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In this paper I examine the political philosophy of B. Ackerman and in particular his conception of neutrality. I argue that in his philosophy of dialogue neutrality has a central place because it is a moral value, and because of its anti-relativistc implications for distributive justice.

This paper deals with the major concepts of Scanlon's moral contractualism. It is possible to describe moral contractualism as the ability to identify priorities and moral reasons in deliberative action, that no one could reasonably reject. These capabilities require us to take into account the interests of others in our moral judgments. The result is that Scanlon overthrow the philosophy of Hobbes: morality is not originated from politics; on the contrary, politics is a function of morality. His answer to the dilemma of Prichard is particularly persuasive, though the proof of the falsity of the skeptical position can only be dialectic and persuasive is its intellectualistic position on relations between reasons and desires, too.

The paper is devoted to a discussion of Rorty's Truth and Progress. Some Rorty's core ideas are discussed: ethnocentrism, pragmatism, liberalism, cultural differences, darwinism, feminism. The conclusion is that his idea of moral judgment as expression of our ethnocentrism does not allow a rational defence of liberal societies.

It is commonly thought that science is an 'happy island' where high standards of methodological and ethical rigour leave scarce room for unfairness, briberies, and frauds. However, a recently published book on Aids research (Luca Rossi, Sex virus, Milano, Feltrinelli, 1999) suggests that this is not always the case. Rossi's book, which includes a number of enlightening interviews both with the supporters and the critics of the 'standard view' about Aids, is a good starting point for rethinking the Hiv-Aids causal hypothesis. In this paper it is argued that: 1) the standard Hiv-Aids hypothesis has been accepted - basically for extra-scientifical reasons - without sufficient confirming evidence; 2) there are well-grounded criticisms to the standard view, which are supported by respected members of scientific community; 3) these criticisms are subject to a systematic censorship; 4) the rules of funding in Aids research do not warrant an adequate economical support to the critics of the standard view. A general lesson which can be drawn from Aids research is that any intellectual, political, and economical obstacle to the proliferation of competing programmes of research is an obstacle to progress in any field of scientific enterprise.