Dr Stephen de Wijze

I read for my undergraduate degrees in South Africa, my MA in the USA and my PhD in the UK.  Before taking up my post at the University of Manchester I taught at Rhodes University in South Africa and the University of Sheffield.

I am co-editor with Andrew Russell of the journal Representation: The Journal of Representative Democracy.

Philosophy and politics focusing on three main areas:

• The interface between ethical constraints and effective political action – the problem of dirty hands and a political ethic.
• Anglo-American theories of justice – Rawls, Dworkin, Sandel, Walzer etc.
• Informal logic and argumentation theory.

I am currently finishing a manuscript on the problem of 'dirty hands'.

Undergraduate: 

• Freedom and Equality (POLI20881)
• Political Morality (POLI30271)

Graduate:

• Justice and Pluralism (POLI70692)
• Democracy: Theory and Practice (POLI70872) (Taught with Andrew Russell)

Publications Database

• 'Shamanistic Incantations? Rawls, Reasonableness and Secular Fundamentalism' in Politics and Ethics Review 3(1) 2007:109-128.
• 'Patching Holes in a Sinking Ship: 'Democratic Deliberation Within', a review of Robert E. Goodin, Reflective Democracy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003) in European Journal of Philosophy, 15, 2007: 129-136.
• 'Torture and Liberalism' in Democratiya (7) Winter 2006.
• 'Equality' in Political Concepts: A Reader and a Guide (ed. Iain Mackenzie) Edinburgh University Press., 2005
• 'Tragic-Remorse - The Anguish of Dirty Hands' in Ethical Theory and Moral Practice (ETMP), 7, 2004: 453-471.
• 'Democracy, trust and the problem of dirty hands' in Philosophy in the Contemporary World, Issue 10:1, Spring-Summer, 2003 'Special Issue- Fiduciary Ethics': 37-42.
• 'Complexity, relevance and character: Problems with teaching the ad hominem fallacy' in Educational Philosophy and Theory (EPAT) Vol. 35, No.1 (2003):  31-56.
• Defining Evil - Insights from the problem of "dirty hands"'in The Monist, Volume 85,  Number 2,    (2002), 210-238.

I currently supervise 4 PhD students. See my personal page for details of topics supervised

• Tom Goodwin
• Rebecca Reilly-Cooper
• Berkin Altinok
• Stephen Hood

Recently completed PhDs under my supervision

• Charlie Robinson (Passed Viva October 2007)
• Mihaela Georgieva  (Passed Viva August 2007)
• Andrew Shorten (Passed Viva 2005) - Winner of the Political Studies Association Sir Ernest Barker Prize for Best Political Theory Thesis 2005