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28A New Mind for a New AestheticsRevista Portuguesa de Filosofia 67 (3). 2011.Embora a extensão da dependência entre teorias da estética e modelos da mente seja urna questão de aceso debate, é justo afirmar que as abordagens actuáis da consciência sugerem novas perspectivas sobre a natureza da experiência estética. As recentes descobertas da neurociência têm afetado a nossa forma de ver a estética e a arte. Todavia, enquanto é frequentemente sugerido que a neurociência vai, em breve, obter urna descrição completa da natureza da mente e, portanto, da experiência estética, …Read more
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1That’s Why is Worth Continuing to Think About Our Successors – A Reply to ErlerPhilosophy and Technology 37 (2): 1-3. 2024.
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28Human Extinction and AI: What We Can Learn from the Ultimate ThreatPhilosophy and Technology 37 (1): 1-21. 2024.Human extinction is something generally deemed as undesirable, although some scholars view it as a potential solution to the problems of the Earth since it would reduce the moral evil and the suffering that are brought about by humans. We contend that humans collectively have absolute intrinsic value as sentient, conscious and rational entities, and we should preserve them from extinction. However, severe threats, such as climate change and incurable viruses, might push humanity to the brink of …Read more
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20Expertise: Philosophical Perspectives (edited book)Oxford University Press. 2024.This is a collective study of philosophical questions to do with experts and expertise, such as: What is an expert? Who decides who the experts are? Should we always defer to experts? How should expertise inform public policy? What happens when the experts disagree? Must experts be unbiased? Does it matter what the source of the expertise is?
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31Machine learning in human creativity: status and perspectivesAI and Society 1-13. forthcoming.As we write this research paper, we notice an explosion in popularity of machine learning in numerous fields (ranging from governance, education, and management to criminal justice, fraud detection, and internet of things). In this contribution, rather than focusing on any of those fields, which have been well-reviewed already, we decided to concentrate on a series of more recent applications of deep learning models and technologies that have only recently gained significant track in the relevan…Read more
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19Pushing The Boundaries of The Quarantine Model: Philosophical Concerns and Policy ImplicationsDiametros 21 (79): 146-162. 2023.The quarantine model, recently proposed by Pereboom and Caruso, is one of the most influential models developed to date in the context of criminal justice. The quarantine model challenges the very idea of criminal punishment and asserts that nobody deserves punishment on a fundamental level. Instead, in order to deal with offenders, it proposes a series of incapacitation measures based on public safety concerns. In this article, we examine several objections to the quarantine model that demonstr…Read more
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44Consciousness in a Rotor? Science and Ethics of Potentially Conscious Human Cerebral OrganoidsAmerican Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience 14 (2): 178-196. 2023.Human cerebral organoids are three-dimensional biological cultures grown in the laboratory to mimic as closely as possible the cellular composition, structure, and function of the corresponding organ, the brain. For now, cerebral organoids lack blood vessels and other characteristics of the human brain, but are also capable of having coordinated electrical activity. They have been usefully employed for the study of several diseases and the development of the nervous system in unprecedented ways.…Read more
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9A Balance of Rights: The Italian Way to the Abortion ControversyCambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 32 (3): 368-377. 2023.The U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs ruling triggered a global debate about access to abortion and the legislative models governing it. In the United States, there was a sudden reversal of federal guidance about pregnancy termination that is unprecedented in Western and high-income countries. The strong polarization on the issue of abortion and the difficulty of finding a point of compromise lead one to consider the experiences of countries that have had different paths. Italy stands as a candidate fo…Read more
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37Of Meatballs, Autonomy, and Human Dignity: Neuroethics and the Boundaries of Decision Making Among Persons with DementiaAmerican Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience 9 (2): 88-95. 2018.
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50Introduction: Moral EnhancementTopoi 38 (1): 1-5. 2019.It is often contended that certain enhancement technologies are acceptable, because they simply update traditional ways of pursuing the improvement of human capacities. This is not true with reference to moral bioenhancement, because of the radical difference between traditional and biotechnological ways of producing moral progress. These latter risk having serious negative effects on our moral agency, by causing a substantial loss of freedom and capacity of authentic moral behaviour, by affecti…Read more
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35Human Brain Organoids: Why There Can Be Moral Concerns If They Grow Up in the Lab and Are Transplanted or DestroyedCambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 32 (4): 582-596. 2023.Human brain organoids (HBOs) are three-dimensional biological entities grown in the laboratory in order to recapitulate the structure and functions of the adult human brain. They can be taken to be novel living entities for their specific features and uses. As a contribution to the ongoing discussion on the use of HBOs, the authors identify three sets of reasons for moral concern. The first set of reasons regards the potential emergence of sentience/consciousness in HBOs that would endow them wi…Read more
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29The Future of Human Cerebral Organoids: A Reply to CommentariesAmerican Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience 14 (4). 2023.Human brain organoids (HCOs) are laboratory-grown biological entities that have been added to the catalog of living entities for just over a decade. How they are formed and may continue to develop for some time is not irrelevant, given their peculiarity, which is that they mimic the human brain with a high degree of similarity. Revolving around this key issue is the discussion on our target article (Zilio and Lavazza 2023), for which we are grateful to all the commentators.
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49Theoretical Neurobiology of Consciousness Applied to Human Cerebral OrganoidsCambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 1-21. forthcoming.Organoids and specifically human cerebral organoids (HCOs) are one of the most relevant novelties in the field of biomedical research. Grown either from embryonic or induced pluripotent stem cells, HCOs can be used as in vitro three-dimensional models, mimicking the developmental process and organization of the developing human brain. Based on that, and despite their current limitations, it cannot be assumed that they will never at any stage of development manifest some rudimentary form of consc…Read more
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60Cerebral organoids and consciousness: how far are we willing to go?Journal of Medical Ethics 44 (9): 613-614. 2018.In his interesting commentary, Joshua Shepherd raises two points—one related to epistemology, the other to ethics—about our article on human cerebral organoids.1 2 From the epistemological standpoint, he calls into question the need for a theory of consciousness. A theory of consciousness, for him, is not necessary because of the lack of consensus about the very nature of consciousness. Shepherd suggests that ‘given widespread disagreement, applying a theory of consciousness may not be helpful w…Read more
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66Cerebral organoids: ethical issues and consciousness assessmentJournal of Medical Ethics 44 (9): 606-610. 2018.Organoids are three-dimensional biological structures grown in vitro from different kinds of stem cells that self-organise mimicking real organs with organ-specific cell types. Recently, researchers have managed to produce human organoids which have structural and functional properties very similar to those of different organs, such as the retina, the intestines, the kidneys, the pancreas, the liver and the inner ear. Organoids are considered a great resource for biomedical research, as they all…Read more
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42The Quarantine Model and its LimitsPhilosophia 51 (5): 2417-2438. 2023.There are several well-established theories of criminal punishment and of its justification. The quarantine model (advocated by Pereboom and Caruso) has recently emerged as one of the most prominent theories in the field, by denying the very idea of criminal justice. This theory claims that no one ought to be criminally punished because fundamentally people do not deserve any kind of punishment. On these grounds, the quarantine model proposes forms of incapacitation based on public safety consid…Read more
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38Dealing with Criminal Behavior: the Inaccuracy of the Quarantine AnalogyCriminal Law and Philosophy 17 (1): 135-154. 2021.Pereboom and Caruso propose the quarantine model as an alternative to existing models of criminal justice. They appeal to the established public health practice of quarantining people, which is believed to be effective and morally justified, to explain why -in criminal justice- it is also morally acceptable to detain wrongdoers, without assuming the existence of a retrospective moral responsibility. Wrongdoers in their model are treated as carriers of dangerous diseases and as such should be pre…Read more
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43An externalist approach to creativity: discovery versus recombinationMind and Society 12 (1): 61-72. 2013.What is the goal of creativity? Is it just a symbolic reshuffling or a moment of semantic extension? Similar to the contrast between syntax and semantics, creativity has an internal and an external aspect. Contrary to the widespread view that emphasises the problem-solving role of creativity, here we consider whether creativity represents an authentic moment of ontological discovery and semantic openness like Schopenhauer and Picasso suggested. To address the semantic aspect of creativity, we ta…Read more
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30The meaning of Freedom after Covid-19History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 43 (1): 1-5. 2021.Many governments have seen digital health technologies as promising tools to tackle the current COVID-19 pandemic. A much-talked example in this context involves the recent deluge of digital contact tracing apps aimed at detecting Covid-19 exposure. In this short contribution we look at the bio-political justification of this phenomenon and reflect on whether DCT apps constitute, as it is often argued, a serious potential breach of our right to privacy. Despite praising efforts attempting to dev…Read more
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64Minding Rights: Mapping Ethical and Legal Foundations of ‘Neurorights’Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 32 (4): 461-481. 2023.The rise of neurotechnologies, especially in combination with artificial intelligence (AI)-based methods for brain data analytics, has given rise to concerns around the protection of mental privacy, mental integrity and cognitive liberty – often framed as “neurorights” in ethical, legal, and policy discussions. Several states are now looking at including neurorights into their constitutional legal frameworks, and international institutions and organizations, such as UNESCO and the Council of Eur…Read more
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37Infosphere, Datafication, and Decision-Making Processes in the AI EraTopoi 42 (3): 843-856. 2023.A recent interpretation of artificial intelligence (AI) (Floridi 2013, 2022) suggests that the implementation of AI demands the investigation of the binding conditions that make it possible to build and integrate artifacts into our lived world. Such artifacts can successfully interact with the world because our environment has been designed to be compatible with intelligent machines (such as robots). As the use of AI becomes ubiquitous in society, possibly leading to the formation of increasingl…Read more
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28Philosophical foundation of the right to mental integrity in the age of neurotechnologiesNeuroethics 16 (1): 1-13. 2023.Neurotechnologies broadly understood are tools that have the capability to read, record and modify our mental activity by acting on its brain correlates. The emergence of increasingly powerful and sophisticated techniques has given rise to the proposal to introduce new rights specifically directed to protect mental privacy, freedom of thought, and mental integrity. These rights, also proposed as basic human rights, are conceived in direct relation to tools that threaten mental privacy, freedom o…Read more
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9Not Too Risky. How to Take a Reasonable Stance on Human EnhancementFilosofia Unisinos 1-16. forthcoming.Following a trend in bioethical/applied ethics approaches, one of the frustrating features of studies on technological human enhancement is their dichotomous tendency. Often, benefits and risks of technological human enhancement are stated in theoretically and empirically vague, polarized, unweighted ways. This has blocked the debate in the problematic ‘pros vs. cons’ stage, leading to the adoption of extremist positions. In this paper, we will address one side of the problem: the focus on risks…Read more
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1The Neuroethics of Memory: From Total Recall to Oblivion, by Walter Glannon. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 31 (4): 575-578. 2022.
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9Quanto siamo responsabili?: filosofia, neuroscienze e società (edited book)Codice edizioni. 2013.
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77Mind embedded or extended: transhumanist and posthumanist reflections in support of the extended mind thesisSynthese 200 (6): 1-24. 2022.The goal of this paper is to encourage participants in the debate about the locus of cognition (e.g., extended mind vs embedded mind) to turn their attention to noteworthy anthropological and sociological considerations typically (but not uniquely) arising from transhumanist and posthumanist research. Such considerations, we claim, promise to potentially give us a way out of the stalemate in which such a debate has fallen. A secondary goal of this paper is to impress trans and post-humanisticall…Read more
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153AI and society: a virtue ethics approachAI and Society 1-14. forthcoming.Advances in artificial intelligence and robotics stand to change many aspects of our lives, including our values. If trends continue as expected, many industries will undergo automation in the near future, calling into question whether we can still value the sense of identity and security our occupations once provided us with. Likewise, the advent of social robots driven by AI, appears to be shifting the meaning of numerous, long-standing values associated with interpersonal relationships, like …Read more
Areas of Specialization
Philosophy of Action |
Philosophy of Mind |
Normative Ethics |
Areas of Interest
Metaphysics |
Philosophy of Action |
Philosophy of Mind |
Applied Ethics |