Esercizi Filosofici 10, 1 (2015)

Abstract: The rethinking of the concept of plasticity by French philosopher Catherine Malabou requires a revision of' the matter of the accident. Thanks to a unique mixture of Philosophy, Neuroscience, and Psychoanalysis and through the study of new forms of contemporary traumatisms. Malabou was able to unveil an original perspective on the accident. Within this paper I will focus on this concept in the attempt of showing how this new characterization of the accident will lead the fundamental philosophical foundations (accident, destruction, metamorphosis) to reconsider the contemporary form of old age.

Answering to the questions posed by students, I clarify my position on four main topics: (i) the pragmatic maxim; (ii) the relation between my conception of truth on one hand, and epistemic conceptions of truth and the idea of the convergence of our cognitive efforts on the other; (iii) the skeptical challenge; (iv) the relationship between science and philosophy.

Concise replies to remarks and queries by Paolo Parrini, and by students andmembers of the audience regarding the topics indicated by the above mentioned keywords.

In dialogue with Kenneth R. Westphal’s position on realism and skepticism I defend an empirical realism which in a positive (though not positivistic) perspective rejects the transcendental components of Kant’s empirical realism. The central ideas of the empirical realism I support are the characterizations of reality and truth as regulative ideals and of knowledge as unifying activity. I justify my conception by a conceptual and pragmatic analysis of the main relevant epistemological notions.