Lisa Bortolotti
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Lisa Bortolotti (born 1974 in
Bologna Bologna ( , , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the List of cities in Italy, seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its M ...
) is an Italian
philosopher Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...
who is currently
professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...
of philosophy in the Department of Philosophy at the
University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university in Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham (founded in 1825 as ...
, United Kingdom. Her work is in the philosophy of the cognitive sciences, including
philosophy of psychology Philosophy of psychology is concerned with the history and foundations of psychology. It deals with both epistemological and ontological issues and shares interests with other fields, including philosophy of mind and theoretical psychology. Philo ...
and philosophy of psychiatry, as well as
bioethics Bioethics is both a field of study and professional practice, interested in ethical issues related to health (primarily focused on the human, but also increasingly includes animal ethics), including those emerging from advances in biology, me ...
and
medical ethics Medical ethics is an applied branch of ethics which analyzes the practice of clinical medicine and related scientific research. Medical ethics is based on a set of values that professionals can refer to in the case of any confusion or conflict. T ...
. She was educated at the
University of Bologna The University of Bologna (, abbreviated Unibo) is a Public university, public research university in Bologna, Italy. Teaching began around 1088, with the university becoming organised as guilds of students () by the late 12th century. It is the ...
,
King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public university, public research university in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV ...
,
University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...
and the
Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public university, public research university and member of the Group of Eight (Australian universities), Group of Eight, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton, A ...
, and worked briefly at the
University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...
before beginning at Birmingham, where she has been a
lecturer Lecturer is an academic rank within many universities, though the meaning of the term varies somewhat from country to country. It generally denotes an academic expert who is hired to teach on a full- or part-time basis. They may also conduct re ...
, senior lecturer, reader and now professor. She has published five sole-authored books: ''An Introduction to the Philosophy of Science'' (
Polity Press Polity is an academic publisher in the social sciences and humanities. It was established in 1984 in Cambridge by Anthony Giddens, David Held and John Thompson at the University of Cambridge. Giddens later reported: "We didn't have any publ ...
, 2008); ''Delusions and Other Irrational Beliefs'' (
Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...
, 2009); ''Irrationality'' (Polity, 2014); ''The Epistemic Innocence of Irrational Beliefs'' (Oxford University Press, 2020); and ''Why Delusions Matter'' (
Bloomsbury Academic Bloomsbury Publishing plc is a British worldwide publishing house of fiction and non-fiction. Bloomsbury's head office is located on Bedford Square in Bloomsbury, an area of the London Borough of Camden. It has a US publishing office located in ...
, 2023). ''Delusions and Other Irrational Beliefs'', in which Bortolotti challenges the argument that
delusion A delusion is a fixed belief that is not amenable to change in light of conflicting evidence. As a pathology, it is distinct from a belief based on false or incomplete information, confabulation, dogma, illusion, hallucination, or some other m ...
s cannot be
belief A belief is a subjective Attitude (psychology), attitude that something is truth, true or a State of affairs (philosophy), state of affairs is the case. A subjective attitude is a mental state of having some Life stance, stance, take, or opinion ...
s due to their
irrationality Irrationality is cognition, thinking, talking, or acting without rationality. Irrationality often has a negative connotation, as thinking and actions that are less useful or more illogical than other more rational alternatives. The concept o ...
, was the winner of the 2011
American Philosophical Association The American Philosophical Association (APA) is the main professional organization for philosophers in the United States. Founded in 1900, its mission is to promote the exchange of ideas among philosophers, to encourage creative and scholarl ...
book prize. In addition, she edited ''Philosophy and Happiness'' (
Palgrave Macmillan Palgrave Macmillan is a British academic and trade publishing company headquartered in the London Borough of Camden. Its programme includes textbooks, journals, monographs, professional and reference works in print and online. It maintains offi ...
, 2009) and ''Delusions in Context'' (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018) and co-edited ''Psychiatry as Cognitive Neuroscience: Philosophical Perspectives'' (Oxford University Press, 2009).


Education

Bortolotti studied philosophy at the
University of Bologna The University of Bologna (, abbreviated Unibo) is a Public university, public research university in Bologna, Italy. Teaching began around 1088, with the university becoming organised as guilds of students () by the late 12th century. It is the ...
, spending several months at the
University of Leeds The University of Leeds is a public research university in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was established in 1874 as the Yorkshire College of Science. In 1884, it merged with the Leeds School of Medicine (established 1831) and was renamed Y ...
, graduating in 1997. Her undergraduate dissertation, supervised by
Eva Picardi Eva Picardi (1948 – 23 April 2017) was an Italian philosopher. Picardi's contributions have been in analytic philosophy and linguistics. Early life and education Picardi graduated from the University of Bologna, in 1970, under the supervision ...
, was on
conceptual Conceptual may refer to: Philosophy and Humanities *Concept *Conceptualism *Philosophical analysis (Conceptual analysis) *Theoretical definition (Conceptual definition) *Thinking about Consciousness (Conceptual dualism) *Pragmatism (Conceptual pr ...
relativism Relativism is a family of philosophical views which deny claims to absolute objectivity within a particular domain and assert that valuations in that domain are relative to the perspective of an observer or the context in which they are assess ...
. In 1998, she graduated with an MA in philosophy from
King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public university, public research university in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV ...
. Here, she wrote on
Scientific Revolution The Scientific Revolution was a series of events that marked the emergence of History of science, modern science during the early modern period, when developments in History of mathematics#Mathematics during the Scientific Revolution, mathemati ...
s under Donald Gillies. Next, she moved to the
University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...
, where she read for a
BPhil Bachelor of Philosophy (BPhil, BPh, or PhB; or or ) is the title of an academic degree in philosophy that usually involves considerable research, either through a thesis or supervised research projects. Unlike many other bachelor's degrees, the ...
. Her thesis, supervised by Bill Newton-Smith, was on "the rationality debate in philosophy and the cognitive sciences". Bortolotti read for her PhD at the
Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public university, public research university and member of the Group of Eight (Australian universities), Group of Eight, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton, A ...
. Her
doctoral thesis A thesis (: theses), or dissertation (abbreviated diss.), is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings.International Standard ISO 7144: D ...
, which was supervised by Martin Davies, challenged Donald Davidson's account of
belief A belief is a subjective Attitude (psychology), attitude that something is truth, true or a State of affairs (philosophy), state of affairs is the case. A subjective attitude is a mental state of having some Life stance, stance, take, or opinion ...
ascription. She completed her PhD in 2004.


Career

Bortolotti worked as a
research associate Research associates are researchers (scholars and professionals) that usually have an advanced degree beyond a Bachelor's degree such as a master's degree or a PhD. In some universities/research institutes, such as Harvard/Harvard Medical Scho ...
at the
University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...
from 2004 to 2005. She worked as part of the Centre for Social Ethics and Policy (where she was also an honorary lecturer) under John Harris on a project exploring the nature of research, also covering
research ethics Research ethics is a discipline within the study of Ethics, applied ethics. Its scope ranges from general scientific integrity and scientific misconduct, misconduct to the treatment of human and animal subjects. The social responsibilities of sc ...
and law. She became a part of the Department of Philosophy at the
University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university in Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham (founded in 1825 as ...
in 2005, as a
lecturer Lecturer is an academic rank within many universities, though the meaning of the term varies somewhat from country to country. It generally denotes an academic expert who is hired to teach on a full- or part-time basis. They may also conduct re ...
. In 2007, she took up a
visiting professor In academia, a visiting scholar, visiting scientist, visiting researcher, visiting fellow, visiting lecturer, or visiting professor is a scholar from an institution who visits a host university to teach, lecture, or perform research on a topic fo ...
ship at the European School of Molecular Medicine,
Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...
, which she held until 2008; in that same year, she spent several months at the Macquarie Centre for Cognitive Science,
Macquarie University Macquarie University ( ) is a Public university, public research university in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Founded in 1964 by the New South Wales Government, it was the third university to be established in the Sydney metropolitan area. ...
on a
research fellowship A research fellow is an academic research position at a university or a similar research institution, usually for list of academic ranks, academic staff or faculty members. A research fellow may act either as an independent investigator or under ...
and was promoted to senior lecturer at the University of Birmingham. 2008 was also the year of publication of her first book, which was a
textbook A textbook is a book containing a comprehensive compilation of content in a branch of study with the intention of explaining it. Textbooks are produced to meet the needs of educators, usually at educational institutions, but also of learners ( ...
entitled ''An Introduction to the Philosophy of Science'', published by
Polity A polity is a group of people with a collective identity, who are organized by some form of political Institutionalisation, institutionalized social relations, and have a capacity to mobilize resources. A polity can be any group of people org ...
. A
Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...
version was published in 2013. Bortolotti published three books in 2009. She edited ''Philosophy and Happiness'', a
collection Collection or Collections may refer to: Computing * Collection (abstract data type), the abstract concept of collections in computer science * Collection (linking), the act of linkage editing in computing * Garbage collection (computing), autom ...
released by
Palgrave Macmillan Palgrave Macmillan is a British academic and trade publishing company headquartered in the London Borough of Camden. Its programme includes textbooks, journals, monographs, professional and reference works in print and online. It maintains offi ...
, and co-edited, with Matthew R. Broome, ''Psychiatry as Cognitive Neuroscience: Philosophical Perspectives''. The former book arose from a 2007 conference at Birmingham entitled Happiness and the Meaning of Life. It featured 14 chapters, split into two sections: "Happiness and the Meaningful Life" and "Happiness and the Mind". The latter book was published by
Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...
, and contained essays by a range of academics, broadly addressing the status of
psychiatry Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of deleterious mental disorder, mental conditions. These include matters related to cognition, perceptions, Mood (psychology), mood, emotion, and behavior. ...
as a
science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...
. It was widely reviewed, and was listed as one 2009's "books of the year" in ''The Guardian'', with
Mary Warnock Helen Mary Warnock, Baroness Warnock, (née Wilson; 14 April 1924 – 20 March 2019) was an English philosopher of ethics, morality, philosophy of education, education, and philosophy of mind, mind, and a writer on existentialism. She is best ...
saying that " spite its title, it's a gripping read". Bortolotti's third book in 2009 was ''Delusions and Other Irrational Beliefs'', a
monograph A monograph is generally a long-form work on one (usually scholarly) subject, or one aspect of a subject, typically created by a single author or artist (or, sometimes, by two or more authors). Traditionally it is in written form and published a ...
exploring
delusion A delusion is a fixed belief that is not amenable to change in light of conflicting evidence. As a pathology, it is distinct from a belief based on false or incomplete information, confabulation, dogma, illusion, hallucination, or some other m ...
s and requirements for the ascription of
beliefs A belief is a subjective Attitude (psychology), attitude that something is truth, true or a State of affairs (philosophy), state of affairs is the case. A subjective attitude is a mental state of having some Life stance, stance, take, or opinion ...
. The book was highly successful, being awarded the
American Philosophical Association The American Philosophical Association (APA) is the main professional organization for philosophers in the United States. Founded in 1900, its mission is to promote the exchange of ideas among philosophers, to encourage creative and scholarl ...
's 2011 book prize. Granted in recognition of the "best ... book published by a younger scholar in the previous two years", the prize is awarded every two years and carries with it a
US$ The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...
4000 award. The book was reviewed in a number of publications, and was the subject of a special issue in the journal ''
Neuroethics In philosophy and neuroscience, neuroethics is the study of both the ethics of neuroscience and the neuroscience of ethics. The ethics of neuroscience concerns the ethical, legal, and social impact of neuroscience, including the ways in which ne ...
''. The issue, edited by Neil Levy, contained five articles engaging with the book. These were by: Jakob Hohwy and Vivek Rajan; Eric Schwitzgebel; Dominic Murphy;
Keith Frankish Keith Frankish (1962 - ) is a British philosopher specializing in philosophy of mind, philosophy of psychology, and philosophy of cognitive science. He is an Honorary Reader at the University of Sheffield, UK, visiting research fellow with The ...
; and Maura Tumulty. In addition, Bortolotti contributed a précis of the bookBortolotti, Lisa (2012). "Précis of ''Delusions and Other Irrational Beliefs''". ''Neuroethics'' 5 (1): 1–4. . and an article in defence of some of her claims. In 2011, she became a reader at Birmingham, and then, in 2013, a
professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...
. In 2014, she published ''Irrationality'' as part of Polity's Key Concepts in Philosophy series, and was the editor of 2018's ''Delusions in Context'', an
open access Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which nominally copyrightable publications are delivered to readers free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 de ...
collection published by
Palgrave Macmillan Palgrave Macmillan is a British academic and trade publishing company headquartered in the London Borough of Camden. Its programme includes textbooks, journals, monographs, professional and reference works in print and online. It maintains offi ...
. In 2020, she published ''The Epistemic Innocence of Irrational Beliefs'' with Oxford University Press, and in 2023 she published ''Why Delusions Matter'' with
Bloomsbury Academic Bloomsbury Publishing plc is a British worldwide publishing house of fiction and non-fiction. Bloomsbury's head office is located on Bedford Square in Bloomsbury, an area of the London Borough of Camden. It has a US publishing office located in ...
. Her
open access Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which nominally copyrightable publications are delivered to readers free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 de ...
edited collection ''Epistemic Justice in Mental Healthcare'' was published in 2024.


Research

In ''Delusions and Other Irrational Beliefs'', Bortolotti challenges the idea that delusions are not beliefs given that they are irrational. While held to be beliefs in the medical literature, the status of delusions is disputed by philosophers, who have denied that delusions are beliefs on account of their deeply unusual content—such as the delusion that one is actually dead—and because they work differently from paradigmatic beliefs. For example, delusions are often maintained despite overwhelming counter-evidence, or are not reacted to in the way one would expect given their content. After setting out the background to the question, Bortolotti explores whether the procedural irrationality of delusions—the fact that they do not rationally relate to the other intentional states of the agent—justifies the denial that they are beliefs. She denies that it does, given that many paradigm beliefs display failures of procedural rationality. She then moves on to the
epistemic Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that examines the nature, origin, and limits of knowledge. Also called "the theory of knowledge", it explores different types of knowledge, such as propositional knowledge about facts, practical knowledg ...
irrationality of delusions, i.e., the fact that they are not supported by evidence. This can also not be used to challenge the status of delusions as beliefs, she argues, as many widespread ordinary beliefs are also epistemically irrational. She next addresses the idea that delusions are not beliefs as, first, they are not acted upon in the appropriate way, and, second, people with delusions cannot provide good reasons for their holding the content of the delusion. Though allowing that these characterisations of people with delusions can be correct, she argues that these failures of so-called agential rationality can also be found in people who do not have delusions. Bortolotti holds that the status of thoughts which subjects do not endorse (such as inserted thoughts) as beliefs is in question, but that beliefs that are both endorsed and self-ascribed contribute to one's conception of self as part of a self-narrative. She concludes her book by rejecting the rationality constraint on belief ascription. She challenges the idealisation of beliefs, but endorses the goal of separating beliefs and other intentional states. She argues that the difference between delusional and normal beliefs must concern more than their epistemic features. The difference between delusions and irrational (but non-delusional) beliefs is, she claims, one of degree, and not one of kind.


Select bibliography

In addition to her books, Bortolotti has published over 50 articles in peer-reviewed journals and over 20 chapters in edited collections. She is a series editor for Oxford's International Perspectives in Philosophy & Psychiatry series and on the editorial board of
Bloomsbury Bloomsbury is a district in the West End of London, part of the London Borough of Camden in England. It is considered a fashionable residential area, and is the location of numerous cultural institution, cultural, intellectual, and educational ...
's Science, Ethics & Innovation series. She has served on the editorial board of a number of journals, as well as acting as the review editor for ''Frontiers in Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology'', associate editor for ''
Ethical Theory and Moral Practice ''Ethical Theory and Moral Practice'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal in the field of philosophy, established in 1998 and published five times a year by Springer Science+Business Media. It publishes articles in English, focusing on ethics ...
'' and e-letter's editor for the ''
Journal of Medical Ethics The ''Journal of Medical Ethics'' is a monthly peer-reviewed academic journal covering the field of bioethics that was established in 1975 and is published by BMJ. According to the ''Journal Citation Reports'', the journal has a 2023 impact factor ...
''. She has guest-edited or co-guest-edited several journal special issues, including issues of the ''European Journal of Analytic Philosophy'', the ''
Journal of Consciousness Studies The ''Journal of Consciousness Studies'' is an interdisciplinary peer-reviewed academic journal dedicated entirely to the field of consciousness studies. It is published by Imprint Academic, and was founded in 1994. It was previously edited by J ...
'', and ''
Consciousness and Cognition The journal ''Consciousness and Cognition'' provides a forum for scientific approaches to the issues of consciousness, voluntary control, and self. The journal was launched by Bernard Baars and William Banks. The journal's editor-in-chief position ...
''.


Books

* Bortolotti, Lisa (2008). ''An Introduction to the Philosophy of Science''. Cambridge: Polity. (Also available in Portuguese.) * Bortolotti, Lisa (2009). ''Delusions and Other Irrational Beliefs''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. * Bortolotti, Lisa (2014). ''Irrationality''. Cambridge: Polity. * Bortolotti, Lisa (2020). ''The Epistemic Innocence of Irrational Beliefs''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. * Bortolotti, Lisa (2023). ''Why Delusions Matter''. London: Bloomsbury Academic.


Edited collections

* Botolotti, Lisa, ed. (2009). ''Philosophy and Happiness''. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. * Broome, Matthew R., and Lisa Bortolotti (2009). ''Psychiatry as Cognitive Neuroscience: Philosophical Perspectives''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. *Bortolotti, Lisa, ed. (2018). ''Delusions in Context''. Basingstoke, United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan. *Bortolotti, Lisa, ed. (2024). '' Epistemic Justice in Mental Healthcare: Recognising Agency and Promoting Virtues Across the Life Span''. Basingstoke, United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan.


References


External links


Imperfect Cognitions
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bortolotti, Lisa 1974 births Living people Writers from Bologna 21st-century Italian philosophers Italian women philosophers Philosophers of psychology Philosophers of science Bioethicists Medical ethicists Academics of the University of Birmingham University of Bologna alumni Alumni of King's College London Alumni of the University of Oxford Australian National University alumni 21st-century Italian women writers