I am Daniel Vanello, Lecturer in Philosophy of Education at the Institute of Education, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society.
My research revolves around questions about moral learning. I am currently pursuing three lines of inquiry. First, I am interested in the moral concern question. That is, how do humans come to care about morality? In answering this question, I investigate the role of autobiographical memory and emotions in early childhood moral learning. I want to argue that an upshot of this line of inquiry is nothing short of a complete picture of human moral psychology.
Second, I am exploring the educational role of moral witnesses. Moral witnesses are people who suffered harm caused by deliberate evil actions. A paradigmatic example of a moral witness is a genocide survivor. I am articulating the view that moral witnesses possess a specific kind of understanding of evil that makes them authoritative sources of moral learning to those who have not experienced the relevant evil events.
Third, I am interested in the practical aspect of Jean-Paul Sartre’s early phenomenology. Specifically, I argue that Sartre’s early phenomenological works provide us with the conceptual material to articulate the notion that we inhabit evaluative perspectives from which we evaluate the situations we experience. At the heart of this Sartrean picture are the emotions and temporality.
Before coming to UCL, I was Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Southampton (2023-2024). Before that, I was Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow in the Philosophy Department at the University of Warwick (2020-2023), Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the School of Philosophy at University College Dublin (2018-2020) and Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Fribourg and at the Affective Sciences Research Centre in Geneva, Switzerland (2017-2018). I completed my B.A. in Philosophy at Trinity College Dublin (2007-2011) and both my MPhil (2011-2013) and PhD in Philosophy at the University of Warwick (2013-2017).
In the picture you can see my hometown of Trieste. Although Trieste is at present in Italy, it has changed borders many times in its history. Like many in Trieste, I am half Italian and half Slovenian. This has undoubtedly led me to be very interested in questions about identity and how we should understand the role of values and attachments in our self-understanding.
My research revolves around questions about moral learning. I am currently pursuing three lines of inquiry. First, I am interested in the moral concern question. That is, how do humans come to care about morality? In answering this question, I investigate the role of autobiographical memory and emotions in early childhood moral learning. I want to argue that an upshot of this line of inquiry is nothing short of a complete picture of human moral psychology.
Second, I am exploring the educational role of moral witnesses. Moral witnesses are people who suffered harm caused by deliberate evil actions. A paradigmatic example of a moral witness is a genocide survivor. I am articulating the view that moral witnesses possess a specific kind of understanding of evil that makes them authoritative sources of moral learning to those who have not experienced the relevant evil events.
Third, I am interested in the practical aspect of Jean-Paul Sartre’s early phenomenology. Specifically, I argue that Sartre’s early phenomenological works provide us with the conceptual material to articulate the notion that we inhabit evaluative perspectives from which we evaluate the situations we experience. At the heart of this Sartrean picture are the emotions and temporality.
Before coming to UCL, I was Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Southampton (2023-2024). Before that, I was Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow in the Philosophy Department at the University of Warwick (2020-2023), Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the School of Philosophy at University College Dublin (2018-2020) and Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Fribourg and at the Affective Sciences Research Centre in Geneva, Switzerland (2017-2018). I completed my B.A. in Philosophy at Trinity College Dublin (2007-2011) and both my MPhil (2011-2013) and PhD in Philosophy at the University of Warwick (2013-2017).
In the picture you can see my hometown of Trieste. Although Trieste is at present in Italy, it has changed borders many times in its history. Like many in Trieste, I am half Italian and half Slovenian. This has undoubtedly led me to be very interested in questions about identity and how we should understand the role of values and attachments in our self-understanding.