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

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/

Professor Fabienne Peter has been invited to give the prestigious Wittgenstein Lecture Series for 2021 (28 June – 2 July) at the University of Bayreuth. Professor Peter will explore aspects of The Grounds of Political Legitimacy in a series of five lectures. The Wittgenstein Lectures were inaugurated in 1987. Every year, an internationally recognised philosopher is invited to present a week of lectures and colloquia. All lectures are open to the public. Further details here: https://www.phil.uni-bayreuth.de/en/events/wittgenstein/index.html.

This new book by Dr David James eloquently explores the connections between different types of necessity: practical, conceptual, normative and historical. Additionally, it contrasts relevant features of the philosophy of Thomas Hobbes (1558-1679) with a philosophical tradition that extends from Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) to Karl Marx (1818-1883). In his text, David James demonstrates the need to understand the question of freedom with recourse to the concept of practical necessity.

We are delighted to announce that the 3rd Warwick Continental Philosophy Conference will take place on 26-27 March 2021, and will be an online event. The theme will be ‘Continental Philosophy and Its Histories’, and it will explore how Continental Philosophy engages with the ‘Thinkers’ that belong to its history: what is it to ‘read’ Plato, Spinoza, Kant, or Nietzsche in Continental Philosophy? How important is the canon, and what is its methodological and philosophical significance? Should we keep putting forward various creative (mis)readings of past philosophers or, as Husserl suggested early on, is it better to get rid of the past and proceed afresh with a new method? Key Speakers include Professor Stella Sandford (Kingston University), Dr Mogens Laerke (CNRS) and Dr Francey Russell (Columbia University).

 To this end, the Warwick Continental Philosophy Conference Organising Committee invites papers in Continental or European Philosophy focusing on Continental Philosophy and its Histories, broadly understood. The deadline for Abstract submissions is 22 January 2021. For further details about the conference and guidelines for Abstract Submissions, see here: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/philosophy/research/activities/postkantian/events/wcpc

 This conference is made possible by generous funding provided by the University of Warwick Philosophy Department and British Society for the History of Philosophy. It is an annual event within The Centre for Research in Post-Kantian European Philosophy (University of Warwick).

The Department of Philosophy has significant representation in the new Social Sciences Fellowships webpages, now officially launched by Research and Impact Services. The new webpages profile and celebrate recently-awarded Fellowships across all three Faculties of Social Sciences, Arts and Medicine, Engineering and Science. See here: https://warwick.ac.uk/research/supporting-talent/fellowships

The new web content showcases, and gives prominence to Fellows from across the Academy, and aligns with the ‘Supporting Talent’ element of the University’s Research Strategy. The comprehensive pre-existing list of all Fellowships/Prizes since 2015 has also been updated as part of this initiative.