Alain Pe-Curto
alain.pe-curto@epfl.ch
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I pursue research in value theory, the metaphysics of value, and the philosophy of mind.
I am a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Philosophy of the Université de Fribourg – Universität Freiburg, working within the Ethics and Political Philosophy team that Prof. Ralf. M. Bader leads. I am also a lecturer at EPFL, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne.
Previously, I led the Lugano-based research project titled “Value Exploration”, which received generous support from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SPF, Horizon Europe transitional measures for Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions). I was also a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Philosophy of Yale University, working with L. A. Paul. I was an invited postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Philosophy of Rutgers-New Brunswick, working with Prof. Dean Zimmerman, and at the Department of Philosophy of UNC-Chapel Hill.
As a postdoctoral researcher, I was the academic coordinator of L. A. Paul’s lab meetings at the Department of Philosophy and Program in Cognitive Science of Yale University. I visited the Department of Philosophy of Lund University and the interdisciplinary centers Institut Jean Nicod in Paris and Arché at St. Andrews for short stays.
I am an associate member of Thumos, the Geneva-based research group on emotions and values directed by Julien Deonna and Fabrice Teroni at the Campus Biotech (University of Geneva & EPFL).
My Ph.D. dissertation, Values Under Construction, focused on the mereology of values, a topic at the junction of metaphysics and value theory. I wrote my dissertation between Geneva, where I defended under the supervision of Fabrice Teroni and Julien Deonna, and Rutgers-New Brunswick, where I visited and taught under the supervision of Dean Zimmerman. The dissertation committee included Paolo Crivelli, Campbell Brown, Fabrice Correia, Jonas Olson, and Dean Zimmerman. My dissertation was awarded the Neuman Prize in Aesthetics and Moral Philosophy.
My two MA disciplines were philosophy, with a master's dissertation, and Ancient Greek, with a shorter master’s dissertation. I took linguistics as well.
RESEARCH
I work on value and the self with an eye to recent developments in science and technology. Thus, my research develops along three dimensions:
Value Metrics | I am interested in phenomena that may be distinctive of value metrics—such as non-additivity, non-transitivity, evaluative indeterminacy, incommensurability, and parity.
The Workshop on Value Exploration (June 2024), which I organized in Lugano, discussed some of these topics. As part of his visit to the workshop, I organized a meeting on Omnipresence with Dean W. Zimmerman. As part of her visit to the workshop, I co-organized L. A. Paul's talk on "The Computational Self" at the Lugano Philosophy Colloquia.
Self | I examine the role of value and emotion in recent controversies about selves, their rational and moral agency, and the persistence of selves across contexts and time.
Transformation | I explore the value dimension of transformative experience and the ability of selves to transform their core values.
Two workshops that I co-organized at Yale focused on this topic: a Workshop on Mutual Understanding and a Workshop on Experience and Transformation.
I also organized guest lectures at EPFL (Spring 2024) relevant to the three dimensions above. They appear under "Teaching" below.
PUBLICATIONS (as first or sole author)
Manuscripts in preparation or under consideration for publication include, among others:
an article on the metrics of value presented at the American Philosophical Association Eastern Division Meeting in Montréal as a symposium paper and at the Higher Seminar of the Department of Philosophy of Lund University.
an article on the nature of intrinsic value presented during a Workshop on Value Incommensurability at Lund University, during ENFA at NOVA in Lisbon, and at the ZEPP of LMU (all peer-reviewed).
a paper on the nature of value bearers.
an article on the metrics of value and hedonism.
work in the philosophy of mind and the metaphysics of value about the roles that values and emotions play in personal identity.
Please contact me at alain.pecurto@epfl.ch if you would be willing to share ideas on the manuscripts and topics mentioned.
La Valeur, L'Encyclopédie philosophique, Archives Henri Poincaré — Huma-Num — CNRS, Université de Lorraine (2021).
The Tangled Web of Agency, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 41 (With J. Deonna and D. Sander, 2018).
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X17001170
Saudade: sadness and love in adversity, In Emotions, D. Sander, & N. Herschdorfer, N. (eds), Benteli (2017).
La Saudade: tristesse et amour dans l’adversité, In Emotions, D. Sander & N. Herschdorfer, N. (eds), Benteli (2017).
Who Do You Think You Are? The How/What Theory of Character and Personality. In Self-Evaluation: Affective and Social Grounds of Intentionality, eds. A. Konzelmann Ziv, K. Lehrer, and H. B. Schmid, Springer. (With F. Lauria 2011).
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1266-9_4
SCIENTIFIC POSTER (as sole author)
Electing Transformative Values, Yale Postdoctoral Symposium with Carl Zimmer from the New York Times (2019),
received the Yale Postdoctoral Symposium Poster Presentation Award.
ONLINE POST (as sole author)
Updated and translated versions of a post on malicious pleasure originally created for Swiss TV, available in German, Spanish, and French.
Schadenfreude, Freude über das Unglück anderer (2020).
Schadenfreude, la alegría en la desgracia de los demás (2020).
Schadenfreude, la joie maligne (2020).
AWARDS
Selected Awards | I have received research awards from the Swiss National Science Foundation, the Cogito Foundation, the Boninchi Foundation, the Academic Society of Geneva, the Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences, the National Center for Competence and Research in Affective Sciences, and the Dean of the School of Humanities at the University of Geneva.
I am grateful for the Philibert Collart Award and the Neuman Prize in Aesthetics and Moral Philosophy received for my Ph. D. dissertation, the Amiel Prize in Philosophy received for a journal article, the Yale Postdoctoral Symposium Prize received for a poster presentation on transformative experience, and the Disdier Prize in Moral Philosophy received for my MA thesis.
REVIEWING
I have acted as a reviewer for conferences, book contributions, and, among others, the following journals: The Australasian Journal of Philosophy, Dialectica, The Emotion Review, Klesis, Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, Philosophical Quarterly, The Review of Philosophy and Psychology, Synthese.
PHILOSOPHY CURRICULUM AND STUDENT DEVELOPMENT
Curriculum Development Committee, Department of Philosophy, University of Geneva
As a student and with the Department's Faculty, I participated formally in the remodeling of the philosophy program at the University of Geneva. I then acted as a member of the Curriculum Development Committee known as Commission mixte. The page for the current Commission mixte is available here.
Creation of PhilEAs, Department of Philosophy, University of Geneva
As a student, I co-founded and was president of PhilEAs, the philosophy student association of the University of Geneva. I then co-created the PhilEAs colloquia series and PhilEAs's student development support initiative. With many other members of PhilEAs, I developed working groups focused on specific projects, which led to Philosophy Café meetings, undergraduate/graduate student reading groups, and the creation of the undergraduate/graduate student philosophy journal iPhilo. More details on these activities are available here.
First-generation students
With academics working in philosophy, I plan on developing a support platform for students who need advice in their discovery of academia, in particular those whose relatives have no academic background or formal education, such as first-generation students. The goal of the platform is to facilitate contacts through a student and alumni network.
AROUND AND BEYOND ACADEMIA
I launched, co-organized, and participated in student and community outreach events, open days, and site tours at the University of Geneva, the interdisciplinary Campus Biotech, UNC-Chapel Hill, and Yale University.
I taught a corporate Workshop focused on Transformation, Values, and Purpose for Swissnex, Cambridge, MA, and gave a public presentation on Transformation and Core Values at their New York offices. I acted as a jury for the Yale Ethics Bowl, took part in Philosophy Cafés in Geneva and at UNC-Chapel Hill. I organized and participated in first-generation student events in Geneva, at Yale, and the University of Fribourg .
Swissnex, Cambridge, Mass.
More generally, I have been involved in research promotion and communication, including for the Swiss National Science Foundation and with the public (press, radio).
These activities explain the existence of a picture of me as "a researcher shaking hands with the President of Portugal" available at Getty's image bank. Thanks to my amused coworkers for the pointer to the picture.
Non-Academic Work
In the past, I pursued activities outside academia, which helped support my graduate studies in addition to being inspiring and formative. For example, I joined the team of a performing arts theater (no acting involved), was an assessor for high-school finals in Ancient Greek, and contributed to the development of an e-learning platform.
TEACHING
Selected, as sole instructor or instructor of record—for course materials, please email me at alain.pecurto@epfl.ch.
Bachelor
Transformative Experience, invited lectures, Department of Philosophy, Yale University, New Haven.
Transformative Experience and Migration, invited lecture, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Yale University, New Haven.
Advanced Bachelor
Philosophies of Death and Dying, course-seminar, Department of Philosophy of Rutgers University-New Brunswick (writing-intensive)
Metaphysics of Value, course-seminar, Department of Philosophy, University of Geneva
Philosophy of Death, course-seminar, Department of Philosophy, University of Geneva (with bachelor's theses).
Master
Scheduled for Spring 2026: L’éthique et les émotions, University of Fribourg
(yearly) Emotion, value, and life-defining choices I, EPFL–Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (with master's projects)
(yearly) Emotion, value, and life-defining choices II, EPFL–Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (with master's projects)
—— T.A. 2023-24: Elisa Ballabio, 2024-25: Amélie Mioranza, 2025-26: Marija Kudriavceva.
—— With guest lectures by Prof. L. A. Paul on "The philosophy and psychology of transformative experience" and Esq. Sonia De la Fuente on sustainability in 2024.
—— Public communication on master's project supervised at EPFL in 2024: https://actu.epfl.ch/news/gut-feelings-must-be-understood-to-be-used-prope-2/
Value Exploration Reading Group (for master students), Institute of Philosophy, Università della Svizzera Italiana in Lugano.
Student supervision and mentoring—in Geneva, at Rutgers, and at Yale
Master's (Graduate) & Bachelor's (Undergraduate) theses/projects supervision. Fields include: value theory, metaphysics of value, ethics, aesthetics; decision theory; transformative experience; emotions; mind and moral psychology.
Bachelor's tutoring and paper supervision. Fields include: value theory; metaphysics of value; transformative experience; mind and moral psychology.
Supervision and mentoring for applications to the EPFL Summer Series (Spring-Summer 2024, application successful; Spring-Summer 2025, pending).
Supervision and mentoring for applications to the EPFL’s Social Sciences and Humanities Best Master’s Project Prize (Spring-Summer 2024 and 2025, applications under consideration).
Professionalization events for Ph.D. students
I founded the Lake Geneva Graduate Conference in philosophy with the sponsorship of Profs. Fabrice Correia, Julien Deonna, and Fabrice Teroni, and competitive funding from the Conférence Universitaire de Suisse Occidentale and host institutions. The project involved the Universities of Fribourg, Geneva, Lausanne, and Neuchâtel.
The conference was organized in Fribourg, Geneva, Lausanne, and Neuchâtel on a rotating basis. Its program committee was composed of graduate students from these four universities. The program committee invited keynote speakers and selected papers from international graduate students submitted to the conference. Peer review was triple-blind: in particular, the names of authors were unknown to both the program committee and the external reviewers.
More information is available here: https://lg2c.wordpress.com/lg2c-people/.
Continuing education
La Transformation, invited lecture, Université des Seniors, Geneva.
La Construction des valeurs, course, Université des Seniors, Geneva.
Emotions and Values, course, Université des Seniors, Geneva.
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