Centre for Aesthetic, Moral and Political Philosophy

Centre for Aesthetic, Moral and Political Philosophy

Interdisciplinary research in aesthetic, moral and political philosophy.

Centre for ethics and metaethics

Our research

The Centre for Aesthetic, Moral, and Political Philosophy (CAMP) supports and develops research of the highest quality in practical philosophy at large, with a particular emphasis on foundational questions about normativity, morality, aesthetics, and practical reason.

Topics of current research include:

  • the nature of normativity

  • analysis of normative and evaluative language and thought

  • explanation and justification in normative theory

  • moral and aesthetic knowledge and skepticism

  • moral psychology (especially blame, moral worth, moral luck)

  • moral, aesthetic, and epistemic virtue and vice

  • gender and gender identity

  • ethics of war and self-defence

  • distributive justice

CAMP has a supportive, lively and active research environment. The centre hosts a regular fortnightly research seminar where both its members and invited speakers present work in progress. Members often organise conferences and workshops on themes related to the centre’s research specialisms, as well as the occasional wine and cheese night and research retreat!  

The centre is a basin of attraction for researchers far and wide. In addition to CAMP's core membership –comprising staff and PGRs working on a broad range of issues across value theory—it is common for visiting research fellows and staff specialising in other sub-disciplines to participate in the centre’s activities as well.  
 

The Director of the Centre is Dr Jessica Isserow.

Read our staff profiles for more information about our Members.

More on Our expertise

Explore our research projects.

More on Our projects

Impact

Earlier work on reasons for action and moral psychology provides theoretical foundations for the work on good judgement, character and integrity done in IDEA. 

Jointly this work is making a large impact on ethics in the workplace through consultancy, development of codes of professional conduct and ethics, and engaging professionals and practitioners in ethical reasoning and judgement.

Research by CAMP members on creativity and on art and morality has provided the basis for a wide range of impact activities, including public workshops and talks at places such as Tate Britain, the National Icelandic Visual Arts Awards and Miami Basel Arts Fair. Members have been interviewed in the popular media, have advised on the Channel 4 series Hidden Talent,  acted as consultants to the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the Broadcasting Standards Commission and the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment.

Research by CAMP members on gender/gender identity have also yielded impact activities, such as the ‘Stories of Gender in West Yorkshire’ exhibition at Leeds City Museum, which was attended by over 400 people over two days.

Events

A weekly research seminar is held during term time, where members of the philosophy community at Leeds and visitors from both the UK and abroad present their work in progress. These seminars are open to all interested parties. In addition, CAMP organises regular workshops, sometimes in collaboration with other research centres in the School.

Some recent events that the Centre hosted are:
•    25 May 2023 Jessica Isserow (Personal Relationships and the Normative Landscape) -
•    27 - 28 April 2023 Joseph Bowen (Workshop on New Work on Duties to Rescue: Pummer’s The Rules of Rescue and Frowe’s Help: The Ethics of Rescue

View events