• Monadic Truth and Falsity
    Phenomenology and Mind 24 56-62. 2023.
    In Adelaster (2016), A. G. Conte proposes a distinction between de dicto and de re attributions of truth and falsity, which he illustrates mostly with documents of legal standing, but also with an artificial object (a false tooth). The present aim is to propose an analogous distinction between monadic (one-place) and polyadic uses of “true” and “false”, and to sketch some features of its logical functioning with closer attention to the monadic pole than is usual. One proposal is that, in these u…Read more
  • Ontologie regionali (edited book)
    Mimesis. 2007.
  •  16
    How should fracking research be funded?
    with Liam G. Herringshaw
    Research Ethics 12 (2): 116-118. 2016.
    The use of hydraulic fracturing to extract oil or gas from shales is a subject of controversy. There are many scientific questions about the risks associated with the technique, and much research remains to be done. ReFINE is a research consortium led by Newcastle University and Durham University in the UK, focusing on the environmental impacts of shale gas and oil exploitation using fracking methods. The project was established to answer questions raised by members of the public across Europe o…Read more
  •  34
    Where is ‘There is’ in ‘∃’?
    History and Philosophy of Logic 42 (1): 44-59. 2020.
    The paper offers a survey of four key moments in which symbolisms for quantification were first introduced: §§11–2 of Frege’s Begriffsschrift ; Peirce’s ‘Algebra of Logic’ ; Peano’s ‘St...
  •  23
    Where is ‘There is’ in ‘∃’?
    History and Philosophy of Logic 42 (1): 44-59. 2021.
    The paper offers a survey of four key moments in which symbolisms for quantification were first introduced: §§11–2 of Frege’s Begriffsschrift (1879); Peirce’s ‘Algebra of Logic’ (1885); Peano’s ‘Studii di Logica matematica’ (1897); and *9 (‘replaced’ by *8 in the second edition) of Whitehead and Russell’s Principia Mathematica (1910). Despite their divergent aims, these authors present substantially equivalent visions of what their differing symbolisms express. In each case, some passage suggest…Read more
  •  20
    Some Quodlibets on the Virtues
    Modern Schoolman 76 (1): 43-60. 1998.
    Taking account of two recent anthologies on virtue ethics, the paper locates the moral virtues relative to Aristotle's description of natural endowments, capacities, rational potentials, arts, character traits, and habits. The distinctions operative in this scheme are then brought to bear on the specific question of whether a burglar can be exhibiting the virtue of courage. The suggestion is made that it may not be because burglary is often unjust that it is not a proper exercise of the virtue, …Read more
  •  3
    Locke and “ad”
    Argumentation 37 (3): 473-492. 2023.
    In IV, xvii, 19–22 of his Essay, Locke employs Latin labels for four kinds of argument, of which one (ad hominem) was already in circulation and one (ad judicium) has never had much currency. The present proposal seeks to locate and clarify what Locke was aiming to describe, and to contrast what he says with some subsequent uses that have been made of these labels as if they named fallacies. Though three of the four kinds of argument that Locke picks out are often less than decisive, he casts no…Read more
  •  6
    In Defence of a Fallacy
    Studia Semiotyczne 34 (2): 25-42. 2020.
    In light of recent developments in argumentation theory, we begin by considering the account that Aristotle gives of what he calls sophistical refutations and of the usefulness of being able to recognise various species of them. His diagnosis of one of his examples of the grouping that he labels epomenon is then compared with a very recent account of the matter, which, like Aristotle, calls on us to attribute a mistake or confusion to anyone who uses this kind of argument. From examination of th…Read more
  •  1
    How to Point a Philosophical Armchair
    Discipline filosofiche. 25 (1): 173-190. 2015.
    Thought experiments are characteristically armchair operations. The key thought experiment in Rawls’s A Theory of Justice, the “veil of ignorance”, calls on us to imagine having complete knowledge of the social sciences at the same time as lacking all knowledge about the positions we occupy in the society of which we are members. It is harder to imagine having – and using – knowledge we do not have than it is to imagine not having knowledge we do have. Even when we think we can imagine not havin…Read more
  •  15
    In Documentalità, Maurizio Ferraris presents marriage as a paradigmatic instance of a social object whose essence is constituted by the generation of documents. This claim appears to hold good for some of the standard forms of matrimony recognised within the Roman Law tradition. The case is put for saying that, nevertheless, the appeal to documents puts the cart before the horse: the validity of a marriage depends, if anything, on the behaviour of the participants in it as much before as after a…Read more
  •  4
    Introduzione
    Rivista di Estetica 49 3-6. 2012.
    In their Introduction, the editors of the volume briefly describe how ontological questions have been taken as fundamental since the very origins of analytic philosophy, eventually gaining centrality during the last decades, and how they have been coming to the centre of interest in Italian-speaking analytic-style philosophy since the mid-1990s. The editors give a schematic outline of the overall structure of the volume and say how it can be grounded on the distinction between formal and materia…Read more
  •  18
    Paolo Bozzi’s Experimental Phenomenology (edited book)
    with Ivana Bianchi
    Routledge. 2018.
    This anthology translates eighteen papers by Italian philosopher and experimental psychologist Paolo Bozzi, bringing his distinctive and influential ideas to an English-speaking audience for the first time. The papers cover a range of methodological and experimental questions concerning the phenomenology of perception and their theoretical implications, with each one followed by commentary from leading international experts. In his laboratory work, Bozzi investigated visual and auditory percepti…Read more
  •  19
    What is an object? How do we look at them? Why do they matter? This collection presents a lively, timely discussion of natural and artifactual objects, considering the relationship between them from a range of philosophical perspectives, including the philosophy of biology, the metaphysics of space and the philosophy of perception. Beginning from the starting point that natural objects are bona fide, endowed with some natural border between themselves and everything else, while artifactual objec…Read more
  •  2
    The Modes of Descartes’ First Meditation
    In Sébastien Charles & Plínio Junqueira Smith (eds.), Academic Scepticism in the Development of Early Modern Philosophy, Springer Verlag. 2016.
  •  18
    The Measure of Pleasure: A Note on the Protagoras
    Journal of the American Philosophical Association 3 (3): 301-315. 2017.
  •  7
    Descartes’ Deontological Turn (review)
    Review of Metaphysics 65 (3): 669-670. 2012.
  •  7
    Toward a New Interpretation of Plato
    The Catholic University of America Press. 1997.
    "Rereads the writings of Plato in the light andperspective of the paradigm of the Tubingen School, but it doesso on the basis of very precise principles of contemporaryepistemology which render the undertaking soundly andconvincingly scientific and highly, even fascinatingly readable".
  •  17
    The volume collects essays by an international team of philosophers aimed at elucidating three fundamental and interconnected themes in ontology. In the first instance, there is the issue of the kind of thing that, in the primary sense, is or exists: must the primitive terms be particular or universal? Any reply will itself raise the question of how to treat discourse that appears to refer to things that cannot be met with in time and space: what difference is there between saying that someone i…Read more
  •  17
    Descartes letters
    Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie 83 (3): 308-323. 2001.
  •  5
    Goodbye, Kant!: What Still Stands of the Critique of Pure Reason (edited book)
    State University of New York Press. 2013.
    _A penetrating and freewheeling evaluation of Kant's magnum opus._
  •  1
    Descartes: Belief, Scepticism and Virtue
    Philosophical Quarterly 53 (211): 287-290. 2003.
  •  41
    Intellectual Propriety
    The Monist 93 (3): 339-352. 2010.
  • Descartes. Belief, Scepticism and Virtue
    Tijdschrift Voor Filosofie 64 (3): 569-570. 2002.
  •  34
    Lowe on conditionals
    Philosophical Quarterly 45 (181): 477-486. 1995.
  •  41
    Mysterious Mixtures: Descartes on Mind and Body
    Journal of Early Modern Studies 4 (1): 47-78. 2015.
    As is well known, Descartes’ doctrine on the relations of mind and body involves at least the following two theses: the real distinction of mind and body is compatible with their substantial union; and the siting of the mind at the tip of the pineal gland is compatible with its presence throughout the body. Th is essay seeks to perform three main tasks. One is to suggest that, so far as Descartes is concerned, the doctrine that arises out of the combination of and blocks off the problems that ar…Read more
  •  49
    Descartes is often regarded as the founder of modern philosophy, and is credited with placing at centre stage the question of what we know and how we know it. Descartes: Belief, Scepticism and Virtue seeks to reinsert his work and thought in its contemporary ethical and theological context. Richard Davies explores the much neglected notion of intellectual virtue as it applies to Descartes' inquiry as a whole. He examines the textual dynamics of Descartes' most famous writings in relation to back…Read more