Dove e quando
Conference Program
Tuesday · 8 September 2026
09:00 Registration
09:30 Welcome and opening
09:40 Keynote 1 (plenary) — Sylvie Delacroix
As One's World Allows Uncertainty to Surface, So One Sees: Habit, Attention, and Moral Perception Under Algorithmic Mediation
10:50 Coffee break
Parallel sessions · 11:20 – 13:20
Room 1 · Virtue Ethics & Artificial Agency
Paolo Monti — On “Virtuous” Large Language Models: A Critical Perspective
Ermelinda Rodilosso — ‘This is Absolutely Brilliant!’ and Other Vices: Why GenAI and Chatbots Need Phronesis
Andrea Lavazza — Human Moral Formation, Artificial Agency, and the Limits of Machine Wisdom
Fabio Fossa — Virtuous Remote Driving: A Technomoral Perspective
Room 2 · Character Education & Moral Exemplarity
Vittoria Martignago — Grounding Phronesis: Insights from Philosophy for Children
Emma Cohen de Lara — The Holding Ground of Literature: Cultivating Attention and Phronesis in the University Classroom
Bernardita Tornero et al. — Teachers as Moral Exemplars: A Framework for Preparing Phronetic Teachers
Sasha Arridge — What Virtuous Folk Can Teach Philosophers About Morality
Room 3 · Virtue, Economy & Political Life
Demetrio Miloslavo Bova — Cultivating Characters as Economic Policy: Virtue Ethics, Agent-based Modeling, and Economic Inclusiveness
Armando Manchisi — Economic Life, Virtue, and Human Flourishing
Jason Kawall — Greed and the Ultra-Wealthy
Eva Hijlkema — The Virtue of Benevolence in Neoliberal Capitalism
13:20 Buffet lunch
Parallel sessions · 14:35 – 16:35
Room 1 · Virtue in the Digital Sphere
Piotr Tasak — Designing Virtue Online: Internet Aesthetics and the Formation of Character
Michele Mangini — Reasonable Conduct in the Digital Age
Jack Waier — Bridging Media Effects and Media Ethics: Reframing the MAIN Model Through Virtue Ethics
Francesco Striano — The Vice Device: On the Moral Ambiguity of the Transparent Technology Paradigm
Room 2 · Care, Community & Vulnerability
Elena Bartolini — Care and Democracy according to Joan Tronto's Perspective: A Critical Reading and Possible Further Developments
Barbara Symmes — The Virtue of Care: Excellence in Making the Other Grow and Responding to Vulnerability
Aloysius Ventham — The Virtues of the Good Recipient
Angelo Campodonico — A Response to the Problem of Declining Birth Rates and Population Aging: More Community
Room 3 · Cultivating Virtue in the Age of AI
Liz Gulliford — Artificial Phronesis: The Potentials and Limits of AI in Developing Practical Wisdom
Matt Post — Virtuous AI? Opportunities and Risks for Integrating Virtue Ethics into AI Operations
Elena Petrocchi — Virtuous Recommendation: A Virtue Ethics Approach to Reflective Design in Recommender Systems
Elena Ricci & Alessandra Sciutti — Moral Perception and Predictive Robotics: Towards a Virtuous Practice Design
16:35 Keynote 2 (plenary) — Ian James Kidd
Beauty, Virtue, and Care
17:45 End of the first day
20:00 Conference dinner
Wednesday · 9 September 2026
09:30 Keynote 3 (plenary) — Marcello Di Paola
More of Everything: Environmental Virtue as Power to be Affected
10:40 Coffee break
Parallel sessions · 11:10 – 13:10
Room 1 · Author-Meets-Critics: Environmental Ethics
Panel discussion of David Clowney's Environmental Ethics and Our Collective Character (Routledge, 2026).
Panelists: Philip Cafaro, Jennifer Welchman, Enrico Galvagni, and David Clowney (author).
Room 2 · Foundations & Theory of Virtue and Vice
Sverre Hertzberg — The Plurality of Vice
Paweł Pijas — Vindicatory Genealogy and Virtues
Patrick Plaisance — The Relevance of a Moral Capacities Approach to Phronetic Modeling Efforts
Liz Frissell — Accepting & Committing to the Inherent Overlap Between Stoicism & ACT
Room 3 · Virtue Jurisprudence & Law
Federico Puppo — Cultivating Phronesis in Legal Practice: A Virtue-Ethical Reading of Italian Civil Procedure Reform
Serena Tomasi — The Friction of Reasoning: Judicial Reasonableness in the Age of Generative AI
Adrian Zaorski — Aretaic Concept of Transitional Justice
Silvia Corradi — Capabilities, Law and AI Systems: Developing a Virtue-Based Framework for Vulnerability
13:10 Buffet lunch
Parallel sessions · 14:25 – 16:25
Room 1 · Virtue, Nature & Human Enhancement
Francesco Rigoli — An Evolutionary Theory of Flourishing
Jakob Ohlhorst — Moral Talent – Innate Virtue Without Phronesis
Igor Larionov — The Theories of Moral Bioenhancement and Virtue Ethics
Mirko Garasic — AI-based Immortality: The Ethical Advantage of the Aretai Approach
Room 2 · Environmental & Animal Virtue Ethics
Laura Langone — Nietzsche's Environmental Virtue Ethics
Irene Quiliconi — How to Cultivate Ecological Responsibility in the Anthropocene? An Environmental Virtue Perspective
Ronald Sandler — Virtue-Oriented Ethics and Conservation Biotechnology
Thomas Giourgas — Can You Be Virtuous and Indifferent to Animals? Neo-Aristotelian Arguments for Animals in Character Education
Room 3 · Dimensions of Practical Wisdom
Antonio Lizzadri — Wise Ignorance, Ignorant Wisdom: The Dianoetic Dimension of Not-Knowing
Martina Piantoni — Cultivating Practical Wisdom: The Philosophical Foundations of Phronetic Development
Patrizia Masoero — Phronesis and the Moral Space of Scientific Practice: Reasonableness and the Meaning of the Scientific Enterprise
Pierre-Thomas Eckert — Applying virtue ethics: normativity scheme and action-guidingness
16:30 Laudatio & 3rd Aretai Prize — Julia Driver
16:40 Keynote 4 (closing plenary) — Julia Driver
Ignorance and the Virtuous Friend
17:50 Closing remarks
On its 10th anniversary, Aretai – Center on Virtues will devote its annual conference to the topic of Applied Virtue Ethics. The conference aims to explore how virtue ethics, traditionally focused on character and moral flourishing, can provide a robust framework for addressing contemporary challenges across diverse domains such as environmental ethics, technology, artificial intelligence, care ethics, and the arts. While much of modern ethical theory has been dominated by deontological and consequentialist paradigms, virtue ethics offers a distinctive perspective that emphasizes practical wisdom (phronēsis), moral motivation, and the cultivation of stable dispositions. This approach is particularly relevant in contexts where rigid principles or utilitarian calculations fail to capture the complexity of human experience and the moral dimensions of emerging practices.
The conference seeks to articulate how virtues such as prudence, justice, temperance, and courage can guide decision-making and institutional design in ways that promote human and ecological flourishing. Through interdisciplinary dialogue, we aim to bridge the gap between normative theory and applied ethics, offering concrete strategies for embedding virtue-oriented principles into technological development, environmental policy, artistic practice, and organizational life. Ultimately, Applied Virtue Ethics aspires to demonstrate that cultivating virtue is not an antiquated ideal but a dynamic and context-sensitive approach capable of addressing the ethical challenges of our complex and challenging times.
Confirmed keynote speakers:
Sylvie Delacroix, King's College London
Marcello Di Paola, Università di Palermo
Julia Driver, University of Texas at Austin
Ian James Kidd, Nottingham University
We are pleased to announce that, during the conference, Professor Julia Driver will be awarded the 3rd Aretai Center Prize, for her outstanding contribution to the field.
With the generous support of the Italian Ministry and the European Union – NextGeneration EU
(Project: DISCERN – Distrust in Science Reframed: Understanding and Countering Anti-Scientific Behavior, CUP D53D23019800001, PI Michel Croce)
Contatti
Organizing Comittee:
Giovanna Di Cicco, Angelo Gulina, Manuele Marchelli, Manuel Marsico, Elena Ricci
Please note:
Participation in the conference will require registration and payment of the conference fee.
The language of the conference is English.