John Dewey's project on social philosophy has not been usually considered as an important piece of his thought. However, his writings about such topic constitute a remarkable effort to articulate several novel concepts and ideas which cannot be found elsewhere in his extensive philosophical work. Within this context, the new edition of his "Lectures in Social and Political Philosophy"-a series of lectures Dewey delivered during his stay in China-provides unique material for reviewing his social viewpoint. During this article I aim (...) to explore Dewey's normative perspective on social philosophy. Taking into account that the pragmatist introduces a "normative picture" and that he identifies a set of basic human needs at its very basis, the main arising question is how to interpret that set of human needs so as to fully understand that normative criterion. As hypotheses, I consider that social philosophy is mainly engaged with practical judgments and that it is plausible to interpret these basic human needs as values. In order to support these claims, I firstly reconstruct Dewey's proposal about a third type of social thought. Secondly, I examine his position about values and standards. Thirdly, I analyze his "normative picture" and I consider the "anthropological reading" presented by Roberto Frega. Lastly, I offer a complementary analysis, arguing that it is possible to explain Dewey's normative standard in a coherent way with respect to the aims of his social thought and, furthermore, that it is possible to avoid any essentialist commitment. (shrink)

In this paper, we examine a case of scientific controversy over the evolving role of the paranasal sinuses, comparing Neanderthals and humans by analyzing two rival hypotheses. The first hypothesis states that the paranasal sinuses do not represent an adaptation to extreme cold, while the second claims the contrary. The two articles partially use the same database and employ identical methodologies and evolutionary theoretical assumptions. This example is interesting because, in terms of Nudler’s concepts of controversial and non-controversial spaces, the (...) problem lies in the latter, i.e., the biases of the two articles and their mistakes. Our paper highlights the misunderstandings that can arise when an attempt is made to analyze a complex structure from an evolutionary perspective using two-dimensional analytical techniques, that is to say, explaining a trait in isolation and, consequently, losing an integrated approach to the organism and its multiple interactions with the environment. (shrink)

The present article introduces a five-valued logic and a deductive system. Here, the logic presented is a relevant fragment of the @-logic, which is also a space-time logic. These five values correspond to the following semantics: unknown, possibly known but consistent, false, true, and inconsistent. The present logic and the PLAIN programming language are two results of the same intuitions and from the same philosophical view. Finally, as well as the purposes of PLAIN, the logic ought to be used to (...) support (mobile) agents systems in some manner, besides general purposes. (shrink)