In this work, we present the first general logic of attention. Attention is a powerful cognitive ability that allows agents to focus on potentially complex information, such as logically structured propositions, higher-order beliefs, or what other agents pay attention to. This ability is a strength, as it helps to ignore what is irrelevant, but it can also introduce biases when some types of information or agents are systematically ignored. Existing dynamic epistemic logics for attention cannot model such complex attention scenarios, (...) as they only model attention to atomic formulas. Additionally, such logics quickly become cumbersome, as their size grows exponentially in the number of agents and announced literals. Here, we introduce a logic that overcomes both limitations. First, we generalize edge-conditioned event models, which we show to be as expressive as standard event models yet exponentially more succinct (generalizing both standard event models and generalized arrow updates). Second, we extend attention to arbitrary formulas, allowing agents to also attend to other agents' beliefs or attention. Our work treats attention as a modality, like belief or awareness. We introduce attention principles that impose closure properties on that modality and that can be used in its axiomatization. Throughout, we illustrate our framework with examples of AI agents reasoning about human attention, demonstrating how such agents can discover attentional biases. (shrink)

Awareness structures by Fagin, Halpern (Artif Intell 34:39–76, 1988) (FH) feature a syntactic awareness correspondence and accessibility relations modeling implicit knowledge. They are a flexible model of unawareness, and best interpreted from an outside modeler’s perspective. Unawareness structures by Heifetz et al. (J Econ Theory, 130:78–94, 2006, Games Econ Behav 62:305–324, 2008) (HMS) model awareness by a lattice of state spaces and explicit knowledge via possibility correspondences. Sublattices thereof can be interpreted as subjective views of agents. Open questions include (1) (...) how implicit knowledge can be defined in HMS structures, and (2) in which way FH structures can be extended to model the agents’ subjective views. In this paper, we address (1) by defining implicit knowledge such that it is consistent with explicit knowledge in HMS models. We also introduce a variant of HMS models that instead of explicit knowledge, takes implicit knowledge and awareness as primitives. Further, we address (2) by introducing a category of FH models that are modally equivalent relative to sublanguages and can be interpreted as agents’ subjective views depending on their awareness. These constructions allow us to show an equivalence between HMS and FH models. As a corollary, we obtain soundness and completeness of HMS models with respect to the Logic of Propositional Awareness, based on a language featuring _both_ implicit and explicit knowledge. (shrink)

The concept of narrative is widespread in the philosophical literature on dreams. Although several works have examined the putative narrative character of dreams by drawing on narratology, literary theory, and semiotics, there has been virtually no investigation of how preconceptions about the resemblance between fictional narratives and retrospective dream reports have shaped the philosophical debate on dreams and dreaming. This paper aims to address this gap. We argue that there is a pervasive tendency to metonymically assimilate fictional narratives first with (...) dream reports and then with dreams themselves. As a result, features and devices typically associated with literary fiction are frequently used as a speculative explanatory framework to understand dreams and the processes underlying their formation, encoding, and retrieval. To illuminate this tendency, we focus on two central categories in the philosophy of dreaming: authorship and composition. By examining relevant cases in which these categories are employed to support divergent ontological and epistemological claims, we argue that similar accounts rest on a shared—yet frequently unacknowledged—assumption: that dreams exhibit a narrative structure and that dreaming is, at its core, a process of narrative construction. Through our conceptual analysis, we aim to lay the groundwork for further exploration of the emergence of narrative thinking in spontaneous thought, encompassing both wakefulness and sleep. (shrink)

This article is a first assessment of the Italian Code of deontology for nurses (revised in 1999) on the basis of data collected from focus groups with nurses taking part in the Ethical Codes in Nursing (ECN) project. We illustrate the professional context in which the Code was introduced and explain why the 1999 revision was necessary in the light of changes affecting the Italian nursing profession. The most remarkable findings concern professional autonomy and responsibility, and how the Code is (...) thought of as a set of guidelines for nursing practice. We discuss these issues, underlining that the 1999 Code represents a valuable instrument for ethical reflection and examination, a stimulus for putting the moral sense of the nursing profession into action, and that it represents a new era for professional nursing practice in Italy. The results of the analysis also deserve further qualitative study and future consideration. (shrink)

This book explores C.G. Jung's complex relationship with Friedrich Nietzsche through the lens of the so-called 'visionary' literary tradition. The book connects Jung's experience of the posthumously published Liber Novus with his own understanding of Nietzsche's Zarathustra, and formulates the hypothesis of Jung considering Zarathustra as Nietzsche's Liber Novus –– both works being regarded by Jung as 'visionary' experiences. After exploring some 'visionary' authors often compared by Jung to Nietzsche, the book focuses upon Nietzsche and Jung exclusively. It analyses stylistic (...) similarities, as well as explicit references to Nietzsche and Zarathustra in Liber Novus, drawing on Jung's annotations in his own copy of Zarathustra. The book then uses Liber Novus as a prism to contextualize and understand Jung's five-year seminar on Zarathustra: all the nuances of Jung's interpretation of Zarathustra can be fully explained, only when compared with Liber Novus and its symbology. One of the main topics of the book concerns the figure of 'Christ' and Nietzsche's and Jung's understandings of the 'death of God.'. (shrink)

The hypothesis that foreseeable developments in interventions directed to forestall and to treat the disabilities of aging might result in the extension of the human lifespan may be further supported by the “evolutionary theory of aging.” Besides caloric restriction, several hormone supply or replacement strategies are considered to contrast the functional decline associated with aging. Hormone treatments may include growth hormone (GH), insulin‐like growth factor I (IGF‐I) signaling, dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), melatonin, testosterone, progesterone, and estrogen. In the 1990s, DHEA was exalted (...) as a possible candidate for the “fountain of youth.” Several experiments on animals have shown that DHEA is a multifunctional adrenal steroid with immune function enhancement, anti‐diabetic, anti‐cancer, and anti‐aging effects. The ethical questions concerning the extension of the lifespan belong to two distinct areas: the area of individual morality and the area of social morality. (shrink)

The existence of otherness as a social category is the result of a specific configuration of power relations. One way to maintain this configuration and exert control over subjectivities defined as "others" is to exclude them from participation in the production of knowledge, depriving them ofthe resources to understand themselves and the world and the words to describe their social experience. In this sense, the epistemic injustice, produced by exclusion from the system of knowledge production, constitutes a powerful instrument to (...) control power relations and to maintain the subordination of minorised subjectivities. At the same time, the production of analysis by oppressed subjectivities constitutes a form of resistance to the control of the knowledge production and to the control of subjectivities themselves; since this production has a liberating function from oppressive systems and is able to reveal the implicit power dynamics within the production of knowledge. (shrink)

There is a speed-accuracy trade-off in perception. The ability to quickly extract sensory information is critical for survival, while extended processing can improve our accuracy. It has been suggested that emotions can change our style of processing, but their influence on processing speed is not yet clear. In three experiments, combining online and laboratory studies with different emotion induction procedures, we investigated the influence of both affective states, manipulated with music, and individual traits in sensory-processing sensitivity on the ability to (...) rapidly segregate two visual flashes. Across studies, the musical manipulations pushed participants towards either rapid or slow processing. Individual variations in sensory-processing sensitivity modulated these effects. Our findings demonstrate that affective states, influenced by music, can shift the balance between fast and slow visual processing, altering our perceptual experience. These results also emphasise the interaction of individual traits in sensory processing and affective states. (shrink)

We explore logic as a method to model social phenomena, giving rise to what we term social logic. After introducing and defining this concept, we identify main examples of social logic, ranging from key precursors that have enabled researchers to start modeling complex social phenomena and concepts using the tools of logic, to more central examples of recent trends in social logic. We then reflect on logic as a modeling tool, discussing more generally why and how it is a relevant (...) and valuable method in the social realm. Finally, we outline some promising directions for future research in social logic. (shrink)

When information grows abundant, attention becomes a scarce resource. As a result, agents must plan wisely how to allocate their attention in order to achieve epistemic efficiency. Here, we present a framework for multi-agent epistemic planning with attention, based on Dynamic Epistemic Logic. We identify the framework as a fragment of standard DEL, and consider its plan existence problem. While it is undecidable in the general case, we show that when attention is required for learning, all instances of the problem (...) are decidable. (shrink)

In his target article, Ismaili M’hamdi advocates for perfectionist public health policymaking, which entails fostering relevant and objectively valuable public health-related capabilities wh...

In this chapter, ‘Nietzsche in Liber Novus’, I will explore Nietzsche’s presence in Liber Novus through a philological analysis of the text. When needed, I will make use of Jungʼs annotations on his own copy of Zarathustra, often referring to Liber Novus indeed. In the first half of the chapter, I will investigate Nietzsche’s ‘implicit’ presence in Liber Novus, always occurring in the layer of Jung’s retrospective comments on his fantasies. I will dwell upon three symbolic constellations: desert, lion, and (...) transformation; poisonous serpents, riddles, and dwarfs; sun, sunset, and eastern wisdom. In the second half of the chapter, I will explore Nietzscheʼs ‘explicit’ presence in Liber Novus, occurring in both layers of fantasies and retrospective comments, always after January 1914. The symbolic constellations analysed will be: folly as the other side of life; teaching, mocking, and imitating in the process of self-becoming; death and rebirth of God. (shrink)

L’intelligenza artificiale lavora trascrivendo matematicamente il mondo. In questo articolo, vogliamo analizzare le questioni che derivano da questo _modus operandi_ servendoci del pensiero del filosofo francese Jean Baudrillard. Ciò che lo preoccupa maggiormente è che questa trascrizione matematica comporterà la perdita di ciò che rende il mondo un organismo vivente, ovvero l’incertezza, la finitezza, il caos. Questo progetto viene operato servendosi appunto anche delle IA che favoriscono la realizzazione di quella che Baudrillard definisce «realtà integrale», una realtà resa trasparente per (...) eliminare qualsiasi opacità che non può essere controllata. Questo delitto della realtà, compiuto da chi ha paura delle “ombre”, non è perfetto, poiché c’è in noi un desiderio di resistenza a quest’opera di totale matematizzazione del mondo. Questa resistenza è propria di chi assiste “lucidamente” alla disfatta di quel sogno di integralità per mano dei suoi stessi meccanismi. (shrink)

Dans cet article, j’explore la réception de la pensée post-moderniste de Loisy chez deux figures centrales du monde intellectuel italien de la première moitié du XXe siècle, Adolfo Omodeo et Benedetto Croce. Omodeo montre qu’il connaît et apprécie certaines des contributions principales que Loisy a consacrées au problème moral et religieux, en partant du contexte douloureux de la crise de la civilisation européenne. Croce, lui aussi, loue chaleureusement le texte de Loisy La crise morale du temps présent, et entre les (...) deux intellectuels naît immédiatement la conscience qu’ils sont parvenus à des conclusions identiques, bien qu’ils aient emprunté des voies de recherche initialement très différentes. Croce et Omodeo sont tout à fait d’accord avec la perspective éthique, désormais pleinement immanentiste, de l’historien français, qui promeut, contre la décadence de l’esprit européen, la même religiosité humaniste, reconnue comme l’apogée de l’évolution morale et spirituelle de l’humanité, à laquelle Croce et Omodeo aspirent également. (shrink)

In the introduction, I will explore Jung’s complex relationship with Nietzsche, regarded both as a philosopher and—above all—as an individual. In particular, I will dwell upon the psychological meaning of Thus Spoke Zarathustra for Jung’s understanding of his own personal experience of Liber Novus. I will formulate the hypothesis that the apparent misunderstanding emerging from Jung’s four-year seminar on Zarathustra can be explained through a close reading of Liber Novus: Jung understood Zarathustra as a sort of Nietzsche’s Liber Novus. To (...) endorse my hypothesis, I will show how both Zarathustra and Liber Novus can be thought of as ‘visionary’ works, a precise category Jung had a vivid interest in and analysed in details in 1930. I will conclude the introduction with a brief synthesis of the other chapters of the book. (shrink)

This article pursues the goal of articulating a pedagogical paradigm of philosophy as a way of life that can effectively re-invigorate the teaching of philosophy in today’s academic world. This re-invigoration should take direct inspiration from Hadot’s hermeneutical framework of how to live philosophically, while still recognizing the intrinsic limitations that his model presents when applied to the modern educational practices of academia. In particular, we maintain that a literal application of Hadot’s model would require we turn the teaching of (...) philosophy as a way of life into a systemic affair that demands from students a full commitment to particular schools of thought. Conversely, we argue for a pedagogical paradigm of philosophy as a way of life (“PWOL-as-Situated-Pedagogy”) that enacts a triple balancing between theory and practice, progress and assessment, and depth and breadth. In this way, the problem of self-cultivation is tackled by engaging students with a broader consideration of philosophies and spiritual exercises. (shrink)

In the Phenomenology of Perception, Merleau-Ponty dedicates many pages to the analysis of pathological cases, which seem to be assessed as merely negative phenomena that reinforce an extrinsic opposition with normal ones. This paper aims to clarify that Merleau-Ponty in effect challenges the able–disabled dichotomy by articulating an intentional analysis based on the perspective of being-in-the-world and proposing a differential understanding of embodiment. Such an analysis demonstrates that ability and disability exist as material and situational events and, simultaneously, form an (...) existential continuum—one that rejects the identification of disability with a disruption (ontological claim) or a degradation (normative claim). (shrink)

In this chapter, ‘Liber Novus in Nietzsche. Jung’s Seminar on Zarathustra’, I will investigate the impact of Liber Novus in Jungʼs understanding of Zarathustra, as emerging from his Zurich seminar (1934–1939). In the first half of the chapter, I will analyse three themes referring to Jung’s understanding of Zarathustra as Nietzsche’s failed individuation: the Old Wise Man—Zarathustra and Philemon; intoxication, inflation, the Übermensch and the Übersinn; isolated suns, the island of the dead, and the ‘wheel of creation’. In the second (...) half of the chapter, I will dwell upon symbols of animals that do not always play major roles in Zarathustra but to which, nonetheless, Jung dedicates long and detailed psychological interpretations. Such animals, in fact, are relevant in Liber Novus: serpent, bird, and black scarab; frogs and swamp; doves, the feminine, and the ‘soul’. (shrink)

There is growing public interest in developing biomedical technologies capable of extending the human lifespan. This chapter discusses the desirability of a substantial life extension with regard to its implications for personal identity over time. The possibility of significant lifespan extension involves two different personal‐identity questions. First, it raises the question of whether one is identifiable as the very same person throughout a lifetime; secondly, it challenges our self‐conception. The chapter describes the way in which personal identity as “sameness” might (...) be affected by the prospect of substantial life extension. It then focuses on the significance of the conception of personal identity as “selfhood” for radically extended lifespans. Finally, the chapter argues that a substantial life extension raises important concerns about the continuity of one's identity over time and is not straightforwardly desirable for the individual. (shrink)

The image of the Roman woman, which has survived to this day and imposed itself almost as the only possibility for the ancient scholarship, is the domiseda: the housewife, mother, and spinner. In addition to the investigations of this traditional depiction, which steered the research on Roman women, the issues of our time and the advances in scientific research constantly bring us new perspectives, approaches, and problems around this object of study. This inevitably motivates us to question the role of (...) women in the business and finance world in Ancient Rome. Is it possible to write an economic and financial history of Roman women? What are the limits of this endeavor? This article addresses the insertion of women in the business and finance world, as well as some of the multiple possibilities of writing the History of Women from the Economic and Social History viewpoint. The time frame is restricted to the end of the Republic and the imperial period. This article is therefore divided into three parts: first, an introduction to the discussion of the situation of women in the domus; secondly, methodological assumptions to the study of women and their placement in economic and financial life; and, finally, some examples ofwomen from three different social groups who appear involved in credit relations in the documentation. (shrink)

In this chapter, ‘“Visionary” Works and Liber Novus’, I will contextualise both Nietzsche’s Zarathustra and Jung’s Liber Novus within Jung’s category of ‘visionary’ works, as presented in his definition from Psychology and Literature (1930). Starting with such a definition—which touches upon several authors and works—I will narrow the field, to explore a precise group of writers and works, often put by Jung in connection with Nietzsche and Zarathustra: J. W. Goethe and Faust; F. Hölderlin and Song of Destiny (Hyperion), F. (...) T. Vischer and Auch Einer; C. Spitteler and both Olympian Spring and Prometheus and Epimetheus. I will explore their frequent use of mythology, their common interest in Theology, the connection of such authors with Basel (often through the names of J. Burckhardt and J. J Bachofen), all of them referring to a symbolic understanding of mythology starting with F. Creuzer. I will finally show how Jung and Liber Novus fit in the category of ‘visionary’ works too. (shrink)

L’ouvrage de F. Stella est une enquête de grande envergure sur la notion d’« intellect » entre la Grèce archaïque et la période classique. Encore hésite-t-on à traduire ainsi le vocabulaire du νόος, car cela reviendrait d’emblée à le lester d’une signification déterminée : celle de l’acte cognitif par excellence, où culmine le geste philosophique d’abstraction. Or le projet de F. Stella est précisément de démontrer que cette signification est le produit d’une histoire : le sens qui se constit...

We recently demonstrated, by means of short latency afferent inhibition (SAI), that before an imagined movement, during the reaction time (RT), SAI decreases only in the movement-related muscle (sensorimotor modulation) and that a correlation exists between sensorimotor modulation and motor imagery (MI) ability. Excitatory anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (a-tDCS) on M1 could enhance the MI outcome; however, mechanisms of action are not completely known. Here, we assessed if a-tDCS on M1 prior to an MI task could affect sensorimotor modulation. (...) Participants imagined abducting the index or little finger in response to an acoustic signal. SAI was evaluated from the first dorsal interosseus after the “go” signal, before the expected electromyographic (EMG) activity. Participants received 20-min 1.5 mA a-tDCS or sham-tDCS on M1 on two different days, in random order. Results showed that a-tDCS on M1 increases the sensorimotor modulation consisting of a weakening of SAI after the Go signal with respect to sham-tDCS, in the movement-related muscle right before the beginning of MI. These results suggest that a-tDCS on M1 further potentiate those circuits responsible for sensorimotor modulation in the RT phase of MI. Increased sensorimotor modulation during MI may be one of the mechanisms involved in MI improvement after a-tDCS over M1. (shrink)

An extended visual exploration of Brooklyn and its inhabitants viewed from a bus window frame. The project was conceived as a symbolic photographic portrait of America in this specific time of history, a time of transition and transformation deeply affected by the global economic crisis and its consequences on society, politics and culture.

This article examines continuity and change in Star trek’s expression of the American Frontier Myth, moving from an American ideal of imperialist expansion across an unlimited feminized landscape and destruction of Indians and animals in the myth’s early form, to one of benevolent redemption of the Other as misguided or evil alien in the unlimited expanse of outer space in early Star Trek. Analysis of symbol and narrative in Star Trek Voyager show further change, as feminist and environmental ethics are (...) included. Now, movement is toward earth rather than away from it, raced and gendered Others are often internalized rather than projected onto Indians and aliens, and nature is vulnerable and spiritual rather than unlimited and inert. Though women and nature are still linked and idealized as selfless givers, progress is also made as women gain equal rank and air time and men take on some traditionally feminine roles. (shrink)

In the conclusion, I will put Zarathustra and Liber Novus in a face-to-face confrontation, based on their authors’ understanding of, and reaction to, the ‘death of God’. Firstly, I will explore the ideas of ‘death of God’ and ʻChristianity’ in Nietzsche and Jung. I will initially contrast Nietzscheʼs philological attitude with Jung’s alleged ‘empriricism’. I will then move on to Nietzsche’s understanding of Socratism, Wagnerism, and Christianity as imitational attitudes, expressions of decadence, to which Jung’s idea of Christ’s archetypal nature (...) is to be counterpoised. Finally, I will explore the idea of self-overcoming in Nietzsche and Jung. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Nietzscheforschung Jahrgang: 21 Heft: 1 Seiten: 231-242.

Nietzsche calls himself a “psychologist [Psychologe]” in a few passages of his published works. Furthermore—and mainly due to his intense interest in the scientific debates of his time, which involved figures such as Hartmann, Schopenhauer, Gerber, Helmholtz, and Zöllner—Nietzsche’s early philosophical thought can be regarded as clearly “permeated” by his concern with the unconscious. The combination of psychology and this concern with the unconscious..

The article deals with André Malraux’s comparative theory of art. He, a French intellectual, novelist, and philosopher developed an original philosophical approach to art works and their transformations in time which has still a significant impact to contemporary comparative studies of art. The idea of metamorphosis expresses Malraux’s radical turn from classical academic aesthetics and his closeness to existential philosophical and aesthetical thinking. It reinforces the concept of the imaginary museum and provides a more philosophical background. Each culture perceives and (...) accepts the art of other cultures according to its own viewpoints in a process which is defined by Malraux as metamorphosis. The full significance of metamorphosis appeared in modern civilisation—the first which collected art forms from any period and place. The work of art lives its own life deliberated from history and its consequential postulation of human permanence. The metamorphosis is the key to Malraux’s humanist metaphysics of art. (shrink)

The focus group held in Bologna on 2 October 2005 revolved around the relationships between ‘body’, ‘sexuality’ and ‘precarity’, which are concepts at the heart of the reflections and political agenda of the feminist and Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (GLBTQ) movements in Italy.