
Engaged philosophy
‘Engaged Philosophy’ sums up the work in the department that makes a difference in the wider world, by engaging on a practical level with real-world problems and by bringing philosophy to an audience beyond academia.
Our work in this area currently falls into three main categories: environmental sustainability, diversity in philosophy, and public engagement. However, staff and PhD students have a range of other relevant interests including animal ethics, ageing, and mental disorders; check the 'our people' list for more on these.
People
Our people
The main staff and students working in this area are listed below. Other staff are also involved in Engaged Philosophy activities as well.
For example, Thomas Uebel has worked, alone and with John O'Neill, for a number of years on the socialist calculation debates of the Left Vienna Circle. This work connects directly with O'Neill's work on the limits of market modes of governance for the valuation of environmental goods. Additionally, Michael Scott was involved in the EU-funded BIOMOT project, working in particular on moral motivation in relation to biodiversity and the environment. Public engagement activities are also organised by staff across the department.
- Dr Justina Berškytė works on semantics and social philosophy of language. Her work focuses on context sensitivity, derogatory speech (e.g. slurs), gender terms, online communities (e.g. Incels), social practices, ideologies and masculinities. She is currently a postdoc research associate on the Rebuilding Trust in Public Discourse: The Good Speech Project (PI: Dr Mihaela Popa-Wyatt). From May 2025 she will start a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship on a project entitled The Language of Misogyny: Meaning, Function, and Possible Interventions.
- Dr Frederique Janssen-Lauret works on diversity in philosophy and, in particular, the role -- and marginalisation -- of women in the history of philosophy. She has published papers on Susan Stebbing, Christine Ladd-Franklin and Constance Jones, Elizabeth of Bohemia and women in Logical Empiricism, and on using texts by women in teaching philosophical logic.
- Dr Mihaela Popa-Wyatt works on the intersection of philosophy of language and social and political philosophy, social epistemology, and philosophy of race and gender. Her recent work focuses on how slurs and oppressive speech shift social norms and re-entrench social hierarchies. She previously led the project Online Harms and Trust, and currently leads Rebuilding Trust in Public Discourse: The Good Speech Project.
- Prof. John O’Neill works at the intersection of philosophy, political economy, environmental policy, political theory, and ethics. He has been involved in numerous funded projects concerning aspects of environmental sustainability and social justice, including BIOMOT and the Environmental Justice Organisations, Liabilities and Trade project (EJOLT), both funded by the EU; Climate Change, Justice and Vulnerability and Social Justice and the Future of Flood Insurance (both Joseph Rowntree Foundation), and Green Infrastructure and the Health and Wellbeing Influences on an Ageing Population (GHIA). His interest in ageing also resulted in the co-authored report, Dementia, Vulnerability and Well-being: Living Well with Dementia Together.
- Prof. Jon Williamson works on the use of causality, probability and inference methods in science, medicine, AI and law. He is interested in an enquiry-driven approach to philosophy: developing accounts of how best to establish key claims (e.g., causal claims and probabilistic claims), and using these normative accounts of enquiry to motivate particular metaphysical theories or conceptual analyses (of, e.g., causality and probability). Jon has been involved in numerous projects, and is currently working on the UKRI funded Interdisciplinary Systematic Review and the Leverhulme Trust funded EBL+.
Better Evidence
How should we judge whether interventions – e.g., treatments, public policies and laws – are effective? How should we establish causal claims in the health and social sciences?
We host a research group that is developing a new philosophical theory of causal enquiry, Evidential Pluralism, which seeks to answer these questions. Evidential Pluralism can help us to make better use of the available evidence to make more informed judgements of effectiveness.
We engage with evaluators outside academia to help improve methods for evidence review.
Current research projects:
- EBL+: New Philosophical Foundations for Evidence-based Law
- Interdisciplinary Systematic Review: Mechanistic Evidence and Epistemic Justice
Departmental staff
Luana Poliseli Ramos, Sahanika Ratnayake, Alexandra Trofimov, Jon Williamson
External collaborators
Trish Greenhalgh (Oxford), Rebecca Helm (Exeter), Joe Jones (KCL), Michael Wilde (Kent)
Environmental Sustainability
Focusing on environmental justice and the economic valuation of environmental goods.
We have philosophers working on problems concerned with how we should: value the environment, the limits of market valuations, our attitudes towards the environment and motivations to act on them, and environmental justice.
Some recent research projects and their impact
- Social Justice and Flood Insurance: Find out how John O'Neill and Martin O'Neill (York)'s project, funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, led to a fairer insurance scheme for housing in areas of high flood risk.
- Climate justice: who and where are the climate disadvantaged? Find out how John O'Neill's work has contributed to a mapping tool that has helped various regional, national and overseas bodies to take 'climate disadvantage' into account in town planning and decision-making.
- Green Infrastructure and the Health and Wellbeing Influences on an Ageing Population (GHIA) (O'Neill, 2016-19, NERC and other funders)
Doing philosophy sustainably
In our AHRC-funded project The Age of Metaphysical Revolution (2016-19), we took steps to reduce the carbon footprint that is associated with a large research project by testing out ways of running hybrid/in-person conferences and workshops. Visit the project website to find out more about why this is a good idea and for some guidance on running hybrid events.
Another outcome of this project was that Fraser MacBride developed the British Philosophical Association's Sustainability Guidelines for Business Travel, which have so far been endorsed by some 23 philosophy departments in the UK.
Diversity in Philosophy
We are trying to make philosophy a more inclusive and diverse profession. Our work in this area includes:
- The University of Manchester is hosting the Diversity Reading List 10th Anniversary Conference, organised by Justina Berskyte, Lucija Duda, and Joseph Bentley.
- The BPA/SWIP report, Women in Philosophy in the UK, co-authored by Helen Beebee and Jenny Saul in 2011, has been widely cited in subsequent reports by other professional associations and learned societies, and has guided empirical research into the underrepresentation of women.
- The BPA/SWIP Good Practice Scheme was devised by Beebee and Saul and launched in 2014. Its subscribers include some 27 UK philosophy departments, most of the main UK philosophy learned societies and journals, and several overseas departments and societies.
- Frederique Janssen-Lauret works on the role, and marginalisation as historical figures, of women in the history of analytic philosophy. She has published papers on, for example, Susan Stebbing, Christine Ladd-Franklin and Constance Jones, Ruth Barcan Marcus and women in Logical Empiricism, and on using texts by women in teaching philosophical logic. Anne-Marie McCallion has worked with the In Parenthesis project on the Wartime Quartet (Elizabeth Anscombe, Philippa Foot, Mary Midgeley and Iris Murdoch), who flourished at a time when men were largely absent from the philosophical scene in Oxford.
- Helen Beebee co-authored the BPA's Guidelines for Accessible Conferences and Guidelines for Accessible Public Lectures with Giulia Felappi and Alex Gregory. These are aimed at making philosophy events more inclusive for those with a range of disabilities.
Diversity publications and reports
- Frederique Janssen-Lauret, 'Women in Logical Empiricism', in C. Limbeck & T. Uebel (eds), The Routledge Handbook of Logical Empiricism (Routledge), f/c 2021 (preprint)
- Frederique Janssen-Lauret, 'Grandmothers of Analytic Philosophy: The Formal and Philosophical Logic of Christine Ladd-Franklin and Constance Jones', in Minnesota Studies in Philosophy of Science (Vol. 20) University of Minnesota Press, f/c 2021 (preprint)
- Helen Beebee & Anne-Marie McCallion (eds), Diversity in Philosophy (special issue, Symposion 7(2)), 2020 (open access)
- Helen Beebee & Anne-Marie McCallion, 'In Defence of Different Voices', Symposion 7(2): 149-177, 2020 (open access)
- Helen Beebee & Heather Widdows, 'Weinstein, Philosophy and Structures of Abuse', Institute of Arts and Ideas blog, 2017
- Frederique Janssen-Lauret, 'Making room for women in our tools for teaching logic: a proposal for promoting gender inclusiveness' Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Tools for Teaching Logic. 65-73 (2015).
- Helen Beebee, ‘Women and Deviance in Philosophy’, in K. Hutchison and F. Jenkins (eds.), Women in Philosophy: What Needs to Change? (Oxford: OUP), 2013
- Helen Beebee & Jenny Saul, Women in Philosophy in the UK, on behalf of the British Philosophical Association and Society for Women in Philosophy UK, 2011
Public engagement
Our annual public lecture series, the Dorothy Emmet Lectures -- generously funded by the Royal Institute of Philosophy -- has run since 2016.
The department is also host to the regionals of the The Ethics Cup, a philosophy competition for school and college students aiming to promote interest in philosophy to secondary school students, and serves as to promote and model informed, civil debate on important societal issues.
Our staff and PhD students also regularly give talks in local schools and colleges.
In the media
On the radio
- Free will: Helen Beebee discusses free will with Melvyn Bragg, Simon Blackburn and Galen Strawson on In our Time.
- Logical positivism: Thomas Uebel discusses the logical positivists with Melvyn Bragg, Nancy Cartwright and Barry Smith on In Our Time.
- Hume: Helen Beebee discusses David Hume with Melvyn Bragg, James Harris and Peter Millican on In Our Time.
- More Hume: Helen Beebee discusses Hume again, this time with Alan Saunders on The Philosopher's Zone on Australia's Radio National.
- The problem of induction: Helen Beebee discusses induction with Matthew Sweet, zoologist Matthew Cobb, weather forecaster John Hammond and others, in The Philosophers Arms.
On film
- Free will: A series of three short BBC Reel documentaries, featuring Helen Beebee.
- The Emotions of Others: A short film on the expression of emotion, scripted by Joel Smith and Catharine Abell.
Podcasts
- Possible worlds: Helen Beebee on Philosophy Bites
- Laws of Nature: Helen Beebee on Philosophy Bites
Debate
- Laws of Nature: Helen Beebee debates the laws of nature with Gerard 't Hooft, David Malone, and Laura Mersini-Houghton, as part of the Institute of Arts and Ideas HowTheLightGetsIn festival.
Blogs
- COVID-19, ecological justice and veganism by PhD student Hannah Battersby.
- Emotional Robots: Lydia Farina and Joel Smith on whether robots can experience emotions.
- Experiencing Time: Joel Smith on Husserl and the puzzle of experiencing time.
- Memory, Identity and Responsibility: Helen Beebee on whether people should be punished for crimes they can't remember.
- Experiencing Phenomenology: Joel Smith on his book Experiencing Phenomenology.
- Who is Rachael? The Philosophy of Blade Runner: Helen Beebee on personal identity and memory implants.
Online magazines
- Is killing animals a matter of animal welfare? Hannah Battersby in the UK Centre for Animal Law's e-Magazine Animal Justice UK.