A RESEARCH AND TRAINING SCHOOL ON Report A School on Open Problems in Philosophy of Sciences Cesena, 15-17 April 2010 Pierluigi Graziani* pierluigi.graziani@uniurb.it Philosophy, in its most serious and profound dimension, is about the construction of a justified solution to a particular class of fundamental problems; the philosopher is he who can argue for his answers to the problems, who knows how to put them in their place historically, who can rationally justify them and make them available for discussion and modification. However, there are two points of view which concerns the relationship between philosophy and sciences and which does not endorse this prospect1. The first view rises from the fear of some philosophers that interaction between philosophy and sciences could result in an expansion of the latter and a reduction of the former; such a fear favors philosophical efforts for the construction of rigid boundaries between sciences and philosophy. The second view, although allows an opening of philosophy with respect to sciences and takes scientific issues as starting points for philosophical reflections, is however incapable of understanding the depth of those scientific issues. Therefore, the first view transforms philosophical analysis in a mere a priori activity that is a sort of scholasticism; the second one, on the contrary, considers sciences, but only in an extrinsic way. In such a context, a research school which focuses on open problems in the philosophy of sciences should be an attempt to support a more serious and profound idea of philosophy, one which, first, addresses problems from a historical point of view, by proposing solutions which are aware of the development of the debates and argued in a style as cogent as possible and, * Urbino University 1 For a wider reflection, see Boniolo, S. (2002), Quattro questioni per ridiscutere sulla filosofia. CxC – Calls for Comments – Sito Web Italiano per la Filosofia. XXVI Humana.Mente – Issue 13 – April 2010 second, picks the problems from the sciences and analyzes them with competence, care, skill, by grasping their essence and putting them in a general perspective. With these purposes, following (mutatis mutandis) the experience of two schools in Francavilla al Mare organized by the Italian Philosophical Society2, the school Open Problems in Philosophy of Sciences3 (Cesena, 15-17 April 2010) has promoted and stimulated a methodologically conscious and mature philosophical analysis, capable of dealing with precision and deep cultural awareness with the problems raised by sciences. The school, opened by such a distinguished scholar of philosophy of sciences as Evandro Agazzi, has allowed and stimulated a dialogue between new generations of scholars (students close to completing their Doctor’s degree, or Philosophy Doctors who have not yet achieved a permanent academic position) and distinguished professors such as Giovanni Boniolo, Mario Piazza, Alfredo Paternoster and Vincenzo Fano. The school has fueled a dialogue open to scholars in the field, teachers of every grade and the entire civil society. Rather than talking about philosophy of science, scholars have shown how this discipline can and should be done by reflecting on important issues such as the Philosophy of the Life Sciences (Cecilia Nardini; Fridolin Gross; Fabio Lelli; Elena Casetta); the Philosophy of Mathematics (Gabriele Pulcini; Gianluca Ustori; Andrea Sereni; Valerio Giardino); the Philosophy of Mind (Maria-Erica Cosentino; Barbara Giolito; Maria Grazia Rossi; Maria Francesca Palermo); the Philosophy of Physics (Giacomo Mancin; Claudio Mazzola; Giulia Giannini; Giuliano Torrengo). The school, organized by Gino Tarozzi, Vincenzo Fano, Mario Alai and Pierluigi Graziani was made possible by a synergy between the Interuniversity Centre for Research in Philosophy and Foundations of Physics, the Department of Philosophy of University of Urbino, the Italian Society of Logic and Philosophy of Sciences and the Municipality of Cesena, which has been favoring for many years, mainly thanks to Franco Pollini, the Interuniversity Center in organizing major international events in the philosophy of sciences. 2 See: Tatasciore, C., Graziani, P., & Grimaldi, G. (Eds.) (2007), Prospettive Filosofiche 2006: Il Realismo. Napoli: Istituto Italiano per gli Studi Filosofici; Tatasciore, C., Graziani, P., & Grimaldi, G. (Eds.) (2010). Prospettive Filosofiche 2009: Ontologia. Napoli: Istituto Italiano per gli Studi Filosofici. 3 See .