The Hand

Part I. From Action to Cognition, from Cognition to Action

1. The Cognitive Properties of the Motor System and Mirror Neurons
Leonardo Fogassi

2. Children’s Object Manipulation: A Tool for Knowing the External World and for Communicative Development
Valentina Focaroli, Jana M. Iverson

3. Hands Shaping Communication: From Gestures to Signs
Laura Sparaci, Virginia Volterra

4. Primates’ Propensity to Explore Objects: How Manual Actions Affect Learning in Children and Capuchin Monkeys
Fabrizio Taffoni, Eugenia Polizzi di Sorrentino, Gloria Sabbatini, Domenico Formica, Valentina Truppa

5. Current Achievements and Future Directions of Hand Prostheses Controlled via Peripheral Nervous System
Anna Lisa Ciancio, Francesca Cordella, Klaus-Peter Hoffmann, Andreas Schneider, Eugenio Guglielmelli, Loredana Zollo

Part II. The Hand, Human Identity and Creativity

6. The Human Hand as a Microcosm. A Philosophical Overview on the Hand and Its Role in the Processes of Perception, Action, and Cognition
Maria Teresa Russo

7.
Ready-to-Hand in Heidegger. Philosophy as an Everyday Understanding of the World and the Question Concerning Technology
José Manuel Chillón

8. The Therapeutic Hand
Xavier Escribano, Albert Pérez-Bellmunt

9. Cooking and Human Evolution
Maria Pia Chirinos

10. Essential to Art
Sixto J. Castro

11. On the Role of the Hand in the Expression of Music
Marc Leman, Luc Nijs, Nicola Di Stefano

Keywords: Philosophy, Philosophy of Technology, Biomedical Engineering, Self and Identity, User Interfaces and Human Computer Interaction, Theory of Medicine/Bioethics