Articles and Essays
After Neurocentrism
Piece written for Liberties Journal, published July 2023. You can also read it here.
Adrift in a Sea of Stories and How to Come Back to our Senses
Piece written with Maya Gratier for Tangible Territory, an online magazine published by Tereza Stehlikova, January 2023.
When Memory Fails, Imagination Fails With It
Piece for the Institute of Arts and Ideas, published October 2022.
The 5 best books on Philosophy, Science and the Body, Five Books: conversation with Nigel Warburton. Published July 2022.
Interview with Siri Hustvedt
Published in The White Review, June 2022.
The philosophy of selfhood became real when my mother got dementia
Piece for Psyche.co about “second-person” psychology, published 21 June 2022.
All is not Vanity: What to remember when everything is always, forever, in a digital now?
Piece on loss in the digital age, published in the launching issue 1 of the European Review of Books, 14 June 2022. Read also here.
Feeling Better, Thank You
Piece for Psychology Today about how we feel, interoception and the clinical world, 30 April 2022.
Emotions, Body and Mind
Written for The Book of Emotions, Redstone Press, edited by Edgar Gerrard Hughes, foreword by Marina Warner, 2021.
Martine Franck and Henri Cartier-Bresson
Piece about art, memory and family friends. Published in the “Série Limitée” supplement to Les Echos, 6 March 2021.
Reading The Magic Mountain in a Flattened World
Piece on how the sanatorium in Thomas Mann’s novel echoes the locked down world under Covid 19. Published in Tortoise Media, 22 January 2021. Read also here.
French Strikes
Opinion piece for Politico EU on the late 2019 transportation strikes in France.
“Empathie” & “Mélancolie” entries in Gloria Origgi, ed.: Passions Sociales (PUF, 2019).
The Interoceptive Turn
Written for Aeon, about the science of how we sense ourselves from within. Published June 2019.
How Evil Happens
Written for Aeon on the Syndrome E hypothesis: "Is Neuroscience Getting Closer to Explaining Evil Behavior?" Published August 2018. Anthologized in 16th edition of the Norton Reader, 2020.
Thoughts Made Visible
Essay written for Lapham’s Quarterly, “States of Mind” issue (Winter 2018).
Dancing with the Hand
Review of a modern Bharatanatyam dance performance in New York by choreographer Preeti Vasudevan, published in Indian Quarterly (issue Jan-March 2018).
A Chateau in the Loire Valley
Piece about the restoration and redesign of a house in the Loire valley, published in Architectural Digest (November 2017 issue).
Materialism: A Historico-Philosophical Introduction
Review of book by Charles Wolfe, for HOPOS, 2017.
Neuro-News
Response to the 2016 Edge Foundation Annual Question, What do you consider the most interesting scientific news? What makes it important? Anthologized in the resulting book.
Body and Soul
Essay written for Lapham’s Quarterly, “Flesh” issue (Fall 2016).
Paris, Searching for Peace
Written for New York Daily News after the Paris attacks of November 13th, 2015.
The Passage from Normal to Dark
A testimonial written for Politico on the day after the Paris attacks of November 13th, 2015.
Book review: The Most Good You Can Do
Review of Peter Singer, The Most Good You Can Do: How Effective Altruism Is Changing Ideas About Living Ethically, published in Jewish Quarterly (issue Summer 2015).
Metarepresentation
Response to the 2015 Edge Foundation Annual Question: What do you think about machines that think? Anthologized in the resulting book of the same title.
The Rights of Spring
Essay on nostalgia for Indian Quarterly (issue January-March 2015)
Indian Summer
Review of John Adams´s opera A Flowering Tree, in Indian Quarterly, (issue July-September 2014).
Presentism
Response to the 2013 Edge Foundation Annual Question, What Should We Be Worried About? Anthologized in the resulting book of the same title.
As A Lute Out Of Tune: Robert Burton’s Melancholy
Essay written for the Public Domain Review, 2013.
The Curry Soup
Essay written for the Roundtable Blog of Lapham´s Quarterly, 2011.
Clothes are Transparent
Essay written for issue n. 1 of Garage Magazine, 2011.
The Internet and Slowness
Response to the 2010 Edge Foundation Annual Question, How is the Internet changing the way you think? Anthologized in the resulting book, and selected as one of 8 of the 100 responses in Der Spiegel
Bach’s Art of Fugue
Written for issue 55 of Nexus on Hope and Consolation, 2010.
La quête de l’équilibre: âme, vertus, humeurs
Published in the French journal Corps (March 2010).
Great Expectations
Essay on the history of doctors and patients, written for Lapham´s Quarterly, "Medicine" issue (Fall 2009).
Up Close and Personal
Essay on the history of personals for Lapham´s Quarterly, "Eros" issue (Winter 2009).
Wine Psychology
Essay written for the first issue of Tacuinum Vitineum, an Italian journal on the philosophy of wine, 2009. (In English and Italian.)
"Just Life in a Nutshell": Humours as Common Sense
Published in The Philosohical Forum (Fall 2008: 39-3), along with the other talks at a symposium convened along with Gloria Origgi on Folk Epistemologies, Italian Academy, Columbia University, October 26th, 2007.
Opaque Humors, Enlightened Emotions, and the Transparent mind
Published in the journal Res: Anthropology and Aesthetics (Harvard University Press), issue 51, spring 2007.
Form and Function in the Early Enlightenment
Published in Perspectives on Science, 14:2 (2006), pp. 153-189, based on a chapter from the doctoral thesis.
Deafness, Ideas and the Language of Thought in the Late 1600s
Published in the British Journal for the History of Philosophy, 13: 2 (2005), pp. 233-262, based on a chapter from the doctoral thesis.
Speech After Long Silence: Of Poetry and Consciousness
Talk delivered as invited speaker to the 2005 Campbell Corner Poetry Prize Reading, Poets´ House, New York City.
Melancholy and Humoural Passions in Early Modernity
Essay published in a French translation as "La Mélancolie et les passions humorales au début de la modernité", in the catalogue of the exhibition on melancholy shown in Paris and Berlin in 2005-06.
Alternatives in Medicine
Response to an online debate on Spiked: "Complementary and alternative medicine: Why is conventional medicine not enough?"
On "Intelligent Design"
Written in October 2005 (unpublished).
About "Moral Values"
Written shortly after the 2004 US elections (unpublished).
Computers, Speed and Us
Essay (unpublished) about the Internet, as a counterpart to an online symposium on the impact of the internet on texts, text-e. Originally written for Prospect Magazine.
Book review: Thomas Willis
Review (unpublished) of Carl Zimmer, Soul Made Flesh: The Discovery of the Brain - and How It Changed the World. Originally written for the New York Review of Books.
Book review: Undermining Man
Review of Kenan Malik, Man, Beast and Zombie: What Science Can and Cannot Tell us About Human Nature, published in the TLS, 9 February 2001.
Book review: Metaphors of Memory
Review of Douwe Draaisma, Metaphors of Memory: A History of Ideas About the Mind, published in the Economist, June 28th, 2001.
On Pellegrino Artusi, Italy’s Victorian chef
Essay (unpublished) about the Italian cookery classic, Pellegrino Artusi’s La scienza in cucina e l´arte di mangiar bene. Originally written for the New York Review of Books.
Adam’s Spectacles: Nature, Mind and Body in the Age of Mechanism
Full text (unpublished) of the doctoral thesis (2001).
Academic Talks (selected)
“Emotions In Politics”, at workshop on Nonverbal Counterspeech: Exploring Alternative Responses to Hate Speech, Munich, LMU, CVBE Lab, 13 September 2024.
“The sense of self: the rediscovery of the body in the post-Cartesian age”, at Colloque de Cerisy, France, on L'enfance de demain entre le vivant et le virtuel, 22 June 2024.
“Mapping the Territory”, concluding tall at “Adriatica 2024” summer school on “Body-Brain-Environment Interactions and Well-being”, Università degli Studi 'G. d'Annunzio' Chieti-Pescara, 7 June 2024.
Panel talk at Abu Dhabi Culture Summit: “Objects, Museums and the Mind: Engaging with our Material World”, 3 March 2024.
“Emotions in Politics”, presentation of project at School of Transnational Governance Research Working Group, 27 February 2024.
A conversation with Garrick Jones on The Curious Advantage Podcast: “Don’t Be Afraid of Feelings”, 7 February 2024 (recorded 16 November 2023). Listen here.
Panelist with Carolyn Kandusi on “Mastering the Art and Science of Human-Centered Policy Influencing”, moderated by Apiwe Hotele, School of Transnational Governance, European University Institute, 25 October 2023.
“Redefining Human Nature: AI, Brains and Bodies”, talk at workshop organised by the School of Transnational Governance at the European University Institute on Artificial Intelligence and Democracy: Challenges and Avenues of Amalgamation, Florence, 22-23 May 2023.
“How Far Down Does Top-Down Go: Franz Boas Between Psychology and Anthropology, talk given at the EUI History of Science and Medicine Working Groups' series about the History of the Human Mind, History Department, European University Institute. Florence, 1 March 2023.
“Language, Science, Story”, talk given at the workshop organised by Ophelia Deroy, (No) more stories: the new challenges of science communication, Center for Advanced Studies, Munich, 12 July 2022.
“Cultures of Emotion”, talk given at the symposium “The Politics of Feelings: From Neuroscience to Political Science”, at the conference The Affective Turn in Cognitive Science, Parma, 22-24 June 2022.
“How We Feel: Cultural Variations on a Natural Theme”, talk given at “AboutFace: Emotions, History and the Body” seminar, York University, and at the “Emotion, Cognition and Behaviour lab”, Kingston University, 7 November 2021.
“The Ethics and Aesthetics of Natural Wine”, talk at workshop on the philosophy of wine, Experts, Markets and Crowds: Taste Under the Influence, convened by Ophelia Deroy and Gloria Origgi, Palermo, 4 November 2021.
“The Self as Other: Franz Boas between Psychology and Anthropology”, invited talk given at the Warburg Institute (online), 3 March 2021.
A few words about Avigdor Arikha, interview with curator Craig Burnett for Frieze Masters London, October 2018.
Psyche, Soma, Self
Talk at conference convened along with Justin E. H. Smith on The Three Souls in The History of Medicine and Philosophy, Paris, Reid Hall, October 2018.
Epistemic Vices in Modern Medicine: “Assumption and Intuition” and “Calibrating Empathy”
Two talks at workshop convened by Quassim Cassam at Warwick University, February 2017.
A New Republic of Letters?
Talk given at conference convened by Gloria Origgi on Global Humanities, Italian Cultural Institute, New York, 2011.
Humoural Bodies and Balanced Minds
Keynote talk at conference convened by Giovanni Frazzetto, Situating Mental Illness: Between Scientific Certainty and Personal Narrative, ICI, Berlin, April 29th, 2011. Watch video of talk and conference here.
The New Biology and the Self
Panel discussion, with psychologist Steven Pinker and anthropologist Melvin Konner, Center for the Humanities at Tufts University, Boston, MA, November 2009. Listen here.
Wine, Body and Soul
Talk given at a conference on the Philosophy of Wine at the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo (Piemonte, Italy), in May 2008.
Humoural Passions and Seasoned Cares
Lecture given in 2004 at a conference at Barnard, Medicine Across Cultures: Medicine and the Mind, 600-1000 AD.
Reason and Emotion in the Early Enlightenment
Talk presented in 2003, first at the Italian Academy at Columbia University, then as a University Professors Occasional Lecture at Boston University.
Of Reasons, Humours and Passions: Explanatory Structure and the Mind-Body Problem
The "philosophical manifesto" underlying Passions and Tempers: A History of the Humours, presented in 2002 at the Italian Academy, Columbia University, while at work on the humours project as a Fellow there.