Overall, my research revolves on philosophical issues about self- and other experience, paying special attention to the concepts of habit, memory, and empathy. Some crucial questions that interest me include: How do I know myself? What is the difference between self-experience and self-knowledge? How do we know about other selves? Is empathy a disposition, a way of perceiving, or a moral attitude? Methodologically, my work draws on the traditions of German Idealism (esp. Hegel) as well as of classical phenomenology (esp. Husserl, Stein, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, and Arendt). I have also researched issues in feminist phenomenology, philosophy of emotions, social cognition, and history of phenomenological psychopathology.
At present, my work is concerned with the following two strands of research:
1. My research on Hegel focuses on his philosophy of mind. My interest in Hegel began by questioning the dualism between logical thought and subjective experience. My first book, Hegel and the Genesis of the Concept: Self-Reference, Memory, Embodiment(in Italian, published by Verifiche, Trento 2017), argues against the traditional divide between logic and spirit in Hegel's philosophy, focusing on the logical form of self-reference that underlies the deduction of the concept (Begriff) in the Science of Logic. I argued that self-reference shares fundamental affinities with habit and memory, and it is pivotal to understand not only the logic, but also subjectivity and embodied experience. Since then, I have further extended my research interests to Hegel's practical philosophy, exploring the legacy of Hegel's philosophy in contemporary phenomenological philosophy, particularly in Merleau-Ponty. I am currently working on a monograph that investigates the life of the mind in Hegel's philosophy, and its contribution to ethics and moral philosophy.
2. My research in phenomenology revolves on the relation between habitude, affect, and empathy.In several articles, I have examined the roles played by habitude and attentiveness in engendering a socially sensitive stance, that is, attunement to how other subjects are situated in the social world. In order to fully articulate this phenomenon, I disambiguated the sphere of habit from that of skills, exploring dynamics of perceptual learning (and unlearning), and how they build on aspects of cognitive and emotional dissonance. On this basis, I am developing an account of social sensitivity that draws especially on Husserl's, Stein's, and Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology. I believe that the dialogue between different philosophical traditions (e.g. German Idealism, classical and critical phenomenology, critical theory, Anglo-American philosophy) as well as between philosophy and other disciplines (e.g. literature, social psychology, cognitive sciences, and psychopathology) enriches not only the community of researchers but also society at large, reinforcing maturity of knowledge and challenging standardized assumptions about individuals and subjective experiences. In this spirit, I wrote with Paddy McQueen the handbook: Critical Phenomenology: anIntroduction (Polity 2022). I am deeply intrigued by neglected research questions on intersubjectivity and recognition, and I welcome opportunities for discussion and collaboration.
I am happy to supervise doctoral candidates who intend to carry out research on Hegel's philosophy or in phenomenology.