Department of Philosophy

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Michael Hannon

Associate Professor, Faculty of Arts

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Biography

I work in epistemology, ethics, and political philosophy. Previously, I was Deputy Director of the Institute of Philosophy at the University of London. I received my PhD from the University of Cambridge in 2013, and I grew up in Toronto.

I am also the Director of the Aristotelian Society (the oldest and largest philosophical society in the UK) and an Honorary Research Fellow at the Institute of Philosophy in London. I was previously a Fellow-in-Residence at the Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University, a Faculty Fellow at the Murphy Institute at Tulane University, and a Visiting Research Fellow on the 'Knowledgeable Democracy' project at VU Amsterdam.

Teaching Summary

Knowledge and Justification

Knowledge, Ignorance, and Democracy

Research Summary

I have two research projects:

1. The Role of Truth in Politics

I use the theoretical tools of epistemology to better understand social and political issues. I've written about the value of political empathy, the epistemology of democracy, public ignorance and bias, post-truth, and other topics at the intersection of epistemology and political philosophy. Questions that animate my recent work include: What is the proper role of truth in politics? Is intellectual humility compatible with political conviction? Are better educated citizens a bigger threat to democracy than ignorant ones? Is there a moral duty to speak your mind?

2. Pragmatic Epistemology and Epistemic Normativity

As a pragmatist, I investigate philosophical issues from a practical point of view. In What's the Point of Knowledge? (OUP 2019), I argue that humans think and speak of "knowing" to identify reliable sources of information, which is vital for human cooperation, survival, and flourishing. I use this idea to shed light on the social foundations of epistemic normativity, skepticism, and relativism. I have been further developing a pragmatic theory of epistemology in recent work.

Recent Publications

Department of Philosophy

University of Nottingham
University Park
Nottingham, NG7 2RD

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