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Studies in the Ontology of E.J. Lowe
No full textWith the death of Edward Jonathan Lowe (1950-2014), the analytical philosophy lost one of the most influential thinkers of the last thirty-five years. His contributions include (but are not limited to) philosophy of mind, John Locke's philosophy and metaphysics. In particular, concerning metaphysical studies, the most innovative part of Lowe's philosophical perspective is the four-category ontology that, according to the author, provides an exhaustive inventory of what there is and a powerful explanatory framework for a metaphysical foundation of natural science. Accordingly, the purpose of this volume is to collect some new essays from distinguished authorities in the field, critics and collaborators of Lowe in order to present some fundamental issues triggered by his ontological proposal
A brief guide to this book
No full textThis is a short introduction of Studies in the Ontology of E.J. Low
The Riddle of Reality
No full textWith the Ontological Turn, the development of ontological researches in the analytical area has been characterized by an increasing number of hypotheses and methods of investigation. The consequent plurality of positions has not prevented the establishing of a generally shared meaning of the term "ontology", which may be thought as denoting that philosophical discipline concerned with the question of what there is. Accordingly, part of the ontological inquiry is devoted to that of drafting a complete and detailed inventory of the universe, by specifying the basic constituents of reality and their structural relationships. In this context, some authors have also emphasized a strong connection between ontological researches and the scientific disciplines, which has allowed to make explicit the ontological assumptions of these non-philosophical fields. Among others, E.J. Lowe has conceived ontology as that part of metaphysics aimed at rendering mutually consistent the partial descriptions of reality that emerge from the various sciences, in order to provide a unitary description of reality as a whole. Thus, he has proposed a four-category ontology that has the task of offering an exhaustive inventory of what there is and an explanatory framework for a metaphysical foundation for natural science. All this considered, the aim of this article is to reconstruct the fundamental premises and topics of Lowe's ontological proposal and to show a possible criticism based on the relationship, he endorses, between ontology and empirical sciences
C. Pesaresi: Applicazioni GIS. Principi metodologici e linee di ricerca. Esercitazioni ed esemplificazioni guida
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Rethinking Geo-Ontologies from a Philosophical Point of View
No full textThis article is intended as a philosophical introduction to geo-ontologies, in response to their increasing diffusion within the contemporary debate, where philosophy plays a fundamental, though still unexplored, role. The first part is concerned with the analysis of geo-ontologies, underlining their general and specific aims, and distinguishing three different disciplinary contexts which make up the geo-informatics domain: informatics, philosophy and geography. Secondly, I analyze the importance of common sense conceptualizations and their ontological structures, the connection between ontology of geography and theory of spatial representation, in terms of geographical entities, borders, theoretical tools (such as mereology, topology and theory of spatial location) and the distinction between classical and non-classical geographies. Finally, the main contemporary geo-ontologies are classified, through the analysis of their main contents and distinctive features, in geomatics/topological/geometrical, physical/natural and human ontologie
On Future Ontology: A Reply to Longenecker
No full textThe supporters of Indeterminate Futurism Theory [IFT] suggest three different reasons for preferring their view over Growing Block Theory [GBT]. If compared to GBT, IFT offers a better account for the open future problem, our cognitive attitudes towards future contingents, and how open the future is. Michael Tze-Sung Longenecker disagrees with them, stating that the advantages suggested by IFT's supporters are not advantages at all and/or can be accommodated by GBT. This means that, if he is right, there is no reason to prefer IFT over GBT. However, if we prove the feasibility of (at least) one of the supposed advantages of IFT, Longenecker should admit that the game between IFT and GBT could still be open. Here, we focus on our cognitive attitudes towards future, with the aim of showing that the explanation of such attitudes may be a string to IFT's bow, as Ross Cameron suggests
A Riddle about Justice
No full textLet’s take: 1) two different theories of justice: justice1, justice2; 2) the question: ‘is right2 just1?’. Such a question calls into question
justice1 appealing to a different theory of justice (justice2). Is it permissible to answer the question by making an appeal to a
theory of justice (justice2) different from the theory called into question (justice1)? In other words, given two different theories of justice, is it possible to make a comparison between these theories to select the best theory
Le persone e i loro corpi. Dal dualismo non cartesiano alla riflessione morale in E.J. Lowe
No full textObiettivo di queste pagine è delineare i tratti essenziali della posizione di E.J. Lowe circa il rapporto mente corpo, evidenziandone le ricadute sulla riflessione morale. Nella prima parte mi soffermerò sul problema mente corpo nel dibattito contemporaneo, analizzando le classificazioni di Kirk Ludwig e Andrea Lavazza. Nella seconda analizzerò la proposta dualista non cartesiana di Lowe, che definisce la relazione mente corpo come un rapporto tra due sostanze individuali distinte, ma non separabili. Nella terza, infine, offrirò uno spunto per un’analisi della riflessione morale di Lowe, strettamente connessa alle tematiche affrontate affrontat
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