Stephen Watt
I am the webmaster for this blog.
I was the tutor for the online course on Reclaiming Catholic Social Teaching (details here) and was the main tutor on the initial Thinking through Catholic Social Teaching course in 2014. I also gave a number of sessions in 2015 on Catholic social teaching at the University of Edinburgh Catholic Chaplaincy, primarily intended for a student audience. I'm a philosopher (although I do hold a BD and postgraduate MA in theology as well) who is currently teaching at The Open University and the University of Edinburgh, Department of Open Studies as well as the Albertus Institute.
My PhD was on Aristotle's ethics and, although I've covered pretty much every area of philosophy over the years, my interests are still firmly based in the area of ethics. I think that focus will be evident in my work for the Institute, as I intend to try and dig down into the philosophical and theological roots behind modern Catholic social teaching. In particular. I'll be emphasizing the need to approach that teaching as rooted in rationally defensible understandings of human beings and society and requiring practical wisdom for its proper application, rather than as simply a set of arbitrary rules to be applied mechanically.
Please feel free to comment on the posts in the blog, or contact me by email: sjwatt@aol.com.
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Online course 24 August 2015- 21 September 2015 (now completed)
Tutor: Dr Stephen Watt (see above).
Session 3 2015 (this session is now completed):
The main facilitators for this session starting on 15 April 2015 will be:
Professor Henry S. Thompson:
Henry S. Thompson is Professor of Web Informatics in the School of Informatics at the University of Edinburgh, based in the Institute for Language, Cognition and Computation.
He received his Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1980. His university education was divided between Linguistics and Computer Science, in which he holds an M.Sc. His current research is focused on the semantics of markup, XML pipelines and more generally understanding and articulating the architectures of the Web.
He is a Quaker, with long-standing family connections to the Dominican friary in George Square, and the relationship between science and religion has long been an important issue for him, both personally and professionally. He has campaigned publically against the involvement of computer scientists in weapons programmes (particular Launch on Warning and the Strategic Defense Initiative ("Star Wars")). He is committed to the proposition that the computational study of human intelligence cannot succeed if it loses sight of the essential humanity of its subject.
Professor Emeritus Ian E. Thompson (BA Hons PhD):
Ian retired in mid-2000 from the University of Notre Dame Australia as Professor of Philosophy & Ethics and Consultant in Corporate and Applied Ethics.
Ian is a graduate from the Universities of Natal (BAHons in Philosophy) and Durham [UK]. He studied philosophy and lectured in Logic and Metaphysics, Ethics and Philosophy of Science at the Universities of Natal, Cape Town and the Witwatersrand, before coming to the UK. His PhD research was on Paul Tillich and 20th Century British and German philosophical theology.
Prevented from returning to South Africa by the Apartheid Regime in 1975, he first found employment at the University of Edinburgh as a Post-doctoral Research Fellow in Medical Ethics and Education [1975-1980]. From 1981 to 1992 he worked for the SHHD as Principal Professional Development Officer in the Scottish Health Education Group. He returned to academic life when invited to manage an Ethics Centre in the University of Western Australia. In 1994 he was appointed Foundation Professor of Philosophy and Ethics at the University of Notre Dame Australia.
On his return to Scotland in 2000 he was appointed an Honorary Research Fellow in the University of Edinburgh School of Social and Political Studies where he worked till 2008 as a consultant, mainly on a Scottish Office funded research project on Evaluation in Youth Justice.
Ian’s publications include:
Nursing Ethics, (with Kath Melia, Kenneth Boyd & Dorothy Horsburgh), Churchill Livingstone, Elsevier Science, 5th Edition 2006
Ethical Issues in Professional Life, University of Notre Dame Australia, Fremantle, Perth, WA, 2001
Putting Ethics to Work in the Public Sector, (with M Harries & M Vass) Office of the Public Sector Standards Commission, 146 St George’s Terrace, Perth, Western Australia, 1997
Being and Meaning — Paul Tillich’s Theory of Meaning, Truth and Logic, Edinburgh University Press, 1981;
Dilemmas of Dying — A Study in the Ethics of Terminal Care, Edinburgh University Press, 1979;
Others leading classes in 2015:
Professor Zenon Bankowski
Born Polish in 1946. Educated at the Universities of Dundee (LL.B in Law and Philosophy 1969) and the University of Glasgow (Advanced Study Scholar). Taught at University of Wales, University College Cardiff (Lecturer in Law 1971-1974) and then at the Faculty of Law in Edinburgh (successively, Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, Reader, and Professor of Legal Theory 1994- 2011). I am now an emeritus professor but am still engaged in research but much more peacefully.
For more details see Professor Bankowski's page at the University of Edinburgh here.
Philippa Bonella
Philippa is Head of Communications and Education for SCIAF, with responsibility for leading the organisation’s work with parishes, schools and policy-makers. Since joining SCIAF in 2011, she has worked at international and national level to promote understanding of Catholic social teaching and to help people put it into practice. Previous to SCIAF, she worked in senior policy roles in the Scottish voluntary and public sectors for 15 years. Philippa is also Chair of the Refugee Survival Trust and a board member of the International Development Education Association Scotland and Eco-Congregations Scotland, as well as being a member of her parish Justice & Peace group.
Lord Drummond Young was appointed a Judge of the Supreme Courts in 2001 and he was appointed to the Inner House in June 2013.
He is a graduate of the University of Cambridge (B.A., Sidney Sussex College), Harvard University (LL.M., Joseph Hodges Choate Memorial Fellow) and the University of Edinburgh (LL.B.). He was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates1 in 1976 and was Standing Junior Counsel2 to the Department of Industry from 1984 to 1986 and to the Inland Revenue from 1986 to 1988.
Lord Drummond Young was appointed Queen's Counsel in 1988. He served as Advocate Depute3 from 1999 to 2001. Publications include "The Law of Corporate Insolvency in Scotland" (with J.B. St. Clair, 3rd ed. 2004) and Stair Encyclopaedia of Scots Law (1989). He was the Chairman of the Scottish Law Commission from 2007 to 2012.
Elizabeth Drummond Young, MA, MSc, PhD
Professor Emeritus Ian E. Thompson (BA Hons PhD):
Ian retired in mid-2000 from the University of Notre Dame Australia as Professor of Philosophy & Ethics and Consultant in Corporate and Applied Ethics.
Ian is a graduate from the Universities of Natal (BAHons in Philosophy) and Durham [UK]. He studied philosophy and lectured in Logic and Metaphysics, Ethics and Philosophy of Science at the Universities of Natal, Cape Town and the Witwatersrand, before coming to the UK. His PhD research was on Paul Tillich and 20th Century British and German philosophical theology.
Prevented from returning to South Africa by the Apartheid Regime in 1975, he first found employment at the University of Edinburgh as a Post-doctoral Research Fellow in Medical Ethics and Education [1975-1980]. From 1981 to 1992 he worked for the SHHD as Principal Professional Development Officer in the Scottish Health Education Group. He returned to academic life when invited to manage an Ethics Centre in the University of Western Australia. In 1994 he was appointed Foundation Professor of Philosophy and Ethics at the University of Notre Dame Australia.
On his return to Scotland in 2000 he was appointed an Honorary Research Fellow in the University of Edinburgh School of Social and Political Studies where he worked till 2008 as a consultant, mainly on a Scottish Office funded research project on Evaluation in Youth Justice.
Ian’s publications include:
Nursing Ethics, (with Kath Melia, Kenneth Boyd & Dorothy Horsburgh), Churchill Livingstone, Elsevier Science, 5th Edition 2006
Ethical Issues in Professional Life, University of Notre Dame Australia, Fremantle, Perth, WA, 2001
Putting Ethics to Work in the Public Sector, (with M Harries & M Vass) Office of the Public Sector Standards Commission, 146 St George’s Terrace, Perth, Western Australia, 1997
Being and Meaning — Paul Tillich’s Theory of Meaning, Truth and Logic, Edinburgh University Press, 1981;
Dilemmas of Dying — A Study in the Ethics of Terminal Care, Edinburgh University Press, 1979;
Others leading classes in 2015:
Professor Zenon Bankowski
Born Polish in 1946. Educated at the Universities of Dundee (LL.B in Law and Philosophy 1969) and the University of Glasgow (Advanced Study Scholar). Taught at University of Wales, University College Cardiff (Lecturer in Law 1971-1974) and then at the Faculty of Law in Edinburgh (successively, Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, Reader, and Professor of Legal Theory 1994- 2011). I am now an emeritus professor but am still engaged in research but much more peacefully.
For more details see Professor Bankowski's page at the University of Edinburgh here.
Philippa Bonella
Philippa is Head of Communications and Education for SCIAF, with responsibility for leading the organisation’s work with parishes, schools and policy-makers. Since joining SCIAF in 2011, she has worked at international and national level to promote understanding of Catholic social teaching and to help people put it into practice. Previous to SCIAF, she worked in senior policy roles in the Scottish voluntary and public sectors for 15 years. Philippa is also Chair of the Refugee Survival Trust and a board member of the International Development Education Association Scotland and Eco-Congregations Scotland, as well as being a member of her parish Justice & Peace group.
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The Rt Hon Lord Drummond Young (James Edward Drummond Young)
Lord Drummond Young was appointed a Judge of the Supreme Courts in 2001 and he was appointed to the Inner House in June 2013.
He is a graduate of the University of Cambridge (B.A., Sidney Sussex College), Harvard University (LL.M., Joseph Hodges Choate Memorial Fellow) and the University of Edinburgh (LL.B.). He was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates1 in 1976 and was Standing Junior Counsel2 to the Department of Industry from 1984 to 1986 and to the Inland Revenue from 1986 to 1988.
Lord Drummond Young was appointed Queen's Counsel in 1988. He served as Advocate Depute3 from 1999 to 2001. Publications include "The Law of Corporate Insolvency in Scotland" (with J.B. St. Clair, 3rd ed. 2004) and Stair Encyclopaedia of Scots Law (1989). He was the Chairman of the Scottish Law Commission from 2007 to 2012.
Elizabeth Drummond Young, MA, MSc, PhD
After working as
an investment manager in Scotland, Elizabeth obtained her doctorate in
philosophy at the University of Edinburgh in 2004. She tutored and lectured
there for some years on the history of philosophy and moral philosophy and is
now a tutor in the Open Studies department, where she runs a course on the
philosophy of love and friendship. Her published work in this area includes
book chapters on the irreplaceability of persons and love. She also speaks and
writes on the philosophy of religion and value.
Angela Gentile
Angela is a qualified social worker with over ten years post qualifying experience. She is dedicated to working with young people and adults who experience disadvantage. Angela firmly believes in developing individuals, families and communities' own resources to bring about change.
Professor Alasdair MJ MacLullich
Following undergraduate medical training, including an intercalated BSc in Psychology at the University of Edinburgh, Alasdair MacLullich completed general medical training and went on to do a PhD on glucocorticoids and cognitive ageing. He was Clinical Lecturer in Geriatric Medicine from 2000-2005 and an MRC Clinician Scientist Fellow from 2005-2009. He was appointed Professor of Geriatric Medicine at the University of Edinburgh in 2008. He co-founded the European Delirium Association in 2006 and is its current President.
He is active clinically, working in acute geriatric medicine and acute orthogeriatrics. He has a keen interest in improving the detection and management of delirium and dementia in acute hospital patients and leads the regional 'Delirium and Dementia Implementation Group'.
Professor MacLullich's University of Edinburgh page with further details may be found here.
Odile Pilley
Odile is an international consultant in development policies/strategies and postal affairs. She has extensive experience built up over several years working as an academic and within the private and public sectors in several countries.
Details of Odile's class on 25 Feb which gives further details of her background and interests are here.
Professor Bill Whyte
Professor of Social Work Studies in Criminal and Youth Justice at the University of Edinburgh.
Professor Whyte's staff profile at the University of Edinburgh can be found here.
Angela Gentile
Angela is a qualified social worker with over ten years post qualifying experience. She is dedicated to working with young people and adults who experience disadvantage. Angela firmly believes in developing individuals, families and communities' own resources to bring about change.
Professor Alasdair MJ MacLullich
Following undergraduate medical training, including an intercalated BSc in Psychology at the University of Edinburgh, Alasdair MacLullich completed general medical training and went on to do a PhD on glucocorticoids and cognitive ageing. He was Clinical Lecturer in Geriatric Medicine from 2000-2005 and an MRC Clinician Scientist Fellow from 2005-2009. He was appointed Professor of Geriatric Medicine at the University of Edinburgh in 2008. He co-founded the European Delirium Association in 2006 and is its current President.
He is active clinically, working in acute geriatric medicine and acute orthogeriatrics. He has a keen interest in improving the detection and management of delirium and dementia in acute hospital patients and leads the regional 'Delirium and Dementia Implementation Group'.
Professor MacLullich's University of Edinburgh page with further details may be found here.
Odile Pilley
Odile is an international consultant in development policies/strategies and postal affairs. She has extensive experience built up over several years working as an academic and within the private and public sectors in several countries.
Details of Odile's class on 25 Feb which gives further details of her background and interests are here.
Professor Bill Whyte
Professor of Social Work Studies in Criminal and Youth Justice at the University of Edinburgh.
Professor Whyte's staff profile at the University of Edinburgh can be found here.
