Boris Rähme

Fondazione Bruno Kessler
  •  2145
    Enhancement umano: un dibattito in corso (edited book)
    with Lucia Galvagni and Alberto Bondolfi
    L'Arco di Giano - Rivista di Medical Humanities. 2014.
    Non è un caso che l’enhancement umano, cioè il potenziamento di capacità fisiche, cognitive ed emotive degli esseri umani con l’ausilio di tecnologie, sia diventato un tema centrale nei dibattiti etico-applicativi e nei tentativi contemporanei di arrivare a una comprensione più adeguata della natura umana. In esso si incontrano quesiti decisamente ricchi e complessi, sia dal punto di vista tecnoscientifico e medico sia da quello filosofico – e lo fanno in un modo che ci permette di vedere questi…Read more
  •  833
    Recognition. Reflections on a Contested Concept.
    Verifiche. Rivista di Scienze Umane 42 (1-3): 33-59. 2013.
    In recent years the term ‘recognition’ has been used in ever more variegated theoretical contexts. This article contributes to the discussion of how the concept(s) expressed by this term in different debates should be explicated and understood. For the most part it takes the concept itself as its topic rather than making theoretical use of it. Drawing on important work by Ikäheimo and Laitinen and taking Honneth’s tripartite distinction of recognition into love, respect, and esteem as a starting…Read more
  •  663
    Ambition, Modesty, and Performative Inconsistency
    In Jens Peter Brune, Robert Stern & Micha H. Werner (eds.), Transcendental Arguments in Moral Theory, De Gruyter. pp. 25-45. 2017.
    This chapter argues that the distinction between ambitious and modest transcendental arguments, developed and deployed by various authors in the wake of Stroud’s influential critique of transcendental reasoning, may be pointless when applied to transcendental arguments from performative inconsistency that have moral statements as their conclusions. If moral truth is assertorically constrained, then any modest moral transcendental argument from performative inconsistency can be converted into an …Read more
  •  548
    Contingenza o validità universale? Rorty e Apel sul progresso morale
    with Valentina Chizzola
    Annali di Studi Religiosi 12 171-183. 2011.
    This paper examines two contemporary answers to the question of whether moral values and norms are apt for rational criticism and justification: Richard Rorty’s radically contextualist approach—which is centered around the notion of contingency and is characterized by a dismissal of all claims to philosophical justification—and Karl-Otto Apel’s transcendental-pragmatic version of discourse ethics—which encompasses highly ambitious claims to justification and universal validity. Contrasting the k…Read more
  •  522
    This article presents some considerations concerning the relevance of empirical research from neuroscience and social psychology for philosophical debates in normative ethics. While many authors hold that there are findings and theories from those fields that are relevant to normative ethics, it often remains unclear precisely how this relevance relation is to be construed and spelled out. The article critically discusses various proposals which have recently been made in this regard by philosop…Read more
  •  337
    Genere
    with Valentina Chizzola
    Aphex 15 1-38. 2017.
    According to a standard interpretation of the term, ‘gender’ denotes sets of social roles and expectations conventionally associated with the sexual physiology of human beings. Originally introduced in psychology, the term is now widely used in the social sciences and humanities, as well as in the biological sciences. In this article we introduce and discuss the central themes of contemporary philosophical debates on gender. Particular attention is paid to recent feminist arguments concerning th…Read more
  •  225
    An explanatory role for the concept of truth
    In Fabio Bacchini, Stefano Caputo & Massimo Dell'Utri (eds.), New Frontiers in Truth, Cambridge Scholars Press. pp. 15-37. 2014.
  •  111
    The article suggests a reading of the term ‘epistemic account of truth’ which runs contrary to a widespread consensus with regard to what epistemic accounts are meant to provide, namely a definition of truth in epistemic terms. Section 1. introduces a variety of possible epistemic accounts that differ with regard to the strength of the epistemic constraints they impose on truth. Section 2. introduces the paradox of knowability and presents a slightly reconstructed version of a related argument b…Read more
  •  66
    The following two theses constitute the theoretical core of all epistemic conceptions of truth: (1) The concept of truth can be explicated in epistemic terms (e.g. in terms of justified assertability under ideal epistemic conditions, ideal coherence, ideal consensus etc.). (2) The assumption that there could be truths which cannot, in principle, be known to be true is false or even absurd. The book scrutinizes theses (1) and (2). It contains discussions of the truth-theoretical approaches of Pei…Read more
  •  51
    Common Sense, Strict Incompatibilism, and Free Will
    Philosophical Inquiries 1 (1): 107-124. 2013.
    Peter van Inwagen and Colin McGinn hold that there are strong arguments for strict incompatibilism, i.e. for the claim that the free will thesis (F) is inconsistent not just with determinism but with the negation of determinism as well. Interestingly, both authors deny that these arguments are apt to justify the claim that (F) is false. I argue that van Inwagen and McGinn are right in taking the fact that epistemic commitment to (F) is deeply rooted in common sense to cast doubt on arguments to …Read more
  •  41
    LITERATURESSAY: Die Vielfalt der Lebensformen und die Einheit der Vernunft
    with Micha Werner
    Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie 45 (3): 439-454. 1997.
  • Karl-Otto Apel
    with Dietrich Böhler
    In Gisela Riescher (ed.), Politische Theorie der Gegenwart in Einzeldarstellungen. Von Adorno bis Young, Alfred Kröner Verlag. 2004.
  • Recognition: Reflections on a contested concept
    Verifiche: Rivista Trimestrale di Scienze Umane 42 (1-3): 33-59. 2013.
  • Reflexion und Sinnkritik
    Handlung, Kultur, Interpretation 9 (1): 147-168. 2000.
  • Wahrheit und moralische Richtigkeit. Was hätte eine integrative Theorie zu leisten?
    In Marcel Niquet, Francisco J. Herrero & Michael Hanke (eds.), Diskursethik. Grundlegungen und Anwendungen, Königshausen Und Neumann. 2001.
  • Fallibilism, Factivity and Epistemically Truth-Guaranteeing Justification
    In Nils Gilje & Harald Grimen (eds.), Discursive Modernity, Universitetsforlaget. 2007.
    This paper explores the question of how the epistemological thesis of fallibilism should best be formulated. Sections 1 to 3 critically discuss some influential formulations of fallibilism. In section 4 I suggest a formulation of fallibilism in terms of the unavailability of epistemically truth-guaranteeing justification. In section 5 I discuss the claim that unrestricted fallibilism engenders paradox and argue that this claim is unwarranted.
  • Konsens
    with Dietrich Böhler
    In Gert Ueding (ed.), Handbuch Ethik, J.b. Metzler. 2011.