Rules to Live By: The Work of Brad Hooker

The Ratio Special Issue devoted to the work of Emeritus Professor Brad Hooker is now published on full open access!

Many thanks to all the contributors and to Charlotte Newey and Luke Elson for their expert editing.

 
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Undergraduate Research Opportunities Programme (UROP) Posters

Many congratulations to our students Kimberly, Joe, and Victoria for their excellent Undergraduate Research Opportunities Programme (UROP) posters on display at the UROP showcase on 11 November.

Congratulations also to Dr. Nat Hansen, Dr. Petter Sandstad, and Prof. John Preston for their (respective) supervision of these projects.

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The National Student Survey results for 2022

The 2022 National Student Survey results are out and we achieved a 95% satisfaction score for BA Philosophy! Congratulations to the Department and thank you to all our students for their positive and constructive feedback.

http://www.reading.ac.uk/philosophy 

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Ethical Reading Essay Competition

 

Congratulations to Daisy Theophilus (Finalist, BA Ethics, Value and Philosophy) on winning the Ethical Reading Essay Competition, with an excellent essay on the ethics of sweatshops.

Daisy was awarded £250 in the presence of the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Robert Van de Noort, Gurprit Singh and Brad Hooker from Ethical Reading, Michael Waddelove representing NatWest, Katherine Nicoll, James Carroll and Lucy Jones all representing Grant Thornton, Reading’s Mayor Rachel Eden, and staff from the Department of Philosophy and from Henley Business School, as well as family. Many thanks to NatWest for sponsoring the prize and to Grant Thornton for the lovely lunch!

We all wish Daisy the best for her future.

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Is it wrong to steal from large corporations?

Is it wrong to steal from large corporations? Prof. Emma Borg debates the ethics in this new article in The Conversation.
 
https://theconversation.com/is-it-wrong-to-steal-from-large-corporations-a-philosopher-debates-the-ethics-182193
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‘Is Prime Matter Energy?’

Prof. David S. Oderberg’s article ‘Is Prime Matter Energy?’, published in January 2022, has entered the list of the top ten most downloaded of all articles ever published in the Australasian Journal of Philosophy . The article is on open access here.
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Open Research Champions Programme

Congratulations to Sarra Bouabdeli (PhD student in Philosophy), who has been appointed by the University as an Open Research Champion.

Open Research Champions are staff and students connected with research who volunteer a small amount of their time to promote Open Research and facilitate the adoption of open and reproducible research practices.

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International PhD Studentships, deadline 31 January 2019

http://www.reading.ac.uk/graduateschool/prospectivestudents/gs-internationalstudentships.aspx

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Ten Years after Lehman: Professor Emma Borg on the Financial Crisis

On Reading’s Connecting Research blog, Professor Emma Borg considers how we might avoid another financial crisis.

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Dr James Stazicker: connecting philosophy and science

James’ research into consciousness and sensory perception is crossing the boundaries between philosophy and science, and is discovering pressing questions for humankind around artificial intelligence.

James teaches a first-year module on artificial intelligence at the University of Reading, which is informed directly by his research. James participated in a joint project alongside a Professor of Psychology at the University, exploring the theory that vision is action-based: the way artificial intelligence approaches vision suggests it has more in common with our motor actions than we’ve previously thought. James introduced questions about the potentials and limits of the theory, to get a better understanding of what could be achieved.

This research-led teaching enables students to be a part of his discoveries as his project evolves.

Through his teaching James stresses the importance of trying to understand which artificial systems really are intelligent like humans, and which might come to matter in the way that humans matter. A lot of things get called artificial intelligence – for example, driverless cars and computer-based systems for diagnosing diseases – but perhaps aren’t actually conscious.

James is exploring how we can tell when something has true consciousness: the difference between being something and stimulating it. These are going to be compelling questions for humans over the next few decades.

James hopes to continue to connect the philosophy and the science in his pursuit to understand a person’s conscious state. He is driven by wanting to understand how our brain does things, how we connect with the world, and how an understanding of consciousness can improve people’s lives.

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