PhD in Philosophy

The PhD students will rely on the support of several departments and research centers:

• CeSEP: The Centre for the Study of Public Ethics (CeSEP), established in 2007 and currently coordinated by Roberta Sala and Massimo Reichlin, aims to provide high-level training tools in the field of public ethics, in order to investigate the moral questions of contemporary society that require argumentative skills, interdisciplinary dialogue, and an informed discussion between stakeholders involved in solidarity cooperation. CeSEP promotes informed and rational exchanges between different cultural, philosophical and religious traditions. Professors of moral and political philosophy and young researchers who follow specific projects work at CeSEP.
• CRESA: The Research Centre in Experimental and Applied Epistemology (CRESA) was founded in 2006 and it is currently directed by Matteo Motterlini. Its main goal is the promotion of a fruitful interaction between philosophy, cognitive sciences, and neuroscience. This sinergy is expressed in the epistemological reflection on the methods and results of the sciences of mind and in the application of the resulting ideas in areas such as knowledge technologies, information design, economics and decision making, communication, marketing and social sciences. There are many publications by the members of CRESA, both in terms of articles in national and international journals, and in terms of monographs. The possibility of conducting neuroimaging experiments has led to the publication of specialized articles in international journals. In addition to this, CRESA has developed collaborations with private institutions (MilanLab) as well as with important international research centers (MontiLab, University of Los Angeles - California).
• CRISI: The Interdisciplinary Research Centre for the History of Ideas (CRISI), established in June 2012, is directed by Andrea Tagliapietra. Its aim is to collect, coordinate, and promote research, educational activities, conferences, seminars, and studies concerning contemporary culture in its relationship with the historical and symbolic dynamics. The Centre is a place for research, discussion, and training. History of ideas provides a critical perspective on the dominant ideologies that, with their crystallization, affect the potential and freedom of knowledge, as well as the study of the institutions in which the practice of human design has been concretized from time to time. The fruitful interweaving of a plurality of traditions of theories, aimed at understanding the anthropological question characterizing the ideal and inspiring endevour of San Raffaele, appears to be the most appropriate space in which that hospitable and constitutively interdisciplinary investigation can be carried out. The Centre publishes the journal "Giornale Critico di Storia delle Idee" (giornalecritico.it).
• PERSONA: The Research Centre in Phenomenology and Human Sciences (PERSONA) was founded in 2009 and is directed by Francesca De Vecchi. The main research areas of the Centre are: Phenomenology and Cognitive Neuroscience, Regional Phenomenology and Ontologies, Norms and Values, Theories of Experience, Phenomenology and Education. Starting from the approval of ministerial research projects (PRIN), sponsorships by foundations and publishing companies (including the Mondadori Foundation and the publisher Raffaello Cortina), and thanks to the collaboration of PhD students, The Centre publishes monographs and scientific articles. The Centre annually organizes Summer and Winter Schools and International Conferences. Furthermore, the Centre publishes the journal “Phenomenology and Mind” (phenomenologyandmind.eu). The Centre has also established the Phenomenology Seminar and the blog “phenomenologylab.eu”, as well as in-person meetings and virtual permanent exchanges, open to all scholars specializing in phenomenology and philosophical areas concerning the phenomena of our "world of life".
• DIAPOREIN: The Research Centre for Metaphysics and Philosophy of the Arts (DIAPOREIN) was founded in 2014 and is directed by Massimo Donà. It carries out research around the great questions of ontology, metaphysics and aesthetics, with particular attention to the classical tradition and the aporias intrinsically connected to the philosophical issues; an aware saying of the conceptual blockages connected to every genuinely metaphysical perspective. The truth is always critical of the non-truth, but also awareness of the fact that from the non-truth is itself agitated in the intimate and that the play of the parts is perhaps an endless game that, for this very reason, can make us able to unmask the different strategies of "power".
• GENDER: The Interuniversity Research Centre for Gender Cultures (GENDER) was established in 2012 by Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, University of Milan, Luigi Bocconi Commercial University, University of Milan-Bicocca, Politecnico di Milano, and IULM University. The aim of the Centre is to promote, develop, and coordinate the research on gender of the six Milanese universities, in order to consolidate the interaction among researchers, on the one hand, and with society and the territory, on the other. In particular, the Centre aims to give visibility and to develop the numerous studies and research programmes on gender issues already available in the universities involved, to promote and coordinate interdisciplinary research, encourage opportunities for exchange with other public and social actors in the area for educational and social transformation in an anti-discriminatory perspective. Its goal is to encourage interaction among scholars of the various universities: Gender issues have an interdisciplinary nature and therefore they require a scientific approach involving philosophical, psychological, medical, and welfare skills.
• San Raffaele Library: it is composed of two large sections: the Biomedical and the Philosophical. The Philosophical section offers a vast library of 13000 volumes in constant increase. Two other fundamental components of the catalogue of our library are the Emo’s Fund and the Reale’s Fund. Emo’s Collection is the private library of Count Andrea Emo, who was a passionate lover of philosophy and author of several posthumous works.  Emo’s collection was donated in 2004 and consists of about 7000 volumes and 122 philosophical and literary journals. The preciousness of the collection, apart from its organicity and completeness, is given by the presence of numerous first editions, in particular the writings of the major Italian philosophers and scholars of the early twentieth century. Reale’s collection was donated by Prof. Giovanni Reale, illustrious professor of the history of ancient philosophy. It has been recently acquired and consists of about 2300 original philosophical works and critical studies on ancient philosophy and patristics. This collection constitutes an important extension of the bibliographical heritage with regard to the periods of classical Greek philosophy and early Christian philosophy, with particular reference to studies on Plato and Platonism. The biomedical section consists of 12000 constantly increasing volumes. The library is part of the SBBL Inter-Library Consortium (Lombardy Biomedical Library System), the first Italian consortium of large libraries in the biomedical field that adheres to GIDIF-RBM, a collective catalogue of periodicals of 50 biomedical libraries, and in Bibliosan, a Consortium at national level comprising 45 prestigious structures (IRCCS, Zooprophylactic Institutes, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Ispels) wanted by the Ministry of Health. The Library has recently acquired a significant collection of ancient books and documents on the theme of "contagion". The donation comes from prof. D'Agostino. He has been president of the Society Diabetologica Italian for several years and dedicated his life to the growth of this collection. The fund preserves very rare and often unique documents of health, all antecedent to the Unification of Italy. The Library also has 40000 volumes of periodical years and more than 350 subscriptions are available in paper form and online, if any. The purchasing policy is turning huge resources towards the purchase of packages of electronic periodicals of the major publishers in the biomedical field and to date there are over 3500 e-journals owned by the Library.
• Computing resources: PhD students will have access to three computer classrooms equipped with up-to-date software for statistical analysis (such as SPSS, openmx, R, MPlus) and access to major online databases (such as PubMed, PsychInfo, Jstor).