Ethics
Our work is a main research strength of the Department of Philosophy, with research interests ranging across applied ethics, normative ethics and metaethics.
We have a good mix of broadly utilitarian and broadly deontological philosophers. Our people work on topics in value theory and population ethics, on consequentialism in all its shapes, the nature of reasons, and rationality and responsibility. We also look at Bentham, Kant and Fichte alongside research into the nature and point of morality, fictionalism, realism and constructivism. In a nutshell, we look at what really matters.
We have experts in bioethics, the ethics of AI, public health ethics, and religious ethics.
Our links to economics through the School of Philosophy, Politics and Economics gives us expertise in formal ethics including the logic of value, decision theory and social choice theory.
Related links
Image credit: Utilitarian flag designed by Dr Johan Gustafsson.
Project spotlights
People
- Professor Thomas Baldwin (emeritus) Bioethics, moral psychology, moral theory.
- Dr Chris Belshaw (Honorary Fellow) Applied ethics including questions of the value of death and the nature of a person.
- Dr Jamie Buckland Practical reasoning and value theory.
- Dr Hannah Carnegy-Arbuthnott Normative ethics & applied ethics, including issues around the commodification of bodily materials/services.
- Dr Johan Gustafsson Consequentialism, population ethics, free will, personal identity, value theory and moral uncertainty.
- Professor Stephen Holland Applied ethics, especially bioethics and public health ethics.
- Dr Christopher Jay Metaethics, normative ethics, the demandingness of morality and Kantian ethics.
- Professor Mary Leng Metaethics, particularly analogies between debates in philosophy of mathematics and metaethics.
- Dr Daniel Morgan Moral psychology.
- Dr Martin O'Neill Freedom, autonomy and responsibility.
- Professor Christian Piller Normative ethics, value theory, normativity, decision theory and social choice, population ethics, value of knowledge.
- Professor Alan Thomas Moral psychology, moral particularism and metaethics.
- Dr Annette Zimmermann Ethics of AI, ethical issues in the philosophy of science, risk and uncertainty, normative ideals and feasibility constraints.
- Professor Wlodek Rabinowicz (Lund University) Value theory (especially formal axiology), moral philosophy (consequentialism, population ethics) and decision theory (especially dynamic decision making).
- Rebecca Davis (rebecca.davis@york.ac.uk)
- Thick concepts and reasons for action (supervisors: Professor Mary Leng and Dr Stephen Everson)
Related links
Image credit: Utilitarian flag designed by Dr Johan Gustafsson.