Paolo Parrini's third way: the network model

This paper aims to examine three aspects of Paolo Parrini’s philosophy. Firstly, it intends to clarify in what sense the proposal of a third way is realised in the term ‘positive philosophy’. Secondly, the purpose is to read the network model as a paradigmatic example of positive philosophy (more specifically one con- cerning the relationship between observation and theory). Thirdly, it proposes to use the structure of the network model to open up a broader, meta- philosophical scenario, the scenario to which Parrini devoted himself with par- ticular intensity in the last years of his life. My hypothesis is that it is possible to interpret his position as post-analytic (in a weak sense as I will attempt to clarify) or synthetic, i.e. as a kind of substitute (to borrow an expression used by Hus- serl in Krisis), in the field of meta-philosophy, for what we call the network model at the epistemological level and positive philosophy at the more general theoretical level.