Mapping the perception of “complex systems” across educational levels through cognitive network science

Despite recent efforts promoting complexity science across different educational contexts, there is little literature about how school students perceive complex systems. This research report aims to quantify the current perception of “complex systems” among 159 Italian high school students, providing a data-informed map of the general attitude and knowledge structure towards complexity through tools from cognitive network science. Adopting the framework of forma mentis networks, i.e. conceptual networks where words are related by memory recall patterns and labelled according to their positive/negative/neutral sentiment, the students’ mindset or forma mentis towards “complex systems” was reconstructed and compared to the mindset of 59 international postgraduate researchers working on complexity topics. Despite studying multiple scientific disciplines at the same time, students perceived complexity as an abstract and negative entity, strongly associated to “complicated” and “difficult” whereas researchers identified complexity as a positive concept, with a stronger STEM-oriented, multidisciplinary connotation towards mathematics, physics, biology and other scientific disciplines. This comparison was discussed in light of relevant literature about silo mentality in education. Mindset reconstruction through forma mentis networks opens novel ways for quantifying current perceptions of “complexity science” in mainstream educational curricula, suggesting key challenges for developing complexity education through the mindsets of complexity researchers.

Aggression and Anger in Sport and Performance

Aggressive behaviors and attitudes are investigated first of all from the viewpoint of psychology, sociology, and philosophy. These three disciplines could provide a coherent groundwork for the science on aggression in sport. The science on aggression in sport would be a discipline united by a bond between related issues and a unity of subject, and not by one uniform method. There are two different viewpoints concerning aggression in sport: the cognitive and the ideological. The cognitive viewpoint approaches sports phenomena objectively in order to describe, explain, and compare them—that is, to present the real situation. The ideological viewpoint approaches the subject in an ideological way; that is, it strives for to presenting sport in the most favorable light, while attempting to hide its vices. This viewpoint makes it nearly impossible to diagnose the existing state of affairs, Attitudes towards aggression in sport, while taking into account other criteria, may be divided into the cognitive and the commonsense interpretations. Proponents of the commonsense viewpoint suggest that aggression is a solely negative entity and that it takes place only in the form of emotionally driven aggression meant to do harm. The cognitive interpretation suggests that there exist two forms of aggression in athletic rivalry: emotional aggression aimed at doing harm to an opponent and necessary aggression resulting from the regulations of a given sport. Aggression in sport—considered from the viewpoint of regulations of particular sports—may be either necessary (that is, instrumental) or non-instrumental (that is, potential in the sense that it enables expression of emotions which are not provided for by regulations). Aggressive behavior is necessary when called for by the regulations of a given sport, specifically, among others, combat sports such as boxing, judo, or wrestling. Competitors who avoid fighting and who do not manifest aggressive behaviors in such a field are induced to manifest them and—if this does not bring results—may be punished by referees and, as a last resort, sent off.

THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT AND THE BOURBON RESTORATION: THE OCCUPATION OF TOULON, 1793

This article addresses the development of the British government's policy towards the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy in France, which arose from the British occupation of Toulon from 28 August to 19 December 1793. The discussions conducted by prime minister William Pitt and foreign secretary Lord Grenville on the shape of Toulon's civil government under occupation clarify official British perceptions of an ‘ideal’ Bourbon monarchy in France. British thoughts on this subject were determined, not only by traditional English whig beliefs about the institutional foundations of political, constitutional and civil liberty, but also by consideration for the upheavals that the French Revolution had witnessed. Alhough Pitt and Grenville were interested in establishing a model government capable of healing the French social and political conflicts that had emerged since 1789, their deliberations on the fate of Toulon reveal that the French ancien régime was still a negative entity in British minds despite the advent of the French Revolution and Revolutionary Wars.