19 APhEx num 19, anno 2019

Essentialist theories hold that (i.) there is a distinction between the features a thing essentially has and those it accidentally has, and (ii.) such a distinction is independent from the way that thing is referred to. After a brief introduction (§ 1), we will present the main accounts of the notion of an essential property (§ 2, 3). We will then focus on the issue of how essentialism itself is to be characterized (§ 4) and introduce some major essentialist theses (§ 5). We will then consider some objections that have been raised against essentialism (§ 6)

Frank Plumpton Ramsey (1903-1930) was a British mathematician and philosopher, working at Cambridge University during the twenties. He was part of the Cambridge group that gave birth to the analytic tradition in philosophy. He made original contributions, in particular, to philosophy of mathematics and mathematical logic, probability theory and economics. Despite his early death, he achieved impressive results in many different fields of investigation. The aim of this profile is to give a general overview of Ramsey's thought, his works and most relevant results, and to show what an extraordinary thinker he was.

Kate Manne’s Down Girl. The Logic of Misogyny provides a new definition of misogyny, which is a system of punishments and rewards with the purpose of sustaining the patriarchal order. Sexism, instead, is the ideology that justifies the gender roles in a patriarchal society. In this way, the author manages to account for phenomena, like a sexist joke and a femicide, that differ in character and intensity, and to underline the common root. The book refers continuously to real-life facts. By the advantages and innovation, the book will most probably become a milestone of the debate on genders

The paper examines the epistemology of the Polish philosopher Ludwik Fleck considered by Thomas Kuhn as his precursor, with particular reference to two key concepts of his thought, the thought-style and the thought-collective of which the modes of functioning are analyzed. As proof of the vitality of Fleckian thought, we outline some possible uses of the thought-style and of the thought-collective in the interpretation of various cultural phenomena.

Può un soggetto nato cieco che ha imparato a discriminare forme specifiche grazie al tatto riconoscere immediatamente, nel caso in cui la sua visione venisse ripristinata improvvisamente, le stesse forme poste davanti ai suoi occhi usando la vista? Questa è la famosa domanda di Molyneux. Questo articolo spiega perché tale domanda rappresenta ancora un problema aperto per scienziati della visione e filosofi. L'articolo si concentrerà sui seguenti cruciali aspetti riguardanti l'indagine di tale problema: (i) l'interpretazione della domanda; (ii) la possibilità di ripristinare la visione della cecità, in relazione a (ii a) i problemi biologici che dobbiamo affrontare quando cerchiamo di ripristinare la visione in maniera soddisfacente e (ii b) i problemi sperimentali che dobbiamo affrontare quando cerchiamo di testare se la visione è stata ripristinata in maniera soddisfacente. L'analisi di questi tre aspetti importanti del problema affrontato in questa sede ci condurrà alla comprensione di cosa possiamo (e cosa non possiamo) fare al momento, quando proviamo a rispondere a tale domanda. Ciò sarà possibile affrontando il problema da una prospettiva interdisciplinare, alla luce di ciò che sappiamo sulla visione dall'oftalmologia, dalle neuroscienze della visione, dalla biologia, dalla fenomenologia e dalla filosofia analitica della visione.

This article examines the thought of the American philosopher Roy Wood Sellars, preeminent exponent of the realist tradition of American philosophy in the first few decades of the twentieth century. I will examine, in particular, two key themes of his philosophical production: his critical realism and his evolutionary naturalism. Important and largely unexplored connections between his theses and those of his more well-known son, Wilfrid Sellars, will also be highlighted. Keywords: Roy Wood Sellars; Critical Realism; Epistemology.

Susan Stebbing (1885-1943) was a founder of Analysis and had a large influence on philosophy during the early 20th century. Recently, the work of Michael Beaney (2000), Siobhan Chapman (2013) and Frederique Janssen- Lauret (2017), amongst others, has begun a resurgence of interest in Stebbing. This paper serves as a brief introduction to some of the major features of her philosophical work.

Vincenzo Fano, in this very brief, brilliant (and short ) twenty-two-chapters book, tries to introduce readers to the apparently “odd” world of philosophical questions. The author starts from some very important pre-philosophical and pre-theoretical premises, which could enable us to break and to open the borders between philosophy and the technologically labelled “common sense” everyday life. These premises are (a) the common ground of scientific naturalism (b) the capacity of amazement and the desire of astonishment and amusement in any sort of research, with particular respect to the study concerning physical world (c) the pre-theoretical disposition to tolerance for other’s point of view and open-mindedness (d) the total refuse of any sort of fanaticism and dogmatism. These aims push the author to imagine a bizarre return of Democritus from past to contemporary world. The “Neo-Democritus” of today is a little bit different from the ancient, pre-classical greek philosopher; he is a very ill, elderly man, suffering from a most probably fatal disease, and he writes a letter to his imaginary daughter, a Italian girl with an Italian boy-friend, discussing about a lot of problems: the meaning and the ultimate sense of human existence and of death, as well as [of] the importance of liberal democracy in our very troubled historical age, without overlooking other fundamental questions as the significance of quantum mechanics for scientific realism, as well as the urgency to fill the gap between biology and psychology touching very ancient and terrible problems like free will and human agency and responsibility. The result is a book with big provisions of credits and values, one among all: a neo-democritean, but not specialized or grandiloquent apologetic of physical reductionism able to set very stimulating links between apparently far or antipodal areas of philosophy and human culture, as economics, sociology, social sciences and epistemology, physics, chemistry. A direct and natural basis of comparison is naturally provided by a book as What Does It All Mean?A Very Short Introduction to Philosophy by Thomas Nagel, but there are a lot of differences between these two marvelous books, and the most important is the very (political, liberal and libertarian) “militant” nature of the inspiration of Fano’s work.