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Bio
Bio
I conduct research in value theory, the metaphysics of value, and the philosophy of mind. I am a lecturer at EPFL, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, (since 2023) and will be a lecturer at the Department of Philosophy of the Université de Fribourg–Universität Freiburg starting in February 2026 (Chair of Ethics and Political Philosophy). I am a member of Prof. Ralf M. Bader's Ethics and Political Philosophy team since 2025.
Previously, I led the Lugano-based research project titled “Value Exploration”, which received generous support from the SNSF, 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.
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 received the Neuman Prize in Aesthetics and Moral Philosophy (Humanities, University of Geneva) and the Philibert Collart Award (Academic Society of Geneva).
During my Master of Arts, I took philosophy, with a master's thesis, and Ancient Greek, with a shorter master’s thesis. I took linguistics as well. My philosophy thesis received the Disdier Prize in Moral Philosophy (President's Office, University of Geneva).
On a biographical note, I am known in Switzerland as a "Portuguese secondo": I come from a Portuguese working-class family that immigrated to Switzerland (see §First generation students under Service below). Additionally, I pursued activities outside of academia. These not only supported my studies and research but were also inspiring and formative experiences. 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.
Contact: alain.pecurto@aya.yale.edu
Full CV available upon request.
EPFL students, please use:
Fribourg students, please use:
Research
Research
I work on values. I also consider values in connection to the self and emotions. Thus, my research develops along two dimensions:
Nature of Intrinsic Value | I examine intrinsic value and phenomena that may suggest it has a distinctive structure —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 and Transformation| I examine the role of values and emotions in recent controversies about selves, their rational and moral agency, and the persistence of selves across contexts and time. 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 dimensions above. They appear under "Teaching" below.
PUBLICATIONS
Under review or revision (for manuscripts, please contact: alain.pecurto@aya.yale.edu)
Pe-Curto, A. Title omitted. Article on value and additivity: Presented at American Philosophical Association Eastern Division Meeting (Montréal, symposium with commentators Daniel Rubio and Ned Markosian) and Higher Seminar, Department of Philosophy, Lund University.
Pe-Curto, A. Title omitted. Article on the nature of intrinsic value. Presented at Workshop on Value Incommensurability (Lund University), ENFA (NOVA, Lisbon), and LMU Workshop on Intrinsic Value and its Applications (all peer-reviewed). Recipient, Amiel Prize in Philosophy (University of Geneva).
Pe-Curto, A. Title omitted. Article on value additivity and hedonism.
Pe-Curto, A. Title omitted. Article on rarity and value.
Published
Pe-Curto, A. “Valeur.” In L’Encyclopédie philosophique, ed. Maxime Kristanek. Archives Henri Poincaré/Huma-Num/CNRS/Université de Lorraine, 2021. https://encyclo-philo.fr/valeur-gp.
Pe-Curto, A. “Electing Transformative Values.” (scientific poster) Yale Postdoctoral Symposium (with Carl Zimmer, New York Times), 2019. Recipient, Yale Postdoctoral Symposium Poster Presentation Award.
Pe-Curto, A., Deonna, J., and D. Sander. “The Tangled Web of Agency.” Behavioral and Brain Sciences 41, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X17001170.
Pe-Curto, A. “Saudade: Sadness and Love in Adversity.” In Emotions, eds. D. Sander and N. Herschdorfer. Benteli, 2017.
Pe-Curto, A. “La Saudade: Tristesse et Amour dans l’Adversité.” In Émotions, eds. D. Sander and N. Herschdorfer. Benteli, 2017.
Lauria, F., and Pe-Curto, A. “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, 2011. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1266-9_4.
Public Philosophy posts:
Schadenfreude, Freude über das Unglück anderer (2020).
Schadenfreude, la alegría en la desgracia de los demás (2020).
Schadenfreude, la joie maligne (2020).
Updated and translated versions of a post on malicious pleasure originally created for Swiss TV, available in German, Spanish, and French.
AWARDS
I have received competitive research grants 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.
Previously, high school graduation awards supported my language and cultural exchanges. I am thankful to the Gillet Prize of the Academic Society of Geneva, the Meyrin Prize, the Lombard Odier Ancient Greek Prize, the Geneva Latin Prize, and the Paribas Prize.
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.
Teaching
Teaching
Selected, as sole instructor—for course materials, please email me at alain.pecurto@aya.yale.edu.
—Bachelor
Spring 2026: Ethics and Emotion, University of Fribourg — BA course, Éthique et émotion: aimer (le) bien, haïr (le) mal.
Fall 2025: "Egalitarianism", Authority, Liberty, and Justice, Ralf M. Bader, invited lecture, Department of Philosophy, University of Fribourg.
Past:
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.
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 supervision of bachelor's theses).
—Master
Spring 2026: Ethics and Emotion, University of Fribourg — MA course, Éthique et émotion: aimer (le) bien, haïr (le) mal.
Fall 2025: "Egalitarianism", Authority, Liberty, and Justice, Ralf M. Bader, invited lecture, Department of Philosophy, University of Fribourg.
Fall 2025: "Punishment, Luck, and Failed Attempts", Applied Ethics, Ralf M. Bader, invited lecture, Department of Philosophy, University of Fribourg.
Spring 2024-present: (yearly, 40-60 students) Emotion, value, and life-defining choices II, EPFL–Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (with master's projects)
Fall 2023-present: (yearly, 40-60 students) Emotion, value, and life-defining choices I, EPFL–Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (with master's projects)
—— T.A. 2023-24: Elisa Ballabio, 2024-25: Amélie Mioranza, 2025-26: Daniel Vorotyntsev.
—— 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.
Past:
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
Supervision of ca. 150 Master's theses/projects. Fields include: value theory, metaphysics of value, ethics, aesthetics; decision theory; transformative experience; emotions; mind and moral psychology.
Superivision of Bachelor theses, tutoring, and paper development supervision. Fields include: see above.
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, 2025 application among the three finalists).
Public communication on student master's project supervised at EPFL in 2024: https://actu.epfl.ch/news/gut-feelings-must-be-understood-to-be-used-prope-2/.
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. I secured 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, philosophy for non-philosophers
Fall 2025-Spring 2026: Welcome session and "Introduction to Ethics", Quali+, University of Fribourg.
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.
Service
Service
First-generation and lower-SES students
In Switzerland, I am known as a “secondo”: I come from a Portuguese working-class family that immigrated to Switzerland looking for jobs. I am the only one in my family to have completed high school and the only one to have achieved university degrees. My personal experience makes me particularly attuned to the specific needs of those students whose relatives have no academic background or formal education, such as first-generation students, and those from lower socio-economic status. I have contributed to collective efforts to support first-generation students at the University of Geneva, Yale University, and the University of Fribourg.
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.
Swissnex, Cambridge, Mass.
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 .
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.
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