Prof. Luca Malatesti

Luca Malatesti teaches courses in philosophy of mind, philosophy of psychiatry, history of philosophy, and argumentative writing. He investigates conceptual and ethical problems raised by the transfer of advancements in the scientific study of mind, brain behaviour to the legal practice and doctrine of criminal exculpation. His research is based on empirically informed analytic philosophy of mind, philosophy of psychiatry, and neuroethics. He focuses on the questions whether and how neuropsychological research can establish that classes of individuals with antisocial conditions, as those classified as psychopaths, could be held unaccountable for their crimes. Two dimensions of these questions are central in his research. First, he is interested in whether antisocial conditions are mental disorders. Second, he investigates whether scientific research reveal that specific classes of antisocial individuals have cognitive and volitional incapacities or limited capacities that render them criminally or legally unaccountable.