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Dr Garrath Williams

Lecturer in Philosophy

Degree: I took all my degrees at the University of Manchester. My first degree was in Philosophy & Politics; my MA was undertaken in the Centre for Social Ethics and Policy, and my PhD (on Kant's theory of action) in the Department of Government.

Associated research centres and groups: Centre for Bioethics and Medical Law, Research Group on Europe and Globalisation

Personal website

Current Teaching

I have taught moral philosophy, political thought and applied ethics. My recent teaching at Lancaster includes:

• Philosophy of the Human Sciences (PHIL202), on philosophy of social science
• Continental Philosophy (PHIL228), on Nietzsche, Foucault and Arendt
• Ethics (PHIL213)
• Special subjects (PHIL351) - third year seminars on Hannah Arendt (2007), Philosophy of Responsibility (2007), Rilke's Duino Elegies (2007), Kant's Critique of Pure Reason (2005), his Critique of Practical Reason (2004), and on Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morality (2003).
• First year lectures on Morality (PHIL100).

As a Socrates teacher at the University of Helsinki I have taught on Kant's moral philosophy and on Hannah Arendt. In 2006 I also lectured on Kant's account of reason as part of the annual China Philosophy Summer School (organised by Nick Bunnin), with Sebastian Gardner, Onora O'Neill and Thomas Pogge.

Research Interests

My main interest over the past several years has been the concept of responsibility. The concept brings together a number of fundamental areas of enquiry, not all of which have received much attention from philosophers. Contemporary philosophers have focussed on two related topics. One is the nature of responsible agency - especially what distinguishes sane adult human beings from other, non-responsible agents. The other is the justification of blame and punishment, as modes of holding these agents responsible for wrong-doing. I am also interested in two further topics: One is how we define and allocate responsibilities to people - not only general moral duties, but also more particular responsibilities attaching to particular social roles. The other concerns the virtue of responsibility: if all sane adults are responsible, it is still true that some are more responsible than others. Understanding the relation between these four areas of concern is the task of my current book project, nearly completed.

In the history of philosophy, I have worked on Kant (going back to my PhD thesis), Hannah Arendt (editing four volumes of 'Critical Assessments' of her work), Nietzsche and Hobbes. All remain crucial for my current work - Kant for his emphasis on intersubjectivity, Arendt on the nature of action and judgment, Nietzsche on our uses and abuses of morality, and Hobbes on the explosive dangers of normative disagreement.

I also work in applied ethics, with colleagues in Lancaster's Centre for Bioethics and Medical Law. I am currently involved in an EU funded project on childhood obesity. IDEFICS (Identification and prevention of dietary-and lifestyle-induced health effects in children and infants) is an EU Integrated Project coordinated by BIPS (Bremer Instituts für Präventionsforschung und Sozialmedizin), Bremen University. Our research focuses on the ethical and public policy implications of the intervention trials that will be made by the scientific partners in the project. Previously, I have done training and consultancy in police ethics (with the Lancashire Constabulary), training and writing in research ethics, and collaborative and individual research on genetic banking.

Potential Doctoral Proposals

Ethics and political theory, applied ethics

In particular: Kant, Hannah Arendt, philosophy of responsibility

Publications

Under three headings: Philosophy; Political Science and Theory; and Applied Ethics.

Note on electronic access

Titles with hyperlinks go directly to the freely-available published version. Where this is not possible, 'E-print' gives access to the published version or a pre-publication text via Lancaster e-prints server; 'E-print record' gives access to abstract only; 'Published version' will usually require a suitable subscription.

Philosophy:

'"Who are we to judge?" - on the proportionment of happiness to virtue,' forthcoming in Philosophy

'Kant's account of reason' Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2008)

'"Intelligible facts": A constructivist account of action and responsibility,' forthcoming in Sorin Baiasu, Sami Pihlström and Howard Williams (eds) Politics and Metaphysics in Kant (Wales University Press, Cardiff [2009]) (E-print- longer prepublication version)

'Responsibility as a virtue,' Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 11(4) (2008), 455-470 (E-print/Published version)

'Judges in our own case: Kantian legislation and responsibility attribution,' Politics and Ethics Review (special issue on 'Kantian Justifications of Political Norms'), 3(1) (2007), 8-23 (journal has been retitled: now Journal of International Political Theory - Published version)

'Responsibility' Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (May 2006)

'Geoffrey Vickers: philosopher of responsibility,' Systems Research and Behavioral Science, 22(4) (July/August 2005), 291-298 (Published version)

'Praise and blame' Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (June 2004) (a slightly different version available as 'Two approaches to moral responsibility,' in two parts in the Richmond Journal of Philosophy, issue 6 (Spring 2004), 14-19 & issue 7 (Summer 2004), 20-26)

'Blame and responsibility,' Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 6(4) (December 2003), 427-445 (Published version)

'Nietzsche's response to Kant's morality,' Philosophical Forum 30(3) (September 1999), 201-216 (Published version)

'The question of meaning in Kant's thinking on freedom,' Philosophical Forum 30(2) (June 1999), 115-131 (Published version)

Political Science and Theory:

Entry on 'Hannah Arendt,' forthcoming in Keith Dowding (ed) Encyclopedia of Power (E-print)

Entries on Verantwortung [Responsibility] and Gewissen/Moral [Conscience & Morality], forthcoming in Wolfgang Heuer, Bernd Heiter & Stefanie Rosenmüller (eds) Hannah Arendt-Handbuch: Leben - Werk - Wirkung (Metzler Verlag [2009])

'Dangerous victims: On some political dangers of vicarious claims to victimhood,' Distinktion - Scandinavian Journal of Social Theory (special issue on 'Violence and conflict'), 17 (2008), 77-95 (E-print)

'Ethics and human relationality: between Arendt's accounts of morality,' on-line at hannaharendt.net (Sept 2007) (Italian version in Francesco Fistetti & Francesca R. Recchia Luciani (eds) Hannah Arendt: Filosofia e Totalitarismo (Il Nuovo Melangolo, Genova, 2007: 99-114))

As editor: Hannah Arendt: Critical assessments of leading political philosophers, 4 volume set (Routledge, London, 2006)

'"Infrastructures of responsibility": the moral tasks of institutions,' Journal of Applied Philosophy, 23(2) (May 2006), 207-221 (E-print/Published version)

'Monomaniacs or schizophrenics? Responsible governance and the EU's independent agencies,' Political Studies, 53(1) (March 2005), 82-99 (E-print record/Published version)

'Thomas Hobbes' Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (May 2003)

'Understanding the wrongs we do together' (review article of Christopher Kutz's Complicity), Res Publica 8(2) (July 2002), 201-210 (Published version)

'Normatively demanding creatures: Hobbes, the Fall & individual responsibility,' Res Publica 6(3) (November 2000), 301-310 (Published version)

'Love & responsibility: A political ethic for Hannah Arendt,' Political Studies 46(5) (December 1998), 937-950 (Published version)

Applied Ethics:

'Childhood Obesity: Ethics and Public Policy,' with Dita Wickins-Drazilova, forthcoming in Luis Moreno, Iris Pigeot & Wolfgang Ahrens (eds) Epidemiology of Obesity in Children and Adolescents (Springer [2009])

'Bioethics and large-scale biobanking: individualistic ethics and collective projects,' Genomics, Society and Policy, 1(2) (August 2005), 50-66

'Ethical issues: overview,' with Mairi Levitt, Encyclopedia of Social Measurement, ed Kimberly Kempf-Leonard (Elsevier, 2004: vol. 1, 815-825)

'Human genetic banking: altruism, benefit and consent,' with Doris Schroeder, New Genetics and Society 23(1) (April 2004), 89-103 (Published version) (a slightly different version also appears as 'Human genetic banking and the limits of informed consent,' with Doris Schroeder, in Peter Glasner (ed) Reconfiguring Nature (Ashgate, Aldershot, 2004: 148-166)).

'DNA-Banken, informierte Einwilligung und Treuhandschaft' (DNA banking, informed consent, and trusteeship), with Doris Schroeder, Ethik in der Medizin 14(2) (June 2002), 84-95 (Published version)

Associated Keywords: Bioethics, Children, Clinical research, Continental philosophy, Empirical bioethics, Ethics, Ethics of genetics, EU law and policy, Family, Food, Foucault, Genetics, Genomics, Hannah Arendt, Health, Health inequalities, History of philosophy, Hobbes, Kant, Medical ethics, Medical law and ethics, Nietzsche, Obesity, Organisations, Parenting, Philosophy, Political philosophy, Political theory, Public health, Public policy, Responsibility

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