Stefano Corsi

Master's dissertation in Theoretical Philosophy (2008), Department of Philosophy, University of Padova.

The main argument of this thesis is the concept of “narrative identity” principally explicated by Paul Ricoeur in his works. The aim is to clarify some further salient aspects of the concept, especially in relation to notions as “narrative” and “personal identity”, that narrative identity relates.

In the first chapter, it is offered a brief reconstruction of different views on the relation between narrative and life, trying to explain the way the Ricoeurian speculation enters this debate. In the second chapter, it is showed how, using his conceptual distinction between identity as “sameness” and identity as “selfhood”, Ricoeur claims that narrative identity solves the paradoxes of personal identity, mainly illustrated by Derek Parfit’s reductionist proposal. Finally, the third chapter both suggests a confront between literary fiction and Parfit’s Thought experiments, and tries to understand if anti-Narrativist arguments strike down Ricoeur’s narrative model.

In conclusion, it is argued that a narrative theory of personal identity can account for the identities of (also) practical entities like us, existing and acting in a spatio-temporal world, in virtue of its anti-reductionist features focused on the subjectivity of experience.

Master's dissertation in Science Communication (2010), Department of Physics, University of Padova.

The dissertation, written in a cultural magazine article style and aimed to science communicators, argues for a way to improve the public communication of evolutionary theory in Italy.

This essay is the second assignment for the "Applied Ethics" course of the "Philosophy and Religion" master programme at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David. In this assignment, I discuss the question: "Do we have a duty to lift others out of extreme poverty?".

This essay is the first assignment for the "Applied Ethics" course of the "Philosophy and Religion" master programme at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David. In this assignment, I discuss the claim: "Speciesism is morally wrong in the same way that racism and sexism is morally wrong".

This essay is the second assignment for the "Environmental Philosophy" course of the "Philosophy and Religion" master programme at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David. In this assignment, I discuss the question: "Do species have a good of their own, and do they have moral standing as such?".

This annotated bibliography is the first assignment for the "Environmental Philosophy" course of the "Philosophy and Religion" master programme at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David. In this assignment, I present and discuss four papers in animal ethics and environmental philosophy:

* Joel Feinberg, “The Rights of Animals and Unborn Generations” (1974)
* Peter Singer, “All Animals Are Equal” (1974)
* Paul W. Taylor, “The Ethics of Respect for Nature” (1981)
*Mark Sagoff, “Animal Liberation and Environmental Ethics: Bad Marriage, Quick Divorce”  (1984)

Final peer-reviewed assignment for the online course "Ancient Philosophy: Aristotle and His Successors", delivered by the University of Pennsylvania on Coursesa.

The assignment, written as an informal letter to a friend, discusses Epicurus's "death is nothing to us" argument by analysing its strong points and weak points.

Final peer-reviewed assignment for the online course "Ancient Philosophy: Plato and His Predecessors", delivered by the University of Pennsylvania on Coursesa.

The assignment, written as a Platonic-like dialogue, imagines how the argument in the "Euthyphro" could have gone if Euthyphro had answered Socrates’ question differently.

This presentation discusses "speciescentrism" - that is, the view in environmental ethics attributing moral standing to biological species. It has been discussed with an audience of postgraduate students and researchers during a two-hour informal meeting in Philosophy. Later, the presentation has been used as a basis for writing a postgraduate assignment.

This presentation discusses some ethical issues related to factory farming in the fields of environmental ethics, animal ethics, and public health. It has been discussed with an audience of postgraduate students during a one-hour seminar in Environmental Philosophy.