The month of October sees the publication of a new book by Keith Ansell-Pearson, co-authored with Rebecca Bamford. The book presents a detailed, focused study of Friedrich Nietzsche’s text, ‘Dawn: Thoughts on the Presumptions of Morality’ (1881). This is a text which Nietzsche conceived as representing a break with the obscurantism of German philosophy and a work of sceptical enlightenment. Ansell-Pearson and Bamford approach Nietzsche’s text as a work of experimental philosophy that seeks to disable dogmatism in philosophy and invites its readers to actively participate in the activity of critical and novel modes of thinking.

The authors explore the contemporary relevance of Nietzsche’s text in relation to the enlightenment theme of combatting fear, superstition, moral and religious fanaticism, and other themes relevant to today’s reader, and they do so in a format that is both engaging and accessible. ‘Nietzsche’s Dawn’ is the first specific study in the English-speaking world of this neglected but key work, and contextualises its achievements within the context of Nietzsche’s life and other writings. See here for publication details: https://www.wiley.com/en-gb/search?pq=Keith%20Ansell-Pearson%7Crelevance

Dr Daniel Vanello has joined the Department as part of the prestigious Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellowship Scheme. He returns to Warwick, having completed his PhD with the Department in 2017, where he researched the role of emotional experience in our learning moral value. Daniel was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Geneva (2017-18) before undertaking a two-year Irish Research Council Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at the University of Dublin (2018-20). Daniel’s research interests lie in the intersection between ethics and the philosophy of mind and psychology. A main topic of his research is: what is moral understanding, and how do we acquire it? He also has an interest in the phenomenological tradition, with a focus on the early works of Jean-Paul Sartre.

The Department of Philosophy has been ranked at an impressive 3^rd place in the Good University Guide for 2021, published by The Times and The Sunday Times respectively. This notable achievement is yet another League Table success for the Department, which recognises its developing academic reputation, quality of teaching and outstanding research provision.

Dr Andrei Bespalov has joined the Department as a WIRL COFUND Fellow with the Institute of Advanced Study. Andrei has a PhD in Political Science from Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona, 2019) and also holds a Candidate of Philosophical Sciences degree in social philosophy from Lomonosov Moscow State University (2004), where he taught between 2004 and 2015. Andrei’s current research interests centre on political philosophy and theories of public reason. His Fellowship while with the Department will focus on Sceptical Liberalism: Maintaining Public Reason in the Age of Disagreement. His research will aim to redefine public reason in fallibilistic terms, leading to a liberal conception of political society that is more agonistic and yet more accommodating to pluralism about justice than the standard Rawlsian view.

The University Guide, produced annually by The Guardian, has ranked the Department of Philosophy an impressive 6th place in its League Table for 2021. This new ranking builds on the Department’s performance from previous years, and reflects its growing reputation for inspirational course content, outstanding academic research and teaching expertise. Additionally, the University of Warwick is placed 8^th in the 2021 League Table of Universities, which is also an advance from its 2020 ranking.