2019

2019 News and Events

Award Recipient: Irish Young Philosopher Awards

The team was recognised for the Irish Young Philosopher Awards established in 2017. These awards encourage children from 3rd class primary to 6th year secondary to think about ethical and philosophical questions central to their lives. With only a small budget, the team had to leverage much goodwill and voluntary effort to establish the initiative, which was launched by the President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins. The awards support the recent introduction of Philosophy to the national curriculum and in particular, looks to support the development of philosophical communities of enquiry in socially disadvantaged settings. The impact of the awards programme is reflected in the extensive media coverage and the fact that other schools of Philosophy around the world are now interested in running similar events. The level of personal commitment to this project shown by the team speaks volumes about the teams’ passion for the subject and how positively it can impact the lives of children and adults.  This initiative promoted the values of creativity, engagement and collaboration.

UCD President, Professor Andrew Deekes, Professor Brian O’Connor, Head of School UCD School of Philosophy, Helena McCann, Fiona Lavin, Dr Danielle Petherbridge, Natalia Burakowska, (Irish Young Philosophy Awards team) Professor Colin Scott, College Principal, College of Social Sciences and Law, Vice-President for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.

Natalia Burakowska, Helena McCann, and Dr Danielle Petherbridge

(Irish Young Philosopher Awards Team) nominated by Fiona Lavin (far right)

'Criminal Ignorance': a one-day symposium in law and philosophy on a recent book by Alexander Sarch, Criminally Ignorant; Why the Law Pretends We Know What We Don't (Oxford 2019).

Date: Thursday 21 November, 9am - 5pm

For programme and further details, please see the symposium website:

(opens in a new window)https://criminallyignorant.webnode.com/

Sponsored by the College of Social Sciences and Law Research Fund, the Centre for Ethics in Public Life, and the Trinity College Dublin School of Law.

Charles Tipple Philosophy Essay Prize 2018/19

This year, the UCD School of Philosophy Stage 1 Essay Prize – which aims to promote and support the excellent work done by our Stage 1 philosophy students - has been permanently renamed the Charles Tipple Philosophy Essay Prize, in memory of philosophy student and scholar Charles Tipple, who very sadly passed away earlier this year. 

Certificates and prizes were awarded to the winners of the 2018/19 Tipple Prize on Friday 25 October 2019. The winners were (click on the title to read the essay):

First Prize: Cathy Darling, for ''The Moral Duty to Reject Nozick's Entitlement Theory and Advocate for Distributive Justice.pdf"

Runner-up: Mahrukh Abbasi, for 'Moving vs. Persuading a Racist.pdf'

Runner-up: Lorcan Kelly, for 'A Critique of Moody-Adams' Conception of Forgiveness as Unilateral.pdf'

The 2019/20 Tipple Prize is now open until 30 September 2020. Entrants must have registered for at least one UCD Stage 1 Philosophy module in the year 2019/20. Essays must be: no longer than 1,500 words inclusive of footnotes but exclusive of bibliography; on a philosophical topic; and submitted in word format to (opens in a new window)daniel.deasy@ucd.ie. 

Philosopher Wins €3 Million Grant for Project on Public Trust in Expert Opinion

(opens in a new window)Maria Baghramian, Head of the School of Philosophy at University College Dublin, has won a €3 million (approximately US$3.3 million) grant for three-year research project on “the role of science in policy decision making and the conditions under which people should trust and rely on expert opinion that shapes public policy.”

Professor Maria Baghramian

The project, “Policy, Expertise and Trust in Action,” will, starting in 2020, “bring together 20 philosophers, social and natural scientists, policy experts, ethicists, psychologists, media specialists and civil society organisations to study trust in and the trustworthiness of policy related expert opinion,” according to a press release. It follows up on the earlier project, “(opens in a new window)When Experts Disagree,” led by Professor Baghramian and Luke Drury (Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies). Others involved include Bobby Duffy (KCL), Gloria Origgi (CNRS, Paris), José Van Dijck (Utrecht), Onora O’Neill (Cambridge), Cass Sunstein (Harvard), Susan Owens (Cambridge), and Dan Sperber (CEU).

The funding is from the European Commission’s (opens in a new window)Horizon 2020 program.

Professor Baghramian says the aim of the project is  “to better understand the nature and conditions of trust in the public domain and to discover indicators which can be used in measuring and establishing the trustworthiness of those involved in social and political decision making.”

There’s more information about the project here.

By (opens in a new window)Justin Weinberg