Filippo Lanari is a PhD student in Philosophy at the University of Milan and IUSS Pavia, visiting the department for a research period in 2025–26.
His research lies in social and applied epistemology, with a particular focus on expertise, trust, and epistemic environments. He is especially interested in how expert advice is produced, filtered, and used within contemporary democracies, and in the conditions under which citizens and policymakers can responsibly rely on experts.
His doctoral project examines policy advice as an epistemic practice, combining analytic-epistemological tools with qualitative interviews with policy advisers in the Italian central government and quantitative data from research conducted in collaboration with the Italian National School of Public Administration (SNA). Using this empirical material, he examines how expert advice is actually produced and negotiated within government, and how factors such as trust, organisational dynamics, and the handling of evidence affect the role experts are able to play in policy decisions. He aims to develop a clearer understanding of what makes advisory structures work well and how they might be improved.
Beyond philosophy, Filippo enjoys training, spending time outdoors, and discovering Liverpool and its surroundings.