Gustavo Cevolani is Associate Professor in Logic and Philosophy of Science (M-FIL/02).
He graduated in Philosophy at the University of Bologna, where he also obtained his Ph.D. in Philosophy of Science in 2005. His current research interests are in general philosophy of science and formal epistemology, with a focus on rational decisions in scientific and ordinary reasoning, the notion of cognitive progress, and methodological issues of social and behavioral sciences. See his personal website for an updated list of publications.
His approach combines conceptual analyses, formal methods (probability, decision and game theory) and results from the psychology of reasoning, cognitive science, and social sciences in general.
The following are the main research topics he is currently working on:
- Rationality as truth approximation
The project explores the role of the philosophical notion of “closeness to the truth” (truthlikeness or verisimilitude) in scientific and ordinary reasoning. Main activities and sub-projects:- From models to decisions (PRIN project) (with Jan Sprenger, Giovanni Valente, and Carlo Martini
- Experimental Cognitive Decision Theory (ECDT)
- Truthlikeness: the basic feature approach
- Reasoning, uncertainty, and expert judgment
The projects deals with reasoning under uncertainty, especially heuristics and biases, and their implications for various domain and society in general. Main activities and sub-projects:- Uncertainty and fallacies in legal reasoning
- Decisions, democracy and expert judgment
- NUTS (Nudge Unit Toscana per la Salute, joint IMT - ARS Toscana initiative)
- Rationality, social interaction, and the human sciences
The projects deals with foundational, methodological and philosophical aspects of social and behavioral sciences. Main activities and sub-projects:- Game-theoretical foundations of economics and social sciences
- Rationality and prosocial behavior in social and moral dilemmas
- Approximation, idealization, and concretization in economic models
- Bayesianism, abduction, and reverse inference