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42A Plea for Ecological Argument TechnologiesPhilosophy and Technology 30 (2): 209-238. 2017.In spite of significant research efforts, argument technologies do not seem poised to scale up as much as most commentators would hope or even predict. In this paper, I discuss what obstacles bar the way to more widespread success of argument technologies and venture some suggestions on how to circumvent such difficulties: doing so will require a significant shift in how this research area is typically understood and practiced. I begin by exploring a much broader yet closely related question: To…Read more
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85Intentions: Philosophical and Empirical IssuesTopoi 33 (1): 1-3. 2014.This topos is focused on intentions, with an emphasis on integrating philosophical analysis and empirical findings. Theorizing about human action has a long history in philosophy, and the nature of intention and intentional action has received a lot of attention in recent analytic philosophy. At the same time, intentional action has become an empirically studied phenomenon in psychology, cognitive neuroscience, artificial intelligence, and robotics. Many results obtained in these areas have been…Read more
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58False belief understanding and “cool” inhibitory control in 3-and 4-years-old Italian childrenFrontiers in Psychology 6. 2015.
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78Reflections on PlagiarismTopoi 34 (1): 1-5. 2015.The FactsIt has recently come to light that an article published on this journal in 2007, “On the illuminationist approach to imaginal power: outline of a perspective”, by Mahmoud Khatami, Topoi, 26, 221–229, extensively plagiarized parts of Mikel Dufrenne’s book The phenomenology of aesthetic experience . Entire passages from Sect. 4 of Khatami’s article turned out to be copied from chapter 11 of Dufrenne’s monograph, which was not even included in the list of references. This case of plagiaris…Read more
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60Consciousness in Interaction: The role of the natural and social context in shaping consciousness (edited book)John Benjamins Publishing. 2012.Modes of action readiness Acceptance accepting presence or interaction Non- acceptance not accepting presence or interaction Attending acquiring information Disinterest not acquiring information Affiliate achieving or accepting close ...
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18Argumentation is a dialogical attempt to bring about a desired change in the beliefs of another agent – that is, to trigger a specific belief revision process in the mind of such agent. However, so far formal models of belief revision widely neglected any systematic comparison with argumentation theories, to the point that even the simplest argumentation structures cannot be captured within such models. In this essay, we endeavour to bring together argumentation and belief revision in the same f…Read more
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The intentions between philosophy and cognitive science notes on the conference intentions: Philosophical and empirical issues, Rome, 29-30 november 2012 (review)Rivista di Filosofia Neo-Scolastica 104 (4): 777-783. 2012.
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6New Views on Old Issues: The CNCC Essay Award for Junior ScholarsPSYCHE: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Research On Consciousness 15 (1). 2009.
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139The role of beliefs in goal dynamics: prolegomena to a constructive theory of intentionsSynthese 155 (2): 237-263. 2007.In this article we strive to provide a detailed and principled analysis of the role of beliefs in goal processing—that is, the cognitive transition that leads from a mere desire to a proper intention. The resulting model of belief-based goal processing has also relevant consequences for the analysis of intentions, and constitutes the necessary core of a constructive theory of intentions, i.e. a framework that not only analyzes what an intention is, but also explains how it becomes what it is. We…Read more
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47More than control freaks: Evaluative and motivational functions of goalsBehavioral and Brain Sciences 31 (1): 35-36. 2008.True to its sensorimotor inspiration, Hurley's shared circuits model (SCM) describes goal-states only within a homeostatic mechanism for action control, neglecting to consider other functions of goals control freaks.”
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29Acceptance as Conditional DispositionIn Alexander Hieke & Hannes Leitgeb (eds.), Reduction: Between the Mind and the Brain, Ontos Verlag. pp. 29-50. 2009.
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49Trust, relevance, and argumentsArgument and Computation 5 (2-3): 216-236. 2014.This paper outlines an integrated approach to trust and relevance with respect to arguments: in particular, it is suggested that trust in relevance has a central role in argumentation. We first distinguish two types of argumentative relevance: internal relevance, i.e. the extent to which a premise has a bearing on its purported conclusion, and external relevance, i.e. a measure of how much a whole argument is pertinent to the matter under discussion, in the broader dialogical context where it is…Read more
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65The ecological rationality of delay tolerance: Insights from capuchin monkeysCognition 119 (1): 142-147. 2011.
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93Playing by and with the rules: Norms and morality in play developmentTopoi 24 (2): 149-167. 2005.This article, Piaget’s theory of moral development in play behaviour is critically reviewed and framed within the philosophical debate on morality. On this basis, an alternative socio-cognitive model for describing normative evolution in play development is proposed. Special attention is paid to the transition from children’s play to adult games, for the purpose of demonstrating that some relevant features of morality stagnate, rather than progress, during such transition. Finally, some speculat…Read more
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39The history of fallacy theory is long, distinguished and, admittedly, checkered. I offer a bird eye view on it, with the aim of contrasting the standard conception of fallacies as attractive and universal errors that are hard to eradicate with the contemporary preoccupation with “non-fallacious fallacies”, that is, arguments that fit the bill of one of the traditional fallacies but are actually respectable enough to be used in appropriate contexts. Godden and Zenker have recently argued that rei…Read more