Postdoctoral Research Projects

While carried out through a plurality of individual projects, my research has always been characterised by a consistent, unifying thread: the intersection of metaphysics and natural philosophy concerning the constitution of the physical world. This convergence is typically defined by one particular theory: hylomorphism. The implementation of my postdoctoral research projects has addressed the nuanced interdisciplinary and transcultural development of this interpretative tool, along with its manifold applications, amendments, and debates over time.

Hylomorphism in a Globalising World

HYLOGLOB (Hylomorphism in a Globalising World: Scholastic Debates on the Ontology of Nature Across Europe, China, and New Spain) is a research project funded by the European Union’s Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action (MSCA-IF) delving into 16th-century scholastic theories of the ontological constitution of the natural world and their global impact. The project aims at disentangling the metaphysical theories about the constitution of physical substances that have been produced in the 16th-c. debate and used as interpretative lenses to understand metaphysical and physical doctrines formulated in China and New Spain. read more

The Shadow Within Nature

Almost unconceivable and completely formless, prime matter carries out a series of pivotal function in scholastic metaphysics and natural philosophy. The Shadow Within Nature: Ontology and Epistemology of Prime Matter in the Late Middle Ages is a research project focused on reconstructing the debate about this peculiar entity in the last centuries of the Middle Ages. Funded by the Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek – Vlaanderen through a Senior Research Fellowship, The Shadow Within Nature is based at the Institute of Philosophy of KU Leuven, in Belgium. read more

Knowing the Shadow

According to scholastic hylomorphism, all natural bodies (and for some philosophers, spiritual substances, too) are made of matter and form. While inherently present in everything we see and touch, both these principles elude our experience of a world that we primarily know by perception of accidental features. Knowing the Shadow: Ontology and Epistemology of Matter in the 13th Century examines how early scholastic philosophers tried to justify that these principles, and particularly, prime matter, are conceivable. The project is implemented ad HU Berlin and sponsored by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. read more

Grosseteste and Bacon

The research project focuses on the metaphysics of two of the most important figures in western medieval thought, Robert Grosseteste (c.1170-1253) and Roger Bacon (c.1214-c.1292). Fresh light will be shone on the extent to which both were indebted to two Arabic thinkers, Avicenna (Muslim) and Ibn Gabirol (Jewish). These philosophers were, it will be argued, crucial to how Grosseteste and Bacon problematized the question of being. This question is, for both, an essential element of their scientific thought. The project investigates the complex intellectual transmission from the world of medieval Iberia to the scholars of northern Europe, from Toledo to Paris and Oxford.  read more