Helen Frowe
BA, MA Kent, PhD Reading
I did my BA and MA in Philosophy at the University of Kent. My MA thesis defended the moral distinction between doing and allowing, laying the foundations for an ongoing obsession with permissible killing. I then undertook a PhD in normative ethics at the University of Reading, supervised by Brad Hooker and Andrew Williams. My PhD develops a new conception of threats and bystanders, and argues for a deontological account of permissible defence against the innocent. I spent the final part of my PhD working with Jeff McMahan at Rutgers.
My current research is in Just War Theory, looking at the relationship between war and self-defence. My other interests include political philosophy more generally, deontological ethics and applied ethics, particularly bioethics and the moral status of terrorism and torture. Last year I gave a series of lectures on war, plus two public lectures on self-defence and terrorism, at Shandong University in China. This year I gave two lectures at SUNY Fredonia as part of their Young Philosophers series.
I´m now on leave until September 2010, thanks to a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship. During this time, I plan to write a book on war and self-defence. The book is provisionally entitled Defensive Killing, and will argue that the rules of war are based on self-defence, and that the correct account of self-defence cannot support the Principle of Non-Combatant Immunity. Since the Fellowship comes with a generous research allowance, I plan to hold a series of workshops on specific issues to be covered by the book, plus a conference on the overall theme. I am also writing an introductory textbook on Just War Theory, which will be coming out with Routledge and has a working title of The Ethics of War And Peace.
The Conference on War and Self-Defence will be held at Halifax House, Sheffield on August 25 - 27 2010. The keynote speakers will be Frances Kamm (Harvard), Jeff McMahan (Rutgers), David Rodin (Oxford) and Noam Zohar (Bar Ilan). There will be several parallel sessions for submitted papers. You can download the Call For Papers by clicking on the link on the right.
Key Publications:
(2009): 'A Practical Account of Self-Defence', Law and Philosophy,
Forthcoming (2009): 'The Justified Infliction of Unjust Harm', Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society , Vol. 109, No. 3, pp. 345 - 351
Forthcoming (2009): 'Killing John to save Mary: A defence of the distinction between killing and letting die', 'Topics In Contemporary Philosophy Vol.7: Action, Ethics and Responsibility, Campbell, J, O'Rourke, M and Silverstein, H (Eds.), (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press)
(2009): Review of Igor Primoratz (Ed.), Civilian Immunity in War, in Analysis, Vol. 70, No. 2, pp. 1 - 2
(2009): 'Human Value and Human Interest: Euthanasia in Million Dollar Baby' , in Sandra Shapshay, (ed.), Bioethics at the Movies, John Hopkins University Press
(2008): 'Equating Innocent Threats and Bystanders', Journal of Applied Philosophy , Vol. 25, No. 4, pp. 277 - 290
(2008): 'Threats, Bystanders and Obstructors', Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society , Vol. 108, No. 3, pp. 365 - 372
(2008): Review of Larry May (Ed.), War: Essays in Political Philosophy, in Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, (Nov. 14th)
Contact
Room No. C13 in Victoria St
Tel: 0114 2220579 (Internal: 20579)
h.frowe@sheffield.ac.uk
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