Sidney Carls-Diamante

Sidney Carls-Diamante has been a Ramón y Cajál Fellow at the Faculty of Philosophy at USC since February 2026. She is interested in underexplored topics lying at the intersection of the philosophy of mind, biology, and cognitive science. One of the first philosophers to study consciousness in octopuses, she is also one of the first to systematically research the philosophical issues surrounding bipolar disorder, particularly its relationship with the self, suicidality, and creativity. Her present research focuses on the structure of suicidality, focusing on how the interplay between biological and psychological factors affects agency and freedom of action in suicidal individuals.

She completed a PhD in Philosophy at the University of Auckland (New Zealand) in 2018. This was followed by independent postdoctoral fellowships, first at the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research (Austria, 2018-2020), then at the University of Konstanz (Germany, 2020-2024). From November 2024-January 2026 she was at the University of Lisbon with an independent grant from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT).