University Of Birmingham

Faculty Member, Philosophy, Theology and Religion

About

I began studying philosophy at the University of Auckland in 1995, completing a BA (Philosophy & Politics), a BA (Hons) in philosophy, a Diploma of professional ethics, a Masters by thesis (entitled: God the Utilitarian? The Ethics of Theodicy) and finally completed my PhD in philosophy in 2008 (entitled: A Luck Egalitarian Account of Distributive Justice in Health Care).

Teaching:

From 2000-2004 I tutored in the Philosophy department at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, teaching on a wide range of subjects, from metaphysics, to Chinese philosophy to applied ethics. In 2004 I moved to lecture in the School of History, Philosophy and Politics, Massey University, New Zealand. At Massey I taught political theory, applied ethics & ethical theory. In 2005 I moved to the School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland where I primarily taught professional, research and medical ethics to a wide range of students in courses ranging from biomedical sciences to dietetics to optometry. In 2008 I moved to the Centre for Professional Ethics at Keele where I mainly taught ethics to professionals at the pgt level and directed the MA in Research Ethics and the knowledge transfer activities of the Centre. I left in 2011, taking voluntary redundancy when the University decided to radically downsize the Centre, joining the philosophy department at the University of Birmingham. At Birmingham I've taught, global bioethics, virtue ethics and philosophy of religion.

Research:

Because I am interested in issues at the intersection of several areas of philosophy it is difficult to summarise my research interests succinctly. However I am particularly interested in medical ethics with a focus on where ideas from political philosophy can be bought to bear on problems within medical ethics. In particular I believe that an excessive focus has been placed on clinical ethics in bioethics, and this has obscured important background issues such as organisational and structural issues. So I think that work in political philosophy can usefully inform approaches to a variety of issues in medical ethics. I am also interested in philosophy of religion and in particular the argument from evil, where ideas from applied ethics and political philosophy might be brought to bear. As such my research interests are broad, but common themes run throughout.

1. Ethics of Regulation
I'm broadly interested in ethical issues to do with regulation of human activities, particularly where these have broader implications for ethical theory and/or political philosophy. I've focused on three main areas within this broader topic thus far, Research Ethics, Ethics of New Technologies and Public Health Ethics. I'm particular interested where these topics raise broader underlying conceptual issues such as should we view research ethics committees as normative truth seeking devices, or instead as liberal consensus seeking devices? A continuing theme of my work in this area is ethical decision making in situations of fundamental uncertainty and disagreement.

2. Political Philosophy
I am broadly interested in issues in political philosophy, particularly where these intersect with issues in medical ethics. My thesis concentrated on one of these areas, distributive justice in health care. I'm particularly interested here in questions in the health care context since I think this provides a useful testing ground for claims in political philosophy. Likewise I am interested in how we ought to conceptualise the relationship between society and the individual and the role responsibility might or ought to play in health care decision making.

3. Philosophy of Religion
While I have not yet published in this area I still maintain an interest in philosophy of religion from the work I did in my masters thesis. Since joining the philosophy department at Birmingham I have revived this interest, having given one presentation on philosophy of religion and having two papers in this area in progress. My focus primarily is on the argument from evil and in particular the justifiability of the normative assumptions needed to provide an adequate theodicy – a response to the argument from evil.

Contact Information