ÌÇÐÄTV

We are pleased to announce that Professor Guy Longworth has been appointed Head of the Department of Philosophy, and succeeds Professor Fabienne Peter in the role from January 2021.

Guy’s main research interests concern language, mind, knowledge, and understanding, and also some aspects of the history of philosophy.

Guy is a member of the Executive Committee of The Aristotelian Society, as well as serving as Editor of the Society’s Proceedings.

The Department of Philosophy has significant representation in the new Social Sciences Fellowships webpages, now officially launched by Research and Impact Services. The new webpages profile and celebrate recently-awarded Fellowships across all three Faculties of Social Sciences, Arts and Medicine, Engineering and Science. See here: /research/supporting-talent/fellowships

The new web content showcases, and gives prominence to Fellows from across the Academy, and aligns with the ‘Supporting Talent’ element of the University’s Research Strategy. The comprehensive pre-existing list of all Fellowships/Prizes since 2015 has also been updated as part of this initiative.

The month of October sees the publication of a new book by Keith Ansell-Pearson, co-authored with Rebecca Bamford. The book presents a detailed, focused study of Friedrich Nietzsche’s text, ‘Dawn: Thoughts on the Presumptions of Morality’ (1881). This is a text which Nietzsche conceived as representing a break with the obscurantism of German philosophy and a work of sceptical enlightenment. Ansell-Pearson and Bamford approach Nietzsche’s text as a work of experimental philosophy that seeks to disable dogmatism in philosophy and invites its readers to actively participate in the activity of critical and novel modes of thinking.

The authors explore the contemporary relevance of Nietzsche’s text in relation to the enlightenment theme of combatting fear, superstition, moral and religious fanaticism, and other themes relevant to today’s reader, and they do so in a format that is both engaging and accessible. ‘Nietzsche’s Dawn’ is the first specific study in the English-speaking world of this neglected but key work, and contextualises its achievements within the context of Nietzsche’s life and other writings. See here for publication details:

Dr Daniel Vanello has joined the Department as part of the prestigious Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellowship Scheme. He returns to ÌÇÐÄTV, having completed his PhD with the Department in 2017, where he researched the role of emotional experience in our learning moral value. Daniel was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Geneva (2017-18) before undertaking a two-year Irish Research Council Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at the University of Dublin (2018-20). Daniel’s research interests lie in the intersection between ethics and the philosophy of mind and psychology. A main topic of his research is: what is moral understanding, and how do we acquire it? He also has an interest in the phenomenological tradition, with a focus on the early works of Jean-Paul Sartre.

The Department of Philosophy has been ranked at an impressive 3^rd place in the Good University Guide for 2021, published by The Times and The Sunday Times respectively. This notable achievement is yet another League Table success for the Department, which recognises its developing academic reputation, quality of teaching and outstanding research provision.