About

Dino works on the history of philosophy, with particular focus on the history of ontology and epistemology/logic in Early Modernity and the period of Classical German Philosophy. He is particularly interested in Christian Wolff, Immanuel Kant, and G.W.F. Hegel, and the relationship of their systems to the earlier rationalist and natural theological traditions.

His Pathways to Knowledge Fellowship project investigates the history of academic and disciplinary secularisation. He is looking into the mistaken beliefs we hold about the way in which the university disciplines and scientific theories have taken their current shape, and how our societal views on religion might have influenced these beliefs. He is particularly interested in investigating the phenomenon of exclusion of Medieval philosophy from the standard philosophical curriculum in the UK.

Dino’s project is separated into three areas of activity. The regular seminar series entitled Our ‘Irrational’ Past will bring together scholars from various disciplines to discuss the benefits of engaging with the periods of their disciplinary history which are considered theoretically superseded or do not fit into the narratives of scientific development which we often tell ourselves. Dino will also undertake historiographical research to investigate when Medieval philosophy became understood as the philosophy of the priests. Finally, he will organise a fieldwork study to investigate how the UK Philosophy academics see the place of Medieval philosophy within the undergraduate curriculum.

Academic Publications

'Wolff on Ontology as Primary Philosophy'
Metaphysics as a Science in Classical German Philosophy
R. Dunphy & T. Lovat, (eds.) 2023, Routledge
DOI:https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003187561-2

'Grounding Religious Toleration: Kant and Wolff on Dogmatic Conflict'
Diametros, 17(65), pp. 12-31.
DOI:https://doi.org/10.33392/diam.1559

'Heretical Geometry: Christian Wolff on the Impossibility of Dogmatic Conflict'
Church History and Religious Culture, 100(2-3), pp. 287-300.
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1163/18712428-10002003

Public Philosophy

ThinKnow: Philosophy Magazine,
Issue 2, Feb 2021

Future and Recent Conference Presentations Selection

• 'The Millennium Gap Theory and the Historiography of Early Modern Philosophy'
  European Society for Early Modern Philosophy Conference
  25-27 Sep 2025
  

  FernUniversität in Hagen, Hagen, Germany

• 'Ontology in, before, and after Hegel'
  The First Northern Seminar in Late Modern Philosophy
  19-20 Jun 2025
  Durham University, Durham, UK
• 'Hegel’s Logic and Wolff’s Ontology: a Case for a Reformist Reading'
  Hegels Neue Metaphysik - im gedenken an Hans Friedrich Fulda
  13-14 Mar 2025
  University Pontifica Comillas, Madrid, Spain

• ‘Public Philosophy in the Early German Enlightenment’,
  Public Philosophy: Perspectives and Challenges
  05-06 Dec 2024
  Institute of Philosophy, Zagreb, Croatia