Margherita Giordano

I am a postdoctoral researcher in philosophy at University College Dublin, Ireland. I completed my Ph.D. in philosophy from the FINO Northwest Italy Philosophy Ph.D. Program and the Università del Piemonte Orientale in 2026. My research focuses on the history of philosophy, with particular interest in late Enlightenment and the history of women philosophers, and explores questions concerning moral philosophy, philosophical anthropology, self-cultivation, and the relationship between philosophy and literature. I currently work on the ERC funded “BMoral” project, which aims to rethink established narratives about eighteenth-century British moral philosophy by paying particular attention to the contributions of women and other underrepresented figures in the history of philosophy.

My doctoral research examined the thought of Sophie Mereau (1770-1806) and her position at the intersection of late Enlightenment and early Romantic German philosophy. By reconstructing her engagement with the debates that shaped late 18th-century German philosophy (including discussion of Kantian philosophy, Spinozism, and the question of the Bestimmung des Menschen), I argued that Mereau should be understood not merely as a literary figure, but as a philosopher whose work develops a distinctive and coherent account of moral agency, human development, and freedom.

My current research has shifted to the eighteenth-century British context, while retaining my interest in questions of moral education and intellectual self-development. I am particularly interested in the ways in which women participated in debates surrounding these themes, and in how philosophical ideas were translated into public debates that extended beyond the confines of academic philosophy. In this context, I examine the role of popular genres such as journals and periodicals in engaging a broader public, with particular attention to debates concerning women’s participation in the cultural and philosophical sphere.