About
I am a PhD candidate in Philosophy at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Most of my research concerns the philosophical issues of scientific representation. How does science represent the external phenomena? What unifies the great variety of scientific representations (models, diagrams, language, mathematics, pictures, thought experiments) and what makes them different, if any, from each other? I think that to address these questions it’s worth looking at what has been done in the philosophy of art and aesthetics and philosophy of language, putting these fields in dialogue with the history and philosophy of science. At the same time, we have to study the use that scientists make of representations in their everyday practice, as well as the values, epistemic and non, that inform scientific endeavours all the time.
Journal Articles
(in press) “Model Organisms as Representation”, The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science. doi.org/10.1086/728259
(2023) “Putting the ‘Experiment’ back into the ‘Thought Experiment’”, Synthese, 201(34), pp. 1-36. doi.org/10.1007/s11229-022-04011-3
Selected presentations
(November 2023) “Representational Organisms”, PBCS XII, University of Malaga (E)
(July 2023) “Managing Values in Climate Modelling using Structured Expert Judgement” (co-authored with Mason Majszak), 17th CLMPST 2023, Buenos Aires (AR)
(June 2023) “What Scientific Pictures Tell us”, SciRep2023, NOVA University of Lisbon (PT)
(May 2023) “Model Organisms as Representations”, SLSAeu and ELINAS Research Center, Erlangen (DE)
Teaching
I am a Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA) at the LSE. GTAs are responsible for seminar-wise, small-group classes of undergraduate students (including marking, feedback, and office hour).
2023/24 Genes, Brains and Society. (Phil. of biology, bioethics). Two classes.
2022/23 Philosophy of Gender and Race. 2 classes.
2021/22 Philosophy of the Social Sciences. 2 classes.
2020/21 The Big Questions: An Introduction to Philosophy. 2 classes.
Short BIo
Previously, I studied philosophy at the University of Trento (2012/15) and the University of Bologna (2015/2018), with study exchanges at the University of Vienna (Sept. 2014 – Feb. 2015) and at Columbia University, in New York (Sept. – Dec. 2017). I also completed a Master’s degree in Philosophy of Science at the LSE (2018/2019). Besides scientific representation, my interests also encompass scientific thought experiments, the relation between science and the arts, and the semantic and epistemic features of visual representation.
Philosophy Exchange
I am one of the founders and sit on the organising committee of Philosophy Exchange. Here, I took part to the organisation of, and refereeing for, two graduate conferences (ed. 2021 and 2022). Also, I took part and organised some episodes of their philosophical podcast.
Philosophy for Children
In the Autumn 2022, I completed the training to become an Accredited Specialist Philosophy Teacher at the
Philosophy Foundation.
Lorenzo Sartori 