CEPPA Programme Spring-Summer 2026

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Welcome to the new year! The Centre for Ethics, Philosophy and Public Affairs (CEPPA) is a research centre that promotes exploration into important ethical issues arising in public life. Its field of interest comprises ethics, social and political philosophy, and the philosophical dimensions of public affairs. CEPPA houses research projects, outreach projects, seminars, conferences, academic visits, fellowships, publishing, and public discussion on a variety of topics. Details on members’ research projects can be found here.
The events at CEPPA are open to students as well as staff! We run a variety of recurring events, such as:
  • Moral Philosophy Reading Group (MPRG): a weekly in-person discussion group on a chapter or article suggested by one of the participants, held 4 – 5pm on Wednesday in Edgecliffe 104.
  • CEPPA Seminar: an (almost) weekly seminar with visiting speakers, held 4-5.30pm on Thursdays in Edgecliffe G03 or online. See full list of speakers below!
  • Cover-to-Cover-Reading Group: we choose one book each semester to read as a group – This semester we are reading Deep Utopia by Nick Brostom
  • CEPPA Film Club: a monthly screening + discussion of a film.
We are introducing several work-in-progress sessions with our CEPPA PGR members: these weeks will have two speakers in the usual Thursday timeslot (4-5.30pm), each session lasting 40 minutes (25-30 min presentation, followed by 10-15 min Q&A). As ever, climate-related events are in green.
If you’d like to be on the mailing list for CEPPA, or have any questions, please email us at [email protected]. We hope to welcome you at CEPPA soon!

CEPPA Seminar S2 2026 / Climate Ethics/PhiCliSci

(Unless stated otherwise all Seminars from 4-5.30pm on Thursday afternoon, Edgecliffe G03)

Week 1 (29 Jan) – Miguel de la Cal Moreno and Mario Bison (St Andrews & Stirling)

Miguel de la Cal Moreno, ‘Manufactured Disorientation and Climate Change’

Mario Bison, ‘How to think about empathy, and why’

In – peson

Week 2 (5 Feb)  – Viviane Fairbank (St Andrews & Stirling) and Jacob Librizzi (St Andrews)

Viviane Fairbank, ‘The Responsible-Inquiry Model of Journalism’

Jacob Librizzi, ‘Why Metanormative Constitutivists Should be Voluntarists About Reasons’

In-person

Week 3 (12 Feb) Enrico Galvagni (Edinburgh)

Hume’s One and Only Definition of Virtue

Week 4 (19 Feb) – Yoshinari Hattor and Ida Miczske (University of St Andrews & Stirling)

Yoshinari Hattori, ‘Why We Must Believe in Free Will and Moral Responsibility: Reconsidering Their Foundations’

Ida Miczske, ‘When love met morality: anonymity, irreplaceability, and partial self-effacement’

Week 5 (26 Feb) Hector Omar Ruiz Rivera (St Andrews & Stirling)

Hector Omar Ruiz Rivera – Moral Skill

(Open slot!)

Week 6 (12 Mar) Katie McShane (Colorado State University)

‘Relational Value: Problems and Prospects’

In Person

Week 7 (19 Mar), afternoon: Book Workshop with Remy Debes (University of Memphis),

Featuring Adam Etinson (St Andrews), Michael Cholbi (Edinburgh), and Emma Gordon (Glasgow)

Week 8 (26 Mar) FILM CLUB: Office Space (1999) with Ben Sachs-Cobbe

In Person

Week 9 (2 Apr) Kal Kalewold (Leeds)

‘Going First: Integration with Compensation as a Duty of Justice.’

In Person

Week 11 (16 Apr) Matthew Vermaire (St Andrews)

‘Conflated Questions in the Ethics of Belief.’

In Person

Week 12 (23 Apr) Jiewuh Song (Seoul National University)

‘The Right to a Healthy Environment and the Case of Climate Change.’

In Person

Week 13 (30 Apr), FILM CLUB: Twister (1996) with Simon Lee (Earth & Environmental Sciences)

In Person

Week 15 (14 May, followed by seminar on 15 May) Knox Lecture: Tommie Shelby (Harvard University)

In Person

Week 16 (21 May), FILM CLUB: Tár (2022) with Ida Miczke

In person

Week 17 (28 May) Richard Arneson (UC San Diego)

‘Democratic Instrumentalism and the Threat of Authoritarianism’

In Person

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