Photo of Dr Daniel Hill

Dr Daniel Hill BA (Oxon), MA (KCL), PhD (London)

Senior Lecturer Philosophy

    Research

    Research Overview

    Daniel Hill's research is mostly in philosophy of religion, especially philosophical theology and the philosophy of Calvinism, and in philosophy of law, especially criminal law, marriage law, constitutional law, and discrimination law. He also has a strong interest in applied ethics, especially double effect and the trolley problem, and applied political philosophy, especially the limits of the state's authority.

    Philosophy of Religion

    The nature of God: omnipotence, omniscience, perfect goodness.
    Philosophical analysis of religious assertions.
    Free will and predestination.
    The philosophy of Calvinism.
    The epistemic status of the Bible.
    Supralapsarianism vs Infralapsarianism.

    Philosophy of Law

    The nature of the law.
    The relationship between the law and morality: are immoral laws null and void?
    Natural law vs legal positivism.
    The Hart--Devlin debate.
    The declaratory theory vs the theory that judges make law.
    Retrospective laws.
    Thought crimes and the question whether some areas of life should be beyond the law's reach.
    Whether marriage should be legally regulated.

    Applied Ethics

    The principle of double effect as applied to issues such as:
    palliative fatal injections on those approaching the end of their lives;
    collateral damage in warfare;
    discrimination.

    Research Grants

    Philosophy of Religion and Religious Communities: Defining Beliefs and Symbols

    ARTS AND HUMANITIES RESEARCH COUNCIL

    February 2012 - August 2012

    Kit Fine on Neutral Relations

    MIND ASSOCIATION (UK)

    November 2011 - December 2011

    Research Collaborations

    Richard Gaskin

    Internal

    Co-authorship.

    Daniel Whistler

    Internal

    AHRC Scoping Study on Religious Symbolism and Discrimination

    Stephen McLeod

    Internal

    Co-authorship.

    Mary Leng

    Internal

    Application to the John Templeton Foundation for funding for a 15-month research project on nominalism and its implications (especially for philosophy of logic, philosophy of language, metaphysics, and religion).

    Crawford Gribben

    External: Trinity college Dublin

    Proposed collaboration on an AHRC-funded project on law, religion, and morality, to describe and analyse religious (Christian) answers to the question 'how far should the law reflect morality?'. Rejected by AHRC.