Oltre i dualismi: un itinerario tra diritto, neuroscienze e filosofia

The starting point of the essay is Vittorio Villa’s legal interpretation theory. Her epistemological fundaments are analyzed looking at Villa’s critic to descriptivism and his constructivist perspective. Some problems are outlined, concerning the nature of the conceptual patterns and their role in cognition’s processes. The question about the pre-linguistic dimension of cognition is the starting point for a confrontation with the outcomes of the cognitive neurosciences, the branch of neurology which investigates the neurological processes by means of which we perceive and act, learn and decide. The notion of intentionality becomes the leading one to investigate requirements and limits of the dualistic paradigm which underlies to the opposition between perceiving and acting, or knowing and evaluating, or reason and emotions. Some possible consequences for the law of a non dualistic perspective are finally outlined