Projects
Mesure et modelisation de la mortalité due au paludisme dans la zone de superveiillance démographique de Nanoro, Burkina Faso Institute of Tropical Medicine
A conceptual and phenomenological diagnosis of the utopian mentality as a human but fallacious tendency. An investigation of the excesses and the subtle manifestations of the utopian mentality. KU Leuven
Morality and Moral Responsibility. The Strawson-Hart Account and the Responsibility-First Approach KU Leuven
I have two main objectives. (1) To develop a new account, the Strawson-Hart account, of the nature of morality. (2) To present a new approach, the responsibility-first approach, to the study of moral responsibility. I start from the thought that P.F. Strawson’s ‘Freedom and Resentment’, the key text in responsibility theory, cannot be understood without grasping Strawson’s conception of morality. I argue that H.L.A. Hart’s work sheds light on ...
The Morality of the Use of Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems: the Problem of Attributing Moral Responsibility. KU Leuven
The possible future use of autonomous weapons is discussed in many areas, including politics, law and psychology. A central point in the discussion about lethal autonomous weapon systems (LAWS) is the problem of attributing moral responsibility. The aim of this project is to assess how to distribute responsibility fairly between all the human and nonhuman actors involved in the use of LAWS. To this end, I will analyze the complex chain of ...
Agency and morality as building blocks of self-esteem KU Leuven
Does your self-esteem depend on how well you can achieve your personal goals, or how good you are for others? The 'agency hypothesis' claims that the first is true. The competing 'morality hypothesis' claims that self-esteem above all hinges on morality (a facet of communion), rather than agency. Previous studies have provided evidence for either hypothesis. Consistent with the agency hypothesis, self-esteem correlates more strongly with ...
The Early Modern Law and Morality of the Financial Market. An In-depth Analysis of Robertus Bellarminus’ and Leonardus Lessius’ teachings and writings ‘On Justice and Law’ KU Leuven
The rise of capitalism in the early modern period urged scholars to come up with a new normative framework to accommodate new commercial and financial transactions. This PhD project concentrates on the transformation of the Catholic morality and law of the marketplace prompted by these events in the Low Countries. Student notebooks featuring the teachings on law and economics by the Jesuit theologians Robert Bellarmine and Leonardus Lessius ...
Against the fat relentless ego: love at the centre of morality. University of Antwerp
An Investigation into the Sensus Fidelium in Matters of Morality KU Leuven
The dissertation starts from the twofold insight that firstly, on a practical level, the ignorance of the sensus fidelium by the magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church has produced a harmful discrepancy between its moral teaching and the moral perception and behaviour of a large portion of its faithful especially in the field sexual and conjugal ethics and, secondly, that church documents and scholarly theology have conceived of ...