"A minority view"
Gian-Carlo Rota's phenomenological realism
pp. 251-260
in: Ernesto Damiani, Vincenzo Marra, Fabrizio Palombi (eds), From combinatorics to philosophy, Berlin, Springer, 2009Abstract
In 1997 Rota's second anthology was published, entitled Indiscrete Thoughts. The theses put forward in the book were "minority" positions in a Unites States cultural context that, after long having attempted to replace philosophy with logical analysis and the analysis of language (Hersh, 1997, pp. IX-X), was preparing to interpret it also in neuroscientific terms. Rota intended to show that he did not fear uncomfortable positions and chose the phrase "a minority view" as a provocative title for the philosophy section of the book, inspired by phenomenology. We cannot understand the importance of Rota's intellectual figure, within the American cultural context of the end of the twentieth century, and the importance of his heritage if we interpret it in terms of architectonic of philosophy.
