►     Research Interests

 ►     Publications

 ►     Teaching

 ►     Horses, dogs and other animals

Nafsika is currently a Lecturer in Ethics at the Centre for Professional Ethics at Keele University. Before coming to Keele she was a lecturer in philosophy at the University of Leeds and a senior member in the successful IDEA CETL bid. She did her PhD on the problem of moral luck at the University of Reading under the supervision of John Cottingham and Jonathan Dancy, having been awarded an AHRC Partnership grant.

Research Interests

 Nafsika works primarily in moral theory and applied philosophy. Her PhD examined the problem of moral luck and used the questions raised by the paradox of luck to examine how different moral theories, and in particular virtue ethics and Kantianism, account for moral responsibility. The ideas from that work were further developed and eventually resulted in her monograph Morality, Moral Luck and Responsibility: Fortune’s Web (Palgrave, 2005).

 Her interest in the problem of moral luck has widened into a broader concern with how we make decisions under uncertainty and with her colleague Allison Ross, she is working on a series of articles giving an alternative account of how we should make decisions about risk based on insights from virtue ethics. Allison and Nafsika have written two papers on a virtue ethical account of risk (forthcoming Journal of Risk Research) and on engineering and risk (2009, Science and Engineering Ethics), and are currently working on a paper arguing that Research Ethics Committees should adopt virtue ethics in making decisions about risk. Nafsika is also working on a paper giving an Aristotelian account of hope, which is part of the broader theme of making decisions under conditions of uncertainty.

 Nafsika is also particularly interested in inter-disciplinary research and has previously published on the interplay between virtue ethics and personality psychology (2000, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society), as well as having interests in a broad range of applied topics, including the role of consent in sado-masochistic practices (2002, Res Publica), active euthanasia amongst neonates (2005, in Philosophical Reflections in Medical Ethics), unusual patient requests (2006, Journal of Value Inquiry), and deception in medical research (2009, Clinical Ethics). She is the editor of Philosophical Reflections on Medical Ethics (2005, Palgrave), described by a reviewer as “a provocative collection of compelling essays devoted to the most controversial topics in contemporary bioethics” (Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews).

 She also has a strong interest in education, particularly the teaching of ethics to non-philosophy students (2007, in Principles of Health Care Ethics) as well as practical pedagogy (feel free to e-mail her if you would like to chat about teaching ethics to non-philosophy students and setting up an ethics curriculum, especially in medical schools).

Nafsika is very proud to have recently edited, along with Sam Vice, a festschrift for John Cottingham, The Moral Life: Essays in Honour of John Cottingham (2008, Palgrave). The volume brings together friends, colleagues and former students of Cottingham, to discuss major themes of his work on moral philosophy. Presented in three parts the collection focuses on the debate on partiality, impartiality and character; the role of emotions and reason in the good life; the meaning of a worthwhile life and the place of theistic considerations in it. The original contributions to this volume celebrate Cottingham’s work by embracing and furthering his arguments and, at times, in the best spirit of philosophical engagement, challenging and confronting them. The volume concludes with Cottingham’s specially commissioned responses to the contributions.

'This fine collection of essays honors the distinguished work of John Cottingham. The contributors examine critically his distinctive and thoughtful treatments of some of the most fundamental questions in ethics, such as the meaning of life, the connection between religion and ethics, the psychoanalytic approach to human motivation, and the place of emotions in ethics. Cottingham’s replies defend, develop, and clarify his views. All in all, this is a most valuable exchange showing how philosophy can be done reasonably and humanistically without the mock precision and jargon that imitates scientific writings.' - John Kekes 

'This is a very fine collection of essays, celebrating John Cottingham's seminal work on three major issues: the place of impartiality and partiality in ethics and in our lives; the interplay of reason and emotion; and the relation between the religious attitude and the meaning of life. The contributors engage closely with Cottingham's work, which gives a remarkable thematic unity to the book. I recommend it highly.' - Professor David McNaughton, Honorary Vice-President, British Society for Ethical Theory

Acknowledgements

Notes on Contributors

Introduction; N.Athanassoulis & S.Vice

PART 1: PARTIALITY, SPIRITUALITY AND CHARACTER

The Significance of the Self: Partiality and Spirituality; S.Vice

Contempt and Integrity; M.de Gaynesford

Self-Love, Love of Neighbour, and Impartiality; D.S.Oderberg

PART 2: THE EMOTIONS AND THE GOOD LIFE

Akrasia and the Emotions; N.Athanassoulis

The Inner Life of the 'Dear Self'; S.Morgan

What Reason Can't Do; M.Lacewing

PART 3: THE MEANING OF LIFE

Meaning, Morality, and Religion; R.Crisp

The Meaning of Life: Subjectivism, Objectivism, and Divine Support; B.Hooker

God, Morality and the Meaning of Life; T.Metz

The Self, the Good Life and the Transcendent; J.Cottingham

Index

NAFSIKA ATHANASSOULIS is Lecturer in Ethics at Keele University, UK. She is the author of Morality: Moral Luck and Responsibility: Fortune’s Web and editor of Philosophical Reflections on Medial Ethics.

SAMANTHA VICE is Lecturer in Philosophy at Rhodes University, South Africa. She is co-author, with Ward E. Jones, of Ethics in Film, and has published papers on the self, goodness, self-judgement and the work of Iris Murdoch.

  Publications

 Books:

• Morality, Moral Luck and Responsibility: Fortune’s Web, Palgrave/Macmillan, 2005

Edited Collections:

• The Moral Life: essays in honour of John Cottingham, Co-editor with Samantha Vice, Palgrave, 2008

• Philosophical Reflections on Medical Ethics, Editor, 2005, Palgrave/Macmillan

• Guest Co-Editor with Seiriol Morgan of special issue of Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, vo. 9, no 3, June 2006

Articles:

• “Ethical Theories for GPs”, with Knight R., General Practice, forthcoming in 2009

• “A Virtue Ethical Account of Making Decisions About Risk”, with Ross A., Journal of Risk Research, special volume on the Philosophy of Risk, forthcoming in 2009

• “The Social Nature of Engineering and its Implications for Risk Taking”, with Ross A., Science and Engineering Ethics, forthcoming in 2009

• “When is Deception in Research Ethical?”, with Wilson J., Clinical Ethics, 4 (1):44-49, 2009

• “Unusual Requests and the Doctor-Patient Relationship”, Journal of Value Inquiry, vol.40, no 2-3, Sep 2006

• “Common-Sense Virtue Ethics and Moral Luck”, Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, no3, June 2005

• “The Role of Consent in Sado-masochistic Practices”, Res Publica, vol.8, 2002

• “A Response to Harman”, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, vol. XCX, Part 2, 2000 title

Contributions to Collections:

• “Akrasia and the Emotions” in The Moral Life: essays in honour of John Cottingham, Co-editor with Samantha Vice, Palgrave, 2008

• “Training Good Professionals: Ethics and Health Care Education” in Gillon’s Principles of Health Care Ethics, eds. Ashcroft, Dawson, Draper and McMillan, Willey and Sons, 2007

• “The Treatment that Leaves Something to Luck” in Philosophical Reflections in Medical Ethics, 2005, Palgrave/Macmillan 

• “Moral Luck and the Sources of Evil”, in Earth’s Abominations: Perspectives on Evil and Human Wickedness, editor D. Haybron, Rodopi Press, 2002

Review Articles:

• “Virtue Ethics”, review article for the Internet Encyclopaedia of Philosophy, posted April 2004, http://www.iep.utm.edu/v/virtue.htm title to link to http://www.iep.utm.edu/v/virtue.htm

Book Reviews:

• Book Review of Margaret Pabst Battin’s Ending Life: Ethics and the Way We Die, Notre Dame Book Reviews, 1st January 2006,

• Book Review of Jeffrie E. Murphy’s Getting Even: Forgiveness and its Limits, The Philosophical Quarterly, vol. 55, no. 221, October 2005

• Book Review of Jeff McMahan’s The Ethics of Killing, Uilitas, 17 (1), 2005

• Book Review of Christine Swanton’s Virtue Ethics, Journal of Applied Philosophy, vol.21 no 2, 2004

• Book Review of Peach L., Legislating Morality, Philosophical Books, 2004

• Book Review of Julia Driver's Uneasy Virtue, Philosophical Quarterly, vol.53, no 211, 2003

• Book Review of Michael Slote's Morals From Motives, Notre Dame Book Reviews, vol, 14, no 1, March 2002

• Book Review of Rosalind Hursthouse’s, On Virtue Ethics, Ratio, March 2001

On teaching:

• “Analysis of Contextualised healthcare Ethics Scenarios (ACHES)” with J.C. Jackson and C.B. Megone , Discourse, vol. 4, no1, Autumn 2004-5

• “Teaching Philosophy in the Medical School” in Innovation and Excellence: New Approaches to Learning and Teaching in the Faculty of Arts, University of Leeds, November 2004.

• “Teaching Seminars in Philosophy” on line at the PRS-LTSN site, 2001

 Newspaper and magazine articles and interviews:

• Odyssey, Koromilas K., “Wisdom begins in wonder”, Nov/Dec 2008, interview

• Times Higher Education Supplement, Tysome T., “I can’t do it for 30 more years”, 8 Sep 2006, interview

Professional Activities

 Nafsika has reviewed papers for, amongst others, the Philosophical Quarterly, the Journal of Applied Philosophy, Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, Ratio, the British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, and reviewed books for Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press and Palgrave. She is the Secretary of the British Society for Ethical Theory. She has acted as External Assessor for Manchester University and the Open University and she is currently External Examiner for a course at the Open University.

Research Funding

• Ethics consultant and project leader for an ethics project within the IDEA CETL (2006), funding £127,000.

• Leading member of the successful biding team for a  Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) for teaching inter-disciplinary ethics (IDEA) (2005), total funding over five years £2.4million.

• West Yorkshire Workforce Federation Grant for developing web-based teaching resources on medical ethics for ethics teachers, and organising “The Chaleenges of Teaching Medical Ethics” conference (September 2004), funding £4,400.

• Co-contributor (with Chris Megone and Jennifer Jackson) to a Philosophy and Religious Studies Learning and Teaching Support Network funded project on the teaching of philosophy through case studies (ACHES) (April 2003 – January 2003), funding £2,500.

  Teaching

 Nafsika has taught philosophy to students from all backgrounds. She has taught moral philosophy, applied ethics, philosophy of law, metaphysics, epistemology and philosophy of science to undergraduate philosophy students. She has also taught philosophy at MA and PhD level. While at Leeds she led the team that developed the Ethics Theme in the Medical School, which constituted the case for excellence for the IDEA CETL. In addition she developed the “Introduction to Ethical Thinking” a flexible and customizable resource which provides tutors new to teaching or new to teaching ethics with all the materials to run a 10 session course in ethics, including extensive Tutor and Student Notes.

At Keele she teaching on PEAK’s six MA programs on professional ethics and she is the Director of the MA in the Ethics of Cancer and Palliative Care and the Co-Ordinator of the Professional Doctorate in Medical Ethics. She is currently supervising four Professional Doctorate students working various topics including, a critique of feminist concepts of relational autonomy, a critique of Pellegrino’s essentialist account of medicine, a critique of the permissibility of carrying out research on full facial transplants and an application of particularism to medicine. As part of her work at Keele she runs training days for NHS Research Ethics Committee members and University Research Ethics Committee members.

Nafsika has a particular interest in curriculum design and has been involved in integrating ethics teaching in medicine, biosciences, pharmacy and engineering. She is also interested in practical pedagogy, including how to teach in an engaging and lively manner, how to introduce philosophy to non-philosophy students, how to teach with colleagues from other disciplines, etc. She has written a guide to teaching ethics, if you would like a copy please get in touch.

Horses, dogs and other animals

 Nafsika has an eccentrically large number of animals, currently consisting of four horses, four dogs and one cat.

 The horses:

 Rusky is a 16.2hh DWB by Libro, currently competing Elementary and Medium. If all goes well he should be at the Regionals this summer at Elementary.

 Freddy is a 15.2hh Hanoverian by Don Frederico out of a Warkant mare, currently competing at Novice. Freddy is the ‘baby’ of the family as I have had him since he was rising 4.

 Cakey is a 16hh very HW cob, supposedly IDx but looks more like a Suffolk Punch.

 Merlin is a tiny Fallabela x Shetland. He is by far the cutest of the lot.

 The dogs:

 Betty, named after Elizabeth Anscombe, is a German Spitz. Betty has done obedience to fairly high level (distance control) but non-competitively as well as agility. 

Jakey another German Spitz. He enjoys his clicker training and is very enthusiastic about everything.

 Dizzy is a German Shepherd dog with the typical sweet and loyal nature of the breed.

 Pookie is a bit of a mess, Jack Russell cross Yorkie we think, but the result is priceless!

 Nafsika is really into clicker training having trained under Elizabeth Kershaw at the Reading and District Dog Club.

 The cat is Maggie – she is in charge.