Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at Otago

22/08/2026

Congratulations, PPE grads Tommy and Zoe!!

22/01/2026

PPE mourns the passing of the great Prof Alan Musgrave. So many of us learned so much from Alan!

It is with great sadness that the Philosophy Programme at the University of Otago announces the death of our colleague and friend, Emeritus Professor Alan Musgrave.

Alan was appointed to the Chair in Philosophy at Otago in 1970, a position which he held until his partial retirement in 2011, and he also served as Head of Department from 1970–2005.

Alan was born in Manchester in 1940, and was awarded a BA in Philosophy and Economics at the London School of Economics in 1961. Following this he was awarded a PhD at LSE in 1969, for research carried out under the supervision of Karl Popper. He worked mainly in the areas of Philosophy (and History) of Science and Epistemology, and in addition to numerous important articles in these and other areas, he was the author of a number of books, including Common Sense, Science and Scepticism (Cambridge University Press 1992) and Essays on Realism and Rationalism (Rodolpi 1999).

Alan was awarded the 2012 Humanities Aronui Research Medal from the Royal Society of New Zealand, and the University of Otago’s highest research honour, the Distinguished Research Medal, in 2013. In 2012, in recognition of Alan’s huge contribution to philosophical education at Otago, the Department of Philosophy launched the Alan Musgrave Scholarship in Philosophy, with funding from a foundation headed by one of Alan’s former students. The Scholarship allows high-calibre international students to pursue studies in Philosophy at Honours and Masters level, and since its inception recipients have included students from the USA, Cuba, India, Austria, Vietnam, Iran and Singapore.

Until relatively recently, Alan was a regular attendee and contributor to our weekly Research Seminar in Philosophy. He will be greatly missed by all of us, not only for his penetrating philosophical intelligence, but for his kindness and attentiveness to students and colleagues, and a fund of often hilarious anecdotes involving some of the major philosophers of the 20th century.

12/08/2025

London-based Otago PPE grads: Please join Professor Lisa Ellis (and each other!) for drinks and catch-up Thursday evening 21st August from 5:15 at the George IV pub on the LSE campus. She will be giving a talk about net zero targets earlier in the day at SOAS.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/net-zero-targets-provisionally-legitimate-and-conclusively-absurd-tickets-1563178170989

27/07/2025

Inaugural graduate programme in a central government agency Modern office just metres from the Beehive Opportunity to quickly grow and develop skills About our graduate roles As a Graduate at the M...

05/05/2025

Stoked to hear Ben's conclusions in this final lecture on climate change politics!

All are welcome to the sixth and final De Carle Distinguished Lecture this coming Tuesday (6 May, 5:30pm to 7pm) in Tūhura Otago Museum’s Hutton Theatre.

Ben McKean (The Ohio State University) is a political theorist whose research concerns global justice, climate change, populism, the relationship between theory and practice, and the inadequacy of existing political concepts for addressing climate change. His book, Disorienting Neoliberalism: Global Justice and the Outer Limit of Freedom (Oxford University Press, 2020), argues that people subject to unjust institutions and practices should be disposed to solidarity with others who are also subject to them – even when those relations cross state borders.

30/04/2025

New academic staff: Austin Henderson (Economics)

Austin Henderson has recently arrived from the United States where he was a Research Assistant Professor in Health and Behavioural Economics at the Institute for Research and Education to Advance Community Health (IREACH) at Washington State University.

He’s an applied economist and decision scientist with more than eight years of experience in conducting and leading economic research on various topics related to health and decision-making.

https://www.austinhenderson.info

Austin will teach ECON306 (Health Economics) in Semester 2.

He’s looking forward to designing his curriculum. “I think health economics provides a lot of really important tools for understanding some of the most pressing policy issues in contemporary New Zealand, and I want my course to be very relevant to the current day. I think it'll be fun to figure out how to best prepare my students to think about the health policies which they'll be voting on or someday maybe even designing and implementing.”

Welcome, Austin.

27/04/2025

Nice one, Lauren!

We are proud of our graduates’ achievements. Lauren Holloway, who completed a Bachelor of Arts with a major in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) and a Bachelor of Laws with First Class Honours, has published an article in the Harvard Business Review on how product-level carbon accounting can unlock real innovation and drive decarbonisation across value chains.

Read the full article here:

https://hbr.org/2025/02/how-bmw-started-auditing-emissions-across-its-supply-chain

18/04/2025

The perfect podcast to prevent philosophy withdrawal over the term break! https://www.facebook.com/share/1GiPXJSSvS/

When is a “Conspiracy Theory” just a conspiracy theory? 🤔

At 2 PM (PODCAST: bit.ly/OIConspiracy)🎙️ Dr Barb and Trudi from the OI Podcast chat with Prof Charles Pigden (Philosopher, Historian)about the Philosophy behind conspiracy theory and how to – maybe – tell when a “Conspiracy Theory” is just a conspiracy 💭

📺 For more information see Prof Pigden’s IPL on YouTube: youtube.com/watch?v=gF9BiPC3ah4

The OI Podcast is brought to you by the Otago Institute, featuring discussions on Science, Art, and Mātauranga Māori. Join Dr Barb Anderson and Trudi Sunitsch for some stimulating conversation with guest experts.

The OI Podcast airs weekly Fridays @ 2 PM
▶️ OAR FM Website: oar.org.nz/oi-podcast
▶️ Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, or your favourite podcast provider

CAMA - Community Access Media Alliance
NZ On Air

14/04/2025

Interesting talk Wednesday afternoon from visiting ANU prof Christian Barry!