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Welcome to the Centre  for Ethics, Philosophy and Public Affairs.  Founded in February 1984 by decisions of the Faculty of Arts, the Senate and the University Court, the Centre recently completed its twenty fifth year of operation, and it is the oldest university centre for philosophy, ethics and policy in the United Kingdom.

CEPPA maintains a programme of academic visits, fellowships, lectures, seminars and conferences, with occasional ongoing research projects. It also hosts a major publication series, St Andrews Studies in Philosophy and Public Affairs, and provides a forum for public discussion both within and outwith the University.

Founded in Scotland's first university, the third oldest in the English speaking world, CEPPA is housed within the only Department of Moral Philosophy in the United Kingdom, the subject having been taught here since the fifteenth century beginning with classes on Aristotle's Ethics taught by Lawrence of Lindores (1372-1437).

Throughout the six hundred year history of St Andrews University, ethics has been a constant part of the undergraduate curriculum, and teachers of the subject have often reached out beyond the academic sphere to contribute to debates about public affairs.

Significant St Andrews figures in that tradition include John Mair or Major (1467-1550) and George Buchanan (1506-82) in the sixteenth century; Alexander Henderson (1583-1646) in the seventeenth; Adam Ferguson (1723-1816) in the eighteenth; Thomas Chalmers (1780-1847) and James Ferrier (1808-64) in the nineteenth; and Bernard Bosanquet (1848-1923), A.E. Taylor (1869-1945) and Sir Malcolm Knox (1900-80) iin the twentieth.

Writing on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of St Salvator's college, the chapel and tower of which can be seen on the left, and another image of which features on the volumes of St Andrews Studies in Philosophy and public Affairs, Sir Malcolm Knox wrote as follows:

If a man cannot pursue philosophical enquiry as a member of the College of St Salvator, he is unlikely to be able to philosophise at all. In this College, dominated throughout its chequered history by [Bishop] Kennedy's great tower and church, a philosopher cannot but be conscious of belonging to an academic tradition which is centuries old, and here, living in a small town overlooking the sea and exempt from the distractions of great cities, he has every inducement to brood over the traditional problems of metaphysics or the standards that should control the vagaries of human conduct.

Such has been the experience of successive generations, and it is one that is shared and valued by our visiting fellows, of whom there have been over 80 since the fellowship programme began in 1984.

Spanning the twentieth and twenty first centuries, the Centre continues this tradition of bringing philosophical reflection to bear upon matters of broad interest and concern.  Its field of activity comprises ethics, social and political philosophy as well as the ethical and philosophical dimensions of public affairs. Please explore this site through the menu provided on the left; and the items catalogued on the right. You will find descriptions of various events and opportunities as well as links to other organisations and sources of information.

John Haldane
Director

Historical note:
John Mair, mentioned above, bore the Latin name Joannes Maioris Scotus and is shown in this contemporary image teaching at the College of Navarre in the University of Paris. Mair was born c. 1467 in Cleghornie, NE of Edinburgh and some 20 miles due south of St Andrews. After an early career in Paris and in Glasgow, Mair was first appointed to St Andrews in 1523, and after a spell back in France returned to the University in 1534 to become Provost of St Salvator's College. He died here in 1550.

Among Mair's writings is a commentary on Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics (1530) His many students included George Buchanan, Jean Calvin, John Knox, Ignatius Loyola, and Francois Rabelais. Increasingly his theory of Church governance is being seen as a source of democratic political theory.


St Andrews' other Research Centre for Philosophy is Arche

Centre for Ethics, Policy and Public Affairs, University of St Andrews, St Andrews Fife KY16 9AL, UK

Director: Prof John Haldane

Tel: +44 (0)1334 462486/462488 Fax: +44 (0)1334 462485

email: cppa@st-andrews.ac.uk or jjh1@st-andrews.ac.uk

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