This project explores a new approach to the mind-body problem in terms of the notion of “metaphysical grounding”. The notion of “grounding” is that of metaphysical dependence: for one thing to be grounded in another is for one thing to depend on another for its existence and its nature. The …
This project will focus on the metaphysics of the subject of experiences, that is, on the
nature of entities which can have experiences (including conscious animals as well as
humans). There has been increasing attention paid to different issues relevant to this topic in
recent years, but as of yet …
The project aims at elaborating on, and assessing, a “phenomenological” model poised to account for self-consciousness – strictly understood as the subject’s experiencing of its own occurrent mental states before any reflection or introspection. Our final goal is to test the descriptive power of this model and to assess it’s …
Perceptual experience of an object is often said to settle questions as to what the object is like in a peculiarly immediate and authoritative way. Articulations of this idea can be found across otherwise disparate traditions in 20th century philosophy. According to Husserl, ‘the ultimate legitimating source of all rational …
This research project is concerned with our relation to gastronomical items, i.e., any product that can be drunk or eaten, whether as the result of a process of fabrication or in a raw form. It aims at understanding better, from a philosophical standpoint, what our consumption of gastronomical items amounts …
It is a commonplace that fictional texts invite and move us to imagine certain things concerning the characters and events described by the text. Reading ‘The Sound and the Fury’ prompts us to imagine various incidents in the history of the Compson family. It is equally undeniable that considerations about …
The research project aims to bring together and integrate the various debates in epistemology, in meta-ethics and, to some extent, also in aesthetics that are concerned with the rational motivation and justification of mental attitudes (belief, intention, evaluation, etc.), as well as with the normative connections between values, reasons and …
The main motivation for the present Doctoral Program, where different research projects are united in one collaborative scheme, is the integration of the topics presented in the different Research Modules. Those topics present a variety of common lines of interest and inquiry. Here are some.
One of the aims of …
This project – which is part of the SNF-ProDoc ‘Mind and Reality’ – aims at the development of a general empirically informed philosophical theory of agency which covers the realm of bodily as well as mental action. The analysis of how we experience ourselves in our bodily and mental behaviour …
The aim of our project (co-hosted with the University of Neuchatel) is to explore significant connections between the imagination, emotion, and experiences and judgements of value. The focus will be on moral and aesthetic values, but we intend the scope of our investigation to have implications for values in general, …