Naturalism and Constructivism in Metaethics - Sofia Bonicalzi, Leonardo Caffo, Mattia Sorgon

Naturalism and Constructivism in Metaethics

Sofia Bonicalzi, Leonardo Caffo, Mattia Sorgon

Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Newcastle 2014

978-1-4438-5673-7

In this collection of essays, several authors, belonging to different generations and philosophical traditions, discuss ample ethical and metaethical issues together with their relations to questions of applied ethics. The volume provides a wide account of some of the main topics in these fields, thus dealing with nearly everything that human beings hold as valuable. Expert scholars and young researchers contribute to this virtual symposium, reframing the current philosophical debates about the definition and the history of the concept of Naturalism, the different declinations of Kantian Constructivism, the functioning of Rational Choice Theory, the complex role played by Neuroscience in redefining the contours of ethical theories and bioethics, the puzzles of Deontic Logic, and the bases of Animal Ethics. Divided into three sections, presented by comprehensive introductions by Sofia Bonicalzi, Leonardo Caffoand Mattia Sorgon, the present collection includes contributions by Martina Belmonte, Michele Borri, Luciana Ceri, Guglielmo Feis, Matteo Grasso, Andrea Lavazza, Sarah Songhorian, and Francesca Vitale. Each author develops a distinctive and independent position, while critically engaging with the central themes of contemporary reflection. This new, major study will benefit moral philosophers, philosophers of science, and scientists concerned with bioethics, while at the same time stimulating and challenging anyone who is curious about the nature and the origins of ethical and metaethical enquiries.

Biography

Sofia Bonicalzi is a PhD Candidate in Philosophy at the University of Pavia, Italy and a Visiting Student at the Sage School of Philosophy, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. Her main interests cover the fields of ethics, metaethics and moral psychology, with a particular focus on the topics of free will and moral responsibility. She is a member of Sifa (Italian Society for Analytic Philosophy) and of the Roman section of LabOnt (Laboratory for Ontology). She is also a professional journalist.

Leonardo Caffo is a PhD Candidate at the University of Turin, Italy, and is a research member of LabOnt, the Laboratory for Ontology at the same university, and an Associate Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics. He is currently working on realism, animal studies and cognition, applied ethics, philosophy of anarchism and architecture (in both analytic and continental traditions). His publications include Il maiale non fa la rivoluzione: manifesto per un antispecismo deboleCosì parlò il Postumano, with R. Marchesini; and Filosofia Globalizzata, with and of M. Ferraris. His publications in English include “Documentality”, a special issue of The Monist, with M. Ferraris. He is also the founder of Animal Studies: rivista italiana di antispecismo and the editor-in-chief of the italian journal Animot – focused on animal philosophy.

Mattia Sorgon is a PhD Candidate in Philosophy at Roma Tre University, Italy. His main interests cover metaphysics, logic, and the philosophy of science. He is editor of RIFAJ – Rivista Italiana di Filosofia Analitica Junior and a member of LabOnt Roma.