Prof. Lisa Bortolotti

• In 1997 I received my first degree in Philosophy (Laurea summa cum laude in Filosofia) at the Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna with a dissertation on conceptual relativism. For five months during my degree I was an Erasmus student at the University of Leeds. Then I got an MA in Philosophy with distinction from King's College London where I wrote a dissertation on the rationality of scientific revolutions. Next, I obtained the BPhil in Philosophy at the University of Oxford in 2000 with a dissertation on the rationality debate in philosophy and the cognitive sciences. For my PhD, I moved to the Philosophy Programme in the Research School of Social Sciences at the Australian National University in Canberra. My thesis was a challenge to Donald Davidson's rationality constraint on the ascription of beliefs.

• Irrationality (Polity, 2014). Key Concepts Series.

• Delusions and Other Irrational Beliefs (OUP, 2009). Monograph.

• Psychiatry as Cognitive Neuroscience: Philosophical Perspectives (OUP, 2009). Collection co-edited with Matthew R. Broome.

• Philosophy and Happiness (Palgrave, 2009). Edited collection.

• An Introduction to the Philosophy of Science (Polity, 2008). Textbook.

• PERFECT (2014-2019), Pragmatic and Epistemic Role of Factually Erroneous Cognitions and Thoughts, European Research Council Consolidator Grant. http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/generic/perfect/index.aspx

• Costs and Benefits of Optimism (2015-2016), Non-residential fellowship from the University of Notre Dame, Templeton Foundation.

  https://sites.google.com/site/philosophyofoptimism/project

• Epistemic Innocence of Imperfect Cognitions (2013-2014), Research Fellowship, Arts and Humanities Research Council.

  https://sites.google.com/site/epistemicinnocence/

• Mind Association Executive committee (2010-2015)

• British Society for the Philosophy of Science (2010-2013)

• April 2015, 13th: Interviewed for Philosophy for the Curious: Why Study Philosophy? Extract posted on the Philosophy@Birmingham blog.

• February 2015, 23rd: author of the article “Project PERFECT” for Aimee Wilson’s blog I'm NOT disordered.

• February 2015, 17th: Author of the article “The Upside of Delusional Beliefs” on web-zine Scientia Salon (which attracted 103 comments).

• December 2014: guest on Bridget Kendall’s radio programme, The Forum, in an episode on Unintended Consequences, BBC World Service.

• October 2014, 30th: Author of “Reverse Othello Syndrome and Epistemic Innocence” on the Philosop-her blog.

• October 2014, 23rd: Author of “What is it to be irrational?” on the Polity Independent blog.

• October 2015, 5th: Author of “Anosognosia and Epistemic Innocence” on the Psychiatric Ethics blog. Finalist for the 3 Quarks Daily Philosophy Prize 2014.

• March 2014: Featured scholar at the Saving Humans blog where I wrote about my Epistemic Innocence project.

• February 2014, 18th: Author of the article Madness, Rationality and Epistemic Innocence on the Oxford University Press Blog.

• November 2013, 20th: Author of the Perspective (University of Birmingham website): Lessons from the Breivik Case.

• July 2013: Featured scholar at the Brains blog where I wrote about my past and future research on delusions.

• February 2013, 8th: Author of the Birmingham Brief: Making Sense of Psychiatry: The Cognitive Behavioural Therapy Debate.

• May-Jun 2012: Guest blogger for A Kolber’s Neuroethics & Law blog on the moral responsibility of people with a diagnosis of a psychiatric disorder in the context of criminal action.

• August 2011: Guest blogger for the Wellcome Trust blog on the right not to know in psychiatry:

• August-September 2010: Guest blogger for E Schwitzgebel’s The Splintered Mind blog on the philosophical significance of the phenomenon of clinical delusions.

• May 2010, 26th: Interviewed by M Beckford about forced treatment on incapacitated cancer patient for the Daily Telegraph (front page story).

• September 2009, 20th: Interviewed by J Elder about striving for perfection for the Sunday Age Melbourne (article with quote).

• June 2009, 4th: Wrote “Should human reproductive cloning be allowed?”, an article for BBC Focus Magazine (issue 204, How to Live Forever or Die Trying).

• February 2008, 28th: Wrote “A moral claim not to feel pain”, an article for the New Statesman.

• October 2007, 7th: Joined the expert panel of The Big Questions, BBC1 weekly show by Nicky Campbell debating topical religious and ethical questions (series 1, episode 4, live from Birmingham).

• Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (PGCHE), University of Manchester, UK. Awarded 24 February 2006.

Additional interests

• Since May 2013, I maintain a Twitter account with information about research projects funded by AHRC and ERC (@epistinnocence).

• Since May 2013, I run a group blog, Imperfect Cognitions. It hosts discussion of themes relevant to my research projects.

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