21 APhEx num 21, anno 2020

Nel 1945 Friedrich Waismann introduce la nozione di open texture o porosità con riferimento alla natura dei concetti ordinari: secondo Waismann, un concetto non può mai essere introdotto in maniera tale da risultare definito "in tutte le direzioni possibili"; al contrario, le definizioni sono "sempre correggibili o modificabili". La nozione waismanniana suscita una rinnovata attenzione nel dibattito contemporaneo, in particolare in relazione alle questioni del cambiamento concettuale, della vaghezza, dell'esplicazione, dei concetti formali, e della cd. ingegneria concettuale; questo breve contributo presenta un problema aperto per la tesi che i nostri concetti, specialmente quelli logici e matematici, esibiscono open texture.

This paper offers a critical introduction to moral epistemology, that is, one of the emerging disciplines within metaethics and epistemology. The main sections of this contribution are devoted to addressing the three following issues: first, whether it is possible to acquire moral knowledge; second, how – viz., through which sources – we can acquire moral knowledge; and third, which implications moral epistemology draws from empirical sciences.

Megethology is the second-order theory of the part-whole relation developed by David Lewis, and it is obtained by combining plural quantification with classical extensional mereology. It can express some hypotheses about the size of the domain such as that there are inaccessibly many atoms. This will prove enough to get the orthodox set theory. Then, megethology is a possible foundation for mathematics. This paper is an introduction to megethology.

Stanisław Leśniewski (1886 –1939), Polish logician and philosopher belonging to the first generation of the Lwów-Warsaw School, contributedto the elaborationof the so-called developmentalLogics. His main research areas wereMathematical logic and Philosophy of logic. Since 1914, he elaborateda formal mereology, an extensional theory of the relations between parts and wholes that is currently the ground of many recentdevelopments in contemporary ontology and metaphysics. My aim is to present Leśniewski'slong ignored ideas and to show theircomplexity and original features throughthe critical presentation of his main works.

The interaction between human beings and robots is, not surprisingly, one of the most growing topics in the research of artificial sciences, in particular in robotics and social robotics. In Living with robots, Paul Dumouchel and Luisa Damiano deal with the problem from the point of view of robotic emotions, up to discussing a sort of artificial empathy. In the volume, different positions relating to affective robotics, that is, the study of emotions in robotics, have been reviewed. The authors largely criticize contemporary approaches by suggesting their own approach that fits within the framework of radical embodiment. The issues still open concern the ontological assumptions regarding emotions in robotics, and therefore the theoretical contexts within which they are studied; the experimental methodologies exploited, starting from the synthetic method; and the repercussions in related areas, such as that of robotic ethics. The volume of Dumouchel and Damiano is characterized by a conceptual and expository clarity which, beyond the agreement or disagreement with the authors' positions, allows an in-depth reflection on frontier topics.