•  4
    On Turner’s Anti-Normativism
    In Raffaela Giovagnoli & Robert Lowe (eds.), The Logic of Social Practices II, Springer Nature Switzerland. pp. 159-176. 2023.
    Stephen Turner’s anti-normativism is based on the idea that the normative can be explained away by social science. Exploiting the idea fostered by the sociology of scientific knowledge that reasons can be understood naturalistically as the causes of the beliefs of scientists and endorsing a non-normative conception of rationality, Turner has argued that normative accounts are better understood as “Good Bad Theories” (GBT). GBT are understood as false accounts that play a role in social coordinat…Read more
  •  159
    Discursive pluralism, recently fostered by anti-representationalist views, by stating that not all assertions conform to a descriptive model of language, poses an interesting challenge to representationalism. Although in recent years alethic pluralism has become more and more popular as an interesting way out for this issue, the discussion also hosts other interesting minority approaches in the anti-representationalist camp. In particular, the late stage of contemporary expressivism offers a few…Read more
  •  14
    It is a common opinion that chance events cannot be understood in causal terms. Conversely, according to a causal view of chance, intersections between independent causal chains originate accidental events, called “coincidences”. Firstly, this book explores this causal conception of chance and tries to shed new light on it. Such a view has been defended by authors like Antoine Augustine Cournot and Jacques Monod. Second, a relevant alternative is provided by those accounts that, instead of ackno…Read more
  •  4
    The Communicative Effects of Metaphors for Vaccination as a Collective Health Endeavour
    with Francesca Ervas and Rachele Fanari
    In Kristien Hens & Andreas De Block (eds.), Advances in Experimental Philosophy of Medicine, Bloomsbury Academic. pp. 285-304. 2023.
    In health communication, metaphor can be considered as a reasoning device to let people understand an abstract concept in terms of a concrete one (Lakoff and Johnson 1980; Bowdle and Gentner 2005). Both the positive and negative communicative effects of metaphors have been largely pointed out in a variety of medical fields, from oncology (Semino et al. 2016, 2018) to mental health (Frezza and Zoccolotti 2019). The use of metaphors in vaccine communication has been less considered, though it migh…Read more
  •  94
    Stephen Turner claims that social science can explain away normativity. By exploiting a non-normative view of rationality and a causal view of belief, he claimed that normativist views are akin to what he calls Good Bad Theories (GBT). GBT are false accounts that play a role of social coordination like primitive rituals (Taboo and the like). Hence, “norms”, “commitments”, and “obligations” are just like Taboo and can be explained away as GBT. Normativism, as a consequence, is doomed to disappear…Read more
  •  232
    Stephen Turner claims that social science can explain away normativity. By exploiting a non-normative view of rationality and a causal view of belief, he claimed that normativist views are akin to what he calls Good Bad Theories (GBT). GBT are false accounts that play a role of social coordination like primitive rituals (Taboo and the like). Hence, “norms”, “commitments”, and “obligations” are just like Taboo and can be explained away as GBT. Normativism, as a consequence, is doomed to disappear…Read more
  •  261
    Exploring Metaphor’s Communicative Effects in Reasoning on Vaccination
    with Francesca Ervas, Cristina Sechi, and Rachele Fanari
    Frontiers in Psychology 13 (1027733.): 1-15. 2022.
    Introduction: The paper investigates the impact of the use of metaphors in reasoning tasks concerning vaccination, especially for defeasible reasoning cases. We assumed that both metaphor and defeasible reasoning can be relevant to let people understand vaccination as an important collective health phenomenon, by anticipating possible defeating conditions. Methods: We hypothesized that extended metaphor could improve both the argumentative and the communicative effects of the message. We designe…Read more
  •  587
    The given and the hard problem of content
    Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 1-26. 2022.
    Wilfrid Sellars’ denunciation of the Myth of the Given was meant to clarify, against empiricism, that perceptual episodes alone are insufficient to ground and justify perceptual knowledge. Sellars showed that in order to accomplish such epistemic tasks, more resources and capacities, such as those involved in using concepts, are needed. Perceptual knowledge belongs to the space of reasons and not to an independent realm of experience. Dan Hutto and Eric Myin have recently presented the Hard Pro…Read more
  •  299
    Putnam’s Alethic Pluralism and the Fact-Value Dichotomy
    European Journal of Pragmatism and American Philosophy 13 (2): 1-16. 2021.
    Hilary Putnam spent much of his career criticizing the fact/value dichotomy, and this became apparent already during the phase when he defended internal realism. He later changed his epistemological and metaphysical view by endorsing natural realism, with the consequence of embracing alethic pluralism, the idea that truth works differently in various discourse domains. Despite these changes of mind in epistemology and in theory of truth, Putnam went on criticizing the fact/value dichotomy. Howev…Read more
  •  357
    Massimo Dell'Utri, Putnam, Carocci 2020 (review)
    Aphex 23. 2021.
    The recent book 'Putnam' by Massimo Dell’Utri concerns the philosophical and argumentative journey of Hilary Putnam, that led him to explore the implications of Quine’s views about analyticity and the many ways in which realism can be understood in epistemology, philosophy of science, philosophy of mathematics, its main entailments for the philosophy of mind, and more recently about issues concerning ethics, meta-ethics, and value-theory. The present critical review briefly recollects the readin…Read more
  •  339
    On the Nature of Coincidental Events
    Axiomathes 32 (1): 143-68. 2022.
    It is a common opinion that chance events cannot be understood in causal terms. Conversely, according to a causal view of chance, intersections between independent causal chains originate accidental events, called “coincidences.” The present paper takes into proper consideration this causal conception of chance and tries to shed new light on it. More precisely, starting from Hart and Honoré’s view of coincidental events, this paper furnishes a more detailed account on the nature of coincidences,…Read more
  •  137
    Prassi, cultura, realtà. Saggi in onore di Pier Luigi Lecis (edited book)
    with Vinicio Busacchi and Simonluca Pinna
    Mimesis Edizioni. 2020.
    A collection of essays dedicated to Pier Luigi Lecis' retirement. Contributors include: Mariano Bianca, Silvana Borutti, Vinicio Busacchi, Massimo Dell'Utri, Rosaria Egidi, Roberta Lanfredini, Giuseppe Lorini, Diego Marconi, Francesco Orilia, Paolo Parrini, Alberto Peruzzi, Simonluca Pinna, Pietro Salis, Paolo Spinicci.
  •  130
    Pluralismo degli ambiti di discorso: la sfida dell'espressivismo
    In Vinicio Busacchi, Pietro Salis & Simonluca Pinna (eds.), Prassi, cultura, realtà. Saggi in onore di Pier Luigi Lecis, Mimesis Edizioni. pp. 233-246. 2020.
    This chapter explores some key themes of Huw Price's global expressivist program and his appropriation of inferentialist views. Some remarks concerning certain internal tensions inside that program follow.
  •  49
    The paper investigates the epistemological and communicative competences the experts need to use and communicate evidence in the reasoning process leading to diagnosis. The diagnosis and diagnosis communication are presented as intertwined processes that should be jointly addressed in medical consultations, to empower patients’ compliance in illness management. The paper presents defeasible reasoning as specific to the diagnostic praxis, showing how this type of reasoning threatens effective…Read more
  •  721
    Implicit norms
    Phenomenology and Mind 17 56-68. 2020.
    Robert Brandom has developed an account of conceptual content as instituted by social practices. Such practices are understood as being implicitly normative. Brandom proposed the idea of implicit norms in order to meet some requirements imposed by Wittgenstein’s remarks on rule-following: escaping the regress of rules on the one hand, and avoiding mere regular behavior on the other. Anandi Hattiangadi has criticized this account as failing to meet such requirements. In what follows, I try to sh…Read more
  •  152
    Varieties of anti-representationalism
    In Pedro G. Moreira (ed.), Revisiting Richard Rorty, Vernon Press. pp. 115-134. 2020.
    Anti-representationalism is the hallmark of Richard Rorty's critique of the epistemological tradition. According to it, knowledge does not "mirror" reality and the human mind is not a representational device. Anti-representationalism is a family of philosophical theses, respectively dealing with the notion of "representation" in different ways. Though prima facie one may feel entitled to think about anti-representationalism as a kind of uniform philosophical movement, things stand quite differen…Read more
  •  550
    Wittgenstein’s Investigations proposed an egalitarian view about language games, emphasizing their plurality (“language has no downtown”). Uses of words depend on the game one is playing, and may change when playing another. Furthermore, there is no privileged game dictating the rules for the others: games are as many as purposes. This view is pluralist and egalitarian, but it says little about the connection between meaning and use, and about how a set of rules is responsible for them in practi…Read more
  •  903
    Among the many features that go hand in hand with the recent onset of populism in many countries, an interesting phenomenon is surely the shift of public discourse in the direction of social media. Is there any-thing special about communication in social media that is particularly suitable for the development of such movements and ideas? In what fol-lows, I provide an attempt to read Facebook comments as showing an anaphoric structure. This analysis permits me to give emphasis on a number of int…Read more
  •  22
    Recenti studi intorno alla razionalità
    Paradigmi. Rivista di Critica Filosofica 36 (3): 547-560. 2018.
    The recent publication of the books La razionalità, by Paolo Labinaz, and I modi della razionalità, edited by Massimo Dell’Utri and Antonio Rainone, offers the opportunity to provide an overview of some important discussions on rationality. In particular, I highlight how the modern and Cartesian ideal of this notion is undergoing a transformation that is enhanced by results coming from empirical studies in the field of cognitive science. These transformations are visible in many ambits concernin…Read more
  •  120
    Anaphoric Deflationism, Primitivism, and the Truth Property
    Acta Analytica 34 (1): 117-134. 2019.
    Anaphoric deflationism is a prosententialist account of the use of “true.” Prosentences are, for sentences, the equivalent of what pronouns are for nouns: as pronouns refer to previously introduced nouns, so prosentences like “that’s true” inherit their content from previously introduced sentences. This kind of deflationism concerning the use of “true” (especially in Brandom’s version) is an explanation in terms of anaphora; the prosentence depends anaphorically on the sentence providing its con…Read more
  •  715
    Conversation with Robert Brandom
    Aphex (18): 1-27. 2018.
    In this broad interview Robert Brandom talks about many themes concerning his work and about his career and education. Brandom reconstructs the main debts that he owes to colleagues and teachers, especially Wilfrid Sellars, Richard Rorty, and David Lewis, and talks about the projects he’s currently working on. He also talks about contemporary and classical pragmatism, and of the importance of classical thinkers like Kant and Hegel for contemporary debates. Other themes go deeper into the princip…Read more
  •  43
    The Generality of Anaphoric Deflationism
    Philosophia 47 (2): 505-522. 2019.
    Anaphoric deflationism is a kind of prosententialist account of the use of “true.” It holds that “true” is an expressive operator and not a predicate. In particular, “is true” is explained as a “prosentence.” Prosentences are, for sentences, the equivalent of what pronouns are for nouns: As pronouns refer to previously introduced nouns, so prosentences like “that’s true” inherit their semantic content from previously introduced sentences. So, if Jim says, “The candidate is going to win the elect…Read more
  •  245
    Review of Ronald Loeffler, Brandom (review)
    Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 1-4. 2018.
    Review of the book "Brandom", by Ronald Loeffler.
  •  34
    Mind, collective agency, norms (edited book)
    Shaker Verlag. 2017.
    In recent years, the social world is quickly gaining the focus of attention within the philosophical debates. The work of authors such as John Searle, Barry Smith, Margaret Gilbert, Raimo Tuomela, to name just a few, is becoming increasingly important within the philosophical community. Hence, topics in social ontology dealing with the nature of institutions, collective actions, collective self/personhood, collective intentionality, shared goals and commitments, etc. are increasingly addressed b…Read more
  •  39
    Conceptions of original intentionality (and social ontology)
    In Pietro Salis & Guido Seddone (eds.), Mind, collective agency, norms, Shaker Verlag. pp. 7-15. 2017.
    This paper highlights the fundamental difference in the criteria adopted to explain original intentionality, which is the basic stratum of intentional phenomena, between the mentalist mainstream and the minority inspired by the rejection of the Myth of the Given. Among the attempts on the latter, inferentialism has become a view of particular interest. According to inferentialism, full intentionality is a feature of cognitive subjects who participate in normative discursive practice. Therefore, …Read more
  •  22
    Verità, Immagine, Normatività. Truth, Image, and Normativity (edited book)
    with Pier Luigi Lecis, Giuseppe Lorini, Vinicio Busacchi, and Olimpia G. Loddo
    Quodlibet Studio. 2017.
    Siamo ormai lontani dalla stagione in cui la forza propulsiva della “svolta linguistica” si impose come tendenza dominante nel dibattito filosofico. Da varie angolazioni si è potuto parlare negli ultimi anni di pictorial turn come antidoto all’egemonia del paradigma linguistico in filosofia. Il volume Verità, Immagine, Normatività. Truth, Image, and Normativity non si inserisce direttamente in questa nuova tendenza, ma ruota comunque intorno a questioni che derivano dal medesimo sfondo. I 24 sag…Read more
  •  74
    Does persuasion really come at the "end of reasons"?
    In Pier Luigi Lecis, Giuseppe Lorini, Vinicio Busacchi, Pietro Salis & Olimpia G. Loddo (eds.), Verità, Immagine, Normatività. Truth, Image, and Normativity, Quodlibet Studio. pp. 77-100. 2017.
    Persuasion is a special aspect of our social and linguistic practices – one where an interlocutor, or an audience, is induced, to perform a certain action or to endorse a certain belief, and these episodes are not due to the force of the better reason. When we come near persuasion, it seems that, in general, we are somehow giving up factual discourse and the principles of logic, since persuading must be understood as almost different from convincing rationally. Sometimes, for example, we can fi…Read more