Sidney Carls-Diamante

Research group: LanCog

I am interested in underexplored topics that lie at the intersection of the philosophy of mind, biology, and cognitive science. One of the first philosophers to study consciousness in octopuses, I am also one of the first to research the philosophical issues surrounding bipolar disorder, particularly its relationship with suicidality. I have been awarded prizes and grants in all major areas of my research.

I received my PhD in Philosophy from the University of Auckland (New Zealand) in 2018. This was followed by two independent postdoctoral fellowships, first at the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research (Austria, 2018-2020), then at the Zukunftskolleg at the University of Konstanz (Germany, 2020-2024). Since November 2024 I have been an FCT Junior Researcher at the University of Lisbon.

Selected prizes/awards:

“Attitudes towards voluntary death in persons with bipolar disorder,” 2022 Research Award of the Messmer Foundation (Radolfzell, Germany) (https://www.uni-konstanz.de/diesacademicus/dies-academicus-2010-2021/dies-academicus-2022/; https://www.messmer-stiftung.de/bildungsprojekte/)

2019 Werner Callebaut Prize, International Society for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Biology

Email contact: sidneycarlsdiamante@edu.ulisboa.pt

Selected Publications

Carls-Diamante, S. & Atanasova, N. [In press]. Psychoneural reduction revised: The case of suicidality in bipolar disorder. In “The Relevance of a Philosophical Toolkit to Advance Neuroscience,” ed. Ann-Sophie Barwich, Igor Branchi, Markus Kunze, and Isabella Sarto-Jackson, special issue, European Journal of Neuroscience.

Carls-Diamante, S. (2023) Know thyself: Bipolar disorder and self-concept. Philosophical Explorations 26(1): 110-126. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13869795.2022.2147982

Carls-Diamante, S. (2022). Where is it like to be an octopus?. In “Comparative Animal Consciousness,” ed. Louis Neal Irwin, Lars Chittka, Nicky S. Clayton, Eva Jablonka, Jon Mallatt, Todd E. Feinberg, and Lynne Sneddon, special issue, Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience. 16: 1-9. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fnsys.2022.840022. 

Carls-Diamante, S. (2019). Make up your mind: Octopus cognition and hybrid explanations. In “Explanations in Cognitive Science: Unification vs Pluralism,” ed. Mateusz Hohol and Marcin Miłkowski, special issue, Synthese 199: 143-158. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-019-02102-2. [awarded the 2019 Werner Callebaut Prize]

Carls-Diamante, S. (2017). The octopus and the unity of consciousness. Biology and Philosophy 32(6): 1269 1287. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-017-9604-0. 

External:

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=bvxVFl0AAAAJ&hl=en