"As part of my core research activities, I have completed a review of David Sobel’s ""From Valuing to Value"", which has been published in Analysis. I have also written several journal articles, which I am currently finishing or submitting for publication.
These papers, each of which defends a conclusion of some of my work during the project, includes an argument that the large size of the universe supports broadly anti-realist views about reasons and values, that when our reasons are indeterminate or 'unsharp' in a certain way, then it is impermissible to complete some sequences of actions even though each action in that sequence might be individually permissible, that nihilism and other ""anti-realist"" moral views are indeed depressing and affect what we have reason to do, and that we should organise healthcare providers in such away that doctors and other medical professionals do not face ethically questionable incentives.
My main public engagement activities have been first, the editing of some relevant pages on Wikipedia, and second, a post on The Conversation about climate change and carbon offsets, and associated discussion in the comments and on Reddit:
https://theconversation.com/how-a-moral-philosopher-justifies-his-carbon-footprint-95809(opens in new window)In terms of neworking and dissemination, besides writing the above papers for publications, I gave several visiting speaker and conference presentations -- including at the American Philosophical Association, Bern, Groningen, Berlin, Trinity (Dublin), York, and Lund -- and comments on a paper at the Conference by Women in Philosophy at Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam.
I also attended a Nihilism workshop in Manchester, many sessions of the Moral Philosophy Seminar in Oxford.
I also made a number of internal presentations, most formally the following two: First, a joint presentation to the Reading Ethics and Poltical Philosophy group and Leverhulme Centre for Climate Justice arguing that because of vagueness (substantial climate change is the result of many negligible carbon emissions), it may be difficult or impossible to provide justifying reasons for any particular restrictions on carbon emissions. Second, a Work in Progress presentation to the Reading philosophy department discussing the impact of healthcare marketisation on the reasons that doctors have, and whether different healthcare structures are thereby morally compromised (for example by introducing moral hazard).
Training activities included a ‘paper clinic’ in February for Reading PhD students, using a ‘no presentation’ method which I picked up during my Berlin secondment, continuing to supervise PhD students, and gaining several new supervisees, and finally several speakers were invited to Reading with the possibility of using MSCA funding (whether this funding was actually used or funding was secured from elsewhere). These included Wouter Kalf, Bart Streumer, Adam Bales (within-UK), and Elizabeth Harman.
I went on two secondments, to Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin from 13 November to 14 December 2017 with Professor Thomas Schmidt, and to Rijksuniversiteit Groningen from 26 May to 3 June 2018, with Professor Bart Streumer. During these secondments, I presented papers including the above discussed results from the work."
