Professor Zdenka Brzović

Zdenka Brzović is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy and the Division of Cognitive Sciences at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Rijeka, Croatia.

She completed her MA in Philosophy at the Central European University in Budapest and earned her PhD at the University of Rijeka. During her doctoral studies, she was a visiting student in the Department of Philosophy at New York University.

Her research interests lie at the intersection of science and philosophy, with a particular focus on philosophical questions related to biology, medicine, and the life sciences more generally. She investigates the foundations of scientific classifications in the life sciences, exploring questions such as: What defines a legitimate category in a given scientific field? Is it possible to develop a general philosophical framework for understanding classifications in the life sciences? What principles guide these categorizations, and what are their broader implications for society? To date, she has primarily studied classifications in medicine, especially psychiatry, as well as in molecular biology.

Scientific classifications, particularly in medicine, often have significant real-world consequences, highlighting the need for careful evaluation of their legitimacy. During her time at Cambridge, Zdenka will develop a theory of scientific classifications that challenges dominant perspectives in the philosophy of science while maintaining close engagement with scientific practice. She will argue that philosophy should critically assess established scientific practices rather than simply describe them. Her work aims to propose criteria for determining the explanatory relevance of scientific categories in various contexts.

At Clare Hall, Zdenka is accompanied by her husband, Marko Jurjako, UNIRI Associate Research Professor at the University of Rijeka, who works at the intersection of philosophy of psychology, psychiatry, and law.