Ask the Philosopher

Join The Philosopher for an informal, philosophical chat with members of our Editorial Team. Bring your philosophical questions*, and we will try our best to offer some engaging responses. This session, we will be joined by panelists Michael Bavidge, Johanna Fisher, and Jon Hawkins, chaired by Noemi Magnani.

Michael Bavidge is the President of The Philosophical Society of England (PSE), the charity which sponsors The Philosopher. A former lecturer at Newcastle University, he worked at the Centre for Lifelong Learning and then the university's Philosophical Studies Programme. He wrote on psychopathy and the law, pain and suffering, and animal minds.

Professor Johanna Fisher teaches in the English and Women’s Studies Department at Canisius University. She has taught medieval literature for over 20 years and has published and given papers at various conferences on medieval figures such as Hildegard von Bingen, Mechtilde of Hackeborn, as well as the medieval romance. Her interests include gender representations in medieval literature, negotiating patriarchy, and the role of spirituality in the medieval romance. She often teaches, Romancing the Grail, High Adventures and Chivalrous Knights, and The Quest in Medieval Literature. Professor Fisher has also taught German and German literature with an emphasis on contemporary German literature. She has often taught, Representations of Nazis in Contemporary Euro Fiction [a course she wrote] as part of the Core Capstone offerings. She publishes regularly for The Irenaut, Europeana, and Bard College’s Medium Blog.

Jon Hawkins is a PhD candidate and teacher in philosophy at the University of Leeds, where he specialises in free will and related topics in metaphysics. He is also the co-host of The Panpsycast Philosophy Podcast and Editor of The Philosopher, and is passionate about making philosophy accessible beyond academia. He is supported by the AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council) through WRoCAH (White Rose College of the Arts & Humanities). You can find his Medium here.

Noemi Magnani is a professor at the University of Warwick and a Managing Editor at The Philosopher. Her research interests encompass political philosophy, ethics, gender, and the history of political thought, with a focus on the relationship between liberalism, multiculturalism, autonomy, and vulnerability.

*Registrants are invited and encouraged to submit a question in advance to this google form.