Dr Nigel Pleasants (he / him / his)

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My main areas of interest and work are in moral and social philosophy. Since my degree days I’ve been strongly influenced by the philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein, especially his last writings in On Certainty. Over a number of years I’ve been attempting to work out ways in which Wittgenstein’s philosophy might help illuminate areas of moral philosophy, introducing and developing the idea of moral certainty (2008; 2009; 2015). I have sought to develop and apply this, and kindred concepts and ideas to the analysis and explanation of what I call ‘institutional wrongdoing’ (2008), moral change, moral progress and moral revolution (2018), and moral disagreement (2025). More generally, have interests in, and have published on, moral agency and social structure (2008; 2018; 2019; 2022); moral responsibility, moral psychology, moral perception, moral ignorance and morally relevant non-moral ignorance (2008; 2021); the badness of death and the wrongness of killing (2008; 2009; 2015). Alongside all of this, I engage in reflecting philosophically on our historical and social scientific understanding of slavery and abolition (2008; 2010), genocide, and the Holocaust (2004; 2016; 2018). I have longstanding interests in the ethics and politics of contemporary animal exploitation (2006). My primary orientation is philosophical, but I draw and reflect on findings, theories, explanations and ideas from history and the social sciences, and philosophy of social science.

Selected Publications​

2025: 'Hinge-certainty and the asymmetricality of "deep moral disagreement"',  Synthese 205, 210

2023: Philosophical Perspectives on Moral Certainty, edited by Cecilie Eriksen, Julia Hermann, Neil O’Hara, and Nigel Pleasants (Routledge)​​

2022: ‘If You’re an Egalitarian…So What?’, Social Philosophy & Policy 39 (2), 13-33​​

2022: ‘Did Marx really think that capitalism is unjust?’ Philosophical Papers 51 (1), 147 - 77​​

2021: ‘Excuse and justification: What’s explanation and understanding got to do with it?’  European Journal of Social Theory 24 (3), 338–355

2021: Review of Gavin Kitching, 'Capitalism and democracy in the twenty-first century: a global future beyond nationalism', in Contemporary Political Theory 20, 115–18

2019: ‘Free will, determinism and the “problem” of structure and agency in the social sciences’, Philosophy of the social sciences 49 (1), 3–30

2018: ‘Would Aristotle have seen the wrongness of slavery if he had undergone a course of moral enhancement?’  Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement 83, 87-107.​​

2018: 'The structure of Moral Revolutions’,  Social Theory and Practice 44 (4), 567-92

2018: ‘Ordinary Men: Genocide, Determinism, Agency and Moral Culpability’, Philosophy of the social sciences 49 (1), 3–30

2016: ‘The question of the Holocaust’s uniqueness: Was it something more than or different from genocide?’  Journal of Applied Philosophy 33 (3), 297–310.

2015: ‘If killing isn’t wrong, then nothing is: A naturalistic defence of basic moral certainty’ Ethical Perspectives 22 (1), 197 – 215.​​

2010: 'Moral argument is not enough: The persistence of slavery and the emergence of abolition', Philosophical Topics 38 (1), 159-180.​​

2009: ‘Structure, agency, and ontology for Political Scientists?’, Political Studies 57 (4), 885-891.​​

2009: 'Wittgenstein and Basic Moral Certainty', Philosophia 37 (4), 669-679 (Special issue: The Third Wittgenstein Conference, edited by D. Moyal-Sharrock).​​

2008: ‘Wittgenstein, ethics and basic moral certainty’, Inquiry 51 (3), 241- 67.​​

2008: ‘Institutional wrongdoing and moral perception’, Journal of Social Philosophy 39 (1), 96–115.​​

2008: ‘Structure and moral agency in the antislavery and animal liberation movements’, in D. Grumett and R. Muers (eds.) Eating and believing: interdisciplinary perspectives on vegetarianism and theology. London: T&T Clark, pp. 198-216.​​

2008: Review of P. Tabensky (ed.) Judging and understanding: essays on free will, narrative, meaning and the ethical limits of condemnation, Philosophical Papers 37 (1), 177-84.​​

2006: ‘Nonsense on stilts? Wittgenstein, ethics, and the lives of animals’, Inquiry 49 (4), 314-36​​

2004: ‘The concept of learning from the study of the Holocaust’, History of the Human Sciences 17 (2/3), 187-210​​

2003: ‘Social criticism for “critical critics”?’ History of the Human Sciences 16 (4), 95-100.​​

2003: ‘A philosophy for the social sciences: realism, pragmatism, or neither?’ Foundations of Science 8 (1), 69-87.​​

2002: ‘Towards a critical use of Marx and Wittgenstein’, in G. Kitching & N. Pleasants (eds.), Marx and Wittgenstein: knowledge, morality and politics. London: Routledge, pp.160-81.​​

2002: ‘Rich egalitarianism, ordinary politics, and the demands of justice’, Inquiry 45 (1), 97-118.​​

2000: ‘Winch and Wittgenstein on understanding ourselves critically: descriptive not metaphysical’, Inquiry 43 (3), 289-318.​​

2000: ‘Winch, Wittgenstein, and the idea of a critical social theory’, History of the Human Sciences 13 (1), 78-91.​​

1999: Wittgenstein and the idea of a critical social theory. London: Routledge.​​

Work in Progress​ 

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'Moral certainty and the wrongness of killing revisited'

'Empathy with evildoers​​'

'Marxian theory of moral progress​​​'

Biography

I left school at 16 - as one did at the Secondary Modern school I attended (having been classified as unsuited for academic pursuits by the selection test of the tripartite education system that used to operate in the British State sector before comprehensivisation). I did various jobs for the next eight years: mink farm, road haulage company, meat-processing factory. In the last two of those years I took evening classes in 'O' level maths and 'A' level sociology (my education had supposedly given me practical life-skills, and prepared me for the world of semi-skilled work, but hadn't given me much formal qualification apart from a few CSEs). Having liked the taste of academic education, I resigned from my job in a well-known Suffolk turkey processing factory (a very sweet act) to embark on a programme of full-time 'A' level study at my local Further Education College (in Lowestoft, Suffolk). I went on to do a degree in Philosophy and Sociology at the University of Bristol, and then to the University of Cambridge for an M.Phil in Social and Political Theory, followed by a Ph.D.I came to Exeter in 1997, to what was then the Department of Sociology. I was centrally involved in reinstating philosophy at Exeter via the Department of Sociology. The department continued to grow and broaden with the addition of anthropology and criminology. Throughout this time I have served for many years as Director of Undergraduate Studies and Director of Education.