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.

Lectura epistemológica de la historia de la ciencia en los “descubrimientos”: explicación y abducción en la enseñanza de las ciencias naturales | Revista Brasileira de História da Ciência (emnuvens.com.br)

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-

The chapter that Jordi Vallverdú (UAB) and I (UNIPV) have essayed for the Handbook of Abductive Cognition is now available (Living Edition): The Foundations of Creativity: Human Inquiry Explained Through the Neuro-Multimodality of Abduction.

Abstract:

This chapter offers arguments in favor of a morphological characterization of situated abductive processes in perception, considering them as adaptation mechanisms to the varieties of experience. The mechanism that has been analyzed in this essay is the creativity. The thesis defended in this chapter is that the human being maintains a constant hypothetical openness to adapt to the uncertainty of the future. Characterizing creative processes using abduction means analyzing this phenomenon from morphological bases. Therefore, the inevitability of creativity defended in this chapter is situated in the neurochemical and morphological bases of perception to characterize the adaptive dimension of creativity through abduction. The starting point of this proposal is based on the EC-Model of abduction: a contextualized interpretation of classical pragmatism from the naturalization of cognitive processes. Abduction is proposed as the simple mechanism of hypothesis generation and its selection. This mechanism can be considered present in all degrees of human experience: the generation of epistemic content is grounded in natural biologically based adaptive processes. Therefore, there is a coupling between embodied mechanism of cognition and sociocultural values. Because of its fundamental value, the implementation of abductive mechanisms in Machine Learning systems is explored, especially in most recent Deep Learning models.

The Foundations of Creativity: Human Inquiry Explained Through the Neuro-Multimodality of Abduction | SpringerLink

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!

Abductive Irradiation of Cultural Values in Shared Spaces: The Case of Social Education Through Public Libraries | SpringerLink

16/06/2022- CALL FOR PAPERS!

Dear colleagues,

Jordi Vallverdú (UAB), Vicente Costa Bueno (IIIA-CSIC), and I (UNIPV) are preparing the following special issue.

You’re welcome to submit it!

Death and Robots: Updating Techno-Death Debates https://www.mdpi.com/si/127106 #mdpiphilosophies via @Phil_MDPI

· Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 January 2023

The diffusion of the announcement will be welcome and appreciated!

31/05/2022- Handbook of Abductive Cognition. First chapters already listed in Springer link:

https://link.springer.com/…/10.1007/978-3-030-68436-5…

Lorenzo Magnani (Editor-in-chief), University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy

Handbook of Abductive Cognition

Part editors: Akinori Abe, Chiba University, Faculty of Letters, Inageku, Chiba, Japan, Atocha Aliseda, National Autonomous University of Mexico, Institute for Philosophical Research, Mexico City, Mexico, Mattia Andreoletti, Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Faculty of Philosophy, Milano, Italy, Selene Arfini, University of Pavia, Department of Humanities – Philosophy Section, Pavia, Italy, Gianluca Caterina, Endicott College, Beverly, MA, USA, Gustavo Cevolani, IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca, Lucca, Italy, Daniele Chiffi, Politecnico di Milano, DAStU, Milano, Italy, Samuel Forsythe, Peace Research Institute Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, Rocco Gangle, Endicott College, Beverly, MA, USA, Ehud Kroll, ORT Braude College, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Karmiel, Israel, Sami Paavola, University of Helsinki, Faculty of Educational Sciences, Helsinki, Finland, Woosuk Park, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Humanities and Social Sciences, Daejeon, S. Korea, Ferdinand Rivera, San Jose State University, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, San Jose, CA, USA, Alger Sans Pinillos, University of Pavia, Department of Humanities – Philosophy Section, Pavia, Italy, Fernando Tohmé, Universidad Nacional del Sur, INMABB-UNS-CONICET, Dpto. de Economía, Bahía Blanca, Argentina.

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.”

03/03/2022- It is published: Sans Pinillos, A. (2022). Distribución abductiva de los valores culturales: el proyecto de Alejandría. In Estany, A. y Gensollen, M. (eds.), Diseño institucional e innovaciones democráticas. Aguascalientes, México: Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona-Universidad Autónoma de Aguascalientes. You can read it for free here: DISEÑO INSTITUCIONAL E INNOVACIONES DEMOCRÁTICAS | Portal de libros de la Universidad Autónoma de Aguascalientes (uaa.mx)

28/12/2021- The article I co-authored with Jordi Vallverdú, “What the #®¥§≠$ is Creativity?” has been published. It is part of the annual issue number 6 of the magazine “Debats: Journal on culture, power and society”.

10/12/2021- Last Friday, December 10th, I presented my paper “Observer and participant. The theory-praxis problem in research from an eco-cognitive perspective of abduction” at the IV International Colloquium on Argumentation and Rhetoric.

29/11/2021- The monographic: “Creativitat, cognició i disseny” (in Catalan and Spanish) has been published in “Debats: Revista de Cultura, Poder i Societat”, which includes an article I wrote together with Jordi Vallverdú (ICREA-UAB) entitled: “Què #®¥§≠$@ és la creativitat?”

15/10/2021- On October 15, I had the pleasure of participating with Prof. Dr. Agustín Adúriz Bravo in the IX Congreso Internacional Sobre Formación de Profesores de Ciencias with the talk: UN LUGAR PARA EL RAZONAMIENTO ABDUCTIVO EN LA FORMACIÓN DE PROFESORES DE CIENCIAS.

14/10/2021- Last October 14, I had the pleasure of participating in the “Ciclo de Palestras em Epistemologia e Filosofia da Ciência” (Universidade Fenderale de Goiás) with the talk “Las cuestiones de valor en el diagnóstico médico. Una aproximación del carácter prescriptivo del razonamiento abductivo” (Value issues in medical diagnosis. An approach to the prescriptive character of abductive reasoning).

14/09/2021- The book “EPISTEMOLOGÍA E INNOVACIÓN EN MEDICINA” has been published, in which I have collaborated with the chapter “Diferenciación entre la descripción y la prescripción en el Diagnóstico médico. Una aproximación desde el razonamiento abductivo”.

06/09/2021- I am very happy to announce that «Sans Pinillos, A. Neglected Pragmatism: Discussing Abduction to Dissolute Classical Dichotomies. Found Sci (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10699-021-09817-x» has been released

19/07/2021- During the week of July 12-16, I have been teaching in the Critical Thinking course of the UAB Summer School. It has been an exhausting and very enriching week. After seeing the progress of the students, I can only feel happy with the work done.

23/04/2021- I am very excited to announce that it has been published today: LOPEZ-ORELLANA, R., & SANS PINILLOS, A. (2021). Ronald Giere, ¿semanticista? Una pregunta provocativa para el debate contemporáneo sobre la representación científica. ArtefaCToS. Revista De Estudios Sobre La Ciencia Y La tecnología, 10(1), 89-106. https://doi.org/10.14201/art202110189106

09/04/2021 – I gave the talk “Argumentum in Absentia. Herencia y consecuencias de la inferencia abductiva en filosofía de la ciencia” in the Tertulias Filosóficas, organized by the Research Program in Philosophy and Mathematics, the Institute of Mathematical Engineering, and the Institute of Philosophy of the University of Valparaíso, Chile.

17/02/2021 – Today, my doctoral thesis is now available online: Argumentum in Absentia. El paper de l’abducció en filosofia de la ciència i la seva dependència de valor prescriptiu (tdx.cat) (Click on the title to go to the website).

14/01/2021 – I will give a talk at the University of Valparaíso (Chile) on the current situation of debate on abductive reasoning, on the occasion of World Logic Day (UNESCO).

17/12/2020 – Today comes to light: Sans, A. (2020). Apuntes sobre los aspectos de valor prescriptivo del razonamiento abductivo. En D. P. Fernandes y R. Lopez-Orellana (Eds.), El jardín de senderos que se bifurcan y confluyen: Filosofía, Lógica y Matemáticas. Serie Selección de Textos (vol. 8, pp. 143-157). Valparaíso: Instituto de Filosofía, Universidad de Valparaíso. ISBN 978-956-402-647-3

15/12/2020 – The proceedings of the V Catalan Philosophy Congress (Canillo-Andorra, 2019) are now available. It includes a text written by me (in the Catalan language), entitled: «Arguments against the validity of the inference to the best available explanation from an eco-cognitive perspective of abduction» (Publication link).

02/11/2020 – Prof. Dr. Jordi Vallverdú (ICREA Acadèmia Researcher, UAB) and I have contribute in Catalan language to the latest Audens Journal issue with the article “Societat, política i COVID-19: les cultures (científiques) de l’epidemiologia” (Publication link).

14/10/2020 – I’m taking part in an event: 16th World Congress on Public Health 2020. Public health for the future of humanity: analysis, advocacy and action (WCPH 2020) -, talking on “Abductive reasoning on humans/AI interactions in medical contexts” in the 13.C. – Workshop: “Epistemic and ethical innovations in public health research” with Prof. Dr. David Casacuberta, Dr. Prof. Angel Puyol, and Dr. Prof. Anna Estany (all of them from UAB).

10/09/2020 – Defense of my doctoral thesis “Argumentum in Absentia” in the Sala d’Actes (B7/1058) of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at Autonomous University of Barcelona (16:00).