Research activity

My research interests cover a variety of topics both in  philosophy and history of the natural sciences. Starting with my PhD thesis (2004), I devoted some studies to Ernst Mach’s philosophy and the idea of description in the physical sciences. In this framework I also approached the work of Heinrich Hertz. From time to time, a certain curiosity and the love for poetry and novels encourages me to deal with a sort of comparative research between science and literature. As regards my most recent activity, I published a book about Ruggiero Boscovich’s science (Ruggiero Boscovich’s Theory of Natural Philosophy. Points, Distances, Determinations. Basel et al.: Birkhäuser 2020).

My research also deals with some structural aspects of the scientific enterprise, which I consider from a historical-epistemological perspective. In particular I directed my attention to the concept of shared discovery – for cases in which priority questions are not particularly relevant, collaboration is more important than competition, researchers are not mutually independent of each other, and resistance to new findings is so marginal that practically plays no role. I am currently exploring the concept of epistemic constraints, meaning any component of the world that prevents us from gaining some definite kind of knowledge in a specific manner and allows or promotes some other specific kind of knowledge in definite manners. In this framework, I am working on the notion of what I call “epistemically constrained collaboration”, i.e., a collaborative mode of research where epistemic constraints prevail over other factors.

Here below I list some papers I discussed in conferences and talks as well as some recent academic stuff including books, critical editions, and research articles (click here for the CV with a complete publication list). All the topics involved are eligible for potential BA or MA theses by students.

Continua a leggere Research activity