Pascale Willemsen

Pascale Willemsen is a Full Professor holding an SNSF Professorship at the University of Zurich's Department of Philosophy within the Philosophical Faculty. She serves as Principal Investigator for the SNSF Starting Grant «Shining Light on Praise» and the SNSF Ambizione Grant «Investigating Thick Ethical Concepts – Philosophical and Empirical Perspectives».

Her research spans Metaethics, Moral Psychology, and Experimental Philosophy, with particular focus on thick ethical concepts, evaluative language, and moral responsibility attribution. Her empirical approach bridges philosophical analysis with corpus linguistics and cross-cultural studies, examining how social roles influence moral judgments and how evaluative terms function in legal and everyday discourse.

Her publication trends reveal a sustained investigation into the interplay between descriptive and evaluative components of ethical concepts, with recent work emphasizing corpus-based linguistic analysis and cross-cultural comparisons. Key thematic clusters include:

• Moral responsibility attribution across social contexts
• Linguistic polarity effects in evaluative terms
• Thick concept structure in legal discourse
• Empirical challenges to traditional philosophical distinctions

Scientific recognition includes:

• SNSF Starting Grant «Shining Light on Praise»
• SNSF Ambizione Grant «Investigating Thick Ethical Concepts»

Willemsen leads an active research group integrating philosophical analysis with empirical methods, collaborating with linguists and psychologists to investigate ethical concepts through corpus studies and experimental paradigms. Her work demonstrates sustained funding success through competitive Swiss National Science Foundation mechanisms.