State of Play V: Speakers' Bios

Profile

Prof. Malpas is Australian Professorial Research Fellow at the University of Tasmania in Hobart, Tasmania. He is a past Humboldt Research Fellow at the Universities of Heidelberg and Munich, and Distinguished Visiting Professor at LaTrobe University in Melbourne.

Current Areas of Research

 1. Making Ethics Work: A New Model for Business and Professional Ethics. Developing a new conceptual framework for understanding ethics in business, management and the professions, one that arises out of and is attentive to actual business, managerial and professional practice. The project draws on (i) existing empirical work in management and social science, and (ii) a philosophical approach that emphasizes the practically embedded character of all agency and understanding. formation, community and social development.

2. Ethos and Topos: A Philosophical Investigation of the Ethics and Politics of Place.  There are good reasons for thinking that our attachment to place is inextricably linked to who and what we are. Yet some theorists argue that such attachment is inevitably linked to violence and exclusion. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach within the framework of philosophical analysis, this project aims to investigate the possibility of a viable ethics and politics of place that is not linked to violence in this way.

3. Consequences of Pragmatism (collaborative book project with Santiago Zabala and Gianni Vattimo) – Contemporary philosophy is dominated by the division between Anglo-American analytic thought and a mode of continental thinking that centers around contemporary French theory. The hermeneutic tradition stands somewhat apart from both of these and yet also shares points of similarity and convergence with both. This volume will explore the nature and significance of the hermeneutic tradition for contemporary, and for the future of philosophy, uncovering its roots in the eighteenth and nineteenth century, and its burgeoning in the twentieth, but also arguing for the sui generis character of hermeneutics, and the possibility that it may offer a new way forward for philosophy into the twenty-first century.

4. Engaging Davidson – Donald Davidson is one of the influential figures in twentieth century analytic thought, and yet his work remains poorly understood, and is often subject to readings that place Davidson within an unduly narrow philosophical compass. This volume will explore Davidson’s work in relation to a broad range of issues and traditions, connecting Davidson’s thinking with figures in the history of philosophy and with problems in both analytic and continental thought.

Other projects Professor Malpas currently has underway include a volume of essays on cosmopolitanism in contemporary Australia (with Keith Jacobs), a volume of essays on the problem of landscape, and a volume on human suffering (with Norelle Lickiss.)  He is also working on several projects involving issues surrounding art, place, and landscape.

Web Presence

Faculty Profile

Selected Publications

• Heidegger's Topology: Being, Place, World (January 2007)

• Gadamer's Century: Essays in Honor of Hans-Georg Gadamer co-authored with Ulrich Arnswald and Jens Kertscher (February 2002)