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L’indagine filosofica riserva da sempre grande attenzione alle questioni riguardanti la natura del linguaggio e della comunicazione. Recentemente, nel contesto della scienza cognitiva, sono stati avanzati tentativi esplicativi promettenti, sulla base di un assunto fondamentale: i modelli concettuali devono essere vincolati alla ricerca empirica. Il testo curato da Francesco Ferretti e Daniele Gambarara si fa portavoce di questa esigenza di dialogo tra scienza e filosofia, in opposizione ad un...

In this paper we tackle the issue of the role of narrative language in the constitution of human subjectivity. There are at least two different approaches to this issue. The first one is consistent with the view that language has a unique constitutive role in cognition. According to this account, human subjectivity is a by-product of the advent of language. We will refer to it as linguistic idealism and will argue that, in spite of its popularity in the philosophy and social sciences, this view is completely unfounded. We will defend a second approach, which acknowledges the relevant role of language in human subjectivity but interprets this role in the light of a relation of coevolution between language and cognition. We will suggest that this relation is asimmetric and the priority is given to the cognitive foundations of human sense of the self. The influence of language on human subjectivity is then analyzed in terms of a retroactive effect. We will argue that the relation of coevolution between language and cognition provides an interpretative tool that allows us to account for human subjectivity in accordance with darwinian naturalism.

L’obiettivo del presente saggio è ridiscutere la posizione del linguaggio e della mente umana alla luce delle interazioni organismo-ambiente, assumendo come di assoluta rilevanza il “punto di vista in prima persona”. L’individuo è in grado di costruire scenari futuri potenziali, solo se, attraverso le attività di ricordo e proiezione, si riconosce come il protagonista di tali possibili eventi., Bollettino Filosofico, Vol 26 (2010): Pragmatismo e filosofia della biologia. Tra ontologia ed epistemologia

Models of discourse and narration elaborated within the classical compositional framework have been characterized as bottom-up models, according to which discourse analysis proceeds incrementally, from phrase and sentence local meaning to discourse global meaning. In this paper we will argue against these models. Assuming as a case study the issue of discourse coherence, we suggest that the assessment of coherence is a top-down process, in which the construction of a situational interpretation at the global meaning level guides local meaning analysis. In support of our hypothesis, we explore the role of executive functions (brain functions involved in planning and organization of goal-oriented behaviors) in coherence's establishment, discussing the results of several studies on narrative abilities of patients with brain injuries. We suggest that, compared to other models of discourse processing focused on comprehension, our model is a viable candidate for an integrated account of discourse comprehension and production.

The text offers a Critical Review of "Buone idee per la mente. I fondamenti cognitivi ed evolutivi della cultura" by Ines Adornetti. The author critically reflects on the book by considering its methodologies, its arguments, and its relation with other books of the same type and on the same subject. Il testo propone una Lettura Critica del libro "Buone idee per la mente. I fondamenti cognitivi ed evolutivi della cultura" di Ines Adornetti. L'autrice riflette criticamente sul libro considerandone le metodologie, gli argomenti e il nesso con altri libri dello stesso tipo e sullo stesso argomento.

Il punto di partenza del presente lavoro è la considerazione che il tempo sia un concetto dinamico. Ciò significa che possiamo cogliere la dimensione temporale solo attraverso il suo scorrere. In quest'ottica, il tempo è colto attraverso la successione degli eventi. La questione rilevante diventa allora quella di chiarire come sia possibile per gli esseri umani rappresentare eventi passati e futuri. Dal punto di vista adottato in questo scritto tale tema deve essere affrontato coniugando l'indagine teorica alle recenti acquisizioni delle scienze della mente contemporanee. Conformemente a ciò, esamineremo quali sono gli specifici meccanismi psicologici che consentono di ricordare il passato e proiettarsi mentalmente nel futuro., B@belonline vol. 12 Georges Bataille. L’impossibile

This event-related potentials (ERPs) study investigated on-line processes of integration of information relating to characters in narrative comprehension. The final sample included twenty-nine participants who read short third-person stories in which the plausibility of the characters’ actions was manipulated. Stories were administered in three conditions: a character-based congruent condition including a target word that was consistent with the character’s job; a character-based incongruent condition with a target word inconsistent with the character’s job; a character-based neutral condition, narrating the action of a character presented by his/her proper name without information about his/her job. Results comparing the ERPs elicited by the experimental conditions revealed a greater negative amplitude of the N400 in the right temporal regions in response to the character-based incongruent compared to the character-based congruent narratives. This finding shows that implicit background character-based information affects the N400, with readers rapidly using this information to comprehend narratives.

Several disciplines contribute to the discussion on the origin of language: computer simulation, cognitive psychology, genetics, paleoanthropology, and comparative studies, as some examples. Some disciplines employ sophisticated analysis techniques resulting in empirical evidence inconceivable until a few years ago. However, the huge volume of data available and the heterogeneity of disciplines have had problematic effects on research: each discipline contributing to the study of language is different from another, so the first difficulty is identification of a point of convergence among extremely heterogeneous empirical results. This paper tries to delineate a new theorethical framework for the study of language orings able to synthesize currentempirical results. This new paradigm is based on the embodied tehories of language and mind.