João Pinheiro read Philosophy for his undergrad and MPhil at the University of Lisbon, he was later awarded an MSc in Global Politics at Durham University, and received his PhD in Philosophy from the University of Bristol, where he wrote a dissertation on the evolution of moral normativity under the supervision of Samir Okasha.

 Research Interests

João Pinheiro’s research concerns the integration of prescriptive ethics and empirically-informed and scientifically-rigorous descriptive ethics. He is focusing on the emerging interdisciplinary field of “ethical science”, and on its metanormative and first-order normative assumptions and implications. His current post-doc project at CASIP is concerned with investigating how different cultural groups, scientists, and philosophers conceptualise morality. In particular, he is exploring the hypothesis that morality is a WEIRD concept. This project has a 4-part structure:

While theorising about these issues, he tends to adopt a naturalistic outlook and often spares a thought for the phenomenon of cross-cultural diversity (broadly understood) and its relation to themes of global governance (and cosmopolitanism, in particular).

João is open to collaborations related to any of these topics.

Area of specialisation: The Metanormative Implications and Assumptions of the Sciences of Ethics.

Areas of Competence: Metanormative Studies (especially Metaethics); Human Evolution (especially Cultural and Cognitive Evolution); Evolutionary Ethics; Evolutionary Epistemology; General Philosophy of Science; Philosophy of Biology; Normative Psychology (especially Moral Psychology); and Global Moral and Political Philosophy and Jurisprudence (especially Cosmopolitan themes).

João is open to revising work related to any of these topics.