This new reading of Thomas More’s Utopia focuses on the dialogue as literary genre disclosing several aspects that illustrate the close relation between the original design of the utopian political system and the contemporary English political arrangement. The author also examines the reasons for the lasting interest of this work in the centuries. Still today political utopia results useful and even necessary to good politicians who in their practice never forget their ideal goals.

Physicians working in the world of competitive sports face unique ethical challenges, many of which center around conflicts of interest. Team-employed physicians have obligations to act in the club's best interest while caring for the individual athlete. As such, they must balance issues like protecting versus sharing health information, as well as issues regarding autonomous informed consent versus paternalistic decision making in determining whether an athlete may compete safely. Moreover, the physician has to deal with an athlete's decisions about performance (...) enhancement and return to play, pursuit of which may not be in the athlete's long-term best interests but may benefit the athlete and team in the short term. These difficult tasks are complicated by the lack of evidence-based standards in a field influenced by the lure of financial gains for multiple parties involved. In this article, we review ethical issues in sports medicine with specific attention paid to American professional football. (shrink)

RESUMENLejos de romper con el idealismo absoluto de Hegel, la filosofía francesa contemporánea parece asegurar su continuación. En efecto, el nuevo concepto de identidad mediante el cual la especulación hegeliana superó la rigidez inmóvil de la sustancia y la lógica bipolar del pensamiento representativo, ha sentado las bases especulativas de lo que el pensamiento francés reinscribe hoy bajo las categorías de diferencia, repetición, diseminación, imposibilidad, exceso, paradoja, instante, etc. El eterno retorno de lo mismo, el acontecimiento que sobreviene a la (...) finitud y la aporía de una contradicción realizada son otros tantos nombres con los cuales la «escuela de la diferencia» reclama la racionalidad de una Aufhebung, que desborda y contiene toda discriminación abstracta.PALABRAS CLAVESIDENTIDAD, DIFERENCIA, OPOSICIÓN, MEDIACIÓNABSTRACT Far from breaking with Hegel’s Absolute Idealism, French Contemporary Philosophy seems to ensure its continuity. In fact, the new concept of identity through which the Hegelian speculation overcame the immovable rigidity of substance and the bipolar logic of representative thought, has settled the speculative base of what nowadays French Philosophy includes again under the categories of difference, repetition, dissemination, impossibility, excess, paradox, instant, etc. The eternal return of the same, the event that happens to finite and the aporia of an actual contradiction are different names through which the «school of difference» claims the rationality of Aufhebung, which overflows and contains all abstract discrimination.KEY WORDSIDENTITY, DIFFERENCE, OPPOSITION, MEDIATION. (shrink)

Background: The recent COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the deficiencies that characterize the functioning of the Italian national health system. Prisons have always mirrored the most radical expressions of these weaknesses. During the early stages of the pandemic, prison facilities across Italy underwent a series of changes dictated by the need to ensure the safety of the prisoners and staff. The adoption of these rules contributed to a total or partial redefinition of many central facets of life in prison, such as (...) intake procedures for new arrivals and the ways prisoners were allowed to communicate with their families.Objectives: The aim of this qualitative study was to analyze the testimony of penitentiary healthcare workers in prisons throughout Italy to determine the impact of COVID-19 on their professional and personal lives.Participants: Thirty-eight participants were contacted and 20 decided to participate in the interview. The sample was made up of 10 women and 10 men. All the participants were members of the healthcare staff of a penitentiary facility. All were recruited through an Italian association whose mission is the development, promotion, and implementation of social solidarity projects including prisoners' social and health care. This study was facilitated through representatives serving in nine different regions of Italy. The participants were divided according to their professional roles in prisons.Method: In-depth interviews were conducted by telephone or online using telecommunication platforms. The transcribed texts underwent thematic analysis using the Atlas.ti software to identify patterns of meaning across the dataset.Results: Four main themes emerged from the analysis: Interpersonal difficulties, management and operational difficulties, the personal distress and bereavement of healthcare workers, and the distress of inmates. The importance of relationship management skills when interacting with prisoners emerged as a key topic in many interviews, and the participants highlighted the need for adequate training. The increase in prisoners' anxiety made communication more difficult.Conclusions: The findings suggest that healthcare workers in jails need emergency-oriented training. Participants described their feeling of loneliness and quasi-abandonment when carrying out their duties during the pandemic. In particular, they underscored the need for psychological guidance to better manage altered reactions with prisoners and colleagues as a result of heightened death anxiety and isolation. (shrink)

Durante más de 3000 años, las religiones patriarcales han simbolizado un sistema socio-político e ideológico, que dominó hasta hoy la historia universal. Sin embargo, desde hace por lo menos dos siglos, el pensamiento y la cultura vienen anunciando la muerte del Dios Padre e indagando el destino de la humanidad futura. El presente trabajo intentará mostrar por qué la Gran Diosa Madre simboliza el Otro Nombre, en el cual la subjetividad y la cultura han comenzado a pronunciarse.

El concepto ontológico de «deseo» ha sido elaborado por el dualismo falogocéntrico a partir de las ideas de falta, privación, materia, caída, prohibición o culpa, con la intención de erradicar del cuerpo viviente la energía activa y creadora de lo real, y remitirla a la trascendencia inaccesible del espíritu puro. Habida cuenta del modo en que la diferencia sexual femenina ha sido inscripta por el falogocentrismo hegemónico del lado de la falta, la pasividad, la materia y el mal, el vaciamiento (...) del deseo coincide estrictamente con la eliminación del cuerpo materno y la dominación patriarcal. En tal contexto, el presente artículo se propone restituir el deseo a su potencia de creación en mediación materno-material. (shrink)

En la sección 10 de _Mil mesetas_, Deleuze y Guattari precisan su monismo dinámico con la afirmación del devenir-mujer en el comienzo, medio y llave de todo devenir. La cuestión de la diferencia sexual es de este modo introducida y restituida al lugar de la diferencia ontológica radical, a partir de la cual se deviene y existe. Las siguientes páginas se proponen leer la inmanencia _materialista _del devenir a la luz de ese primer movimiento conceptivo y medial, con una interpretación (...) que intercepta el vitalismo deleuzeano-guattariano y el feminismo de la diferencia. (shrink)

Resumen: Søren Kierkegaard se ha instalado en la historia de la filosofía como el pensador de una libertad puramente posible, capaz de crear su propio sentido y realidad. Lo posible, lo virtual, la potencia, constituyen para Kierkegaard el sustrato de la existencia, elemento, medio y fin de su acción libre y creadora. La determinación de la posibilidad infinita como origen y fundamento del ser supone la resignificación ontológica de lo real en su totalidad, en claro contraste con la vieja metafísica (...) del acto perfecto y acabado. Las siguientes líneas intentarán leer a Kierkegaard en el horizonte post-fundacional de la ontología contemporánea como pensador de la inmanencia y contingencia radicales, cuya pura posibilidad de poder anticipa en muchos sentidos el nuevo giro especulativo del siglo XXI.: Søren Kierkegaard is laid in the History of Philosophy as the thinker of a purely possible freedom, capable of creating its own meaning and actuality. The possible, the virtual, the potency constitute for Kierkegaard the substratum of existence, element, middle and end of its free and creative action. The determination of the infinite possibility as origin and foundation of being supposes the ontological resignification of actuality, in clear contrast with the old metaphysics of the perfect and complete act. The following lines will attempt to read Kierkegaard on the post-foundational horizon of contemporary ontology as a thinker of radical immanence and contingency, whose infinite possibility of power anticipates in many ways the new speculative turn of XXI Century. (shrink)

Tanto la ontología de la diferencia sexual, tal como la elabora el feminismo de la diferencia, como la des-ontologización de la diferencia sexual, tal como la deconstruye el transfeminismo queer, coinciden en apelar al concepto de diferencia en sí, no dualista, jerárquica ni excluyente, como núcleo de su argumentación teóricopolítica. Sin embargo, ambas teorías resultan en su desarrollo inconciliables y conducen a proyectos políticos opuestos. El presente artículo se propone elaborar las razones de tal divergencia en el marco de una (...) ontología realista y material. (shrink)

The present paper intends to describe the key ideas and concepts in which the Kierkegaardian concept of freedom is summarized.

Nacimiento, concepción y gestación, huevo cósmico, rueda eterna, noche, caos y oscuridad abisal son algunas de las imágenes que Friedrich Schelling asume a los efectos de reconceptualizar la especulación y, en concreto, de desfundar y superar el paradigma falogocéntrico del Acto trascendente, perfecto y pura luz. La propuesta schellingiana de un fundamento inmanente y material, pura potencia indeterminada e infinita, supone una re-sexualización del discurso filosófico que intentaremos mostrar en estas líneas.

RESUMENDesde el trasfondo de la cultura, emerge cierto imaginario social que, asentado en la periodicidad biológica de la fecundidad femenina, proyecta a la mujer como un ser cíclico y mudable, por oposición a la linealidad e inmutabilidad masculinas. Este imaginario se remonta a la conciencia humana originaria y prehistórica, para la cual la madre constituía y simbolizaba una realidad cíclica, continuamente renacida de su seno. En el contexto del feminismo de la diferencia, el presente artículo se propone releer en términos (...) metafísicos la simbólica circular y cíclica de la madre, concebida en el origen de la conciencia primitiva, recuperada por la filosofía feminista, y repetida por gran parte del pensamiento moderno y contemporáneo.PALABRAS CLAVEDIFERENCIA SEXUAL–ARQUETIPO–REPETICIÓN–INMANENCIA–DEVENIR. ABSTRACTFrom the background of culture, it emerges a social imaginary that, settled on the biological basis of female fertility, projects woman as a cyclical and changeable being, as opposed to male linearity and immutability. This imaginary dates back to the original and prehistoric human consciousness, to which the mother constituted and symbolized a cyclical actually, continually reborn from her womb. In the context of Feminism of Difference, this article aims at rereading in metaphysical terms the circular and cyclic symbolic of the mother, conceived at the origin of the primitive consciousness, recovered by Feminist Philosophy, and repeated by a large branch of Modern and Contemporary Thought.KEYWORDSSEXUAL DIFFERENCE–ARCHETYPE–REPETITION–IMMANENCE–BECOMING. (shrink)

Este artículo se propone mostrar, al interior del concepto kierkegaardiano de libertad, la presencia de una alteridad activa, concebida como la diferencia, el no-ser, la nada, capaz de impulsar la existencia a la constitución de su identidad, por la fuerza de la contradicción. Esta alteridad radical es para Kierkegaard el pecado, cuya conciencia revela al hombre, además de su dualidad esencial, la distancia que lo separa del ser absoluto.

El artículo se propone mostrar la originalidad de la libertad kierkegaardiana, concentrada en una decisión absoluta que determina por entero la realidad del sujeto singular existente. La decisión produce la síntesis de la existencia personal, unificando todos los elementos y dimensiones que configuran la vida humana, y armonizando las fuerzas del yo hacia la confluencia en un mismo fin, a saber, en el Ser absoluto. La unidad interior producida por la decisión es posible gracias al “salto” trascendente de la libertad, (...) por el cual la existencia humana se afirma en el fundamento uno y simple del cual ella procede.---This paper attempts to show the originality of Kierkegaard’s notion of freedom, that brings into focus an absolute decision that wholly determines the reality of the singular existing subject. Such decision brings forth the synthesis of personal existence, unifying all the elements and dimensions that constitute human life, and harmonizing the strengths of the self toward their confluence in one final end, which is absolute Being. Immanent unity brought about by the decision is possible due to a transcendental “leap” of freedom, whereby human existence affirms itself on the One and Simple Foundation out of which it proceeds. (shrink)

Así como hay una lectura de la subjetividad posmoderna entendida en los términos de un nihilismo relativista y ateo, hay también otra lectura de la misma en los términos de una determinación absoluta y divina, inconmensurable e infnita, cuyo exceso de realidad supera los límites de la intelectualidad abstracta. Respecto de esta última interpretación, Kierkegaard constituye el pensador fundamental en el cual se inspiran varios autores posmodernos tales como J. Derrida, G. Deleuze, J. Caputo o M. Taylor. El recurso contemporáneo (...) a las categorías kierkegaardianas de repetición, singularidad, diferencia absoluta, posibilidad, paradoja, instante, religiosidad, fe o ser-en-el-medio-de prueba sobradamente la importancia y actualidad del flósofo danés. (shrink)

Bajo el supuesto de que la ontología es un mero metarrelato totalitario, colonialista y normativo, la postmodernidad interpretó ‒por defecto‒ que la producción de puras ficciones discursivas e identificaciones sociales sin compromisos ontológicos representaría de suyo una performance liberadora. En el caso concreto de la diferencia sexual, la postmodernidad queer o trans-feminista instaló que la producción socio-imaginaria de múltiples géneros auto-definidos liberaría a las mujeres de ser tales. Las siguientes páginas intentarán explicar por qué la des-ontologización de la diferencia sexual (...) y su sustitución por incontables identificaciones socio-imaginarias es de suyo violencia conceptual, epistémica y simbólica, base de cualquier otra violencia. Palabras clave: Teorías queer, post/trans-feminismo, diferencia sexual, géneros, interseccionalidad. (shrink)

In recent years, a multitude of datasets of human–human conversations has been released for the main purpose of training conversational agents based on data‐hungry artificial neural networks. In this paper, we argue that datasets of this sort represent a useful and underexplored source to validate, complement, and enhance cognitive studies on human behavior and language use. We present a method that leverages the recent development of powerful computational models to obtain the fine‐grained annotation required to apply metrics and techniques from (...) Cognitive Science to large datasets. Previous work in Cognitive Science has investigated the question‐asking strategies of human participants by employing different variants of the so‐called 20‐question‐game setting and proposing several evaluation methods. In our work, we focus on GuessWhat, a task proposed within the Computer Vision and Natural Language Processing communities that is similar in structure to the 20‐question‐game setting. Crucially, the GuessWhat dataset contains tens of thousands of dialogues based on real‐world images, making it a suitable setting to investigate the question‐asking strategies of human players on a large scale and in a natural setting. Our results demonstrate the effectiveness of computational tools to automatically code how the hypothesis space changes throughout the dialogue in complex visual scenes. On the one hand, we confirm findings from previous work on smaller and more controlled settings. On the other hand, our analyses allow us to highlight the presence of “uninformative” questions (in terms of Expected Information Gain) at specific rounds of the dialogue. We hypothesize that these questions fulfill pragmatic constraints that are exploited by human players to solve visual tasks in complex scenes successfully. Our work illustrates a method that brings together efforts and findings from different disciplines to gain a better understanding of human question‐asking strategies on large‐scale datasets, while at the same time posing new questions about the development of conversational systems. (shrink)

O contexto da educação básica brasileira caracteriza-se, de modo geral, na atuação de docentes com descompassos formativos, que ministram aulas de diversas disciplinas, no caso dos anos iniciais do ensino fundamental, ou que lecionam disciplinas diversas de sua área de formação, no caso das séries finais e ensino médio. Nessa linha, diversos estudos apontam para a evidência de lacunas e imprecisões conceituais no planejamento de intervenções didáticas, devido ao precário desenvolvimento profissional. Desse modo, o presente artigo traz uma revisão teórica (...) sistemática sobre o tema relacionado aos conhecimentos profissionais do magistério e busca contribuir com tal debate, trazendo como resultado a proposta de uma visão do processo de construção de saberes docentes com base em modelos do conhecimento pedagógico de conteúdo articulados com os processos de criação vigotskianos. Tal proposta possibilitou possíveis implicações das articulações apresentadas em associação com as pesquisas relacionadas à formação docente, bem como com propostas formativas, que levem em consideração o contexto cultural do professor, especificamente seus esquemas repertoriais, aqui representados pelo espectro criativo. Desse modo, pretende-se que os contextos formativos utilizem e incrementem o repertório professoral, repertório este fundamental para o desenvolvimento de novos Conhecimentos Pedagógicos de Conteúdo em um caráter transformativo, possibilitando práticas que permitam o desenvolvimento profissional docente. (shrink)

This study was designed as an action research aimed to help students to elaborate their feelings of traumatic grief, due to a car accident and a suicide of two of their classmates, in an Italian high school. A death education project was realized in order to prevent the Werther effect. The intervention was based on psychodramatic techniques and meditation with Tibetan bells to encourage reflection on the suffering of traumatic loss, the sense of life, and their future. A total of (...) 89 students from four classes participated in the study, among which 82 completed the pre- and post-test survey. The intervention consisted of eight 2-h meetings, during which the themes of death and loss were dealt with through theoretical discussions, dramatization, and meditation. Two other classes which participated in the assessment as a control group did not attend the activities. The following instruments were used: Death Attitude Profile-Revised, which measures individual attitudes toward death; Psychological Well-being Scale, which measures a person’s psychological well-being; Resilience Scale for Adolescents, which measures the construct of resilience in adolescents; Self-Transcendence Scale, which measures self-transcendence; and Testoni Death Representation Scale, which measures the ontological representations of death. The results demonstrated that in the experimental group, there was a reduction in the fear of death and its avoidance, and that the students normalized the representation of death as something natural, thus improving their well-being. It is consequently possible to say that well-being is not simply the absence of suffering and worries, but rather, is rooted in the possibility of thinking of creative solutions to the trauma. (shrink)

Philosophers, theologians, physicists, and psychologists join their efforts to reflect on the crucial issues of limit and infinity, time and eternity, empty space and material space. The volume offers an invaluable contribution to some of the most important issues of our times: questions on God and consciousness are discussed in parallel with quantum theory, black holes, the inflationary universe, the Big Bang, and string theory, from different perspectives and angles, ranging from neuroscience to AI.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic severely strained the already unprepared Italian healthcare system. This had repercussions on healthcare workers, stemming, in particular, from a lack of clear guidelines, adequate protective equipment, and professional preparedness. Such conditions were especially prevalent in Northern Italy.Objectives: This study aimed to examine COVID-19-related professional and psychoemotional stress among nurses and doctors in two hospitals in Northern Italy, along with the worst critical incidents affecting healthcare personnel. A parallel objective was to elicit healthcare professionals' opinions about what (...) changes are needed in the healthcare system's operations, as well as about the relational/emotional skills that are needed to better manage relationships with patients in emergency situations.Participants: Snowball sampling was used to recruit participants and yielded 17 hospital professionals: six nurses and 11 doctors. Three of these professionals worked in intensive care and the others in different wards. All had close contact with COVID-19 patients.Methods: The study employed a qualitative research design, using in-depth interviews of ~60 min each that were conducted via Skype video calls. The interviews were recorded and transcribed, then analysed. The qualitative analysis employed mixed methods to identify the most relevant and recursive themes from the interviews.Results: Four fundamental themes emerged from our analysis of the interview texts: disorganisation and psychoemotional stress; urgency and critical incidents; everything surreal; and disruptions in empathetic relationships with patients.Conclusions: Through our analysis of the interview narratives, we found that systematic and in-depth psychological training is needed to prepare professionals for altered relationships with patients in emergencies; use of exceptional medical equipment; elaboration of new bioethical models suitable for disasters and pandemics; and engagement with the themes of death and dying. (shrink)

In Western democratic society, the specificity of the bioethical debate over the life-sciences involves bringing together many different study factors. The dilemmas raised by the new scientific discoveries highlight how contemporary common sense is plagued by a profound feeling of anguish over possible future anthropological developments. One of the central problems is the social construction of consent as a psychological strategy seeking to orient public opinion toward accepting new applications of science and technology. On the one hand, the general features (...) in the epistemological analysis of the mind-brain identity are called into question; and on the other, together with all those research directions concerned with the "meaning of life," we enter the dimension of the complex issue inherent in the possibility of establishing if there exists something transcending thought and what it may be. In both cases a problem is raised on which the meaning of human life and the world depend, while between the two universes described by medical science and ethical-philosophical thought a window of opportunity for important psychological research is opened. In order to understand such phenomena the present article defends the theory that social psychology must adopt as its subject matter "thinking society," that is, society characterized by discussion and reasoning on themes relevant to bioethics. (shrink)

In contemporary Western culture, death has been widely censured because of its conceptual implications; it lies at the boundaries between reductionism and metaphysics. There is not yet an efficacious epistemology able to solve this contraposition and its consequent collision with science and tradition. This article analyzes Near Death Experiences as a prototypical argument in which the two perspectives conflict. Specifically, it analyzes the epistemological antinomies of the ontological representations of death, inhering in passage versus absolute annihilation. Indeed, the NDEs theme (...) permits the examination of the logical contradiction between monistic reductionism and its ontological counterpart to improve the discovery of a new paradigm that integrates the ecological with eternalist views. (shrink)

BackgroundPerinatal bereavement is an event that greatly impacts the emotional, psychological, and psychosocial aspects of those who want to have a child.ObjectivesSince there are few studies on the psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on couples grieving for perinatal loss, this research aimed to survey this experience.ParticipantsBetween 2020 and 2021, in Italian provinces highly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, 21 parents participated: 16 mothers and 5 fathers, among which there were 4 couples.MethodsA mixed-method design was used through self-report questionnaires and (...) in-depth interviews. Accompanied by a sociodemographic form, the following questionnaires were administered: Prolonged Grief-13, the Parental Assessment of Paternal Affectivity, the Parental Assessment of Maternal Affectivity, the Dyadic Adjustment Scale short version, the Daily Spiritual Experiences Scale, and the Impact of Event Scale-Revised. The texts obtained through the in-depth interviews underwent thematic analysis.ResultsFifty per cent of participants suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders symptoms and 20% suffered from relational dyadic stress. Four areas of thematic prevalence emerged: psychological complexity of bereavement, the impact of the COVID-19, disenfranchisement vs. support, and spirituality and contact with the lost child. Participants interpreted their distress as related to inadequate access to healthcare services, and perceiving the pandemic restrictions to be responsible for less support and lower quality of care. Furthermore, they needed psychological help, and most of them were unable to access this service. Spirituality/religiosity did not help, while contact with the fetus and burial did.ConclusionIt is important to implement psychological services in obstetrics departments to offer adequate support, even in pandemic situations. (shrink)