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King's College London

Professor Raimond Gaita

Emeritus Professor of Moral Philosophy

Biography

Raimond Gaita was educated in Victoria, Australia where he received a BA (Hons) and an MA (Hons) from the University of Melbourne. Under the supervision of R.F. Holland, he wrote a Ph.D. at the University of Leeds. He is Professor of Moral Philosophy at King's College London and Foundation Professor of Philosophy at Australian Catholic University. He is also a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. Professor Gaita is in London from the beginning of each academic session until approximately mid-February.

Research interests

Rai Gaita's main research interests and publications have been in ethics. He has also worked and written on scepticism (moral, of other minds and of the external world), on the philosophy of mind and the philosophy of psychology, on aspects of political philosophy (collective responsibility, the role of moral considerations in politics, genocide and the alleged uniqueness of the Holocaust), on education (the nature of teaching as a vocation, the role of love in learning and the plight of the universities) and on Wittgenstein's philosophy of mind and language.

Teaching

Professor Gaita taught on the following modules in 2010-11:

Undergraduate modules

Postgraduate modules

  • 7AAN4016 Epistemology & Methodology
  • 7AAN4020 Ethics

Professor Gaita also supervises a number of MPhilSt and PhD research students.

PhD supervision

Professor Gaita has supervised a large number of PhD students to successful completion, and continues to supervise a number of our current MPhilSt and PhD students.

Regretfully, Professor Gaita is not able to commit to full supervision of prospective PhD students, given the part-time nature of his position in London. Nevertheless, he hopes in the future that he will be able to meet with interested graduate students at King's on his future return visits to London.

Expertise and public engagement

Podcasts

Professor Gaita has contributed a podcast to the popular Philosophy Bites series:

Videos

Raimond Gaita on "A Common Humanity and International Law", August 2010

Raimond Gaita on 'Truth and Biography: Writing Romulus, My Father', State Library of NSW, November 2009
 
Raimond Gaita on 'The Idea of Absolute Value', ABC Fora, Adelaide Festival of Ideas, July 2009
 
Raimond Gaita on 'Shame', Adelaide Festival of Ideas, July 2009
 
Raimond Gaita on 'Gaza: Morality, Law and Politics', Melbourne, July 2009
 
Raimond Gaita on 'Plato', University of Melbourne, April 2009
 
Raimond Gaita on 'The Significance of the Human in Relation to Nature', ACU National, June 2008

Selected publications

Non-academic work

Romulus, My Father

(Melbourne: Text Publishing, 1988) (London: Review, 2000)

(Barcelona: Ediciones Del Bronce, 2001)

(Salzburg and Hamburg, Salzburg and Vienna: Residenz Verlag, 2001)

(Amsterdam: Ambo, 2004)

(Haifa: Carmel, 2008).

Winner: Nettie Palmer Prize for Non-Fiction, Victorian Premier's Literary Awards, 1998

Shortlisted:

  • Queensland Premier’s Award for Contribution to Public Debate 1999
  • Braille Book of the Year 1999
  • Age Book of the Year 1999
  • National Biography Award, 1999
  • Nominated by New Statesman, London, as one of the best books of 1999
  • Nominated by The Australian Financial Review as one of the ten best books of the decade.

Also published as an Audio Book. (ABC Cassettes, 1999; ABC  CD, 2007)

In 2007, Romulus, My Father was made into a major motion picture, starring Eric Bana, Franke Potente and Cody Smitt-McPhee.

Buy the DVD from amazon.co.uk

Philosophical work

Forthcoming

  • (ed. with Robert Manne ) Muslims and Multiculturalism (Text Publishing)
  • A Summer Coloured Humanism: Six Essays on Romulus, My Father(Text Publishing)
  • Gaza: Morality, Law and Politics (ed) (University of Western Australia Press)

Published

  • Thinking about Torture (Routledge (London & New York, 2008)
  • Multiculturalism and the War on Terror (ed with Robert Manne) (Melbourne: Text Publishing, 2008)
  • Breach of Trust: Truth, Morality and Politics (Melbourne: Black Inc 2004) reprinted in Four Quarterly Essays on Australian Politics (Melbourne: Black Inc, 2007).
  • Why the War Was Wrong (ed.) (Melbourne: Text Publishing, 2003)
  • The Philosophers Dog (Melbourne: Text Publishing, 2002), pp. 214; (London: Routledge, 2003); (New York: Random House, 2003); (Amsterdam: Ambo/Anthos, 2003); (Berlin: Rogner and Berhnard 2003); (Tapai: The Bookery, 2004); (Beijing: People's Literature Publishing House, 2004); (Istanbul: Dost Kitabevi Yayinlari, 2005); (Tokyo: Shuei-Sha, 2005); (Jerusalem: The Attic, 2005); (Rio deJaneiro: Betrand Brasil); (Genoa: Il Melangola 2007) (Portugal: Casa das Letras 2007). 

    Shortlisted for the NSW Premier's Award (2003) and The Age Book of the Year (2003). Nominated by the Kansas City Star as one of the ten best books of 2005. 
  • A Common Humanity; Thinking about Love & Truth & Justice (Melbourne: Text Publishing 1999); (London and New York: Routledge, 2000). Nominated by The Economist as one of the best books of 2000
  • Good and Evil: An Absolute Conception (London: Macmillan, 1991. Reprinted New York: St. Martins Press, 1994, 1996). 2nd. ed., (London and New York: Routledge, 2004).
  • Value and Understanding: Essays for Peter Winch (ed.) (London & New York: Routledge 1990).

    Based in