Finlay Malcolm

I joined the department of philosophy as a Research Fellow in 2017. Prior to coming to Hertfordshire, I studied for my PhD at the University of Manchester, MA at King’s College London, and BA at Kingston University.

You can read my papers and publications at PhilPapers.

You can see my CV here.

My current research interests are primarily in two areas: the philosophy of religion and epistemology.

In the philosophy of religion I am particularly focussed on researching questions concerning the nature and value of faith. For instance, what role does faith play in our everyday lives? Does faith require belief or trust, or can faith be had without these attitudes? What kinds of experiences do people have who suffer a loss of, or crisis of faith? Can faith be rational even if we lack evidence? How does faith help us to achieve our long-term goals? Each of these questions is important for understanding faith in the lives of both religious and non-religious people. I also have general interests in religious epistemology, for instance, I am interested in how we can have religious knowledge, whether religious beliefs can be rational, and the role that testimony and trust occupies in the formation of religious beliefs. Finally, I also work on 'non-realist' approaches to religion: theories, like religious fictionalism, which maintain that people do not, or should not hold religious beliefs, but should engage in religious practice nonetheless, and whether religious identity even requires holding religious beliefs.

My main interests in epistemology generally concern concepts in social epistemology. For instance, I have written on the ways by which we share knowledge with each other through testimony, and what ethical problems can occur in the context of our testimonial practices. In this regard I have interests relating to epistemic injustice, and how the ethics of testimony bears on pragmatic and epistemic reasons for belief. I am also working to connect several of these concepts to issues in the social epistemology of religion.