The document discusses the philosophy department at the University of Hertfordshire (UH). It begins by summarizing the department's strong performance in the 2014 Research Excellence Framework assessment, with high ratings for impact and grant income. It then outlines some of the department's areas of research strength, including ethics, metaphysics, philosophy of action, and specific philosophers. The document also lists how the department contributes to UH themes like heritage, cultures, health and wellbeing. It provides examples of the department's impact through partnerships with groups like Microsoft Research and Hertfordshire Constabulary. Finally, it notes the department's international collaborations across Europe, North America and Australia.

1. PHILOSOPHY

2. Where we’ve come from:
UH Philosophy in REF 2014
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 One of top 4 UH units of assessment (19% 4*; 47% 3*)
Some highlights:
 Impact performance - ‘The unit has a clear focus on
impact’ (30% 4*; 50% 3*)
 ‘The unit has a particularly impressive record at securing
grant income’:
£1.49m total: £157k per FTE (sector average £70k)
despite being one of only 6 (of 40) submissions to
the Philosophy sub-panel in post-92 institutions

3. Where we are heading:
some specific areas of research strength
 Ethics, including:
 moral psychology; moral agency; virtues and vices; ethics
of cognition; ethics of forgiveness; religious ethics
 Metaphysics
 esp. time, consciousness, perception
 Philosophy of Action
 Philosophy of Art, Literature and Fiction
 Philosophy of Mind and Psychology
 Religious Thought and Philosophy of Religion
 Specific philosophers
 e.g. Kierkegaard and Wittgenstein

4. Contributions to UH themes
Heritage, Cultures and
Communities
Performance and performativity
Faiths
Cultural history
and heritage
Identity and social cohesion
Text, narrative and image
Visual, media & material cultures
• Heritage Ethics
• Mathematical
Cultures
• Shakespeare and
Philosophy
• Kierkegaard
• Wittgenstein
• Wittgenstein’s
England
exhibition
• Moral psychology
of forgiveness,
hope and humility
• Religious views of
sexuality
• Religious thought
and philosophy of
religion
• Ethics of belonging
• Kierkegaard
• Ethics of cognition
• Ethics of belonging
• Shakespeare and Philosophy
• Philosophy of fiction & literature
• Philosophy of film

5. Contributions to UH themes
Information and Security
Space
Global Economy Health and Wellbeing
• Ethics of risk-taking
• Modelling virtues and vices in
leadership
• Metaphysics of persons:
psychological aspects
• Modelling virtues and vices in
education
• Mathematical Cultures (Education)
• Schools Shakespeare Adaptation
Project (Education)
• Kierkegaard and psychotherapy
• Forgiveness in therapeutic practice
• Why we communicate & ICTs
• Virtues and vices in policing
• Action in ethics
• Ethics of risk-taking
• Ethics of cognition
• Ethics of belonging
• Philosophy of understanding
• Philosophy of language
• Space-time theories

6. UH Philosophy:
Pathways to impact
 Changing information
communication
technologies
(Microsoft Research)
 Changing the ethical
culture of policing
(Hertfordshire
Constabulary)
 Changing the way
Shakespeare is taught
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7. Changing…
 financial and socio-economic
policies on the ethics of risk-
taking
 heritage management policy
 how mathematicians are trained
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UH Philosophy:
Pathways to impact
 how virtues and vices are
unconsciously modelled in teachers
and trainers of medics and lawyers
 the way forgiveness is addressed in
psychotherapy
 the way memory is understood

8. UH Philosophy: International collaborations
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Working with: Educationists, Mathematicians, Computer Scientists,
Psychologists, Theologians, Fellow philosophers
Belgium
France
Germany
Hungary
Italy
Netherlands
Spain
Switzerland
USA
Denmark
Finland
Norway
Canada
Australia