06 APhEx num 6, anno 2012

In 1976, one of the most important philosophers of the second half of the twentieth century, the American David Lewis, in a famous paper states that time travels are possible. At the end of the 1980s, the American theoretical physicist Kip Thorne, one of the world's leading experts on the astrophysical implications of Einsteinian General Relativity, argues that according to current physical laws there is nothing that a priori prohibits the feasibility of time travels (practical difficulties apart) in some particular spacetimes. In recent decades, time travels have become an increasingly serious, complex and profound topic, available to both philosophical and physical analysis. Torrengo's book, "I viaggi nel tempo. Una guida filosofica", offers a careful overview of this richness and depth, particularly from the philosophical point of view.

Arthur C. Danto (1924-2013) is an American philosophy whose rich production encompasses the (analytic) philosophy of history, epistemology, the philosophy of action and the philosophy of art. Along with this type of inquiry, his interests includes also authors and problems in the continental tradition, as shown by his books on Nietzsche and Jean-Paul Sartre and his reflection on Hegelian philosophy of art. For over twenty years he also engaged as an art critic. His long-standing collaboration with “The Nation”, more recently the “Corriere della Sera”, and his numerous monographs on some of the most influential artists of the 21st century, made him a recognizable critic in the international art world, and one of the most respected voices in the contemporary philosophical world.

What is truth? Deflationist theories give a surprising answer to this question: nothing or almost nothing. According to a deflationist approach, truth, as a property, does not exist or it lacks a substantial nature. In this paper I offer a brief critical survey of the evolution of deflationism and an analysis of its core ideas.

There is a general scientific consensus regarding the bearing of irony in understanding both the communicative and expressive realms of human mind, after epochs in which irony was confined to the role of mere ornament in language. In particular, irony plays a fundamental part in the distinctly human ability to represent and interrogate points of view other than one’s own. This article aims to analyse this specific aspect, while offering the reader the analytic tools to satisfactorily approach the topic.

Paul H. Grice has been one of the most influential philosophers of language of the 20th century. Indeed, his work contributed both to the birth of a new field of research, called “pragmatics”, and to the development of the debate, still relevant today, concerning the interface between semantics and pragmatics. In this paper, I first present Grice’s philosophical thinking, focusing on his intention-based theory of meaning and his notion of implicature, and then consider the main criticisms which have been levelled against them and the reception of his work in current studies at the intersection of philosophy of language, theoretical linguistics and cognitive science.

Peter Singer is one of the main supporters of preference utilitarianism. He has not only developed a robust normative theory, but he has also tackled questions of meta-ethics, moral psychology and, above all, practical ethics using an original and fruitful approach. This paper analyzes Singer's position regarding the debate both on theoretical issues and on questions of applied ethics.

There is a general scientific consensus regarding the bearing of irony in understanding both the communicative and expressive realms of human mind, after epochs in which irony was confined to the role of mere ornament in language. In particular, irony plays a fundamental part in the distinctly human ability to represent and interrogate points of view other than one’s own. This article aims to analyse this specific aspect, while offering the reader the analytic tools to satisfactorily approach the topic.

Michael Dummett is one of the most important English philosophers of the 20th century. His fame is due to his argumentatively rich work of clarification of the significance of the ‘lingustic turn’, the characterizing aspect of analytic philosophy in the Anglo-Saxon tradition. According to Dummett, the significance of the linguistic turn lies in the central role played by the philosophy of language. Assuming that the goal of philosophy is the analysis of the structure of thought, his proposal is that such an analysis, which is not an inquiry into the psychological process of thinking, should be conducted by means of an analysis of language. Closely related to this ‘historiographic’ inquiry are many significant contributions that Dummett made in the philosophy of language, of logic, of mathematics and metaphysics. The common trait of these contributions an anti-realist position based on the idea that, in order to understand a sentence (qua asserted) or assertion, it is not sufficient to know how the world should be in order for the sentence to be true, but we should also consider what changes in the world by asserting a sentence, which expectations that assertion can induce, and crucially, which evidence and justifications can be offered in favor or against what has been asserted. The contrast between the realist and the anti-realist conceptions can also lead to reconsider the universal validity of the laws of classical logic, hence a possible contrast between different systems of logic.

The astonishing linguistic and cognitive richness of irony has fostered increasing multi-disciplinary efforts intended to provide explanation for its mechanisms. Influential proposals have come from the most diverse disciplines, including philosophy of language and aesthetics, pragmatics and the cognitive sciences, which have offered assorted theories as to the mechanisms underlying the creation and comprehension of irony. This article will focus on the most interesting proposals made in the realm of analytic philosophy as to the nature and functioning of irony.

In philosophy of language plural reference has received much less attention than singular reference. This paper suggests that this is at least partly due to the classical interpretation of predicates as functions from objects to truth-values. Such functions only admit for singular arguments and this has led either to a lack of attention to the plural reference or even to the attempt to reduce it to singular reference. This paper has two objectives: the first is to show that attempts to reduce the plural reference to singular reference fail; the second is to sketch a theory of predication, different from the traditional one, which is compatible with the plural reference.

The text offers a Critical Review of "Buone idee per la mente. I fondamenti cognitivi ed evolutivi della cultura" by Ines Adornetti. The author critically reflects on the book by considering its methodologies, its arguments, and its relation with other books of the same type and on the same subject.

Ludwig Wittgenstein (Vienna 1889 - Cambridge 1951) was one of the greatest philosophers of the 20th century. A distinction is traditionally made between two phases of his philosophical work, an earlier phase which is identified with Tractatus logico-philosophicus, and a later phase, mainly characterized by the Philosophical Investigations. Wittgenstein's thought was deeply influential on both logical empiricism and so called "ordinary language philosophy". Even today, his writings are required reading in many areas of philosophical inquiry, from the philosophy of mind to metaphilosophy, from ethics to aesthetics, from the debate on rules, normativity and relativism to the debate on certainty, knowledge and scepticism. This profile will be limited to the central views to be found in the Tractatus and the Investigations, following the lead of the distinction between sense and nonsense as traditionally interpreted.