Professor Dan O'Brien

BSc(hons), MA, MPhil, PhD

Professor of Philosophy

School of Education, Humanities and Languages

dobrien@brookes.ac.uk

Role

I am Subject Coordinator for Philosophy@Brookes. My first degree was in Biological Sciences at Birmingham University, after which I took an MA, MPhil and PhD (2001) in Philosophy. I have taught at Birmingham, Warwick and Keele Universities, coming to Brookes in 2008.

Teaching and supervision

Courses

Philosophy (BA (Hons))

Modules taught

PHIL4003 Theory of Knowledge;
PHIL4005 Human Nature;
PHIL4009 Philosophical Voices;
PHIL5010 Ethics for the 21st Century;
PHIL5012 Early Modern Philosophy;
PHIL5014 Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art;
PHIL6006 Thought and Consciousness;
PHIL6016 Foundations of Continental Philosophy.

Supervision

As director of studies or second supervisor I have supervised the following postgraduate projects to completion:

2023. Daniel Brown (PhD): ‘Hume, Husserl, and Intentionality’. Jan. 2020–Jan. 2023. Director of Studies.
2023. Catrin Street-Mattox (MA by Research): ‘A Defence of Szasz’s “The Myth of Mental Illness” and its Relevance to Modern Mental Healthcare'. Sept. 2021–Sept. 2022. Co-Director of Studies.
2023. Miles Christie (MA by Research): ‘Functionalism and Strange Minds’. Sept. 2021—Sept. 2022. Director of Studies.
2021. Matthew Cooper (MA by Research): ‘The Pragmatic Problem of Evil’: Sept. 2020–Sept. 2021. Director of Studies.
2021. Josh D’Arcy Grantham (MA by Research): ‘It’s All a Cover-up! An Examination of Epistemic Vices and Conspiracy Theories in the Internet Age’: Sept. 2020–Sept. 2021. Director of Studies.
2021. Jose Quinones (PhD): ‘Euthanasia and the Duty to Die: A Moral Advocacy for the Responsibility to End Life at the Right Time’: June 2019–Sept. 2021. Second Supervisor.
2021. Thomas Whitmore (MA by Research): ‘Virtue Ethics and Eudemonia’: Sept. 2019–Sept. 2020. Second supervisor.
2020. Shamsa Khan (PhD): ‘Hume and the Self: Pride, Narrativity and Social Media’: Sept. 2016–June 2020. Director of Studies
2019. Daniel Brown (MA by Research): ‘The Cornerstones of Personhood: The Creation of the Self and the Formation of Personal Identity’: Sept. 2018–Sept. 2019. Director of Studies.
2018. Marcus Westberg (PhD): ‘The Nature of Human and Artificial Rationality’: 2012–2018. Second Supervisor.
2018. Tomacz Stainer (MA by Research): Sept. 2016–Sept. 2017. ‘Coherentism in Moral Epistemology: Moral science or Elaborate Intuitionism?’. Second Supervisor.
2017. Alan Bailey (PhD by previously published work): ‘David Hume and Scepticism’: 2016–17. Second Supervisor.
2016. Alex Barrett (MA by Research), ‘Eliminative Materialism’: 2014–2016. Second Supervisor.

Research

I have published 10 books and a number of articles in top-ranking journals. My research interests are wide, ranging over David Hume, philosophy of religion, philosophy of mind (empathy), history of art (cubism; Caravaggio), philosophy of art, epistemology (epistemic virtues; testimony), philosophy of education and more.

Groups

Philosophy Research

Publications

O'Brien D, Philosophy and the Visual Arts: Illustration and Performance
Human Affairs: Postdisciplinary Humanities & Social Sciences Quarterly 31 (4) (2021) pp.496-507 ISSN: 1210-3055 eISSN: 1337-401X Philosophy and the Visual Arts: Illustration and Performance Open Access version on RADAR
O'Brien D, Humeanism and the Epistemology of Testimony
Synthese 199 (2021) pp.2647-2669 ISSN: 0039-7857 eISSN: 1573-0964 Humeanism and the Epistemology of Testimony Open Access version on RADAR
O'Brien D, Caravaggio, Empathy and Christ
The Heythrop Journal 61 (3) (2020) pp.437-446 ISSN: 0018-1196 eISSN: 1468-2265 Caravaggio, Empathy and Christ Open Access version on RADAR
O'Brien D, Art, Empathy and the Divine
The Heythrop Journal 61 (3) (2019) pp.412-423 ISSN: 0018-1196 eISSN: 1468-2265 Art, Empathy and the Divine Open Access version on RADAR
O'Brien D, Engineered Knowledge, Fragility and Virtue Epistemology
Philosophia 47 (3) (2019) pp.757-774 ISSN: 0048-3893 eISSN: 1574-9274 Engineered Knowledge, Fragility and Virtue Epistemology Open Access version on RADAR
O'Brien D, Cubism: Art and Philosophy
ESPES 7 (1) (2018) pp.30-37 ISSN: 1339-1119 Cubism: Art and Philosophy Open Access version on RADAR
O'Brien D, Hume on Education
Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 98 (S1) (2017) pp.619-642 ISSN: 0279-0750 eISSN: 1468-0114 Hume on Education Open Access version on RADAR
O'Brien DJ, God's knowledge of other minds
European Journal of the Philosophy of Religion 5 (1) (2012) pp.17- ISSN: 1689-8311
O'Brien DJ, Hume and the intellectual virtues
Discipline Filosofiche 22 (2) (2012) pp.153-172 ISSN: 1591-9625
O'Brien D J, A feminist interpretation of Hume on testimony
Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy 25 (3) (2010) pp.632-652 ISSN: 0887-5367
, Testimony and Lies
The Philosophical Quarterly (2007) ISSN: 0031-8094 eISSN: 1467-9213
O'Brien D, Testimony, engineered knowledge and internalism
Philosophica -Gent- 78 (2) (2006) pp.53-68 ISSN: 0379-8402

O'Brien D, An Introduction to the Theory of Knowledge [Arabic translation]: مقدمة في نظرية المعرفة، دان أوبراين، ترجمة: محمد باشا (القاهرة: المركز القومي للترجمة، 2023), Cairo: National Centre for Translation,
Cairo: National Centre for Translation (2023)
O'Brien D, Hume on Testimony ,
Routledge (2022) ISBN: 9780367217938 eISBN: 9780429266133
O'Brien D, (ed.), Hume on the Self and Personal Identity ,
Palgrave Macmillan (2022) ISBN: 9783031042744 eISBN: 9783031042751
Gibson W, O'Brien D, Turda M, (ed.), Teleology and Modernity ,
Routledge (2019) ISBN: 9780815351030 eISBN: 9781351141888
O'Brien D, An Introduction to the Theory of Knowledge, 2nd Revised Edition,
Polity (2016) ISBN: 978-0745664316
O'Brien D, Bailey A, (ed.), Bloomsbury Companion to Hume,
Bloomsbury (2015) ISBN: 978-1474243933
O'Brien D, Bailey A, Hume's critique of religious beliefs: sick men's dreams,
Springer (2013) ISBN: 9789400766143
O'Brien D, Introdução à Teoria do Conhecimento = An Introduction to the Theory of Knowledge [Portuguese translation],
Gradiva Publicações (2013) ISBN: 97898961615420
O'Brien D, 지식론 입문 = An Introduction to the Theory of Knowledge [Korean translation],
Seokwangsa (2011) ISBN: 9788930621625

O'Brien, D, Sympathy, Self and Others
in O'Brien D (ed.), Hume on the Self and Personal Identity, Palgrave Macmillan (2022) ISBN: 9783031042744
O'Brien D, Hume on Humility
in Negri S (ed.), Representations of Humility and the Humble, sismel edizioni del Galluzo (2021) ISBN: 9788892901216
O'Brien D, Greco L, Hume, Teleology and the "Science of Man"
in Gibson W, O'Brien D, Turda M (ed.), Teleology and Modernity, Routledge (2019) ISBN: 9780815351030 eISBN: 9781351141888 Hume, Teleology and the "Science of Man" Open Access version on RADAR
O'Brien D, Hume, Intellectual Virtue, and Virtue Epistemology
in Audrey Anton (ed.), The Bright and the Good: The Connection between Intellectual and Moral Virtues, Rowman and Littlefield (2018) ISBN: 9781786602367 eISBN: 9781786602381
O'Brien D, Hume, Sympathy and Belief
in G. Boros, J. Szalai and O. Toth, (ed.), The Concept of Affectivity in Early Modern Philosophy, ELTE Eötvös Kiadó (2017) ISBN: 9789632848204 eISBN: 9789632848204
O'Brien D, 'Hume and the Virtues'
in Bailey A, O'Brien D (ed.), Bloomsbury Companion to Hume, Bloomsbury (2015) ISBN: 1474243932
O'Brien D, God, omniscience and understanding Evil
in God, goodness and philosophy, Ashgate (2011) ISBN: 9781409428510

O'Brien D, Cubism and Kant
10 (2018) pp.482-506 ISSN: 1664-5278 Cubism and Kant Open Access version on RADAR

O'Brien D, review of Review of: Hume : an Intellectual Biography / James Harris.
History of Political Thought 38 (1) (2017) ISSN: 0143-781X

Professional information

Memberships of professional bodies

I am the organizer of the Royal Institute of Philosophy (Oxford) public lectures, The Oxford Hume Forum and I am book reviews editor for Hume Studies. I am also a member of the British Society for the History of Philosophy, the Hume Society, the British Society of Aesthetics and the European Society of Aesthetics.

Conferences

I have presented my work at over 90 national and international conferences and workshops. In the last few years these have included:

2024. World Philosophy Congress, Rome. August 6: ‘Roles of Sympathy in Hume’s Social Epistemology’ 2024.
Recasting the Treatise IV. Oxford (& Corvinbus University, Budapest). July 2024: ‘Hume on Testimony in the Treatise and Enquiry’.
2023. Early Modern Social Epistemology, CEU Vienna. May 20: ‘Hume on Testimony’ 2023.
Sympathy and Construction of Otherness in the Long Eighteenth Century. L’Aquila University. May 17: ‘Hume on Testimony’ 2022
Coordinates of Aesthetics, Art and Culture 8. Presov, Slovakia. Nov. 10, 2022. ‘Philosophy, Art and Creative Assessments: A Proposal’
University of San Raffaele, Milan. CRESA seminar. June 22, 2022. ‘Philosophy, Art and Creative Assessments’
AMPS Focus on Pedagogy, Beaconhouse National University, April 20, 2022: ‘Philosophy, Pedagogy and Visual art’
3rd International Symposium of Visual Culture: Interdisciplinarity in the Study of the Image, Valencia, Oct. 27, 2021. ‘Philosophy and the Visual Arts: Some Distinctions’
Prague-Oxford Hume Forum, Prague, May 8, 2021. ‘Hume, Intellectual Virtue and Agency’
Representations of Humility and Humbleness. Albert-Ludwigs-Universität, Freiberg, Nov. 7–9, 2019: ‘Hume’s Mitigated Scepticism and Intellectual Humility’
Positioning the Humanities in the 2020s symposium, Volkswagen Foundation, Herrenhausen Palace, Hamburg, Sept. 10–12, 2019: ‘Philosophy in Schools and Intellectual Modesty’
On the Limits of Reason in the Age of Reason: Disputes in the 18th Century Philosophy, Institute of Philosophy, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, August 28–31, 2019: ‘Humean Wisdom’