Professor Quassim Cassam has designed a website on professional virtues in modern medicine (Professional Virtues in Modern Medicine) which has been adopted as a training module by the Royal College of General Practitioners. There are many difficult questions about the nature of general practice, and thinking about and exploring generalist virtues has helped GPs to clarify the idea of it. Professor Cassam has also organised annual training days for trainee GPs, in addition to delivering several conferences and workshops for groups over 40 General Practitioners.

Professor Cassam says: “I've always been interested in medicine, and this led me to think about the virtues of a good GP. My work has two aims: to identify the key virtues of excellent general practice and help GPs to cultivate these virtues. Most GPs have little or no philosophical training, and it is a major challenge to convince them that philosophy has anything to contribute to their professional toolkit. GPs face enormous challenges, and anything that helps them to improve is worth doing. Most GPs who have attended the training days and workshops have given me positive feedback. For many, it is important to have time set aside for reflection on their professional practice. I approached the work with humility – I hope! I'm always hugely impressed by trainee GPs and would be delighted to have contributed to their thinking about what it is to be a good GP. The beauty of this work is that GPs and philosophers have so much to learn from each other. I couldn't imagine a better environment in which to continue develop such a project, with its direct philosophical impact, than here at Warwick”.

 Web link: https://warwick.ac.uk/research/ref/stories/philosophical-thinking-to-help-gps/

 Read more from Professor QuassimLink opens in a new window [Link to full case study] 

The Department of Philosophy is pleased to announce an impressive set of results for the REF 2021 assessment of Research Excellence. 48% of our research outputs (e.g., books, book chapters, and articles) were assessed as 4* (world leading); 45% of our overall submission was also assessed as 4* (so, that includes research outputs, research impact (non-academic change/effect/benefit based on our research), and our research environment). Altogether, this is an excellent outcome for the Philosophy Department, and an achievement that the Department plans to build on in the future.

 The UK’s Research Excellence Framework (REF) is an internationally recognised system for assessing the quality of research carried out in UK Higher Education Institutions.

Teaching Fellow, Massimiliano Lacertosa, has been appointed as a new Associate Fellow of the Warwick Institute of Engagement, in recognition of his work in promoting a more inclusive engagement approach to the discipline of Philosophy.  Massimiliano (Max) is pro-actively committed to both the diversification and decolonisation of the curriculum and has delivered popular new modules on World Philosophies and Chinese Philosophy in the Department.

The WIE aims to continually improve how the University engages with the public, key influencers and decision makers, and actively seeks ways on how best to communicate effectively with these groups and beyond.

The Newton International Fellowship scheme has launched for 2022. The Fellowships enable researchers to work for two years at a UK institution with the aim of fostering long-term international collaborations. The scheme aims to attract early career postdoctoral researchers from overseas in the fields of natural sciences, social sciences and the humanities.

Warwick Philosophy Department are very happy to support applications from suitably qualified candidates, but potential applicants are asked to send a CV to Guy Longworth (g.h.longworth@warwick.ac.uk) for approval, prior to completing an application. Further support will also be provided ahead of the deadline on 16 March.

More details are available online: https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/funding/newton-international-fellowships/

Hegel on Being is a comprehensive study of the first part of Hegel’s Science of Logic — the “doctrine of being” — by Stephen Houlgate and published by Bloomsbury Academic Publishers (in two volumes). Based on many years of research and teaching, this new book examines the purpose and method of Hegel’s Logic and explains in detail Hegel’s derivation of the categories of quality, quantity and measure. It also contains an original account of Hegel’s critique of Kant (including Kant’s antinomies) and an extensive comparative study of Hegel and Frege.

https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/hegel-on-being-9781350190689/