2021 OoxfordphilosophyP oxford philosophy 2021 2 From the Chair of the Faculty Board Chris Timpson 4 News 5 Returning to Oxford Again WelcomeWe all missed the joys, John Tasioulas smaller and larger, of our 6 New People From the Chair of the Faculty Board 8 West Meets East: Indian Philosophy in Oxford usual modus vivendi. Jessica Frazier t has been, of course, a topsy-turvy year. Last I wrote, our finalists – and examiners – were girding 12 400 Years of the White’s Chair Ithemselves for that foray into the dark unknown Hilary term’s reversion to a state of fuller lockdown was 14 Legally Oxford which was online, open-book, examinations. The former dispiriting, and brought considerable extra demands. group were under injunction from the latter even more But by now our habits of online teaching were well Ruth Chang fierce than usual to answer the actual question posed, established, and Hilary prelims were able to go ahead the hope thereby being to reduce any temptations to online, as in any case had been planned. Spring and the Alex Kaiserman cut-and-paste material prepared earlier, or worse still, steady march of the vaccination programme eventually Maximilian Kiener hastily downloaded. Meanwhile, examiners had carefully brought the welcome in-person return of students, 18 Enslaved to One’s Nature been over their questions to weed out any which might first graduate students, and then, by part-way through easily be addressed by means of a quick web-search. Trinity, the great majority of students. We now have Ursula Coope the peculiar, but welcome, circumstance of Freshers’ In the event, the examiners pronounced themselves Dinners, or other familiar autumnal social events, busily 20 Text and Context in the Heidegger Controversy (in so far as that redoubtable band would ever admit being organised only a few weeks before Trinity prelims. to being in such a state) largely satisfied with how Mark Wrathall students had approached the exams, and with how they We have felt great appreciation of, and (at a distance) This academic year marked the centenary of the 24 Interview with Anneliese Dodds MP had done. I think students and examiners alike are to no little pride in, the marvellous work our Medical establishment of PPE in Oxford. Many of our be commended for how they dealt with the trying and Science colleagues have been doing (both clinical and celebratory plans had to be abandoned, but colleges 26 New Books unusual circumstances. research) in response to the pandemic. Philosophy held, or are holding, an number of online events, and has had its own part to play too, with colleagues in the the year started with an interesting panel discussion Following detailed planning, Michaelmas began in Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics taking a leading role alongside publication of an enjoyable report on the a highly organised, but constrained, fashion. The in discussion of the multi-faceted and urgent ethical history and development of PPE over the years (https:// oxford philosophy advantages to Oxford of the college system, and of our questions the pandemic response has raised. Julian www.humanities.ox.ac.uk/article/report-and-panel- high-powered and accomplished Medical Sciences Savulescu, Dominic Wilkinson and Jonathan Pugh discussion-marks-100th-anniversary-of-ppe#/). Faculty of Philosophy Division, were readily evident. As inevitable, Covid have been closely involved in the UKRI Pandemic We look forward to the next hundred flourishing years Radcliffe Humanities cases rose with the influx of students at the beginning of Radcliffe Observatory Quarter Ethics Accelerator Project, whilst Jo Wolff has also for PPE! Woodstock Road term, but quarantining and isolating in pre-designated been extensively involved in ethical discussions around Oxford, OX2 6GG UK small groups (‘households’) as organised by colleges resource distribution, and balancing individual liberties We were sad not to be able to hold the traditional dinner email: [email protected] meant that numbers quickly started dropping again. The with public health. to mark the occasion of Anita Avramides’ retirement, to tel: +44 (0)1865 276926 university’s bespoke ‘Early Alert’ testing service meant thank her for all her contributions to the Faculty over www.philosophy.ox.ac.uk monitoring was highly efficient, whilst isolating student Much more prosaically, the end of March saw, after the years, but we are glad that she continues as a Senior Editorial groups could much more easily be looked after within months (years!) of preparation, the Faculty’s submission Research Fellow at St Hilda’s. We were delighted to Editor: Paul Lodge the small and manageable settings of colleges. So far to the government’s Research Excellence Framework welcome a good number of new colleagues, particularly Art direction & Design: Keiko Ikeuchi www.keikoikeuchi.com as we know, there were no cases of transmission from trundle off. It seems a moderate-sized van was required in such a trying year in which to move institutions. We Printed by Oxuniprint students to staff. Lectures and large-group teaching to transport the necessary boxes and boxes of hard-copy wish them all well, and as one we look forward, fingers were online, but we were able still to give tutorials and materials from the Radcliffe Humanities building. We crossed, to a much more ordinary year next year. Photography Keiko Ikeuchi (Cover, pp 3, 5,6, 7, 9, 21, 23, Back Cover) graduate supervisions, and smaller class teaching, in hope that the assessors on the REF subject panel for Chris Timpson George Reszeter (p 25) reproduced courtesy of Oxford Mail person (if bemasked, and distanced). Still, we all missed philosophy enjoy their reading! Professor of the Philosophy of Physics Shutterstock (pp 8, 19) the joys, smaller and larger, of our usual modus vivendi. Tutorial Fellow in Philosophy, Brasenose College Creative Commons (pp 10, 11, 24) Acknowledgements The Faculty would like to thank the following people for their kind help and assistance: Jo Kay, Lizzy Diggins, Pete Gavan, Chris Honour, and Elina Cotterill. Views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the Faculty of Philosophy or the University of Oxford. 2 oxford philosophy oxford philosophy 3 News The Inaugural Dr Joyce Mitchell Cook Memorial Lecture xford University has been Returning Oxford part of my life for almost to In May 2021, St Hilda’s College launched the Oas long as I can remember. annual Joyce Mitchell Cook Lectures. Professor I first learnt of its existence from Cook, a St Hilda’s alumna, was the first Black American woman to receive a PhD in philosophy my late father, during one of the in the United States. many intense conversations I used to have with him as a boy sitting in The College was delighted to welcome, Professor his old Hillman. I was around six Anita L. Allen, JD, PhD of the University of years old and I was interrogating Pennsylvania as the first Lecturer. my father about where students go again The lecture and discussion, chaired by Anita after they’re finished with school, Avramides, is available on YouTube and then with high school, and On returning for a second time, as the he mentioned institutions called first Director of the Institute for Ethics ‘universities’. The conversation then took a Sheldon Cooper-esque in AI, John Tasioulas reflects on the Alex Kaiserman Wins Journal of turn in which I pressed him on significance of Oxford, culturally Applied Philosophy Prize the names of the universities in and personally. Melbourne, and their relative Alex Kaiserman (Associate Professor and academic standing, and then on Tutorial Fellow at Balliol College) has been which were the best universities in the prejudice that a given option is I believe that a culture in a shared community, and that awarded the annual prize for the best paper in not in the relevant sense genuinely it also tends to promote better The Journal of Applied Philosophy. the world. ‘available’ to the young person in of participation in decisions. One can of course Co-authored with Helen Beebee (Professor of My father, a Greek immigrant to question. But it wasn’t simply a deliberation and appreciate this proposition in the Philosophy at The University of Manchester), Australia, had not himself had matter of the supply of information. abstract, but this appreciation ‘Causal Contributions to War’ approaches the the benefit of formal education It was also the reverential tone decision-making is becomes much more vivid after question of whether civilians on the unjust beyond primary school, but he was in which my father spoke about valuable in itself, having experienced the rigid side of a conflict are legitimate targets of highly intelligent and unusually universities. This was a tone very defensive attack by developing a novel theory an aspect of equal hierarchies, micro-management of the causal contributions that they make. well-informed, and listed the usual different from that which he used and faux corporate mind-set that places – ‘Oxford, Cambridge, when, as a man of the left, he would standing in a shared prevail in other universities. In Harvard, Berkeley...’. ‘Yes, but speak of the various manifestations community. saying this, of course, I don’t wish which of these is the best?’, I of institutionalised power. The to suggest that Oxford is immune insisted. ‘Probably Oxford’, he picture he conveyed was of to these systemic deformations. Uehiro Centre Leads on Pandemic Ethics replied. I immediately silently universities as oases devoted to the Key, I believe, to Oxford’s success Nor to deny that it remains COVID-19 policy-makers often claim to be formed the ambition to study disinterested search for truths that is the way in which the aspiration vitally important to scrutinize science-led, but many decisions turn on at Oxford one day, an ambition benefit all humanity, free of the for academic excellence, and the the material pre-conditions that values.