Drawing from extensions of existing ideas in the logic of ground, a novel account of the grounds of necessity is presented, the core of which states that necessary truths are necessary because they stand in specific grounding connections.

In Metaphysics of States of Affairs, Bo Meinertsen reviews and works out several underdeveloped points in the existing scholarly debate on states of affairs, and presents his own original account in detail. In this paper, we raise three problems for Meinertsen’s account and draw attention to an alternative view that, though not discussed in the book, is not beset by these problems.

I provide a case-by-case definition of essential truths based on the notions of metaphysical necessity and ontological dependence. Relying on suggestions in the literature, I adopt a definition of the latter notion in terms of the notion of ground. The resulting account is adequate in the sense that it is not subject to Kit Fine’s famous counterexamples to the purely modal account of essence. In addition, it provides us with a novel conception of truths pertaining to the essence of objects, (...) which might help to dispel doubts on the legitimacy of the notion of essence itself. (shrink)

Abstract:There is a storied history of Native and Indigenous feminisms on Turtle Island (North America). We are fortunate that many of those stories birthed from an ancestral tradition of storytelling and survivance were captured in the canonical feminist anthology This Bridge Called My Back: Writings of Radical Women of Color. In celebration and commemoration of 40 years since This Bridge was first published we visit with three of the books original Native and Indigenous contributors–Chrystos, Max Wolf Valerio, and Jo (...) Carrillo–to recount old as well as new stories as they explore what Native and Indigenous feminisms mean to them and their continued work for Indigenous visibility. The conversation provides a unique intergenerational vision for conceptualizing contemporary Native and Indigenous feminisms all the while building upon the legacy and path set forth by amazing Native and Indigenous women trailblazers. (shrink)

P. van Inwagen famously offered three precise versions of the so-called Consequence Argument for incompatibilism. The third of these essentially employs the notion of an agent’s having a choice with respect to a proposition. In this paper, I offer two intuitively attractive accounts of this notion in terms of the explanatory connective ‘because’ and explore the prospects of the third argument once they are in play. Under either account, the argument fails.

Taxation is more than one thing. Taxes can be levied in various ways on various things, with varying effects on a culture and an economy, and raising different challenges of justification.

Few if any distinctions are more easily recognisable and assented to than that between _objects_, that is, things which are some ways, and that which they are, that is, _ways for objects to be_ (‘ways of being’ for short). In this paper I present an argument designed to show that this distinction is indeterminate in the sense that the truth-conditions of predicational sentences leave open what should count as an object and a way of being. The bulk of the argument (...) is inspired by the celebrated permutation argument advanced by Quine, Wallace, Putnam and others. (shrink)

Humanity is threatened by global risks that cross borders and national institutions in a way that has never been experienced before. Disasters, far from being purely natural phenomena, constitute the greatest danger in a context of political, social and scientific uncertainty. A new risk-based governance appears, ranging from the introduction of problematic exceptional measures and an increased vulnerability and inequality in risk exposure. This proposal aims to deepen the analysis of the relationship between law, politics and catastrophe as the focal (...) point of the evolution of risk prevention and management and its significance for the transformations of our understanding of democracy. The research proposes to engage catastrophes by conceiving them as powerful amplifiers and epiphanies of injustices, assuming that the role of the state should be inserted into a wider reading that must include the problem of unequal distribution of risks. (shrink)

Cet article est une contribution à la lecture de Fûdo, le milieu humain, ouvrage du philosophe japonais Watsuji Testurô qui aborde le thème du rapport de l’être humain au monde. Cette réflexion veut en éclairer certaines thèses, les comparer aux catégories de la philosophie occidentale et déterminer si Fûdo peut se comprendre comme une pensée de la finitude.

Pope Gregory the Great’s homilies and letters document his fight against simony, widely spread among all patriarchates, where sacraments, first of all Holy Orders, were sold, and where one could become a bishop solely through the donations and support of influential people. The Pope asked both laity and bishops to help in eradicating this terrible plague which he considered a real heresy, inasmuch as it debased the dignity of the priesthood and the action of Holy Spirit and undermined the unity (...) of the Church. In an eschatological perspective he invited bishops and laity to cooperate in his reform of ecclesiastical custom according to the Holy Scriptures, the tradition of the Church Fathers and canon law. (shrink)

In an age of rapid advances inlife-prolonging treatment, patients and caregivers areincreasingly facing tensions in making end-of-lifedecisions. An examination of the history of healthcare in the United States reveals technological,economic, and medical factors that have contributed tothe problems of terminal care and consequently to themovement of assisted suicide. The movement has itsroots in at least two fundamental perceptions andexpectations. In the age of technological medicineenergized by the profit motive, dying comes at a highprice in suffering and in personal economic loss. (...) Thefailure to provide affordable resources for terminalcare is the result of the marketplace in health care. The medical profession has been painfully slow inresponding to the challenges of terminal care, mainlybecause of the pressures of the marketplace and lackof adequate training. This has occurred at a time ofrapid advances in life-sustaining treatment and ofexpanding public awareness of personal rights underthe law. Overly aggressive treatment in the finalstages of terminal illness has enhanced anxieties overa painfully prolonged and expensive dying. Thesefactors have promoted the movement to assistedsuicide. In the U.S. debate of the issues, ethiciststend to argue abstractly without examiningadequately the context of terminal care that is thehealth care system. It is a system in dire need of areform that will remove it from the marketplace. (shrink)

Vaesen argues that functional knowledge differentiates humans from non-human primates. However, the rationale he provides for this position is open to question – with respect to both the underlying theoretical assumptions and inferences drawn from certain empirical studies. Indeed, there is some recent empirical work that suggests that functional fixedness is not necessarily uniquely human. I also question the central role of stable function representations in Vaesen's account of tool production and use.

This paper is a response to McKenzie (2017). I argue that the case she presents is not a genuine counterexample to the thesis she labels Brute Fundamentalism. My response consists of two main points. First, that the support she presents for considering her case a metaphysical explanation is misguided. Second, that there are principled reasons for doubting that partial explanations in Hempel’s sense, of which her case is an instance, are genuinely explanatory in the first place. Thus McKenzie’s attack on (...) Brute Fundamentalism fails. (shrink)

A common way of clarifying the notion of ground is by way of examples from logic: thus a conjunction is grounded in both of its conjuncts; a disjunction in each of its true disjuncts; a double negation in its negatum; and so on. Developing a semantics that accommodates these logical examples in full generality turned out to be a difficult task. In this paper, I develop a novel approach that substitutes fusion for a more discerning relation of combination between states (...) in the framework of truth-maker semantics. (shrink)

A powerful critique of nudge theory and the paternalist policies of behavioral economics, and an argument for a more inclusive form of rationality.

In the third chapter of his major work, the Controversy over the Existence of the World, Roman Ingarden discusses four varieties of dependence entities might exhibit. The aim of this essay is to explore these varieties and to put the claims Ingarden makes concerning them on a rigorous footing.

This contribution aims at discussing constitutional democracy in the age of populisms, by explaining how populist movements oppose liberal-democratic constitutionalism and by presenting the thesis of a so-called ‘populist constitutionalism’, as proposed by Mark Tushnet. In the first section, a general and analytic exploration of populist phenomena will be drawn, by focusing on the so-called thesis of a ‘populist’ constitutionalism. In the second part, Tushnet’s arguments for a populist constitutionalism will be presented, through the analysis of his two main contributions: (...) Taking the Constitution Away from the Courts, in which Tushnet develops his critique of legal constitutionalism and judicial review as an undemocratic power by unelected justices, and Authoritarian Constitutionalism, a recent article in which Tushnet distinguishes between ‘authoritarian’ and ‘populist’ definitions of constitutionalism. In conclusion, such arguments will be discussed, by proposing a critical response to Tushnet’s position and presenting some risks of a majoritarian and populist constitutional democracy. (shrink)

This article deals with democratic constitutionalism in order to investigate the proper nature of constitutionalism, by wondering about its peculiarities and specific objects. Against this background, this essay aims at providing a paradigmatic definition of constitutional theory, for more specifically exploring its different undertones. For this reason, the first section of the article offers an analysis of the most relevant theoretical contributions within modern and contemporary constitutionalism. Thus, the first section explores Carl Schmitt’s, Hans Kelsen’s and Robert Dahl’s definition of (...) constitutional democracy. The second section then focuses with more attention on contemporary liberal-democratic constitutionalism, manly on one of the most debated issues: the dichotomy between legal and political models of constitutionalism, which goes hand in hand with a distinction between dualist and monistic accounts of democratic theory. The last section proposes an insight into the Italian constitutional system, by comparing it with the U.S. model, by especially focusing on the functioning and structure of the Constitutional Court compared to the U.S. Supreme Court. (shrink)

This book offers intriguing philosophical inquiries into biotechnological art and the life sciences, addressing their convergences as well as their epistemic and functional divergences. Rooted on a thorough understanding of the history of philosophy, this work builds on critical and ontological thought to interpret the concept of life that underscores first-hand dealings with matter and experimentation. The book breaks new ground on the issue of animality and delivers fresh posthumanist perspectives on the topics addressed. The authors embark on a deep (...) ontological probe of the concept of medium as communication-bridging and life-bearing. They also take on the concept of performativity as biotechnological art. The book includes concrete, well-documented case studies and shows how certain narratives and practices directly impact ideas surrounding science and technologies. It will interest philosophers in art and technology, aesthetics, ontology, and the life sciences. It will also engage art practitioners in art and science, curators and researchers. (shrink)

El propósito de este artículo es analizar, desde el enfoque teórico de la Glotopolítica, la configuración de imaginarios identitarios en discursos sobre el español que tienen lugar a fines del siglo XX y principios del XXI en los Congresos Internacionales de la Lengua Española. Sostenemos que el contexto en el que se inscriben estos encuentros, en particular, los procesos de integración regional, incide en los elementos y recorridos que van delimitando imaginarios que integren a España y a la América hispana, (...) en función de los distintos lugares de enunciación y de las propuestas político-lingüísticas presentadas. Así, se apela a una identidad iberoamericana -que incluye el portugués- pero también a una identidad latinoamericana que resignifica positivamente la región. Para determinar qué sentidos adoptan estos imaginarios a lo largo de los congresos considerados, analizaremos los modos de designación de los términos Iberoamérica/iberoamericano y América Latina/latinoamericano en un conjunto de exposiciones, es decir, cómo estos son construidos discursivamente en el enunciado, a partir de las operaciones enunciativas de reescritura y articulación. (shrink)

Many philosophers have shown sympathy to the thought that reality is fundamentally positive. Julio De Rizzo formulates this idea precisely by means of the notion of grounding, and examines how the resulting thesis fares with respect to three much discussed classes of negative truths, namely that of negative predications, that of negative causal reports, and that of negative existential truths. By shedding light on the issues advocates of the thesis have to deal with, this work shows the positivist account (...) to be a tenable position in metaphysics. (shrink)

A natural proposal for the grounds of negative existential truths, such as that Vulcan does not exist, states that these truths are grounded in the totality truth affirming the existence of every existent thing together with the truth that they are all. In this paper I will put forward three objections to straightforward formulations of this idea, and argue that a change in the usual grammar of grounding claims, allowing for pluralities of sentences to express not only grounds, but also (...) groundees, is effective in making the account immune to the objections raised. (shrink)

We ordinarily believe that the inhabitants of the world - including ourselves - persist over time. Such an idea, however, has puzzled philosophers for centuries. How can we change and still be the same? More specifically, is there any constitutive condition of our identity over time? And if so, does this condition involve mental aspects, physical aspects, or something else? Or is rather personal identity primitive and unanalyzable, so that our persistence is nothing but a brute fact? This volume is (...) a collection of new essays from leading figures in the field analyzing the persistence of persons and the criteria of personal identity over time. It presents an extensive discussion of the most relevant views on personal identity in contemporary metaphysics and provides new treatments of the constitutive conditions of personal persistence. (shrink)

In his reflection on the nature of evil, the Neoplatonic philosopher Proclus affirms that evil itself is “also beyond the abso­lute non-being”. With this assumption, he intends to reinforce the thesis of the non-existence of absolute evil, conceived as totally separate from good, and contrasted with the collat­eral and parasitic existence of evil mixed with good. He thus maintains a distinction between absolute evil and relative evil, conceived with reference to the distinction between absolute non-being and relative non-being. In Proclus, (...) the thesis of the non-existence of absolute evil is presented as a necessary consequence of the non-dualist theory of evil in the sphere of a protology that identifies the first Principle of all things in the primary Good, and which aims to reconcile the absolute primacy of the latter with the presence of evil in some orders of reality. (shrink)

The paper examines the Dialogue De pace fidei written by Nicolaus Cusanus in 1453 to settle disputes arising from events that triggered religious unrest, such as the fall of Constantinople in May 1453, the invasion and massacre of the Turks led by Sultan Mehmed II and the defeat of the Christians. Following the disintegration of medieval Christianity, Cusanus, instead of promoting a crusade, as Cardinal Bessarione did, proposed a more suitable way to make the major exponents of different religions interact (...) in a fruitful dialogue, hoping for the peace of a single universal faith. The arguments through which Cusanus claimed the concept of a concordance and pacification of the faith reveal the originality and topicality of the message communicated by the humanist, founded on the doctrine of peace in the faith, overcoming inter-confessional barriers and religious divergences.The author contrasts the divergences, massacres and wars with a doctrinal comparison among different religions through dialogue. The paper invites reflection upon the religious struggles that still spread discord in the world. (shrink)