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Durham University

Department of Philosophy

Staff

Dr Christopher Cowie

Personal web page

Assistant Professor/Admissions Officer in the Department of Philosophy

(email at christopher.d.cowie@durham.ac.uk)

Research Summary

I work in Moral and Political Philosophy, and Epistemology. I am especially interested in the Moral Error Theory and the study of Axiology, Population and Welfare. 

I have two new books: one on the moral error theory - Morality and Epistemic Judgement: The Argument From Analogy - published by Oxford University Press, and another on population axiology - The Repugnant Conclusion: A Philosophical Inquiry - published by Routledge. A recent collection edited by myself and Richard Rowland, Companions in Guilt Arguments in Metaethics was published earlier this year.

My current projects are on the nature of significance, the metaethical importance of axiological impossibilty theorems, and the extinction of the human race. I am also trying to run a Philosophy Department football team. I will be on research leave at Stanford this Ephiphany Term.

Prior to coming to Durham, I was a Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge and a post-doc for Sir Prof Partha Dasgupta. I took my PhD at Cambridge under the supervision of Professor Hallvard Lillehammer, graduating in 2014, including a visiting scholarship at Princeton. My cv is available here.

Upcoming Talks

I will be giving talks at Frankfurt, Nottingham and Oxford this term.

Research Groups

Research Interests

  • Epistemology
  • Metaethics
  • Moral Philosophy
  • Political Philosophy

Teaching Areas

  • Ethics (MA)
  • Moral Theory
  • Political Philosophy

Publications

Authored book

Chapter in book

Edited book

Journal Article