Giorgio Sbardolini

Giorgio Sbardolini is an Assistant Professor in Philosophy of Logic and Language at the Philosophy Department and Institute for Logic, Language, and Computation (ILLC) of the University of Amsterdam. His primary affiliation is with the Formal Semantics & Philosophical Logic (FSPL) group, and he is secondarily affiliated with Epistemology & Philosophy of Science (EPS).

• Education: PhD in Philosophy and MA in Linguistics from Ohio State University.
• Past Positions: Postdoc on the EXPRESS project at ILLC (2019-2023), MSC Fellow at Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy (2023).

His research focuses on the intersection of logic, meaning, and reasoning as evolved human skills. He explores how logical connectives like 'not' emerged through co-option in communication practices, emphasizing evolutionary adaptation over direct metaphysical reference. This work bridges formal semantics, cognitive modeling, and evolutionary linguistics.

The 2024 article 'The Evolution of Denial' (co-authored with Luca Incurvati) exemplifies his approach, analyzing negation through a signaling model of cooperation and deception. This study draws on evidence from cross-linguistic analysis, primate behavior, and information theory.

• Awards: MSC Fellow.
• Outreach: Podcast contributor to The BJPS Short Reads, writer for The Reasoner, and Italian public intellectual.

Sbardolini co-organizes the Amsterdam Colloquium and edits its proceedings. His work has been supported by the EXPRESS project (ILLC) and an MSC Individual Fellowship.