Skip to main content

Elena Ficara

Graduate Center of the City University of New York, Philosophy, Feodor Lynen Research Fellow

Followers

351

Following

83

Co-authors

15

Mentions

1

Public Views

EDGAR GARCÍA REYES

The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Boston College

Kevin Harrelson

Ball State University

Universität Regensburg

Franca d'Agostini

Università degli Studi di Milano - State University of Milan (Italy)

Gilles Marmasse

Université de Poitiers

Sebo Móvel do Louis

G. Anthony Bruno

Royal Holloway, University of London

InterestsView All (10)

Uploads

Papers by Elena Ficara

Hegel's Absolute from a Logical Point of View

G. Priest, B. Zolghadr (eds.), Contradictions and the Absolute, Berlin New York: De Gruyter, 2025

Hegel’s discussion of Anselm’s ontological proof for the existence of God in the Lectures on the ... more Hegel’s discussion of Anselm’s ontological proof for the existence of God in the Lectures on the History of Philosophy is important because it contains (in very compact fashion) the logical core of Hegel’s notion of the absolute. As such, it is useful for showing what connects Hegel’s view on the absolute to contemporary philosophy, and for assessing it from a formal point of view.

Keywords: ontological argument, Hegel’s dialectics, true contradictions, reductio ad absurdum

Review: Richard Routley, Ultralogic as Universal?

R. Routley. Ultralogic as Universal? The Sylvan Jungle – Volume 4. Edited by Z. Weber, with commentary essays by E. Mares, R. Brady, C. Mortensen. Synthese Library volume 396. Cham: Springer., 2023

Ultralogic as Universal? is one among the most striking texts in the history of (contemporary) lo... more Ultralogic as Universal? is one among the most striking texts in the history of (contemporary) logic and philosophy. It breaks new logico-philosophical ground by presenting one of the oldest ideas in the history of philosophy: the idea of the universality of logic. It has a peculiar style, which could be called programmatic, and which strikes as common to some of the great works in the history of philosophy. In other words, the text reflects Routley’s discovery, in the mid 1970es, of new, highly fertile logical and philosophical ground, Routley’s clear vision of a multitude of aspects emerging from it, and the urgency to communicate them as concisely and as fast as possible. One could say that the essay is programmatic in that it is a sketch, but a sketch of a highly ambitious, very simple and resolutive program that also contains the indication of how the program may be realized. In a way, what happened after the circulation of the text confirms this hypothesis. The points of the program were developed by mathematicians, philosophers of mathematics and logic (by Routley himself, and by those researchers who were close to the so-called Canberra Logic Group). They are still taken up by logicians interested in the philosophical foundations of logic, and in paraconsistent logic and mathematics.

Review: Jake McNulty, Hegel's Logic and Metaphysics

European Journal of Philosophy, 2023

McNulty's basic idea in this book is that what connects Hegel's logic to analytic philosophy and ... more McNulty's basic idea in this book is that what connects Hegel's logic to analytic philosophy and the philosophy of logic is the question about the justification of logic. The topic of the foundation of logic is a crucial problem in Post-Kantian German Idealism. McNulty recalls the interpretation of the Post-Kantian logical development given by Benjamin Jäsche, a student of Kant best known for compiling his lectures on logic for publication. In the preface to the first edition of Kant's lectures on logic, Jäsche explains that Kant did not think of "grounding the logical principles of identity and contradiction on a higher princi

Introduction: Logic and Politics

Franca d'Agostini, Elena Ficara, Fabien Schang, Special Issue of History and Philosophy of Logic, 2024

The aim of this special issue is to explore the intersections of logic, intended as the formal sc... more The aim of this special issue is to explore the intersections of logic, intended as the formal science of valid consequence, and politics, the practical science of associated life. The analyses here provided deal with the theme in two ways: by considering what logic can do for politics, so proposing possible formalizations of political arguments, or using logical notions and tools to interpret political facts and problems; by considering what politics can do for logic, so examining how logical choices are and have been affected or determined by extra-logical facts of political relevance. The two perspectives outline a territory of inquiry which is not so much frequented, in political and logical literature, but is becoming more and more interesting nowadays.

Logic and Discrimination

History and Philosophy of Logic, 2023

The paper is about the connection between logic and discrimination, with special focus on Plumwoo... more The paper is about the connection between logic and discrimination, with special focus on Plumwood's ideas in her groundbreaking article 'The Politics of Reason. Towards a Feminist Logic' (1993). Although Plumwood's paper is not focused on the notion of discrimination, what she writes is useful for illuminating some basic mechanisms of thought that are at the basis of discriminatory practices. After an introductory section about the concepts of logic and discrimination and their possible interconnections, I present Plumwood's ideas in 1993 with special focus on their relevance for understanding the nature of discrimination. More specifically, I use examples of discriminatory practices that make the connection between logical operations and oppression envisaged by Plumwood clear. I focus especially on two questions: Can logic produce discrimination? Can logic contribute to the fight against discrimination? If so, how?

Introduction: The Formalization of Dialectics

Elena Ficara, Graham Priest, Special Issue of History and Philosophy of Logic, 2023

The idea at the basis of this special issue is that reopening the old debate about the logical st... more The idea at the basis of this special issue is that reopening the old debate about the logical status of Hegel's dialectics is extremely interesting, for various reasons. The first reason is that a new Hegel is circulating, nowadays, in the philosophical literature, with specific reference to Hegel's dialectical logic and its relation to the history and philosophy of logic. This development deserves to be accounted for. Secondly, new research about the connection between contradictory logical systems and Hegel's dialectics is also being developed, and this too deserves to be acknowledged. Finally there are, recently, confirmations that the concept of dialectics is of general interest, and that the usual perplexities about the Hegelian triadic and fairly mechanic device of 'yes, not, and not not' are in remission.

The Transcendental Deduction of Categories as Philosophical Proof

The Kantian Journal Topical Issue Kant and Metaphilosophy , 2023

In my paper I reconstruct the basic steps and the fundamental idea of Kant's transcendental deduc... more In my paper I reconstruct the basic steps and the fundamental idea of Kant's transcendental deduction of categories as well as Hegel's interpretation and reframing of Kant's idea. Hegel's reading is crucial for two reasons: first, for fixing the basic form of the Kantian argument, and secondly, for understanding its metaphilosophical relevance. For Hegel, the philosophical proof has a specific nature, which distinguishes it from the scientific one and brings it closer to the juridical one. In this perspective the transcendental deduction, which is universally considered as one of the most difficult chapters in the history of philosophy, reveals itself as the very clarification of the specific philosophical proof. In my paper, I first reconstruct the basic steps and the general idea of Kant's transcendental deduction as well as its Hegelian reading in the Science of Logic and reformulation as the very method of philosophy in the Philosophy of Right. I conclude by proposing a formal account of Kant's and Hegel's idea and by summing up the main metaphilosophical insights we can gain from Kant's idea and its Hegelian interpretation.

Hegel and the Opposition Between Realism and Nominalism

H. Plevrakis, Hegels Philosophie der Realität, Leiden: Brill, 2023

The passage of Hegel's Lectures on the History of Philosophy on the medieval controversy between ... more The passage of Hegel's Lectures on the History of Philosophy on the medieval controversy between realists and nominalists is often overlooked in the literature about Hegel's logic, and it is completely ignored in contemporary philosophical logic and metaphysics. Yet the passage is important, and needs to be reconsidered. It is relatively well known that, for Hegel, the controversy between idealistic and realistic philosophy is "so unreasonable that there is nothing reasonable to say about it". It is perhaps less known that Hegel considered the medieval dispute between realists (r) and nominalists (n) to be of fundamental importance for philosophy and logic. More specifically, Hegel interprets it in terms of the opposition between the universal (u) and the individual (i). I argue that Hegel's treatment of the question of realism in terms of the opposition u versus i opens a new (and in my view the right) way of thinking about the role of reality in logic and philosophy.

Hegelian Aristotelianism and the Philosophical Roots of Non-classical Logics

V. Raspa, C. G. King, Aristotle’s Organon in Old and New Logic, London: Bloomsbury Academics, 2023

In my paper I argue for the view that in Hegel’s reading of Aristotle’s Organon in the Lectures o... more In my paper I argue for the view that in Hegel’s reading of Aristotle’s Organon in the Lectures on the History of Philosophy a specific Hegelo-Aristotelian approach to logic emerges that can be interpreted as the philosophical root of non-classical logics. The paper has three parts. In the first I preliminarily examine the meanings of some basic historical categorizations: traditional logic, modern logic, classical logic, non-classical logic; in the second I highlight two aspects that are characteristic of the non-classical approach to logic: the idea of logic as “follower of nature” (Plumwood 1993); the idea of logic as “follower of philosophy” (Routley 1977). In the third part I present Hegel’s interpretation of Aristotle’s Organon in the Lectures on the History of Philosophy and show how, in it, an idea of logic emerges in which both natural and philosophical language have a foundational role.

Dialectics Between Logic and Politics

G. Schäfer (ed.), Hegel's Logic and Politics, Lexington: Lexington Books, 2023

My paper is about the dialectical way of thinking and about the connection between logic and poli... more My paper is about the dialectical way of thinking and about the connection between logic and politics that it brings about. In my reconstruction Marcuse's conception of dialectical logic plays a central role. Dialectics is for Hegel and Marcuse a way to use and conceive logic and logical forms. In Marcuse 1941, dialectical logic is a tool in order to find the truth and create the conditions for humans and things to fully realize their potentiality. So understood, logic is the very condition for a happy and just life together and, as such, has a political function. How can logic have such a function? Has this approach to logic anything to do with logic as it is conceived and practiced today (as theory of valid inference)? If dialectical logic does not imply a rejection but rather an enlargement or reformation of the so called "formal logic", what kind of change of the way in which we conceive and use the forms of thought is best apt to lead to political happiness and justice?

Dialectical Jesus

J. Rutledge, Paradox and Contradiction in Theology, London: Routledge, 2023

That Christian religion has a rational core, perfectly compatible with our basic moral conviction... more That Christian religion has a rational core, perfectly compatible with our basic moral convictions, was stressed, famously, by Kant in Religion within the Limits of Reason Alone and shared by Hegel in Life of Jesus. That the logic of rationality is in some sense contradictory, and requires questioning the validity of traditional logical laws such as the Law of Non Contradiction, is a specifically Hegelian insight, systematically developed in the conception of Vernunftlogik (literally: the logic of reason, also called conceptual, speculative or dialectical logic). Importantly, for Hegel Vernunftlogik is the logic of philosophical, as well as religious truth, and truth, philosophically and religiously intended, involves contradictions. In this paper, I present Hegel’s account of the “unification of the opposites” implied in Christian religion, as developed in the early fragments on Christianity (Frankfurt 1798) and highlight some of its logical and metaphysical features.

Contradiction Is the Rule of Truth

M. Whitaker, J. O. Chimakonam, Contemporary Debates in African and Western Philosophy, London: Bloomsbury.

The paper is about the thesis I call ct: contradiction is the rule of truth. In its Latin formula... more The paper is about the thesis I call ct: contradiction is the rule of truth. In its Latin formulation (contradictio est regula veri) ct goes back to Hegel, but it can be argued that the view has a long tradition, which goes hand by hand with the history of dialectics. Ct gives rise to many questions, such as: 'What does regula mean, in this context?', 'does the thesis mean that for every true a, also not-a is true, and that this trivialism is a logical law, a rule of thought?'. My aim is to present the meaning of ct in historical and theoretical perspective, and to check if this seemingly paradoxical insight is of no use for us, or if it can tell us something important about the nexus between truth and contradiction.

Hermeneutics Between Logic and Ethics

Ethik in der Hermeneutik -- Hermeneutik in der Ethik, 2022

Die Frage nach dem Verhältnis der Hermeneutik zur Ethik kann als Frage ausbuchstabiert werden: »W... more Die Frage nach dem Verhältnis der Hermeneutik zur Ethik kann als Frage ausbuchstabiert werden: »Welche Rolle spielt die Hermeneutik hinsichtlich der Förderung des Guten in dem individuellen und kollektiven Leben der Menschen?«. Meine Hypothese ist es, dass diese Frage erst auf dem Boden der Logik und des Verhältnisses der Hermeneutik zur Logik zu beantworten ist. Spezifischer argumentiere ich in meinem Beitrag für die These, dass die Hermeneutik (insbesondere als philosophische Hermeneutik im Sinne Gadamers) als eine Operation der Bereicherung der Logik als Technik im Hinblick auf das Gute charakterisiert werden kann.

The Birth of Dialetheism

History and Philosophy of Logic

The aim of this paper is to lay bare the roots of dialetheism in discussions about dialectics and... more The aim of this paper is to lay bare the roots of dialetheism in discussions about dialectics and dialectical logic at the time of the first development of paraconsistent logics. In other words, this essay is the attempt to write the first step of a history of dialetheism. I consider, first, the logico-philosophical terrain in which dialetheism was born: the discussions on what was called at that time 'dialectical logic' and its relation to paraconsistent logic. Second, I highlight what I define a dialectical turn in Richard Routley's thought. Third, I consider Graham Priest's arrival to Australia, which goes hand in hand with the beginning of a longstanding collaboration and friendship with Routley, and provides the conditions for the introduction of the new word at the beginning of the 1980s. I conclude with some reflections about what happens when a new word enters the philosophical world: what is made possible by the new presence? But also: what can get lost, and how can what was lost be recuperated?

Hegel's Interpretation of the Liar Paradox

by Elena Ficara and Franca d'Agostini

History and Philosophy of Logic

In his Lectures on the History of Philosophy, Hegel develops a subtle analysis of Megarian parado... more In his Lectures on the History of Philosophy, Hegel develops a subtle analysis of Megarian paradoxes: the Liar, the Veiled man, and the Sorites. In this paper, we focus particularly on Hegel's interpretation of the Liar. We note that in Hegel's treatment, there are positive suggestions for a new analysis of the paradox. Faced with the Liar's sentence 'µ' that says ''µ' is false', Hegel's idea is that the conjunction 'µ and not µ' is to be held true, but the two conjuncts 'µ' and 'not µ', separately taken, are untrue. Other parts of Hegel's work confirm the idea that a true contradiction for him is made of two untrue sentences, which is an interesting but unusual account of inconsistency. In this paper, we explore and develop the hypothesis. In Section 1, we specify some basic aspects of Hegel's analysis that will guide us in the following discussion. In Section 2, we focus on his account of the Liar paradox and we compare Hegel's view with dialetheism, which is possibly the most 'Hegelian' conception of inconsistencies currently under debate. In Section 3, we present Hegel's idea of truth which underlies the hypothesis, and we conclude (Section 4) with a summary and some reflections about what Hegel's interpretation of the Liar-so reconstructed-can teach us.

'Transcendental' in Kant and Fichte. A Conceptual Shift and Its Philosophical Meaning

Fichte-Studien 49, 2020

The paper is about the meaning of the word 'transcendental' in Kant and Fichte. Its aim is not me... more The paper is about the meaning of the word 'transcendental' in Kant and Fichte. Its aim is not merely exegetical. It is a common hermeneutical insight (now revitalised by the researches on conceptual engineering and conceptual genealogy for analytic philosophy) that analysing the use and definitions of concepts in history, and their shifts in the development of the history of philosophy, is a crucial tool we have to understand those concepts and to assess their viability for philosophy today. In this paper, I focus on Kant's use and definitions of the word 'transcendental' and suggest that they are symptomatic of a fundamental question that is not completely answered in Kant's philosophy. If transcendental philosophy deals with not objects but rather the conditions of possibility of objective knowledge, then important questions emerge: What are these possibility conditions? Do they exist? Are they special objects? What is their nature? I show that the shift in Fichte's use and understanding of the concept of 'transcendental' leads to a possible solution of the problem Kant was struggling with.

The Blushing Liar

by Franca d'Agostini and Elena Ficara, 2020

Suppose a person blushes iff what she says is false and she says 'I am blushing'. If she blushes,... more Suppose a person blushes iff what she says is false and she says 'I am blushing'. If she blushes, she doesn't, and if she doesn't, she does. This Blushing Liar (BL) is a new paradox, similar in some respects to the Pinocchio Paradox (PP): Pinocchio's nose grows iff he says some falsity, and he says 'my nose is growing'. Both paradoxes involve physical properties, and both, supposedly, confirm the existence of metaphysical dialetheias (see Eldridge-Smith 2011). In the paper, we note first that while PP relies on the rather implausible scenario of a wooden puppet whose nose grows iff he is lying, so it is debunked by the objection of fictionality (raised by Beall 2012), BL is more plausible. Many people in our world blush, and it is not difficult to imagine someone whose saying is causally related to blushing in a similar way. A second question is whether blushing can be directly connected to falsity, without deliberate conscience, on the part of the speaker, of saying a false statement. So we explore the consequences of intending 'I am blushing' as a 'lie', in the strict meaning of the term, and we claim there is no substantial difference, but for the fact that the paradoxical effect is even more plausible. Third, we check whether BL and PP do really release metaphysical dialetheias, and we argue they do not: they lack the fundamental requisite of Liar-like contradictions, i.e. the stratification of properties. Liar paradoxes-Metaphysical dialetheias-Fictional Truth-Lie

Was ist die Transzendentale Deduktion der Kategorien?

Misunderstandings about the meaning of the transcendental are still diffused today. That the tran... more Misunderstandings about the meaning of the transcendental are still diffused today. That the transcendental sphere is neither logical (because it concerns the possibility of objective knowledge) nor empirical (because it does not posit any content and merely concerns the possibility to have such contents) entices to think of transcendental philosophy as a no man's land, and to simply dispense with it. The deduction of categories, which could be seen as transcendentalism's logical core, traditionally counts as obscure. Kant himself complained about its intricacy and completely rewrote it in the Critique of Pure Reason's second edition. For Hegel the deduction is one of the most beautiful parts, but also the most difficult chapter of Kant's philosophy. In this panorama, it seems necessary to return to the elementary question "What is the transcendental deduction of categories?", and to try to answer it by giving a closer look at Kant's original idea and its Hegelian interpretation.

Hegel on the Naturalness of Logic

The preface to the second edition of Hegel’s Science of Logic is crucial for understanding the id... more The preface to the second edition of Hegel’s Science of Logic is crucial for understanding the idea of Hegel’s logic. It is an important text because what Hegel writes is not an idiosyncratic view about logic, but rather something universally true about the object, scope, and nature of logic. Something that can genuinely dialogue with more recent, and perhaps more sophisticated, accounts of logic. One central aspect of Hegel’s argumentation in the preface is the idea that logic is natural. In this paper, I focus precisely on this aspect, addressing four Hegelian theses about the naturalness of logic.

Keywords: Hegel’s logic, Natural logic, Natural language, Logical forms, Dialectics

Truth and Incompatibility

Brandom's reading of Hegel is clarifying for assessing the importance of Hegel's view in the pers... more Brandom's reading of Hegel is clarifying for assessing the importance of Hegel's view in the perspective of analytical philosophy. In what follows, I focus on one aspect of Brandom's view that needs to be made more explicit (or maybe slightly changed), namely Hegel's concept of truth, in particular the typically Hegelian connection between truth and contradiction. In 2005, Brandom claims that truth, "Hegelianly" intended, is (rightly, in my view) the whole process through which we inferentially determine the content of concepts, and transform judgements. However, this seems to imply that Hegelian truth is not (or not primarily) a property of single judgements/propositions. I stress, in contrast, that truth is, in Hegel's view, both the process through which we inferentially determine the content of concepts, and a predicate (or predicative function) we use to express the property of propositions, claims, statements, assertions, or any other truth-bearer. This allows anchoring Hegel's philosophy more solidly to the analytic tradition, showing, more specifically, the connection between Hegel's dialectic and contemporary philosophical logic.

Hegel's Absolute from a Logical Point of View

G. Priest, B. Zolghadr (eds.), Contradictions and the Absolute, Berlin New York: De Gruyter, 2025

Hegel’s discussion of Anselm’s ontological proof for the existence of God in the Lectures on the ... more Hegel’s discussion of Anselm’s ontological proof for the existence of God in the Lectures on the History of Philosophy is important because it contains (in very compact fashion) the logical core of Hegel’s notion of the absolute. As such, it is useful for showing what connects Hegel’s view on the absolute to contemporary philosophy, and for assessing it from a formal point of view.

Keywords: ontological argument, Hegel’s dialectics, true contradictions, reductio ad absurdum

Review: Richard Routley, Ultralogic as Universal?

R. Routley. Ultralogic as Universal? The Sylvan Jungle – Volume 4. Edited by Z. Weber, with commentary essays by E. Mares, R. Brady, C. Mortensen. Synthese Library volume 396. Cham: Springer., 2023

Ultralogic as Universal? is one among the most striking texts in the history of (contemporary) lo... more Ultralogic as Universal? is one among the most striking texts in the history of (contemporary) logic and philosophy. It breaks new logico-philosophical ground by presenting one of the oldest ideas in the history of philosophy: the idea of the universality of logic. It has a peculiar style, which could be called programmatic, and which strikes as common to some of the great works in the history of philosophy. In other words, the text reflects Routley’s discovery, in the mid 1970es, of new, highly fertile logical and philosophical ground, Routley’s clear vision of a multitude of aspects emerging from it, and the urgency to communicate them as concisely and as fast as possible. One could say that the essay is programmatic in that it is a sketch, but a sketch of a highly ambitious, very simple and resolutive program that also contains the indication of how the program may be realized. In a way, what happened after the circulation of the text confirms this hypothesis. The points of the program were developed by mathematicians, philosophers of mathematics and logic (by Routley himself, and by those researchers who were close to the so-called Canberra Logic Group). They are still taken up by logicians interested in the philosophical foundations of logic, and in paraconsistent logic and mathematics.

Review: Jake McNulty, Hegel's Logic and Metaphysics

European Journal of Philosophy, 2023

McNulty's basic idea in this book is that what connects Hegel's logic to analytic philosophy and ... more McNulty's basic idea in this book is that what connects Hegel's logic to analytic philosophy and the philosophy of logic is the question about the justification of logic. The topic of the foundation of logic is a crucial problem in Post-Kantian German Idealism. McNulty recalls the interpretation of the Post-Kantian logical development given by Benjamin Jäsche, a student of Kant best known for compiling his lectures on logic for publication. In the preface to the first edition of Kant's lectures on logic, Jäsche explains that Kant did not think of "grounding the logical principles of identity and contradiction on a higher princi

Introduction: Logic and Politics

Franca d'Agostini, Elena Ficara, Fabien Schang, Special Issue of History and Philosophy of Logic, 2024

The aim of this special issue is to explore the intersections of logic, intended as the formal sc... more The aim of this special issue is to explore the intersections of logic, intended as the formal science of valid consequence, and politics, the practical science of associated life. The analyses here provided deal with the theme in two ways: by considering what logic can do for politics, so proposing possible formalizations of political arguments, or using logical notions and tools to interpret political facts and problems; by considering what politics can do for logic, so examining how logical choices are and have been affected or determined by extra-logical facts of political relevance. The two perspectives outline a territory of inquiry which is not so much frequented, in political and logical literature, but is becoming more and more interesting nowadays.

Logic and Discrimination

History and Philosophy of Logic, 2023

The paper is about the connection between logic and discrimination, with special focus on Plumwoo... more The paper is about the connection between logic and discrimination, with special focus on Plumwood's ideas in her groundbreaking article 'The Politics of Reason. Towards a Feminist Logic' (1993). Although Plumwood's paper is not focused on the notion of discrimination, what she writes is useful for illuminating some basic mechanisms of thought that are at the basis of discriminatory practices. After an introductory section about the concepts of logic and discrimination and their possible interconnections, I present Plumwood's ideas in 1993 with special focus on their relevance for understanding the nature of discrimination. More specifically, I use examples of discriminatory practices that make the connection between logical operations and oppression envisaged by Plumwood clear. I focus especially on two questions: Can logic produce discrimination? Can logic contribute to the fight against discrimination? If so, how?

Introduction: The Formalization of Dialectics

Elena Ficara, Graham Priest, Special Issue of History and Philosophy of Logic, 2023

The idea at the basis of this special issue is that reopening the old debate about the logical st... more The idea at the basis of this special issue is that reopening the old debate about the logical status of Hegel's dialectics is extremely interesting, for various reasons. The first reason is that a new Hegel is circulating, nowadays, in the philosophical literature, with specific reference to Hegel's dialectical logic and its relation to the history and philosophy of logic. This development deserves to be accounted for. Secondly, new research about the connection between contradictory logical systems and Hegel's dialectics is also being developed, and this too deserves to be acknowledged. Finally there are, recently, confirmations that the concept of dialectics is of general interest, and that the usual perplexities about the Hegelian triadic and fairly mechanic device of 'yes, not, and not not' are in remission.

The Transcendental Deduction of Categories as Philosophical Proof

The Kantian Journal Topical Issue Kant and Metaphilosophy , 2023

In my paper I reconstruct the basic steps and the fundamental idea of Kant's transcendental deduc... more In my paper I reconstruct the basic steps and the fundamental idea of Kant's transcendental deduction of categories as well as Hegel's interpretation and reframing of Kant's idea. Hegel's reading is crucial for two reasons: first, for fixing the basic form of the Kantian argument, and secondly, for understanding its metaphilosophical relevance. For Hegel, the philosophical proof has a specific nature, which distinguishes it from the scientific one and brings it closer to the juridical one. In this perspective the transcendental deduction, which is universally considered as one of the most difficult chapters in the history of philosophy, reveals itself as the very clarification of the specific philosophical proof. In my paper, I first reconstruct the basic steps and the general idea of Kant's transcendental deduction as well as its Hegelian reading in the Science of Logic and reformulation as the very method of philosophy in the Philosophy of Right. I conclude by proposing a formal account of Kant's and Hegel's idea and by summing up the main metaphilosophical insights we can gain from Kant's idea and its Hegelian interpretation.

Hegel and the Opposition Between Realism and Nominalism

H. Plevrakis, Hegels Philosophie der Realität, Leiden: Brill, 2023

The passage of Hegel's Lectures on the History of Philosophy on the medieval controversy between ... more The passage of Hegel's Lectures on the History of Philosophy on the medieval controversy between realists and nominalists is often overlooked in the literature about Hegel's logic, and it is completely ignored in contemporary philosophical logic and metaphysics. Yet the passage is important, and needs to be reconsidered. It is relatively well known that, for Hegel, the controversy between idealistic and realistic philosophy is "so unreasonable that there is nothing reasonable to say about it". It is perhaps less known that Hegel considered the medieval dispute between realists (r) and nominalists (n) to be of fundamental importance for philosophy and logic. More specifically, Hegel interprets it in terms of the opposition between the universal (u) and the individual (i). I argue that Hegel's treatment of the question of realism in terms of the opposition u versus i opens a new (and in my view the right) way of thinking about the role of reality in logic and philosophy.

Hegelian Aristotelianism and the Philosophical Roots of Non-classical Logics

V. Raspa, C. G. King, Aristotle’s Organon in Old and New Logic, London: Bloomsbury Academics, 2023

In my paper I argue for the view that in Hegel’s reading of Aristotle’s Organon in the Lectures o... more In my paper I argue for the view that in Hegel’s reading of Aristotle’s Organon in the Lectures on the History of Philosophy a specific Hegelo-Aristotelian approach to logic emerges that can be interpreted as the philosophical root of non-classical logics. The paper has three parts. In the first I preliminarily examine the meanings of some basic historical categorizations: traditional logic, modern logic, classical logic, non-classical logic; in the second I highlight two aspects that are characteristic of the non-classical approach to logic: the idea of logic as “follower of nature” (Plumwood 1993); the idea of logic as “follower of philosophy” (Routley 1977). In the third part I present Hegel’s interpretation of Aristotle’s Organon in the Lectures on the History of Philosophy and show how, in it, an idea of logic emerges in which both natural and philosophical language have a foundational role.

Dialectics Between Logic and Politics

G. Schäfer (ed.), Hegel's Logic and Politics, Lexington: Lexington Books, 2023

My paper is about the dialectical way of thinking and about the connection between logic and poli... more My paper is about the dialectical way of thinking and about the connection between logic and politics that it brings about. In my reconstruction Marcuse's conception of dialectical logic plays a central role. Dialectics is for Hegel and Marcuse a way to use and conceive logic and logical forms. In Marcuse 1941, dialectical logic is a tool in order to find the truth and create the conditions for humans and things to fully realize their potentiality. So understood, logic is the very condition for a happy and just life together and, as such, has a political function. How can logic have such a function? Has this approach to logic anything to do with logic as it is conceived and practiced today (as theory of valid inference)? If dialectical logic does not imply a rejection but rather an enlargement or reformation of the so called "formal logic", what kind of change of the way in which we conceive and use the forms of thought is best apt to lead to political happiness and justice?

Dialectical Jesus

J. Rutledge, Paradox and Contradiction in Theology, London: Routledge, 2023

That Christian religion has a rational core, perfectly compatible with our basic moral conviction... more That Christian religion has a rational core, perfectly compatible with our basic moral convictions, was stressed, famously, by Kant in Religion within the Limits of Reason Alone and shared by Hegel in Life of Jesus. That the logic of rationality is in some sense contradictory, and requires questioning the validity of traditional logical laws such as the Law of Non Contradiction, is a specifically Hegelian insight, systematically developed in the conception of Vernunftlogik (literally: the logic of reason, also called conceptual, speculative or dialectical logic). Importantly, for Hegel Vernunftlogik is the logic of philosophical, as well as religious truth, and truth, philosophically and religiously intended, involves contradictions. In this paper, I present Hegel’s account of the “unification of the opposites” implied in Christian religion, as developed in the early fragments on Christianity (Frankfurt 1798) and highlight some of its logical and metaphysical features.

Contradiction Is the Rule of Truth

M. Whitaker, J. O. Chimakonam, Contemporary Debates in African and Western Philosophy, London: Bloomsbury.

The paper is about the thesis I call ct: contradiction is the rule of truth. In its Latin formula... more The paper is about the thesis I call ct: contradiction is the rule of truth. In its Latin formulation (contradictio est regula veri) ct goes back to Hegel, but it can be argued that the view has a long tradition, which goes hand by hand with the history of dialectics. Ct gives rise to many questions, such as: 'What does regula mean, in this context?', 'does the thesis mean that for every true a, also not-a is true, and that this trivialism is a logical law, a rule of thought?'. My aim is to present the meaning of ct in historical and theoretical perspective, and to check if this seemingly paradoxical insight is of no use for us, or if it can tell us something important about the nexus between truth and contradiction.

Hermeneutics Between Logic and Ethics

Ethik in der Hermeneutik -- Hermeneutik in der Ethik, 2022

Die Frage nach dem Verhältnis der Hermeneutik zur Ethik kann als Frage ausbuchstabiert werden: »W... more Die Frage nach dem Verhältnis der Hermeneutik zur Ethik kann als Frage ausbuchstabiert werden: »Welche Rolle spielt die Hermeneutik hinsichtlich der Förderung des Guten in dem individuellen und kollektiven Leben der Menschen?«. Meine Hypothese ist es, dass diese Frage erst auf dem Boden der Logik und des Verhältnisses der Hermeneutik zur Logik zu beantworten ist. Spezifischer argumentiere ich in meinem Beitrag für die These, dass die Hermeneutik (insbesondere als philosophische Hermeneutik im Sinne Gadamers) als eine Operation der Bereicherung der Logik als Technik im Hinblick auf das Gute charakterisiert werden kann.

The Birth of Dialetheism

History and Philosophy of Logic

The aim of this paper is to lay bare the roots of dialetheism in discussions about dialectics and... more The aim of this paper is to lay bare the roots of dialetheism in discussions about dialectics and dialectical logic at the time of the first development of paraconsistent logics. In other words, this essay is the attempt to write the first step of a history of dialetheism. I consider, first, the logico-philosophical terrain in which dialetheism was born: the discussions on what was called at that time 'dialectical logic' and its relation to paraconsistent logic. Second, I highlight what I define a dialectical turn in Richard Routley's thought. Third, I consider Graham Priest's arrival to Australia, which goes hand in hand with the beginning of a longstanding collaboration and friendship with Routley, and provides the conditions for the introduction of the new word at the beginning of the 1980s. I conclude with some reflections about what happens when a new word enters the philosophical world: what is made possible by the new presence? But also: what can get lost, and how can what was lost be recuperated?

Hegel's Interpretation of the Liar Paradox

by Elena Ficara and Franca d'Agostini

History and Philosophy of Logic

In his Lectures on the History of Philosophy, Hegel develops a subtle analysis of Megarian parado... more In his Lectures on the History of Philosophy, Hegel develops a subtle analysis of Megarian paradoxes: the Liar, the Veiled man, and the Sorites. In this paper, we focus particularly on Hegel's interpretation of the Liar. We note that in Hegel's treatment, there are positive suggestions for a new analysis of the paradox. Faced with the Liar's sentence 'µ' that says ''µ' is false', Hegel's idea is that the conjunction 'µ and not µ' is to be held true, but the two conjuncts 'µ' and 'not µ', separately taken, are untrue. Other parts of Hegel's work confirm the idea that a true contradiction for him is made of two untrue sentences, which is an interesting but unusual account of inconsistency. In this paper, we explore and develop the hypothesis. In Section 1, we specify some basic aspects of Hegel's analysis that will guide us in the following discussion. In Section 2, we focus on his account of the Liar paradox and we compare Hegel's view with dialetheism, which is possibly the most 'Hegelian' conception of inconsistencies currently under debate. In Section 3, we present Hegel's idea of truth which underlies the hypothesis, and we conclude (Section 4) with a summary and some reflections about what Hegel's interpretation of the Liar-so reconstructed-can teach us.

'Transcendental' in Kant and Fichte. A Conceptual Shift and Its Philosophical Meaning

Fichte-Studien 49, 2020

The paper is about the meaning of the word 'transcendental' in Kant and Fichte. Its aim is not me... more The paper is about the meaning of the word 'transcendental' in Kant and Fichte. Its aim is not merely exegetical. It is a common hermeneutical insight (now revitalised by the researches on conceptual engineering and conceptual genealogy for analytic philosophy) that analysing the use and definitions of concepts in history, and their shifts in the development of the history of philosophy, is a crucial tool we have to understand those concepts and to assess their viability for philosophy today. In this paper, I focus on Kant's use and definitions of the word 'transcendental' and suggest that they are symptomatic of a fundamental question that is not completely answered in Kant's philosophy. If transcendental philosophy deals with not objects but rather the conditions of possibility of objective knowledge, then important questions emerge: What are these possibility conditions? Do they exist? Are they special objects? What is their nature? I show that the shift in Fichte's use and understanding of the concept of 'transcendental' leads to a possible solution of the problem Kant was struggling with.

The Blushing Liar

by Franca d'Agostini and Elena Ficara, 2020

Suppose a person blushes iff what she says is false and she says 'I am blushing'. If she blushes,... more Suppose a person blushes iff what she says is false and she says 'I am blushing'. If she blushes, she doesn't, and if she doesn't, she does. This Blushing Liar (BL) is a new paradox, similar in some respects to the Pinocchio Paradox (PP): Pinocchio's nose grows iff he says some falsity, and he says 'my nose is growing'. Both paradoxes involve physical properties, and both, supposedly, confirm the existence of metaphysical dialetheias (see Eldridge-Smith 2011). In the paper, we note first that while PP relies on the rather implausible scenario of a wooden puppet whose nose grows iff he is lying, so it is debunked by the objection of fictionality (raised by Beall 2012), BL is more plausible. Many people in our world blush, and it is not difficult to imagine someone whose saying is causally related to blushing in a similar way. A second question is whether blushing can be directly connected to falsity, without deliberate conscience, on the part of the speaker, of saying a false statement. So we explore the consequences of intending 'I am blushing' as a 'lie', in the strict meaning of the term, and we claim there is no substantial difference, but for the fact that the paradoxical effect is even more plausible. Third, we check whether BL and PP do really release metaphysical dialetheias, and we argue they do not: they lack the fundamental requisite of Liar-like contradictions, i.e. the stratification of properties. Liar paradoxes-Metaphysical dialetheias-Fictional Truth-Lie

Was ist die Transzendentale Deduktion der Kategorien?

Misunderstandings about the meaning of the transcendental are still diffused today. That the tran... more Misunderstandings about the meaning of the transcendental are still diffused today. That the transcendental sphere is neither logical (because it concerns the possibility of objective knowledge) nor empirical (because it does not posit any content and merely concerns the possibility to have such contents) entices to think of transcendental philosophy as a no man's land, and to simply dispense with it. The deduction of categories, which could be seen as transcendentalism's logical core, traditionally counts as obscure. Kant himself complained about its intricacy and completely rewrote it in the Critique of Pure Reason's second edition. For Hegel the deduction is one of the most beautiful parts, but also the most difficult chapter of Kant's philosophy. In this panorama, it seems necessary to return to the elementary question "What is the transcendental deduction of categories?", and to try to answer it by giving a closer look at Kant's original idea and its Hegelian interpretation.

Hegel on the Naturalness of Logic

The preface to the second edition of Hegel’s Science of Logic is crucial for understanding the id... more The preface to the second edition of Hegel’s Science of Logic is crucial for understanding the idea of Hegel’s logic. It is an important text because what Hegel writes is not an idiosyncratic view about logic, but rather something universally true about the object, scope, and nature of logic. Something that can genuinely dialogue with more recent, and perhaps more sophisticated, accounts of logic. One central aspect of Hegel’s argumentation in the preface is the idea that logic is natural. In this paper, I focus precisely on this aspect, addressing four Hegelian theses about the naturalness of logic.

Keywords: Hegel’s logic, Natural logic, Natural language, Logical forms, Dialectics

Truth and Incompatibility

Brandom's reading of Hegel is clarifying for assessing the importance of Hegel's view in the pers... more Brandom's reading of Hegel is clarifying for assessing the importance of Hegel's view in the perspective of analytical philosophy. In what follows, I focus on one aspect of Brandom's view that needs to be made more explicit (or maybe slightly changed), namely Hegel's concept of truth, in particular the typically Hegelian connection between truth and contradiction. In 2005, Brandom claims that truth, "Hegelianly" intended, is (rightly, in my view) the whole process through which we inferentially determine the content of concepts, and transform judgements. However, this seems to imply that Hegelian truth is not (or not primarily) a property of single judgements/propositions. I stress, in contrast, that truth is, in Hegel's view, both the process through which we inferentially determine the content of concepts, and a predicate (or predicative function) we use to express the property of propositions, claims, statements, assertions, or any other truth-bearer. This allows anchoring Hegel's philosophy more solidly to the analytic tradition, showing, more specifically, the connection between Hegel's dialectic and contemporary philosophical logic.

TAP 2009, ch. 20 Pragmatism and Metaphysics in Brandom’s Between Saying and Doing

The paper inquiries into Brandom’s conception of pragmatistic metaphysics, as outlined at the end... more The paper inquiries into Brandom’s conception of pragmatistic metaphysics, as outlined at the end of Between Saying and Doing. In the reconstruction proposed, the combination of pragmatism and analytical philosophy that is at the basis of Brandom’s program seems to have many aspects in common with the critical and dialectical conception of metaphysics that we find in Kant and Hegel. My paper is divided into three parts. In the fist I give an account of Brandom’s conception of metaphysics as presented in the afterword of Between Saying and Doing. In the second I locate Brandom’s view within the debates on metaphysics recently occurred in what can be called the “new Hegelianism” of analytical philosophy. In the last part I briefly reconsider Brandom’s suggestions in the light of Kant’s and Hegel’s views, stressing the continuity between Brandom’s program of a dynamic and pluralistic metaphysics sketched in Between Saying and Doing and the conception of first philosophy outlined by the...

TAP-2009 Towards an Analytic Pragmatism

by Carlo Penco, Tanja Pritzlaff, Bernd Prien, Fredrik Stjernberg, Elena Ficara, 島村修平, Daniele Porello, Italo Testa, Tadeusz Szubka, and Catarina Dutilh Novaes

CEUR Workshop TAP-2009 Genoa

Table of Contents Modality, Intentionality and Discursive Practice Pragmatism, Inferentialism and... more Table of Contents Modality, Intentionality and Discursive Practice Pragmatism, Inferentialism and Modality in Sellars's Arguments against Empiricism Robert Brandom p. 6 Brandom's Five-Step Program for Modal Health Fredrik Stjernberg p. 18 The Status of Intentional Vocabulary in Discursive Practice: Reading Making it Explicit in the Light of" Between Saying and Doing" David Lauer p. 23 Logic, Semantics and the Theory of Meaning Inferentialism and the Normativity of Meaning Jaroslav Peregrin p.

Introduction The Form of Truth De Gruyter

The Form of Truth, 2021

Bibliographic Information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibli... more

The Form of Truth. Hegel's Philosophical Logic

De Gruyter, 2021

This book is a consideration of Hegel’s view on logic and basic logical concepts such as truth, f... more This book is a consideration of Hegel’s view on logic and basic logical concepts such as truth, form, validity, and contradiction, and aims to assess this view’s relevance for contemporary philosophical logic. The literature on Hegel’s logic is fairly rich. The attention to contemporary philosophical logic places the present research closer to those works interested in the link between Hegel’s thought and analytical philosophy (Stekeler-Weithofer 1992 and 2019, Berto 2005, Rockmore 2005, Redding 2007, Nuzzo 2010 (ed.), Koch 2014, Brandom 2014, 1-15, Pippin 2016, Moyar 2017, Quante & Mooren 2018 among others). In this context, one particularity of this book consists in focusing on something that has been generally underrated in the literature: the idea that, for Hegel as well as for Aristotle and many other authors (including Frege), logic is the study of the forms of truth, i.e. the forms that our thought can (or ought to) assume in searching for truth. In this light, Hegel’s thinking about logic is a fundamental reference point for anyone interested in a philosophical foundation of logic.

Human and Social Aspects in Logic -- Workshop with Catarina Dutilh Novaes

The workshop belongs to a series of encounters at Paderborn University about contemporary authors... more The workshop belongs to a series of encounters at Paderborn University about contemporary authors whose work is devoted to the History and Philosophy of Logic. Previous encounters have been with Susan Haack, Stephen Read, Graham Priest, Pirmin Stekeler-Weithofer.

The aim of the workshop is to engage in a dialogue with the philosopher, historian of logic and philosophical logician Catarina Dutilh Novaes, with special focus on her new book The Dialogical Roots of Deduction (Cambridge 2020). The book is representative of some of the fundamental lines and interests of Catarina Dutilh Novaes’ research, among them: the importance of dialogue for logic and philosophy, the theory and use of conceptual genealogy for philosophy, the idea of philosophy as a multi-methodological enterprise, the stress on the relevance of the social and political realm for logic.

Brandom's Hegel from a Logical Point of View -- Workshop with Robert Brandom

Hegel and Dialetheism Seminar

by Gregory S Moss and Elena Ficara

This colloquium series investigates the relation between Hegel's philosophy and Dialetheism.