Dr. Andrea Vestrucci

Biography

​Andrea Vestrucci’s current research and teaching focus on:

• The interdisciplinary approach to belief: development of belief models on cognitive, computational, and neuroscientific advances; Artificial Intelligence (AI) exploration of rational arguments in support of religious beliefs from an interfaith perspective; believing vs. nonbelieving.
• The dovetail of linguistic and religious pluralisms; the relationship between logic(s) and religion(s); religion as metalinguistic narrative; methodologies of interreligious dialogue.
• Computational philosophy: implementation of informal arguments in a symbolic AI environment; typed languages and their limitations.
• Ethics applied to AI: rhetorical persuasion vs. logical consistency in AI; AI impact on groups and communities’ values and decision-making processes; implementation of “AI Ethical Governor”.
• The notion(s) of freedom between philosophy and theology with focus on the affirmation/negation of free will, and the Luther/Erasmus querelle.

After his PhD, Dr. Vestrucci obtained the chair of Professor of Ethics and Logic at the Federal University of Ceará, Brazil (at 29 years old). Subsequently, he has served as a Researcher at the Consortium for Interdisciplinary Research at the University of California Berkeley, and as a Research Professor at the GTU (Berkeley). Currently he also teaches and conducts research at the University of Bamberg, Chair of AI Systems Engineering. He is also a Privat-Dozent at the University of Geneva, (CH). His research stations include: Visiting Professor at the Institute of Ecumenical Studies and the Department of Mathematics, University of Münster (DE); Visiting Professor at the Department of Logic, University of Torun (PL); Visiting Researcher at IT Center and Center of Religious Studies, FBK (IT). He is an Australia Award Fellow, and a Laureate of the Academic Society of Geneva (CH).