1. Profile
Professor Simon Kirchin

Professor Simon Kirchin

  • Position: Director of IDEA / Professor of Applied Ethics
  • Areas of expertise: Applied Ethics (many areas esp. leadership, performance and ethics, heritage and ethics); Metaethics; Normative Ethics; Aesthetics, Epistemology.
  • Email: S.Kirchin@leeds.ac.uk
  • Location: 1.12 17 Blenheim Terrace
  • Website: Simon Kirchin | Twitter | ORCID

Profile

I am the Director of the IDEA Centre at Leeds, which teaches ethics across many subject areas for the university.  Before joining Leeds I spent many years at the University of Kent, almost nine years of which were as Dean / Executive Dean.  I am also the Director of the British Philosophical Association, the main professional body for UK philosophers.  In this role I work extensively with school Exam Boards about philosophy and religious studies education.  I also care about philosophy in the public sphere and host two podcasts – Philosophy Takes on the News and Philosophy Gets Schooled.  

I have extensive experience of supervisiing PhD students and welcome applications.  Recent topics: agreement and disagreement; finance and philosophy of economics; thick concepts; particularism and reasoning; transhumanism and nudge theory; Kant and human rights; role ethics; virtue theory and psychology; praise, blame and ignorance. 

Responsibilities

  • Director of IDEA
  • Deputy Head of School

Research interests

I am currently working on a range of projects: normativity; the ethics of imitation; ethical issues involved in comedy performance; leadership within universities; trust and confidence in scientific communities.

I also have interests in researching into and promoting p[hilosophy in schools as well as diversifying our curricula.

  • Applied ethics (many topics, but including):
    • heritage ethics
    • leadership ethics (esp. in higher education)
    • performance and ethics (esp. comedy and drag/imitation)
    • transhumanism
  • Metaethics (all areas)
  • Normative Ethics (esp. recent work on longtermism and altruism; 
  • Aesthetics
  • Epistemology (esp. agreement and disagreement; moral knowledge and testimony)

Student education

I teach ethics across many subject areas at Leeds. Currently, I am teaching (jnter alia):

  • leadership ethics
  • teamwork and fairness (in many subject areas)
  • AI ethics
  • risk
  • ethics within psychiatry and the ethics of mental health

Postgraduate research opportunities

We welcome enquiries from motivated and qualified applicants from all around the world who are interested in PhD study. Our research opportunities allow you to search for projects and scholarships.