Senior Lecturer in PhilosophyLaurea (Bologna), MA (London), BPhil (Oxon), PhD (ANU), PGCHE (Manchester) Office hour: Wed 11-12 (term 1) and Tue 2.30-3.30 (term 2) |
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I am a philosopher of the cognitive sciences (especially psychology and psychiatry) and I joined the University of Birmingham in 2005.
From January to end of April 2009 I was on AHRC-funded leave to complete a monograph for Oxford University Press in the International Perspectives in Philosophy and Psychiatry Series. My research question was: Are ownership and authorship of thoughts necessary for intentionality and rationality? The monograph, entitled Delusions and Other Irrational Beliefs, is a contribution to the debate on the doxastic conception of delusions, and suggests that attributions of self-knowledge have a role to play in the ascription of intentional states.
I am involved in a Wellcome Trust Project on Autonomy and Mental Health led by Lubomira Radoilska at the University of Cambridge. I'm a collaborator in the AHRC-funded project entitled Emotions and Feelings in Psychiatric Illness, coordinated by Matthew Ratcliffe and Tony Atkinson at the University of Durham; and I am part of the AHRC Network on The Concepts of Heath, Illness and Disease coordinated by Havi Carel at the University of the West of England and Rachel Cooper at the University of Lancaster. I am also a member of the research group Dying and Death in the 21st Century, which is a sub-group of The End of Life Collaborative, led by Prof Colette Clifford, School of Health Sciences Birmingham University.
Before joining the Philosophy department at the University of Birmingham in September 2005, I was Honorary Lecturer in Bioethics in the Centre for Social Ethics and Policy at the University of Manchester and Research Associate on the EC-funded EURECA project on delimiting the research concept and research activities.
In July 2009 I visited Waseda University (Japan) as a Universitas 21 Fellow.
In April 2009 I visited the Philosophy Department at the University of California Berkeley as part of the project for my AHRC funded leave.
From the end of July 2008 to the end of December 2008 I visited the Macquarie Centre for Cognitive Science (Australia) on an Endeavour Research Fellowship. My research project consisted in investigating the relationship between ascriptions of intentionality, rationality and self-knowledge to people reporting delusional beliefs. The fellowship was funded by the Australian Government.
In 2007-2008 I was involved in the activities of the European School of Molecular Medicine (Milan) as a Visiting Professor.
I am a member of the Higher Education Academy, the British Philosophical Association, the European Society for Philosophy and Psychology, the European Society for Analytic Philosophy, and the Mind Association.
In 2009/2010 I convene Philosophical Texts and Methods (level 1) and lead two seminars for Philosophical Texts (level 2) in term 1. I teach Philosophy of Science (level 2) and Philosophy of Psychology (level 3) in term 2. I also convene the MA/MPhil module in Philosophy of Mind (terms 1 and 2).
I was on research leave in 2008/2009.
In 2007/2008 I taught Philosophy of Psychology (Level 3) and Philosophy of Science (Level 2), both in the second semester. I also taught parts of MPhil modules: Philosophical Research Methods, Philosophy of Mind, and Ethics. I supervised a number of undergraduate students on the Philosophical Projects in philosophy of mind and applied ethics; and two MA students.
I am the E-letter editor for the Journal of Medical Ethics.
I review books for Mind, the Australasian Journal of Philosophy; the British Journal of Psychiatry; Philosophical Quarterly; Lingua e Stile; Metapsychology Online; History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences; Analysis Review; Journal of Value Inquiry; and Human Nature Review.
I referee papers for several journals, among which Science and Engineering Ethics; Synthese; International Studies in the Philosophy of Science; Law and Human Genome Review; Philosophy Psychiatry and Psychology; Journal of Medical Ethics; Society and Animals; Reproductive Biomedicine Online; Environmental Values; British Journal for the Philosophy of Science; Critical Reviews in Oncology/Hematology; Health Care Analysis; Cognitive Neuropsychiatry; and Bioethics.
I referee book proposals for OUP, Polity Press, Palgrave Macmillan, Blackwell Publishing and Mens Sana Monographs.
L Bortolotti, Irrationality. Key Concepts Series, Polity Press. Under contract. Expected completion: January 2011.
L Bortolotti (2009), Delusions and Other Irrational Beliefs. International Perspectives in Philosophy and Psychiatry series, Oxford University Press.
This monograph offers a comprehensive account of the debate on the status of delusions, provides an original solution to that debate, and develops a theory about the role of judgements of rationality and attributions of self-knowledge in the theory and practice of belief ascription.
M Broome and L Bortolotti (eds.) (2009), Psychiatry as Cognitive Neuroscience: Philosophical Perspectives, International Perspectives in Philosophy and Psychiatry series, Oxford University Press.
This is a collection of papers on the status of psychiatry as a science. Contributors include leading experts in philosophy of science, philosophy of mind, psychiatry, psychology, cognitive neuroscience, phenomenology, ethics and moral psychology. Some of the issues addressed are whether explanation in psychiatry can be tackled satisfactorily by neuroscientific investigation, and whether an interdisciplinary approach is necessary to gain a full understanding of a variety of psychiatric conditions (e.g. addiction, depression, delusions, anosognosia, obsessive thoughts).
L Bortolotti (ed.) (2009), Philosophy and Happiness, Palgrave Macmillan.
This is a collection of philosophical papers by eminent and emerging scholars who answer pressing questions about happiness and the good life. Can we measure happiness? Would immortality enhance or compromise happiness? Does a happy life need to be meaningful? Can one be happy in adverse conditions (illness, disability, suffering)?
L Bortolotti (2008), Introduction to the philosophy of science, Polity Press.
This is the first textbook in the philosophy of science with an entire chapter dedicated to the ethics of scientific research. The book has lots of examples from the full range of natural and social sciences and it presupposes no background in philosophy.
Read abstracts of published papers.
Forthcoming
Moral responsibility and mental illness: a case study (with M Broome and M Mameli). Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics.
Agency, life extension, and the meaning of life. The Monist.
Shaking the bedrock. Philosophy Psychiatry and Psychology.
The Moral Significance of Sentience (with M Mameli and A Blasimme) in H. LaFollette (ed.) International Encyclopedia of Ethics, Blackwell.
Can the subject-of-a-life criterion help grant rights to non-persons? In Hayry, Takala and Herrisone-Kelly (eds.) Argument and Analysis in Bioethics, Rodopi.
The epistemic character of classification and diagnosis in psychiatry: the case of delusions and confabulations. Paradigmi.
2009
Mental illness as mental: in defence of psychological realism (with M Broome). HumanaMente 11, 25-44.
'Faultless' ignorance: strengths and limitations of epistemic definitions of confabulation (with R. Cox). Consciousness & Cognition.
Do we have an obligation to make smarter babies? In Takala, Herrisone-Kelly, Holm (eds.) Cutting through the surface: Philosophical approaches to bioethics, Rodopi, 221-230.
Entry on 'Delusion' for the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
The epistemic benefits of reason giving. Theory & Psychology 19 (5), 1-22.
Immortality without Boredom. L Bortolotti and Y Nagasawa. Ratio XXII (3), 261-277
A role for ownership and authorship in the analysis of thought insertion. L Bortolotti and M Broome. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 8 (2), 205-224
Reproductive and parental autonomy: an argument for compulsory parental education. L Bortolotti and D Cutas. Reproductive Biomedicine Online 19 (1st July)- ethics supplement, 5-14.
Psychiatry as cognitive neuroscience: an overview. M Broome and L Bortolotti. In M Broome and L Bortolotti (eds.) Psychiatry as Cognitive Neuroscience: Philosophical Perspectives. OUP, 1-12.
The future of scientific psychiatry. L Bortolotti and M Broome. In M Broome and L Bortolotti (eds.) Psychiatry as Cognitive Neuroscience: Philosophical Perspectives. OUP, 365-376.
2008
Delusional beliefs and reason giving. L Bortolotti and M Broome. Philosophical Psychology, 21 (6), 801-821.
What does Fido believe? Think 7 (19), 1-9.
Reproductive cloning in humans and therapeutic cloning in primates: is the ethical debate catching up with the recent scientific advances? S Camporesi and L Bortolotti. Journal of Medical Ethics, 34 e15.
2007
If you didn't care, you wouldn't notice: recognition and estrangement in psychopathology. L Bortolotti and M Broome. Philosophy Psychiatry and Psychology, 14(1), 39-42.
Delimiting the concept of research: an ethical perspective. L Bortolotti and B Heinrichs. Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics, 28(3), 157-179.
Large scale survey for policy formation and research - a study in inconsistency. S Holm and L Bortolotti. Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics, 28(3), 205-220.
Disputes over moral status: philosophy and science in the future of bioethics. Health Care Analysis, 15(2), 153-158.
2006
Disability, enhancement and the harm-benefit continuum. L Bortolotti and J Harris. In Spencer and Pedain (eds.) Freedom and Responsibility in Reproductive Choice, Hart Publisher, 31-49.
Deception in psychology: moral costs and benefits of unsought self-knowledge. L Bortolotti and M Mameli. Accountability in Research, 13(3), 259-275.
Moral rights and human culture. Ethical Perspectives, 13(4), 603-622.
Animal rights, animal minds and human mindreading. M Mameli and L Bortolotti. Journal of Medical Ethics, 32, 84-89.
Embryos and eagles: symbolic value in research and reproduction. L Bortolotti and J Harris. Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, 15 (1), 22-34.
2005
Intentionality without rationality. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, CV(3), 385-392.
Delusions and the background of rationality. Mind & Language, 20(2), 189-208.
An ethical framework for stem cell research in the European Union. J Harris, L Irving and L Bortolotti. Health Care Analysis, 13(3), 157-162.
Stem cell research, personhood and sentience. L Bortolotti and J Harris. Reproductive Biomedicine Online, 10 (1), 68-75.
2004
Can we interpret irrational behavior? Behavior and Philosophy, 32(2), 359-375.
2003
Inconsistency and interpretation. Philosophical Explorations VI(2), 109-123.
2002
Marks of Irrationality. In Lyons and Clarke (eds.) Recent Themes in the Philosophy of Science, Kluwer, 157-174.
November 2009
"Delusions as Beliefs without Procedural Rationality" at the 15th Biennial Winter Workshop in Psychoses 2009, Barcelona, Spain.
October 2009
"Faultless ignorance" at the Philosophy Seminar, University of Sheffield.
"Epistemic Definitions of Mental Disorders: Benefits and Pitfalls" (with R Cox and M Broome) at the European Philosophy of Science Association, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
July 2009
Paper in the symposium entitled "The Application of Memory Biases and Distortions to Experimental Psychopathology", Society for Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, Kyoto, Japan.
"Delusions and Procedural Rationality" at the Joint Session, UEA, Norwich.
"Methodological Benefits of Using Hypnosis to Study Clinical Delusions" (with R Cox and A Barnier) at the British Society for the Philosophy of Science Annual Conference, UEA, Norwich.
June 2009
"Agency, life extension and the meaning of life" at the James Martin Advanced Research Seminar, Oxford, jointly organized by the Program on Ethics of the New Biosciences and the Future of Humanity Institute.
"In Defence of the Continuity Thesis: Delusions as Irrational Beliefs" at the Royal College of Psychiatrists Annual Meeting, Liverpool.
March 2009
"Epistemic definitions of mental disorders: benefits and pitfalls" at the Workshop on Mental Disorder in Warwick, organised by Multidisciplinary Research Network on The Concepts of Health, Illness and Disease and funded by the AHRC.
February 2009
"Epistemic definitions of mental disorders: benefits and pitfalls" at the Staff Seminar, Philosophy Department, University of Birmingham.
Interviewed by John Elder (Sunday Age, Melbourne) about the strive for perfection, September 2009.
Wrote a piece on the question “Should human reproductive cloning be allowed?” by BBC Focus Magazine, June 2009.
Wrote a piece for a debate on animal rights in the New Statesman (February 2008).
On the expert panel for the development of BBC4 Beginner’s Guide to Philosophy, and for the British Association for the Advancement of Science initiatives (e.g. National Science and Engineering Week).
On the expert panel for animal ethics and animal cognition in ‘The Big Questions’ in October 2007– BBC1 weekly show by Nicky Campbell debating topical religious, moral and ethical questions.
2007-2008: Consultant for the PhD programme in Foundations and Ethics of the Life Sciences at European School of Molecular Medicine, (IFOM-IEO), Milan.
2005-2007: Consultant for the EC-funded project EURECA on delimiting the research concept and research activities (2005-2007).
