Rivista Italiana di Filosofia del Linguaggio

Introduction

Ivan Colagè — 2023-07-19

Bridging languages for the constructed realities of different scholarly domains

Michael A. Arbib — 2023-07-19

The search for a single interdisciplinary language for science, philosophy and religious studies is doomed to failure. Rather than the coarse granularity of these three fields, we focus on scholarly domains and demonstrate that even translation between a pair of domain languages may be impossible. Each domain language must support description of observations and theory, and provide satisfaction criteria for results asserted within the domain. Crucially, interaction between domains is based on human interaction, whether directly or through documents or artefacts. Thus we explore the relation between the mind of the individual scholar and the emerging consensuses that define a domain. The framework is based on Hesse and Arbib’s The Construction of Reality (CoR), extending a theory of “schemas in the head” to address the “social schemas” of a community. Members of a specific community -- such as a group of scholars within the same domain – may in some cases reach near agreement on the usage of terminology, but much scholarship is centered on disagreements, and these are magnified across different domains. Conversations between scholars in two domains requires a bridging language in which scholars may reach shared understandings of the terms each uses and thus reach shared conclusions, or agree to disagree. Developing bridging languages across domains of scholarly study may make new research questions arise and hence new domains of scholarly study may emerge – as exemplified by a case study bringing together linguistics, psychology, and neuroscience in the cognitive neuroscience of linguistics.

Science and metaphysics. Immanence and transcendence of language

Luigi Bruno — 2023-07-19

Science and metaphysics, as speech about the world, are also based on the only tool available to all possible speeches, language. They therefore arise in an inter-disciplinary context in which it seems that none of them can have any ambition of greater credibility or paradigmatic precedence towards the other forms of knowledge. Therefore, an analysis of the relationship between science and metaphysics must start from the consideration of language as a conditioning form that precedes any access to reality, be it scientific or philosophical. The necessary presupposition of language is prior to any scientific (and gnoseological) theory or approach, because it precedes any constitution of the subject, which is feasible only starting from the referential and intersubjective use of language, which allows man to constitute himself as a subject and, as such, to place himself in the world. The present investigation addresses the relationship between immanence and transcendence of language, from which derives a theoretical framework of reference for a possible and serene dialogue between the two speeches, in which these are interpreted, not as a dominion, but as a tension, of science towards immanence, recognizing the founding event of the being of things; of metaphysics towards transcendence, presupposing the empirical datum of entities. This would entail a reciprocal openness which, on the political level, rediscovers a fruitful collaboration that excludes any form of coercion and tyranny on the part of a single thought, that is, founded as absolute, incapable of giving answers to everything that is outside its dominion.

Prime matter / quantum void: a long-range correlation

Francesco Panizzoli — 2023-07-19

In this article I propose that, in the current state of scientific progress, the quantum vacuum is the best physical candidate to perform that theoretical function that Aristotle assigned to the prime matter, and that therefore the hylemorphic paradigm of science, after ups and downs, still remains consistent because it is corroborated by the latest physics of the microscopic (quantum and relativistic). Mine is not an apologetic intent; I intend to show that, in the realist approach of Kripke-Putnam’s causal theory of reference, an accredited physical theory (the Quantum Field Theory) and a precise philosophical conceptual framework (i.e. Aristotelian-Thomistic) can mutually enrich each other (to the point of claiming that, if Aristotle were living today, he would say: “the quantum vacuum is the prime matter”).

Embodying the unconscious: A new paradigm for the study of consciousness

Jacopo Colelli — 2023-07-19

Within cognitivist reflection a heated debate is centered today between those who consider legitimate to adopt a fundamentalism that returns to the neurobiological dimension and those who instead assume the non-reducibility of the phenomenological explanation to the physiological one. In the present contribution, an alternative perspective is outlined, which we have termed “hermeneutics of the living”. The research motivates the overcoming of fundamentalist assumptions in favor of an epistemological and ontological pluralism that enhances the continuity between the phenomenon of life, which can be investigated from its physiological components, and that of consciousness, which can instead be described with the methods and languages of phenomenology, anthropology, psychology, and the existential dimension. The moment of methodological reductionism, then, prepares for a holistic return in which the various perspectives are integrated into a description that is optimal and complete. The object of such an inquiry is the living-being understood as a whole, a radically embodied subjectivity that entertains an intentional relationship with its world-environment. The contribution presents the phenomenon of consciousness as the integral that encompasses the multiple activities of a living body in continuous resonance with the various affordances of the world-environment. The nature of this relationship can be investigated from a careful consideration of the genetic modes through which conscious experience is temporally constituted. Finally, we have attempted to demonstrate why the phenomenological method is the most appropriate epistemological tool to enrich neurobiological research within a renewed scientific enterprise that is, by its very nature, interdisciplinary.

Interdisciplinarity as language’s Aufhebung: a problem for the philosophy of translation

Silvia Pieroni — 2023-07-19

This paper aims to answer the main methodological challenge issued to scientific research by the interdisciplinary approach: the translation of the technical language among single sciences. To this end, I will consider the case of the German term Aufhebung, whose role within philosophical translation is paradigmatic. Its semantic history, in fact, relies both on internal translation processes of philosophy and on external translation processes between philosophy and other fields of studies. Especially, I will discuss two of these translations: first, the use of the verb aufheben in Hegel’s dialectic and its derivation from Pauline theology through the mediation of Luther’s translation of the Bible; second, Adorno’s use of Aufhebung in the discussion on the form of philosophy as opposed to speculative Konstellation. Through the polyvalence of the word Aufheben, both object and subject of philosophical translation, some ethical and aesthetic aspects of the interdisciplinary work as well as of the role that philosophy can play in current scientific research will be highlighted.

Wittgenstein’s Creed: Mythology and Axiomatic Systems

Francesco Galofaro — 2023-07-19

The paper describes a syntagmatic structure shared by axiomatic systems and creeds. In particular, the structure is based on the repetition of syntagm containing a modal operator (“I believe”), a name, and several descriptions. These syntagms should not be confused with empirical sentences. Rather, drawing on Wittgenstein, they can be compared to hinge statements: linguistic games that determine individual identity and weltbild. The rendering explicit of hinge statements in an axiomatic system generates orthodoxy and heresies, philosophical and political conflicts. The presence of this structure in a subset of religious and scientific discourses implies a bidirectional transfer of values between them. On one hand, it proves that religious discourse can be as rational as philosophical and scientific ones (there is logos in the mythos); on the other hand, axiomatic scientific discourse projects noological categories onto reality, producing a cosmos (there is mythos in the logos). Axiomatic expositions of scientific knowledge use the same modal operators as cosmogonic myths and imply a subject who believes in the resulting cosmology. The expression of these beliefs is not addressed to a transcendent entity; it instead asserts the belonging of the subject to a community based on the socio-semiotic sharing of the credit.

On the use of simile and paradox in Wittgenstein’s Tractatus and in Buddhism

Tomaso Pignocchi — 2023-07-19

The use of paradoxical similes is a common feature in both the philosophical works of Wittgenstein and the Buddhist scriptures. By using paradoxes, these thinkers seek to shake our preconceived notions of reality and challenge us to view things in a new way. For Wittgenstein, paradoxical similes were a means of conveying the limitations of language and the difficulty of expressing certain ideas and sensations. By presenting us with seemingly contradictory statements, he prompts us to rethink the meaning of words and concepts. Similarly, in Buddhist scriptures, paradoxical similes are used to help practitioners understand complex concepts such as emptiness and non-self. While the use of paradoxical similes can be confusing at first, their power lies in their ability to deconstruct and challenge our assumptions about reality. By embracing contradictions and paradoxes, we can gain a deeper understanding of the world around us and ourselves.

The infinity of language. Poetry as a bi-logical experience and the haiku

Gioia Sili — 2023-07-19

In the work of Ignacio Matte Blanco, poetry represents a field of research, within which it is possible to investigate the concepts of bi-logical epistemology, opening up original horizons, capable of bringing out the infinite through the aesthetic text. From this point of view, poetry, universally considered as a realm of emotion, shows an extraordinary convergence of the two ways of being present in humans, the first based on asymmetrical relationship and the second on symmetrical ones. In this perspective, the paper aims to investigate the relationship between bi-logic and poetry starting from the theory of Matte Blanco, paying attention particularly to the smallest existing composition, the haiku. Indeed, we argue that in the concise Japanese poetry the perception of the ‘indivisible way of being’, theorized by the Chilean psychoanalyst, flows in an original way: in a very small space of seventeen syllables and three lines there is the power to express deep emotions. On the other hand, it is clearly evident that the spirit of haiku can only exist within a fixed formal structure, understood not so much in terms of a limit, but rather as a way for the poet to refine his reflective skills.

Grasping abstract notions via embodied language in Mark's Gospel

Claudio Tagliapietra — 2023-07-19

Jesus of Nazareth used parables to convey religious concepts with an unparalleled mastery of everyday experience. These “examples” were pedagogical tools for communicating moral and religious content in a concrete manner. However, evaluating this concreteness requires consideration of recent developments in embodiment neuroscience concerning how language acquires meaning and conveys content. This paper employs these neuroscientific developments to explore the concreteness of Jesus’ language, and shows how the perspective of embodied language aligns with the three levels of concreteness identified in the parables’ narrative.

Negative Language and Gödel's Incompleteness in Cappadocian Theology

Giulio Maspero — 2023-07-19

The article presents the difference between the epistemology of the Church Fathers and Greek metaphysics in terms of the introduction of an infinite gap between the first principle and the world. This breaks the identification between being and the intelligible dimension, making negative theology a necessary path to progress in the knowledge of God. This is presented from the perspective of the thought of the Cappadocian Fathers, particularly in terms of the relationship between eternity and time. The path shows the convergence of Cappadocian epistemology with the incompleteness highlighted by contemporary logic. Indeed, the consistency of an intellectual description can only be invoked when the representation is open, in the sense that it refers to a surplus of reality over the merely logical and conceptual dimension.

New relationships among science, philosophy and religious studies

Antonino Drago — 2023-07-19

In past times some religious studies built deductive theories managed by classical logic. On the basis of recent interpretations of Nicholas Cusanus’ philosophical and logical thought it is shown that religious studies also can consistently use non-classical logic (intuitionist and modal ones). It was proved that through the intuitionist logic the main Christian teachings (enemy’s love, Beatitudes, original sin) acquire full, rational meanings and that the main two dogmas of Christian faith result not only without contradictions but also perfectly rational. In this light it is no longer true that sciences are the only rational studies and religious studies are based on imagination, intuition, analogy, and metaphor; both can distinguish within their use of natural language at least two different logics, the classical and the intuitionist, and moreover they can rigorously reason. In addition, again in the wake of Cusanus, the dichotomy between actual infinity and potential infinity is recognized important for the Abrahamic religious studies, which always well-distinguish them as belonging respectively and distinctly to God and to man. Since half a century this dichotomy was formalized in two different formulations of the entire mathematics, the classical and the constructive formulation. Consequently, in religious studies there exist two dichotomies, which also turn out to be the foundations of the natural sciences and (according to Leibniz) of the activity of human reason. Then the interdisciplinary comparison between science, philosophy and religious studies is much more rich and fruitful than in past times, because it takes into account that 1) the foundations of both are pluralist and 2) the latter ones can also be well-formalized according to both logic and mathematics.

The understanding of “intelligence” between artificial intelligence, philosophy, and theology

Giovanni Amendola — 2023-07-19

The common perception of intelligence is associated with positive values and has historically been considered a unique attribute of human beings in Western philosophy. The connection between calculating machines and intelligence through Turing’s imitation game will kick off John McCarthy’s project on Artificial Intelligence. Since then, the question of how to understand what is commonly called intelligence has been constantly re-proposed. Indeed, the understanding of intelligence is not free from personal and social biases and has even become a worldview that includes anthropology. In the paper, starting from the way of understanding intelligence in the context of Artificial Intelligence, an attempt is made to disambiguate the term in question within the understandings present in Western philosophy and in the Judeo-Christian theology. Through an interdisciplinary examination of various forms of intelligence, such as calculative, intuitive, sensitive, adoring, ethical-wise, and agapic, the paper suggests the possibility of a broader and more integrated understanding into a unitary, transdisciplinary vision. This new perspective can broaden horizons and inspire future creative thinking and research in science, philosophy, and theology.

What Remains of the Notion of “World”: from the Tractatus to the Later Texts

Silvana Borutti — 2023-07-19

This paper analyses the concept of world (Welt) in the Tractatus and the transformations of this concept in Wittgenstein’s later writings. As for the Tractatus, the semantic link between world and totality (the world als begrenztes Ganzes) and the necessary (logical, transcendental) giving of form are considered. As for the transformation of this notion in the Thirties, and in the Big Typescript, the essentialist theme of logical form is abandoned and reformulated from the pluralist perspective of the ensemble of grammatical rules. In Philosophical Investigations the notion of world, like other notions called super-concepts (for example language, proposition), undergoes a de-sublimation and a lowering, and it is traced back to the normal use in language. In this way the pluralistic sense of world as form of life is gaining ground, and in On Certainty will lead to the concept of Weltbild, image of the world.

Paola Pietrandrea, 2021, Comunicazione, dibattito pubblico, social media. Come orientarsi con la linguistica, Carocci editore, Roma

Fabio Montesanti — 2023-07-19

Graham K., Hobaiter, C., (2023) «Towards a great ape dictionary: Inexperienced humans under-stand common nonhuman ape gestures», in PLoS Biology, n. 21(1), pp. 1-7. An evolutionary puzzle that still stands

Felice Cimatti — 2023-07-19

Stefano Gensini, Marina De Palo, eds., (2022) With Saussure, beyond Saussure. Between linguistics and philosophy of language, Münster, Nodus

Marco Mazzeo — 2023-07-18