Biography
Tom Simpson
Tom Simpson is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford, and a Senior Research Fellow at Wadham College.
He works particularly on trust, and issues at the intersection of technology and security. For an overview of his research, see this broadcast with ABC.
He joined the School from Cambridge, where he was a Research Fellow at Sidney Sussex College, and was also educated (BA, MPhil, PhD).
Between degrees he was an officer with the Royal Marines Commandos for 5 years. He served in Northern Ireland; Baghdad, Iraq; and Helmand Province, Afghanistan. The academic life is undoubtedly a privilege, but he remains conflicted about its sedentary nature.
Recent publications
Contact
Publications
Edited volume
2017. The Philosophy of Trust, ed. P. Faulkner and T. Simpson. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Articles & book chapters
2019. Freedom and Trust: A Rejoinder to Lovett and Pettit. Philosophy and Public Affairs 47(4): 412-424
2019. Restoring Trust in Finance: From Principal-Agent to Principled Agent. The Economic Record 95(311): 497-509 (G. Menzies, D. Hay, _____, and D. Vines)
2019. Locke on Trust. In Trust in Epistemology, ed. K. Dormandy, 43-63. London: Routledge
2018. Trust, Belief, and the Second Personal. Australasian Journal of Philosophy 96(3): 447-459
2017. The Impossibility of Republican Freedom. Philosophy and Public Affairs 45(1): 27-53
2017. Trust and Evidence. In The Philosophy of Trust, ed. P. Faulkner and T. Simpson, pp. 177-94. Oxford: Oxford University Press
2017. Telepresence and Trust: A Speech-Act Theory of Mediated Communication. Philosophy and Technology 30(4): 443-459
French translation forthcoming in La confiance à l'ère numérique, ed. J. Domenicucci and M. Douehi, Editions Berger-Levrault and Editions Rue d'Ulm (2017)
2016. _____ and Vincent C. Müller. Just War and Robots' Killings. Philosophical Quarterly 66(263): 302-22
2016. The Morality of Unconventional Force. In Ethics and the Future of Spying: Technology, National Security and Intelligence Collection, ed. J. Galliott and W. Reed, pp. 132-42. London: Routledge
2015. Testimony in John's Gospel: The Puzzle of 5:31 and 8:14. Tyndale Bulletin 65(1): 101-18
2014. Computing and the Search for Trust. In Dialogues: Trust, Computing and Society, ed. R. Harper, pp. 95-119. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2014. The Wrong in Cyberattacks. In Ethics of Information Warfare, ed. L. Floridi and M. Taddeo, pp. 141-154. London: Springer
2013. Trustworthiness and Moral Character. Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 16(3): 543-57
2012. What is Trust? Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 93(4): 550-69
2012. Evaluating Google as an Epistemic Tool. Metaphilosophy 43(4): 426-45.
Reprinted in Philosophical Engineering: Toward a Philosophy of the Web, ed. A. Monin and H. Halpin, 97-115. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell (2014)
2012. Testimony and Sincerity. Ratio 25(1): 79-92
2011. Robots, Trust and War. Philosophy and Technology 24(3): 325-37
2011. e-Trust and Reputation. Ethics and Information Technology 13(1): 29-38
Book reviews & symposia
2015. Cécile Fabre and Seth Lazar (eds), The Morality of Defensive War. Philosophical Quarterly 65(260): 590-93
2015. Did Marine A do wrong? On Biggar's Lethal Intentions. Studies in Christian Ethics 28(3): 287-91
2013b. Critical Notice of Benjamin McMyler, Testimony, Trust, & Authority and Paul Faulkner, Knowledge on Trust. Mind 122(485): 305-11
Please email me for the published version if required.