Focusing on masks and faces as figures and objects that carry ethical and political meanings, this volume examines the scientific, cultural, visual, and philosophical histories and traditions in which they are imbricated and which allow them to gather force and to become central to how human relationships are made.Offering interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary perspectives on masks and faces, the book studies the prominent role they play in shaping ideals and norms of political p...

This book offers a critical exploration of how digital technologies are reshaping religious belief, ethical frameworks, and social cohesion. As faith and ideology increasingly migrate to online platforms, the book examines how algorithm-driven content, echo chambers, and decentralized authority structures influence discourse and deepen societal divides. Drawing from interdisciplinary perspectives in religious studies, sociology, philosophy, and digital humanities, this volume interrogates ...

This book provides essential insights into the current state of knowledge regarding the main aspects of cluster headache and trigeminal autonomic cephalgias. The first chapters focus on classification and clinical features, together with familial and genetic aspects. Relevant animal models and the putative role of key nervous structures as the hypothalamus, brainstem, diencephalon and sphenopalatine ganglion are reviewed. Evidence gained from key molecules such as CGRP in animals and human...

The way in which people change and represent their spiritual evolution is often determined by recurrent language structures. Through the analysis of ancient and modern stories and their words and images, this book describes the nature of conversion through explorations of the encounter with the religious message, the discomfort of spiritual uncertainty, the loss of personal and social identity, the anxiety of destabilization, the reconstitution of the self and the discovery of a new langua...

Focusing on the anthropological consequences of the disappearing of materiality and sensory embodiment, On Insignificance highlights some of the most perturbing patterns of insignificance that have seeped into our everyday lives. Seeking to explain the semiotic causes of feelings of meaninglessness, Leone posits that caring for the singularities of the world is the most viable way to resist the alienating effects of the digital bureaucratization of meaning. The book will be of int...

This unique volume focuses on religion and spirituality, along with rituals, practices and symbols, discussed and analysed from a semiotic perspective. It covers both cognitive and social dimensions of religious practices and beliefs, various aspects of spirituality, multiple forms of representation, as well as spheres of religious beliefs and practices. The volume is an outcome of the Signum-Idea-Verbum-Opus project initiated by Umberto Eco’s keynote address during his visit at t...

This original and interdisciplinary volume explores the contemporary semiotic dimensions of the face from both scientific and sociocultural perspectives, putting forward several traditions, aspects, and signs of the human utopia of creating a hybrid face.The book semiotically delves into the multifaceted realm of the digital face, exploring its biological and social functions, the concept of masks, the impact of COVID-19, AI systems, digital portraiture, symbolic faces in films, vi...

If homosexual behavior is an aberration from the standpoint of reproduction, why is it widespread among humans, primates, and a myriad of other animal species, and why has it been favored by evolution? And if homosexuality is considered a moral problem based on religious beliefs, why were more homosexuals exterminated under the brief reigns of such secular regimes as the Communists and the Nazis than during the entire Christian Inquisition. Why is everything about homosexuality always a pa...

Belief: surely it’s a relic from the past, a hangover from a superstitious age that is totally out of sync with today’s rational, science-led culture?'A timely, often bracing and always highly stimulating book.' Tom Holland, author of Dominion and co-host of The Rest is HistoryIn today’s science-driven, rational world, belief is dismissed as an artefact of a bygone era – something absurd at best, harmful at worst. The prev...

What is intelligence? The concept crosses and blurs the boundaries between natural and artificial, bridging the human brain and the cybernetic world of AI. In this book, the acclaimed philosopher Catherine Malabou ventures a new approach that emphasizes the intertwined, networked relationships among the biological, the technological, and the symbolic.Malabou traces the modern metamorphoses of intelligence, seeking to understand how neurobiological and neurotechnological advances ha...

Sam Harris sparked off the unexpected phenomenon of the New Atheism with his best-seller The End of Faith (2004), and has since authored five more best-sellers on different topics, as well as becoming a leading presence on social media. His blog Making Sense has an enormous popular following.Harris is celebrated as an opponent of theistic religion, a warning voice against the menace of Islamism, an atheist advocate of spiritual meditation (in the Tibetan Buddhist manner), a propone...

In a world increasingly dominated by the digital, the critical response to digital art generally ranges from hype to counterhype. Popular writing about specific artworks seldom goes beyond promoting a given piece and explaining how it operates, while scholars and critics remain unsure about how to interpret and evaluate them. This is where Roberto Simanowski intervenes, demonstrating how such critical work can be done.Digital Art and Meaning offers close readings of varied...