Father Daniel Joseph

I have been interested in Philosophy for over 40 years, having read for my first degree under Prof Antony Flew, and been supervised for my MA by thesis in Philosophy of Religion by Prof Richard Swinburne.

I describe myself as a Christian existentialist inductivist realist. I have a minimalist view of the human subject as the logical owner of a specific train of experience, plunged into the mystery of existence. This is subject to minimal additions in terms, for example, of agency, and of deductive and inductive reasoning.

I consider, accordingly, that one of our responses to the mystery of existence is to construct stories about reality (defined as I, plus that which is not I); which include science, religions, myths, art, and so on. In my opinion the purpose of Philosophical Analysis is to evaluate such stories in terms of: concepts, coherence, and justification of any stated or implied claims.

I see Philosophical Analysis as a skills-based universal language, not biased towards any religion, culture, or political ideal; which could and should be a means of facilitating real conversations between diverse speakers.

As an Archpriest of the Russian Orthodox Church, I am indeed, by choice, heavily committed to a particular story. But I am one person: my religious engagement is not artificially protected from the very philosophical disciplines I espouse; rather it is a matter of continuing choice, made, I hope, in all intellectual honesty.

Andrew Moore BSc MA

I would describe myself as a naturalist, meaning that I believe that science is the best method we have for gaining knowledge of the world.

My philosophy is therefore heavily influenced by science, particularly natural selection. My Interests lie mainly within the areas of epistemology (theory of knowledge), the philosophy of mind and political philosophy.

Epistemologically, I believe that human knowledge of the structure of world is embodied in a framework of domain specific theories. Knowledge of events or occurrences is achieved by viewing the world through this theoretical lens.

Competing frameworks or theories should be evaluated on pragmatic grounds (predictive power, explanatory scope etc).

In the Philosophy of Mind I have applied this epistemological model to the question of how we gain knowledge of our own mental states (self-ascription).

I propose that self-ascription is achieved through a process of theoretical self-interpretation. In order to know what we are thinking, it is necessary to interpret ourselves; such information is not simply ‘given’.

Politically I am a liberal egalitarian. I believe that everyone has the right to believe and to do what they want as long as they do not affect the ability of others to do the same. My main concern in this field is to defend ‘difference blind’ liberalism in the face of objections from proponents of ‘the politics of difference’.