Jon Phelan

Research Student

I’m interested in a whole range of philosophical issues in addition to those raised in literary aesthetics. I also have a professional interest in how philosophy is learnt and taught as my day job is head of philosophy at Hills Road Sixth Form College where I have taught for many years. I also teach philosophy for the University of Cambridge and run a variety of courses each year on the University’s International Summer School. When not working in philosophy I may be spotted whizzing around the gallops near Newmarket.

Current research

I am registered as a part time PhD student in the philosophy department at the OU; my supervisors are Professors Derek Matravers and Sophie-Grace Chappell. My research is in the philosophy of literature and my provisional title is ‘Understanding Other Minds from Literary Fiction’. I’m interested in the kinds of understanding we gain from literary fiction and more specifically how literary fiction communicates these kinds of understanding. I’m conducting an informal survey, so if you believe you have understood something better from reading a literary work (whether poem, play or prose) and have an idea of how this was achieved then I’d be interested in hearing from you.