L. Magnani (Editor in Chief)

Handbook of Abductive Cognition

Springer, 2023, 1946 pages (two volumes)

Part editors: Akinori Abe, Atocha Aliseda, Mattia Andreoletti, Selene Arfini, Gianluca Caterina, Gustavo Cevolani, Daniele Chiffi, Samuel Forsythe, Rocco Gangle, Ehud Kroll, Sami Paavola, Woosuk Park, Ferdinand Rivera, Alger Sans Pinillos, Fernando Tohmé.

S. Arfini & L. Magnani (Eds.) (2022), Embodied, Extended, Ignorant Minds. New Studies on the Nature of Not-Knowing, Synthese Library, Springer, Cham, Switzerland. 

This book offers a new and externalist perspective in ignorance studies. Agnotology, the epistemology of ignorance, and, more generally, ignorance studies have grown to cover and explore different phenomena and subjects of research, from known events in history and sociology of science to the investigation of ordinary reasoning and cognitive processing. Nonetheless, although interested scholars have discussed ignorance phenomena and their impact on cognition, most of them have only adopted an internalist perspective to approach this theme. Meanwhile, even though externalist perspectives on cognition flourished in recent literature, authors have paid little attention to the emerging field of ignorance studies. Ignorance has been generally left out from the inquiries on the extension of cognitive states, cognitive processes, and predictive reasoning. Thus, in this volume, we seek to merge the two growing areas of research and to fill this research gap fruitfully. By addressing the uncomfortable themes that pertain to ignorance and related phenomena through an externalist perspective, this book aims to provide much food for thoughts to cognitive scientists and philosophers alike, enriching the current range and reach of both ignorance studies and externalist approaches to cognition.

L. Magnani (2022), Discoverability. The Urgent Need of an Ecology of Human Creativity, Springer, Cham, Switzerland. 

The book analyses the concept of discoverability, and some current epistemological problems related to it, with a special attention to science. It shows that discoverability is closely related to the sustainability of human creativity in an “eco-cognitive” perspective. Advocating the need of an integral ecology and leveraging the important concept of abduction, it demonstrates that an ecology of human creativity should have priority over other needs, i.e that the first ecological duty is to protect and sustain discoverability. Enhancing discoverability will protect human creativity, and it is exactly human creativity, a form of innovative abductive cognition, that can promote the implementation of the other kinds of ecology. The author guides readers through a comprehensive discussion on the concept of discoverability, eco-cognitive situatedness, and eco-cognitive openness and closure alike. By describing some key real-world examples, he highlights the main challenges that are currently posed to human creativity and epistemic integrity. He also describes future eco-cognitive settings, discussing the problem of overcomputationalism and suggesting a reinterpretation of the role of human knowledge.

Overall, this book fills an important gap in the literature on the nexus abduction – creativity – discovery, offering a source of inspiration to philosophers, epistemologists, and cognitive scientists. Yet, it also addresses researchers in other disciplines interested in the problems of scientific discovery and epistemic integrity of research.

 L. Magnani (2022), Eco-Cognitive Computationalism. Cognitive Domestication of Ignorant Entities, Springer, Cham, Switzerland.

 This book mainly focuses on the widely distributed nature of computational tools, models, and methods, ultimately related to the current importance of computational machines as mediators of cognition. An entirely new eco-cognitive approach to computation is offered, to underline the question of the overwhelming cognitive domestication of ignorant entities, which is persistently at work in our current societies. Eco-cognitive computationalism does not aim at furnishing an ultimate and static definition of the concepts of information, cognition, and computation, instead, it intends, by respecting their historical and dynamical character, to propose an intellectual framework that depicts how we can understand their forms of “emergence” and the modification of their meanings, also dealing with impressive unconventional non-digital cases.

L. Magnani (2017), The Abductive Structure of Scientific Creativity. An Essay on the Ecology of Cognition, Springer, Cham.

This book takes advantage of a new eco-cognitive model of abduction to emphasizes the distributed and embodied nature of scientific cognition. Its main focus is on the knowledge-enhancing virtues of abduction and on the productive role of scientific models. What are the distinctive features that define the kind of knowledge produced by science? To provide an answer to this question, the book addresses at first the idea of Aristotle, who already pointed out to the essential inferential and distributed role of external cognitive tools and epistemic mediators in abductive cognition .This is analyzed in depth from both the points-of-view of a naturalized logic and an ecology of cognition: it is shown how the maximization of cognition, and in turn of the abducibility, which are two typical goals of science, is related to a few fundamental aspects: the optimization of the eco-cognitive situatedness; the maximization of changeability of both the input and the output of the inferences involved; a high information-sensitiveness; and the need of keeping record of the “past life” of abductive inferential practices. Finally, the book explains how some impoverished epistemological niches, which have been generated as a consequence of a growing epistemic irresponsibility associated with the commodification and commercialization of science, are seriously jeopardizing the flourishing development of human creative abduction in modern times.

L. Magnani and T. Bertolotti (Eds.), Springer Handbook of Model-Based Science, Springer, 2017.

The Springer Handbook of Model-Based Science offers the first comprehensive reference guide to the interdisciplinary field of model-based reasoning. It highlights the role of models as mediators between theory and experimentation, and as educational devices, as well as their relevance in testing hypotheses and explanatory functions. The Springer Handbook merges philosophical, cognitive and epistemological perspectives on models with the more practical needs related to the application of this tool across various disciplines and practices. The result is a unique, reliable source of information that guides readers toward an understanding of different aspects of model-based science, such as the theoretical and cognitive nature of models, as well as their practical and logical aspects. The inferential role of models in hypothetical reasoning, abduction and creativity once they are constructed, adopted, and manipulated for different scientific and technological purposes is also discussed. Written by a group of internationally renowned experts in philosophy, the history of science, general epistemology, mathematics, cognitive and computer science, physics and life sciences, as well as engineering, architecture, and economics, this Handbook uses numerous diagrams, schemes and other visual representations to promote a better understanding of the concepts. This also makes it highly accessible to an audience of scholars and students with different scientific backgrounds. All in all, the Springer Handbook of Model-Based Science represents the definitive application-oriented reference guide to the interdisciplinary field of model-based reasoning.

To ensure quick and easy access to key information, the book is divided into nine edited parts:

A. Theoretical and Cognitive Issues in Models (ed. by D. Portides) B. Theoretical and Cognitive Issues in Abduction and Scientific Inference (ed. by W. Park) C. The Logic of Hypothetical Reasoning, Abduction, and Models (ed. by A. Aliseda) D. Model-Based Reasoning in Science and History of Science (ed. by N. A. Schwartz) E. Models in Mathematics (ed. by A. Heeffer) F. Model-Based Reasoning in Cognitive Science (ed. by A. Raftopoulos) G. Modelling and Computational Issues (ed. by F. Amigoni and V. Schiaffonati) H. Current and Historical Perspectives on the Use of Models in Physics, Chemistry and Life Sciences (ed. by M. Dorato and M. Marganti) I. Models in Engineering, Architecture, and Economical and Human Sciences (ed. by C. Shelley)

Lorenzo Magnani, Ping Li, Woosuk Park (Eds.), Philosophy and Cognitive Science. Western and Eastern Studies.

The book shows how eastern and western perspectives and conceptions can be used to address recent topics laying at the crossroad between philosophy and cognitive science. It reports on new points of view and conceptions discussed during the International Conference on Philosophy and Cognitive Science (PCS2013), held at the Sun Yat-sen University, in Guangzhou, China, and the 2013 Workshop on Abductive Visual Cognition, which took place at KAIST, in Deajeon, South Korea. The book emphasizes an ever-growing cultural exchange between academics and intellectuals coming from different fields. It juxtaposes research works investigating new facets on key issues between philosophy and cognitive science,  such as the role of models and causal representations in science; the status of theoretical concepts and quantum principles; abductive cognition, vision, and visualization in science from an eco-cognitive perspective. Further topics are: ignorance immunization in reasoning; moral cognition, violence, and epistemology; and models and biomorphism. The book, which presents a unique and timely account of the current state-of-the art on various aspects in philosophy and cognitive science, is expected to inspire philosophers, cognitive scientists and social scientists, and to generate fruitful exchanges and collaboration among them. Go to Springer website

Editor-in-Chief
Lorenzo Magnani, Department of Philosophy and Computational Philosophy Lab, University of Pavia, Pavia, ITALY

Editorial Board
Atocha Aliseda, Mexico
Giuseppe Longo, France
Chris Sinha, UK
Paul Thagard, Canada
John Woods, Canada&UK

Description
Studies in Applied Philosophy, Epistemology and Rational Ethics (SAPERE) publish new developments and advances in all the fields of philosophy, epistemology, and ethics, bringing them together with a cluster of scientific disciplines and technological outcomes: ranging from computer science to life sciences, from economics, law, and education to engineering, logic, and mathematics, from medicine to physics, human sciences, and politics. The series aims at covering all the challenging philosophical and ethical themes of contemporary society, making them appropriately applicable to contemporary theoretical and practical problems, impasses, controversies, and conflicts.

Go to Series Webpage at Springer

Abductive Cognition. The Epistemological and Eco-Cognitive Dimensions of Hypothetical Reasoning (Springer, in press) explores abductive cognition, an important but, at least until the third quarter of the last century, neglected topic in cognition. It integrates and further develops ideas already introduced in a previous book, which I published in 2001 (Abduction, Reason, and Science. Processes of Discovery and Explanation, Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York).

The status of abduction is very controversial. When dealing with abductive reasoning misinterpretations and equivocations are common. What are the differences between abduction and induction? What are the differences between abduction and the well-known hypothetico-deductive method? What did Peirce mean when he considered abduction both a kind of inference and a kind of instinct or when he considered perception a kind of abduction? Does abduction involve only the generation of hypotheses or their evaluation too? Are the criteria for the best explanation in abductive reasoning epistemic, or pragmatic, or both? Does abduction preserve ignorance or extend truth or both? How many kinds of abduction are there? Is abduction merely a kind of “explanatory” inference or does it involve other non-explanatory ways of guessing hypotheses?

The book aims at increasing knowledge about creative and expert inferences. The study of these high-level methods of abductive reasoning is situated at the crossroads of philosophy, logic, epistemology, artificial intelligence, neuroscience, cognitive psychology, animal cognition and evolutionary theories; that is, at the heart of cognitive science.

More info at: Springer’s website

My book Morality in a Technological World. Knowledge as Duty (Cambridge University Press) is now available on Amazon and other leading bookstores.

Here’s the synopsis:

In the eighteenth century, Immanuel Kant held that we should regard other human beings as ends in themselves, never as mere means. In Knowledge as a Duty, however, Lorenzo Magnani contends that one of the best hopes for achieving social justice is to do exactly what Kant warned against: we must treat people as if they were things. By acknowledging the “thingness” of human beings, Magnani argues, we can learn to value people in important new ways and extend to them the kind of worth we have lavished on certain non-human entities. This shift in perspective, however, requires a great deal of new ethical knowledge as well as modern approaches to moral deliberation, and to achieve these goals Magnani provides compelling analyses of such problems and offers a variety of strategies we might use to solve them.
Viewing human beings through an updated moral framework is especially important given the profound changes that have occurred since Kant’s time, for modern technologies have brought about consequences of such magnitude that old policies and ethics can no longer contain them. Magnani believes that producing and applying recalibrated moral knowledge has become a duty, one that is just as important as making scientific or medical advances. Among the troubling issues he addresses here are cyberprivacy, globalization, bad faith, cloning, biotechnologies, and ecological imbalances; the right knowledge, Magnani maintains, can manage these challenges and counter many of technology’s ill effects by preserving ownership of our own destinies, encouraging responsibility, and enhancing freedom. Also discussed are how objects, structures, and technological artifacts serve as moral carriers and mediators; the problem of free will; and the nature of practical reasoning. Using an entirely new methodology that blends epistemology with cognitive science, Magnani seeks to overthrow some traditional philosophical perspectives that have become obsolete in today’s technological era.

More info at: CUP website

Italian Edition of the first two Chapters: Rispetta gli altri come cose, Il Melangolo, Genoa, 2013.

The Proceedings of the International Conference MBR06_CHINA, edited by L. Magnani and P. Li, is now available online on Springer.com, and on Amazon.com and other international bookstores.

Here’s a passage from the Introduction:

The volume is based on the papers that were presented at the international conference Model-Based Reasoning in Science and Medicine (MBR’06 China), held at Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, P.R. China in July 2006. The presentations given at the conference explored how scientific thinking uses models and explanatory reasoning to produce creative changes in theories and concepts. Some addressed the problem of model-based reasoning in technology, and stressed the issue of technological innovation and medical reasoning. The various contributions of the book are written by interdisciplinary researchers who are active in the area of creative reasoning in science and technology: the most recent results and achievements about the topics above are illustrated in detail in the papers.