Fictional Discourse: A Radical Fictionalist Semantics.Stefano Predelli -2020 - Oxford University Press.detailsFictional Discourse: A Radical Fictionalist Semantics combines the insight of linguistic and philosophical semantics with the study of fictional language. Its central idea is familiar to anyone exposed to the ways of narrative fiction, namely the notion of a fictional teller. Starting with premises having to do with fictional names such as 'Holmes' or 'Emma',Stefano Predelli develops Radical Fictionalism, a theory that is subsequently applied to central themes in the analysis of fiction. Among other things, he discusses the (...) distinction between storyworlds and narrative peripheries, the relationships between homodiegetic and heterodiegetic narrative, narrative time, unreliability, and closure. The final chapters extend Radical Fictionalism to critical discourse, as Predelli introduces the ideas of critical and biased retelling, and pauses on the relationships between Radical Fictionalism and talk about literary characters. (shrink)
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Due dogmi dell’individualismo.Stefano Vaselli -2009 -Rivista di Estetica 42:189-206.detailsThe present article examines radical methodological individualism as defended by Berlin, Popper and Hayek. We stress two dogmas: social nominalism (according to which individuals are the only admissible denizens of social ontology), and the invisible hand. We claim that the two dogmas do not logically coincide, contrary to what usually held by individualistic ideology.
La scelta di Danto.Stefano Velotti -2007 -Rivista di Estetica 35 (35):357-374.detailsDefinire l’arte? Danto è un filosofo pirotecnico, acuto e colto, e da quasi trent’anni è anche l’influente critico d’arte del settimanale radical newyorkese «The Nation». Per quanto Danto lamenti una certa disattenzione nei suoi confronti da parte dei critici e degli storici dell’arte, è invece persuaso — a ragione, anche se forse limitatamente al mondo anglo-americano — che il suo famoso articolo del 1964, The Artworld, — poi sostanzialmente rielaborato in forme diverse — «really did become...
Sentimento mistico e melanconia: due casi di visione aspettuale.Stefano Oliva -2018 -Lebenswelt. Aesthetics and Philosophy of Experience 12.detailsThe aim of this paper is to propose a comparison between the mystical feeling, as it is defined by Ludwig Wittgenstein in the Tractatus logico-philosophicus, and the psycho-pathological state of melancholy, posed in relation with mourning by Sigmund Freud. The comparison will depart from the radical dissatisfaction that seems to be a distinctive characteristic of both phenomena. According to Wittgenstein in fact the drive to mystical feeling rises from the deep dissatisfaction regarding the explanations given by science, which is incapable (...) of producing any answer to the «problem of life». In a similar way, Slavoj Žižek underlines that melancholy is a form of «disappointment at all positive, observable objects, none of which can satisfy our desire». In this perspective, I will check the similarities and differences between mystical feeling and melancholy and I will put in relation the double profile of this latter with the Wittgensteinian theme of aspect seeing. (shrink)
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Herbert Simon , the anti-philosopher.Stefano Franchi -unknowndetailsHerbert Simon’s work presents a curious anomaly to the historian and philosopher trying to understand the development of classic Artificial Intelligence (AI). Simon was one of most influential figures in AI since its birth, and yet it is always with some difficulties that his work can be made to fit within the received canon of AI’s development and goals. In fact, he differed from every other figure in early AI on most counts: in terms of the recognized intellectual heritage of (...) AI, of his own background and training, of the goals he set for his own AI work and the assessment criteria he accepted. I will argue that these differences provide important clues toward a reevaluation of the relationship between Artificial Intelligence and Herbert Simon’s work that may change our current understanding of both. On the one hand, classic Artificial Intelligence (or Complex Information Processing, as Simon preferred to call it for a number of years), provided the tool he needed to pursue a much broader research agenda that strove to encompass human beings in their cognitive, emotional, social, and political dimensions. On the other hand, AI’s curious status as the discipline that straggles the boundaries between engineering, science, and philosophy can be recast as the tool that allowed researchers to pursue philosophy’s old goals with an alternative methodology. From this perspective, Simon’s version of Artificial Intelligence becomes a full-fledged form of ”anti-philosophy” as ambitious and broad-ranging as old-fashioned metaphysics and as revolutionary as the latter in the radical refashioning of its methodology. It follows that a philosophical assessment of AI, at in least in its Simonian incarnation, must be more farreaching than it is usually thought. At the methodological level, it must discuss whether AI’s invention of computer simulation as the tool that overcomes the a-priori/a-posteriori distinction by actually producing the behavior it wants to explain is really adequate to the job at hand.. (shrink)
The Repetition of a Singularity.Stefano Micali -2018 -Philosophy Today 62 (3):987-1007.detailsPhenomenology aims at analyzing the constitutive moments of the different experiences by doing justice to their specific ways of appearing. By doing so, it can make visible (and therefore correct) the problematic assumptions taken as valid from the outset. These assumptions coherently distort and manipulate the phenomena in such a way that the phenomena are transformed into something radically different. The phenomenon of déjà vu is very interesting in this regard for two different reasons. Déjà vu is transformed into a (...) different phenomenon in the field of cognitive sciences: déjà-vu is commonly understood as a simple memory error. Secondly, déjà vu implies a repetition of a unique, contingent experience. This logic of repetition is not easily compatible with the logos of empirical sciences that focus on the identification of invariant relations between general terms through experimental research and therefore requires a different approach. (shrink)
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Moral Realism by Other Means: The Hybrid Nature of Kant’s Practical Rationalism.Stefano Bacin -2017 - In Elke Elisabeth Schmidt & Robinson dos Santos,Realism and Anti-Realism in Kant’s Moral Philosophy. De Gruyter. pp. 155-178.detailsAfter qualifying in which sense ‘realism’ can be applied to eighteenth-century views about morality, I argue that while Kant shares with traditional moral realists several fundamental claims about morality, he holds that those claims must be argued for in a radically different way. Drawing on his diagnosis of the serious weaknesses of traditional moral realism, Kant proposes a novel approach that revolves around a hybrid view about moral obligation. Since his solution to that central issue combines elements of realism with (...) elements of voluntarist ascent, Kant’s position can be characterized as an idealist version of moral realism or, more specifically, as the combination of a strong realism about the moral law with an idealist account of moral obligation. (shrink)
The Epistemological Contribution of the Transcendental Reduction.Stefano Vincini -2020 -Husserl Studies 37 (1):39-66.detailsIn order to appreciate the rich implications of the transcendental reduction, one has to distinguish the different contexts where it acquires different meanings. The present paper focuses on a particular epistemological context and clarifies the contribution of the reduction within this context. The contribution consists in the formulation and solution of the problem of exhibiting the evidence supporting the belief in the world’s existence. In a nutshell, world-experience grounds the world-belief and world-experience entails a bedrock of experience legitimizing the positing (...) of others. I argue that this contribution is possibly an enduring achievement of Husserl’s transcendental philosophy against common objections that are raised against it. I show that both the necessity and the viability of the transcendental reduction are a consequence of the general structure of critical examination. Overall, a picture of Husserl’s philosophy emerges that emphasizes embodiment, intersubjectivity, and facticity without giving up the rigor of radical epistemological analysis, aiming at overcoming both naïve pseudo-problems and subtle forms of dogmatism. (shrink)
Essere e senso. La critica di Heidegger all’ontologia.Stefano Bancalari -2023 -Quaestio 22:303-320.detailsThe paper aims to argue that, despite his imposing elaboration of the question of Being, Heidegger’s major contribution to ontology is a critical one. The restatement of the Seinsfrage rests on presuppositions that are radically non-ontological i.e. phenomenological. Notwithstanding his suspicion of transcendental reduction, Heidegger subscribes to the Husserlian idea of a priority of the sense over the being. This thesis is supported by both the evolution of Heidegger comprehension of ontology and by the pivotal role of the Dasein in (...) the Seinsfrage. (shrink)
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Who’s afraid of the predicate theory of names?Stefano Predelli -2015 -Linguistics and Philosophy 38 (4):363-376.detailsThis essay is devoted to an analysis of the semantic significance of a fashionable view of proper names, the Predicate Theory of names, typically developed in the direction of the Metalinguistic Theory of names. According to MT, ‘syntactic evidence supports the conclusion that a name such as ‘Kennedy’ is analyzable in terms of the predicate ‘individual named ‘Kennedy’’. This analysis is in turn alleged to support a descriptivist treatment of proper names in designative position, presumably in contrast with theories of (...) names as ‘directly referring rigid designators’. The main aim of this essay is that of questioning the significance of PT and MT as theories of designation: even granting for the argument’s sake that names are analyzable as predicates, their designative occurrences may be interpreted in consonance with the dictates of Direct Reference—indeed, in consonance with the radically anti-descriptivist version of Direct Reference I call Millianism. (shrink)
Who's afraid of substitutivity?Stefano Predelli -2000 -Noûs 34 (3):455–467.detailsIn this paper I discuss two influential analyzes of belief reports, John Perry's and Marc Crimmins's "Contextual View," and Scott Soames's and Nathan Salmon's "Radical View". It is often alleged that the "Contextual View," unlike the "Radical View," is able to account for the apparent invalidity of arguments involving the substitution of coreferential names. I counter that the "Contextual View" and the "Radical View" are on a par with the respect to our intuitions regarding failures of substitutivity.
Democracy and Education and Europe.Stefano Oliverio,Maura Striano &Leonard J. Waks -2016 -European Journal of Pragmatism and American Philosophy 8 (1).details1. A Travelling Classic On the centennial anniversary of the publication of Dewey’s Democracy and Education (New York, Macmillan, 1916) this symposium (including contributions from European and non European scholars) explores both the epoch-making significance and the topicality of the ideas in Dewey’s masterpiece for the development of European educational reflection. Democracy and Education has frequently been represented as a turning point in educational discourse, inaugurating a radically...
Ermeneutica, «Nuovo Realismo» e trasformazione della realtà. Una radicalizzazione incompiuta per la filosofia italiana.Stefano G. Azzarà -2013 -Rivista di Estetica 53:197-234.detailsThe New Realism Manifesto by Maurizio Ferraris criticises hermeneutics and postmodernism for their passive and conservative positions, claiming that they are responsible for having delegitimised all philosophical reflection on reality and ontology and favoured the affirmation of a “show-biz” society and a proprietary personalisation of politics. Gianni Vattimo answers this thesis, accusing realism of colluding both with the hierarchy of the powers-that-be and with technocracy and claiming the left-wing orientation of hermeneutics. But to be fair, Vattimo has noticeably changed his (...) own position with respect to the years of “weak Thought”, when every hypothesis of political intervention on reality and every project of transformation were excluded. Hermeneutics today merits being considered a sort of new and revolutionary “philosophy of praxis” in which a weakened Marxism joins up (improbably) with Nietzsche and Heidegger’s thought. Although bitter, the conflict between these positions, which openly claim an emancipationist orientation, is an indication of a process of radicalization of Italian philosophy that is also confirmed by the recent theses of other authors. However, in the absence of a rediscovery of that reality which more than any other has been obscured by postmodernism – the reality of work and the material processes of production and social reproduction – and in the absence of a real subject interested in an overall transformation of the contemporary world, the risk is that such radicalisation of the intellectual classes will stay incomplete and remain within a theoretical debate that is incapable of changing the imbalances and relations of subordination and dominion present in society. (shrink)
Russell-Names: An Introduction to Millian Descriptivism.Stefano Predelli -2016 -Journal of Philosophical Logic 45 (5):603-622.detailsThis essay studies the semantic properties of what I call Russell-names. Russell-names bear intimate semantic relations with descriptive conditions, in consonance with the main tenets of descriptivism. Yet, they are endowed with the semantic properties attributed to ordinary proper names by Millianism: they are rigid and non-indexical devices of direct reference. This is not an essay in natural language semantics, and remains deliberately neutral with respect to the question whether any among the expressions we ordinarily classify as proper names behave (...) as Russell-names. Its aim is rather that of casting a new light on the traditional debate about descriptivism on the one hand, and, on the other, what is commonly understood as a radically anti-descriptivist approach. From the viewpoint of descriptivism, the conceivability of Russell-names provides welcome relief from the pressure exerted by considerations at odds with a flaccid and/or indexical treatment of proper names. Conversely, from a Millian standpoint, the conceivability of Russell-names indicates that the Millian stance, far from providing a meagre picture of names as ‘mere tags’, is at least in principle consistent with the recognition of their semantic bonds with richer descriptive material. The Appendix provides a formal treatment of Russell-names within a model theoretic semantics for indexical intensional languages, developed within an original ‘double-context’ framework. (shrink)
Thinking, Time and the Essence of Mind in the Descartes-Arnauld Correspondence.Stefano Di Bella -2017 -Journal of Early Modern Studies 6 (2):47-71.detailsThe 1648 exchange between Descartes and Arnauld focuses on several distinct but intertwined topics concerning Descartes’s philosophy of mind. Descartes’s acknowledgment of thinking as the essence of the mind implied a strong ‘actualist’ view of this essential activity. Arnauld’s objcetions reveal the problematic implications of this ontology of mind, from the role of memory and the temporal nature of our thought to the radical challenge of giving the status of an essence to such a temporal activity.
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Manufacturing Mohism in the Mencius.ThomasRadice -2011 -Asian Philosophy 21 (2):139-152.detailsThe Mencius contains several negative remarks about the Mohists and their doctrine of ‘universal love’ (jian’ai). However, little attention has been paid to whether Mencius’ descriptions of Mohism were accurate. Fortunately, there is a surviving record of the beliefs of Mozi in the text that bears his name. In this essay, I analyze this text and descriptions of Mohism from other early Chinese texts, and compare them to the criticisms of Mohism in the Mencius. Ultimately, I show that the image (...) of the Mohists as ones who promoted a doctrine that contradicted filial piety was inaccurate, and obscured the complexities of filial piety in the Warring States period. (shrink)
Confucius and Filial Piety.ThomasRadice -2017 - In Paul Rakita Goldin,A Concise Companion to Confucius. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons. pp. 185–207.detailsFilial piety is a foundational concept in the thought of Confucius. Rooted in religious rituals from the Western Zhou Dynasty, filial piety in the Analects functions primarily a form of ritual, but based as much in the emotions of the performer as the formal behavior itself, especially in mourning rituals. This ritual foundation is critical for understanding not only the general form of filial piety in the text, but also famous problematic passages in which Confucius favors concealing the misdeeds of (...) one's father and promotes a relatively weak stance on remonstration. However, it is also important to understand these passages in a wider textual context, which provides a clearer picture of both the general significance of filial piety in early Chinese thought and the diversity within the early Confucian tradition. (shrink)
Li (Ritual) in Early Confucianism.ThomasRadice -2017 -Philosophy Compass 12 (10):e12463.detailsLi 禮 (translated variously as “ritual”, “etiquette”, or “propriety”) plays a central role in early Confucianism, but its complexity is not always fully understood. At first glance, it may seem as if li behaviors are merely attempts to promote conservative practices from the idealized Chinese past. However, by examining the nature and function of li, as described the Analects (Lunyu 論語) and the Xunzi 荀子 (two key texts in the early Confucian tradition), it becomes overwhelmingly apparent that li is a (...) much more complicated phenomenon. Li actually plays key roles within the interconnected fields of Confucian ethics, religion, and politics and often adds aesthetic elements to these areas of thought. As such, it is as much a source of Confucian innovation as it is a tool for promoting reverence for the past. (shrink)
Philo of Alexandria: an annotated bibliography, 1937-1986.RobertoRadice -1988 - New York: E.J. Brill. Edited by David T. Runia & Roberto Radice.detailsThe first author in which the traditions of Judaic thought and Greek philosophy flow together in a significant way is Philo of Alexandria.This study presents a ...
Method Mourning: Xunzi on Ritual Performance.ThomasRadice -2017 -Philosophy East and West 67 (2):466-493.detailsXunzi's 荀子 essay, "A Discussion of Rituals" is the earliest attempt in early China to theorize at length about the nature and importance of rituals. This essay is crucial to understanding the importance of ritual in Xunzi's philosophy of self-cultivation, of which there is no shortage of analysis.1 Most of this analysis centers on the notion of ritual in general, but Xunzi's essay also reveals his reaction to several criticisms to specific ritual practices, especially mourning rituals and ancestral sacrifices, that (...) can be found in the Mozi 墨子 and the Zhuangzi 莊子.2 In response to these challenges, Xunzi not only develops a theory of ritual, but also begins to sketch a method of ritual performance that... (shrink)
Clarity and Survival in the Zhuangzi.ThomasRadice -2001 -Asian Philosophy 11 (1):33-40.detailsThis paper is an analysis of the term ming in the Inner Chapters of the Zhuangzi. I show that though ming does involve the realization of the fundamental unity of opposites, the realization of this unity does not force the Zhuangzi to endorse a 'radical relativist' stance on morality, since the perspective of the Sage through ming is shown to be a privileged perspective. Overall, the Zhuangzi does not endorse any normative stance on morality. Rather, it endorses a way of (...) life that will ensure one's own personal survival and the survival of this fundamental unity of opposites. The stories of the useless tree in Chapter 4, the skillful cook in Chapter 3, and the death of Hundun in Chapter 7 serve as examples for my interpretation. (shrink)
Ritual performance in early Chinese thought: a dramaturgical perspective.ThomasRadice -2024 - London: Bloomsbury Academic.detailsThis book analyzes early Chinese ritual discourse during the Warring States and early Western Han Periods, arguing that the Ruists (Confucians) conceived ritual as primarily a dramaturgical matter, which had wide-ranging effects on the ways authors of early Chinese texts discussed matters of religion, ethics, and politics. It reveals how performance became a fundamental feature of political life, making theatrical "presence" a necessary element for either expression or deception in a community of spectators.
Aristotle's Metaphysics: annotated bibliography of the twentieth-century literature.RobertoRadice -1997 - New York: E.J. Brill. Edited by Richard Davies.detailsThe first Italian edition (Vita e Pensiero, Milan 1996) has been thoroughly revised, corrected and updated, and is complemented by an index of the most ...
Annali di Antonio Rosmini Serbati.GianfrancoRadice -1967 - Milano: Marzorati.detailsv. 1. 1797-1816 -- v. 2. 1817-1822 -- v. 3. 1823-1828 --4. 1829-1831 -- v. 6 1835-1837 -- v. 7 Indici.
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Ludic Unreliability and Deceptive Game Design.Stefano Gualeni &Nele Van de Mosselaer -2021 -Journal of the Philosophy of Games 3 (1):1-22.detailsDrawing from narratology and design studies, this article makes use of the notions of the ‘implied designer’ and ‘ludic unreliability’ to understand deceptive game design as a specific sub-set of transgressive game design. More specifically, in this text we present deceptive game design as the deliberate attempt to misguide players’ inferences about the designers’ intentions. Furthermore, we argue that deceptive design should not merely be taken as a set of design choices aimed at misleading players in their efforts to understand (...) the game, but also as decisions devised to give rise to experiential and emotional effects that are in the interest of players. Finally, we propose to introduce a distinction between two varieties of deceptive design approaches based on whether they operate in an overt or a covert fashion in relation to player experience. Our analysis casts light on expressive possibilities that are not customarily part of the dominant paradigm of user-centered design, and can inform game designers in their pursuit of wider and more nuanced creative aspirations. (shrink)
Artificial Beings Worthy of Moral Consideration in Virtual Environments: An Analysis of Ethical Viability.Stefano Gualeni -2020 -Journal of Virtual Worlds Research 13 (1).detailsThis article explores whether and under which circumstances it is ethically viable to include artificial beings worthy of moral consideration in virtual environments. In particular, the article focuses on virtual environments such as those in digital games and training simulations – interactive and persistent digital artifacts designed to fulfill specific purposes, such as entertainment, education, training, or persuasion. The article introduces the criteria for moral consideration that serve as a framework for this analysis. Adopting this framework, the article tackles the (...) question of whether including artificial intelligences that are entitled to moral consideration in virtual environments constitutes an immoral action on the part of human creators. To address this problem, the article draws on three conceptual lenses from the philosophical branch of ethics: the problem of parenthood and procreation, the question concerning the moral status of animals, and the classical problem of evil. Using a thought experiment, the concluding section proposes a contractualist answer to the question posed in this article. The same section also emphasizes the potential need to reframe our understanding of the design of virtual environments and their future stakeholders. (shrink)
A Philosophy of “Doing” in the Digital.Stefano Gualeni -2018 - In Alberto Romele & Enrico Terrone,Towards a Philosophy of Digital Media. Cham: Springer Verlag. pp. 225-255.detailsPlaying in counterpoint with the general theoretical orientation of the book, this chapter does not focus its attention on the recording and archiving capabilities of the digital medium. Instead, it proposes an understanding of the digital medium that focuses on its disclosing various forms of “doing.” Gualeni’s chapter begins by offering an understanding of “doing in the digital” that methodologically separates “doing as acting” from “doing as making.” After setting its theoretical framework, the chapter discusses an “interactive thought experiment” designed (...) by the author that is analyzed as a digital artifact leveraging both dimensions of “doing in the digital” for philosophical purposes. In extreme synthesis, one could say that this chapter is about several kinds of soups. (shrink)