Scientific Cognition, Semiotics, and Computational Agents: Essays in Honor of Lorenzo Magnani - Volume 2

This book, the second of two volumes, focuses on scientific cognition, computationalism, and scholars' reception of what Lorenzo Magnani named "eco-cognitive" views on the mind. The authors of these chapters address complex questions, which regard, in part, Magnani's contributions in the field of model-based science, the role of inferential models in mathematics, the transformations and possible applicability of Charles Sanders Peirce's and Immanuel Kant's concepts and insight into current understanding of scientific progress, and the still unsolved questions regarding the methodological steps that take researchers to scientific discoveries. Some contributions also address the problematic understanding of artificial agents as "intelligent," how cognition can be discussed within the limits of computationalism, and how the eco-cognitive perspective on the mind also affects the conception of scientific reasoning and socially constructed phenomena. The book is of great interest to those interested in epistemology, philosophy of science, mathematical logic and AI.

Selene Arfini is a Research Fellow and Professor of Philosophy of Science at the Department of Humanities, Philosophy Section, of the University of Pavia, where she is also a member of the Computational Philosophy Laboratory. Her work revolves around three main research questions: How do human agents cognitively cope with their ignorance? What kinds of adjustments to their epistemic perspective should they apply to discover something new? How do smart technology devices impact their cognitive possibilities? She recently published a book entitled Ignorant Cognition. A Philosophical Investigation of the Cognitive Features of Not-Knowing (2019) and co-edited different collections of articles and special issues on 4E cognition (2023 - Embodied, Extended, Ignorant Minds. New Studies on the Nature of Not-Knowing), chance-based reasoning (2022 - Enacting Chance: Ignorance Insight and Intuition), abduction (2023 - Abduction, Creative Cognition, and Discovery - Part of the Handbook of Abductive Cognition), and the definition of ignorance (2020 - Knowing the Unknown: Philosophical Perspectives on Ignorance). She has also published different articles in international journals of epistemology, philosophy of cognitive science, philosophy of technology, and general philosophy of science.