•  20
    Gossip as a model of inference to composite hypotheses
    Pragmatics and Cognition 22 (3): 309-324. 2014.
    In this paper we seek an inferential and cognitive model explaining some characteristics of abduction to composite hypotheses. In the first section, we introduce the matter of composite hypotheses, stressing how it is coherent with the intuitive and philosophical contention that a single event can be caused not only by several causes acting together, but also by several kinds of causation. In the second section, we argue that gossip could serve as an interesting model to study the generation of …Read more
  •  20
    Preface
    Logic Journal of the IGPL 21 (6): 879-881. 2013.
  •  20
    Algorithms for computing minimal conflicts
    with S. Luan and G. Dai
    Logic Journal of the IGPL 14 (2): 391--406. 2006.
    In this paper we present some algorithms for computing minimal conflicts. First of all we discuss the relationship between minimal conflicts and minimally inconsistent subsets. Then we introduce an algorithm for computing all minimally inconsistent subsets, which is applied to generating all minimal conflicts. Furthermore, an algorithm for computing all minimal conflicts using structured description is introduced, and its correctness is proved; its time complexity is also shown. The algorithm us…Read more
  •  20
    Multimodal Abduction
    Proceedings of the Xxii World Congress of Philosophy 34 21-24. 2008.
    In this paper I contend that abduction is essentially multimodal, in that both data and hypotheses can have a full range of verbal and sensory representations, involving words, sights, images, smells, etc. but also kinesthetic experiences and other feelings such as pain, and thus all sensory modalities. The kinesthetic aspects simply explain abductive reasoning is basically manipulative, both linguistic and non linguistic signs have an internal semiotic life, as particular configurations of neur…Read more
  •  19
    Camouflage commonly refers to the ability to make something appear as different from what it actually is, or not to make it appear at all. This concept originates from biological studies to describe a range of strategies used by organisms to dissimulate their presence in the environment, but it is frequently borrowed by other semantic fields as it is possible to camouflage one’s position, intentions, opinion etc.: an interesting conceptual continuum between the multiple denotations of camouflage…Read more
  •  19
    Knowledge as Duty
    Proceedings of the Xxii World Congress of Philosophy 10 289-294. 2008.
    This paper aims at presenting a concise treatment of some key themes of my recent book Morality in a technological world. Knowledge as duty (Cambridge: Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007). In recent times, non-human beings, objects, and structures – for example computational tools and devices - haveacquired new moral worth and intrinsic values. Kantian tradition in ethics teaches that human beings do not have to be treated solely as “means”, or as “things”, that is in a merely instrumen…Read more
  •  19
    External diagrammatization and iconic brain co-evolution
    Semiotica 2011 (186): 213-238. 2011.
    Our brains make up a series of signs and are engaged in making or manifesting or reacting to a series of signs: through this semiotic activity they are at the same time engaged in “being minds.” An important effect of this semiotic activity of brains is a continuous process of “externalization of the mind” that exhibits a new cognitive perspective on the mechanisms underlying the semiotic emergence of abductive processes of meaning formation. I consider this process of externalization interplay …Read more
  •  19
    Preface
    Philosophica 62 (2). 1998.
  •  17
    Model-based creative abduction
    In L. Magnani, N. J. Nersessian & P. Thagard (eds.), Model-Based Reasoning in Scientific Discovery, Academic/plenum Publishers. pp. 219--238. 1999.
  •  16
    Truth-Seeking by Abduction by Ilkka Niiniluoto
    Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society 55 (2): 207-209. 2019.
    This excellent book, written by a reputed researcher on philosophy of science and former Chancellor of the University of Helsinki, is both difficult and rewarding. Approaching the problem of abduction from a multidisciplinary perspective, the book contends that a great part of human activity of truth-seeking is due to the hypothetical reasoning performed thanks to abductive skills. The book is the fruit of decades of rich research and collects and reorganizes various articles about abduction or …Read more
  •  16
    Introduction
    Philosophica 61 (1). 1998.
  •  15
    The Role of Agency Detection in the Invention of Supernatural Beings
    with Tommaso Bertolotti
    In & C. Pizzi W. Carnielli L. Magnani (ed.), Model-Based Reasoning in Science and Technology, . pp. 239--262. 2010.
  •  14
    The eco-cognitive model of abduction II
    Journal of Applied Logic 15 94-129. 2016.
  •  14
    Multimodal Abduction: External Semiotic Anchors and Hybrid Representations
    Logic Journal of the IGPL 14 (2): 107-136. 2006.
    Our brains make up a series of signs and are engaged in making or manifesting or reacting to a series of signs: through this semiotic activity they are at the same time engaged in “being minds” and so in thinking intelligently. An important effect of this semiotic activity of brains is a continuous process of “externalization of the mind” that exhibits a new cognitive perspective on the mechanisms underling the semiotic emergence of abductive processes of meaning formation. To illustrate this pr…Read more
  •  14
    Introduction
    with Nancy Nersessian, Paul Thagard, and An Offprint From Philosophies
    Philosophica 61 (1): 51-76. 1998.
  •  13
    The appeal of gossiping fallacies and its eco-logical roots
    with Emanuele Bardone
    Pragmatics and Cognition 18 (2): 365-396. 2010.
    In this paper we show how some reasoning, though fallacious, can appear to be attractive and useful for beings-like-us. Although they do not provide conclusive evidence to support or reject a certain claim the way scientific statements do, they tell us something interesting about how humans build up their arguments and reasons. First of all, we will consider and investigate three main types of fallacies: argumentum ad hominem, argumentum ad verecundiam, and argumentum ad populum. These three fal…Read more
  •  13
    In this article I will take advantage of the logical and cognitive studies I have illustrated in my recent book The Abductive Structure of Scientific Creativity. An Essay on the Ecology of Cognition, in which the process of building new hypotheses is clarified thanks to my eco-cognitive model of abduction. Also resorting to a new interpretation of Aristotle’s seminal work on abduction, I will emphasize the crucial role played in abductive cognition by the so-called “optimization of eco-cognitive…Read more
  •  13
    Preface
    Mind and Society 3 (1): 3-7. 2002.
  •  13
    Abducing personal data, destroying privacy
    In Mireille Hildebrandt & Katja de Vries (eds.), Privacy, due process and the computational turn, Routledge. pp. 67. 2013.
  •  13
    This handbook offers the first comprehensive reference guide to the interdisciplinary field of model-based reasoning. It highlights the role of models as mediators between theory and experimentation, and as educational devices, as well as their relevance in testing hypotheses and explanatory functions. The Springer Handbook merges philosophical, cognitive and epistemological perspectives on models with the more practical needs related to the application of this tool across various disciplines an…Read more
  •  12
    The broad aim of this paper is to question the ambiguous relationship between technology and intelligence. More specifically, it addresses the reasons why the ever-increasing reliance on smart technologies and wide repositories of data does not necessarily increase the display of “smart” or even “intelligent” behaviors, but rather increases new instances of “brutality” as a mix of ignorance and violence. We claim that the answer can be found in the cyborg theory, and more specifically in the pos…Read more
  •  12
    An approximate approach to belief revision
    with Shangmin Luan and Guozhong Dai
    Logic Journal of the IGPL 20 (2): 486-496. 2012.
    It is well known that the computational complexity of propositional knowledge base revision is at the second level of polynomial hierarchy. A way to solve this kind of problems is to introduce approximate algorithms. In this paper, an approximate approach is introduced for belief change. Operators, which satisfy the AGM rational postulates, are defined to change belief sets or belief bases. Furthermore, approximate algorithms to implement the revision of finite belief bases are presented. The ti…Read more
  •  12
    Models and representation
    In Magnani Lorenzo & Bertolotti Tommaso Wayne (eds.), Springer Handbook of Model-Based Science, Springer. 2017.
  •  12
    Governing ignorance through abduction
    Logic Journal of the IGPL 29 (4): 409-424. 2021.
    I will analyse three fundamental ways of governing ignorance though abduction, which are essential from an eco-cognitive and eco-logical point of view, in which the central role in human cognition of natural and artefactual environment is taken into account. First of all, according to the so-called GW-schema, proposed by Gabbay and Woods, abduction presents an ignorance-preserving or (ignorance-mitigating) character: given the fact that the abduced hypotheses aim at becoming truths, the basic ig…Read more
  •  12
    _Locked_ and _unlocked_ strategies are illustrated in this article as concepts that deal with important cognitive aspects of deep learning systems. They indicate different inference routines that refer to poor (locked) to rich (unlocked) cases of creative production of creative cognition. I maintain that these differences lead to important consequences when we analyze computational deep learning programs, such as AlphaGo/AlphaZero, which are able to realize various types of abductive hypothetica…Read more
  •  12
  •  11
    Research on autonomy exhibits a constellation of variegated perspectives, from the problem of the crude deprivation of it to the study of the distinction between personal and moral autonomy, and from the problem of the role of a “self as narrator”, who classifies its own actions as autonomous or not, to the importance of the political side and, finally, to the need of defending and enhancing human autonomy. My precise concern in this article will be the examination of the role of the human cogni…Read more