Patrick Tomlin

I am a Professor of Philosophy, with research and teaching interests in moral, political, and legal philosophy. I am the founding Director of the Politics, Philosophy, and Law degree. I joined Warwick in 2018, having previously held positions at the University of Reading and the University of Oxford.

As well as being a member of the Philosophy Department, I am a member of Warwick's Centre for Ethics, Law and Public Affairs, which draws together moral, political, and legal theorists from different departments.

Until May 2024 I was an Executive Editor of Philosophy & Public Affairs. Along with the entire editorial team and editorial board, I resigned that position, and together we founded Free & Equal: A Journal of Ethics and Public Affairs. Free & Equal was launched in September 2024.

I help to run the Pea Soup website.

I no longer have a beard and will update these photos at some point.

Contact

Email: patrick dot tomlin at warwick dot ac dot uk

My office is S2.43Link opens in a new window in the Philosophy Department (Social Sciences Building).

2025-26 Office Hours:

Term 1: Mondays (1115-1315). Book here

Term 2: I am on academic leave, and so will not run regular office hours. Email me if you need to make an appointment.

Research

My research ranges over a wide variety of issues in moral, political, and legal philosophy. I have interests in distributive ethics, equality, criminal law and punishment, children and the family, the ethics of war and self-defence, and moral uncertainty.

Recently I have written papers on 'transferred malice' in the criminal law, issues of interpersonal aggregation in normative ethics, the doctrine of double effect, the non-identity problem, proportionate violence in self-defence and war, who gets to parent whom, and consent under coercion.

I recently completed a book on proportionality - Violence in Proportion - for Oxford University Press.

PPL

I am the Director of the PPL (Politics, Philosophy, and Law) degree. We welcomed our first cohort in 2018-19, and each year since then the course, and community, has grown.

Teaching

My teaching varies each year, but will usually involve at least some of these modules —

• Intro to PPL (year 1)
• Ethics (years 2 and 3)
• Applied Ethics (years 2 and 3)
• Topics in Moral and Political Philosophy (MA)
• Crime and Punishment (years 2 and 3; co-taught with Victor Tadros in the Law School)
• Principles of Political Economy: Philosophy & Politics (year 3; co-taught with Simon Caney in Politics and International Studies)

Publications

MONOGRAPH

• Patrick Tomlin, Violence in ProportionLink opens in a new window (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2025).

PAPERS

• Patrick Tomlin, ‘Accidentally Killing on Purpose Again: Intentions under Uncertainty,’ Ratio 38.4 (2025): 228-238.
• Sameer Bajaj and Patrick Tomlin, ‘Consenting under Coercion: The Partial Validity Account,’ Philosophical Quarterly 74.3 (2024): 709-731.
• Patrick Tomlin, ‘What does the Best Available Parent View Require?,’ Ethics 133.4 (2023): 573-586.
  • A discussion of Anca Gheaus's paper, 'The Best Available Parent'.
• Patrick Tomlin, ‘Accidentally Killing on Purpose: Transferred Malice and Missing Victims,’ Law and Philosophy 41 (2022): 329-350.
• Patrick Tomlin, ‘The Impure Non-Identity Problem,’ in Jeff McMahan, Tim Campbell, James Goodrich, and Ketan Ramakrishnan eds., Ethics and Existence: The Legacy of Derek Parfit (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022).
• Patrick Tomlin, ‘Proportionality in War: Revising Revisionism,’ Ethics 131 (2020): 34-61.
• Patrick Tomlin, ‘Duffing Up the Criminal Law?,’ Criminal Law and Philosophy 14.3 (2020): 319-333.
• Patrick Tomlin, 'Distributive Justice for Aggressors,' Law and Philosophy 39 (2020): 351-379.
• Aart van Gils and Patrick Tomlin, ‘Relevance Rides Again? Aggregation and Local Relevance’ in Oxford Studies in Political Philosophy, Volume 6 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020).
• Patrick Tomlin, ‘The Value of Childhood’ in Anca Gheaus, Gideon Calder, and Jurgen De Wispelaere eds., The Routledge Handbook of the Philosophy of Childhood and Children (Abingdon: Routledge, 2019).
• Patrick Tomlin, ‘Subjective Proportionality,’ Ethics 129.2 (2019): 254-283.
• Christian Barry and Patrick Tomlin, ‘Moral Uncertainty and the Criminal Law’ in Larry Alexander and Kimberly Kessler Ferzan eds., Palgrave Handbook of Applied Ethics and the Criminal Law (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019).
• Patrick Tomlin, ‘Saplings or Caterpillars? Trying to Understand Children’s Wellbeing,’ Journal of Applied Philosophy 35.S1 (2018): 29-46.
• Patrick Tomlin, ‘On Limited Aggregation,’ Philosophy & Public Affairs 45.3 (2017): 232-260.
  • Honourable Mention in Gregory Kavka/UCI Prize in Political Philosophy, American Philosophical Association, 2020
• Patrick Tomlin, ‘Innocence Lost: A Problem for Punishment as Duty,’ Law and Philosophy 36.3 (2017): 225-254.
• Christian Barry and Patrick Tomlin, ‘Moral Uncertainty and Permissibility: Evaluating Option Sets,’ Canadian Journal of Philosophy 46.6 (2016): 898-923.
• Patrick Tomlin, ‘Should Kids Pay Their Own Way?,’ Political Studies 63.3 (2015): 663-678.
• Patrick Tomlin, ‘Should Retributivists Prefer Pre-Punishment?,’ Social Theory and Practice 41.2 (2015): 275-285.
• Patrick Tomlin, ‘What is the Point of Egalitarian Social Relationships?’ in Alexander Kaufman ed., Distributive Justice and Access to Advantage: G.A. Cohen’s Egalitarianism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015).
• Patrick Tomlin, ‘Retributivists! The Harm Principle is not for you!,’ Ethics 124.2 (2014): 272-298
  • Winner of Berger Memorial Prize, American Philosophical Association, 2017
• Patrick Tomlin, ‘Time and Retribution,’ Law and Philosophy 33.5 (2014): 655-682
• Patrick Tomlin, ‘Could the Presumption of Innocence Protect the Guilty?,’ Criminal Law and Philosophy 8.2 (2014): 431-447.
• Patrick Tomlin, ‘Choices, Chance and Change: luck egalitarianism over time,’ Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 16.2 (2013): 393-407.
• Patrick Tomlin, ‘Extending the Golden Thread? Criminalisation and the presumption of innocence,’ Journal of Political Philosophy 21.1 (2013): 44-66.
• Patrick Tomlin, ‘Can I be a Luck Egalitarian and a Rawlsian?,’ Ethical Perspectives 19.3 (2012): 371-397.
• Patrick Tomlin, ‘On Fairness and Claims,’ Utilitas 24.2 (2012): 200-213.
• Patrick Tomlin, ‘Should We Be Utopophobes about Democracy in Particular?,’ Political Studies Review 10.1 (2012): 38-49.
• Patrick Tomlin, ‘Internal Doubts about Cohen’s Rescue of Justice,’ Journal of Political Philosophy 18.2 (2010): 228-247
• Patrick Tomlin, ‘Envy, Facts and Justice: a critique of the treatment of envy in justice as fairness,’ Res Publica 14.2 (2008): 101-116.

EDITED BOOKS

• Robert Jubb and Patrick Tomlin eds., Issues in Political Theory, 5th Edition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, forthcoming).
• Catriona McKinnon, Robert Jubb, and Patrick Tomlin eds., Issues in Political Theory, 4th Edition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019).
• Andrew Ashworth, Lucia Zedner, and Patrick Tomlin eds., Prevention and the Limits of the Criminal Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013).