Harry Settani's work explores psychic or paranormal phenomena from a uniquely philosophical perspective. Today's forms of science cannot accommodate the reality of the paranormal and therefore, Settanni proposes, the current view of reality must be changed in order to establish the real possibilities for such phenomena.

The mental representation of one’s own body does not necessarily correspond to the physical body. For instance, a dissociation between perceived and actual reach-ability has been shown, that is, individuals perceive that they can reach objects that are out of grasp. We presented participants with 3D pictures of objects located at four different distances, namely near-reaching space, actual-reaching space, perceived-reaching space and non-reaching space. Immediately after they were presented with function, manipulation, observation or pointing verbs and were required to judge (...) if the verb was compatible with the object.Participants were faster with function and manipulation verbs than with observation and pointing verbs. Strikingly, with both function and manipulation verbs participants were faster when objects were presented in actual than the perceived reaching space. These findings suggest that our knowledge of the world is implicitly built online through behaviour, and is not necessarily reflected in explicit estimates or conscious representations. (shrink)

Since the first decade of the 14th Century, Thomas Aquinas’s disciples have struggled to explain and defend his doctrine of analogy. Analogy after Aquinas: Logical Problems, Thomistic Answers relates a history of prominent Medieval and Renaissance Thomists’ efforts to solve three distinct but interrelated problems arising from their reading both of Aquinas’s own texts on analogy, and from John Duns Scotus’s arguments against analogy and in favor of univocity in Metaphysics and Natural Theology. The first of these three problems concerns (...) Aquinas’s at least apparently disparate statements on whether a name is said by analogy through a single concept or through diverse concepts. The second problem concerns the model of analogy suited for predicating names analogously across the categories of being or about God and creatures. Is “being” said analogously about God and creatures, or substance and accidents, on the model of how “healthy” is said of medicine and an animal, or on the model of how “principle” is said of a point and a line? The third problem comes from outside challenges to Aquinas’s thought, in particular Scotus’ claims that univocal names alone can mediate valid demonstrations, and any demonstration that failed to use its mediating terms univocally would fail by the fallacy of equivocation. Analogy after Aquinas makes a unique contribution to the study of philosophical theology in the tradition of Thomas Aquinas by showing the historical and philosophical connection between these three problems, as well as the variety of solutions proposed by leading representatives of this tradition. Thomists considered in the book include: Hervaeus Natalis (1250-1323), Thomas Sutton (1250-1315), John Capreolus (1380-1444), Dominic of Flanders (1425-1479), Paul Soncinas (d. 1494), Thomas dio vio Cajetan (1469-1534), Francis Silvestri of Ferrara (1474-1528), and Chrysostom Javelli (1470-1538). (shrink)

Per uscire dalle aporie delle proprie conseguenze, la scienza deve vedere riconosciuto l'atto come uno dei propri principi fondamentali (accanto all'ente e alla parola). Scienza è, infatti, mettere in relazione le cose (la "natura") con delle leggi matematiche (vale a dire con dei simboli e dei concetti). Ma mettere in relazione è un atto. Sicché, la scienza si fonda su tre principi (ente, parola, atto) e sui corrispettivi campi filosofici (ontologia, logica, etica). Tenere conto di quest'ambito triadico serve a mostrare (...) che l'epistemologia non è un sapere neutro e descrittivo, ma è un prendere partito: al tempo stesso dal punto di vista etico, politico, morale e giuridico. (shrink)

Controversial Issuses in Philosophy is intended for introductory undergraduate philosophy courses. The perspective is contemporary and topics range from religion to business ethics, computers, animal rights, education and music.

The seven essays in this comprehensive volume address a broad and diverse range of topics including aesthetics, logic, philosophical psychology, philosophy of science, philosophy of law, metaphysics and epistemology. Despite its approach to a number of topics, Essays in Psychology and Epistemology has a pervasive theme. The book concerns itself with man, his psychology and his epistemology and the perennial contemporary problems of himself and his knowledge of the world around him.

The book examines the life and times of five philosophers who were prominent in history: John Stuart Mill, Immanuel Kant, George Wilhelm Hegel, John Dewey, and Immanual Mournier.

This book defends a particular theory of free choiceóincompatibilism, the belief that free will is not possible in a totally causal universe. The author attempts to prove this position throughout the work both by appealing to the almost universally accepted Copenhagen Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics and applying it in the rival theory of compatibilismóits failure to take free choice seriously.

The strongly innovative theory of whole-parts relations outlined by Husserl in his Third logical Investigation—to which he attributed a basic value for his entire phenomenology—has recently attracted a renewed interest. Although many important issues have been clarified (especially by Kit Fine) the subject seems still worth being revisited. To this aim Husserlian universes are introduced. These are lower bounded distributive lattices endowed with a unary operation of defect and a binary relation of isogeneity. Husserl's contents are identified with nonzero elements (...) of a Husserlian universe and the dependence relations among contents are defined and studied starting from the idea that the defect of xis what x needs in order to ‘exist’ i.e., in order to be ‘closed’ with respect to the closure operation defined as the sup of x and its defect. It turns out that there are (at least) eight dependence relations which are worth to be considered. Many other questions concerning the world of contents (among them the proofs of the famous Husserl's Sätze) may now be discussed and clarified. Then the theory of species and genera is developed. Ultimate species (for short: species) are identified with equivalence classes of contents modulo isogeneity, and species in general (for short: genera) are identified with arbitrary unions of species. On the basis of the relation obtaining among two contents when they are isogeneous to two contents the first of which is a part of the second it becomes possible to develop a rather satisfying interpretation of Husserl's theory of the dependencies among species and genera and of the material a priori laws. By strengthening the notion of Husserlian universe into the notion of rigid Husserlian universe, the theory of species and genera obtains a stronger version. Three models of the theory are exhibited. The first one, suggested by combinatorial-topological considerations, identifies contents with finite non-empty sets of natural numbers; the second one identifies contents with non-empty sets of formulas of a formal language; the third one (not totally ‘rigid’) identifies contents with positive integers. (shrink)

This paper gives two complete and elementary proofs that if the speed of light over closed paths has a universal value c, then it is possible to synchronize clocks in such a way that the one-way speed of light is c. The first proof is an elementary version of a recent proof. The second provides high precision experimental evidence that it is possible to synchronize clocks in such a way that the one-way speed of light has a universal value. We (...) also discuss an old incomplete proof by Weyl which is important from an historical perspective. (shrink)

La logique cartésienne est introuvable parce qu’on a cherché une logique qui n’existe pas, c’est-à-dire une logique classique sur le modèle des manuels de la tradition réformée. La puissance transgressive de Descartes, même dans ce domaine, a été radicale : il a bafoué l’Arbre de Porphyre, vidé de sens la théorie des catégories, montré l’inutilité du syllogisme pour la recherche scientifique. Sans efficacité, à son avis, fut le renouveau d’une logique fondée sur des normes préconstituées. Il se « limite » (...) pourtant à suggérer, sur le modèle des procédés mathématiques, une attitude de pensée centrée sur l’intuitus et dont les relations sont garanties par les notions de « série » et de respectus. La transgression cartésienne a été si bouleversante que « Descartes logicien » devient un auteur maudit et l’attitude qu’il aurait voulu inspirer n’a connu aucune fortune, à telle enseigne que même la Logique de Port-Royal qu’on voudrait cartésienne consacre un grand espace à la syllogistique.Undiscoverable is the Cartesian logic, because scholars looked for a logic that does not exist, i.e. a classical logic after the model of traditional, more or less reformed, manuals. Descartes’ transgressive power was radical even in this domain : he scorned Phorphyrius Tree, voided the theory of categories of all meaning, showed the uselessness of syllogism for scientific research. Just as totally ineffective was, in his view, the renewal of a logic founded on preconstituted norms. He therefore « limits » himself to suggest, after the model of mathematical procedures, an attitude of thought centered on intuitus and whose relationships are guaranteed by the notions of « series » and respectus. The Cartesian transgression turned out to be so upsetting that « Descartes the logician » became a wicked author and the attitude he had meant to inspire had no fortune whatsoever, to such a point that even the Logic of Port-Royal – purportedly Cartesian – leaves much room to syllogistics. (shrink)

This paper gives two complete and elementary proofs that if the speed of light over closed paths has a universal value c, then it is possible to synchronize clocks in such a way that the one-way speed of light is c. The first proof is an elementary version of a recent proof. The second provides high precision experimental evidence that it is possible to synchronize clocks in such a way that the one-way speed of light has a universal value. We (...) also discuss an old incomplete proof by Weyl which is important from an historical perspective. (shrink)

Dapprima due indizi. Il primo: si può affermare che le due domande “Come si chiama il libro che stai leggendo?” e “Come si intitola il libro che stai leggendo?” siano immediatamente comprensibili ed equivalenti. Difficilmente però un parlante sente come equivalenti le domande “Come si chiama quell’edificio?” e “Come si intitola quell’edificio?”. Mentre la prima domanda è chiarissima, la seconda susciterà un’ulteriore domanda di chiarimento: “Che cosa intendi per titolo dell’edificio?”. Per un...

This book defends the constructivist view of science, namely, the view that scientific theories are mental constructions in the mind of the scientist, rather than the realist view that scientific theories are accounts of what nature itself is like. To prove this point, evolution theory is contrasted with "creation science" as two paradigms or extremely divergent theories, each of which, as a mental construct, explains the data or facts of the natural world equally well. Contents: Realism vs. Constructivism; Meaning and (...) Reference in the Natural Sciences; The Role of Paradigm in the Creationism Controversy; Science As Mental Construction. (shrink)

This book presents and defends the version of objectivistic ethics, and applies it to the areas of social justice and medical ethics. Contents: Moral Judgment: Knowledge or Opinion? Back to Basics; Materialism in Ethics; Sexuality; Pornography; The Family; Actions and Long-Range Consequences: The Aged and Elderly; Biomedical Research; Abortion, Sterilization, and Euthanasia; Lying: Never or Hardly Never? The Assumption and Society-at-Large: Equality of Opportunity.