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269In this essay I first set out the advantages the " multivariate democratic polity " framework proposed by Ferrara offers in comparison to other more consensus-based notions of democratic legitimacy. Secondly, I highlight some ambiguities concerning the meta-theoretical status of this frame, since it is not clear whether it consists of an adaptive realistic description, or otherwise is a normative argument. Thirdly, I cast some doubts on the compatibility between the multivariate frame and the " …Read more
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362THE IMAGINATIVE REHEARSAL MODEL – DEWEY, EMBODIED SIMULATION, AND THE NARRATIVE HYPOTHESISPragmatism Today 8 (1): 105-112. 2017.In this contribution I outline some ideas on what the pragmatist model of habit ontology could offer us as regards the appreciation of the constitutive role that imagery plays for social action and cognition. Accordingly, a Deweyan understanding of habit would allow for an understanding of imagery in terms of embodied cognition rather than in representational terms. I first underline the motor character of imagery, and the role its embodiment in habit plays for the anticipation of action. Second…Read more
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512Dewey, Second Nature, Social Criticism, and the Hegelian HeritageEuropean Journal of Pragmatism and American Philosophy 9 (1): 1-23. 2017.Dewey’s notion of second nature is strictly connected with that of habit. I reconstruct the Hegelian heritage of this model and argue that habit qua second nature is understood by Dewey as a something which encompasses both the subjective and the objective dimension – individual dispositions and features of the objective natural and social environment.. Secondly, the notion of habit qua second nature is used by Dewey both in a descriptive and in a critical sense and is as such a dialectical conc…Read more
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Uno sguardo di passaggio. Mimesi e desiderio nelle Horae canonicae di Wystan H. Auden [A passing glance. Mimesis and desire in Horae canonicae of Wystan H. Auden] (review)la Società Degli Individui 33 68-83. 2008.In Horae canonicae W. H. Auden ha messo a tema la dimensione mimetica della condizione umana. Il saggio ricostruisce in tal senso l’antropologia negativa di Auden, prendendo le mosse dall’analisi del desiderio di riconoscimento quale elemento centrale dell’identità storica. Attraverso una lettura dei motivi della folla e del doppio, e sullo sfondo del poema The Age of Anxiety e della produzione saggistica di Auden, si mostra che la «routine della lode e del biasimo» innesca meccanismi im…Read more
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1719Second Nature and Recognition: Hegel and the Social SpaceCritical Horizons 10 (3): 341-370. 2009.In this article I intend to show the strict relation between the notions of “second nature” and “recognition”. To do so I begin with a problem (circularity) proper to the theory of Hegelian and post- Hegelian Anerkennung. The solution strategy I propose is signifi cant also in terms of bringing into focus the problems connected with a notion of “space of reasons” that stems from the Hegelian concept of “Spirit”. I thus broach the notion of “second nature” as a bridgeconcept that can play a key r…Read more
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1897Ragione e relazione: la fenomenologia di Hegel come tropologiaGiornale di Metafisica 25 (2): 371-392. 2003.This article deals with the question of skepticism within Hegel's Phenomenology. The article reconstructs the role played by the tropes of ancient skepticism in Hegel's criticism of foundationalism and monological thinking. Furthermore, the skeptical method applied by Hegel is read as a sort of negative dialectics that is constitutive of a relational theory of rationality, and which culminates in his conception of the Absolute Knowing as speculative tropology.
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545Criticism and normativity. Brandom and Habermas between Kant and HegelIn D. Canale G. Tuzet (ed.), The Rules of Inference. Inferentialism in Law and Philosophy, Egea, Milano, Egea (pp. Pp. 29-44). 2009.In this paper, making reference to Robert Brandom's philosophical proposal - and against the background of Brandom's debate with Jürgen Habermas - I shall endeavor, first, to define the relation between recognition and normativity and then between recognition and criticism; in the final part of the paper I shall suggest a perspective that approaches recognition in terms of capacities. On this basis I attempt to see the critical attitude as something that is founded more on individual potentials …Read more
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17Idealismo e normatività. Robert Brandom e la ricezione americana di HegelIride: Filosofia e Discussione Pubblica 15 (2): 297-316. 2002.
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31Negli scritti dei primi anni trenta Adorno si propone di superare l’antitesi fra natura e storia senza ricadere in un modello fondativo di conciliazione. Attraverso una critica della ripresa nella filosofia contemporanea dell’accezione mitica della natura come origine e come invariante , Adorno intende recuperare il carattere polisemico dell’esperienza della natura e del suo intreccio paradossale con la storia. Il concetto di ‘seconda natura’, ripreso attraverso il confronto con Lukács e con B…Read more
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706Ontology of the False State: On the Relation Between Critical Theory, Social Philosophy, and Social OntologyJournal of Social Ontology 1 (2): 271-300. 2015.In this paper I will argue that critical theory needs to make its socio-ontological commitments explicit, whilst on the other hand I will posit that contemporary social ontology needs to amend its formalistic approach by embodying a critical theory perspective. In the first part of my paper I will discuss how the question was posed in Horkheimer’s essays of the 1930s, which leave open two options: (1) a constructive inclusion of social ontology within social philosophy, or else (2) a program of …Read more
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80"Life and Action in Ethics and Politics", Book Symposium on Michael Thompson's "Life and Action" (edited book)Philosophy and Public Issues, Supplementary Volume (2015), Luiss University Press. 2015.Book Symposium on Michael Thompson's "Life and Action" (downlodable here: http://fqp.luiss.it/category/numero/ns-supplementary-volume-2015-life-and-action) Table of Contents: Paolo Costa, "Where does our understanding of life come from? The riddle about recognizing living things" Constantine Sandis, "He buttered the toast while baking a fresh loaf" Matteo Bianchin, "Intentions and Intentionality" Arto Laitinen, "Practices as ‘actual’ sources of goodness of actions" Italo Testa, "Some consequenc…Read more
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66Dominant Patterns in Associated Living Hegemony, Domination, and Ideological Recognition in Dewey’s Lectures in ChinaTrasactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society, 2017. forthcoming.: In this paper I will focus on the notion of “dominant patterns”, as revealed by the recently discovered typescript of what we can assume to be Dewey’s fragmentary and incomplete preliminary lecture notes for the Lecture Series on Social and Political Philosophy. I will show that the way the notion of “dominant patterns” is dealt with in the text of the lecture notes is not only consistent with the conceptual content of the whole series of the Lectures in China as published by R. W. Clopton and…Read more
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16Hegel’s Naturalism or Soul and Body in the EncyclopediaProceedings of the Hegel Society of America 20 19-35. 2013.
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350Verkörperte Freiheit. Erste Natur, Zweite Natur und FragmentierungIn Julia Christ & Titus Stahl (eds.), Momente der Freiheit. Beiträge aus den Foren freier Vorträge des Internationalen Hegelkongresses 2011, Klostermann. pp. 73-91. 2015.
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51Selbstbewußtsein und zweite NaturIn Klaus Vieweg & Wolfgang Welsh (eds.), Hegels Phänomenologie des Geistes - Ein kooperativer Kommentar zu einem Schlüsselwerk der Moderne, Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main, 2008, Suhrkamp. pp. 286-307. 2008.My aim in this paper is to bring into focus the concept of self-consciousness showing the reciprocal connection between the notions of recognition and second nature. The very evolution of Hegel's thought from the writings of his youth to those of his maturity reveals a strict connection between these notions. This reading will be justified through an articulate interpretation of the "Self-consciousness" section of the Phenomenology and then through an interpretation of the systematic connection …Read more
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381Recognition, Skepticism and Self-Consciousness in the Young HegelFenomenologia E Società 32 (2): 117-132. 2009.The theory of recognition arises within Hegel's confrontation with epistemological skepticism and aims at responding to the questions raised by modern skepticism concerning the accessibility of the external world, of other minds, and of one's own mind. This is possible to the extent that the theory of recognition is the guiding thread of a critique of the modern foundational theory of knowledge and, at the same time, the point of departure for an alternative approach. In this article I will dwe…Read more
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129Dewey’s Social Ontology: A Pragmatist Alternative to Searle’s Approach to Social RealityInternational Journal of Philosophical Studies 25 (1): 40-62. 2017.Dewey’s social ontology could be characterized as a habit ontology, an ontology of habit qua second nature that offers us an account of intentionality, social statuses, institutions, and norms in terms of habituations. Such an account offers us a promising alternative to contemporary intentionalist and deontic approaches to social ontology such as Searle’s. Furthermore, it could be the basis of a social ontology better suited to explain both the maintenance and the transformation of social reali…Read more
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30My research takes as its guiding thread the statement from Hegel's lectures on the philosophy of spirit of 1805-06, that «cognition is recognition[Erkennen ist Anerkennen]». In this perspective I delineate, first, the consequences of this position for Hegel's epistemology, in particular with reference to the question of skepticism. Then, I show in what sense the recognitive conception of knowledge makes it possible for Hegel to comprehend unitarily, on one hand, cognition as exercise of natural …Read more
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Familiarità con sé e relazione ad altri [Self-Intimacy and Relation with Others]la Società Degli Individui 17. 2003.L’articolo mostra che la teoria hegeliana del riconoscimento è alternativa rispetto alla concezione tradizionale dell’autocoscienza e alle teorie del punto di vista soggettivo. Dopo un confronto con le obiezioni sollevate da D. Henrich e M. Frank contro la teoria del riconoscimento, si mostra come il punto di vista espresso da Hegel potrebbe essere ricostruito all’interno della costellazione contemporanea. Nell’ultima sezione si sostiene che la nozione di “familiarità con sé”, utilizzata da Henr…Read more
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502Algorithms and Arguments: The Foundational Role of the ATAI-questionIn Frans H. van Eemeren, Bart Garssen, David Godden & Gordon Mitchell (eds.), Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference of the International Society for the Study of Argumentation, Rozenberg / Sic Sat. 2011.Argumentation theory underwent a significant development in the Fifties and Sixties: its revival is usually connected to Perelman's criticism of formal logic and the development of informal logic. Interestingly enough it was during this period that Artificial Intelligence was developed, which defended the following thesis (from now on referred to as the AI-thesis): human reasoning can be emulated by machines. The paper suggests a reconstruction of the opposition between formal and informal logic…Read more
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689Social Space and the Ontology of RecognitionIn Heikki Ikaheimo & Arto Laitinen (eds.), Recognition and Social Ontology, Brill. 2011.In this paper recognition is taken to be a question of social ontology, regarding the very constitution of the social space of interaction. I concentrate on the question of whether certain aspects of the theory of recognition can be translated into the terms of a socio-ontological paradigm: to do so, I make reference to some conceptual tools derived from John Searle's social ontology and Robert Brandom's normative pragmatics. My strategy consists in showing that recognitive phenomena cannot be i…Read more
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445Reconstruction and Pragmatist Metaphysics. On Brandom’s Understanding of RationalityVerifiche: Rivista Trimestrale di Scienze Umane 41 (1-3): 175-201. 2012.In this paper I illustrate what is reconstructive rationality, a notion that remains rather undetermined in Robert Brandom's work. I argue that theoretical and historical thinking are instances of reconstruction and should not be identified with it. I then explore a further instance of rational reconstruction, which Brandom calls “reconstructive metaphysics”, arguing that the demarcation between metaphysical and non-metaphysical theories has to be understood as a pragmatic one. Finally, I argue…Read more
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48Recognition as Passive Power: Attractors of Recognition, Biopower, and Social PowerConstellations 24 (2): 192-205. 2017.In this paper I analyze recognition as a kind of power. I analyze the notion of power in the general sense as some sort of causal capacity, and introduce the distinction between the active power of doing something and the passive power of undergoing something. Such a distinction is needed in order to capture some central features of the phenomenon of recognition, and in particular the way that ‘being recognized’ and ‘recognizing’ are intertwined. I then argue in favor of both the conceptual and …Read more
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PoliticsIn Tiziana Andina (ed.), Bridging the Analytical Continental Divide. A Companion to Western Philosophy, Brill Books. pp. 241-269. 2014.
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Alberto Casadei, Poetiche della creatività. Letteratura e scienze della mente (review)la Società Degli Individui 42. 2011.
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488The Respect Fallacy: Limits of Respect in Public DialogueIn Christian Kock & Lisa Villadsen (ed.), Rhetorical Citizenship and Public Deliberation, Pennsylvania State University Press. 2012.Deliberative politics should start from an adequate and differentiated image of our dialogical practices and their normative structures; the ideals that we eventually propose for deliberative politics should be tested against this background. In this article I will argue that equal respect, understood as respect a priori conferred on persons, is not and should not be counted as a constitutive normative ground of public discourse. Furthermore, requiring such respect, even if it might facilitate d…Read more