The Philosophy and Applied Ethics Research Environment

Aurora Lever is an Italian philosophy student who completed her Master’s degree at the University of Trento, Italy

Her research focuses on Edmund Husserl’s phenomenology, with particular attention to Husserl’s theory of temporality.

In 2025, she spent three months at LiU conducting research for her Master’s thesis under the supervision of Professor Harald Wiltsche. During her stay, she participated in a reading circle dedicated to phenomenology, engaging with a wide range of contemporary and classical sources.

Philip Goyal is an Associate Professor at the University at Albany (SUNY)

“As a theoretical physicist, I am primarily concerned with open foundational questions & challenges in physics and related fields. For many years, I have been engaged in the quantum reconstruction programme that aims to systematically derive the mathematical formalism of quantum theory from physically transparent principles, inspired by an informational perspective on physical reality. In the last several years, I have turned to the challenge of interpreting the principles used in its derivation, which has involved forging collaborations with like-minded philosophers who are open to the new opportunities for philosophical reflection afforded by the quantum reconstruction program.”

About the collab with LiU

“My two-month visit to Prof. Harald Wiltsche's group at LiU in Fall 2024 was part of a multi-year collaborative effort (supported by an ICM+ Erasmus grant) to forge precise and mutually-illuminating connections between (chiefly Husserlian) phenomenology and the foundations of quantum mechanics, using quantum reconstruction as a stepping stone.

During my stay, we developed ideas on the phenomenology of quantum objects, which (following another two-week visit to LiU in April 2025) lead to a joint presentation at the Nordic Society of Phenomenology (NoSP) conference in April 2025 and will lead to a joint paper.

We also co-organized a workshop, New Approaches to the Foundations of Quantum Mechanics, which was held in November 2024 in Vadstena.”

Daniele Pizzocaro holds a PhD in Astrophysics and is currently pursuing a second PhD in Philosophy at Université Catholique de Louvain (Belgium).

His research focuses on the philosophy of physics, specifically the ontological and epistemological aspects of unobservable entities, in particular elementary particles and quasi-particles. He investigates the possibility to apply phenomenological approaches to the realism/anti-realism debate surrounding these entities, with particular attention to the underlying quantum behaviour, the associated formalism, and experimental practice.

His broader philosophical interests include the applicability of mathematics, philosophy of science in general, epistemology, and logic, as well as the history of philosophy and the history of science. During his four-month visit to Linköping University in 2023, he worked on a project applying Husserlian phenomenology to the ontology of elementary particles, particularly focusing on Werner Heisenberg's characterisation of the atomic electron's behaviour through matrix mechanics.