Research

My research interests are in the areas of philosophy of mind, philosophy of science, aesthetics, epistemology, and philosophy of language. One of the more specific topic areas of my investigation is imagination. My research focuses on several aspects of imagination: its unity and heterogeneity, its phenomenology, its perspectival nature, how it relates to other mental phenomena (such as supposition, memory, perception, belief, emotions). I am also interested in the debate on thought experiments, more precisely in the relationship between scientific and philosophical thought experiments, as well as in the role played by imagination in thought experimentation. I have recently started working on aesthetic experiences and, in particular, on the experience of the sublime.

If you want to know more about my research, you can have a look at my interview, Imagination, Supposition, Imagine, on 3:AM Magazine, and at my posts on The Junkyard blog (Only Suppose –commentary on Stock’s Only imagine; Is Imagining From the Inside Just What You Imagined?; Five Top Fives: Quotes and Songs; Commentary on Del Mar's Artefacts of Legal Inquiry: The Value of Imagination in Adjudication; The Thirst for Imagination) and on The Brains Blog (Imagination between bats and cats – commentary on Langland-Hassan's Explaining Imagination).

Below you can find a list of some of my publications divided by topics. For an almost complete list of my publications you can have a look at my Academia page and my PhilPeople page.

Last but not least, I have an eye for the wider impact my research topics may have on societal issues – see "Tempo di immaginare", my contribution to the pamphlet Gli uccelli ci spiano by Giuseppe Civati (2022, People), where I talk about imagination and conspiracy theories (a shorter and revised version, Apprendre à (mieux) imaginer, appeared for the EHESS Carnets) and L’insolenza dell'italiese e l’insicurezza dell’italiano (2023, LId'O XVIII-2021, Bulzoni Editore), a short piece on the relationship between English and Italian and how to preserve the creativity of the latter.

I also like to move from the theory to the practice of imagination – e.g., a crime novel I co-wrote with my mother was  recently published: Torna indietro appena puoi (2022, People).

Thought Experiments

Arcangeli, M. 2021a, Narratives and Thought Experiments: Restoring the Role of Imagination, in C. Badura & A. Kind (eds.), Epistemic Uses of Imagination, 183-201, Routledge

Angelucci, A. & Arcangeli, M. (eds.) 2019, s.i. “New Perspectives on Philosophical Thought Experiments”, Topoi, 38/4(2) [the "Introduction" to the s.i. can be found here]

Arcangeli, M. 2018b, The Hidden Links between Real, Thought and Numerical Experiments, Croatian Journal of Philosophy, XVIII/52, 3-22 [link]

Arcangeli, M. 2018a, L’expérience de pensée comme récit. Le rôle crucial de l’imagination [The thought experiment as a narrative. The crucial role of the imagination], in C. Bouriau & G. Schuppert (eds.), Perspectives philosophiques sur les fictions, 111-129, Kimé

Arcangeli, M. 2017d, Thought Experiments in Model-Based Reasoning, in L. Magnani & T. Bortolotti (eds.), Springer Handbook of Model-Based Science, 465-495, Springer

Arcangeli, M. 2017a, Expérience de pensée, online in L’Encyclopédie Philosophique [article grand public & article académique] N.B. in 2012 I wrote an entry on TEs in Italian for APhEx (Analytical and Philosophical Explanation), you can find it here

Miscellanea

Aesthetics

Arcangeli, M. & Dokic, J. 2021, At the limits: what drives experiences of the sublime, British Journal of Aesthetics, 61/2, 145–161 [link]

Arcangeli, M., Sperduti, M., Jacquot, A., Piolino, P. & Dokic, J. 2020, Awe and the Experience of the Sublime: A Complex Relationship, Frontiers in Psychology, doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01340 [link] 

Arcangeli, M. & Dokic, J. 2020, A plea for the Sublime in science, in S. French & M. Ivanova (eds.), The Aesthetics of Science: Beauty, Imagination and Understanding, 104-124, Routledge

Arcangeli, M., Dokic, J. & Sperduti, M. 2018, The Beautiful, the Sublime and the Self, in F. Cova & S. Réhault (eds.), Advances in Experimental Philosophy of Aesthetics, 175-196, Bloomsbury

Memory

Arcangeli, M. 2022b, Imagining in remembering from the outside, in A. Berninger & Í. Vendrell Ferran (eds.), Philosophical Perspectives on Memory and Imagination, 146-164, Routledge

Arcangeli, M. & Dokic, J. 2018, Affective Memory: A Little Help from Our Imagination, in K. Michaelian, D. Debus & D. Perrin (eds.), New Directions in the Philosophy of Memory, 139-156, Routledge