Books by Giovanni Iorio Giannoli
What is the soul? What is intelligence? What is the "matter" of the soul?
In the second half of t... more What is the soul? What is intelligence? What is the "matter" of the soul?
In the second half of the twentieth century, research on Artificial Intelligence tried to respond operationally to the problem. Building models of intelligence, simulating its functions seemed a concrete way, empirically controllable, to understand what intelligence ever is.
This research program, and its complex evolution on the scientific, philosophical, economic, political and cultural levels, is the subject of this volume, which touches on the fundamental nodes of the debate that has marked the philosophy of mind in the last quarter of a century. Starting from here, the book moves into the field of social reality.
Developments in information control techniques, linked to the Artificial Intelligence program, have in fact brought about radical changes in the organization of work, in the management of the economy, in the enjoyment of culture, in the ways of politics, to the point that the very notion of "rationality" can be questioned, together with the principles on which contemporary social organization is based.
In the information age, the mind is not only conditioned by its bond with the body, but also by the fact that it must share the criteria, ways and laws of a widespread intelligence that characterizes our particular "form of life".
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According to someone, the "crisis of ideologies" is destined to overwhelm the scientific spirit: ... more According to someone, the "crisis of ideologies" is destined to overwhelm the scientific spirit: the irruption of "Chance" would imply a fatal outcome for science, which was born to predict, ended instead by conjuring the unpredictable. The epilogue should be hailed as liberating: the emergence of "Chance" would thwart the domination aims of science, modern metaphysics.
The analysis of these positions - conducted along historical and social theories, genetics, classical and dissipative thermodynamics, games of chance, "catastrophes," logical randomness, quantum mechanics and relativistic mechanics - shows, however, that strictly speaking "Chance" cannot be spoken of: the evocation of "Chance" simply covers problems still open in modern science. Far from implying liberalizing effects, principled indeterminism - if anything - risks blocking research, with "tyrannical" outcomes.
There remains the problem of the groundedness of scientific truths. If absolute demarcation criteria are not claimed, science can take on reasonable connotations, congruous with human affairs.
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La Goliardica, Roma, 1982
The topic under discussion is realism, the possibility of its foundation and (through this "filte... more The topic under discussion is realism, the possibility of its foundation and (through this "filter") some central themes of the epistemological debate.
The dialogical form of the book respects the epistolary succession that followed Giannoli's review of Gianquinto's book (Critica dell'epistemologia, new edition, Marsilio, Venezia 1980) and develops around the main thread of the critique of the "Trinitarian formula of philosophy” (ontology, gnoseology, logic), one of the underlying themes of Gianquinto's book.
How far can this critique be taken, in accordance with the constraints of science and epistemology, beyond Berkeley's skepticism and without remaining a prisoner of idealism?
The two hypotheses developed - opposite, but both thought in light of the possibility of a critical neo-Marxism - touch on Tarski's problem of truth, the issue of essentialism and Popper's falsificationism debate, the problem of the development of science, the realism-solipsism theoretical nexus, the question of comparison and the incommensurability of theories, Quine's solution of ontology, and the distinction between existence and reality.
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Drafts by Giovanni Iorio Giannoli
The 2020 encyclical Frates omnes described the human conjuncture as a shattered dream. At the sam... more The 2020 encyclical Frates omnes described the human conjuncture as a shattered dream. At the same time, it called for hope, proposing conditions for a new cosmopolitanism.
That religious faith can be the basis for a new brotherhood can be discussed from many perspectives. However, it remains to be determined what the reasons, political energies and institutional prospects might be today, so that the human community is not overwhelmed by chaos.
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Summary:
- Current literature, on democracy and capitalism
- Capitalism today
- "Critical" ration... more Summary:
- Current literature, on democracy and capitalism
- Capitalism today
- "Critical" rationalism, in defense of democracy
- Economic development and democracy: the optimistic point of view
- "Measuring" democracy
- Local dimension and global scale
- Perfect, imperfect democracies, oligarchies
- The crisis of democracy and authoritarianism
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In accordance with the "Opatjia Declaration on Intercultural Dialogue and Conflict Prevention" (2... more In accordance with the "Opatjia Declaration on Intercultural Dialogue and Conflict Prevention" (2003) and the "Baku Declaration for the Promotion of Intercultural Dialogue" (2008), the guidelines are proposed to constitute in Rome an Intercultural Center worthy of a great European capital.
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"The claim of Carl Schmitt is discussed, according to which the concept of 'nomos' could be place... more "The claim of Carl Schmitt is discussed, according to which the concept of 'nomos' could be placed at the foundation of every social order, being able to account for all the results of special sciences.
In this context, what is meant by 'common' is discussed, as well as its possible governance, the role of immaterial labor in the production of commmon, the place of the right to the common with respect to public and private law."
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The relativity of moral values is discussed, taking his cue from the Tabletop of the Seven Deadly... more The relativity of moral values is discussed, taking his cue from the Tabletop of the Seven Deadly Sins (by Hieronymus Bosch) and the Heptalogia (by the Argentine playwright Rafael Spregelburd).
While the desire to learn and succeed in the Middle Ages could slip into the sin of Vanity, when the puritan morality prevails all human beings are compelled to promote their talent, and encouraged to get rich.
From a theological perspective, the transition to modern ethics has been enabled by the logical circularity of “divine omnipotence”, and the consequent impossibility of solving the problem of evil (of its creation and existence), drawing a sharp border between vicious and virtuous behavior.
Together with post-modernism, the value system is now in crisis. Far from encouraging further development of scientific knowledge and social welfare, the current crisis of post-modernism seems to reduce the discretionary behavior of the agents, bringing it within the most basic constraints of the material existence, linked to the balance of power.
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Having drawn a preliminary distinction between dynamic laws and other kinds of relationships amon... more Having drawn a preliminary distinction between dynamic laws and other kinds of relationships among physical quantities (viz. definitions, integrals of motion, state equations, static fields, etc.), causality is related to an intrinsic characteristic of all physical fields. The case of the gravitational field is analyzed, since in general relativity is no longer possible to assume an independent space-time, as a neutral substrate. The case of quantum measurement is discussed and the possibility of non-local "collapses" of state vectors. Finally, the possibility of causal reductions is analyzed in the “special sciences”, through a biological example.
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On perception, skepticism, and theories of mind between the 16th and 18th centuries. Preparatory ... more On perception, skepticism, and theories of mind between the 16th and 18th centuries. Preparatory notes for the 11th International Congress on the Enlightenment, August 3-9, 2003, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
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Papers by Giovanni Iorio Giannoli
Testo e Senso, Jun 25, 2021
Alberto Gianquinto's philosophical-political journey - whose specific subject matter was the rela... more Alberto Gianquinto's philosophical-political journey - whose specific subject matter was the relationship between science and political praxis, with a preliminary option for historical materialism - can be roughly divided into three phases: a critical phase, followed by the development of a conjecture, which resulted in the falsification of that conjecture.
Rather than referring to conjunctural aspects, or to inadequacies in the action of transforming society, the defeat of the project initiated with the revolution of 1789 (and carried forward in 1917),, Gianquinto blamed the falsification of the revolutionary hypothesis on inherent fallacies in Marxian theory. Hence, judging that project of rationalizing history to be sunset, Gianquinto returned to conceiving the horizon of social justice as a utopia, as something that poetry can perhaps celebrate, but which remains a dream, a private hope, a wish.
It is not so obvious, however, that the term "utopia" necessarily denotes a fantasy world that cannot be realized. One can also disagree with the idea that any attempt to influence the future is inherently vague, or presupposes "faith" (assuming by its very nature the connotations of a philosophy of history). Finally, one can hold that the defeat of a project does not necessarily imply its theoretical fallacy.
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M. Campli, G.I. Giannoli, C. Paravati, F. Tortora (eds.), Fedi e libertà. Riflessioni, pp. 13-50, com nuovi tempi, Roma, ISBN 978-88-89193-24-2, 2020
The compound term "faith and freedom" could appear an oxymoron, or the name of an empty set, if t... more The compound term "faith and freedom" could appear an oxymoron, or the name of an empty set, if the conjunction that binds the two components had the role of a logical connective, which requires the simultaneous giving - in the same occurrence - of what the two components denote. In fact, a "faith" generally denotes a type of uncritical relationship with the object of a certain belief, with an ideology, with a group. "Freedom", on the other hand, denotes a state, a faculty, a way of being or an attitude that does not seem bound to partisan identifications or collocations. However, to many people it may also seem to have freely chosen a faith; and - apart from the impressions of each one - one could be really free to do so, or to get rid of a faith; to be free to change or to refute it. Furthermore, the attitude towards freedom could also take the form of a faith, and every faith could claim to free itself from the constraints that hinder it.
A faith - moreover - often concerns entities that are imagined as eternal, timeless, ubiquitous, omnipotent; beings able to grant freedom (which would be diminished, however, because produced by others, hetero-poietic), but also to deny it (because freedom would limit - simply by giving itself - the unlimited power of the creator entity); hence, the aporias of freedom and faith, in a theological key.
One may also wonder whether the claim to be free from a certain faith, or from all faiths, is not also a faith; or whether those who claim to have no faith can truly understand what a faith is, what it feels like to have it.
The two terms that make up the conjunction - faiths and freedom - should be discussed better, to draw hypotheses about their complex relationships.
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F. Fiorentino, V. Valentini (eds.), Elogio allo spettatore, pp. 151-172, DeriveApprodi, Milano, 2019
After recalling some preliminary aspects of the philosophical problem of the spectator (the seman... more After recalling some preliminary aspects of the philosophical problem of the spectator (the semantics of terms, their syntax, along with the nature of the environment in which spectators experience something), the first part of this study (paragraphs 1-7 - not yet published) analyzes some established paradigms about the spectacle: its supposed pedagogical function, its role of provocation, the ability to construct an ideal-typical spectator, the inner hygiene that is required of an ideal spectator.
The second part, published in 2019, gives an account of the cognitive skills that are required of a spectator, and which transform the abstract figure of the mere receptor of signals into an active protagonist of the event in which the spectator participates.
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Sciami|Ricerche, n. 3, ISSN 2532-3830, 2018
As to the relationship between human beings and artworks, a strong hermeneutical tradition insist... more As to the relationship between human beings and artworks, a strong hermeneutical tradition insists on aspects that are not liable to rational explanations, such as those that apply to physical processes, geological sections, symptoms of disease. This peculiar character of the artistic works would have become even more evident with the emergence of abstractionism and – as far as theatre - with the progressive departure from the text, and the programmatic renouncement of representing something. In this work – after discussing the limits of psychoanalytic and semiological tools – I’ll try to show the usefulness of cognitive sciences and today's theories of human communication in dealing with that problem, with reference to an emblematic case of "messages without meanings": pure (musical) sounds.
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L. Martinelli, V, Valentini, A. Vecchia (eds.), Politica dell’arte, politica della vita: Tadeusz Kantor fra teatro, arti visive e letteratura, pp. 125-140, Lithos, Roma, 2018
Since his death, Tadeusz Kantor's work has often been referred to popular paradigms of contempora... more Since his death, Tadeusz Kantor's work has often been referred to popular paradigms of contemporary criticism, as to the post-modernism and the so-called "post-dramatic form". For other exegetes, in Kantor's motivations and point of view there are traces of well-known topics of twentieth century philosophy, as Heidegger's Sein-zum-Tode.
In the following contribution - after questioning the consistency of these critical references - other sources are explored: in particular, the relevance of the great school of Warsaw and Lviv, founded by Kazimierz Twardowski and extremely influential on the Polish culture and intelligentsia, throughout the first half of the 20th century and even after the World War II. Actually, the very complex interweaving that Kantor constructs and recurrently uses - between reality, images (or memories) of reality and the discourse on reality (and its images) - seems to evoke Alfred Tarski's analysis and results, regarding the relationship between languages, metalanguages and truths.
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F. Ceraolo (ed.), Teorie dell’evento. Alain Badiou e il pensiero dello spettacolo, pp. 83-95, Mimesis, Sesto San Giovanni (MI), ISBN 978-88-5754-073-3, 2017
According to Alain Badiou, some Ideas have the property of being "trans-temporal", that is, "true... more According to Alain Badiou, some Ideas have the property of being "trans-temporal", that is, "true forever". The Ideas-Truths of this type would be those that make the difference, in the field of philosophy, politics, art and in the analysis of human subjectivity. Even in the domain of ethics, according to Badiou, "fidelity" to True-ideas would constitute a discriminating element: the construction of ethics would not proceed by adaptation, but thanks to the epistemic recognition of Good and the ideal goal of a better world. In the following contribution, I try to show the problematic nature of this perspective, from a logical, ontological, epistemic and factual point of view, starting from the conception that Badiou has expressed several times, with regard to the Theatre.
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il Verri ISSN 0506-7715, ISBN 978-88-98515-23-6, 2017
Il fatto che una “scuola di tecnica teatrale” possa essere non soltanto il luogo nel quale si tra... more Il fatto che una “scuola di tecnica teatrale” possa essere non soltanto il luogo nel quale si trasmette un saper fare, ma sia soprattutto un luogo di conoscenza, pone subito due domande: cosa mai si conosca in un luogo del genere e in che modo ciò si realizzi. Se la forma dell’attività scolastica assume caratteri rituali, e se i suoi contenuti riguardano il bene, la giusta misura, l’identità personale, la forma e la materia, l’intenzionalità, il ruolo delle parole, il condizionato, il trascendente, l’espressione, la combinatoria dei mondi possibili, la cura di sé o l’eccellenza … se questo succede, allora una scuola del genere non è soltanto un luogo specifico nel quale si apprende. È piuttosto una posizione, un punto di vista; che riguarda la contemporaneità e, in primo luogo, l’arte e il teatro dei nostri giorni.
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V. Pavoncello (ed.), Cheese! Un mondo di selfie. Fenomenologie dell’oggi, pp. 41-52, Mimesis, Sesto San Giovanni (MI), ISBN 978-88-5753-395-7, 2016
Logical and cognitive levels involved, when shooting and sharing selfies
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Archives Internationales d'Histoire des Sciences, 2014
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Introduction to: Rafael Spregelburd, Il teatro, la vita e altre catastrofi. Domande, ipotesi, pro... more Introduction to: Rafael Spregelburd, Il teatro, la vita e altre catastrofi. Domande, ipotesi, procedimenti, Bulzoni, Roma 2014, ISBN 978-88-7870-961-4, pp. 21-36.
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Books by Giovanni Iorio Giannoli
In the second half of the twentieth century, research on Artificial Intelligence tried to respond operationally to the problem. Building models of intelligence, simulating its functions seemed a concrete way, empirically controllable, to understand what intelligence ever is.
This research program, and its complex evolution on the scientific, philosophical, economic, political and cultural levels, is the subject of this volume, which touches on the fundamental nodes of the debate that has marked the philosophy of mind in the last quarter of a century. Starting from here, the book moves into the field of social reality.
Developments in information control techniques, linked to the Artificial Intelligence program, have in fact brought about radical changes in the organization of work, in the management of the economy, in the enjoyment of culture, in the ways of politics, to the point that the very notion of "rationality" can be questioned, together with the principles on which contemporary social organization is based.
In the information age, the mind is not only conditioned by its bond with the body, but also by the fact that it must share the criteria, ways and laws of a widespread intelligence that characterizes our particular "form of life".
The analysis of these positions - conducted along historical and social theories, genetics, classical and dissipative thermodynamics, games of chance, "catastrophes," logical randomness, quantum mechanics and relativistic mechanics - shows, however, that strictly speaking "Chance" cannot be spoken of: the evocation of "Chance" simply covers problems still open in modern science. Far from implying liberalizing effects, principled indeterminism - if anything - risks blocking research, with "tyrannical" outcomes.
There remains the problem of the groundedness of scientific truths. If absolute demarcation criteria are not claimed, science can take on reasonable connotations, congruous with human affairs.
The dialogical form of the book respects the epistolary succession that followed Giannoli's review of Gianquinto's book (Critica dell'epistemologia, new edition, Marsilio, Venezia 1980) and develops around the main thread of the critique of the "Trinitarian formula of philosophy” (ontology, gnoseology, logic), one of the underlying themes of Gianquinto's book.
How far can this critique be taken, in accordance with the constraints of science and epistemology, beyond Berkeley's skepticism and without remaining a prisoner of idealism?
The two hypotheses developed - opposite, but both thought in light of the possibility of a critical neo-Marxism - touch on Tarski's problem of truth, the issue of essentialism and Popper's falsificationism debate, the problem of the development of science, the realism-solipsism theoretical nexus, the question of comparison and the incommensurability of theories, Quine's solution of ontology, and the distinction between existence and reality.
Drafts by Giovanni Iorio Giannoli
That religious faith can be the basis for a new brotherhood can be discussed from many perspectives. However, it remains to be determined what the reasons, political energies and institutional prospects might be today, so that the human community is not overwhelmed by chaos.
- Current literature, on democracy and capitalism
- Capitalism today
- "Critical" rationalism, in defense of democracy
- Economic development and democracy: the optimistic point of view
- "Measuring" democracy
- Local dimension and global scale
- Perfect, imperfect democracies, oligarchies
- The crisis of democracy and authoritarianism
In this context, what is meant by 'common' is discussed, as well as its possible governance, the role of immaterial labor in the production of commmon, the place of the right to the common with respect to public and private law."
While the desire to learn and succeed in the Middle Ages could slip into the sin of Vanity, when the puritan morality prevails all human beings are compelled to promote their talent, and encouraged to get rich.
From a theological perspective, the transition to modern ethics has been enabled by the logical circularity of “divine omnipotence”, and the consequent impossibility of solving the problem of evil (of its creation and existence), drawing a sharp border between vicious and virtuous behavior.
Together with post-modernism, the value system is now in crisis. Far from encouraging further development of scientific knowledge and social welfare, the current crisis of post-modernism seems to reduce the discretionary behavior of the agents, bringing it within the most basic constraints of the material existence, linked to the balance of power.
Papers by Giovanni Iorio Giannoli
Rather than referring to conjunctural aspects, or to inadequacies in the action of transforming society, the defeat of the project initiated with the revolution of 1789 (and carried forward in 1917),, Gianquinto blamed the falsification of the revolutionary hypothesis on inherent fallacies in Marxian theory. Hence, judging that project of rationalizing history to be sunset, Gianquinto returned to conceiving the horizon of social justice as a utopia, as something that poetry can perhaps celebrate, but which remains a dream, a private hope, a wish.
It is not so obvious, however, that the term "utopia" necessarily denotes a fantasy world that cannot be realized. One can also disagree with the idea that any attempt to influence the future is inherently vague, or presupposes "faith" (assuming by its very nature the connotations of a philosophy of history). Finally, one can hold that the defeat of a project does not necessarily imply its theoretical fallacy.
A faith - moreover - often concerns entities that are imagined as eternal, timeless, ubiquitous, omnipotent; beings able to grant freedom (which would be diminished, however, because produced by others, hetero-poietic), but also to deny it (because freedom would limit - simply by giving itself - the unlimited power of the creator entity); hence, the aporias of freedom and faith, in a theological key.
One may also wonder whether the claim to be free from a certain faith, or from all faiths, is not also a faith; or whether those who claim to have no faith can truly understand what a faith is, what it feels like to have it.
The two terms that make up the conjunction - faiths and freedom - should be discussed better, to draw hypotheses about their complex relationships.
The second part, published in 2019, gives an account of the cognitive skills that are required of a spectator, and which transform the abstract figure of the mere receptor of signals into an active protagonist of the event in which the spectator participates.
In the following contribution - after questioning the consistency of these critical references - other sources are explored: in particular, the relevance of the great school of Warsaw and Lviv, founded by Kazimierz Twardowski and extremely influential on the Polish culture and intelligentsia, throughout the first half of the 20th century and even after the World War II. Actually, the very complex interweaving that Kantor constructs and recurrently uses - between reality, images (or memories) of reality and the discourse on reality (and its images) - seems to evoke Alfred Tarski's analysis and results, regarding the relationship between languages, metalanguages and truths.
In the second half of the twentieth century, research on Artificial Intelligence tried to respond operationally to the problem. Building models of intelligence, simulating its functions seemed a concrete way, empirically controllable, to understand what intelligence ever is.
This research program, and its complex evolution on the scientific, philosophical, economic, political and cultural levels, is the subject of this volume, which touches on the fundamental nodes of the debate that has marked the philosophy of mind in the last quarter of a century. Starting from here, the book moves into the field of social reality.
Developments in information control techniques, linked to the Artificial Intelligence program, have in fact brought about radical changes in the organization of work, in the management of the economy, in the enjoyment of culture, in the ways of politics, to the point that the very notion of "rationality" can be questioned, together with the principles on which contemporary social organization is based.
In the information age, the mind is not only conditioned by its bond with the body, but also by the fact that it must share the criteria, ways and laws of a widespread intelligence that characterizes our particular "form of life".
The analysis of these positions - conducted along historical and social theories, genetics, classical and dissipative thermodynamics, games of chance, "catastrophes," logical randomness, quantum mechanics and relativistic mechanics - shows, however, that strictly speaking "Chance" cannot be spoken of: the evocation of "Chance" simply covers problems still open in modern science. Far from implying liberalizing effects, principled indeterminism - if anything - risks blocking research, with "tyrannical" outcomes.
There remains the problem of the groundedness of scientific truths. If absolute demarcation criteria are not claimed, science can take on reasonable connotations, congruous with human affairs.
The dialogical form of the book respects the epistolary succession that followed Giannoli's review of Gianquinto's book (Critica dell'epistemologia, new edition, Marsilio, Venezia 1980) and develops around the main thread of the critique of the "Trinitarian formula of philosophy” (ontology, gnoseology, logic), one of the underlying themes of Gianquinto's book.
How far can this critique be taken, in accordance with the constraints of science and epistemology, beyond Berkeley's skepticism and without remaining a prisoner of idealism?
The two hypotheses developed - opposite, but both thought in light of the possibility of a critical neo-Marxism - touch on Tarski's problem of truth, the issue of essentialism and Popper's falsificationism debate, the problem of the development of science, the realism-solipsism theoretical nexus, the question of comparison and the incommensurability of theories, Quine's solution of ontology, and the distinction between existence and reality.
That religious faith can be the basis for a new brotherhood can be discussed from many perspectives. However, it remains to be determined what the reasons, political energies and institutional prospects might be today, so that the human community is not overwhelmed by chaos.
- Current literature, on democracy and capitalism
- Capitalism today
- "Critical" rationalism, in defense of democracy
- Economic development and democracy: the optimistic point of view
- "Measuring" democracy
- Local dimension and global scale
- Perfect, imperfect democracies, oligarchies
- The crisis of democracy and authoritarianism
In this context, what is meant by 'common' is discussed, as well as its possible governance, the role of immaterial labor in the production of commmon, the place of the right to the common with respect to public and private law."
While the desire to learn and succeed in the Middle Ages could slip into the sin of Vanity, when the puritan morality prevails all human beings are compelled to promote their talent, and encouraged to get rich.
From a theological perspective, the transition to modern ethics has been enabled by the logical circularity of “divine omnipotence”, and the consequent impossibility of solving the problem of evil (of its creation and existence), drawing a sharp border between vicious and virtuous behavior.
Together with post-modernism, the value system is now in crisis. Far from encouraging further development of scientific knowledge and social welfare, the current crisis of post-modernism seems to reduce the discretionary behavior of the agents, bringing it within the most basic constraints of the material existence, linked to the balance of power.
Rather than referring to conjunctural aspects, or to inadequacies in the action of transforming society, the defeat of the project initiated with the revolution of 1789 (and carried forward in 1917),, Gianquinto blamed the falsification of the revolutionary hypothesis on inherent fallacies in Marxian theory. Hence, judging that project of rationalizing history to be sunset, Gianquinto returned to conceiving the horizon of social justice as a utopia, as something that poetry can perhaps celebrate, but which remains a dream, a private hope, a wish.
It is not so obvious, however, that the term "utopia" necessarily denotes a fantasy world that cannot be realized. One can also disagree with the idea that any attempt to influence the future is inherently vague, or presupposes "faith" (assuming by its very nature the connotations of a philosophy of history). Finally, one can hold that the defeat of a project does not necessarily imply its theoretical fallacy.
A faith - moreover - often concerns entities that are imagined as eternal, timeless, ubiquitous, omnipotent; beings able to grant freedom (which would be diminished, however, because produced by others, hetero-poietic), but also to deny it (because freedom would limit - simply by giving itself - the unlimited power of the creator entity); hence, the aporias of freedom and faith, in a theological key.
One may also wonder whether the claim to be free from a certain faith, or from all faiths, is not also a faith; or whether those who claim to have no faith can truly understand what a faith is, what it feels like to have it.
The two terms that make up the conjunction - faiths and freedom - should be discussed better, to draw hypotheses about their complex relationships.
The second part, published in 2019, gives an account of the cognitive skills that are required of a spectator, and which transform the abstract figure of the mere receptor of signals into an active protagonist of the event in which the spectator participates.
In the following contribution - after questioning the consistency of these critical references - other sources are explored: in particular, the relevance of the great school of Warsaw and Lviv, founded by Kazimierz Twardowski and extremely influential on the Polish culture and intelligentsia, throughout the first half of the 20th century and even after the World War II. Actually, the very complex interweaving that Kantor constructs and recurrently uses - between reality, images (or memories) of reality and the discourse on reality (and its images) - seems to evoke Alfred Tarski's analysis and results, regarding the relationship between languages, metalanguages and truths.
However, from an epistemological point of view, all realism encounters a fundamental trouble: what "really" corresponds to abstract terms, to purely hypothetical terms or to terms that denote unobservable entities. The analysis of specific cases, in contemporary culture, suggests an attitude of ontological parsimony. When you are faced with phenomena not yet reduced to corroborate theories, the hypothetical nature of "reality" that you are talking about is in the order of discourse. But even in the case of "things" that cannot be directly observed (and which nevertheless are the subject of well-established scientific theories) their "existence" can be assumed only as a conjecture, according to their contribution to the properties of the structures which they belong, with specific reference to their actual empirical content.
From a sociological point of view, it is doubtful that the "new realism" can be one of the factors of the postmodern crisis. It is more likely that the historical decline of the latter suggest a return to the "facts.
Secondo la recente “svolta neo-realistica” (propugnata da Maurizio Ferraris e da altri) noi dovremmo tornare a riconoscere il primato dei fatti, rispetto a quello delle interpretazioni. Una “svolta” del genere avrebbe effetti salutari, di fronte alle derive del postmoderno.
Tuttavia, sotto il profilo strettamente epistemologico, ogni realismo incontra un problema fondamentale: quale sia il corrispettivo “reale” dei termini astratti, dei termini puramente ipotetici oppure di quelli che denotano entità inosservababili. L’analisi di casi specifici, nella cultura contemporanea, consiglia un atteggiamento di parsimonia ontologica. Quando ci si trova di fronte a fenomenologie non ancora ricondotte a teorie corroborate, il carattere puramente ipotetico della “realtà” di cui si sta parlando sta nell’ordine stesso del discorso. Ma anche nel caso delle “cose” che non possono essere direttamente osservate, e che cionondimeno sono oggetto delle teorie scientifiche più mature e consolidate, la loro “esistenza” può essere ammessa soltanto in via congetturale, sulla base del loro contributo alle proprietà delle strutture di appartenenza, con specifico riferimento al loro contenuto empirico effettivo.
Sotto il profilo sociologico, si può sospettare che il “nuovo realismo” non costituisca uno dei fattori di crisi il postmoderno, ma sia piuttosto il declino di quest’ultimo a suggerire un ritorno ai “fatti”.
On peut remettre en cause ce conflit (entre l’intuition transcendantale postulée par la phénoménologie et l'objectivité prétendue à-temporelle qu’on attribue au naturalisme scientifique), d’une part, à travers l’analyse des processus qui sont à la base de la perception du temps et, d’autre part, par la discussion de la thèse que le «présent» ne soit pas susceptible d’une définition opérationnelle, de sorte que toute référence au «maintenant» devrait être exclue du langage scientifique.
Una accesa polemica sulle relazioni tra la logica e la psicologia ha attraversato il secolo scorso. Ancora oggi, tra studiosi provenienti dai campi della filosofia e della psicologia si può registrare una sorta di incomunicabilità, nell’analisi del pensiero e delle attività cognitive. Recenti studi sulle modalità concrete della categorizzazione, insieme a un bilancio della semantica teorica del secolo scorso, possono forse interrompere la situazione di stallo. La critica interna degli argomenti anti-psicologistici e la conoscenza dei processi cognitivi che sono in gioco nelle attività di categorizzazione indeboliscono notevolmente la tradizionale nozione di ‘concetto’. Anche se le posizioni eliminativiste hanno una loro plausibilità, la funzione che viene attribuita generalmente ai concetti – nella psicologia del senso comune, nella costruzione della memoria semantica e nell’analisi logica del linguaggio – consiglia maggiore prudenza.
As to the spatial cognition (that is the capacity to discover, transform and use spatial information about the world), a robust evidence is mentioned, supporting the existence of many levels of representation. The sensorimotor experience in the space does not seem sufficient to guarantee the highest levels of spatial representation.
Against this line of thinking, it can be argued the following: 1) time is a secondary notion with respect to the notions of event, sequence and physical process; 2) change is an ontologically primitive given; to say that a system is changing is nothing but to say that distinctive quantities of that system show ordered and numerically distinct values; 3) among these physical quantities (and the values they assume) a selection may be done, apt to identify those particular systems that we call "persons"; 4) to say that a certain person is changed, means to commit oneself to state the specific features which allow to identify that person, and to show the values which those features have assumed in the same order in which they were recorded.
In this paper, without any decisive pretensions, an attempt will be made to give order to the question, putting forward the following theses: 1) the notion of "logical possibility" is too broad and ambiguous to assign it any essential role, in arguments aiming at some conclusions; 2) also the notion of "nomological necessity" (or "nomicity") shows signs of weakness and leaves room for merely epistemic possibilities (due to an imperfection in the knowledge, rather than to something attributable to "worlds"); 3) only an attenuated notion of nomicity can be referred to, when one wants to assume hypotheses that deny facts, in the course of reflection.
Some philosophers - particularly engaged in the epistemological analysis of scientific explanations - have reacted to the risk of an excessive eclecticism, by trying to bring the various approaches back, to a unified synthesis in which to include the same nomological-deductive model. The result has been a new "mechanistic model", suitably revised and expanded; and this - in many respects - may seem very paradoxical indeed.
A commentary on E. Datteri, G. Tamburrini, "Meccanismi di coordinazione sensomotoria e modelli computazionali”.
- At the transition between the 16th and 17th centuries, Johannes Kepler still believed in the thesis of the musical harmony of the world, of Pythagorean descent, expounded (and criticized) by Aristotle in De Caelo [290b].
- A few years before the trial of Galileo Galilei, Maffeo Barberini (Urban VIII) had issued the bull Inscrutabilis Iudiciorum Dei (Constitutio contra astrologos iudiciarios - 1631).
- During the years when he was intent on establishing the principles of classical mechanics, Isaac Newton delighted in representing the world according to alchemical-astrological diagrams, such as the "Lapis Philosophicus".
- By the mid-19th Century, new "mysteries" (such as the anomalous precession of the planet Mercury) had emerged in the Newtonian theory of gravitation. They would be understood and explained at the beginning of the next century, thanks to the theory of general relativity, proposed by Albert Einstein in 1915.
- Meanwhile, the entities physics deals with were undergoing a process of radical abstraction, moving further and further away from common sense. What is "observable"-in the physical world-does not coincide with what is observable according to common sense.
- This is a process somewhat analogous to what took place in European art in the same period, according to that inclination which Wilhelm Worringer wanted to describe in 1907 as a "psychological need to represent objects in a more spiritual way."
- Practicing (correctly) errors
- Encouraging making mistakes
- Developmental errors
- The practice of doubt
- Scientific revolutions
- Creative errors
- Error, folly, genius
- Errare humanum, persevere diabolicum
The value of science
The stability of the solar system
Infinity in mathematics
The continuum in mathematics
Unsolvable promblems
Biology and mathematics
- Scientific realism
- Structural (or structuralist) realism
- Semirealism
- Empiricist constructivism
The case of "dark" entities
The case of quarks
The existence of the external world, ontological commitments, and the conjectural character of science
- discovery as "reading," according to Galileo Galilei
- Francis Bacon's "method"
- Gregor Mendel's laws
- the discovery of the planet Neptune
- the precession of Mercury's perihelion
- the discovery of the positron
- the cosmic background radiation
- "observing" versus "interpreting"
.- the creative character of scientific discovery
- context of discovery and context of justification
- discovering or inventing
- the psychology of problem-solving
- "incubation" versus "enlightenment"
- the computational models of scientific discovery
- geniality and pathology
- Newtonian and Leibnizian conceptions of time
- Time in classical mechanics, quantum mechanics, special relativity and general relativity
- Time in quantum cosmology: "canonical" approach, string theory, "loops" approach.
- The necessary physical conditions, for "clocks" to be given.
- Logico-epistemological problems of evolutionary psychology: Fodor's argument.
- Intentionality and natural selection.
- What evolutionary psychology aims at.
- The representational-computational theory of mind and instincts.
- Non-propositional representations.
- "Selection by" and "selection for"
- "Selection for" and adaptive pressure
- Adaptive and non-adaptive traits
- The non-teleological character of evolution
- The adaptive function of emotions
- The causal role of emotions
- Behavioral role and representational content of emotions
- Conditioned emotions and theme-free emotions
- Emotions and cognitive abilities
- Mind, body, emotions
- Emotions, perception, reason
- Dynamic and cognitive unconscious
- Non-declarative knowledge
- Noetic consciousness
- Preconditions of language (spatial cognition and social intelligence)
- Mind/body relationships
Dialogical activity, and particularly language-type communication, have reflections on the individual's specific condition, balance and possible pathologies. However, this causal-type interaction does not develop, properly, at the level of the person (i.e., at the level of psychological states describable as propositional attitudes); rather, the relationship is mediated by sub-personal psychological mechanisms and, at the level of the brain, by a complex molecular mediating activity, which ensures substantial unity between mental and somatic phenomena.
An example would be the research programs that blossomed around new information-processing techniques and - it is said - "now entered a crisis," within two or three decades. More precisely, the so-called "cognitivist" approach (programmatically oriented to show that all mental processes are nothing but information processing processes) would have definitely entered a crisis.. Now, since it seems clear that the impact of the new information technologies is far from "now exhausted," any declaration of "failure" of programs related to those technologies is likely to take on the appearance of a removal. We can take it in as a symptom of that "vanity" of philosophers that Nietzsche confessed in the latter part of his life, stating that true philosophers should have been wreckers, creators, legislators, inventors of new languages and procedures. "Commanding," "legislating," destroying the legacy of the past, exercising vanity and pride without any measure: these would be the traits that should qualify the experience of a true thinker.
- Object and language of science
- Requirements of scientific stetements
- Facts and theories
II. The legal structure of science
- Universal statements
- Terms
- Cognitive status of science
- Deduction and induction
- Forms of induction
- Mill's methods
- Probability
III. Experiments and logic
- Research programs
- Truths
- Conventions
- Formal systems
- A-modal calculus
- Existence and modality
IV. Intra- and/or inter-theoretical reducibility
- Reducibility, commensurability, comparability
- Re-interpretations
- Emergent properties
- Physicalism
V. Functionalism and organization
- Teleology
- Computational theories of mind
- Organicism
- Learning and organization
VI. Ecology of science
- Historical and social determinations
- Rational reconstructions and axiology
- End of the cognitive value of science?
2) Facts, experiments and theories
3) Degrees of confirmation, checks and falsifications
4) Causal and functional explanations
5) Models, realities, simulations
6) The problem of inter-theoretical reduction
- The problem of the "foundations" of mathematics
- Conventionalism and scientific ontologies
- Relativistic time and space
- Quantum indeterminism