Search results for "Philosophy of Language"
showing 10 items of 81 documents
¿Teoría crítica o inmunización del sistema? Acerca de la dicotomía habermasiana entre sistema y mundo de la vida.
2018
El artículo presenta las fuentes y la definición de los conceptos sistema y mundo de la vida, poniendo de relieve cómo la colonización del mundo de la vida por parte del sistema aparece como un proceso patológico, frente al cual cabe mantener un posicionamiento crítico. Ante el aumento de la complejidad sistémica, es necesario asegurar la reproducción simbólica del mundo de la vida a través de la acción comunicativa. Compartiendo con Habermas el sentido de sus problematizaciones, presentamos sin embargo diversas objeciones a la oposición dicotómica de ambas esferas, en la medida en que ésta confiere a los sistemas económico y administrativo un estatuto ontológico que acaba blindándolos ante…
Not Only Slurs. A Pragma-rhetorical Approach to Verbal Abuse
2019
The topic of this paper is the complex phenomenon of verbal abuse. The aim is to show the productivity of a pragma-rhetorical approach in addressing this issue. Indeed, integrating modern pragmatics with classical rhetoric, this approach does not isolate words from social practices and therefore is not exclusively focused on slurs (as is the case in the current debate on this topic in the field of the philosophy of language) but it concerns verbal abuse in general. I argue that this wider approach, especially thanks to its focus on the intertwining of linguistic and social components, is more adapted to shedding light on the role that words play in performing violence. Particularly, I take …
Truth, Negation and Meaning
2013
‘True’ and ‘False’ are defined through a linguistic rule requiring the negation operator. This is the elaboration of an idea proffered for the first time by the Stoics on the basis of some remarks by Aristotle and then in modern times by Frege and Wittgenstein. Another thesis of this essay is the following: the true/false rule is a sort of UR-Regel underlying all linguistic practices (including prayers and commands) and all human cultures. Reinterpreting the notion of Spielraum put forward by Wittgenstein in 4.463 of the Tractatus, I will present an implicational pragmatic theory of a true proposition. Jokes and reductio ad absurdum are explained as examples of Spielraum.
Retorica Vivente. Un approccio retorico alla filosofia del linguaggio.
2015
Starting from some suggestions from Living Thought. The Origins and Actuality of Italian Philosophy (R. Esposito, 2010), this paper sustains that rhetoric can be a fruitful way of doing philosophy of language. According to Esposito, one of the main characteristics of the so called italian thought is the focus on the necessary connection between language and extra-linguistic world. In this article I argue that rhetoric, thanks to its extra-linguistic aim (persuasion), pays particular attention to this connection. This attitude involves many important consequences such as: 1. considering speakers and listeners as essential components of speech and not as its external users; 2. assigning a key…
Stage Theory and Proper Names
2011
In the contemporary debate about the nature of persistence, stage theory is the view that ordinary objects (artefacts, animals, persons, etc.) are instantaneous and"persist" by being suitably related to other instantaneous objects (see T. Sider 1996, 2001 and K. Hawley 2001, both defenders of the view). In this paper I focus on the issue of what stage theorists should say about the semantics of ordinary proper names, like"Socrates" or"London". This is how I will proceed: after discussing the general features of stage theory (section 1), I will consider the remarks that stage theorists actually make about the semantics of proper names (section 2). I will then point to some hitherto unnoticed…
Principles, balancing, and the separation between law and morals: on neo-constitutionalism and its critics
2011
En el ensayo Constitucionalismo principialista y constitucionalismo garantista, Luigi Ferrajoli ofrece una oportuna clarificación teórica y conceptual sobre el así llamado neoconstitucionalismo. Por mi parte, en esta contribución intentaré desarrollar algunas observaciones sobre tres puntos acerca de los cuales me encuentro en relativo desacuerdo con el análisis de Ferrajoli: el tratamiento de la distinción entre reglas y principios, la interpretación de la práctica de la ponderación, y el problema de la separación entre Derecho y moral. Además, ofreceré un panorama de los significados del (neo)constitucionalismo, y, respecto a tal panorama, consideraré el modo en el cual Ferrajoli sitúa su…
Pre-conventions. A fragment of the Background
2016
In this paper I argue that there exist conventions of a peculiar sort which are neither norms nor regularities of behaviour, partaking of both. I proceed as follows. After a brief analysis of the meaning of ‘convention’, I give some examples of the kind of phenomena I have in mind: bodily skills, know-how, taste and style, habitus (P. Bourdieu), “disciplines” (M. Foucault). Then I group some arguments supporting my claim: (i) considerations about the identity conditions of precedents (D. Lewis) and about the projectibility of predicates in inductive inference generally (N. Goodman); (ii) thoughts about rule-following (L. Wittgenstein); (iii) an examination of some of J. R. Searle’s ideas ab…
How can mental models theory account for content effects in conditional reasoning? A developmental perspective
1998
Abstract This article proposes a modification to Johnson-Laird's mental models theory applied to the interpretation of conditional statement of the form `if...then'. The model suggests that this interpretation is based on the construction of mental models supplied by establishing a correspondence between the semantic spaces associated with the antecedent and consequent of the statements. The construction of the models and the interpretation of the statements would depend on the nature of the semantic spaces involved, the interpretative context and the subject's knowledge and processing capacity. Three experiments show that the interpretation of conditional rules depends, for example, on whe…
Conclusion: University Ambiguities and Analytic Eclecticism
2018
This volume has examined six cases of university engagement in peripheral regions. While these regions have often been overlooked in the mainstream literature on university-region dynamics because they do not readily offer up success stories, they do facilitate an exploration into the challenges and difficulties that arise at the intersection of the university and region. Beginning with a theory rooted in institutionalist literature that depicts the university as a set of five ambiguities rather than as a coherent whole, the chapters have sought to apply the ambiguities of intention, causality, history, structure, and meaning to their regional context. In this conclusion, we pull together a…
Frankfurtian Reflections: A Critical Discussion of Robert Lockie’s “Three Recent Frankfurt Cases”
2016
In a recent article, Robert Lockie brings about a critical examination of three Frankfurtstyle cases designed by David Widerker and Derk Pereboom. His conclusion is that these cases do not refute either the Principle of Alternative Possibilities (PAP) or some cognate leeway principle for moral responsibility. Though I take the conclusion to be true, I contend that Lockie's arguments do not succeed in showing it. I concentrate on Pereboom's Tax Evasion 2 . After presenting Pereboom's example and analyzing its structure, I distinguish two strategies of Lockie's to defend PAP against it, which I call 'No True Alternative Decision' (NTAD) and 'No Responsibility' (NR), respectively. According to…