Dr Fiona Ellis
Email: f.ellis@heythrop.ac.uk
Telephone: 020 7795 4262
Biography
I have been a lecturer in philosophy at Heythrop since 2004, and before that worked for several years in Oxford.
Current teaching
I teach Nineteenth Century German Philosophy, Phenomenology, and Love, Sex, Death and God. These modules are available to BAP, BA P and T, and PRE students.
Other activities
I am Director for the Centre for Philosophy of Religion which has been launched this year. Other members include John Cottingham, Keith Ward, and Gerry Hughes.
Research interests
I work at the interface of philosophy and theology, and am involved in a project which seeks to bring these disciplines into dialogue and which draws upon insights from philosophers belonging to both the analytic and the continental tradition. I reject some of the untenable dualisms which stand in the way of this reconciliatory project, and defend a conception of reality which grants the significance of theological discourse.
Publications
Books:
• Concepts and Reality in the History of Philosophy: Tracing a Philosophical Error, Routledge, 2005
Papers:
• “Sartre on Mind and World”, Sartre Studies, 1, vol 6, no 1, 2000, pp.23-47
• “Scruton and Budd on Musical Meaning”, British Journal of Aesthetics, vol 41, issue 1, Jan 2001, pp.39-58
• “On the Dismounting of Seesaws”, Philosophy, vol 76, issue 01, Jan 2001, pp.31-54
• “The Metaphysics of Love: Dispelling a Paradox”, Journal of Value Enquiry, 35, 20001, pp.247-262
• “Metaphilosophy and Relativism”, Metaphilosophy, 2001, vol 32, no.4, pp.359-378
• “Levinas and Murdoch on God and Good”, European Journal of Philosophy of Religion, 2009
• “God and Other Minds”, Religious Studies, 2010, vol 46, issue 3, pp.331-351
• “Scruton’s Wagner on God, Salvation, and Eros”, British Journal of Aesthetics, 2010, vol 50, no 2, pp 169-187
• “God, Value, and Naturalism”, Ratio, 2011
• “Desire, Infinity, and the Meaning of Life”, Philosophy (forthcoming)
• “Some Reflections on the Relation between Philosophy and Theology”, Forum Teologiczne (forthcoming)
• “Insatiable Desire” (under consideration)
Reviews
Journal reviews
• The Minds of the Moderns: Rationalism, Empiricism, and the Philosophy of Mind, Janice Thomas, Heythrop Journal, 2009.
• Roger Scruton: The Philosopher on Dover Beach, Mark Dooley, Philosophy, 2010.
• Why Believe? John Cottingham, Philosophers and God: At the Frontiers of Faith and Reason, ed., John Cornwell and Michael McGhee, The Way, 2010
Times Literary Supplement
• 26 March, 2004: The Good Life, A.C. Grayling.
• 20 July, 2004: Lovesick: Love as a Mental Illness, Frank Tallis.
• 24 September, 2004: The Spiral Staircase, Karen Armstrong.
• 15 April, 2005: The Heart of Things, A.C. Grayling.
• 1 July, 2005: Love’s Confusions, C.D.C. Reeve.
• 18 May, 2007: U2 and Philosophy, Mark Wrathall.
• 25 January, 2008: Reason, Virtue, and Psychotherapy, Antonia Macaro.
• 25 April, 2008: Blind Date: Sex and Philosophy, Anne Dufourmantelle.
Other interests
Outdoor swimming, running, fine wine.