The first issue of the fourth volume of Argumenta opens with a Special Issue, edited by Giuseppe Lorini and Wojciech Żełaniec, devoted to a topic that in recent years has been registering a growing, if sometimes rather critical, attention by a fair number of scholars: constitutive rules.

As the two editors make clear in their Introduction, constitutive rules highlight the fact that, over and above rules that prescribe and regulate, there are rules that create new forms of acts, facts, objects, events etc., where the facts in question are what John Searle has termed “institutional”. The discovery of this new area of research has significantly influenced the philosophical analysis of norms and normativity.

This Special Issue comprises ten essays authored by some of the best minds currently pursuing this influential line of research, and focused on the task of carefully examining the diverse aspects of, and concepts that are germane to, the issue of the background of constitutive rules.

After the Special Issue, we present two articles: the former, entitled Presentism and Causal Processes, is an ingenious attempt to reconcile presentism and causation on the basis of a new approach to causation, while the latter, entitled Indicative Conditionals as Strict Conditionals, suggests that in a considerably wide class of cases the semantic and logical properties of conditionals can be elucidate by employing the resources of modal propositional logic. It is our conviction that these articles will greatly contribute to foster the discussion of their respective topics. The section of Book Reviews then rounds off the number once again. We are proud to offer readers three new thoughtful reviews of as many interesting books.

As always, all the articles appearing in Argumenta are freely accessible and freely downloadable. I heartily thank the Assistant Editors for their invaluable work on the preparation of this issue, and all the colleagues who have acted as referees.

Buona lettura!

Massimo Dell’Utri

Editor