Garrath Williams

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Garrath Williams

Dr

Former affiliation
 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6583-8133

  • Lancaster University, County South

    LA1 4YL Lancaster

Accepting PhD Students

PhD projects

I have research interests across normative ethics, political theory and applied ethics (especially public health). I would be glad to hear from potential doctoral students considering research on Kant's practical philosophy, Hannah Arendt, the political theory of corporations (business or otherwise), the philosophy of responsibility, and public health (especially in the areas of food and noncommunicable disease).

1998 …2025

Research activity per year

Personal profile

SUMMARY of research interests (100 words)

I have wide interests in moral philosophy, political theory, and applied ethics. In recent years, I have focussed on Kantian approaches to moral and political questions. As part of our current AHRC-funded project, my book, Kant Incorporated, will appear in the autumn. For 2025-26, I will be working on a Kantian approach to transnational business as a Visiting Professor at the University of Toronto. This work has been inspired by earlier EU-funded work on children, health and public policy, and I continue to write about food systems and broader questions about responsibility in applied ethics.

Profile

I took all my degrees at Manchester University - BA in Philosophy and Politics, MA in Health Care Ethics, and PhD (on theory of action in Kant's philosophy) in the Department of Government. I lectured in Political Theory in the same department, then in philosophy at the Centre for Professional Ethics, University of Central Lancashire, before coming to Lancaster University in 2003.

I have also been a Visiting Professor at the Ruhr University in Bochum, Germany and have held visiting fellowships at the University of Amsterdam, Copenhagen Business School, the European Academy for the Study of the Consequences of Scientific and Technological Advances (Germany), and the University of St Andrews.

Current Teaching

I have taught widely moral philosophy, political thought and applied ethics. My most recent courses have been:

  • Philosophical Issues in Politics and Economics (PPR211)
  • Continental Philosophy (PPR302)
  • Political Ideas (PPR320) (team taught)

Research Interests

I have wide interests in moral philosophy, political theory, and applied ethics. My current work focusses mainly on Kant’s practical philosophy, using his ideas to explore fundamental issues concerning freedom, reason, and responsibility, as well as a range of practical topics. These include climate damage and complicity, negligence and criminality, poverty, migration, and employment. My forthcoming Cambridge Element, Kant Incorporated, offers the first Kantian analysis of corporations – that is, all organisations with their own legal personality, including universities and charities as well as businesses. In recent talks, I have been exploring a Kantian approach to markets, capitalism, and transnational business.

I have been involved in several projects in applied ethics and public health. These included two large EU-funded projects on children, diet and health, I.Family (2012-2017) and IDEFICS (2006-2011). I have written widely about public health and research ethics, including a co-authored book, Childhood Obesity: Ethical and Policy Issues (Oxford University Press, 2014). This research motivates much of my current research on business corporations, including work on food systems, regulation, public health and (un)sustainability.

I have long-standing interests in questions of responsibility – both more abstract, philosophical questions and more practical, social and organisational aspects. I have also written extensively on Hannah Arendt, and many other moral and political topics, including epistemic justice in healthcare, obesity discrimination, and ideologies of victimhood.

Research Grants

I am currently co-investigator on a collaborative UK-German project on Kant's practical philosophy, "Using people well, treating people badly" (funded by the AHRC and DFG, 2023-6). The project explores how people can act as means (but not mere means!) toward one another's ends, alongside forms of abuse and neglect beyond (mere) instrumentalisation.

I have also been involved in European-funded collaborative projects relating to health and biotechnology, contributing especially in the areas of ethics and public policy. I was Principal Investigator at Lancaster for the EU Framework 7 project I.Family - Determinants of eating behaviour in European children, adolescents and their parents (2012-17). This followed an earlier project, IDEFICS (Identification and prevention of dietary-and lifestyle-induced health effects in children and infants), funded by the EU under Framework 6 (2007-12). These epidemiological and intervention projects on dietary-related ill-health involved over 16,000 children.

I have also collaborated with colleagues in LICA (Lancaster Institute for Contemporary Arts) and Glasgow School of Art on an AHRC-funded project called Leapfrog (2015-18). Earlier projects in which I was involved include INES - Institutionalisation of Ethics in Science Policy (FP6) and Eurogenbank (FP4), on genetic banking. I have also done training and consultancy in police ethics and in research ethics.

Additional Information

Personal website: https://garrathwilliams.weebly.com

 

Office Hours

Please contact me by email to arrange an appointment.

Related documents

Keywords

  • Philosophy
  • Political theory
  • Applied ethics

User-defined keywords

  • Bioethics
  • Children
  • Clinical research
  • Continental philosophy
  • Empirical bioethics
  • Ethics
  • Ethics of genetics
  • EU law and policy
  • Family
  • Food
  • Foucault
  • Genetics
  • Hannah Arendt
  • Health
  • History of philosophy
  • Hobbes
  • Kant
  • Medical ethics
  • Medical law and ethics
  • Nietzsche
  • Obesity
  • Organisations
  • Parenting
  • Philosophy
  • Political philosophy
  • Political theory
  • Public health
  • Public policy
  • Responsibility

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