1,721,285 research outputs found
Coerenza contra estensione : Lullo e Bruno tra Ars combinatoria e Qabbalah
No full textThe article analyses Bruno's revision of Lull's ars combinatoria by comparing the works of the two authors both with each other and with the cabalistic tradition to whom they refer. It is hence shown that due to a different understanding of God's role within the system and of the hierarchic or non-hierarchic nature of the scala naturae, Bruno's version of Lull's organon lost its original value of logical and ontological necessity, and consequently could no longer be received as a method for universal knowledge, but only as a 'rhetorical' device for dispositio and inventi
Contingency, Possibility, and Verisimilitude in Lorenzo Valla : Dialectics and Philology
No full textThis article analyses Lorenzo Valla’s dialectics in order to uncover an epistemological
theory of truth undergirding Valla’s production. Based on the analysis of Valla’s
Retractatio totius dialecticae, I argue that Valla rejects the notion of one-sided possibility,
and considers both possibility and contingency as incompatible with necessity and
absolute truth. This assumption inevitably hinders inquiries in fields of knowledge that
deal with inherently possible or particular data. Analysing Valla’s philological works, this
article shows that, in specific cases, Valla tries to overcome this obstacle thanks to the
notion of intellectual acumen, a faculty that transcends the rules of logical inference and
puts the inquirer in contact with truth
Pomponio Leto's De Historia : A proto-antiquarian conception of history at the end of the Fifteenth Century
No full text
Mathematical subtleties and scientific knowledge : Francis Bacon and mathematics, at the crossing of two traditions
No full textThis article engages the much-debated role of mathematics in Bacon's philosophy and inductive method at large. The many references to mathematics in Bacon's works are considered in the context of the humanist reform of the curriculum studiorum and, in particular, through a comparison with the kinds of natural and intellectual subtlety as they are defined by many sixteenth-century authors, including Cardano, Scaliger and Montaigne. Additionally, this article gives a nuanced background to the 'subtlety' commonly thought to have been eschewed by Bacon and by Bacon's self-proclaimed followers in the Royal Society of London. The aim of this article is ultimately to demonstrate that Bacon did not reject the use of mathematics in natural philosophy altogether. Instead, he hoped that following the Great Instauration a kind of non-abstract mathematics could be founded: a kind of mathematics which was to serve natural philosophy by enabling men to grasp the intrinsic subtlety of nature. Rather than mathematizing nature, it was mathematics that needed to be 'naturalized'
Head Transplant and Personal Identity : a Philosophical and Literary Survey
No full textThe criterion of personal identity is clearly called into question by the project to perform a human head transplant. Is identity provided by psychological continuity alone, or does it depend on bodily continuity as well? And how do these different perspectives interface with our notion of mind and mind-body relationship? The reader will be provided with a discussion concerning these problems, together with a philosophical and literary survey about the conception of body-mind relationship from the Greek thought to contemporary philosophy. The analysis will conclude with a discussion concerning the possibility to consider the issue of personal identity from a statistic point of view, which privileges the general perception of identity, so as it has been shaped by the cultural trends of the last four centuries. It could hence be argued that personal identity is not something which can be defined once and for all. On the contrary, the general perception of identity is subject to significant alterations resulting from one's cultural environment. However, the cultural environment itself can be changed by particularly notable events, such as, hypothetically, the successful outcome of a human head transplant
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
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