540 research outputs found
Essays on Plato's epistemology
No full textThrough a careful survey of several significant Platonic texts, mainly focussing on the nature of knowledge, Essays on Plato’s Epistemology offers the reader a fresh and promising approach to Plato’s philosophy as a whole. From the very earliest reception of Plato’s philosophy, there has been a conflict between a dogmatic and a sceptical interpretation of his work and thought. Moreover, the two sides are often associated, respectively, with a metaphysical and an anti-metaphysical approach. This book, continuing a line of thought that is nowadays strongly present in the secondary literature – and also followed by the author in over thirty years of research –, maintains that a third way of thinking is required. Against the widespread view that an anti-dogmatic philosophy must go together with an anti-metaphysical stance, Trabattoni shows that for Plato, on the contrary, a sober and reasonable assessment of both the powers and limits of human reason relies on a proper metaphysical outlook
La metafisica di Platone: scienza dell'essere o filosofia dei valori? In margine alle interpretazioni di Lotze, Heidegger e Gadamer
No full textChe ruolo giocano le matematiche nella metafora della linea?
No full textThe paper investigates a section of the so called metaphor of the «divided line» (Republic, 510b2-511b11). First, a new translation of the first lines of the text is proposed, on the basis of the Sling's recent edition and with slight modification of the punctuation. Secondly, the author argues that the reference of the mathematics and of the geometrians' methods has to be regarded not so much as if Plato was actually criticizing them, but as a telling example of the incorrect way of understanding intellectual cognition. This incorrect way of knowing consists in claiming to grasp the ideas through an intellectual insight fashioned on the model of sensible vision. It is incorrect because according to Plato human insight cannot be but sensible. Such a conclusion confirms the hypothesis, endorsed by several scholars, that according to Plato even the highest kind of cognition that human beings dispose of is not intuitive but discursive
Theaetetus, 200d-201c: Truth without Certainty
No full textL''autore analizza a fondo un passo del Teeteto platonico (200d-201c), in cui, tramite l''esempio di un processo, si sostiene che solo i testimoni oculari possono avere una conoscenza piena e non doxastica di un evento. Questo passo, a parere dell''autore, racchiude in forma contratta e metaforica una delle nozioni chiave dell''epistemologia platonica, che il Teeteto ha appunto lo scopo di mettere in luce. Questo dialogo si interroga sulla natura dell''episteme, ma il suo esito è fallimentare. Ciò non dipende dal fatto che occorra integrare il dialogo con dottrine in esso non presenti (come per lo più si fa), ma dal fatto che se l''episteme è intesa come conoscenza piena e completa delle idee, tale conoscenza è per Platone disponibile solo alla visione diretta dell''anima disincarnata (paragonabile alla visione diretta dei testimoni oculari in un processo). Nella sua condizione mortale, viceversa, l''uomo dispone solo di una conoscenza intellettiva indiretta, ossia discorsiva e non intuitiva, mediata dal logos e dalla doxa, intesa come giudizio che l''anima formula nei confronti di determinate proposizioni
New insights in the fight against HIV
No full textEffective antiviral immune responses rely on the host’s genetic background and its interaction with the surrounding environment [...
Vaccine strategies for infectious diseases
No full textInfectious diseases are the major cause of death worldwide; in developing countries such diseases are responsible for nearly half the burden of premature death and disability. Therefore, the need for the development of new vaccine strategies aimed at preventing or limiting disease is extremely urgent. Important successes have been achieved against some infectious diseases that were once endemic or, even, epidemic (e.g., polio, smallpox, diptheria). Advances in our knowledge of the pathogenesis and immune correlates of protections are needed to develop novel vaccinal approaches to diseases such as hepatitis C, AIDS and malaria. In this review we will analyse the biological problems associated with the prevention of development and/or improvement of vaccine strategies for infectious diseases, focusing on the difficulties facing the creation of new effective vaccines for HIV infection and malaria
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