Alessandro De Cesaris

The current condition of philosophy as a discipline is quite problematic, in particular if we consider its relationship to other human sciences and to other disciplines in general. The philosophical debate appears fragmented, and philosophy itself has lost any specific role in the present scientific landscape. This situation determines a sort of “identity crisis”, whose main consequence is the coexistence of antinomical views about philosophy in the contemporary scientific and public discourse. Starting from this context, the paper aims at providing a description of philosophy as “theory of mediation”. This description does not want to be ‘original’, but rather tries to emphasize an element that is always been rooted in the very essence of philosophy, but that has also often been neglected. Philosophy has always pointed out the necessity to think the in-between of things, their relation and the passage from one to another, rather than just offering a taxonomy or a factual description of the world. In order to prove this point, the paper offers an analysis of some classical texts, in particular of some fragments by Heraclitus and of a passage taken from Hegel’s early writings. A view that rethinks philosophy as “mediology” allows a rehabilitation of philosophy as a specific discipline and as a systematic enterprise, at the same time providing a new framework for the understanding of the relationship between philosophy and other sciences.

The paper proposes the notion of “Two-Worlds Model” (TWM) as a theoretical framework in order to analyse some currents in the contemporary debate on technologically mediated experience. According to this model, technologically mediated experience—especially immersive experience—can be described as a form of “digital metempsychosis”—a feeling of being elsewhere. The paper argues that this model is not new in the history of philosophy, and that it is a very common theoretical and cultural strategy, often used to reduce medial differences—differences in the way of being or of experiencing something—as objectual difference. By analysing some specific topics—the most common accounts of immersive experience, the relation between immersivity and presence, and the notion of “cyberspace”—the paper aims at showing the limits of the TWM, in particular when it is used in order to describe technologically mediated experience.

MATHEMATISATION AND CONTINGENCY. THE PROBLEM OF NATURAL LAWS STATUTE ACCORDING TO QUENTIN MEILLASSOUX’S THOUGHT Our ability to find nature’s necessary laws has traditionally been based on the possibility to express natural beings’ properties in mathematical terms. In his groundbreaking book After finitude, Quentin Meillassoux turns this assumption upside down, arguing that we can prove the absoluteness of mathematical properties thanks to the absolute contingency of natural laws – contingency that can be proved as well. On this basis Meillassoux tries to reconnect philosophical thought with hard sciences, and to escape from the “ptolemaic revolution” he sees in Kant’s transcendental turn. Aim of this paper is to give account of Meillassoux’s philosophical attempt starting from his first book and up to his latest papers. My thesis is that Meillassoux endorses a very one‐sided interpretation of modern science, and that his attempt to reintroduce the distinction between primary and secondary qualities on the basis of his “principle of factuality” is – at least at the moment – still inconclusive.

DATA AS RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. SOME REMARKS ON THE SPIRITUAL CONDITION OF HYPERMODERN SOCIETIES The paper investigates the relationship between ICTs (Information and Communication Technologies) and religion. The focus is not how religions and religious life has changed thanks to technological evolution, but rather how it is possible to interpret our relationship to technology as a kind of religious experience. The paper starts from the notion of “hypermodernity” and tries to offer a comprehensive theoretical frame in order to interpret the changes occurred in Western societies after the so-called “fourth revolution”. According to this frame, technology has had a pivotal role in the cultural changes that led to our present condition. ICTs are the source for a vast variety of shared beliefs, hopes and fears; they are at the core of the present world-view of Western societies. Starting from this interpretation, the paper offers a brief analysis of some myths connected to ICTs, and develops an attempt to understand their function in the social and cultural context.