Luca Bellini, M.Sc, M.A.

Personal information

I am a PhD candidate at LMU Munich working with Monika Betzler (LMU Munich) and Hong Yu Wong (Tübingen). Before joining the Chair of Practical Philosophy and Ethics, I graduated from the University of Milan and the University of Edinburgh while also spending some time as a visiting research student at LOGOS (University of Barcelona). Since August 2026, I have been appointed as “Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter” as part of the Marianne-Plehn-Program (Elite­netz­werk Bayern). The course(s) I am currently teaching can be found on LSF. As a side on me, I am fairly into rock climbing and ski touring.

Research interests

I work primarily at the intersection between the philosophy of mind and action, but I am also interested in foundational issues about philosophy and its method(s). My current project – funded by the “Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes” doctoral scholarship – is concerned with the problem of expressive action, that is, the problem of explaining why we do such bizarre things as kicking cars that refuse to start, kissing and talking to pictures, or wrecking damage to the belongings of someone who cheated on us. Opposing the received view, I argue that these actions are much more like make-believe games than perfectly ordinary expressions of emotion.

Selected publications

Bellini, L. (2026) Expressive Actions Are Not Just Emotional Actions. Rev.Phil.Psych. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13164-026-00837-9