Realism and antirealism in metaphysics, science and language

Festschrift for Mario Alai 

The book includes several essays written by prominent contemporary philosophers as well as by younger researchers in honor of Mario Alai on the occasion of his 70th birthday. The single original contributions delve into different foundational issues in the philosophy of science, epistemology, philosophy of language, and metaphysics, and engage in rigorous analyses of the structure and workings of different forms of human knowledge. This fruitful variety of perspectives reflects the wide-ranging and multifaceted character of Mario Alai's philosophical work and interests. The book also includes an extensive reply written by Alai himself, which amply testifies to his lifelong commitment to passionate yet fair-minded philosophical debate.
Published in 2024  

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Gerhard Schurz:

Optimality Justifications

New Foundations for Epistemology

 The leading idea of epistemology in the enlightenment tradition was foundation-theoretic: to reach knowledge we must not legitimize our beliefs by external authorities, but justify them by rational arguments. Presently the foundation-theoretic ideal of justification has come under attack, the chief criticism being that been that its universal standards of justification are illusionary because the justificational regress problem is unsolvable. Alternatives to foundation-theoretic epistemology such as coherentism, externalism or dogmatism have been developed that give up central claims of enlightenment epistemology such empirical support, cognitive accessibility or rational justifiability.

In this book Gerhard Schurz develops a new account of foundation-theoretic epistemology based on the method of optimality justifications. Optimality justifications offer a solution to the regress problem. Rather than striving for a priori demonstrations of reliability, which are impossible, they show

that certain epistemic methods are optimal in regard to all accessible alternatives, which is more modestly but provably possible. In particular,  optimality

justifications can achieve a non-circular justification of deductive, inductive and abductive reasoning.   All in all this book pursues two goals: a general renewal of foundation-theoretic epistemology based on the account of optimality justifications, and the advancement of methods of optimality justification in important domains of epistemology and philosophy of science, logic and cognition. Connected with these two goals is the aspiration of this book to develop new ideas for mainstream epistemology as well as for formal epistemology, philosophy of science and cognitive science, intended to attract researchers, students and all other readers interested in these fields. 

Published in 2024

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Chrysostomos Mantzavinos:

Chrysostomos Mantzavinos: The Constitution of Science
How can science be protected, by whom and at what level? If science is valued positively as the incubator of the most successful solutions to representational problems of reality as well as the basis of the most effective interventions in the natural and social world, then its constitutional foundations must be protected. This book develops a specific normative outlook on science by introducing the idea of a 'Constitution of Science'. Scientific activities are special kinds of epistemic problem-solving activities unfolding in an institutional context. The scientific enterprise is a social process unfolding within an intricate institutional framework that structures the daily activities of scientists and shapes their outcomes. Those institutions of science which are of the highest generality make up the 'Constitution of Science' and are of fundamental importance for channelling the scientific process effectively.

Published in 2024

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Michel Ghins: 

Scientific Realism and Laws of Nature:  

A Metaphysics of Causal Powers

 This book addresses central issues in the philosophy and metaphysics of science, namely

the nature of scientific theories, their partial truth, and the necessity of scientific laws within a moderate realist and empiricist perspective. Accordingly, good arguments in favour of the existence of unobservable entities postulated by our best theories, such as electrons, must be inductively grounded on perceptual experience and not their explanatory power as most defenders of scientific realism claim. Similarly, belief in the reality of dispositions such as causal powers which ground the natural necessity of scientific laws must be based on experience. Hence, this book offers a synthetic presentation of an original metaphysics of science, namely a metaphysics of properties, both categorical and dispositional, while at the same time opposing strong versions of necessitarism according to which laws are true in all possible worlds.

The main theses and arguments are clearly presented in a non-technical way. Thus, on top of being of interest to the specialists of the topics discussed, it is also useful as a textbook in courses for third year and more advanced university students.

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Published in 2024.

Mauro Dorato: 

Science and Representative Democracy  

This enlarged English-language translation of Disinformazione Scientifica e Democrazia, Cortina, Milan, argues that the advancement of science depends on an exponential process of specialization, accompanied by the creation of technical languages that are less and less accessible to the general public. The book reveals how such a process must align with representative forms of democracies, in which knowledge and decision-making are pyramided in terms of the general interest. Despite being based on the principle of competence, the role of experts as mediators of scientific knowledge threatens the autonomy of the citizen and calls for new ways to increase the level of literacy about science and its philosophical and probabilistic foundations, thereby avoiding the risks of technocracies. Using an opposition between pluralism and conformism, Science and Representative Democracy reveals the obstacles to the functioning of both science and democracy.
Published in 2023  

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Jan Faye: The Biological and Social Dimensions of Human Knowledge

The purpose of this book is to demonstrate that natural selection has adapted human sense impressions to deliver reliable information without meeting the traditional commitments for having knowledge. In connection with memory, sensory and bodily information provides an animal with experiential knowledge. Experiential knowledge helps an animal to navigate its environment. Moreover, experiential knowledge has different functions depending on whether the deliverance of information stems from the organism’s external or internal senses.

Published in 2023

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Fabio Minazzi: 

On Epistemology, Objectivity and Axiological Neutrality in Science 

This book seeks to critically overcome the traditional dichotomy introduced by the empiricist tradition between knowledge and values. To do so, it refers to the composite tradition of European critical rationalism inaugurated by Kant and matured with the lesson of Husserl's phenomenology.
The book illustrates a normativist and transcendentalist conception of knowledge, showing its value
as well as its limits. The book is addressed to scholars, teachers and people interested in developing a new image of scientific knowledge without forgetting the role and importance of axiology for the life of all people.
Published in 2023  

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Hans-Jörg Rheinberger - Split and Splice

A Phenomenology of Experimentation

The experiment has long been seen as a test bed for theory, but in Split and Splice, Hans-Jörg Rheinberger makes the case, instead, for treating experimentation as a creative practice. His latest book provides an innovative look at the experimental protocols and connections that have made the life sciences so productive. Delving into the materiality of the experiment, the first part of the book assesses traces, models, grafting, and note-taking—the conditions that give experiments structure and make discovery possible. The second section widens its focus from micro-level laboratory processes to the temporal, spatial, and narrative links between experimental systems. Rheinberger narrates with accessible examples, most of which are drawn from molecular biology, including from the author’s laboratory notebooks from his years researching ribosomes. A critical hit when it was released in Germany, Split and Splice describes a method that involves irregular results and hit-or-miss connections—not analysis, not synthesis, but the splitting and splicing that form a scientific experiment. Building on Rheinberger’s earlier writing about science and epistemology, this book is a major achievement by one of today’s most influential theorists of scientific practice. 

Published in 2023

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