco classico Ferdinando Falossi, sia alle maschere video digitali e fotografiche create rispettivamente da Teatrino Giullare e da Marzio Emilio Villa. (shrink)

In the last two decades, some authors in the philosophy for children movement have theorized that the community of philosophical inquiry can be a form of spiritual practice, of the care of the self, or a wisdom practice (De Marzio, 2009; Gregory, 2009, 2013, 2014;Gregory & Laverty, 2009). Yet, it is unclear if philosophy for children is, by itself, a form of spiritual education, or if it requires some sorts of modification to be one. And, if it is or (...) can be a form of spiritual education, we can interrogate in what ways and to what extent is it one. It is these questions that this text aims to explore. To do so, we will first clarify the meaning of spiritual education through the presentation of two authors who have explicitly written on that topic. The first is Parker J. Palmer, who has developed a perspective on what it means to reclaim the spiritual roots of education, derived from his study and practice of Quaker spirituality. The second is Pierre Hadot, who has explored how the practice of philosophy in Western antiquity was a form of spiritual exercise. From our presentation of these two authors will emerge a particular perspective of what spiritual education means. In the last section of the text we will use this presentation to examine in what ways philosophy for children can be a form of spiritual education and if requires adaptations to be one. (shrink)

How would you feel if you thought God wrote a personal note to you...on His website...and it was about some of the stuff that makes you wonder if He really exists at all? This book does make you feel...while it makes you think. Maybe God isn't who we thought He was. Maybe His thoughts aren't what we have been taught. God's Blogs contains some insightful, fresh thoughts that help us see more of God's character, His love, and His grace as (...) He reflects on marriage, death, laughter, dads, and questions like "Why are we here?" and, "What about tsunamis and poverty?" A fascinating read that will make you laugh and cry and search your own thoughts about who He is. What Might God Say on His Blogsite? Basically I'm entering into your blogdom because somehow the rumor got started that I was kind of boring. For those of you who bought into that craziness, you should know that I'm the one who created all the stuff you love...all the stuff that makes life exciting. I invented funny and laughter. I created adventure and romance... I laugh a lot. "Divinely inspired. This is an awesome book!" Jeff Foxworthy Very funny, smart man who loves God "Fresh thoughts on life with God from one of the most creative--and quirky--communicators I know." Louie Giglio Founder of Passion Conferences and author of I Am Not But I Know I AM "This book went through me like liquid fire. It is so inspiring, uplifting, and refreshing." Dolly Parton (everybody knows Dolly) "Wonderfully fresh and imaginative." John C. Maxwell Founder of INJOY Stewardship Services & EQUIP "I found myself reading it out loud to anybody who would listen. You are going to love this book." Andy Stanley Pastor, North Point Community Church Story Behind the Book "Blogging is a huge thing on the Web all over the world. Millions of people are logging on to millions of other people's journals just to see what they have to say. Some blogs have a larger audience than the New York Times. With blogging being so trendy right now, it occurred to me, What might people do if they thought God was blogging online about what He was seeing or what He thought was important? That being the hook, I wanted to take biblical principles written in a form similar to Eugene Peterson's The Message and attempt to use what is cultural to say what is timeless. God's truths about His love and grace and fatherhood, written in a contemporary fashion, might just penetrate the hearts of those who need Him during times of trial, or of those who aren't even sure He exists." -- Lanny Donoho. (shrink)