Professor Quassim Cassam has been awarded funding from The Warwick Ventures Ideas Fund (which supports research in Arts and Social Sciences) for his research project 'Professional Virtues in Modern Medicine'. This is one of only seven projects to receive total funding amounting to over £58k from the first tranche of awards given by the Ideas Fund. Each project was assessed on its potential social, cultural and political impact, in addtion to an alignment with the support that Warwick Ventures can offer.

This funding award will also support a one day Philosophy Department workshop on 'Professional Virtues in Modern Medicine' scheduled for November 2018. Further details and speakers for the day will be announced shortly.

Patrick Tomlin has joined the Department as Reader in Philosophy and Director of the BA in Politics, Philosophy and Law (PPL). Patrick comes from The University of Reading, where he taught for six years as a Lecturer and then Associate Professor in Political Theory. Prior to that, he was an AHRC-funded postdoctoral researcher in the Faculty of Law at Oxford, having also completed his DPhil in Political Theory there. Having spent his academic life between Politics, Law and Philosophy Departments, Patrick is especially excited to have been asked to lead Warwick's new PPL Degree.

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!

The Department has introduced a new Personal Development Form to support Personal Tutor meetings. Personal Tutors should encourage these forms to be completed by their students in advance of their meetings to help them reflect on progress, development and to help identify areas where support is needed.

https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/philosophy/undergraduate/student_support/personal-tutor/personaldevelopmentforms

A Special Philosophy Department Colloquium will take place on Wednesday 2 May 2018 on the Philosophy of Stupidity. The title of the event is 'Let's Not Be Stupid' and will take place in L5, Science Concourse, at 4.30pm. The Speakers will be Professor Quassim Cassam, Professor Miguel de Beistegui and Professor Diarmuid Costello. The Colloquium will be followed by Dinner; please contact Professor Cassam as soon as possible if you would like to attend the Dinner.

The aim of the Research Development Fund (RDF) is to increase the University's capacity and capability to undertake world-class, innovative and exciting research by providing pump-priming funds. The deadline for submitting applications for the 2018/19 Strategic Awards is Thursday 7 June 2018 at 4pm.

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.

Title: 'Identity and Community: Metaphysics, Politics, Aesthetics'. Keynote Presentation by Professor Alison Stone (Lancaster). Panel Discussion with Professor Miguel de Beistegui (Warwick) based on his forthcoming book 'The Government of Desire: A Geneology of the Liberal Subject', alongside Daniele Lorenzini (Université Saint-Louis Bruxelles/Columbia University) and Federico Testa (Warwick/Monash).

The history of the concept of identity is marked by a fundamental tension: between the individual as subject, and the example of the group; between identity as an inherent or essential nature or specified as a ratified connection. The relation between identity and community, the relational qualities of each, and the content which they encompass has been subject to repeated reformulation throughout history. On the one hand, it has been argued that the subject itself has been constituted in a new way by concrete changes in the way in which we live: by modernism, capitalism, or new technologies. On the other, new examinations of history have drawn into question narratives regarding different nations, classes, genders and cultures.

The identity of individuals, and the aspects of their lives which are to be considered constitutive of that identity, is an issue which is central to a host of complex political and ethical issues. What does it mean to have an identity: to belong to a nation or a continent, to a race, gender or religion? And what is the connection of this belonging and our individual existence and consciousness? During an ongoing refugee crisis, rising nationalism and within an increasingly globalised world, how have the metaphysical and political boundaries of identity shifted?

Art and aesthetics share this tension. The place of the work of art and the individual artist within a genre or movement remains an open question - whether the author is dead, the work a manifestation of the group; whether the ideas behind the artwork are more important than the socio-economic foundation from which it arises. Corollary to this, discussions of art and the political have opened questions concerning the relation of aesthetics to community, and the possible connection of new identities and new forms of, or values within, aesthetics. Does art play a mediating role in the formation of the new community, allow for the expression of a communal voice, or reveal the individual identity then imitated by the mass?

Philosophy in The Time of Crisis (www.philosophyX.co.uk) is a new digital platform and research project, supported by the University of Warwick and the Meyer Foundation. The project aims to promote philosophy as an essential tool to reflect upon the major crises and challenges of our times, and the meaning and nature of crisis itself.