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67On biological identityBiology and Philosophy 19 (3): 443-457. 2004.In our paper, we propose a relativisticand metaphysically neutral identity criterionfor biological entities. We start from thecriterion of genidentity proposed by K. Lewinand H. Reichenbach. Then we enrich it to renderit more philosophical powerful and so capableof dealing with the real transformations thatoccur in the extremely variegated biologicalworld.
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250On the ontological commitment of mereologyReview of Symbolic Logic 2 (1): 164-174. 2009.In Parts of Classes (1991) and Mathematics Is Megethology (1993) David Lewis defends both the innocence of plural quantification and of mereology. However, he himself claims that the innocence of mereology is different from that of plural reference, where reference to some objects does not require the existence of a single entity picking them out as a whole. In the case of plural quantification . Instead, in the mereological case: (Lewis, 1991, p. 87). The aim of the paper is to argue that one—a…Read more
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23Two Arguments against Antirealism in Relation to Artefact KindsIn Guido Bonino, Greg Jesson & Javier Cumpa (eds.), Defending Realism: Ontological and Epistemological Investigations, De Gruyter. pp. 9-28. 2014.
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43Symposium on “Cognition and Rationality: Part II”Mind and Society 6 (1): 35-39. 2007.This is an excerpt from the contentIn the introduction to part I of the symposium we stated that a rational agent could be thought of as an agent who has good reasons for its actions. In formal analyses of economic, medical, political, military and forensic decisions rationality, that is the “goodness” of those reasons, is inextricably intertwined with probability. Typically, those analyses concern decisions in a particular class of uncertain situations, namely “risky” situations, where all the …Read more
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226Why Knowledge Should Not Be Typed: An Argument against the Type Solution to the Knowability ParadoxTheoria 77 (2): 180-193. 2011.The Knowability Paradox is a logical argument to the effect that, if there are truths not actually known, then there are unknowable truths. Recently, Alexander Paseau and Bernard Linsky have independently suggested a possible way to counter this argument by typing knowledge. In this article, we argue against their proposal that if one abstracts from other possible independent considerations supporting reasons for typing knowledge and considers the motivation for a type-theoretic approach with re…Read more
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59To Be is to Be the Object of a Possible Act of ChoiceStudia Logica 96 (2): 289-313. 2010.Aim of the paper is to revise Boolos’ reinterpretation of second-order monadic logic in terms of plural quantification ([4], [5]) and expand it to full second order logic. Introducing the idealization of plural acts of choice, performed by a suitable team of agents, we will develop a notion of plural reference . Plural quantification will be then explained in terms of plural reference. As an application, we will sketch a structuralist reconstruction of second-order arithmetic based on the axiom …Read more
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159Artifact Categorization. Trends and ProblemsReview of Philosophy and Psychology 4 (3): 351-373. 2013.The general question (G) How do we categorize artifacts? can be subject to three different readings: an ontological, an epistemic and a semantic one. According to the ontological reading, asking (G) is equivalent to asking in virtue of what properties, if any, a certain artifact is an instance of some artifact kind: (O) What is it for an artifact a to belong to kind K? According to the epistemic reading, when we ask (G) we are investigating what properties of the object we exploit in order to de…Read more
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26Errata Corrige to “Pragmatic and dialogic interpretation of bi-intuitionism. Part I”Logic and Logical Philosophy 25 (2). 2016.
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226If engineering function is a family resemblance concept: Assessing three formalization strategiesApplied ontology 6 (2): 141-163. 2011.
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152.4. Criteri d’identità e adeguatezza logicaRivista di Estetica 49 141-160. 2012.Aim of the paper is to make some steps towards a formal characterization of identity criteria. First of all, we analyse some logical requirements identity criteria are supposed to satisfy and observe that some commonly used identity criteria fail to meet some of them. We focus in particular on the equivalence requirement. We consider then the proposals which have been given so far and aimed at providing logical adequacy to non-equivalent identity conditions. To this purpose, we analyse Williamso…Read more
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Some observations on the identity of indiscerniblesRivista di Storia Della Filosofia 57 (1): 28-45. 2002.
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1Individuals, Essence, and Identity. Themes of Analytic Metaphysics (edited book)Kluwer Academic Publishers. 2002.
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57Propositions. An introductionGrazer Philosophische Studien 72 (1): 1-27. 2006.According to Frege a proposition—or, in his terms, a thought—is an abstract structured entity constituted by senses which satisfies, at least, the three following properties: it can be semantically assessed as true or as false, it is the object of so called propositional attitudes and it can be grasped. What Frege meant by 'grasping' is the peculiar way in which we can have epistemic access to propositions. The possibility for propositions to be grasped is put by Frege as a warrant for their exi…Read more
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23È un uccello, è un aereo, è Superman! Visione e identificazione sortaleRivista di Estetica 39 265-280. 2008.1. Introduzione Immaginate di guardare in una certa direzione nel cielo. Vedete un oggetto avvicinarsi. A un certo punto, dopo un alcuni istanti di incertezza, pensate di aver capito di cosa si tratta e dite al vostro amico: «È un uccello!». L’oggetto continua ad avvicinarsi e le ali che prima vi sembravano in movimento ora vi appaiono decisamente ferme. Inoltre la velocità non può essere quella di un uccello. Vi correggete ed esclamate: «È un aereo!». Cominciate a essere preoccupati perché l...
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45Symposium on “Cognition and Rationality: Part I” (review)Mind and Society 5 (2): 167-171. 2006.This is an excerpt from the contentThis symposium on Cognition and Rationality originated from two conferences held in Padua on March 17–21, 2003. The title of the first conference was Reasoning and understanding: mental models, relevance, and limited rationality approaches. The second one was entitled: Being rational. Models and limits of rationality in scientific research, economic behaviour, common sense reasoning. The papers published in these two issues are a selection of the ones presented…Read more
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14Four theses on the Alleged Innocence of MereologyHumana. Mente. Journal of Philosophical Studies 19 57-77. 2011.
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87The fine-grained metaphysics of artifactual and biological functional kindsSynthese 169 (1): 125-143. 2009.In this paper we consider the emerging position in metaphysics that artifact functions characterize real kinds of artifacts. We analyze how it can circumvent an objection by David Wiggins (Sameness and substance renewed, 2001, 87) and then argue that this position, in comparison to expert judgments, amounts to an interesting fine-grained metaphysics: taking artifact functions as (part of the) essences of artifacts leads to distinctions between principles of activity of artifacts that experts in …Read more
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57Identity criteria are used to confer ontological respectability: Only entities with clearly determined identity criteria are ontologically acceptable. From a logical point of view, identity criteria should mirror the identity relation in being reflexive, symmetrical, and transitive. However, this logical constraint is only rarely met. More precisely, in some cases, the relation representing the identity condition fails to be transitive. We consider the proposals given so far to give logical adeq…Read more
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33Pragmatic and dialogic interpretations of bi-intuitionism. Part ILogic and Logical Philosophy. 2014.
Padua, Italy
Areas of Specialization
Metaphysics |
Logic and Philosophy of Logic |
Metaphysics and Epistemology |
Areas of Interest
Metaphysics |
Logic and Philosophy of Logic |
Metaphysics and Epistemology |