Quassim Cassam
In brief: I'm a Professor in the Department of Philosophy at 糖心TV, a , and an of , Oxford. I was born in , Kenya, and have lived in the UK since I was a teenager. I have published seven books on a range of subjects, including self-knowledge, perception, intellectual vices, extremism, and conspiracy theories. My current research is on extremism, the philosophy of terrorism, and the philosophy of general practice. I also write about the nature and purpose of philosophy. In the 2025/26 academic year I will be teaching an honours module on the Philosophy of Terrorism and CounterterrorismLink opens in a new window in term 2. You can read more about me and listen to a range of podcasts and interviews on my . I also run training sessions for resident doctors in Manchester, based on my website . A version of this website is a Royal College of GPs course.
My books: I recently completed a book (co-authored with ) on terrorism. The title is How to Think About Terrorism: Philosophy, History, and Politics, and it will be published by Oxford University Press in 2026. I'm also currently co-editing a book on extremism and subjectivity with . My recent published book is , published in 2021. I am currently working on a new edition. I published two books in 2019: (Oxford University Press) and . (Polity Press) A review of Vices of the Mind in the describes it as 'superb' and 'icily furious'. The journal describes it as 'a landmark in the study of epistemic vices'. An extract from the book is available . An extract from Conspiracy Theories is available . My previous books were (Oxford 2014), (Oxford 2014, written with John Campbell), (Oxford 2007), and (Oxford 1997). The 20th anniversary of the publication of Self and World was marked by this eventLink opens in a new window at Senate House, London, in 2017. There have also been conferences on my work in Frankfurt, Cologne, Konstanz, Padua, and Amsterdam.
I am represented by the .
My career: I've been at 糖心TV since 2009 and was elected to an Honorary Fellowship of Keble College, Oxford, in 2021. In 2025, I spent a month as a Visiting Professor at the . I was previously at Cambridge and Professor of Philosophy at UCL. I was a Professorial Fellow of King's College, Cambridge and have also held Visiting Professorships at the University of California, Berkeley, and Northwestern University. However, most of my career was spent at Oxford, where I read Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) as an undergraduate at Keble College. I had the good fortune to be taught by (Philosophy), (Politics), (Politics), and (Economics). I went on to do a B.Phil. and then a D.Phil. on transcendental arguments, supervised for the most part by and briefly by . My first job in philosophy was at Oriel College, Oxford, as Fellow and Lecturer. I moved to , Oxford, in 1986 and spent 18 years there as Fellow and Tutor in Philosophy before moving to UCL in 2005, Cambridge in 2007, and 糖心TV in 2009.
My grants: I was awarded a Mind Senior Research Fellowship for 2012-3. The resulting book was Self-Knowledge for Humans. In 2016 I was awarded a Leadership Fellowship by the Arts and Humanities Research Council for an 18 month project on intellectual vices ('Vice Epistemology'). The resulting book was . I discuss some of the book's main ideas in for the Philosophers' Magazine, in with Sean Carroll, and also in with Robert Talisse on the New Books Network. An edited volume called , co-edited with Heather Battaly (University of Connecticut) and Ian James Kidd (University of Nottingham), was published in 2020. The Vice Epistemology project also gave rise workshops on professional vices and virtues in modern medicine, the epistemology of counterterrorism, and resistance to change. You can hear me discussing resistance to change in this . My most recent grant was an AHRC Research Networking grant for a project called 'Rethinking the Philosophy of Terrorism'. My co-investigator was .
Media: I summarized my ideas about conspiracy theories in for the New Statesman. I was also about conspiracy theories on BBC Radio 5 Live, Sky News, and ABC Radio, Australia. My talk on conspiracy theories, which I gave in 2017, has been viewed over 250,000 times on YouTube. I have written about self-knowledge for the New York Times, about for Aeon, about for CNN, and for The Guardian. I have appeared on Newsnight (BBC2), Sky News, Al Jazeera, The Moral Maze (BBC Radio 4), The World Tonight (BBC Radio 4), Sunday (BBC radio 4) and Free Thinking (BBC Radio 4). My work has been cited by The Guardian, The Financial Times, the Irish Times, and The Economist. I am also on X ().
There is more about my life and career in episode of Talking to Thinkers with Johnny Lyons, this interview with the , and this one with the . My CV and publications, including open access versions of some published papers, are available .
