Matteo J.

Italian of Swiss origin, I’m a former Master (MA) and Research Master (ReMA) student at the Institute of Philosophy of KU Leuven (Belgium). My early research interest was dominated by an irresistible fascination for American thought: especially, Dewey’s experiential pragmatism, and Thoreau and Emerson's transcendentalism. A former member of the Thoreau Society of Concord, I was eventually introduced to Pierre Hadot's and Michel Foucault’s works on ancient spirituality, which now constitute the c...

Italian of Swiss origin, I’m a former Master (MA) and Research Master (ReMA) student at the Institute of Philosophy of KU Leuven (Belgium). My early research interest was dominated by an irresistible fascination for American thought: especially, Dewey’s experiential pragmatism, and Thoreau and Emerson's transcendentalism. A former member of the Thoreau Society of Concord, I was eventually introduced to Pierre Hadot's and Michel Foucault’s works on ancient spirituality, which now constitute the central axis of all my investigations in the history of philosophy. A staunch supporter of Modern Stoicism, I’m have been awarded the Deakin University Postgraduate Scholarship (DUPRS) to pursue his doctoral studies at Deakin University (Australia), under the supervision of Prof. Matthew Sharpe. I collaborate with two research groups: the 'Philosophy as a Way of Life' research group of the Pontificia Università Gregoriana of Rome, and the 'Art of Living' research group of the NOVA Institute of Philosophy (Ifilnova) of Lisbon, which I visited in 2022. I’m also a collaborator for the exploratory project “Mapping Philosophy as a Way of Life: An Ancient Model, a Contemporary Approach” led by Dr. Marta Faustino at the latter institute and an Adjunct Instructor at the Lorenzo de' Medici International Institute of Florence (Italy), where I teach (in English) the undergraduate course ‘The Pursuit of Happiness: Cultivating Well-Being in Difficult Times’ (PHI220F). Under this heading, this course explores theories of happiness from antiquity to contemporaneity, with a special emphasis on the key eudemonistic theories of the Western canon: Plato, Aristotle, and Epictetus. So far, I have published specialistic articles for Classical Receptions, Philosophy Today (in co-authoring with Prof. Matthew Sharpe), Aevum, Zeitschrift für Antikes Christentum, and Foucault Studies. My latest publication, ‘Thoreau’s Stoicism in Letters to Various Persons: The Spiritual Direction of Harrison Blake’ is forthcoming in The Journal of Speculative Philosophy.