Log in
The University of Huddersfield's research on accounting ethics has made a major contribution to the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) — one of the world's premier accounting bodies. Through membership of its Ethics Standards Committee and collaboration with ICAEW staff the Business School's Professor Christopher Cowton has brought a unique academic perspective to the Institute's promotion of professional ethics. Cowton's research, part-funded by the Institute, has shaped its ethics agenda for its 140,000 members in over 160 countries, along with its thought leadership on integrity and the public interest, its initiative to promote integrity in business, and the new ethics examination for aspiring Chartered Accountants.
Chappell's recent work developing an anti-systematic philosophical ethics, and in particular his work on the notions of personhood and second-personality, has had an impact on (1) provision of public and health services, (2) policy-making, and (3) cultural life. He has presented work on ethics and persons to public audiences in Northampton, Mexico City, Oxford, St Andrews, Leeds, Milan, and Sydney. Besides a general intellectual-cultural impact on these public audiences, he has had specific impacts on thinking and practice (1) in paediatrics at The Northampton General Hospital and (2) in religious and educational constituencies in Britain and Australia.
Loughlin's research criticises the drive towards impersonal decision-making procedures across a range of professional practices, aiming to revive approaches placing the cultivation of the virtues, of sound judgement, at the centre of all practical discussion. It has empowered opponents of formalism in management and policy, and scientism in medical practice. This case study concerns Loughlin's identification of the limitations of Evidenced-Based Medicine (EBM), and development of an alternative, evidence-informed approach. Loughlin has communicated his research beyond a narrow academic audience, to a wide range of professional groups, triggering a growing recognition of the need for a humanist, person-centred alternative to EBM. Practitioners and patients alike benefit from the requirement to frame all debates about good practice with reference to the understanding that the parties to the clinical encounter are persons.
Within the field of `computer ethics', considerations of the design processes required for software development has remained relatively neglected until the foundational work of Dr Penny Duquenoy under the direction of Prof. Harold Thimbleby helped introduce and establish the need for such concerns. The impact of the embedding of ethics in technology is observable by noting the routine use of ethics expert reviewers and evaluators and on Advisory Boards in EU funded projects since 2007. This has been replicated by the EPSRC who also now include input from ethics experts into their programmes such as the RCUK `Global Uncertainties' initiative. At a professional level, ethics has also become a core consideration for the British Computer Society and its representations to the community it serves.
This case study looks at the research of Dr William Rossiter, who was a Senior Lecturer in English Literature, specializing in late medieval and early modern literature. The mandatory study of Shakespeare at GCSE and A-level presupposes a moral virtue inherent in studying Shakespeare's works, and Dr Rossiter sought to establish whether this moral virtue exists and to identify what it consists of. For the project called `Shakespeare for Schools', he gave a series of lectures and workshops on the topic in 2013, primarily but not exclusively aimed at school students. Local A-level students from a varied demographic were invited to attend a lecture and workshop on Shakespeare's comedies, tragedies or sonnets, depending on the texts they were studying, followed by a further seminar three months later, with a view to enhancing their knowledge of the early modern ethical principles that underpin those texts. The general public were also invited to a lecture on the themes of time and quality of life in Shakespeare's sonnets delivered on the anniversary of his birth/death (23 April 2013), as part of the opening night of Liverpool City Council's In Other Words literary festival. The impact of the events lies in the effect of the university-level analysis of Shakespeare's works and the moral code they foster, or are seen to foster, upon groups approaching Shakespeare from outside of academia. This impact initiative sought to (a) emphasize the accessibility of Shakespeare and early modern studies, (b) identify the ways in which Shakespearean ethics affect everyday ethical decisions, (c) interrogate the mandatory teaching of Shakespeare in UK schools, wherein his works are taught as part of the GCSE English syllabus and at A-level, and (d) encourage local students to apply to university by introducing them to university-level research.
Through our very successful schools outreach programme, Philosophy in the City, several members of staff have brought their research ideas to school students and teachers, with considerable influence both on the students themselves and on the way in which philosophy is taught and thought of within those schools. This activity has formed an important part of our civic engagement with Sheffield and its region, in enabling our research work to be understood beyond the academy, while drawing school pupils into the subject and influencing their attitude both to the issues we deal with and to higher education more generally.
Prof. Jonathan Dancy has over several decades developed the theory of ethical particularism, culminating in seminal publications dating from his time at the University of Reading, most notably his magnum opus Ethics Without Principles (2004). Particularism has had an impact within the legal profession, not just among legal scholars but on practitioners themselves, even to the extent of its being applied in judicial decision-making. It has also, partly through serendipitous means capitalised upon by Dancy himself, found its way into public ethical debate — directly contributing to the enrichment of civil society and stimulation of cultural life by introducing non-academics to a powerful and provocative new view of morality.
Widdows has shaped policy-making in areas of genetic ethics and especially biobanking. She has had impact:
In these arenas her work on consent, trust and genetic governance has shaped understandings of genetic ethics, which has created new policy:
Dr Toby Ord is the founder of an international organisation called Giving What We Can. This organization is dedicated to the fight against poverty in the developing world. Its members pledge to give at least 10% of their income to aid and to direct their giving to the organisations that have a demonstrated ability to use their incomes most efficiently. The impetus for the founding of the organization was provided by Dr Ord's early work in ethics. He subsequently undertook additional research into how his ethical ideas could be put into practice. The fruits both of this research and of related research by other Oxford philosophers appear on the organisation's website, where, through a combination of pure and applied philosophy, the ethical case for making the pledge is urged. The arguments advanced have proved to be extremely persuasive: many people have been moved by them, and to great effect. The organisation has over 326 members, from seventeen countries, who together have pledged to give over US $130,000,000 to charity.
St Andrews philosophers have brought their expertise into dialogue with professionals and members of the wider public, on matters of current concern. The impact has been created in three domains: