La problématique des rapports entre l’agriculture et le capitalisme resurgit à intervalles réguliers, et suscite des controverses entre des chercheurs se réclamant, de près ou de loin, de Marx et de ses continuateurs. Des deux côtés de la Manche, la fin des années 1960 et le début des années 1970 constituent un moment important de redécouverte, de discussion et de réinterprétation des travaux marxistes sur la question paysanne et agraire. Pourtant, le débat en France à cette époque tranche nettement avec (...) celui qu’on peut observer au sein du « peasants seminar » de la School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) de Londres. Ce regain d’intérêt pour la paysannerie et l’agriculture s’accompagna en Angleterre d’une relecture des thèses classiques de Marx, d’Engels, de Lénine ou encore de Kautsky. Il ne s’agissait pas de « jeter le bébé marxiste avec l’eau du bain », comme ce fut le cas en France, mais bien de prolonger et d’enrichir l’analyse marxiste classique et de l’actualiser dans un contexte marqué par les luttes anticoloniales, la remise en cause du « productivisme », et la remise en question du modèle soviétique. (shrink)

A selection of recent philosophical texts—in Italian translation—dealing with the mereology of material objects and the nature of their boundaries. Introduction by L. Morena. Papers by R. M. Chisholm, P. M. Simons, B. Smith, A. Stroll, A. C. Varzi.

The focus of the following comments will be mainly on Mugnai's characterization of Leibniz's ‘mild nominalism’. Mugnai seems to suggest that Leibniz might have had in mind an ontological commitment view. My idea is that such a construal can be somewhat misleading, for Leibniz's ontological cautiousness seems to stem, in an utter Ockhamistic spirit, from more general considerations about theory building and theory choice.

The focus of the following comments will be mainly on Mugnai's characterization of Leibniz's ‘mild nominalism’. Mugnai seems to suggest that Leibniz might have had in mind an ontological commitment view. My idea is that such a construal can be somewhat misleading, for Leibniz's ontological cautiousness seems to stem, in an utter Ockhamistic spirit, from more general considerations about theory building and theory choice.

1 In un tentativo d’autodifesa che all’epoca apparve ai più come disperato. Bill Clinton ebbe a dire che l’esistenza o meno del suo affaire con Monica Lewinsky dipendeva da quale significato si sarebbe dovuto attribuire alla semplice parola «è» Che il legame tra le parole e la realtà non sia esattamente come quello immaginato (o, meglio, sperato) da Clinton dovrebbe essere evidente a tutti: sappiamo con ragionevole certezza che l’esistenza di un gran numero di cose non dipende dal significato...

Il convenzionalismo ontologico non gode certo di buona stampa, per diverse buone ragioni. Ciò nondimeno, molta dell’apparente implausibilità del convenzionalismo – una certa impressione di stravaganza filosofica, di presunzione metafisica, di antropocentrismo fuori tempo massimo, di magia ontologica – è da addebitarsi solo ed esclusivamente, o almeno questo è ciò che cercherò di argomentare, a una scelta infelice da parte degli stessi filosofi convenzionalisti su quale sia il tipo più appropr...

1 In un tentativo d’autodifesa che all’epoca apparve ai più come disperato. Bill Clinton ebbe a dire che l’esistenza o meno del suo affaire con Monica Lewinsky dipendeva da quale significato si sarebbe dovuto attribuire alla semplice parola «è» Che il legame tra le parole e la realtà non sia esattamente come quello immaginato (o, meglio, sperato) da Clinton dovrebbe essere evidente a tutti: sappiamo con ragionevole certezza che l’esistenza di un gran numero di cose non dipende dal significato...

Secondo Levinson (1985) ci sono delle forti disanalogie tra nomi di persona e titoli di opere. In primo luogo «per quel che riguarda i loro rispettivi ruoli nella comprensione e nella interpretazione degli oggetti che denotano». Inoltre, nomi e titoli sarebbero diversi dal momento che la funzione di «facilitare il riferimento è davvero centrale nei nomi di persona, laddove nei titoli tale funzione è tipicamente alla pari o addirittura secondaria rispetto ad altre funzioni». In ciò che segue c...

El objetivo de esta investigación es el de realizar un análisis de la epistemología de Quine. Para ello, comenzaré planteando la problemática filosófica del empirismo que nuestro autor critica en su obra. Continuaré realizando un análisis de la teoría del conocimiento de Quine desde su tesis pragmatista, con la que explicaré cómo se da el conocimiento según sus conceptos fundamentales: la reificación y el holismo. La tesis que defenderé es que los problemas que han caracterizado a la metafísica y, en (...) consecuencia, al empirismo son producidos por un mal uso de la reificación. (shrink)

Dans cet entretien, Henry Bernstein revient sur la fondation des études agraires critiques et les principaux concepts qu’il a développés pour une étude marxiste de la sociologie rurale. Il montre comment l’opposition entre léninisme et populisme se rejoue dans l’épistémologie de la structure de classe de la paysannerie.

Background: Undergraduate nursing students have been documented to experience ethical distress during their clinical training and felt poorly supported in discussing the ethical issues they encountered. Research aims: This study was aimed at exploring nursing students’ perceived opportunity to discuss ethical issues that emerged during their clinical learning experience and associated factors. Research design: An Italian national cross-sectional study design was performed in 2015–2016. Participants were invited to answer a questionnaire composed of four sections regarding: socio-demographic data, previous clinical learning (...) experiences, current clinical learning experience quality and outcomes, and the opportunity to discuss ethical issues with nurses in the last clinical learning experience. Participants and research context: Participants were 9607 undergraduate nursing students who were attending 95 different three-year Italian baccalaureate nursing programmes, located at 27 universities in 15 Italian regions. Ethical considerations: This study was conducted in accordance with the Human Subject Research Ethics Committee guidelines after the research protocol was approved by an ethics committee. Findings: Overall, 4707 perceived to have discussed ethical issues ‘much’ or ‘very much’; among the remaining, 3683 and 1217 students reported the perception of having discussed, respectively, ‘enough’ or ‘never’ ethical issues emerged in the clinical practice. At the multivariate logistic regression analysis explaining 38.1% of the overall variance, the factors promoting ethical discussion were mainly set at the clinical learning environment levels. In contrast, being male was associated with a perception of less opportunity to discuss ethical issues. Conclusion: Nursing faculties should assess the clinical environment prerequisites of the settings as a context of student experience before deciding on their accreditation. Moreover, the nursing faculty and nurse managers should also enhance competence with regard to discussing ethical issues with students among clinical nurses by identifying factors that hinder this learning opportunity in daily practice. (shrink)

The business enterprise is a major instrument in the creation of a just society. However the tension between profit and ethicality requires sound decision making and business ethics instruction is central to creative alternatives to business leaders. Therefore, instruction is aided with a model for framing one’s thoughts about ethics and while several earlier business ethics models exist, they tend to be closed and at times parochial. This paper draws on insights from other academic disciplines to offer a broader yet (...) flexible framework for professors, students, scholars, and decision makers. At the center of the model is the four stage framework of Rest et al. as impacted by four sets of variables—individual, organizational, environmental, and issue. These are rooted in the work of Dunlop’s Industrial Relations Theory and Jones’ Moral Intensity. A literature review of important variables is presented and the paper concludes with several take aways for instruction and policy suggestions. (shrink)

The study aimed to understand how coping strategies in general and humor-based coping strategies in particular modulate the perception of pandemic-related stress in a sample of Italian healthcare workers during the coronavirus disease outbreak in Italy. A total of 625 healthcare workers anonymously and voluntarily completed a 10-min questionnaire, which included psychometrically valid measurements preceded by a set of questions aimed at determining workers’ exposure to COVID-19. The Perceived Stress Scale was used to measure healthcare workers’ stress levels, and the (...) Brief COPE Scale and Coping Humor Scale were used to assess participants’ avoidant or approach coping style and verify the degree to which they relied on humor to cope with stress. The results show that levels of perceived stress were higher in healthcare workers who were more exposed to COVID-19 in comparison to less-exposed workers; participants who reported a higher use of avoidant coping strategies perceived the situation as more stressful than those who used them less; and healthcare workers who reported higher use of humor-based coping strategies perceived the situation as less stressful in comparison with those who reported less use of coping humor. Such findings expanded other research studies by including coping humor as a potential factor to mitigate the perceived stress related to COVID-19. The paper concludes with a discussion of implications for future research and limitations of the study. (shrink)

The influence of Thomas More on Spanish utopian intellectuals and social reformers extends well into the eighteenth century. This article undertakes a detailed survey and an updating of the textual parallelisms connecting Utopia with the foundation of the New Settlements of Andalusia in 1767. It also presents a socio-historical perspective, which evinces a line of continuity connecting the New Settlements with an early Spanish Christian (Catholic) utopian tradition and practice, as seen in the earlier promoters of settlement programs in Spanish (...) America. This last point is well illustrated by a series of biographical parallelisms between Thomas More and Pablo de Olavide, the Superintendent of the New Settlements. (shrink)

Italian translation of "On Logical Relativity" (2002), by Luca Morena.