Dr Alison Hills
Dr Alison Hills
Tutorial Fellow in Philosophy
Email: Dr Alison Hills
Teaching Interests
I joined St John’s in October 2006 from Bristol University, where I was a lecturer in the Philosophy department for three years. From 2001-3, I was a research fellow at Clare College, Cambridge, and before that, I completed my PhD in Philosophy at Trinity, Cambridge. I teach for all the Joint Schools with Philosophy at St John’s. For prelims, I give tutorials on General Philosophy and Moral Philosophy. For Final Honour Schools, I teach Ethics and the History of Philosophy. I give lectures on topics in Moral Philosophy, including Kant’s moral theory and animal ethics.
Research Interests
My research is in Moral Philosophy. My PhD was on Kant’s moral theory, in particular, on whether Kant shows that we have reason to be moral. I have interests in metaethics (especially moral knowledge) and normative ethics (especially Kant’s moral theory). I have also written on applied ethics, about whether our intentions have any moral significance, and about the moral status of animals. At the moment, I am finishing a book for OUP, The Beloved Self, about the conflict between egoism and morality and whether we can justify claims that we have reasons to be moral.
Publications
Recent publications include: “Kant on happiness and reason”, History of Philosophy Quarterly, 2006. Do animals have rights? Icon Press, 2005. Forthcoming: The Beloved Self, Oxford University Press. “Intentions, foreseen consequences and the doctrine of double effect”, Philosophical Studies.
