On the Inferential Zigzag and Its Activation Towards Clarifying What It Is Commonsense Reasoning

Abstract

This paper has a twofold goal: The first is to study how the inferential zigzag can be activated, even computationally, trying to analyse what kind of reasoning consists of, where its ’mechanism’ is rooted, how it can be activated since without all this it can just seem a metaphysical idea. The second, not so deeply different - as it can be presumed at a first view - but complementary, is to explore the subject’s link with the old thought on conjectures of the 15th Century Theologist and Philosopher Nicolaus Cusanus who was the first thinker consciously and extensively using conjectures.