283 research outputs found
Introduzione a "Critica della ragione generativa", Vita e Pensiero, Milano 2017
No full textLa cultura moderna ha spesso stornato la generazione dalle categorie ontologiche, antropologiche ed etiche fondamentali, o l’ha mantenuta, ma nel senso dell’autoproduzione idealista. Sennonché la stessa identità soggettiva e, di seguito, l’umana capacità di fare esperienza feconda, richiedono la generazione da parte di altri per essere attivate: grazie alle relazioni benefico-virtuose guadagniamo le nostre capacità fondamentali (cognitive, riflessive, deliberative, espressive, dialogiche, tecniche, ecc.). Insomma, la generatività è la dimensione antropologicamente sintetica, a partire dalla quale è possibile giudicare le relazioni umane, che sono sempre generative o de-generative, sempre istituenti o destituenti altri. A dispetto della sentenza secondo cui «la mia libertà finisce dove comincia la tua», si deve invece dire che «la mia libertà esiste perché c’è la tua, e se la tua è benefica, inoltre ha senso anche, e principalmente in vista della relazione generativa benefica reciprocante con la tua».Modern culture has often shifted generation from ontological, anthropological and ethical fundamental categories, or has maintained it, but in the sense of idealistic self-handling. But the subjective identity and, subsequently, the human ability to make fruitful experience, require generation on behalf of others to be activated: thanks to the beneficial-virtuous relationships we gain our fundamental abilities (cognitive, reflexive, deliberative, expressive, dialogical, technical, etc.). In short, generativity is the anthropologically synthetic dimension, on the basis of which it is possible to judge human relations, which are always generative or de-generative, always institutive or destituent. In spite of the sentence according to which "my freedom ends where yours begins", it must instead be said that "my freedom exists because there is yours, and if yours is beneficial, it also makes sense, and primarily, in view of the generative mutually beneficial relationship with yours"
Precarious work and high-skilled youth in Europe
No full textDuring the current great recession, probably for the first time, we are witnessing a waste of highly educated youth in most European labour markets.
This paper seeks to contribute to the debate on the increasing precariousness, temporary work, disconnected transitions, over-qualification and skill mismatch trends affecting most high-skilled youth labour markets in Europe.
High-educational levels have usually played an important role in protecting individuals against both unemployment and underemployment: recent data show that the protection effect of higher education has been eroded by the crisis. Nowadays this is a crucial issue for the European Union.
Although inactivity and unemployment are more widespread among young people with low educational attainment, a growing share of young graduates are also ending up there, while those having jobs are increasingly employed in temporary and low-qualified positions. There are, however, appreciable differences across Europe, the Southern countries showing the worst labour market conditions.
The effects of precarious employment are particularly negative and persistent on young workers, as difficult early experiences of transition into work are likely to be associated with deterioration in long-term life chances (scarring effect). The prolonged labour market difficulties of young highly educated workers will also have relevant negative effects on the socio-economic growth potential of European countries. There is however little research on this specific segment of the labour force.
The paper presents the main results of a comparative research on “Risk Transitions and Missing Policies for Young High-Skilled Workers in Europe”, funded by the European Commission, which considers the labour market conditions of youth with tertiary education –ISCED level equal to or greater than 5– who have been experiencing precariousness, deskilling and unemployment in recent years, and it provides an overview on the current European labour market conditions and policies for graduates, with specific focus on selected countries (UK, Spain, Italy).
The analytical approach is mainly based on the transitional labour market literature (Schmid 2000, 2008) which assumes that individual pathways and careers are neither linear nor standardised. We consider key institutional factors affecting school-to-work transitions and labour market mobility: the role of higher education systems and apprenticeship training, the role of temporary work, the quality of ports of entry into the employment market. The paper analysed the transitions -often disconnected- between standard and nonstandard employment contracts, between employment and unemployment or inactivity (discouraged pathway).
The starting research question is to what extent tertiary education still represents a protection against unemployment and underemployment risks. To what extent do both the assumptions of the ‘human-capital theory’ in economics and the ‘educational-credentials theory’ in sociology still work? Answering these questions requires analysis in greater depth to avoid easy generalisations and assess the long-term structural consequences of the current crisis for economic growth and social conditions. Two main aspects are to be considered in a general perspective: the quantity and quality of the labour demand and the characteristics of the higher education systems, especially in terms of their ability to meet rapidly changing labour market needs.
Rising educational levels have proved to be among the most important trends in the changing nature of the labour force through time. From the economic perspective we can safely assume that the key drivers of the relative demand for more educated workers are linked to technological change – favouring highly educated and skilled workers – and heightened international competition, which has been detrimental to low-skilled or “superfluous workers” (Gans 2011). We can also say that the nexus between educational system growth and its influence on economic development has become more uncertain. The existing gap between demand and supply of highly qualified human resources represents one of the possible explanations for over-qualification, vertical skill mismatch (when available jobs do not require tertiary education) and horizontal skill mismatch (when jobs are not related to the field of study) to be seen now in the majority of European labour markets.
The research methodology consisted in: 1) a comparative analysis of the employment conditions of young high-skilled workers in the EU27 Member States based on available Eurostat data and literature; 2) three country case studies including a quantitative analysis of national micro-data and a qualitative investigation, based on in-depth interviews (about 30 young people with tertiary education employed on temporary contracts) and focus groups with relevant institutional actors; 3) an assessment of the main measures adopted to support the employability of young workers. Eligibility for welfare and unemployment benefits is also considered.
The paper will present the main research findings as well as some important research questions that arise from the analysis and call for further research. Four main findings emerge from the comparative analysis. The first is that for tertiary education leaver who find a job, temporary employment seems to be the norm in most European countries. Youth employment is generally characterised by high levels of temporary contracts, low wages, undeclared work and unpaid overtime, leading to a vulnerable position in the labour market, to some extent regardless of their educational attainment and skills. In fact, high-skilled workers are also highly likely to be employed in temporary jobs. Especially the Southern countries, the incidence of temporary work for high skilled youth workers exceeds the average. Secondly, temporary workers have been particularly hard hit during the recent recession and the relative concentration of temporary jobs among younger workers (15-24) has resulted in significant increases in youth unemployment and inactivity rates. The third finding is that the transition period between school and jobs which guarantee a stable income, career perspectives and social protection, tends to be fairly long in some European countries, also for the highly educated. The evidence suggests that the expected time to find a permanent job is positively correlated with the overall strictness of regulation on permanent employment. This is particularly the case in temporary-work countries – such as Italy and Spain – that have adopted two-tier labour market reforms based mainly on the deregulation of entry contracts. But a similar trend is occurring in the UK, which represents the ideal-typical of liberal and flexible labour market. Even in Member States like the UK and some Nordic and Continental countries, where young workers have better chances of moving into permanent contracts, skill mismatches remain frequent and the current recession has increased the incidence of precarious work and the time needed to find a stable job. Finally, the qualification mismatch is becoming an ever greater challenge for most EU countries. In Southern Europe over-qualification among youth is considerable and tertiary education does not allow a guarantee against unemployment and/or precarious employment, with young graduates showing the highest unemployment and temporary employment rates. In both countries, negative labour market experiences induce many young highly skilled workers to migrate abroad – the brain drain – with the loss of qualified resources which could affect growth potentials when not offset by attracting equivalent skilled human resources from abroad.
From the subjective perspective the research results show some dissimilarities in the way the problems are perceived by youth themselves. Different national pictures have emerged - in Italy persistent precariousness and skill mismatch; in Spain disconnected pathway in the labour market; in the UK longer labour market transitions and deskilling- reflecting different cultural approaches and institutional regulation models.
Most EU countries lack a comprehensive policy addressing the needs of young high-skilled workers, considering that training programmes, start-up and employment incentives usually focus on low-skilled workers. Only in very recent years in the face of rapidly rising graduate unemployment have some European countries introduced programmes aimed at graduates, which either promote subsidised internships, wages and social security contributions
Optimality Theory and the Minimalist Program
No full textIn this paper I argue that an OT-approach to grammar is actually essential to minimalist investigations, because it dramatically widens the set of linguistic properties potentially reducible to interface conditions while at the same time dispensing with interface-external language specific provisos. The discussion will hopefully also dispel some common misconceptions about OT.The definitive version of this paper is published in Linguistics in Potsdam 25 (2006).Samek-Lodovici, V. (2006). Optimality Theory and the Minimalist Program. In H. Broekhuis & R. Vogel (Eds), Linguistics in Potsdam 25. Optimality Theory and Minimalism: A possible Convergence? Potsdam : Universitätsverlag PotsdamISBN: 9783939469544 (published book
La creazione di fronte al nichilismo
No full textIn Etica e ambiguità Fabris dedica alcune pagine al tema del nichilismo e allo sgomento che esso comporta: la paura che tutto ciò che è possa essere annullato e che (dunque, tendenzialmente) di per sé sia nulla, non abbia né consistenza né valore.
Il presente contributo dapprima distingue un nichilismo drammatico e uno ludico e argomenta la possibile fecondità etica dello sgomento del nichilismo.
Poi riflette sulle conseguenze anti-nichiliste della prospettiva della creazione intesa come elargizione d’essere che non presuppone ni-ente.
Viene illustrata la natura della creazione, anche come conservazione nell’essere, che istituisce una relazione tra Dio e mondo, senza precludere la libertà umana. Essa comporta la positività persino della materia e la possibilità del non annichilimento eterno di quest’ultima e delle entità spirituali.In Etica e ambiguità, Fabris dedicates some pages to the theme of nihilism and the dismay it entails: the fear that everything can be annihilated and that everything tends to be nothing in itself, and has neither consistency nor value.
This paper first distinguishes a dramatic nihilism and a ‘ludic’ one and argues about the possible ethical fruitfulness of the nihilism’s dismay.
Then it reflects on the anti-nihilist consequences of the perspective of creatio ex nihilo, which does not presuppose anything.
The nature of creation is illustrated, also as an action of conservation of being that establishes a relationship between God and the world, without precluding human freedom. It implies the positivity even of matter and the possibility of the non-annihilation of matter itself and of the spiritual entities
Lex et amor
No full textIl presente contributo ricostruisce il pensiero di Tommaso d’Aquino circa alcuni aspetti del rapporto tra lex naturalis e amore.
Prima spiega che per Tommaso i precetti dell’amore a Dio, dell’amore (giusto) verso se stessi e verso il prossimo sono i principi morali più importanti della lex naturalis e che questa ha lo scopo di promuovere quelle azioni massimamente virtuose che sono l’amicizia degli uomini tra loro e con Dio.
Poi tematizza le inclinationes umane e analizza l’ordo ad Deum come condizione essenziale per le azioni virtuose, ed esemplifica come le norme della lex naturalis siano finalizzate alle virtù ed agli atti virtuosi.
In conclusione ritorna sul vertice della moralità quale esercizio dell’amicizia e dell’amore.
This paper reconstructs the thought of Aquinas about some aspects of the relationship between lex naturalis and love.
Firstly, it explains that for Thomas the precepts of love for God, that of (just) love for oneself and of love for one's neighbor are the most important moral principles of the lex naturalis, the purpose of which is that of promoting the most virtuous actions, that are the friendship of humans among themselves, and the friendship of humans with God.
Secondly, it focuses on human inclinationes and on the ordo ad Deum as the condition for virtuous acts, and exemplifies how the norms of lex naturalis are directed to virtues and virtuous acts.
Finally, it stresses that the exercise of friendship and love isare to be considered the highest level of morality
Il confronto di Abbà con l’etica moderna e l’opzione per la via degli antichi
No full textIl presente contributo dapprima riporta la caratterizzazione, fatta da Abbà, delle principali concezioni morali: l’etica come ricerca sulla vita migliore per l’uomo, come ricerca sulla legge morale da osservare, come ricerca sulle regole per la collaborazione sociale, come spiegazione dei processi psicologici, come massimizzazione delle conseguenze positive dell’agire (e inoltre aggiunge cenni sulla disamina di Abbà del non cognitivismo etico). Tranne la prima, il loro minimo comun denominatore è il ‘soggetto utilitario’ e lo spostamento dal punto di vista della prima persona al punto di vista della terza persona nell’elaborazione della filosofia morale.
Poi il contributo espone il confronto svolto da Abbà tra le precedenti figure di etica menzionando le carenze delle etiche di terza persona (per es. circa la complessa gestazione delle azioni) e della loro antropologia, il loro misconoscimento del ruolo delle virtù, dell’amore e dell’ordo ad Deum. Per Abbà l’etica come ricerca della vita migliore per l’uomo è in grado di recepire le istanze giuste delle altre.This essay first reports Abbà’s characterization of the main moral conceptions: ethics as research on the best life for man, as research on the moral law to be observed, as research on the rules for social collaboration, as explanation of psychological processes, as maximization of the positive consequences of action (and also adds some hints on Abbà’s examination of ethical non-cognitivism). Except for the first one, their common denominator is the 'utilitarian subject' and the shift from the first person point of view to the third person point of view in the elaboration of moral philosophy.
Then the essay exposes Abbà’s comparison between the previous figures of ethics mentioning the problems of third person ethics (e.g. about the complex gestation of actions) and of their anthropology, their misrecognition of the role of virtues, of love and of the ordo ad Deum. For Abbà, ethics as a search for the best life for man is capable of incorporating the just demands of the other conceptions
Persona e identità nell’utilitarismo (coerente)
No full textThe essay elucidates, in the thought of some significant utilitarian philosophers, both the notion of person, both the theory about the manner in which the person must be treated.
To this end, first it summarizes the essential features of J. Bentham’s utilitarianism, including its conception of the person, since he is practically the founder of the utilitarian tradition of moral inquiry, as well as an author very coherent; then outlines the utilitarian conception about the question of justice, of equality and rights of the persons; then focuses P. Singer’s conception of the person, because it is coherent almost like that of Bentham; below examines different variants of the foundation of the ethical principle of utility, because it is the latter that entails the ethical consequentialist and utilitarian conception that is related to the treatment of the person; finally, as an alternative to utilitarianism, briefly refers to the uniqueness of each person
Virtue Ethics: an Overview
No full textThe purpose of this essay is to review some significant themes present in the works of Virtue Ethics (VE) authors (mainly, but not exclusively, neo-Aristotelian ones).
First it focuses some VE’s criticism versus modern ethics, for example the concentration on duty, arguing, on the contrary, that it is necessary to identify the telos-flourishment of human life and to preserve love-friendship as crucial for societies. According to VE, norms are not sufficient to act well: we need to be inspired by the phronimos and to possess phronesis. That implies the importance of the community and the necessary role of emotions.
Then the essay focuses on virtues as dispositions to perform morally good actions and react with the appropriate emotions. Virtue has intrinsic value and makes good action spontaneous, but its primary effect is to enable us to desire, identify, evaluate, command, choose and execute the good in a certain situation
Giustizia e utilitarismo
No full textThe utilitarian paradigm of moral research is one of the most widespread currents of philosophical ethics in the world.
The essay first focuses on the formulation of J. Bentham (an author who helps to understand this ethical perspective also in his followers) and on its fundamental elements: teleology, psychological hedonism, identification of the good with pleasure, principle of utility, consequentialism.
Then it sets out the main forms of utilitarianism and consequentialism and their ways of dealing with justice, equality, freedom and rights.
Finally, he criticizes utilitarianism regarding the calculation of the consequences and the moral weight of the consequences in the evaluation of human actions
Specismo, ragione umana, parola e senso etico (brevi note)
No full textNel mio contributo rifletto su alcuni aspetti della questione circa l’equiparazione/differenza tra l’essere umano e gli animali superiori, prendendo come punto di riferimento un pensatore (uno solo per ragioni di spazio) tra quelli che hanno denunciato lo specismo cioè P. Singer.
Fatto salvo che l’uomo non può (moralmente parlando) agire verso gli animali in qualsiasi modo, per esempio non deve infliggere loro dolore inutile, l’esistenza di doveri degli uomini verso gli animali non cancella la differenza qualitativa (non solo quantitativa) tra uomini e animali.
Nel contributo focalizzo la specificità umana che emerge dalla ragione teoretica (mentre l’animale ha solo una conoscenza pragmatica), dalla parola (mentre l’animale ha solo il verso), dal senso etico che richiede libertà (di cui l’animale è sprovvisto).
E faccio notare che persino la stessa denuncia dello specismo cade in contraddizione pragmatica, perché costituisce un’attività specificamente umana.In my contribution I reflect on some aspects of the question about the equation/difference between the human being and the higher animals, taking as a reference point a thinker (only one for reasons of space) among those who denounced speciesism, that is P. Singer.
Humans cannot (morally speaking) act towards animals in any way, for example they must not inflict unnecessary pain on them, anyway the existence of duties towards animals does not cancel the qualitative (not only quantitative) difference between humans and animals.
In the contribution I focus on the human specificity that emerges from the theoretical reason (while the animal has only a pragmatic knowledge), from the word (while the animal has only the verse), from the ethical sense, that requires freedom (of which the animal is lacking ).
And I point out that even the same denunciation of speciesism falls into a pragmatic contradiction, because it constitutes a specifically human activity
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