Dr Andrew Kirton

Profile

My background is in philosophy. I did my BA, MRes and PhD at University of Manchester, where I also worked as a teaching assistant in philosophy for several years. I then worked on a British Academy project based at Blavatnik School of Govt. in Oxford, researching the crisis of trust in institutions and corporations. I joined Leeds in Sept 2018 just as that project was finishing up.

In 2023 I completed a PGCert in Counselling theory and practice.

The most substantial other jobs I’ve done have been working in an online record shop, and several years as an HR and payroll officer in local government.

Responsibilities

• Deputy Director of Student Education (Student Opportunities and Futures)

Research interests

My ongoing research interest is in understanding what morality is and how it comes from our basic social / emotional wiring. I think about what makes people tick and how morality falls out of that ticking, in a way that might help us understand better what moral talk is really doing or expressing. I’ve ended up approaching this from the angle of exploring how trusting others makes us vulnerable to them. I’m interested in psychology and psychotherapy, especially anything to do with attachment theory and personality development. I’m also interested broadly in agency, and how to define intelligent life, working from a philosophy of action / mind type of angle.

There’s a number of research topics I’m interested in but I am currently thinking most about:

- Intelligence, consciousness and what a lifeform is

- The psychology of reasoning, rationalising and cognitive dissonance

- The relationship between rigour and different bodies of knowledge; e.g. philosophy, maths and science vs. pseudosciences and ‘alternative’ belief systems

- How we create bodies of knowledge and what motivates us to learn or join a particular knowledge community

- The relationship of all the above to the nature of morality

I’ve an ongoing interest in pedagogy/teaching and how bodies of knowledge are transmitted through communities.

I’m interested in supervising any PhD projects that touch on the above kinds of issue directly or indirectly. I’m currently supervising two PhD students working on the responsibilities on institutions regarding trust and risk, and trust and algorithms on social media platforms.

Qualifications

• BA (Hons) Philosophy
• MRes Philosophy
• PhD Philosophy
• PGCert Interpersonal and Counselling Skills

Professional memberships

• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Student education

I mainly teach on the following topics:

Ethics of Artificial Intelligence, data ethics, autonomous systems

Philosophy and ethics of science (Is science better than non- /pseudo-science? Should scientists be activists? Issues around trust in science, ethics of pharmaceutical companies and recreational drugs)

Issues in the constellation of trust: privacy, confidentiality, consent, autonomy

Research groups and institutes

• Centre for Love, Sex, and Relationships
• Centre for Theoretical Philosophy