Sophie Grace Chappell

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Sophie Grace Chappell (born Timothy David John Chappell; November 1964) is an English philosopher, academic, and poet. Since 2006, she has been Professor of Philosophy at the Open University. [1] [2]

Contents

Early life and education

Chappell was born in November 1964. [3] She studied Literae humaniores at Magdalen College, Oxford, having been awarded the Anne Shaw Classical Scholarship. She achieved a first in Honour Moderations in March 1986 and an upper second in the Final Honour School in June 1988, thereby graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree. [2] She then moved to the University of Edinburgh to undertake research for a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree under the supervision of James Mackey and Dory Scaltsas. [2] She completed her PhD in 1992 with a thesis titled "Aristotle and Augustine on voluntary action and freedom and weakness of the will". [4]

Academic career

In 1991, Chappell returned to the University of Oxford and was a junior research fellow at Wolfson College, Oxford (1991–1994) and a lecturer in philosophy at Merton College, Oxford (1992–1994). [2] She was then a lecturer at the University of East Anglia from 1994 to 1996 and at the University of Manchester 1996 to 1998. [2] [5] In 1998, she moved to the University of Dundee: she was promoted to senior lecturer in 2002 and to Reader in Philosophy in 2005. [2] In May 2006, she joined the Open University as Professor of Philosophy and director of the Open University Ethics Centre. [2] [5]

Thought

Sophie Grace Chappell writes against the systematic ambitions of contemporary moral philosophy to be able to define "the whole and exclusive truth about the justification, explanation, evaluation, and prescription of moral beliefs, and to contain the materials for displacing or refuting most or all other systematic moral theories." Her work aligns with that of her teacher Bernard Williams, as well as Alasdair MacIntyre and Ludwig Wittgenstein. [6]

She offers a new definition of the human personhood, inspired by gender role theory. She criticizes the traditional definition of "man" and "woman" based on antenatal biological traits, arguing that the sexual forms of human individuals can be used to identify human animals, but not human personhood. [7] This point of view draws upon the Aristotelian definition of the human being as a political animal, as well as the Christian notion of natural moral law, [8] at least for those aspects which might be differentiated from a gendered perspective.

Chappell introduces a distinction between passive and immediate moral perceptions vs active and step-by-step moral inferences, stating human actions are mainly performed on the basis of ethical intuitions which do not have a logical justification or did not have such a justification at the time they were enacted. Like sense perceptions, moral perceptions can be very vivid, or subjectively perceived as being certain, whilst moral inferences can be independent of their respective phenomenology or vividness. [9] Some judgments might be considered to be moral perceptions because they appear to be "obviously true", self-evident and more certain than any rational argument with pros or cons. An example could be the following statement: "at least in nearly all conceivable cases, it is seriously wrong to torture, steal, rape and murder." [10] In such cases, rational arguments can appear to be unnecessary.

In a 2005 paper on the Theaetetus , Chappell discusses the definition of episteme in five Platonic dialogues, arguing that Plato's work has positively identified human knowledge with judgement (in Greek: doxa ) supported by a rational argument for justification ( logos ). [11] As suggested above, moral perceptions may not always need a rational argument to be justified.

Personal life

Chappell is transgender, and transitioned from male to female in 2014. [5] She married in 1988, and has four children. [1]

Works

Nonfiction

Poetry

Related Research Articles

In ethical philosophy, ethical egoism is the normative position that moral agents ought to act in their own self-interest. It differs from psychological egoism, which claims that people can only act in their self-interest. Ethical egoism also differs from rational egoism, which holds that it is rational to act in one's self-interest. Ethical egoism holds, therefore, that actions whose consequences will benefit the doer are ethical.

Epistemology is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemologists study the nature, origin, and scope of knowledge, epistemic justification, the rationality of belief, and various related issues. Debates in (contemporary) epistemology are generally clustered around four core areas:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Plato</span> Ancient Greek philosopher (428/423 – 348/347 BC)

Plato was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical period who is considered a top thinker in Philosophy. He is the namesake of Platonic love and the Platonic solids. He founded the Academy, a philosophical school in Athens where Plato taught the doctrines that would later become known as Platonism. The philosopher was an innovator of the written dialogue and dialectic forms in philosophy. He was a system-builder. He also raised problems for what became all the major areas of both theoretical philosophy and practical philosophy.

Reason is the capacity of applying logic consciously by drawing conclusions from new or existing information, with the aim of seeking the truth. It is associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, religion, science, language, mathematics, and art, and is normally considered to be a distinguishing ability possessed by humans. Reason is sometimes referred to as rationality.

The Theaetetus is a philosophical work written by Plato in the early-middle 4th century BCE that investigates the nature of knowledge, and is considered one of the founding works of epistemology. Like many of Plato's works, the Theaetetus is written in the form of a dialogue, in this case between Socrates and the young mathematician Theaetetus and his teacher Theodorus of Cyrene. In the dialogue, Socrates and Theaetetus attempt to come up with a definition of episteme, or knowledge, and discuss three definitions of knowledge: knowledge as nothing but perception, knowledge as true judgment, and, finally, knowledge as a true judgment with an account. Each of these definitions is shown to be unsatisfactory as the dialogue ends in aporia as Socrates leaves to face a hearing for his trial for impiety.

Eudaimonia, sometimes anglicized as eudaemonia or eudemonia, is a Greek word literally translating to the state or condition of 'good spirit', and which is commonly translated as 'happiness' or 'welfare'.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aristotelianism</span> Philosophical tradition inspired by the work of Aristotle

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bernard Williams</span> English moral philosopher (1929–2003)

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Virtue epistemology</span> Philosophical approach

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Aristotle first used the term ethics to name a field of study developed by his predecessors Socrates and Plato which is devoted to the attempt to provide a rational response to the question of how humans should best live. Aristotle regarded ethics and politics as two related but separate fields of study, since ethics examines the good of the individual, while politics examines the good of the city-state, which he considered to be the best type of community.

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References

  1. 1 2 Moorhead, Joanna (11 July 2020). "UK's only trans philosophy professor to JK Rowling: Harry Potter helped me become a woman". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Timothy Chappell: Curriculum Vitae" (PDF). The Open University. March 2014. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 January 2021. Retrieved 23 April 2022.
  3. ↑ "Christian Sophia Grace CHAPPELL personal appointments - Find and update company information - GOV.UK". company-information.service.gov.uk. Companies House. Retrieved 23 April 2022.
  4. ↑ Chappell, Timothy David John (1992). "Aristotle and Augustine on voluntary action and freedom and weakness of the will". ERA. The University of Edinburgh. Retrieved 23 April 2022.
  5. 1 2 3 "Professor Sophie-Grace Chappell". The Open University. Archived from the original on 23 April 2022. Retrieved 23 April 2022.
  6. ↑ Hallvard Lillehammer. "Knowing What to Do: Imagination, Virtue, and Platonism in Ethics [Critical Review]" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 15 February 2017.
  7. ↑ Chappell, Timothy (1 March 2011). "On the very idea of criteria for personhood" (PDF). The Southern Journal of Philosophy. Wilhey. 49 (1): 1–27. doi:10.1111/j.2041-6962.2010.00042.x – via Wiley Online Library.
  8. ↑ Matthew O'Brien (6 June 2011). "What Does it Mean to be a 'Political Animal'?".
  9. ↑ Heuer, Ulrike; Lang, Gerald (28 June 2012). Luck, Value, and Commitment: Themes From the Ethics of Bernard Williams. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 28, 36. ISBN   9780199599325. OCLC   1120374427.
  10. ↑ Heuer_Lang,OUP 2012, p. 36.
  11. ↑ "Reading the περιτρoπη: Theaetetus 170c-171c". Phronesis a Journal for Ancient Philosophy. Brill. 51 (2 (April 2006)): 109–139. 2 January 2006. doi:10.1163/156852806777006787. ISSN   0031-8868. OCLC   5672370177. Archived from the original on 13 January 2021. . The five Platonic dialogues are: Meno (92a), Phaedo (76b, 97d-99d), Symposium (202a), Republic (534b), Tymaeus (51e).
  12. ↑ "Epiphanies: An Ethics of Experience by Sophie Grace Chappell". Oxford University Press. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 2 March 2024.
  13. ↑ "Songs For Winter Rain by Sophie Grace Chappell". Ellipsis Imprints. Ellipsis Imprints. Retrieved 2 March 2024.
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