Philosophy of Health and Happiness research cluster

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In the last few years there has been an increasing interest in happiness in many disciplines including healthcare, philosophy, psychology, economics and ethics. At the same time the concepts of wellness, health, illness and disease have become issues of controversy. 

At Birmingham, we have a staff community of philosophers and ethicists pursuing original research at the intersection of philosophy, ethics, psychology and medicine, which have important implications for policy and healthcare. The Health and Happiness research cluster brings together these members of staff from across the university to form a dynamic research environment for our postgraduate students.

Some research topics that are of particular interest to the cluster include:

  • Competing accounts of health and disease/illness
  • The distinction between therapy and enhancement
  • Phenomenological and cognitive-neuropsychological accounts of mental illness
  • The relationship between the pathological and the irrational
  • Philosophical theories of well-being 
  • The nature of happiness
  • The relationship between health and well-being or happiness
  • The distinction between subjective and objective well-being
  • The relationship between a meaningful life and a happy life
  • Heath and perfection (plastic surgery; genetic enhancement; body image)
  • Medicalisation
  • Good death and bad death
  • The problem of ‘evil pleasures’
  • Modalities and effects of interreligious communication.

 

People

The core members of staff in the Philosophy department who work in Health and Happiness are:

Professor Lisa Bortolotti's primary research interests are in biomedical ethics and in the philosophy of the cognitive sciences (with a special focus on psychology and psychiatry).

Dr Iain Law is a Senior Lecturer in Philosophy currently working on papers in moral theory, moral psychology, the philosophy of medicine and applied ethics.

Dr Yujin Nagasawa  (Reader in Philosophy) specialises in the philosophy of religion, the philosophy of mind and applied philosophy.

Dr Jussi Suikkanen’s (Lecturer in Philosophy) main research interests lie in meta-ethics and ethical theories, working on the nature of moral properties, moral judgments, and truth in ethics. He also has an interest in theories of happiness and well-being.

Professor Heather Widdows works on global ethics, virtue ethics and feminist theory as well as bioethical issues, particularly those of reproductive, research and genetic ethics.

Other academics at Birmingham who work on topics related to health and happiness include:

Dr Clare Barker is a lecturer in the Department of English. She is interested in the ways in which disability, health and illness are constructed in local and global contexts, and how fiction can transform our understanding of embodied difference.

Dr Stephen Smith is a lecturer in the Law School specialising in medico-ethical issues at the end of life and is currently writing a book exploring the bioethical and legal ramifications of end of life decisions.

Professor Marie Fox is a new member of academic staff in the School of Law. She is currently working on projects concerning the regulation of animal and human bodies and the policing of human/non-human boundary, as well as the ethics and legality of genital cutting.

Dr Jonathan Reinarz works within the College of Medical and Dental Sciences and is primarily concerned with the history of hospitals, medical education, medical specialisation, alcohol, senses and the social and economic history of England 1750-1950 .

 

Postgraduate study

Postgraduates can study for an MA in Health and Happiness or conduct research in this field by registering for either the PhD or MA by Research in Philosophy.

We have a number of postgraduate researchers interested in Health and Happiness at Birmingham, with current theses including:

All of our postgraduate students benefit from the academic strengths of our research clusters and are often co-supervised by members of staff from associated clusters across the College of Arts and Law, so that they have access to different perspectives on their research topic.   If you are interested in doing postgraduate research in Health and Happiness at Birmingham please feel free to contact the member of staff in the cluster that you think will be best suited to supervising your work here.

 

Current and recent staff research projects

Heather Widdows (co-applicant) is working on an evidence-based impact analysis of TISS.EU Project on Evaluation of Legislation and Related Guidelines on the Procurement, Storage and Transfer of Human Tissues and Cells in the European Union from March 2008 – 2011. This project is led by the Department for Ethics and History of Medicine at the University of Goettingen, Germany.  from March 2008 – 2011. This project is led by the Department for Ethics and History of Medicine at the , Germany.

From January to June 2010 Lisa Bortolotti (main applicant) secured a Wellcome Trust Research Expenses Grant to carry out a programme of study on  Rationality and Sanity: Implications of a Diagnosis of Mental Illness for Autonomy as Self-Governance.

Lisa has also collaborated on the Wellcome Trust’s project on  Autonomy and Mental Health led by Lubomira Radoilska, University of Cambridge; the AHRC-funded project entitledEmotions and Feelings in Psychiatric Illness, coordinated by Matthew Ratcliffe and Tony Atkinson, University of Durham; and the AHRC Network on  led by Lubomira Radoilska, University of Cambridge; the AHRC-funded project entitled, coordinated by Matthew Ratcliffe and Tony Atkinson, University of Durham; and the AHRC Network onThe Concept of Health, Illness and Disease, managed by Havi Carel, University of the West of England and Rachel Cooper, University of Lancaster.

Lisa Bortolotti and Heather Widdows are both Members of the International Consortium on Bioethics, Sexuality, and Gender Identity Project|.

 

Selected publications

  • Lisa Bortolotti (ed.) (2009): Philosophy and Happiness. Chesham: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Lisa Bortolotti (2009): Delusions and Other Irrational Beliefs. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Matthew Broome,Matteo Mameli, and Lisa Bortolotti (2010): “Moral responsibility and mental illness: a case study”. Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 19(2): 179-187.
  • Lisa Bortolotti (2010): “Agency, life extension, and the meaning of life”. The Monist 93 (1): 38-56.
  • Iain Law (2008): “Evil Pleasure is Good for You!”. Ethic@ 17.
  • Iain Law (2009) “Motivation, Depression and Character”. In Matthew Broome and Lisa Bortolotti (eds.):  Psychiatry as Cognitive Neuroscience: Philosophical Perspectives. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Yujin Nagasawa (2007): “Proxy Consent and Counterfactuals”. Bioethics 22: 16-24.
  • Jussi Suikkanen (2011): “An Improved Whole Life Satisfaction Theory of Happiness”. International Journal of Well-Being 1: 149-166.
  • Heather Widdows and Caroline Mullen (eds.) 2009. The Governance of Genetic Information : Who Decides? London: Cambridge University Press.
  • Heather Widdows et al (eds.) 2006. Women’s Reproductive Rights. London: Palgrave.
  • Heather Widdows (2009) “Between the individual and the community: The impact of genetics on ethical models”. New Genetics and Society 28: 173-188.