Argumentum in Absentia
Scopus ID: 57222557221
News
29/03/2023- Fresh from the oven! An article I’ve written together with Anna Estany has been published: Concerning the Epistemology of Design: The Role of the Eco-Cognitive Model of Abduction in Pragmatism mdpi.com/2220720
17/12/2022- It is with pleasure that I share this essay written by Agustín Adúriz-Bravo and published today in the journal Revista Brasileira de História da Ciência (RBHC). It has the aromas of Buenos Aires, Domodossola, Barcelona, and Dublin, the places from where it was written. I am particularly pleased with its final version for various personal reasons, and I sincerely hope you find it interesting.
23/11/2022- The introduction to the section Abduction in Education and Human Sciences of the Handbook of Abductive Cognition has been published today: Introduction to Abduction in Education and Human Sciences | SpringerLink
17/09/2022-
17/08/2022- At last, the essay that Agustín Adúriz Bravo (Universidad de Buenos Aires) and I (Università di Pavia) have written has been published. It is the result of a researcher’s three years of work in which it is proposed that abduction as a “mode of inference” is a key element in the nature of scientists’ science and should consequently be introduced in school science.
Abduction as a Mode of Inference in Science Education | SpringerLink
23/07/2022- With great pleasure, I can share my chapter essay written for the Handbook of Abductive Cognition, entitled: “Abductive Irradiation of Cultural Values in Shared Spaces: The Case of Social Education Through Public Libraries.” A work of months that finally sees the light of the day. I am ecstatic!
31/05/2022- Handbook of Abductive Cognition. First chapters already listed in Springer link:
24/05/2022- The book “Embodied, Extended, Ignorant Minds. Synthese Library, vol 463. Springer, Cham” has been published. Lorenzo Magnani and I have essayed the chapter: “How Do We Think about the Unknown? The Self-Awareness of Ignorance as a Tool for Managing the Anguish of Not Knowing.”
The Thesis
In “Argumentum in Absentia: The Role of Abduction in Philosophy of Science and its Prescriptive Value Dependency”, it is argued that abduction has a prescriptive aspect that has not yet been taken into account. The reasons lie in the fact that abduction has been investigated from the standpoint of the debates in philosophy of science, which not only determine the conceptual framework acting as a starting point of studies but also offer a closed conception of what is science, namely the one that goes into the debate in question. This interpretation of abduction is a pending task that, if it is not solved, then we would risk perpetuating a philosophical system that denies abduction itself. This situation is shown through the dichotomies that have shaped contemporary debates because abduction can only operate precisely when one accepts the relation between notions previously declared to be antagonistic.
The ideal starting point is the EC-Model from which the contemporary conception of abduction can be approached differently, which allows the incorporation of relevant cognitive elements to understand the multimodal aspect of this reasoning. On the other hand, the prescriptive element is based on James’ radical empiricism, which complements the EC-Model with a theoretical framework to raise a holistic (and not vicious) relationship between the values and the descriptions of the world. This conjunction offers an open and unfinished cosmovision, formed by the set of particular views of the world.
The Project
My current project is to demonstrate the hypothesis that abduction has a prescriptive aspect, which is essential for operating its full potential. I carry out this task in various ways, which are determined by the different official projects in which I collaborate.
From an epistemological perspective, I am investigating the role of abduction when facing uncertainty. In a figurative sense, I am interested in analyzing which is the last available link when you do not have tools to build the same path that you are walking. In these circumstances, it is more important to know how we want the world to be than to know how it is, and, here, the ethical gaze acquires an epistemological relevance.
I also work on this idea in more practical research. I am currently working on the prescriptive aspect of medical diagnosis. On the other hand, I also try to implement the prescriptive element of abduction in concrete design processes, in which different descriptions have to be adapted to individual wills which in turn, are regulated by the social impact of the final product obtained.
Upcoming Works
Upcoming Works
– Sans Pinillos, A. (2023). La distribución abductiva de valores en los catálogos digitales.
– Sans Pinillos, A., Costa, V. (2023). Más allá de los datos: la transformación digital del museo tradicional.
– Casacuberta, D., Sans Pinillos, A. (2023). An abductive protocol to detect epistemic injustice in cultural centers.
– Sans Pinillos, A. (2023). Silence as a Cognitive Tool to Comprehend the Environment.
* All the publications in this section are accepted texts that will come out soon. For this reason, not all the data are available yet.
The Method
My methodology is mainly based on staying motivated by establishing harmony between fascination, intuition and knowledge. Unlike some colleagues’ understanding of what research is, to me, knowledge has never been the central axis, but the regulative limit of my intuition. Precisely for this reason, knowledge is also a crutch, which offers a point of support for intuition.
By intuition, I mean the vague idea I have of the order of things and, based on them, also of its possibilities. There are concrete issues that I can only keep connected from this overview. Obviously, in the end, it is the investigation of the moment that determines if this is more or less possible. Still, intuition allows me to separate without eliminating those aspects that seem not to fit, but that seem relevant to me.
Finally, the fascination is the engine of my research. With it, I focus on those problems that interest me the most, and it allows me to find its roots in countless places. At times, it can become an obsession, and that is why it is necessary to control it with the intuited ideas that, in turn, are contrasted with the knowledge obtained from the current state of the research.
However, without the fascination I feel for my specific work and for philosophy in general, I would have no interest, not only in knowing what surrounds me but neither understanding and looking for alternatives for a better future.
