Pietro Gori

This chapter explores relevant aspects of Mary Hesse’s epistemology, with special attention to her attempt to outline a post-empiricist account of scientific knowledge based on criticisms of the received positivist view that were discussed at the time. Key features of Hesse’s view of language and meaning will be considered, and it will be shown that there is a certain consistency between her conception of the growth of scientific knowledge and Thomas Kuhn’s mature philosophy. An account of Hesse’s and Kuhn’s attempts to stress that interpretive activity occurs at various levels of scientific inquiry will allow us to delve into their shared idea that the hermeneutic approach that has traditionally been considered the most appropriate to the human sciences may be appropriate to the natural sciences as well.

The article addresses the issue of perspectivism in Nietzsche, defending the idea that it is not limited to the epistemic dimension but, on the contrary, its scope involves the axiological level of human evaluative practice. The first part explores the value and function of perspectivism in Nietzsche's philosophical project, highlighting aspects that connect this concept with the moral and civilizational questions that concerned him. The second part is focused on the role played by Nietzsche's perspectivism in the history of philosophy, with special attention to its connections with recent post-positivist developments in the philosophy of knowledge and the philosophy of science.

This chapter explores relevant aspects of Mary Hesse’s epistemology, with special attention to her attempt to outline a post-empiricist account of scientific knowledge based on criticisms of the received positivist view that were discussed at the time. Key features of Hesse’s view of language and meaning will be considered, and it will be shown that there is a certain consistency between her conception of the growth of scientific knowledge and Thomas Kuhn’s mature philosophy. An account of Hesse’s and Kuhn’s attempts to stress that interpretive activity occurs at various levels of scientific inquiry will allow us to delve into their shared idea that the hermeneutic approach that has traditionally been considered the most appropriate to the human sciences may be appropriate to the natural sciences as well.

This volume explores the work of Mary B. Hesse (1924–2016), a pivotal figure in twentieth-century philosophy of science. At a time when the foundations of an integrated approach to the history and philosophy of science were being established, Hesse, as a female philosopher, offered a distinctive and influential contribution grounded in a post-empiricist understanding of the natural sciences. Central to her thought was a focus on the metaphorical and analogical value of scientific language, in contrast to views assessing its literal significance. Hesse also departed from traditional hypothetico-deductive accounts of scientific methodology and theory structure, advancing instead perspectives rooted in both historical and contemporary scientific practices. To mark the centenary of her birth, this book brings together an international group of scholars to re-examine and engage with Hesse’s intellectual legacy. The chapters address the central themes of her work and situate them within her broader philosophical context. Each contribution adopts a cross-disciplinary perspective, highlighting the continued relevance of Hesse’s ideas to current debates in the philosophy of science. This volume will be of particular interest to scholars in the history and philosophy of science, as well as those engaged in gender studies and the study of women in philosophy.

La tempestividad de Nietzsche es patente en el renovado entusiasmo con el que filósofos de tradición continental y analítica se han acercado recientemente a su obra. Entre otros temas, la atención se ha dirigido hacia dos aspectos importantes del pensamiento nietzscheano: el análisis, la crítica y la genealogía de la cultura, así como la posición de Nietzsche respecto de la subjetividad. En este estudio introductorio, los autores realizarán un breve análisis de ambos aspectos. Como se mostrará, estos aspectos juegan un papel de primera importancia en el pensamiento nietzscheano, y la relación entre ellos es más fuerte de lo que se podría pensar inicialmente.

Il contenuto dei paragrafi conclusivi della "Genealogia della morale" può essere considerato il nucleo di una rete di concetti che costituisce l’intelaiatura della tarda filosofia di Nietzsche. In questo saggio si mostrerà in particolare come la problematizzazione della verità annunciata in GM III, 24 e 27 rappresenti per Nietzsche un passaggio fondamentale per portare a maturazione le istanze critiche del proprio pensiero e permettere la realizzazione della «filosofia dell’avvenire» di cui "Al di là del bene e del male" doveva costituire il preludio.

This chapter explores Nietzsche’s and Wittgenstein’s views on language and knowledge, establishing a philosophical dialogue between two different positions, which are based on a similar anti-essentialist and instrumentalist concern. The chapter will first focus on Nietzsche’s conception of language as the expression of valuational perspectives developing through the natural and cultural history of mankind. It will then consider Wittgenstein’s account of language as the inherited background of our practical engagement with the world. Finally, by bringing Nietzsche’s and Wittgenstein’s views together, the last section reflects on the crucial strategic move they make in their respective battle against the bewitchment of our intelligence by means of language.

The chapter explores comparatively the attention to the practical dimension that—each in his own way—Michel Foucault, Friedrich Nietzsche, and the classic pragmatist thinker William James pay when confronted with the challenge of providing a non-skeptical response to the relativist stance on truth that arose in the post-Kantian age. Particular focus will be given to the extent to which these three authors conceived of the practical framework as the only one that allows us to meaningfully address and determine truth.

This volume provides a geographically and historically diverse overview of philosophical traditions that establish a deep connection between truth and practice, or even see truth itself as a kind of practice. Under the label "practices of truth" are subsumed disparate approaches that can be fruitfully brought together to explore the intersections between truth and practice in philosophy as well as to address a range of intriguing questions about truth that fall outside the domain of pure theory. The chapters in this volume provide a variety of perspectives on key practices of truth in philosophy and in the history of philosophy, enriching our understanding of the different ways in which truth and practice may be connected, including the role of certain practices in enabling philosophical insight into truth; the ways in which truth may actually be embedded in some practices; and the impact of truth on practice. Practices of Truth in Philosophy will appeal to scholars and advanced students interested in the history of philosophy, comparative philosophy, ethics, epistemology, and the metaphysics of truth.

La Genealogia della morale si presenta al lettore come un compatto ma articolato crocevia di temi e di problematiche del pensiero di Friedrich Nietzsche. L'opera è certo caratterizzata da una particolare unità tematica, ma è al tempo stesso ricca di spunti che offrono accessi a questioni di non secondaria importanza e che, nel loro complesso, definiscono la trama di un pensiero che manifesta la propria ricchezza e originalità al lettore più accorto. Di tale ricchezza si è cercato di rendere conto nel presente volume, che raccoglie una serie di incursioni nel testo di Nietzsche a firma di studiosi italiani e stranieri, alcune delle quali sono state originariamente discusse nel corso di un seminario di ricerca svoltosi nell’ambito della Scuola di Dottorato in Filosofia dell’Università di Padova. Questi contributi affrontano, ciascuno a suo modo, la Genealogia della morale, illuminandone alcuni passaggi cruciali e intervenendo nella discussione di aspetti che si dimostrano significativi non solamente per approfondire ulteriormente la qualità e la rilevanza filosofiche dell'opera di Nietzsche, ma anche per valutarne il ruolo nella storia del pensiero occidentale contemporaneo.

Ernst Mach (1838-1916) è stato una figura di riferimento per la cultura scientifica e filosofica tardo-ottocentesca e dei primi decenni del Novecento. Le sue ricerche in fisica e psicologia, così come il lavoro epistemologico che emerge dalle pagine di opere quali La meccanica nel suo sviluppo storico-critico e Conoscenza ed errore, hanno influito notevolmente su molti autori a lui contemporanei. In questi testi, Mach delinea una concezione antimetafisica del pensiero scientifico e una concezione biologico-evolutiva della conoscenza umana che si ritrovano elaborate in vario modo nella teoria della relatività di A. Einstein, nell’epistemologia evoluzionistica di K. Popper e D. Campbell, nel pragmatismo di W. James e, più in generale, nelle idee che animarono il primo Circolo di Vienna. I saggi raccolti nel presente volume si propongono di commemorarne la figura e l’opera, guardando a Mach come figura di confine tra prospettive di indagine che la storia della filosofia dell’ultimo secolo ha spesso visto contrapposte.

Ernst Mach’s definition of the relationship between thoughts and facts is well known, but the question of how Mach conceived of their actual relationship has received much less attention. This paper aims to address this gap in light of Mary B. Hesse’s view of a postempiricist approach to natural science. As this paper will show, this view is characterized by a constructivist conception of the relationship between theory and facts that seems to be consistent with Mach’s observations on scientific knowledge. The paper first explores Hesse’s account of postempiricism and her project of a new epistemology. It then considers Ernst Mach’s conception of facts as the middle term of a triad of concepts that includes thoughts and elements as extreme terms. Finally, the paper will offer concluding remarks on Mach’s contribution to the debate on scientific realism and his attempt to redefine the notions of correspondence and objectivity in science.

This paper is devoted to a comparison between Ernst Mach's and Friedrich Nietzsche's anti-metaphysical approach to scientific and philosophical concepts. By making reference to Mach’s early essay on the conservation of energy (Die Geschichte und die Wurzel des Satzes von der Erhaltung der Arbeit, 1872), I argue that Nietzsche shares with him the idea that the concepts we adopt are only useful fictions developed during the history of humankind and its culture. This idea is fundamental for the development of modern science, since Mach’s epistemology contributed to give up the mechanistic (Newtonian) view of physics.

No presente trabalho apresentamos e traduzimos o texto “O Perigo da confirmação não-empírica", de Carlo Rovelli, cosmólogo italiano, um dos proponentes da gravitação quântica em loop. Trata-se do texto apresentado por Rovelli em 2015 durante o chamado “Debate de Munich” sobre o problema da base empírica do método científico. Rovelli analisa – e se contrapõe – à proposta do filósofo da ciência Richard Dawid, que em String Theory and the Scientific Method, defende que teorias científicas podem ser avaliadas, aceitas e defendidas a partir de critérios não-empíricos. Rovelli, a despeito de concordar com Dawid quanto a importância histórica dos argumentos não-empíricos no desenvolvimento de teorias físicas, sustenta que a confirmação empírica deve permanecer sendo considerada indispensável para a prática científica e o sucesso cumulativo da ciência.

This paper has a twofold aim. On the one hand, it explores the extent to which Mach was inspired by Kant’s approach to philosophical inquiry and tried to further elaborate it through his historico-critical method for enlightening scientific knowledge claims. On the other hand, it argues that the focus on the situated character of these claims that is implied in Mach’s epistemology makes it possible to compare his view to recent attempts to defend a perspectival realist account of scientific knowledge, thus revealing the relevance of Mach’s own approach as a methodology in the philosophy of science.

Aim of this paper is to reflect on the anthropological ideal Nietzsche outlines in his late period. The way Nietzsche deals with concepts such as “German”, “(good) European”, and “free spirit” in the sections of Twilight of the Idols which deal with Goethe will be especially considered. Furthermore, I shall argue that Renaissance plays an important role in Nietzsche’s anthropological project, for it helps to define the spiritual strength which characterizes the health type of man to which Nietzsche destined his late philosophical wisdom and gay science.

The paper provides a thorough account of the relationship between Ernst Mach’s thought and that of an apparently more intellectually distant near-contemporary, Friedrich Nietzsche. The consistency of their views is in fact substantial, as I try to show within the paper. Despite their interests being different, both Mach and Nietzsche were concerned with the same issues about our intellectual relationship with the external world, dealing with the same questions and pursuing a common aim of eliminating worn-out philosophical conceptions. Moreover, it can be argued that both Mach and Nietzsche converged on what we now know as the problem of realism versus anti-realism in the philosophy of science, and that they both rejected ‘representational’ (realist) conceptions of science in favour of a certain sort of pragmatic anti-realism, whose focus was on the role science plays as a means of orientation.

This paper focuses on sections of Nietzsche's Twilight of the Idols that deal with Goethe, with the aim of reflecting on the anthropological ideal that Nietzsche outlines in his late period. I give particular attention to the way in which Nietzsche deals with concepts such as "German", "(good) European", and "free spirit", connecting them in a coherent picture. Finally, I argue that the Renaissance plays an important role in Nietzsche's anthropological project, for it helps to define the spiritual strength that characterizes the healthy type of man whom Nietzsche thought destined to realize his late philosophy.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, theorists developed approaches to Nietzsche’s philosophy that provided an alternative to the received view, some of them suggesting that his view of truth may be his most important and original contribution. It has further been argued that Vaihinger’s fictionalism is the paradigm within which Nietzsche’s view can be properly contextualized. As will be shown, this idea is both viable and fruitful for solving certain interpretive issues raised in recent Nietzsche scholarship.

During his late period, Nietzsche is particularly concerned with the value that mankind attributes to truth. In dealing with that topic, Nietzsche is not primarly interested in the metaphysical disputes on truth, but rather in the effects that the "will to truth" has on the human being. In fact, he argues that the "faith in a value as such of truth" influenced Western culture and started the anthropological degeneration of the human type that characterizes European morality. To call into question the value of truth is therefore necessary, if one wants to help mankind to find her way in the labyrinth of nihilism. In this new addition to Nietzsche scholarship, Gori explores the origin and aim of the philosopher's　late perspectival thought by merging the theoretical with the historical approach, with a special focus on the epistemological debate that influenced Nietzsche. As a result, the book provides a contextual reading of the issue that supports the idea that Nietzsche’s attitude in addressing the problem of truth is, in a broad sense, pragmatic.

The paper aims to investigate some aspects of Ernst Mach’s epistemology in the light of the problem of human orientation in relation to the world (Weltorientierung), which is a main topic of Western philosophy since Kant. As will be argued, Mach has been concerned with that problem, insofar as he developed an original pragmatist epistemology. In order to support my argument, I firstly investigate whether Mach defended a nominalist or a realist account of knowledge and compare his view to those elaborated by other pragmatist thinkers, such as W. James, H. Vaihinger and H. Poincaré. Secondly, the question of what does it mean, for Mach, to orient ourselves in science is addressed. Finally, it will be argued that, although Mach tried to keep his epistemology restricted to a mere operational and economical account of science, that question involves the wider plane of practical philosophy.

The paper explores the issue of moral relativism in Nietzsche, and tries to argue that Nietzsche's attitude towards moral values does not support a radical relativism according to which since (i) every moral interpretation is relative to a judging perspective, and (ii) an absolute viewpoint is lacking, then (iii) every moral interpretation seems to be as true, valid or justified as the others. On the contrary, Nietzsche's perspectivism leaves space for a rank order among values, whose establishment is considered by Nietzsche as the future task of the philosopher.