Paradigmi classici e fondamenti teorici nella ricerca contemporanea in ontologia formale e materiale

The research project focuses on contemporary ontology, and aims at outlining its theoretical foundations and classical paradigms. Starting from the 1950s, on the one



hand metaphysical and ontological issues have acquired a central role in every area of philosophical research; on the other, analytical discussion of such themes has



caused a proliferation of extremely in-depth, but often just as narrow, specific investigations. The distinction between formal and material ontology, and that between



prescriptive and descriptive frameworks, can offer but a first orientation among the surprising quantity of theoretical options advocated today in the ontological and



metaphysical debate; however, there is still the lack of synoptical systems clearly outlining how the choice of one of the general philosophical options might determine



specific solutions within each narrower field, and how the latter, on the other hand, might share invariants or common theoretical models. The project aims at filling this lack by tracing a geography of the positions currently determining ontological research, thus proceeding on: a metaontological level,



questioning the discernibility of criteria that allow for the association of theories to their local ontologies; a formal-ontological level, highlighting the conditions for



the assumption of entities, in a broad sense, apart from particular and specific kinds of objects; a local ontological level concerning material/particular entities, for



which to provide inquiries on behalf of particular kinds of entites. The main themes under discussion - identified as: 1. individuals and properties; 2. states of affairs;



3. modality and possible worlds; 4. events and causality; 5. mathematical objects; 6. moral objects; 7. meta-ontology - will be examined under the specific focus of



detecting the theoretical assumption lying underneath, the cross-topic consistency of such assumptions, and the possible presence of a fixed reference models within



the development of the overall ontological-metaphysical work. With the help of a historico-critical survey of the currently discussed ontological and metaphysical



issues, the project also aims at outlining those classical paradigms often ignored by contemporary debate. The research will result in the systematization and the



synoptical presentation of the most meaningful theoretical positions within the current ontological debate, as well as in the discussion, at international level, of such



results: workshops and conferences will be organized, and the research participants will contribute to the major discussions, in Italy and abroad as well, finally



presenting their outcomes in an international book series devoted to the aforementioned themes. This book series will be aimed at verifying the mutual consistency of



the core assumptions of the various theories, clarifying such assumptions' degree of justification, with the purpose of shedding light on the possibility of presenting



ontology as a systematic discipline in relation both to the problems characterizing it and to the methods underlying such problems' proposed solutions.