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Daniele Chiffi | Politecnico di Milano - Academia.edu

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Daniele Chiffi

Politecnico di Milano, Department of Architecture and Urban Studies DAStU, Faculty Member

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I am Associate Professor of Logic and Philosophy of Science at Politecnico di Milano and Teaching Fellow of Critical Thinking at Bocconi University. I have been Lecturer and Senior Research Fellow at IFILNOVA - Nova Universidade (Lisbon), Tallinn University of Technology (Ragnar Nurkse Department of Innovation and Governance), University of Padova, University of Salento (Lecce). I obtained the Italian National Scientific Qualifications (Full Professor) in "Logic, History and Philosophy of Science" & "Aesthetics and Philosophy of Languages" (Associate Professor).
I am in the Steering Committee of the META Unit - Social Sciences and Humanities for Science and Technology Group (Politecnico di Milano - www.meta.polimi.it).

My areas of specialization are:
(formal) epistemology and pragmatics :: non-classical logics :: philosophy of science :: philosophy of medicine

My areas of competence are:
normativity and uncertainty :: philosophy of language :: clinical reasoning :: ethics of science, medicine, and technology.

Personal homepages:
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Daniele-Chiffi
https://sites.google.com/site/chiffidaniele/

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McMaster University

Karoline Reinhardt

University of Warwick

Silviya Serafimova

Politecnico di Milano

University of Glasgow

The University of Manchester

Eleonora Viganò

University of Applied Sciences of the Grisons

Universität Münster

Andrea Ferrario

Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH)

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Papers by Daniele Chiffi

Keep trusting! A plea for the notion of Trustworthy AI

AI & SOCIETY, 2023

A lot of attention has recently been devoted to the notion of Trustworthy AI (TAI). However, the ... more A lot of attention has recently been devoted to the notion of Trustworthy AI (TAI). However, the very applicability of the notions of trust and trustworthiness to AI systems has been called into question. A purely epistemic account of trust can hardly ground the distinction between trustworthy and merely reliable AI, while it has been argued that insisting on the importance of the trustee's motivations and goodwill makes the notion of TAI a categorical error. After providing an overview of the debate, we contend that the prevailing views on trust and AI fail to account for the ethically relevant and value-laden aspects of the design and use of AI systems, and we propose an understanding of the notion of TAI that explicitly aims at capturing these aspects. The problems involved in applying trust and trustworthiness to AI systems are overcome by keeping apart trust in AI systems and interpersonal trust. These notions share a conceptual core but should be treated as distinct ones.

AI-Related Risk: An Epistemological Approach

Philosophy and Technology, 2024

Risks connected with AI systems have become a recurrent topic in public and academic debates, and... more Risks connected with AI systems have become a recurrent topic in public and academic debates, and the European proposal for the AI Act explicitly adopts a riskbased tiered approach that associates different levels of regulation with different levels of risk. However, a comprehensive and general framework to think about AI-related risk is still lacking. In this work, we aim to provide an epistemological analysis of such risk building upon the existing literature on disaster risk analysis and reduction. We show how a multi-component analysis of risk, that distinguishes between the dimensions of hazard, exposure, and vulnerability, allows us to better understand the sources of AI-related risks and effectively intervene to mitigate them. This multi-component analysis also turns out to be particularly useful in the case of general-purpose and experimental AI systems, for which it is often hard to perform both ex-ante and ex-post risk analyses.

Artificial afterlife: philosophical reflections on griefbots

In A.S. Pinillos, V. Costa, J. Vallverdù (eds.). SecondDeath. Experiences of Death Across Technologies. Cham: Springer, 2025

AI-powered chatbots are increasingly used in many contexts and for a variety of purposes. Among t... more AI-powered chatbots are increasingly used in many contexts and for a variety of purposes. Among these uses, a particularly interesting one involves the so-called griefbots-that is, chatbots impersonating dead persons in the form of an artificial interlocutor. While they might help us process the loss of a beloved person, griefbots are not free from risks and may give rise to ethical concerns. This work aims at expanding the existing philosophical debate on griefbots. After providing a brief introduction to griefbots as well as the philosophical debate on their use, we provide an analysis of the way they may give rise to problematic ethical and normative tension between different transparency requirements. Then, we emphasise how the assessment of the related risks should adequately account for the dimension of users' vulnerability.

We don't know we don't know: asserting ignorance

by Ahti Pietarinen and Daniele Chiffi

The pragmatic logic of assertions shows a connection between ignorance and (informal) decidabilit... more The pragmatic logic of assertions shows a connection between ignorance and (informal) decidability. In it, we can express pragmatic factual ignorance and ﬁrst-order ignorance as well as some of their variants. We also show how some pragmatic versions of second-order ignorance and of Rumsfeld-ignorance may be formulated. A speciﬁc variant of second-order ignorance is particularly relevant. This indicates a strong pragmatic version of ignorance of ignorance, irreducible to any previous form
of ignorance, which deﬁnes limits to what can justiﬁably be asserted about higher-order ignorance. Finally, we relate the justiﬁed assertion of second-order ignorance (that cannot be known) with scientiﬁc assertions.

Keywords Assertion · Ignorance · Pragmatic logic · Uncertainty

Beta Assertive Graphs: Proofs of Assertions with Quantification

by Ahti Pietarinen and Daniele Chiffi

Assertive graphs (AGs) modify Peirce's Alpha part of Existential Graphs (EGs). They are used to r... more Assertive graphs (AGs) modify Peirce's Alpha part of Existential Graphs (EGs). They are used to reason about assertions without a need to resort to any ad hoc sign of assertion. The present paper presents an extension of propositional AGs to the Beta case by introducing two kinds of non-interdefinable lines. The absence of polarities in the theory of AGs necessitates Beta-AGs that resort to such two lines: standard lines that mean the presence of a certain method of asserting, and barbed lines that mean the presence of a general method of asserting. New rules of transformations for Beta-AGs are presented by which it is shown how to derive the theorems of quantificational intuitionistic logic. Generally, Beta-AGs offer a new non-classical system of quantification

http://www.collegepublications.co.uk/downloads/ifcolog00044.pdf

Abductive inference within a pragmatic framework

by Ahti Pietarinen, Daniele Chiffi, and Daniele Chiffi

This paper presents an enrichment of the Gabbay–Woods schema of Peirce’s 1903 logical form of abd... more This paper presents an enrichment of the Gabbay–Woods schema of Peirce’s
1903 logical form of abduction with illocutionary acts, drawing from logic for prag-
matics and its resources to model justiﬁed assertions. It analyses the enriched schema
and puts it into the perspective of Peirce’s logic and philosophy.

Keywords Abduction · Peirce · Gabbay–Woods schema · Logic for pragmatics ·
Illocutionary acts

Introduction to Philosophy and Abduction

Handbook of Abductive Cognition

Types of Technological Innovation in the Face of Uncertainty (Philosophy & Technology)

Philosophy and Technology, 2022

Technological innovation is almost always investigated from an economic perspective; with few exc... more Technological innovation is almost always investigated from an economic perspective; with few exceptions, the specific technological and social nature of innovation is often ignored. We argue that a novel way to characterise and make sense of different types of technological innovation is to start considering uncertainty. This seems plausible since technological development and innovation almost always occur under conditions of uncertainty. We rely on the distinction between, on the one hand, uncertainty that can be quantified (e.g. probabilistic risk) and, on the other, deep forms of uncertainty that may resist the possibility of being quantified (e.g. severe or fundamental uncertainties). On the basis of these different ingredients of uncertainty in technological innovation, we propose a new taxonomy that reveals the technological nature of innovation. Unlike previous taxonomies employed to handle different types of technological innovations, our taxonomy does not consider the economic value of innovation alone; it is much more oriented towards societal preferences and forms of technological uncertainty. Finally, we investigate the coherence of our proposal with the dual nature of technological artefacts, showing that innovation can be grounded on structural and functional factors and not just on economic ones.

Uncertainty and Planning: Cities, Technologies, and Public Decision-Making (Perspectives on Science, MIT Press)

Persectives on Science, MIT Press, 2022

Decision-making under uncertainty is sometimes investigated as a homogeneous problem, independent... more Decision-making under uncertainty is sometimes investigated as a homogeneous problem, independently of the type of decision-maker and the level and nature of the decision itself. However, when the decision-maker is a public authority, there immediately arise problems additional to those that concern any other (private) decision-maker. This is not always clearly recognised in orthodox discussions on decisions under conditions of uncertainty. This article investigates the methodological, strategic and procedural challenges of taking public decisions in such conditions. It focuses mainly on decisions involving urban contexts, such as planning decisions regarding land use and building transformations, by trying to develop some pioneering research studies in this field.

The Power of Meta-analysis: A Challenge for Evidence-Based Medicine (European Journal for Philosophy of Science)

European Journal for Philosophy of Science, 2020

This paper discusses the outstanding problem of replicability of empirical data in the context of... more This paper discusses the outstanding problem of replicability of empirical data in the context of recent work on meta-analysis, especially within the field of evidence-based medicine. Specifically, it deals with the methodologi-cal issue of how to determine the degrees of heterogeneity between different collected studies. After critically reviewing the standard measures used to quantify meta-analytical heterogeneity, we argue that they should be revised in such a way to take into account the statistical power of the individual studies. We thus propose some new measures of heterogeneity. Subsequently, we apply them to reassess concrete case-studies from clinical research, thereby showing explicitly how the relevant values of heterogeneity diverge from those obtained with the original measures.

We Don't Know We Don't Know: Asserting Ignorance (Synthese)

by Daniele Chiffi, Ahti Pietarinen, and Ciro De Florio

Synthese, 2019

The pragmatic logic of assertions shows a connection between ignorance and (informal) decidabilit... more The pragmatic logic of assertions shows a connection between ignorance and (informal) decidability. In it, we can express pragmatic factual ignorance and rst-order ignorance as well as some of their variants. We also show how some pragmatic versions of second-order ignorance and of Rumsfeld-ignorance may be formulated. A specic variant of second-order ignorance is particularly relevant. This indicates a strong pragmatic version of ignorance of ignorance, irreducible to any previous form of ignorance, which denes limits to what can justi-ably be asserted about higher-order ignorance. Finally, we relate the justied assertion of second-order ignorance (that cannot be known) with scientic assertions.

On The Logical Philosophy of Assertive Graphs (Journal of Logic, Language, and Information)

by Daniele Chiffi and Ahti Pietarinen

The logic of Assertive Graphs (AGs) is a modification of Peirce's logic of Existential Graphs (EG... more The logic of Assertive Graphs (AGs) is a modification of Peirce's logic of Existential Graphs (EGs), which is intuitionistic and which takes assertions as its explicit object of study. In this paper we extend AGs into a classical graphical logic of assertions (ClAG) whose internal logic is classical. The characteristic feature is that both AGs and ClAG retain deep-inference rules of transformation. Unlike classical EGs, both AGs and ClAG can do so without explicitly introducing polarities of areas in their language. We then compare advantages of these two graphical approaches to the logic of assertions with a reference to a number of topics in philosophy of logic and to their deep-inferential nature of proofs.

Abductive Inference within a Pragmatic Framework (Synthese)

This paper presents an enrichment of the Gabbay–Woods schema of Peirce's 1903 logical form of abd... more This paper presents an enrichment of the Gabbay–Woods schema of Peirce's 1903 logical form of abduction with illocutionary acts, which draws from logic for pragmatics and its resources to model justified assertions. It analyses the enriched schema and puts it into the perspective of Peirce's logic and philosophy.

Meaning and Affect in Placebo Effect (Journal of Medicine and Philosophy)

This paper presents and defends an integrated view of the placebo effect, termed " affective-mean... more This paper presents and defends an integrated view of the placebo effect, termed " affective-meaning-making " model, which draws from theoretical reflection, clinical outcomes and neurophysiological findings. We consider the theoretical limitations of those proposals associated with the " meaning view " on the placebo effect which (i) leave the general aspects of meaning unspecified, (ii) fail to fully analyse the role of emotions and affect, and (iii) establish no clear connection between the theoretical, physiological and psychological aspects of the effect. We point out that a promising way to overcome these limitations is given by grounding the placebo effect on Peirce " s theory of meaning, in which the role of the meaning constitution and change is placed in logical and objective structures. We also show the connection between our theoretical proposal and the appraisal theory, and integrate it with emotion regulation.

Assertive Graphs (Journal of Applied Non-Classical Logics)

by Daniele Chiffi, Francesco Bellucci, and Ahti Pietarinen

Peirce and Frege both distinguished between the propositional content of an assertion and the ass... more Peirce and Frege both distinguished between the propositional content of an assertion and the assertion of a propositional content, but with different notational means. We present a modification of Peirce's graphical method of logic that can be used to reason about assertions in a manner similar to Peirce's original method. We propose a new system of Assertive Graphs (AGs), which unlike the tradition that follows Frege involves no ad hoc sign of assertion. We show that axioms of intuitionistic logic can be derived from AGs, and argue that AGs analyse and represent assertions and illocutionary content in a way which is motivated both by its logical properties and its historical connection with the ideas that led to the development of the graphical method.

ABDUCTION IN PROGNOSTIC REASONING in Handbook of Abductive Cognition, 2022. Cham: Springer.

in Handbook of Abductive Cognition (ed. by L. Magnani), 2022. Cham: Springer.

One of the most important activities of medicine is the act of prognostication. The success of me... more One of the most important activities of medicine is the act of prognostication. The success of medical practice depends indeed also on the ability of physicians to make reliable and accurate predictions on the course of diseases and patients' health. However, traditionally the concept of prognosis has been partially overlooked both by clinicians and philosophers of science. In this chapter we aim to fill this gap, focusing on the logical and epistemological aspects of prognostic reasoning, that has been usually understood in terms of abduction. In fact, any prognosis has to deal with some kind of uncertainty and abductive forms of reasoning seem to nicely cope with it. The main aim of this chapter is to summarize and critically discuss all the major findings directly related to prognostic and abductive reasoning in both philosophical and scientific literature.

Asserting Boo! and Horray! Pragmatic Logic for Assertion and Moral Attitudes (Journal of Applied Logics)

Journal of Applied Logics, 2021

The present paper puts forward a formal and pragmatic treatment of the Frege-Geach problem and ot... more The present paper puts forward a formal and pragmatic treatment of the Frege-Geach problem and other related problems usually associated with logical connectives for sentences expressing moral attitudes within an extension of logic for pragmatics (LP), a logic for acts of assertion. First, we present the Frege-Geach problem, showing its relevance for distinguishing asserted from non-asserted contexts in logical inferences. Second, we introduce the basic elements of LP, underlying its capacity to clearly disambiguate asserted from unasserted contexts. Third, we extend LP into ELP, a pragmatic logic for expressive sentences, and provide a suitable way to deal with the Frege-Geach problem. Fourth, our framework is compared with classical expressivist systems and we clarify how in ELP it is possible to provide a plausible answer to the remaining logical problems regarding expressive sentences. Finally, we show the relation between assertion and attitudes in our perspective and suggest an outline to implement ELP as a logical basis for different kinds of expressivist systems. * This research has been supported by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, project Values in Argumentative Discourse (PTDC/MHC-FIL/0521/2014). A special thanks goes to the following colleagues who gave me many useful comments on early versions of this paper: . Moreover, I would like to thank Massimiliano Carrara, Ciro De Florio, Ahti-Veikko Pietarinen and Francesco Bellucci for the uncountable and stimulating discussions on the logical nature of assertions. The present paper is written in memory of Carlo Dalla Pozza and based on his research in pragmatic logic.

Ethics of Self-driving Cars: A Naturalistic Approach (Minds & Machines)

Mind and Machines, 2022

The potential development of self-driving cars (also known as autonomous vehicles or AVs-particul... more The potential development of self-driving cars (also known as autonomous vehicles or AVs-particularly Level 5 AVs) has called the attention of different interested parties. Yet, there are still only a few relevant international regulations on them, no emergency patterns accepted by communities and Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), and no publicly accepted solutions to some of their pending ethical problems. Thus, this paper aims to provide some possible answers to these moral and practical dilemmas. In particular, we focus on what AVs should do in no-win scenarios and on who should be held responsible for these types of decisions. A naturalistic perspective on ethics informs our proposal, which, we argue, could represent a pragmatic and realistic solution to the regulation of AVs. We discuss the proposals already set out in the current literature regarding both policy-making strategies and theoretical accounts. In fact, we consider and reject descriptive approaches to the problem as well as the option of using either a strict deontological view or a solely utilitarian one to set AVs' ethical choices. Instead, to provide concrete answers to AVs' ethical problems, we examine three hierarchical levels of decision-making processes: country-wide regulations, OEM policies, and buyers' moral attitudes. By appropriately distributing ethical decisions and considering their practical implications, we maintain that our proposal based on ethical naturalism recognizes the importance of all stakeholders and allows the most able of them to take actions (the OEMs and buyers) to reflect on the moral leeway and weight of their options.

Some Logical Notations for Pragmatic Assertions (Logique et Analyse)

by Daniele Chiffi and Ahti Pietarinen

Logique et Analyse, 2020

The pragmatic notion of assertion has an important inferential role in logic. There are also many... more The pragmatic notion of assertion has an important inferential role in logic. There are also many notational forms to express assertions in logical systems. This paper reviews, compares and analyses languages with signs for assertions, including explicit signs such as Frege's and Dalla Pozza's logical systems and implicit signs with no specific sign for assertion, such as Peirce's algebraic and graphical logics and the recent modification of the latter termed Assertive Graphs. We identify and discuss the main 'points' of these notations on the logical representation of assertions, and evaluate their systems from the perspective of the philosophy of logical notations. Pragmatic assertions turn out to be useful in providing intended interpretations of a variety of logical systems.

Clinical Equipoise and Moral Leeway: An Epistemological Stance (Topoi)

Clinical equipoise (CE) has been proposed as an ethical principle relating uncertainty and moral ... more Clinical equipoise (CE) has been proposed as an ethical principle relating uncertainty and moral leeway in clinical research. Although CE has traditionally been indicated as a necessary condition for a morally justified introduction of a new RCT, questions related to the interpretation of this principle remain woefully open. Recent proposals to rehabilitate CE have divided the bioethical community on its ethical merits. This paper presents a new argument that brings out the epistemological difficulties we encounter in justifying CE as a principle to connect uncertainty and moral leeway in clinical ethics. The argument proposes, first, that the methodology of hypothetical retrospection (HR) is applicable to the RCT design and that it can accommodate uncertainty. As currently understood, however, HR should give up its reliance on the assumption of uncertainty transduction (UT), because the latter assumes the principle of indifference, which does not accommodate uncertainty in the right way. The same principle is then seen to distort also the received interpretations of CE.

Keep trusting! A plea for the notion of Trustworthy AI

AI & SOCIETY, 2023

A lot of attention has recently been devoted to the notion of Trustworthy AI (TAI). However, the ... more A lot of attention has recently been devoted to the notion of Trustworthy AI (TAI). However, the very applicability of the notions of trust and trustworthiness to AI systems has been called into question. A purely epistemic account of trust can hardly ground the distinction between trustworthy and merely reliable AI, while it has been argued that insisting on the importance of the trustee's motivations and goodwill makes the notion of TAI a categorical error. After providing an overview of the debate, we contend that the prevailing views on trust and AI fail to account for the ethically relevant and value-laden aspects of the design and use of AI systems, and we propose an understanding of the notion of TAI that explicitly aims at capturing these aspects. The problems involved in applying trust and trustworthiness to AI systems are overcome by keeping apart trust in AI systems and interpersonal trust. These notions share a conceptual core but should be treated as distinct ones.

AI-Related Risk: An Epistemological Approach

Philosophy and Technology, 2024

Risks connected with AI systems have become a recurrent topic in public and academic debates, and... more Risks connected with AI systems have become a recurrent topic in public and academic debates, and the European proposal for the AI Act explicitly adopts a riskbased tiered approach that associates different levels of regulation with different levels of risk. However, a comprehensive and general framework to think about AI-related risk is still lacking. In this work, we aim to provide an epistemological analysis of such risk building upon the existing literature on disaster risk analysis and reduction. We show how a multi-component analysis of risk, that distinguishes between the dimensions of hazard, exposure, and vulnerability, allows us to better understand the sources of AI-related risks and effectively intervene to mitigate them. This multi-component analysis also turns out to be particularly useful in the case of general-purpose and experimental AI systems, for which it is often hard to perform both ex-ante and ex-post risk analyses.

Artificial afterlife: philosophical reflections on griefbots

In A.S. Pinillos, V. Costa, J. Vallverdù (eds.). SecondDeath. Experiences of Death Across Technologies. Cham: Springer, 2025

AI-powered chatbots are increasingly used in many contexts and for a variety of purposes. Among t... more AI-powered chatbots are increasingly used in many contexts and for a variety of purposes. Among these uses, a particularly interesting one involves the so-called griefbots-that is, chatbots impersonating dead persons in the form of an artificial interlocutor. While they might help us process the loss of a beloved person, griefbots are not free from risks and may give rise to ethical concerns. This work aims at expanding the existing philosophical debate on griefbots. After providing a brief introduction to griefbots as well as the philosophical debate on their use, we provide an analysis of the way they may give rise to problematic ethical and normative tension between different transparency requirements. Then, we emphasise how the assessment of the related risks should adequately account for the dimension of users' vulnerability.

We don't know we don't know: asserting ignorance

by Ahti Pietarinen and Daniele Chiffi

The pragmatic logic of assertions shows a connection between ignorance and (informal) decidabilit... more The pragmatic logic of assertions shows a connection between ignorance and (informal) decidability. In it, we can express pragmatic factual ignorance and ﬁrst-order ignorance as well as some of their variants. We also show how some pragmatic versions of second-order ignorance and of Rumsfeld-ignorance may be formulated. A speciﬁc variant of second-order ignorance is particularly relevant. This indicates a strong pragmatic version of ignorance of ignorance, irreducible to any previous form
of ignorance, which deﬁnes limits to what can justiﬁably be asserted about higher-order ignorance. Finally, we relate the justiﬁed assertion of second-order ignorance (that cannot be known) with scientiﬁc assertions.

Keywords Assertion · Ignorance · Pragmatic logic · Uncertainty

Beta Assertive Graphs: Proofs of Assertions with Quantification

by Ahti Pietarinen and Daniele Chiffi

Assertive graphs (AGs) modify Peirce's Alpha part of Existential Graphs (EGs). They are used to r... more Assertive graphs (AGs) modify Peirce's Alpha part of Existential Graphs (EGs). They are used to reason about assertions without a need to resort to any ad hoc sign of assertion. The present paper presents an extension of propositional AGs to the Beta case by introducing two kinds of non-interdefinable lines. The absence of polarities in the theory of AGs necessitates Beta-AGs that resort to such two lines: standard lines that mean the presence of a certain method of asserting, and barbed lines that mean the presence of a general method of asserting. New rules of transformations for Beta-AGs are presented by which it is shown how to derive the theorems of quantificational intuitionistic logic. Generally, Beta-AGs offer a new non-classical system of quantification

http://www.collegepublications.co.uk/downloads/ifcolog00044.pdf

Abductive inference within a pragmatic framework

by Ahti Pietarinen, Daniele Chiffi, and Daniele Chiffi

This paper presents an enrichment of the Gabbay–Woods schema of Peirce’s 1903 logical form of abd... more This paper presents an enrichment of the Gabbay–Woods schema of Peirce’s
1903 logical form of abduction with illocutionary acts, drawing from logic for prag-
matics and its resources to model justiﬁed assertions. It analyses the enriched schema
and puts it into the perspective of Peirce’s logic and philosophy.

Keywords Abduction · Peirce · Gabbay–Woods schema · Logic for pragmatics ·
Illocutionary acts

Introduction to Philosophy and Abduction

Handbook of Abductive Cognition

Types of Technological Innovation in the Face of Uncertainty (Philosophy & Technology)

Philosophy and Technology, 2022

Technological innovation is almost always investigated from an economic perspective; with few exc... more Technological innovation is almost always investigated from an economic perspective; with few exceptions, the specific technological and social nature of innovation is often ignored. We argue that a novel way to characterise and make sense of different types of technological innovation is to start considering uncertainty. This seems plausible since technological development and innovation almost always occur under conditions of uncertainty. We rely on the distinction between, on the one hand, uncertainty that can be quantified (e.g. probabilistic risk) and, on the other, deep forms of uncertainty that may resist the possibility of being quantified (e.g. severe or fundamental uncertainties). On the basis of these different ingredients of uncertainty in technological innovation, we propose a new taxonomy that reveals the technological nature of innovation. Unlike previous taxonomies employed to handle different types of technological innovations, our taxonomy does not consider the economic value of innovation alone; it is much more oriented towards societal preferences and forms of technological uncertainty. Finally, we investigate the coherence of our proposal with the dual nature of technological artefacts, showing that innovation can be grounded on structural and functional factors and not just on economic ones.

Uncertainty and Planning: Cities, Technologies, and Public Decision-Making (Perspectives on Science, MIT Press)

Persectives on Science, MIT Press, 2022

Decision-making under uncertainty is sometimes investigated as a homogeneous problem, independent... more Decision-making under uncertainty is sometimes investigated as a homogeneous problem, independently of the type of decision-maker and the level and nature of the decision itself. However, when the decision-maker is a public authority, there immediately arise problems additional to those that concern any other (private) decision-maker. This is not always clearly recognised in orthodox discussions on decisions under conditions of uncertainty. This article investigates the methodological, strategic and procedural challenges of taking public decisions in such conditions. It focuses mainly on decisions involving urban contexts, such as planning decisions regarding land use and building transformations, by trying to develop some pioneering research studies in this field.

The Power of Meta-analysis: A Challenge for Evidence-Based Medicine (European Journal for Philosophy of Science)

European Journal for Philosophy of Science, 2020

This paper discusses the outstanding problem of replicability of empirical data in the context of... more This paper discusses the outstanding problem of replicability of empirical data in the context of recent work on meta-analysis, especially within the field of evidence-based medicine. Specifically, it deals with the methodologi-cal issue of how to determine the degrees of heterogeneity between different collected studies. After critically reviewing the standard measures used to quantify meta-analytical heterogeneity, we argue that they should be revised in such a way to take into account the statistical power of the individual studies. We thus propose some new measures of heterogeneity. Subsequently, we apply them to reassess concrete case-studies from clinical research, thereby showing explicitly how the relevant values of heterogeneity diverge from those obtained with the original measures.

We Don't Know We Don't Know: Asserting Ignorance (Synthese)

by Daniele Chiffi, Ahti Pietarinen, and Ciro De Florio

Synthese, 2019

The pragmatic logic of assertions shows a connection between ignorance and (informal) decidabilit... more The pragmatic logic of assertions shows a connection between ignorance and (informal) decidability. In it, we can express pragmatic factual ignorance and rst-order ignorance as well as some of their variants. We also show how some pragmatic versions of second-order ignorance and of Rumsfeld-ignorance may be formulated. A specic variant of second-order ignorance is particularly relevant. This indicates a strong pragmatic version of ignorance of ignorance, irreducible to any previous form of ignorance, which denes limits to what can justi-ably be asserted about higher-order ignorance. Finally, we relate the justied assertion of second-order ignorance (that cannot be known) with scientic assertions.

On The Logical Philosophy of Assertive Graphs (Journal of Logic, Language, and Information)

by Daniele Chiffi and Ahti Pietarinen

The logic of Assertive Graphs (AGs) is a modification of Peirce's logic of Existential Graphs (EG... more The logic of Assertive Graphs (AGs) is a modification of Peirce's logic of Existential Graphs (EGs), which is intuitionistic and which takes assertions as its explicit object of study. In this paper we extend AGs into a classical graphical logic of assertions (ClAG) whose internal logic is classical. The characteristic feature is that both AGs and ClAG retain deep-inference rules of transformation. Unlike classical EGs, both AGs and ClAG can do so without explicitly introducing polarities of areas in their language. We then compare advantages of these two graphical approaches to the logic of assertions with a reference to a number of topics in philosophy of logic and to their deep-inferential nature of proofs.

Abductive Inference within a Pragmatic Framework (Synthese)

This paper presents an enrichment of the Gabbay–Woods schema of Peirce's 1903 logical form of abd... more This paper presents an enrichment of the Gabbay–Woods schema of Peirce's 1903 logical form of abduction with illocutionary acts, which draws from logic for pragmatics and its resources to model justified assertions. It analyses the enriched schema and puts it into the perspective of Peirce's logic and philosophy.

Meaning and Affect in Placebo Effect (Journal of Medicine and Philosophy)

This paper presents and defends an integrated view of the placebo effect, termed " affective-mean... more This paper presents and defends an integrated view of the placebo effect, termed " affective-meaning-making " model, which draws from theoretical reflection, clinical outcomes and neurophysiological findings. We consider the theoretical limitations of those proposals associated with the " meaning view " on the placebo effect which (i) leave the general aspects of meaning unspecified, (ii) fail to fully analyse the role of emotions and affect, and (iii) establish no clear connection between the theoretical, physiological and psychological aspects of the effect. We point out that a promising way to overcome these limitations is given by grounding the placebo effect on Peirce " s theory of meaning, in which the role of the meaning constitution and change is placed in logical and objective structures. We also show the connection between our theoretical proposal and the appraisal theory, and integrate it with emotion regulation.

Assertive Graphs (Journal of Applied Non-Classical Logics)

by Daniele Chiffi, Francesco Bellucci, and Ahti Pietarinen

Peirce and Frege both distinguished between the propositional content of an assertion and the ass... more Peirce and Frege both distinguished between the propositional content of an assertion and the assertion of a propositional content, but with different notational means. We present a modification of Peirce's graphical method of logic that can be used to reason about assertions in a manner similar to Peirce's original method. We propose a new system of Assertive Graphs (AGs), which unlike the tradition that follows Frege involves no ad hoc sign of assertion. We show that axioms of intuitionistic logic can be derived from AGs, and argue that AGs analyse and represent assertions and illocutionary content in a way which is motivated both by its logical properties and its historical connection with the ideas that led to the development of the graphical method.

ABDUCTION IN PROGNOSTIC REASONING in Handbook of Abductive Cognition, 2022. Cham: Springer.

in Handbook of Abductive Cognition (ed. by L. Magnani), 2022. Cham: Springer.

One of the most important activities of medicine is the act of prognostication. The success of me... more One of the most important activities of medicine is the act of prognostication. The success of medical practice depends indeed also on the ability of physicians to make reliable and accurate predictions on the course of diseases and patients' health. However, traditionally the concept of prognosis has been partially overlooked both by clinicians and philosophers of science. In this chapter we aim to fill this gap, focusing on the logical and epistemological aspects of prognostic reasoning, that has been usually understood in terms of abduction. In fact, any prognosis has to deal with some kind of uncertainty and abductive forms of reasoning seem to nicely cope with it. The main aim of this chapter is to summarize and critically discuss all the major findings directly related to prognostic and abductive reasoning in both philosophical and scientific literature.

Asserting Boo! and Horray! Pragmatic Logic for Assertion and Moral Attitudes (Journal of Applied Logics)

Journal of Applied Logics, 2021

The present paper puts forward a formal and pragmatic treatment of the Frege-Geach problem and ot... more The present paper puts forward a formal and pragmatic treatment of the Frege-Geach problem and other related problems usually associated with logical connectives for sentences expressing moral attitudes within an extension of logic for pragmatics (LP), a logic for acts of assertion. First, we present the Frege-Geach problem, showing its relevance for distinguishing asserted from non-asserted contexts in logical inferences. Second, we introduce the basic elements of LP, underlying its capacity to clearly disambiguate asserted from unasserted contexts. Third, we extend LP into ELP, a pragmatic logic for expressive sentences, and provide a suitable way to deal with the Frege-Geach problem. Fourth, our framework is compared with classical expressivist systems and we clarify how in ELP it is possible to provide a plausible answer to the remaining logical problems regarding expressive sentences. Finally, we show the relation between assertion and attitudes in our perspective and suggest an outline to implement ELP as a logical basis for different kinds of expressivist systems. * This research has been supported by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, project Values in Argumentative Discourse (PTDC/MHC-FIL/0521/2014). A special thanks goes to the following colleagues who gave me many useful comments on early versions of this paper: . Moreover, I would like to thank Massimiliano Carrara, Ciro De Florio, Ahti-Veikko Pietarinen and Francesco Bellucci for the uncountable and stimulating discussions on the logical nature of assertions. The present paper is written in memory of Carlo Dalla Pozza and based on his research in pragmatic logic.

Ethics of Self-driving Cars: A Naturalistic Approach (Minds & Machines)

Mind and Machines, 2022

The potential development of self-driving cars (also known as autonomous vehicles or AVs-particul... more The potential development of self-driving cars (also known as autonomous vehicles or AVs-particularly Level 5 AVs) has called the attention of different interested parties. Yet, there are still only a few relevant international regulations on them, no emergency patterns accepted by communities and Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), and no publicly accepted solutions to some of their pending ethical problems. Thus, this paper aims to provide some possible answers to these moral and practical dilemmas. In particular, we focus on what AVs should do in no-win scenarios and on who should be held responsible for these types of decisions. A naturalistic perspective on ethics informs our proposal, which, we argue, could represent a pragmatic and realistic solution to the regulation of AVs. We discuss the proposals already set out in the current literature regarding both policy-making strategies and theoretical accounts. In fact, we consider and reject descriptive approaches to the problem as well as the option of using either a strict deontological view or a solely utilitarian one to set AVs' ethical choices. Instead, to provide concrete answers to AVs' ethical problems, we examine three hierarchical levels of decision-making processes: country-wide regulations, OEM policies, and buyers' moral attitudes. By appropriately distributing ethical decisions and considering their practical implications, we maintain that our proposal based on ethical naturalism recognizes the importance of all stakeholders and allows the most able of them to take actions (the OEMs and buyers) to reflect on the moral leeway and weight of their options.

Some Logical Notations for Pragmatic Assertions (Logique et Analyse)

by Daniele Chiffi and Ahti Pietarinen

Logique et Analyse, 2020

The pragmatic notion of assertion has an important inferential role in logic. There are also many... more The pragmatic notion of assertion has an important inferential role in logic. There are also many notational forms to express assertions in logical systems. This paper reviews, compares and analyses languages with signs for assertions, including explicit signs such as Frege's and Dalla Pozza's logical systems and implicit signs with no specific sign for assertion, such as Peirce's algebraic and graphical logics and the recent modification of the latter termed Assertive Graphs. We identify and discuss the main 'points' of these notations on the logical representation of assertions, and evaluate their systems from the perspective of the philosophy of logical notations. Pragmatic assertions turn out to be useful in providing intended interpretations of a variety of logical systems.

Clinical Equipoise and Moral Leeway: An Epistemological Stance (Topoi)

Clinical equipoise (CE) has been proposed as an ethical principle relating uncertainty and moral ... more Clinical equipoise (CE) has been proposed as an ethical principle relating uncertainty and moral leeway in clinical research. Although CE has traditionally been indicated as a necessary condition for a morally justified introduction of a new RCT, questions related to the interpretation of this principle remain woefully open. Recent proposals to rehabilitate CE have divided the bioethical community on its ethical merits. This paper presents a new argument that brings out the epistemological difficulties we encounter in justifying CE as a principle to connect uncertainty and moral leeway in clinical ethics. The argument proposes, first, that the methodology of hypothetical retrospection (HR) is applicable to the RCT design and that it can accommodate uncertainty. As currently understood, however, HR should give up its reliance on the assumption of uncertainty transduction (UT), because the latter assumes the principle of indifference, which does not accommodate uncertainty in the right way. The same principle is then seen to distort also the received interpretations of CE.

Su Alcune Norme Costitutive di Asserzione

Si è soliti distinguere le asserzioni, ovvero atti linguistici basati su giudizi di verità (o alm... more Si è soliti distinguere le asserzioni, ovvero atti linguistici basati su giudizi di verità (o almeno di confermabilità probabilistica) di contenuti proposizionali, dai proferimenti, ovvero le semplici emissioni di parole o frasi. Molti altri atti linguistici sono comunemente usati nelle lingue naturali, per esempio: domandare, interrogare, dubitare, ipotizzare, sperare. Ci soffermeremo qui sull'analisi delle sole asserzioni e sulle loro regole costitutive, ovvero quelle regole considerate imprescindibili per caratterizzare gli elementi necessari e sufficienti di una determinata nozione o attività; per lo meno a partire da Kant, l'esistenza di una possibile funzione costitutiva per alcuni tipi di norme è stata ampiamente riconosciuta dai filosofi. Il presente contributo ha come scopo quello di mostrare che le asserzioni sono governate da due regole costitutive: la warrant rule (WR) che stabilisce che si possa compiere un'asserzione se esiste una prova (o verifica o un certo grado di conferma empirica) del contenuto dell'asserzione e la knowledge rule (KRA) che stabilisce che si possa giustificare un'asserzione se un soggetto conosce il contenuto dell'asserzione. Una posizione molto nota, e che analizzeremo nello specifico, è quella di Williamson per cui l'asserzione è governata unicamente dalla knowledge rule. 1 Questa è ciò che chiamerò Williamson's thesis (WT). Cercherò di mostrare come la WT non sia adeguata nel catturare le condizioni di giustificazione per le asserzioni e argomenterò a favore di una tesi che chiamerò "tesi delle due regole" (2RT), ovvero: WR e KR sono congiuntamente necessarie e sufficienti per una completa giustificazione del concetto di asserzione.

Conoscibilità e prova in un quadro pragmatico

by Massimiliano Carrara and Daniele Chiffi

Prova e giustificazione, 2013

CFP: Topoi - “Foundations of Clinical Reasoning: An Epistemological Stance”

by Daniele Chiffi and Giovanni Boniolo

Among the most discussed epistemological issues in clinical reasoning is the problem of the exter... more Among the most discussed epistemological issues in clinical reasoning is the problem of the external validity. Considered as one of the most urgent, this problem arises from the fact that the results of the Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) are seldom applied to the whole reference population, which is identified with people needing a medical treatment.

How to Say ‘Yes’ or ‘No’: Logical Approaches to Modes of Assertion and Denial (Logique et Analyse)

by Massimiliano Carrara, Daniele Chiffi, and Ciro De Florio

Logique et Analyse, 2017

Prova e giustificazione

by Daniele Chiffi and Alfredo Di Giorgio

Collana diretta da Ugo Pagallo 11 La collana presenta al lettore italiano una serie di studi inte... more Collana diretta da Ugo Pagallo 11 La collana presenta al lettore italiano una serie di studi interdisciplinari in informatica, diritto e nuove tecnologie, con la traduzione di importanti contributi di matematica, computer science, teoria generale del diritto, filosofia cognitiva, etc., oltre a opere nazionali particolarmente attente alle nuove frontiere tenologiche degli ordinamenti giuridici, politici ed economici contemporanei. La cifra teoretica è data dagli assunti della cosiddetta digital philosophy che, a partire dalle opere di Kurt Gödel e Alan Turing fino agli odierni dibattiti sull'intelligenza artificiale, i computer quantistici, la realtà "aumentata" e "virtuale", i sistemi esperti, trova nella tradizione pitagorico-platonica e, soprattutto, nel pensiero di Leibniz, le proprie origini storiche.

Kurt Gödel. Philosophical Explorations

Knowledge and assertion

How to Say 'Yes' or 'No': Logical Approaches to Modes of Assertion and Denial

by Massimiliano Carrara, Daniele Chiffi, and Ciro De Florio

Uncertainty and Planning: Cities, Technologies and Public Decision-Making

by Stefano Moroni and Daniele Chiffi

Perspectives on Sciences, 2022

Decision-making under uncertainty is sometimes investigated as a homogeneous problem, independent... more Decision-making under uncertainty is sometimes investigated as a homogeneous problem, independently of the type of decision-maker and the level and nature of the decision itself. However, when the decision-maker is a public authority, there immediately arise problems additional to those that concern any other (private) decision-maker. This is not always clearly recognised in orthodox discussions on decisions under conditions of uncertainty. This article investigates the methodological, strategic and procedural challenges of taking public decisions in such conditions. It focuses mainly on decisions involving urban contexts, such as planning decisions regarding land use and building transformations, by trying to develop some pioneering research studies in this field. 1. Introduction: Inhomogeneous Decision Situations Decision-making under uncertainty has captured the attention of many scholars and has been extensively discussed in the literature. The issue is often investigated as a homogeneous problem, independently of the type of decision-maker and the level and nature of the decision itself. However, when the decision-maker is a public actor (i.e., a public authority), there immediately arise problems additional to those concerning any other