Enrico Galvagni

Leverhulme Early Career Fellow

  • Philosophy
  • School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences

Contact details

Address

Street

Room 8.16, 40 George Square

City
Edinburgh
Post code
EH8 9JX

Background

Originally from the Lombard Prealps, I am a Scotland-based philosopher working mainly in ethics and its history.  I hold a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of St Andrews and a M.A. in Philosophy from the University of Trento. I now hold a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship focused on virtue ethics and the moral sentimentalist tradition. In addition, I am an active member of the St Andrews Centre for Ethics, Philosophy and Public Affairs (CEPPA). In the past, I held visiting fellowships at the University of Mainz (2024), New York University (2022), the University of Cologne (2020) and the Göttingen Institute of Advanced Study (2019). Over the years, my research has been funded by the Leverhulme Trust, the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), and the Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst (DAAD), among others.   

Qualifications

Ph.D. in Philosophy, University of St Andrews (2024) 

M.A. in Philosophy, University of Trento (2019) 

Areas of interest for supervision

I am open to inquiries from visiting students who may be interested in coming to Edinburgh for a research period working on topics that align with my research interests. I invite interested candidate to contact me to discuss details for a possible research visit.   

Research summary

My current research focuses on virtue ethics and its application to debates in biomedical ethics and environmental ethics. Some of the questions I am working on include: What are moral concepts and how do they work? Do emotions constitute what is good? What makes a character trait virtuous or vicious? When does a virtue become outdated? How can an ethics of character help us to shape policy? In addition, I deal with historical figures, mostly in the British sentimentalist tradition (e.g. Hutcheson, Butler, Hume, Smith) and 20th century analytic philosophy (e.g., Ross, Murdoch, Midgley, MacIntyre). 

Some of my recent research papers include: 

  • Galvagni, E. (2024). William King on election, reason, and desire: a reply to Kenneth Pearce. In: British Journal for the History of Philosophy, 32(1), 194–206.
  • Galvagni, E. (2023). Climate Change and Virtue Ethics. In: Pellegrino, G., Di Paola, M. (eds) Handbook of the Philosophy of Climate Change. Handbooks in Philosophy. Springer.
  • Galvagni, E. (2022). Secret Sentiments: Hume on Pride, Decency, and Virtue. In: Hume Studies 47 (1):131-155.

Current research interests

Ethics and its history, early modern philosophy (esp. Hume), virtue ethics, metaethics, philosophy of climate change, bioethics and medical ethics.