Resilience factors have been suggested as key mechanisms in the relation between symptoms and disability among individuals with chronic pain. However, there is a need to better operationalize resilience and to empirically evaluate its role and function. The present study examined psychological flexibility as a resilience factor in relation to symptoms and functioning among 252 adults with chronic pain applying for participation in a digital ACT-based self-help treatment. Participants completed measures of symptoms (pain intensity, anxiety), functioning (pain interference, depression), as (...) well as the hypothesized resilience factor psychological flexibility (measured as avoidance, value obstruction, and value progress). As expected, symptoms, functioning and resilience factors were significantly associated. Hierarchical linear regression analyses showed that psychological flexibility significantly contributed to the prediction of pain interference and depression when adjusting for age, pain and anxiety. Also, participants with low levels of psychological flexibility were more likely to be on sick leave. Furthermore, a series of multiple mediation analyses showed that psychological flexibility (avoidance, value obstruction, value progress) had a significant indirect effect on the relationship between symptoms and functioning. Avoidance was consistently shown to contribute to the indirect effect. Results support previous findings and suggest the importance of psychological flexibility as a resilience factor among individuals with chronic pain and anxiety. (shrink)

This article addresses the epistemological and conceptual challenges involved in proving customary norms in international law. It argues that confusion surrounding usus and opinio jurisstems from a failure to distinguish between the ontology of customary norms and the determina-tion of their existence. Drawing on legal epistemology, social norm theory, and analytical legal phi-losophy, the article conceptualizes customary norms as products of socially constituted structures grounded in shared normative expectations. Proving opinio juris does not require showing that States regard their conduct (...) as legally mandatory, but rather that second-order normative expecta-tions are manifested through patterns of practice. The article defends a dual inferential model — inductive reasoning to establish usus, complemented by abductive reasoning to infer opinio juris— and proposes a narrative coherence test as a qualitative supplement to the preponderance standard. (shrink)

Die Nietzscheforschung der letzten Jahrzehnte hat ein besonders Augenmerk auf den Einfluß gerichtet, den Kant auf Nietzsches Philosophie ausgreübt hat, inbesondere auf seine Wissenschafts- und erkenntnis-Kritik. Die Revision des Wahrheitsbegriffs seitens Nietzsches kommt so ans Tageslicht. Forscher wie J. Simon und F. Kaulbach haben unterstrichen, daß Nietzsche die schon von Kant angelegte Übertragung der Wahrheit aus dem Theoretischen ins Praktische vollzogen hat. In seiner geplanten Doktorarbeit im Jahr 1868 Die Teologie seit Kant greift Nietzsche F.A. Langes und K. Fischers Auslegungen (...) auf, deren Einfluß auch in seinen späteren Werken noch wahrnehmbar ist. Insbesondere entnimmt er Kant die Gegenüberstellung von menschlicher und tierischer Welt, der dann seine offene Kritik am kantischen "Anthropomorphismus" folgt. Nietzsche nimmt so mit Kant Stellung.In the last decades, many Nietzsche scholars have begun to attend Kant's influence on Nietzsche's philosophy, particularly on his criticism of science and of knowledge. This is how Nietzsche's reexamination of the concept of truth emerges. Scholars such as J. Simon and F. Kaulbach have stressed how Nietzsche has completed the displacement of truth - already formulated by Kant - from the level of theoretical reflection to the level of pragmatical reflection. In the planned Doktorarbeit of 1868, Die Teleologie seit Kant, Neitzsche uses Kant interpretations of F. A. Lange and K. Fischer, whose influence can still be found in the works of the maturity. It is mainly from Kant that Nietzche derives the opposition between human world and animal world. Such an opposition turns into an open criticism of what he considers the Kantian anthropomorphism. Thus, Nietzsche's position can be summarised as a movement mit Kant gegen Kant. (shrink)

When Crisis Becomes the Norm: What Can We Do to Demand Change? Crisis dominates the present historical moment. The economy is in crisis, politics in both its past and present forms is in crisis and our own individual lives are in crisis, made vulnerable by the fluctuations of the labor market and by the undoing of social and political ties we inherited from modernity. Yet, traditional views of crises as just temporary setbacks do not seem to hold any longer; this (...) crisis seems permanent, with no way out and no alternatives on the horizon. Reconstructing a political genealogy of the term from the Greek world to today's neoliberalism, this book demonstrates that crisis, understood as a "choice" between revolution and conservation, is a peculiarity of the modern era that does not apply to the present day. However, since its origin, the trope of crisis has proven to be one of the most effective instruments of social discipline and administration. The analytical trajectory followed by this book - which spans from Plato to Hayek, from the juridical and medical science of antiquity to the current technocracy, passing through the "weapons of criticism" of Marx and Gramsci - finally identifies, following Benjamin and Foucault, precariousness as the "form of life" that characterizes crisis understood as an art of government. But we still need to answer the question: "How can we recreate the possibility of political alternatives?". (shrink)

This essay defends that Alchourrón and Bulygin were not mistaken in adopting the semantic (hyletic) conception of norms and in asserting that it is consistent with positivist legal theory. However, it is true that they do not provide arguments about how the semantic conception is related to the positivist thesis of the social facts. Therefore, this paper seeks to expose the reasons why the rival conceptions are not satisfactory, and, in addition, conventionalism is proposed as a means of explaining how (...) it is possible to adopt the semantic conception in a manner consistent with an anti-realist ontology concordant with the social facts thesis. (shrink)

This book marks a missed encounter between two of the most influential Marxists thinkers of our age, Walter Benjamin, and Antonio Gramsci, studied here for the first-time side by side. Benjamin and Gramsci were contemporaries, whose births and deaths took place within a few years of each other in Western Europe in the first half of the 20th century. Two Marxists sui generis, they radically changed Marxism's themes and vocabulary, profoundly influencing the most significant analyses and debates. At a time (...) in which Marxism was considered to be outdated and in crisis, both Gramsci's and Benjamin's thought provided resources for its renewal: particularly in post-colonial studies for Gramsci and in new media studies for Benjamin. Both were victims of fascism, on the threshold of the catastrophe of the Second World War. These two philosophers' posthumous fortune depended on the transmission of their thought, which was first entrusted to friends and comrades, and then to entire generations of scholars from a wide range of disciplines. Editors, Dario Gentili, Elettra Stimilli, Gabriele Guerra explore with leading voices on Benjamin and Gramsci the most relevant and topical issues today. An indispensable new perspective in Marxism for students and researchers alike. (shrink)

First authoritative testimony of the debate that has characterized contemporary Italian critical thought, which has recently caught the attention of an international audience.

My essay aims to demonstrate that Neoliberalism exercises its art of government on forms of life turning their potentiality into adaptability. According with one of most influential reference thinker of Neoliberalism, Friedrich von Hayek, the spontaneous order of the market requests the constant adaptation of individuals to circumstances of which no one can be aware and can master. However, such adaptability – that could come from a certain negative philosophical anthropology – is the reverse side of the same potentiality theorized (...) by authors of Italian Thought like Agamben, Esposito and exponents of Post-Operaism. The paper aims to focus the condition for which such conversion of potentiality into adaptability is prevented. (shrink)

This article critically reassesses the alleged intrinsic connection between Jakob von Uexküll’s _Umweltlehre_ and the biopolitics of National Socialism, as recently advanced by Gottfried Schnödl and Florian Sprenger. Against the claim that Uexküll’s biological theory structurally entails totalitarian outcomes, the paper develops a twofold argument. First, it reconstructs Uexküll’s political writings, particularly the _Staatsbiologie_ (1920/1933), showing their fragmentary, inconsistent, and largely occasional character. Rather than constituting a coherent political philosophy, these texts reflect shifting historical contingencies and biographical circumstances, thereby undermining (...) the thesis of a systematic ideological program. Second, the paper offers a detailed analysis of the metaphysical foundations of _Umweltlehre_, focusing on the concept of _Planmäßigkeit_. It argues that this notion functions as a regulative, non-empirical principle akin to a Kantian idea, grounding the harmony between organism and environment without prescribing normative or political order. By emphasizing the primacy of functional activity over fixed form and the plurality of subject-specific _Umwelten_, the paper demonstrates that Uexküll’s framework resists both holistic reductionism and authoritarian unification, proving that there is no necessary derivation from Uexküll’s theoretical biology to totalitarian biopolitics. While acknowledging the problematic aspects of his political views, they ultimately remain theoretically inconsistent with his biological system. Consequently, the wholesale dismissal of _Umweltlehre_ on political grounds is unwarranted, and a critical but nuanced engagement with Uexküll’s work remains both possible and philosophically productive. (shrink)

The title of this volume A Man of Many Interests: Plutarch on Religion, Myth, and Magic. Essays in honour of Aurelio Pérez Jiménez is first and foremost a coalescing homage to Plutarch and to Aurelio, and to the way they have been inspiring (as master and indirect disciple) a multitude of readers in their path to knowledge, here metonymically represented by the scholars who offer their tribute to them. The analysis developed throughout the several contributions favors a philological (...) approach of wide spectrum, i.e., stemming from literary and linguistic aspects, it projects them into their cultural, religious, philosophical, and historical framework. The works were organized into two broad sections, respectively devoted to the Lives and to the Moralia. Contributors are: Frances Titchener, Carlos Alcalde Martín, José Luis Calvo, Delfim Leão, Judith Mossman, Anastasios G. Nikolaidis, Christopher Pelling, Philip Stadter, Paola Volpe, Francesco Becchi, Israel Muñoz Gallarte, Lautaro Roig Lanzillotta, Geert Roskam, Vicente M. Ramón Palerm, Frederick Brenk, John Dillon, Franco Ferrari, Aristoula Georgiadou, Luc van der Stockt, Luisa Lesage Gárriga. (shrink)

This paper considers whether the category of sovereign “decision,” as it is used in Carl Schmitt’s Political Theology, has analogies with the paradigm of “choice,” as it is theorized in neoliberalism. Both decision and choice belong to that mode of judgement that “cuts” the field of alternatives into two, into two “extreme” alternatives. This mode of judgment not only presupposes the subject of the decision, but also sets up the terms of the choice, clearly indicating the optimal option. For Schmitt, (...) a political decision arises in a “case of necessity”: in the “serious case” of war. And yet, it is precisely the neoliberal depoliticization of war that reduces it to a rule, and every choice fundamentally to a stance for or against. To escape from the neoliberal reduction of political decision in the form of a choice, I examine another mode of decision, absent from Schmitt’s texts: “disclosedness.”. (shrink)

We present a psychometric test of life history theory as applied to human individual differences using MIDUS survey data (Brim et al. 2000). Twenty scales measuring cognitive and behavioral dimensions theoretically related to life history strategy were constructed using items from the MIDUS survey. These scales were used to construct a single common factor, the K-factor, which accounted for 70% of the reliable variance. The scales used included measures of personal, familial, and social function. A second common factor, Covitality, was (...) constructed from scales for physical and mental health. Finally, a single general factor, Personality, was constructed from scales for the “Big Five” factors of personality. The K-factor, covitality factor, and general personality factor correlated significantly with each other, supporting the prediction that high K predicts high somatic effort and also manifests in behavioral display. Thus, a single higher-order common factor, the Super-K factor, was constructed that consisted of the K-factor, covitality factor, and personality factor. (shrink)

Humanity in the XXI century is called to confront global challenges rooted in the behavior of Complex Systems. As a result, scientists are increasingly driven to orient both research and education toward the interdisciplinary field of Complexity. Chemists, in particular, are encouraged to contribute to this collective effort, as chemistry stands at the crossroads of human and animal health, the planet’s biological and physical environments, and technological innovation. At the same time, chemists are challenged and enriched in their efforts to (...) comprehend Complex Systems and face global challenges. This work presents the viewpoints of two chemists involved in the study of Complex Systems, articulated through a Questions-and-Answers (Q&A) format. They address seven key questions concerning the nature of Complex Systems and the ways in which their investigation is fostering a revolutionary intellectual event in the marvellous journey of humanity towards the comprehension of natural phenomena. The perspectives that emerge highlight how interdisciplinary research on Complex Systems is reshaping the foundations and expanding the role of chemistry. (shrink)

The essay addresses the debates about the ontology of norms considering the case of accounting for customary norms. It undertakes and defends a stance in favor of a semantic ontology by developing a framework for the explanation of norms as abstract objects and their linking with social facts to be identified in categories like “customary”, “enacted”, “legal”, “grammatical”, and so on. Furthermore, the work addresses the rival conceptions (pragmatic and eclectic) by showing the specific impossibility that these face for giving (...) a satisfactory account on customary norms. The inquiry concludes by exploring some possible insights from the philosophy of mind to explain the conceptual nature of norms as mental representations. (shrink)

The present essay addresses the conceptual structure of customary law, understood as a set of customary rules. More specifically, it deals with the core question of what opinio juris entails as a constituent element of customary law. The work will begin with an analysis of samples of common strategies in contemporary legal theory that deal with opinio juris when analyzing the structure of customary law. Subsequently, following Hart’s notion about what constitutes social rules, and introducing explanatory features from Game Theory (...) applied to social philosophy and some insights from Behavioral Economics, the goal of the present study is to propose a different conceptual path for analyzing and identifying customary law with what could be understood as “opinio juris”, given the conceptual necessity of finding the normative element that lies within the usus, or social practices. (shrink)

This article offers an insight into Yoḥanan Alemanno’s study of the ‘art of thinking’ through his notes from Averroes’s commentaries on Posterior Analytics, De anima and Parva naturalia. This case study represents an important example of the 15th-century Jewish learning based on the Arabic-Hebrew philosophical tradition and shows the continuity between the Provençal world and the Italian Renaissance. The textual appendix included at the end of the article aims at showing how Alemanno selected portions of Averroes’s commentaries on logic and (...) psychology that define the role of the faculty of imagination and the processes through which we acquire true knowledge. (shrink)

Quid est veritas? Skeptical Implications of Ueber Wahrheit und Lüge im aussermoralischen Sinne. This paper aims to examine the reach of the question “Was ist also Wahrheit?” – which introduces the definition of truth given by Nietzsche in Ueber Wahrheit und Lüge im aussermoralischen Sinne (1873). The question has undoubtedly an analogy in the question with which Pilate responds to Jesus in the Gospel of John. Starting with an analysis of the direct and recognized sources of Nietzsche’s text, this contribution (...) shows how the Gospel background is, for Nietzsche, indirectly no less than directly, a crucial comparison that makes a decisive contribution to his conception of language. (shrink)

The article presents sociological considerations in regards to the advent of globalism. With the implosion of capitalism and the acceleration of globalization, the concept of globalism is in need of new interpretations. Some sociologists indeed would see it solely as the ideology of globalization. In the article, globalism is regarded as a social system not only with ideological characteristics but also economic ones. This radically changes the very logic of capitalism, which is focused on linear and monocentric production. Through the (...) theory of link-value the article illustrates the process by which economic development takes place. It is shown that as well as the assets identified by the main economic schools, development is based on factors such as infrastructure investments, technologies, and networking. Today, with globalism, it is economic ties that create wealth and they are more important than the production process itself. Such transformation is highlighted through the growth of the financial and commercial dimensions, as well as the change in industrial activities. The article deals with the fundamental importance of the global value chain in nowadays, as well as the reshoring and the nearshoring. After illustrating the evolution of territorial networks, several case histories are presented: from the new economic centres of globalism to the decline of industrial districts. Finally, the article examines new generations models of innovation and culture districts. Keywords : Economic development; Globalism; Production processes; Global value chain; Territorial networks; Open innovation. [1] Sunto L'articolo espone alcune considerazioni sociologiche relative all'avvento del globalismo. Con l'implosione del capitalismo e l'accelerazione della globalizzazione, il concetto di globalismo necessita di nuove interpretazioni. Alcuni sociologi infatti lo considerano solamente come l'ideologia della globalizzazione. Nell'articolo, il globalismo è considerato come un sistema sociale con caratteristiche non solo ideologiche ma anche economiche. Questo cambia radicalmente la logica stessa del capitalismo, che è incentrato sulla produzione lineare e monocentrica. Attraverso la teoria del valore-legame l'articolo illustra il processo attraverso il quale si crea lo sviluppo economico. Viene dimostrato che oltre ai fattori proposti dalle principali scuole economiche, quali le infrastrutture pubbliche e la tecnologia, lo sviluppo dipende anche dal networking. Oggi, con il globalismo, sono i legami economici che creano ricchezza e questi ultimi diventano più importanti del processo produttivo in sé. Tale trasformazione è evidenziata dalla crescita delle dimensioni finanziarie e commerciali dell’economia, nonché dal mutamento delle attività industriali. Nell’articolo viene trattata l’importanza che attualmente rivestono le catene globali del valore, ma anche i nuovi fenomeni del reshoring e del nearshoring. Dopo aver illustrato l’evoluzione delle forme di networking territoriale, vengono presentati diversi casi-studio: dai nuovi poli produttivi globalizzati al declino dei distretti industriali. Nella parte finale dell’articolo vengono illustrati modelli distrettuali di nuova generazione come quelli dell’innovazione e della cultura. Parole Chiave : Sviluppo economico; Globalismo; Processi produttivi; Catena globale del valore; Reti territoriali; Innovazione aperta. (shrink)

What do we mean when we talk about the “environment” inside the ecological discourse? Do we really have a clear and distinct notion of it? This paper argues that the “environment” is not a single object approached from different disciplinary angles, but a stratified epistemic field in which distinct models produce distinct results. Against the assumption of a unified environmental referent, the article reconstructs four major models of understanding: (1) the scientific model of the ecosystem, (2) the moral model of (...) nature as value, (3) the aesthetic model of landscape, and (4) the juridical model of territory or land. Each of these models is shown to function as a specific device of objectivation, unifying heterogeneous elements according to its own rationality: systemic regulation, axiological orientation, experiential appearance, or the normative ordering of living space. Through historical and conceptual analyses, the paper demonstrates that these models are neither mutually reducible nor merely complementary perspectives on the same object. Rather, they generate different environmental objects, each governed by its own epistemic logic. What the paper suggests is that the environment remains (as it should) a polyvocal concept, and that a critical epistemology of the environment, precisely because of this polyvocality, must concern itself with mapping these models and explicating their architecture and techniques of functioning. (shrink)

Il seguente articolo si prefigge di analizzare il fenomeno delle alleanze di brand e il loro sviluppo nell’attuale contesto economico. Con l’ampliarsi del lavoro di rete, e la creazione di valore che ne deriva, i legami di partnership tra le imprese evidenziano un salto prestazionale. Ciò avviene anche attraverso la creazione di un’identità condivisa, che ne rafforza la competitività. Dopo la definizione di co-branding, e l’esposizione dei benefici e dei rischi, vengono considerate le opportunità di crescita che ne derivano. Queste (...) alleanze consentono alle reti tra imprese di riposizionarsi nel proprio contesto di appartenenza, migliorando la governance e le strategie di mercato. Anche la relazione con l’attuale crisi economica evidenzia la capacità del co-branding di fronteggiare con maggiore efficacia i momenti di emergenza. Come evidenziato in numerose ricerche, la gestione della crisi trova nelle alleanze di brand uno strumento strategico essenziale per crescere anche se l’instabilità e l’incertezza dell’economia sono elevate. Attraverso l’esame di alcuni case-histories, viene elaborato un modello di co-branding. Si tratta di un prisma dove sono evidenziati sei asset strategici: velocità, personalizzazione, flessibilità, facilità, dialogo e convergenza. Sono questi i fattori che hanno determinato una performance di successo durante la crisi. I risvolti positivi che ne derivano avranno un impatto evidente anche dopo il periodo di emergenza. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Nietzsche-Studien Jahrgang: 46 Heft: 1 Seiten: 245-248.

Name der Zeitschrift: Nietzsche-Studien Jahrgang: 46 Heft: 1 Seiten: 249-253.

Name der Zeitschrift: Nietzscheforschung Jahrgang: 24 Heft: 1 Seiten: 99-110.

Este trabajo ha sido concebido como un homenaje para Rolando Tamayo y Salmorán por medio del examen de algunas de sus principales aportaciones a la filosofía del derecho. Con esto en mente, el texto parte de un planteamiento panorámico sobre el estado de la filosofía jurídica en México y el ambiente en el que se desarrolla Tamayo. Con posterioridad, se explica que el ensayo estará enfocado en explorar dos aspectos de su obra. Primero, la importancia de conocer el origen de (...) la ciencia del derecho, la jurisprudentia, de la formación de sus conceptos, sus fundamentos romanos y los postulados epistémicos que tomaron de los griegos. Segundo, la definición del derecho como una técnica de reforzamiento de la conducta que es posible encontrar en todas las sociedades. De modo tangencial se explica el concepto de norma como herramienta primordial de la técnica jurídica. (shrink)

La costumbre no es una reliquia ni una fuente menor que los sistemas contemporáneos hayan superado. Es, por el contrario, el suelo sobre el que todo derecho se asienta: aquello que lo constituye, lo sostiene y explica su identidad y su cambio a lo largo del tiempo. Este libro defiende esa tesis desde la filosofía analítica del derecho mediante tres movimientos articulados. El primero muestra cómo las normas consuetudinarias operan al interior de los sistemas jurídicos y por qué las normas (...) últimas de cualquier sistema —aquellas que no pueden derivarse de ninguna otra— son necesariamente de naturaleza consuetudinaria. El segundo ofrece una teoría convencionalista de los fundamentos normativos del derecho, capaz de explicar tanto ese fundamento como el cambio jurídico no intencional que opera silenciosamente más allá de los textos. El tercero somete esta teoría a prueba en el terreno donde la costumbre resulta más visible y problemática: el razonamiento de jueces y abogados, y el derecho internacional. El resultado es un argumento a favor de tomarse la costumbre en serio —y con ella, el convencionalismo— como clave de bóveda de la teoría jurídica contemporánea. (shrink)