Dr Phil Hutchinson

Senior Lecturer in Applied Philosophical Psychology

My profile

Biography

I am Senior Lecturer in Applied Philosophical Psychology

My current research interests:

  1. The Philosophy of the “Placebo” Effect;
  2. Shame and Stigma, with a particular focus on their role in sexual health; and
  3. Non-representational accounts of mind, cognition and our responsiveness to loci of significance in the lifeworld, as found in 4E cognition and Ecological Psychology, but with specific focus on Wittgensteinian and Ethnomethodological Approaches. 

Academic and professional qualifications

BA (London)
MA (ECON) (Manchester University)
Ph.D. (Manchester University)

External examiner roles

I have examined Ph.D. theses on Wittgenstein and on Philosophy of Emotion at

Abo Akademi University, Finland,

Edge Hill University, UK, and

The University of East Anglia, UK

Expert reviewer

Journals For Which I Have Reviewed Manuscripts

Capitalism Nature Socialism

Ethical Theory and Moral Practice

Ethnographic Studies

European Journal of Political Theory

Hume Studies 

Inquiry 

International Journal of Green Economics 

Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice 

Nordic Wittgenstein Review 

Perspectives in Biology and Medicine

Philosophical Investigations 

Philosophical Quarterly 

Philosophical Psychology 

Philosophy of the Social Sciences

I have also reviewed research applications for The Finnish Research Council

Prizes and awards

BHIVA Research Award October 2014

MMU KE Award September 2014

Personal website address

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Phil_Hutchinson

Get in touch

0161 247 5361
Brooks Building

Impact

My BHIVA-funded research project on Shame, Stigma and HIV meets the Research Excellence Framework criteria for impact. It is explicitly designed to change professional, clinical practice, based on my own existing published research on shame, and is funded by a professional body (BHIVA).

Projects

2015. British HIV Association (BHIVA). “Shame and Stigma as Barriers to Good HIV Treatment, Control and Data Collection: The Clinician’s Perspective”. This project is designed to engender the clinician’s deeper understanding of the anatomy of shame, based on my philosophical work.

Teaching

Why do I teach?

When you think deeply enough about any subject, when you really interrogate and unpack the underlying assumptions and commitments of any academic discipline or subject area, then you are doing philosophy.

The objective is to not let this philosophising be unwitting, accidental or spontaneous. My teaching is focussed on helping students to be aware of the underlying philosophical assumptions and commitments which are there in their own reasoning and in the topics they are studying. 

This is why I teach:

I teach to bring to consciousness the underlying philosophical assumptions that can feature in our intellectual inquiries.

I teach to provide students with tools so that they might identify assumptions that underpin all psychological methods and sub-disciplines, from Neuro-Cognitive to Social Psychology, so that they might interrogate and engage critically with those assumptions.

I teach to help students express themselves cleary and to help them see clearly the ways in which they meet their world in and through the language they speak.

I teach to learn, because to to be a lecturer is to continue to be a student of your subject. 

Subject areas

Philosophical Psychology

Supervision

I have been the Director of Studies for 4 successful PhD’s and been on the supervisory team of a number of others.

I was the only DoS in the entire history of MMU’s Cheshire faculty to have two students pass without corrections.

PhD’s Awarded

Mark Fowler (Awarded Jan. 2015) Title of Thesis: “Mental Models and Meaning: A Study in the Validity of the Model Theory’s Use of Peircean Iconism.” Passed without amendments.

Scott Biagi (Awarded Feb. 2018) Title of Thesis: “Ethnomethodology, Brandom’s Pragmatism and Ordinary Language Philosophy: A ReÔ¨Çection on the Status of Formal-Analytic Work.” Passed without amendments.

Marie Chollier (Awarded Jan 2019) “HIV, Shame and Stigma” 

David Hirst (Awarded Jan 2019) “Epistemological and Moral Reasoning in Medical Ethics”

Research outputs

I am the author of Shame and Philosophy (Palgrave 2008) and numerous articles on emotions and shame. More recently I began working with sexual health clinicians on shame, stigma and sexual health, with particular focus on HIV stigma and shame.

This project has been awarded funding by the British HIV Association, among others, and a series of papers co-authored with Dr Rageshri Dhairyawan (an HIV consultant, based in London) are beginning to appear, which are based on the project.

I have also recently begun work on what is usually referred to as the placebo response, though I endorse Daniel Moerman’s proposal to rename it the meaning response (since this captures more accurately what it is). I am currently working on two papers on the meaning response, one co-authored with Moerman, and a funding application will follow this year (2017). These papers will appear in a special edition of the journal Perspectives in Biology and Medicine (Johns Hopins University Press) on Placebo and the Meaning Response, co-edited by Charlotte Blease (UCD - Ireland), Marco Annoni (CNR - Italy) and Phil Hutchinson (MMU)

I am currently finishing a book MS for Agenda Press. This will appear in June 2017 and is titled The Policy Test: Five Parameters for Assessing Policy. This book is based on the series of articles I authored in The Philosophers’ Magazine 2015-2016: The Five Parameters.

I have other ongoing research projects on Wittgenstein, on Policy, and Decision making procedures in healthcare.

I am a regular contributor to The Philosopher’s Magazine, with articles on GM food, on Placebo and on Film appearing there, in addition to the Five Parameters series. I have also published on Wittgenstein, on film, on the philosophy of social science and on political philosophy.

Press and media

Media appearances or involvement

I have appeared on BBC Radio Manchester and BBC Radio Stoke. I have been consulted by BBC Radio 5Live for a programme on HIV, stigma and shame.