James Laing
I arrived in Oxford in Michaelmas 2023 upon taking up a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Faculty of Philosophy. During this time I was also a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at St Hugh’s College. Before coming to Oxford, I completed a PhD in Philosophy at University College London, and held a string of postdoctoral positions in York, Dublin, and Edinburgh. Research My research is situated at the intersection of ethics, the philosophy of mind, and social philosophy, and is animated by an interest in our nature as social animals. In my work I ask: How should we understand our deep and abiding concern with the way we figure in the minds of others and the associated emotions of pride, shame, embarrassment and humiliation? What do philosophers and social scientists mean when they write of a human ‘need for connection’, and how is this related to our other social needs? And what are the implications of these issues for our understanding of human ethical life? I have written on a v