Profile

Simon Kirchin’s research interests are mainly in metaethics and normative ethics, although he is increasingly interested in aesthetics, and has longstanding secondary interests in medical ethics, metaphysics, political philosophy, and epistemology.

During 2010-2011 he will be on research leave, partly funded by a Mind Association Research Fellowship. He will be finishing a research project about thick evaluative concepts, and beginning a new project on metaethics and everyday ethical experience.

He organizes too many conferences and workshops for his own good. For a list of some of these see ‘research’.

He is the President of the British Society for Ethical Theory, which is the leading society in the UK for moral philosophy. He is also an Associate Editor of Ethical Theory and Moral Practice.

For his sins he was previously Director of Learning and Teaching for SECL, SECL Discipline and Plagiarism Officer, UG Admissions Officer for Philosophy, and many other roles that required important and fancy hats.

Research

Publications

Edited Collections

Arguing About Metaethics (ed.) (with Andrew Fisher) Routledge.

A World Without Values: Essays on John Mackie’s Moral Error Theory (ed.) with Richard Joyce (Springer: 2010). Read a review HERE

Forthcoming Books and Collections:

Metaethics
(Forthcoming with Palgrave-MacMillan, 2011). This argumentative essay will survey many of the main competitors in modern metaethics and will argue for a mind-dependent version of nonnaturalism.

Thick Evaluation
This monograph will pull together much draft material written over the past three years in which I argue, overall, for a nonseparationist, cognitivist account of thick concepts. If you wish to see any draft material, please email Simon.

Thick Concepts
An edited collection based on papers from the ‘Thick Concepts’ conference organised in July 2009.

Recent Papers

In moral philosophy:

‘The Shapelessness Hypothesis’ Philosophers’ Imprint (21,000 words), vol. 10, no. 4, February 2010. Read it HERE

‘Introduction’ in Joyce and Kirchin (eds.) A World without Values:…, 2010 pp. ix-xxiv.

‘A Tension in the Moral Error Theory’, in Joyce and Kirchin (eds.) A World without Values:…, 2010 pp. 167-182.

‘Moral Particularism: An Introduction’, Journal of Moral Philosophy, April 2007, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 8-15. From a special edition on moral particularism.

‘Particularism and Default Valency’, Journal of Moral Philosophy, April 2007, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 16-32. From a special edition on moral particularism.

‘What is Intuitionism and Why be an Intuitionist? A Critical Discussion of Ethical Intuitionism: Re-evaluations (ed.) Philip Stratton-Lake, Social Theory and Practice vol. 31, October 2005.

‘Ethical Phenomenology and Metaethics’ Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, vol. 6, no. 3, September 2003, pp. 241-264.

‘Particularism, Generalism and the Counting Argument’,European Journal of Philosophy, vol. 11, no. 1, April 2003 pp. 54-71.

‘Quasi-Realism, Sensibility Theory and Ethical Relativism’, Inquiry, vol. 43, No. 4, December 2000 pp. 413-428.

In medical ethics:

‘Research Ethics Committees: Differences and Moral Judgement’, Bioethics, vol. 18, September 2004, pp. 408-427 (with Sarah Edwards and Richard Ashcroft).

‘Altruism, Paternalism and RECs’ Journal of Medical Ethics vol. 30, February 2004, pp. 88-91 (with Sarah Edwards and Richard Huxtable)

‘Rationing, Randomising and Researching in Health Care Ethics’, Journal of Medical Ethics, 2002, vol. 28, pp. 20-23 (with Sarah Edwards).

Reviews and Encyclopedia Entries

Review: Contextualism in Practical Reason by A. W. Price, Philosophy, (2009), vol. 84, pp. 295-299.

Review: Beyond Moral Judgement by Alice Crary, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews posted January 2008. Read it HERE.

Review: Ethics and the A Priori by Michael Smith, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews posted April 2005. Read it HERE.

Review: Forms of Justice: Essays in honour of David Miller (eds.) Bell and de-Shalit, Philosophical Quarterly vol. 55, January 2005 pp. 147-149.

Review: Natural Goodness by Philippa Foot, Philosophical Books vol. 44, April 2003 pp. 179-181.

Encyclopaedia Entry: ‘Philippa Foot’, Encyclopaedia of Twentieth Century British Philosophers, (Thoemmes Press).

Encyclopedia Entry: ‘J. L. Mackie’, International Encyclopedia of Ethics (Blackwell), forthcoming.

Encyclopedia Entry: ‘Thick and Thin Concepts’, International Encyclopedia of Ethics (Blackwell), forthcoming.

Conferences Organized

2009: Thick Concepts, July 3rd-5th, Kent. Keynote speakers: Jonathan Dancy, Daniel Elstein, Allan Gibbard, Chris Hookway, Tom Hurka, Simon Kirchin, Jerry Levinson, A. W. Moore, Michael Smith, Alan Thomas, Pekka Vayrynen , Nick Zangwill.

2008: The 10th Anniversary of Ethical Theory and Moral Practice. Amsterdam, 19th-20th March 2008. Organizing committee.

2007: Kendall Walton and the Aesthetics of Photography and Film, November 2007. Organizing committee.

2004: Moral Particularism, one-day conference (December), co-organised with Alan Thomas, Kent. Speakers: Roger Crisp, Jonathan Dancy and Mike Ridge as well as speakers from Kent’s faculty.

2004: British Society for Philosophy of Science annual conference (July).

2004: Joint Session of the Aristotelian Society and Mind Association annual conference
(July).

2004: British Society for Ethical Theory annual conference (July).

2004: Kant’s Practical Philosophy Reconsidered, one-day conference (March), co-organised with Alan Thomas. Speakers: Robert Louden, Adrian Moore and Philip Stratton-Lake as well as speakers from Kent’s faculty.

Simon is also one of the co-founders of the National Postgraduate Analytic Philosophy Association, which has evolved into the British Postgraduate Philosophy Association.

Teaching

During 2011-2012 Simon is teaching:

• Self and Society – 1st year
• Aesthetics – 2nd/3rd year
• Metaethics – 2nd/3rd year
• Contemporary Aesthetics – MA module

Research Postgraduate Supervision

Simon is currently supervising the following PhD students:

1. Joel Rickard - jpr@kent.ac.uk
   ‘Particularism, Generalism and Moral Knowledge’
2. Claudia Jansen cj69@kent.ac.uk
   ‘Reimagining Metaethics’
3. Joe Walsh - jpw34@kent.ac.uk
   ‘Ethics and Evolution’
4. Emma Topham - eht4@kent.ac.uk
   (in Law, co-supervising with Steve Pethick)
   ‘Thick Concepts and Jurisprudence’

Previous research student: Lisa Grover, ‘Moral Virtue, Personality and Narrative’

Simon has also supervised a number of MA students on various topics, typically in aesthetics, ethics, metaphysics, and political philosophy.

LINKS

Aesthetics Online

Analysis

The Aristotelian Society

Arts and Letters Daily

Bioethics Web

British Philosophical Association

British Society for Ethical Theory

Ethical Theory and Moral Practice

The Internet Encyclopaedia of Philosophy

Jimmy Lenman’s Metaethics Bibliography

The Philosophers’ Magazine

The Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy

Wolverhampton Wanderers FC