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Professor of Political Theory, University of Bristol

Outside of academia, I'm keen on disseminating political philosophy as far and wide as possible. In particular, I'm keen on finding a way for it to be taught in secondary schools, as part of the 'citizenship' curriculum. This builds on my 'how to' approach to teaching political philosophy, for which In 2017 I won the 'Students' Award for Outstanding Teaching' in the Social Sciences and Law Faculty, here at the University of Bristol, whilst in 2016 I won the most votes in a competition to find Bristol University's 'best lecturers'. A public lecture given as a result of that vote, intended as an introduction to political philosophy, and with dissemination very much in mind, can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQJ2vwZMe4c.

Most recently, in 2021, I won the Political Studies Association (PSA) Jennie Lee Prize for outstanding contribution to the teaching of politics in higher education (https://www.psa.ac.uk/psa/news/psa-announces-its-academic-prizes-2020-21).

Within academia, my research is similarly focused on 'how to' questions, looking carefully at the nature, methods, and purposes of political philosophy, and in particular the way in which we justify political principles, such as 'distribute resources so as to maximise the position of the worst off', 'only coerce individuals or groups in order to stop them harming other individuals or groups', and 'contribute a fair share to any cooperative schemes from which you derive a significant benefit'. This has led me to write on, amongst other things,, the nature of reflective equilibrium, the relationship between political theory and practical reason, the relationship between facts and principles, the debates surrounding realism and non-ideal theory, and the uses of things like intuitions and considered judgements in the process of principle-justification.

Most of my thoughts on these and other matters can be found in a book I worked on for the best part of a decade: Is Political Philosophy Impossible? Thoughts and Behaviour in Normative Political Theory (Cambridge University Press, 2017). More recently, and also more accessibly, you could also try: What's the Point of Political Philosophy? (Polity Press, 2019).

At present, I'm working on a substantial monograph on 'how to do' political philosophy that builds on these earlier works, whilst also opening up various news lines of enquiry. This is under contract with Oxford University Press for 2023.

To follow my work, and read most of my papers, please go here: https://bristol.academia.edu/JonathanFloyd

Experience

  • –present
    Lecturer in Political Theory, University of Bristol

Education

  • 2009 
    University of Oxford, DPhil
  • 2005 
    Columbia University, MA
  • 2004 
    University of Edinburgh, MSc

Honours

FHEA, DPhil, MA, MSc, BA (Hons)