While research on question–answer sequences has yielded important insights into the structures of responses and the actions they implement, the advising literature has illuminated how advice-giving may be resisted or avoided in certain institutional contexts. In this study, we examine the audio-recorded Q&A sections of applicant webinars delivered by a major philanthropic foundation in the United States, with a particular focus on the foundation representatives’ complex responses to audience members’ yes–no questions that seek specificity. Within a conversation analytic framework, we (...) show how the practice of going general is engaged to manage the demands of being helpful to the individual questioner without appearing to guarantee a particular outcome while foregrounding the foundation’s principles and priorities for the broader audience. Findings of this study may be useful for formulating recommendations for foundation representatives tasked with communicating effectively with potential grantees. (shrink)

This paper analyzes the family business as an organizational entity and as a proprietary form useful to transmit personal values and company assets to the next generations. This paper aims to introduce the legal instruments in Italy to transfer family businesses and to evaluate how these are useful for ensuring not only the survival of the company in the market but also that family values and characteristics pass from one generation to the next maintaining a prosocial humanistic management perspective. The (...) legal status of the family business and the fact that most small- and medium-sized companies in Italy are not listed, which considerably affects disclosure obligations and makes it more challenging to get consistent and reliable information at affordable costs, has to date limited research on this model. In recent years, given their growth in size and market share, the strategic potential of family businesses was recognized by both academics and practitioners, giving rise to further study. A primary goal of a family business is to maintain its competitive advantage in the market and pass down its values in the succession line. Hence, one of the most important themes on which scholars focused has been how this process takes place to ensure continuity. This paper argues that the trust and the family pact are both valid legal instruments to this end, albeit with different advantages depending on the circumstances surrounding the succession. (shrink)

The use of assistance systems aimed at reducing road fatalities is spreading, especially for car drivers, but less effort has been devoted to developing and testing similar systems for powered two-wheelers. Considering that over speeding represents one of the main causal factors in road crashes and that riders are more vulnerable than drivers, in the present study we investigated the effectiveness of an assistance system which signaled speed limit violations during a simulated moped-driving task, in optimal and poor visibility conditions. (...) Participants performed four conditions of simulated riding: one baseline condition without Feedback, one Fog condition in which visual feedback was provided so as to indicate to the participants when a speed limit was exceeded, and two post-Feedback conditions with and without Fog, respectively, in which no feedback was delivered. Results showed that participants make fewer speeding violations when the feedback is not provided, after 1 month, and regardless of the visibility condition. Finally, the feedback has been proven effective in reducing speed violations in participants with an aggressive riding style, as measured in the baseline session. (shrink)

Introduction: Motor evoked potentials (MEPs) to transcranial magnetic stimulation are known to be susceptible to several sources of variability. However, conflicting evidences on individual characteristics in relatively small sample sizes have been reported. We investigated the effect of age, height, and sex on MEPs of the motor cortex and spinal roots in a large cohort. Methods: A total of 587 subjects clinically and neuroradiologically intact were included. MEPs were recorded during mild tonic contraction through a circular coil applied over the (...) “hot spot” of the first dorsal interosseous and tibialis anterior muscles, bilaterally. Central motor conduction time (CMCT) was estimated as the difference between MEP cortical latency and the peripheral motor conduction time by cervical or lumbar magnetic stimulation. Peak-to-peak MEP amplitude to cortical stimulation and right-to-left difference of each parameter were also measured. Results: After Bonferroni correction, general linear (multiple) regression analysis showed that both MEP cortical latency and peripheral motor conduction time at four limbs positively correlated with age and height. At lower limbs, an independent effect of sex on the same measures was also observed (with females showing smaller values than males). CMCT correlated with both age (negatively) and height (positively) when analyzed by a single regression; however, with a multiple regression analysis this significance disappeared, due to the correction for the multicollinearity within the dataset. Conclusions: Physical individual features need to be considered for a more accurate and meaningful MEPs interpretation. Both in clinical practice and in research setting, patients and controls should be matched for age, height, and sex. (shrink)

We try to recast in modern terms a choice principle conceived by Beppo Levi. who called it the Approximation Principle (AP). Up to now. there was almost no discussion about Levi's contribution. due to the quite obscure formulation of AP the author has chosen. After briefly reviewing the historical and philosophical surroundings of Levi's proposal. we undertake our own attempt at interpreting AP. The idea underlying the principle. as well as the supposed faithfulness of our version to Levi's original intention. (...) are then discussed. Finally. an application of AP to a property of metric spaces is presented. with the aim of showing how AP may work in contexts where other forms of choice are commonly at use. (shrink)

At Prior Analytics II 22.68a16–21, Aristotle argues that if A is predicated of all B and C and nothing else, and B is predicated of all C, then A and B convert. In justifying his argument, however, he appears to claim that B is not predicated of all A. This claim has long been a cause of puzzlement to commentators. A widespread view is that the kind of conversion discussed in the passage at issue should be explained in both extensional (...) and intensional terms. After providing some textual evidence that Aristotle only apparently claims that B is not predicated of all A, I give a purely extensional account of Aristotle’s argument. This account is plausible, conservative and simpler than any of the intensional accounts that have been proposed so far. (shrink)

Con lo sviluppo dell'antropologia moderna, alcuni problemi filosofici si ripropongono in forma inedita. Riflettere sull'uomo non significa più conoscere se stessi, né parlare di Dio o dell'anima, ma confrontarsi con un essere problematicamente proteso tra determinatezza e libertà, tra "natura" e "mondo". Il volume mostra come lo svolgersi di questa vicenda sia assai meno frammentario e discontinuo di quanto talora si presuma. Il problema antropologico è al centro di un vivace ed aspro dibattito che, dal fiorire dell'antropologia all'epoca di Herder (...) e Kant, giunge, attraversando l'intero sviluppo del pensiero ottocentesco e in particolare le opere di Hegel, Marx, Darwin e Nietzsche, fino all'«antropologia filosofica» e alla critica dell’«antropologismo» da parte di Husserl e Heidegger. E’ su questo sfondo tematico che si comprendono molti degli sviluppi novecenteschi e contemporanei. (shrink)

L'articolo si propone di esaminare le ricerche di Michael Tomasello nel campo della psicologia evoluzionistica dal punto di vista di una filosofia neocriticista. L'analisi metterà in luce, in una prospettiva generale ma anche a partire da un caso specifico tratto da Tomasello, la possibilità di interpretare la psicologia evoluzionistica, grazie all'apporto di un'analisi trascendentale dei suoi concetti, come una disciplina composita e dotata di differenti piani di sviluppo.

Giornalista, critico letterario, romanziere e saggista, Maurice Blanchot ha il merito di aver costantemente interrogato il confine incerto tra la parola filosofica e quella della finzione. Lungi dal voler dar peso alle eventuali incoerenze tra i testi e la biografia dell’autore, ci si propone qui di indicare nell’instancabile analisi del nesso tra la propria attività di scrittura e il senso della partecipazione politica, l’angolatura più efficace da cui cogliere la narrazione, teorizzazione e messa in pratica di un’autentica dissoluzione del soggetto.

This paper focuses on the reception of Aristotle’s writings from 100 BC to early Neoplatonism. The 1stcentury BC is marked by a renaissance of interest in Aristotle’s acroamatic treatises, in connection to Andronicus’ editorial work. This is a well known fact, but it is worth noting that interpreters of Aristotle between the 1st century BC and the 1st century AD were only familiar with a limited set of treatises. The Academic Eudorus of Alexandria was a partial exception, since he was (...) probably acquainted with parts of Aristotle’s Metaphysics. Aristotle’s exoteric dialogues remained a majour source for those interested in Aristotle well into the 2ndcentury AD. Finally, late-hellenistic compendia and handbooks provided second-hand information on Aristotle’s philosophy. It is only between the 2ndand the 3rdcenturies that the Peripatetic commentators developed a systematic reading of the whole corpus of Aristotle’s acroamatic treatises. Their work culminated with Alexander of Aphrodisias, whose exegesis laid the basis for the subsequent incorporation of Aristotle within Neoplatonism accomplished by Plotinus and Porphyry. (shrink)

La teoria delle obbligazioni rappresenta un significativo esempio di come un insieme di tecniche logiche possa essere applicato, in maniera feconda, a contesti disputazionali in cui la dimensione dialogica e l’interazione tra soggetti coinvolti in un confronto dialettico hanno un ruolo di primo piano.L’attenzione che numerosi studiosi hanno manifestato nei confronti di questa parte della logica modernorum negli ultimi quarat’anni testimonia la profondità e la difficoltà dei problemi teorici che stanno alla base della teoria.Molte interpretazioni sono state avanzate circa le (...) motivazioni che spingono i logici medievali a scrivere trattati in cui il portato delle loro dottrine logiche – come, ad esempio, la teoria delle consequentiae - viene declinato ed elaboratamente applicato al gioco dialettico tra due disputanti. La gamma di tali letture comprende differenti ipotesi: la teoria delle obbligazioni potrebbe fornire un nucleo di regole per l’impostazione di un metodo assiomatico rudimentale così come rappresentare un tentativo di elaborare esercizi volti a valutare le capacità logiche degli studenti o, ancora, un gioco teorico, svincolato dall’effettiva applicazione a contesti concreti, la cui finalità sarebbe il mantenimento della coerenza logica.E’ stata sostenuta da più interpreti la funzione pedagogica svolta dalla teoria, al di là del fatto che si tratti o meno di un metodo per la conduzione effettiva di dispute reali. Un’altra linea interpretativa collega la teoria delle obbligazioni al contesto della letteratura dei sophismata e degli insolubilia, dal cui repertorio, in effetti, sono spesso tratti molti degli esempi che si incontrano nella lettura dei trattati de obligationibus. In questo senso, la teoria offrirebbe regole e schemi di risposta che un interlocutore deve utilizzare per risolvere o rispondere a enunciati problematici o paradossali. Non si può escludere, inoltre, che nella teoria si realizzi un intreccio delle differenti motivazioni sopra esposte: potrebbe trattarsi di uno strumento che viene sviluppato tanto per la risoluzione di sophismata e insolubilia quanto per indagare il rapporto tra linguaggio e metalinguaggio o altre questioni teoriche. Altri studiosi hanno infine sostenuto che lo scopo della teoria delle obbligazioni consisterebbe nell’elaborazione di un metodo adatto alla costruzione e alla discussione di esperimenti mentali e che questo costituirebbe una sorta di metametodologia della scienza medievale sulla linea del ragionamento secundum imaginationem. (shrink)

The present paper deals with two distinct but related purposes: to shed light on certain controversial aspects of Gödel’s view toward mathematics by referring to that part of Gödel’s writings belonging to his Nachlass ; to discuss recent developments of the debate concerning some implications of Gödel’s well known incompleteness theorems, which have been looked by someone as a tool to ‘disprove’ the mechanistic view of human mind. We emphasize an ‘epistemological flavour’ of Gödel’s view which usually remains unnoticed on (...) one side. On the other, we try to introduce new topics in the debate by making reference to less conventional sources. (shrink)

The New Economic Windows Series, derived from Massimo Salzano's ideas and work, incorporates material from textbooks, monographs and conference proceedings that deals with both the theoretical and applied aspects of various sub-disciplines ...