It has been announced that the winner of the Philosophy Department Undergraduate Essay Competition 2018 is Ronja Griep, who wins First Prize and vouchers worth £100.00 for her essay 'Advice Columns, Sartre and Masochism'.

Congratulations also go to the two Runners Up: Hasan Suida and Leyla Hunn, who both win vouchers worth £50.00

Members of the jury were impressed by the high quality of entries received, and wish to thank all students who submitted their work. However, it was felt that Ronja's winning essay reflected an imaginative approach to the brief and eloquently demonstrated the value of philosophy in today's world.

Ronja will receive her First Prize at a special ceremony on Wednesday 2 May 2018. Many congratulations to Ronja!

Read here Professor Cassam's engaging new blog on the 'Epistemic Insouciance' of today's political leaders, which is a highly topical and observant commentary based on a paper to be published shortly in The Journal of Philosophical Research.

https://blog.apaonline.org/2018/03/23/epistemic-insouciance/

See also Professor Cassam's TED Talk on the same subject:

TEDx talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-eQ2bR1HFk

It has been announced that Professor Quassim Cassam has been appointed as a member of the Philosophy Sub-Panel for the Criteria Phase of the REF (Research Excellence Framework) 2021.

February 2018 marks the publication of two important philosophical texts by Professor Keith Ansell-Pearson, both published by Bloomsbury Academic.

‘Bergson: Thinking Beyond the Human Condition’ is described by the publishers as an elegant overview, bringing Bergson to a new generation of readers. ‘Ansell-Pearson contends that there is a Bergsonian revolution, an upheaval in philosophy comparable in significance to those that we are more familiar with, from Kant to Nietzsche and Heidegger, which make up our intellectual modernity’.

‘Nietzsche’s Search for Philosophy: On the Middle Writings’: PDF eBook. The publishers observe that ‘this study explores key aspects of Nietzsche’s philosophical activity in his middle writings, including his conceptions of philosophy, his commitment to various enlightenments, his critique of fanaticism, his search for the heroic-idyllic, his philosophy of modesty and his conception of ethics, and his search for joy and happiness. The book will appeal to readers across philosophy and the humanities, especially to those with an interest in Nietzsche and anyone who has a concern with the fate of philosophy in the modern world’.

https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/nietzsches-search-for-philosophy-9781474254717/

https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/bergson-9781350043947/

Angie Hobbs has selected 'Self-Knowledge for Humans' by Quassim Cassam as her recommendation for the 'Best Modern Philosophy Book' on the current 'The Reading Lists' (TRL) website.

Professor Hobbs is Professor of the Public Understanding of Philosophy at the University of Sheffield. Her chief interests are in ancient history and literature, ethics and political theory. She describes Professor Cassam's book as a "lucid, revealing and engaging account of the many non-epistemic and non-rational factors that cloud our ability to know ourselves (and indeed others, and various states of affairs). Professor Cassam argues persuasively that we should start with the human predicament, not an unrealistic ideal of homo philosophicus."