Maria Jose

This chapter explores the theoretical foundations and practical implications of applying Cartesian emotion theory to the analysis of opera seria, particularly the works of Pietro Metastasio. The authors begin by reviewing the evolving philosophical and scientific approaches to human emotions from Ancient Greece to modern psychology, emphasizing the unique systematic taxonomy developed by Descartes. They argue that this taxonomy, although historically situated, offers valuable conceptual tools for understanding the emotional dramaturgy of 18th-century opera. The study also highlights the Neapolitan reception of Cartesian thought and its influence on Metastasio’s intellectual formation. By examining translations, terminological inconsistencies, and linguistic ambiguities across languages, the chapter addresses the challenges of interpreting historical emotional concepts. Ultimately, the authors propose a "cognate theory" that bridges Descartes’ taxonomy and Metastasian opera, offering a framework for analyzing emotional meaning in arias beyond musical structures. This approach situates emotions not as universal or purely subjective entities, but as culturally constructed yet operational codes within the performance and composition of opera seria.

Ambient assisted living technologies are increasingly presented and sold as essential smart additions to daily life and home environments that will radically transform the healthcare and wellness markets of the future. An ethical approach and a thorough understanding of all ethics in surveillance/monitoring architectures are therefore pressing. AAL poses many ethical challenges raising questions that will affect immediate acceptance and long-term usage. Furthermore, ethical issues emerge from social inequalities and their potential exacerbation by AAL, accentuating the existing access gap between high-income countries and low and middle-income countries. Legal aspects mainly refer to the adherence to existing legal frameworks and cover issues related to product safety, data protection, cybersecurity, intellectual property, and access to data by public, private, and government bodies. Successful privacy-friendly AAL applications are needed, as the pressure to bring Internet of Things devices and ones equipped with artificial intelligence quickly to market cannot overlook the fact that the environments in which AAL will operate are mostly private. The social issues focus on the impact of AAL technologies before and after their adoption. Future AAL technologies need to consider all aspects of equality such as gender, race, age and social disadvantages and avoid increasing loneliness and isolation among, e.g. older and frail people. Finally, the current power asymmetries between the target and general populations should not be underestimated nor should the discrepant needs and motivations of the target group and those developing and deploying AAL systems. Whilst AAL technologies provide promising solutions for the health and social care challenges, they are not exempt from ethical, legal and social issues. A set of ELSI guidelines is needed to integrate these factors at the research and development stage.

What this book intends to do is to study three-dimensionalism (the distinction values-norms-facts) not in what could be called its historical dimension, but in its substantive aspect, as a "form" that, when applied to different legal themes, would add a "material content" to the three-dimensional theory. We can point out, as a study plan, the distinction between "three" perspectives: Those of the legal norm, of the legal order, and the legal relationship. Three-dimensionalism also appears in this work when one analyzes the "three" phases of the life of the law: The formation, the interpretation, and the application; and in the distinction between the "three" characteristics of the legal order: Fullness, coherence, and unity --- the theory of legal validity, intended as legitimacy, as validity strictly speaking, or as effectiveness.