Departmental news
We were never supposed to see our own faces this much
With increased use of front-facing cameras, mirrors and Zoom calls, we’re being faced with our own reflections more than ever before.
Is it heightening our preoccupation with the way we look?
Warwick’s Professor Heather Widdows (Philosophy) spoke to Dazed Digital about how our sense of self has changed in recent years
Dr Andrew Cooper is a BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinker for 2023
Dr Andrew Cooper has been named a BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinker for 2023. Each year a select group of ten early career researchers from across the UK are chosen by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and BBC Radio 3 to become a New Generation Thinker. This prestigious NGT status will provide Dr Cooper with a unique opportunity to make radio broadcasts for the BBC, and disseminate his research on German philosopher Amalia Holst to a wider audience. Dr Cooper will also benefit from training and development provided by the AHRC. For further details about the scheme see here: https://www.ukri.org/news/career-changing-opportunity-for-researchers-with-big-ideas/
Professor Diarmuid Costello Awarded a Leverhulme Research Fellowship (2023-4)
Professor Diarmuid Costello has been awarded a Leverhulme Research Fellowship (2023-4) to work on his next book project, a collection of essays provisionally titled Spurs to Thought: Philosophical Engagements with Contemporary Art.
Professor Costello says: "The goal of this research is two-fold: to demonstrate the remarkable capacity of selected works of contemporary art to function as spurs to philosophical reflection, if approached in the right spirit; and, in so doing, to establish the value of what I call “philosophical criticism” as an alternative to currently dominant methodologies in the philosophy of art, whether analytic or continental. The project brings this method to bear on the kind of contemporary works that often elicit hostility or confusion, so as to make clear the challenge that such works may implicitly pose to our unreflective understanding of normative concepts we make use of every day".
Professor Costello's previous, recently completed monograph, Aesthetics after Modernism will appear in 2024 with Oxford University Press (NYC) in Noël Carroll and Jesse Prinz’s ‘Thinking Art’ series.
"Aesthetics after Modernism argues for the ongoing relevance of aesthetics to appreciating art after modernism. It aims to show that even the hardest of “hard cases” remain amenable to aesthetic analysis on an adequate conception of the latter. The book traces the contrary view of much recent art criticism and theory to Clement Greenberg’s success in recruiting Kant’s aesthetics to underwrite a formalist conception of aesthetic value. This has led later theorists to miss the resources in the third Critique for understanding our cognitive relation to the kinds of art in which they are interested. It is widely assumed that Kant’s aesthetics cannot speak to the semantic dimension of art; I provide an interpretation of Kant’s theory of art, taking Conceptual Art as my test case, that suggests otherwise. If it can be shown that Kant’s aesthetics can accommodate the appreciation of art with no sensible features, then it should in principle be able to accommodate any kind of art".
'Emily Dickinson and Pivoting Thought' by Professor Eileen John Features in 'Women in the History of Philosophy' Open Access Focus by the Oxford University Press
As part of Oxford UP's focus in March on 'Women in the History of Philosophy'Link opens in a new window, Eileen John's paper on the poetry of Emily Dickinson, 'Dickinson and Pivoting Thought', in The Poetry of Emily Dickinson (ed. Elisabeth Camp), has been made available for open access this month. How does Dickinson's poetry address our limitations and ambitions as knowers? E.g., what do you make of ... 'I found the words to every thought / I ever had - but One - ' (Fr 436, J 581; 1862)?
Launch of the IAA Project Report on 'Co-Creational Media', Co-Authored by Professor Fabienne Peter
Professor Fabienne Peter, together with co-author Jonathan Heawood, have officially launched the report of their project, ‘Co-Creational Media: Committing to Truth and Public Participation’. The report assesses the ethical and practical implications of a new form of participatory journalism, produced not only for, but with communities. The full report can be viewed on the Public Interest News Foundation website. See here: https://www.publicinterestnews.org.uk/post/co-creational-media-committing-to-truth-and-public-participation.
The project was funded by an ESRC Impact Acceleration Award from The University of Warwick.
New Publication by Dr David James: Property and its Forms in Classical German Philosophy, published by Cambridge University Press (2023)
In this new monograph, Dr David James explores the theories of property developed by four key philosophers in the German philosophical tradition: Kant, Fichte, Hegel and Marx. While these philosophers advance different theories of the nature of property and the rights that follow from it, all of them acknowledge the importance of social recognition for the question of what specific forms of property should exist in a society that is genuinely committed to the idea of freedom.
The theme of property and ownership is closely linked to many divisive social and political issues of today. In this book, Dr James analyses the nature and meaning of property and arguments for specific forms of property in such a way as to demonstrate their continuing relevance.
Professor Fabienne Peter Discusses Philosopher John Rawls on BBC Radio 4's 'In Our Time'
Professor Fabienne Peter was a guest on a recent edition of BBC Radio 4’s ‘In Our Time’, hosted by Melvyn Bragg. In this programme (broadcast 19/1/2023), Professor Peter and other expert speakers discuss the American philosopher John Rawls, and explore his Theory of Justice. Listen on BBC Sounds:
Professor Quassim Cassam Visits NYU Abu Dhabi as Distinguished Philosopher-in-Residence
Professor Quassim Cassam spent 7-11 November at NYU Abu Dhabi, visiting as their Distinguished Philosopher-in-Residence 2022. The university, which supports almost 3000 international undergraduate students, was built almost a decade ago and is located on a beautifully landscaped campus on Saadiyat Island, close to the spectacular Abu Dhabi Louvre. See here: Events - NYU Abu Dhabi
Professor Cassam says: “In my five days in Abu Dhabi, I participated in two research seminars on my work, two undergraduate classes on my book on Conspiracy Theories, and gave a public lecture on Extremism.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGQi1hQb4vU&ab_channel=NYUADInstitute).
I also got to spend a day dune bashing in the desert (that is, driven up and down sand dunes at high speed). Silly but fun! The day in the desert ended with a climb (on foot!) up a steep dune to look at the sunset and dinner at a desert camp, with a belly dancer in attendance”.
Philosophy Department Graduate Adam Neal Becomes an IAS Fellow
Congratulations to Adam Neal, a graduate of the Department of Philosophy, who has been awarded a prestigious Institute of Advanced Study (IAS) Fellowship for 2022/23. Adam says:
“I’m really excited to be joining the IAS. Over the next year I’m looking forward to developing my research portfolio through preparing my PhD research for publications and organising an interdisciplinary workshop (around April 2023) which seeks to explore the nature of sociability, particularly focussing on sociability in the context of work and education. I’m currently organising 2 online book launch events for my co-edited collection (along with Kimberley Brownlee and David Jenkins, see link below), due to take place on 2nd December and 15th December. Additionally, I’m hoping to get involved in the Editorial Board of the Exchanges journal and to develop new interdisciplinary research networks.”
Congratulations to Kenneth Quek
Philosophy Undergraduate Kenneth Quek has had a paper published in the journal Logos, an undergraduate philosophy journal edited by Cornell University in the USA. Kenneth’s paper is called ‘Forgiveness: A Descriptive Analysis’. Kenneth summarises it as follows:
“Forgiveness features as a huge part of our moral lives, but very little work has been done to figure out just what it is and what it accomplishes. My paper aims to describe what, on a fundamental level, is involved when one forgives someone else.”
The paper was awarded the Top Prize out of 91 submissions and was the product of Kenneth’s Undergraduate Research Support Scheme (URSS) project on Forgiveness undertaken with Professor Fabienne Peter in the summer of 2021. Congratulations to Kenneth on this noteworthy achievement. Read the issue here:
https://cpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/blogs.cornell.edu/dist/6/8621/files/2022/09/Logos-2022-Journal.pdf