Welcome to my webpage! I am a pragmatist philosopher and political theorist. I am primarily interested in how the realm of ideas (spanning philosophy, politics and science) influence our ability to act effectively/ineffectively– as individuals and collectively as societies– to meet the practical predicaments of the 21st century. My official academic title is the Sir Edward Peacock Professor of Political Theory in the Department of Political Studies at Queen’s University. I am also cross-appointed with the Department of Philosophy and I occasionally teach in the School of Policy Studies.
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** Click here for my research on aging and geroscience ***
I received all of my formal University education (e.g. BA, MA and PhD) in philosophy, have been teaching in political science departments the past 25+ years, and regularly publish my research in journals in science and medicine. This unconventional career trajectory is a reflection of my somewhat bohemian intellectual interests and penchant for intellectual risk-taking.
My research interests are interdisciplinary and integrate insights from normative theory (e.g. political theory and bioethics) with empirical insights from a variety of scientific disciplines, such as evolutionary biology, genetics, medicine, demography, psychology, and biogerontology/geroscience. The integration of these often distinct domains of “facts” and “norms” is what excites my intellectual curiosity the most. This typically takes me off the beaten track of the topics traditionally examined by political theorists, but I believe science and science policy constitute the most significant areas of knowledge and public policy in the 21st century. So it is an exciting time for political theorists and philosophers to explore these topics. It is also imperative that students in the social sciences and humanities develop some level of scientific-literacy and critical thinking if we hope to meet the pressing societal challenges of the 21st century. There are significant cultural and psychological factors that impede the development and refinement of these “epistemic virtues”. To inspire my students to take seriously the development of their own intellect I try my best to emulate the epistemic virtues of curiosity, attention to the facts, intellectual humility, and adaptive thinking in both my teaching and research.
This site contains information about my academic career and research interests.
My CV is available here. PubMed entries here.
TedX Queen’s Talk on Global Aging and Longevity Science:
CFRC interview:
Central question which preoccupies most of my research and life: How should we live?
If you are looking for my blog “In Search of Enlightenment” please click here.
Bio
(Istanbul 2023)
Before coming to Queen’s University in 2008 I was Associate Professor of Political Science (Cross-Appointed with Philosophy) at Waterloo University for 5 years. I also spent a year as a Research Fellow in the Dept of Politics and International Relations at Oxford University and as a Visitor in Oxford’s Program on the Ethics of the New Biosciences, and a semester as Visiting Professor at UCLA’s Dept. of Public Policy. For the Fall term of 2018 I am the Fulbright Visiting Research Chair in the Social Sciences at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.
In the more distant past, I held full-time academic appointments in the Dept of Government at Manchester University, the Dept of Political Science and International Studies at Birmingham University and the Dept of Philosophy at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland.
Colin Farrelly 