En dépit de ce que le titre semble en première lecture suggérer, le livre d’Aurélien Robert (= A. R.), Épicure aux Enfers, est moins la reconstruction d’une damnation, que l’histoire d’un dédoublement : le constat initial procède de la scission entre la dimension historique d’Épicure, sa pensée -essentiellement eudémonique- et l’image injustifiée d’athée et hédoniste qui a connu un large succès au Moyen Âge et a, pendant longtemps, effacé son profil historique pour se substituer à lui. Le liv...

Quest'opera fa parte di un più vasto lavoro di ricerca sul neo-idealismo italiano in rapporto alla politica. Il titolo - filosofia e politica - è di per sé significativo: sta a indicare chiaramente la direzione e il tipo dell'indagine, che non è empirica ma trascendentale, non riguarda cioè la dottrina politica e le scelte pratiche di Croce, staccate dall'organismo del pensiero in cui s'incorporano e analizzate alla luce di alcune categorie, magari psicologiche e sociologiche; ma riguarda i presupposti teoretici che (...) stanno a fondamento di quella dottrina e di quelle scelte. Scartato, perché fuorviante, il metodo di quelle due «false scienze» che sono la psicologia e la sociologia, l'Autore ha tentato un discorso schiettamente filosofico, che è poi discorso di fondazione e di deduzione. Per questo è stato necessario procedere a una lettura integrale di Croce, avendo in una mano l'esperienza dei «testi» e nell'altra quella categoria della «totalità», che è più facile da invocare che da impiegare. Ma è stato necessario anche dare al lavoro un «taglio» particolare, in modo da evitare le semplificazioni eccessive e le sintesi sommarie, per andare direttamente al cuore dei problemi. L'impostazione metodologica ha richiesto da una parte l'adesione all'universo spirituale dell'autore studiato, e dall'altra l'obiettivo distaccato scientifico: due condizioni fondamentali, queste, che solo in apparenza si escludono, perché in realtà si conciliano riassumendosi nel concetto di «critica interna». DAL TESTO - "A ragione Croce afferma che il liberalismo è grandemente debitore all'estetica e alla filosofia dell'economia che hanno asserito la spiritualità del corpo, l'interiorità dell'oggetto nel soggetto, sì che il suo destino è legato a quelle due scienze che unificando Dio e mondo, idea e fatto, garantiscono, contro ogni disposizione autoritaria, la spontaneità e i contrasti delle forze spirituali; e a ragione afferma che l'autoritarismo politico e morale si congiunge a tutte quelle concezioni che hanno un riferimento trascendente e oltremondano. (da Archiviostorico.info). Ristampa del libro edito da Bulzoni, nel 1976. (shrink)

In his late years, Thomas Kuhn became interested in the process of scientific specialization, which does not seem to possess the destructive element that is characteristic of scientific revolutions. It therefore makes sense to investigate whether and how Kuhn’s insights about specialization are consistent with, and actually fit, his model of scientific progress through revolutions. In this paper, I argue that the transition toward a new specialty corresponds to a revolutionary change for the group of scientists involved in such a (...) transition. I will clarify the role of the scientific community in revolutionary changes and characterize the incommensurability across specialties as possessing both semantic and methodological aspects. The discussion of the discovery of the structure of DNA will serve both as an illustration of my main argument and as reply to one criticism raised against Kuhn—namely, that his model cannot capture cases of revolutionary yet non-disruptive episodes of scientific progress. Revisiting Kuhn’s ideas on specialization will shed new light on some often overlooked features of scientific change. (shrink)

The paper lists several editions of Euclid’s Elements in the Early Modern Age, giving for each of them the axioms and postulates employed to ground elementary mathematics.

In his mature writings, Kuhn describes the process of specialisation as driven by a form of incommensurability, defined as a conceptual/linguistic barrier which promotes and guarantees the insularity of specialties. In this paper, we reject the idea that the incommensurability among scientific specialties is a linguistic barrier. We argue that the problem with Kuhn’s characterisation of the incommensurability among specialties is that he presupposes a rather abstract theory of semantic incommensurability, which he then tries to apply to his description of (...) the process of specialisation. By contrast, this paper follows a different strategy: after criticising Kuhn’s view, it takes a further look at how new scientific specialties emerge. As a result, a different way of understanding incommensurability among specialties will be proposed. (shrink)

Splicing is an efficient and precise mechanism that removes noncoding regions from a single primary RNA transcript. Cutting and rejoining of the segments occurs on nascent RNA. Trans-splicing between small specialized RNAs and a primary transcript has been known in some organisms but recent papers show that trans-splicing between two RNA molecules containing different coding regions is the normal mode in a Drosophila gene.1-3 The mod(mdg4) gene produces 26 different mRNAs encoding as many protein isoforms. The differences lie in alternative (...) 3′ exons encoded by different transcriptional units and spliced to the 5′ common region by a surprising trans-splicing mechanism. BioEssays 24:988–991, 2002. © 2002 Wiley-Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

The use of Drosophila chromosomal rearrangements and transposon constructs involving the white gene reveals the existence of repressive chromatin domains that can spread over considerable genomic distances. One such type of domain is found in heterochromatin and is responsible for classical position‐effect variegation. Another type of repressive domain is established, beginning at specific sequences, by complexes of Polycomb Group proteins. Such complexes, which normally regulate the expression of many genes, including the homeotic loci, are responsible for silencing, white gene variegation, (...) pairing‐dependent effects and insertional targeting. (shrink)

This paper outlines an account of conditionals, the evidential account, which rests on the idea that a conditional is true just in case its antecedent supports its consequent. As we will show, the evidential account exhibits some distinctive logical features that deserve careful consideration. On the one hand, it departs from the material reading of ‘if then’ exactly in the way we would like it to depart from that reading. On the other, it significantly differs from the non-material accounts which (...) hinge on the Ramsey Test, advocated by Adams, Stalnaker, Lewis, and others. (shrink)

In his mature works, Kuhn abandons the concept of a paradigm and becomes more interested in the analysis of the conceptual structure of scientific theories. These changes are interpreted as resulting from a ‘linguistic turn’ that Kuhn underwent sometimes around the 1980s. Much of the philosophical discussions about Kuhn’s post-‘linguistic turn’ philosophy revolves around his views on taxonomic concepts. Apart from taxonomy, however, the mature Kuhn introduces other concepts, such as conceptual networks and lexicons. This article distinguishes these three concepts (...) and shows that adopting each one of them has different impacts on Kuhn’s model of science. After distinguishing and assessing the concepts of taxonomy, network, and lexicon, it will be argued that the latter not only fits the Kuhnian model of science better, but it also helps capture the wide sense of Kuhn’s early concept of a paradigm. (shrink)

This book discusses a range of crimes of the powerless as well as crimes of the powerful. Against conventional analysis of criminal behaviour as a result of social disadvantage, unemployment, or lack of resources, the author argues that abundance of opportunities and resources may lead to specific forms of criminality. The originality of this book lies in its joint analysis of `crimes in the street' and `crimes of the elite'.

This book examines the origin, philosophy and achievements of abolitionism and reviews the literature on penal abolitionism from the 1960s to the 1980s.

The three languages employed by the scientist, the artist, and the objective observer are interpreted in terms of each other using the latest developments in neuroscience and psychoanalysis in an attempt to create a meta-language with sufficient depth to comprehend the nature of the human mind.

We offer a proof of the duality theorem for finitely presented MV-algebras and rational polyhedra, a folklore and yet fundamental result. Our approach develops first a general dual adjunction between MV-algebras and subspaces of Tychonoff cubes, endowed with the transformations that are definable in the language of MV-algebras. We then show that this dual adjunction restricts to a duality between semisimple MV-algebras and closed subspaces of Tychonoff cubes. The duality theorem for finitely presented objects is obtained by a further specialisation. (...) Our treatment is aimed at showing exactly which parts of the basic theory of MV-algebras are needed in order to establish these results, with an eye towards future generalisations. (shrink)

This article aims at sketching a philosophical theory of sound based on the perspective of sound designers: unique agents blurring the boundaries between engineering, music, acoustics and sound-based art. After having introduced the general framing in Section 1, focusing on a short history of the theory and practice of sound design, in Section 2 we propose a reading of sound as monad. We derive such intuition from the technology of digital sampling of audio signals, based on the decomposition of complex (...) sound waves in a number of elementary sinusoidal waves. Thus, in Section 3, we attempt at grounding the resulting “sound-atom” on Leibniz’s notion of monad, intended both as a “simple substance without parts” and as a “nucleus of forces in statu possibilitatis.” The insight is resumed and further discussed in Section 4, where we draw our conclusions by demonstrating the fitness of such framing with regards to the standpoint of sound design, while accounting for the work of sound artists Carsten Nicolai and Ryoji Ikeda. (shrink)

We prove that the unification type of Łukasiewicz logic and of its equivalent algebraic semantics, the variety of MV-algebras, is nullary. The proof rests upon Ghilardiʼs algebraic characterisation of unification types in terms of projective objects, recent progress by Cabrer and Mundici in the investigation of projective MV-algebras, the categorical duality between finitely presented MV-algebras and rational polyhedra, and, finally, a homotopy-theoretic argument that exploits lifts of continuous maps to the universal covering space of the circle. We discuss the background (...) to such diverse tools. In particular, we offer a detailed proof of the duality theorem for finitely presented MV-algebras and rational polyhedra—a fundamental result that, albeit known to specialists, seems to appear in print here for the first time. (shrink)

Designing a pension system is both a complex endeavor and a long lasting legacy. Complexity stems from the many trade-offs that conceiving a pension system entail and from how these initial decisions affect the social and economic behavioral responses of workers and retirees. Policy-makers planning a pension system have to evaluate its internal economic consistency, but also these feedbacks. Economic and demographic models that allow a quantitative evaluation of these costs and benefits are required. More than ever at the initial (...) stage of design, since pension systems are persistent. Yet, pension systems are not monolith, but living entities that change over time. Some of these modifications are produced by individuals’ reactions to incentives built in the system, and need to be foreseen during the initial planning. Other changes are induced by reform measures and constitute the policy responses to unpredicted exogenous shocks – such as population aging. Re-designing the pension system to cope with new demands, while being limited by existing constraints, is a difficult task. Recent reforms of the Italian pension system are discussed in detail to highlight the policy trade-offs and the economic motivations behind the decision of the reform policies. (shrink)

Researchers agree on ascribing the De incarnatione Christi contra Apollinarium and the De salutari epiphania contra Apollinarium to two different authors, who probably shared the same theological education. The latter not only uses a mature theological style but shows a better knowledge of Apollinarius of Laodicea and his disciples’ writings. Even though the two authors try to demonstrate the presence of a perfect humanity in Christ, against Apollinarian thought, we can find some important differences in their works concerning the topic (...) of the impeccabilitas of Christ and the relationship between sin and freedom. They explain in a different way the theory of salvation according to Apollinarius: while according to the author of De incarnatione Christi contra Apollinarium the man can save himself through the imitation of Christ, for the other writer salvation has been accomplished only because Christ is devoid of any trace of sin. (shrink)

Is the ubiquity of contemporary popular music akin to a deliberate aggression to the hearing, making the listening experience devoid of any sense? If so, is there any strategy to morph this supposed confusion into meaningful stimuli? Relying on epistemology, we attempt at promoting the act of listening as a proper way of world-making and refer to Mark Reybrouck, Bruno Nettl, Steven Brown and Joseph Jordania—among others—to gather appropriate heuristic tools. In the last part of the essay, we advance the (...) concept of timbral quotation as an additional means to grasp meaningful cues in the timbrical richness of contemporary popular compositions. We shall sustain the particular fitness of this tool especially with regard to nowadays’ Western popular music, more and more timbre-centered rather than harmony-centered. (shrink)

Incommensurability may be regarded as driving specialisation, on the one hand, and as posing some problems to interdisciplinarity, on the other hand. It may be argued, however, that incommensurability plays no role in either specialisation or interdisciplinarity. Scientific specialties could be defined as simply 'different' (that is, about different things), rather than 'incommensurable' (that is, competing for the explanation of the same phenomena). Interdisciplinarity could be viewed as the co- ordinated effort of scientists possessing complemetary and interlocking skills, and not (...) as the overcoming of some sort of incommensurable divide. This article provides a comprehensive evaluative examination of the relations between specialisation, interdisciplinarity, and incommensurability. Its aim is to defend the relevance of incommensurability to both specialisation and interdisciplinarity. At the same time, it aims at correcting the tendency, common among many philosophers, to regard incommensurability in a restrictive manner - such as, for example, as an almost purely semantic issue. (shrink)

This paper develops a probabilistic analysis of conditionals which hinges on a quantitative measure of evidential support. In order to spell out the interpreta- tion of ‘if’ suggested, we will compare it with two more familiar interpretations, the suppositional interpretation and the strict interpretation, within a formal framework which rests on fairly uncontroversial assumptions. As it will emerge, each of the three interpretations considered exhibits specific logical features that deserve separate consideration.

To believe that every single scientist ought to be individually engaged in ethical thinking in order for science to be responsible at a collective level may be too demanding, if not plainly unrealistic. In fact, ethical labor is typically distributed across different kinds of scientists within the scientific community. Based on the empirical data collected within the Horizon 2020 ‘RRI-Practice’ project, we propose a classification of the members of the scientific community depending on their engagement in this collective activity. Our (...) classification offers, on the one hand, a model of how the ethical aspects of science are taken into consideration by scientists and, on the other, some indications on how to institutionalize ethics in science. (shrink)

Dans la postmodernité, la technologie ne joue plus le rôle d’art du logos, mais devient « technomagie », totem autour duquel les tribus postmodernes actualisent l’expérience de l’extase mystique. Celle-ci se présente comme une simple vibration autour du corps communautaire et à la fois un éclatement du soi vers quelque chose de plus grand. Le lien qui en découle ne repose plus sur un contrat rationnel et abstrait – sur le contrat social – mais sur un pacte dont l’émotion, les (...) passions et les symboles partagés deviennent les nouvelles matrices de l’être-ensemble. (shrink)

La tradizionale distinzione tra i domini dell’ontologia, della fenomenologia e dell’epistemologia ha assunto i caratteri di un dogma la cui esistenza non può venire messa in discussione. Tale dogma determina l’insorgere di una serie di problemi insoluti quali l’unità, la rappresentazione, il rapporto mente-corpo. Ognuno di questi problemi è una manifestazione della contrapposizione tra forma e materia. Il mondo moderno è iniziato, a partire con Cartesio, con l’esclusione dell’aspetto formale dal mondo fisico e la sua esclusiva assegnazione al dominio mentale. (...) In alternativa, proponiamo uno schema di pensiero nel quale forma e materia non sono che due modi diversi di presentarsi di un unico principio a partire dal quale è possibile derivare rappresentato e rappresentazione, esistenza e conoscenza dell’esistente, osservatore e osservato, mente e corpo. (shrink)

A user is a system capable of creating and pursuing individual goals. Is it possible to design and implement an artificial user? Traditional artificial systems focus on how achieving a given goal. Most learning algorithms look for an optimal solution of a problem, given a set of optimization criteria and a goal (or a set of goals). However, real agents and real users have to develop new goals in order to cope with their environment. They must find “what” they want (...) to achieve and not only “how”. The development of completely new goals on the basis of the interaction with the environment is here defined the “what” problem. In this paper we will try to define it and we will propose an architecture capable of addressing it. Such an architecture is proposed as the foundation for an artificial user. (shrink)

Thomas Kuhn (1922-1996) is widely considered as one of the most important philosophers of science of the 20th century, while his The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (SSR) is regarded as one of the most influential works in the philosophy ofscience. At the same time, however, his place within philosophy of science remains ambiguous. On the one hand, despite the popularity of SSR, there is no proper ‘Kuhnian school of thought’ in HPS. On the other hand, the interest towards Kuhn does (...) not seem to fade away and the number of publications about his work does not seem to decrease. We suggest that there are at least three different ways to go ‘beyond SSR’: (i) by scrutinising the development of Kuhn’s thought, from his pre- to his post-SSR writings; (ii) by contextualising Kuhn in the philosophical milieu of his time, thus interpreting his view as emerging from the intellectual exchanges he had with contemporary philosophers; (iii) by reinterpreting and developing some of his most known ideas, in ways that perhaps Kuhn himself was not able to contemplate. (shrink)