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News

News: June/July 2026

Hertfordshire scraps philosophy • Nancy Cartwright honoured for phil sci work • Cops raid Moscow philosophy institute — News reports by Anja Steinbauer

Nancy Cartwright Wins Frontiers of Knowledge Award

Prof. Nancy Cartwright
Photo: LSE Library

Nancy Cartwright, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at University of California San Diego, has received the 2026 Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Humanities for her major contributions to the philosophy of science and evidence-based policymaking. The Frontiers of Knowledge Award is an international prize established by the BBVA Foundation to recognise outstanding contributions to science, humanities, music, and public knowledge. It honours individuals or organisations whose work has significantly advanced understanding in their field or helped address major global challenges. Each laureate receives a prize of €400,000. The award recognises Cartwright’s influential work on scientific evidence, causality and objectivity, as well as her argument that complex real-world problems require multiple models, methods and forms of expertise rather than a single universal scientific approach. Cartwright is widely known for developing the ‘philosophy of science in practice’, which examines how science operates within laboratories, institutions and policy contexts. Her influential book How the Laws of Physics Lie argued that scientific laws rely on idealised models rather than perfectly describing reality. Her research has had a broad impact beyond philosophy, especially in the social sciences and public policy, where she emphasises that evidence must be adapted to specific contexts.

Renowned Philosophy Programme to Close

Grim tidings. The University of Hertfordshire has announced the surprising decision to end teaching of its most successful subject: Philosophy. Courses in that and seven other humanities subjects will cease immediately. Offers of degree places to start in Autumn will not be honoured, and existing Philosophy students will be taught elsewhere. Redundancies of the lecturers are expected shortly.

After it gained university status in the 1992, UH’s Philosophy Department steadily built a national and then international reputation, including having a successful PhD programme and being the home of the British Wittgenstein Society. We are grateful to the many philosophers from that stimulating environment who published prominently in Philosophy Now over the last three decades, including Dan Hutto, Brendan Larvor, John Lippett, Tony Milligan, Sam Coleman, Jane Singleton and Constantine Sandis. Sandis, still a Visiting Professor there, told Philosophy Now: “The impending closure of Philosophy at Hertfordshire is part of a wider trend across UK universities, whose myopic concerns have led them to lose sight of the long-term value of humanities degrees. I am confident that one day the tide will change.”

A petition protesting the closures is at: www.change.org/p/save-the-humanities-at-the-university-of-hertfordshire.

Understanding the Gap Between Climate Intentions and Action

A recent study published in Nature examines why public action on climate change remains limited despite decades of scientific warnings and overwhelming evidence of environmental harm. Synthesising research on climate scepticism and behavioural inaction, authors Kelly Fielding and Matthew Hornsey of the University of Queensland identify strategies to encourage stronger public engagement with climate issues. They explore how demographic factors, political ideologies, and conspiratorial worldviews interact to influence scepticism toward human-caused climate change. Yet the study also concludes that, at the personal level, belief in anthropomorphic climate change often isn’t enough to inspire meaningful behavioural change. Many do accept the scientific consensus that global temperatures and sea levels are rising fast due to human activity, yet remain unwilling to make any personal sacrifices or investments to address the crisis. A major strand in ethics is the problem of moral motivation. Knowing that there are good reasons for doing something does not necessarily translate into wanting to do it. Perhaps writings on this ethical problem should now be the most urgent line of research for climate campaigners?

Philosophy Institute Raided

On 19th May 2026 a police raid was conducted on the historic Moscow headquarters of the Institute of Philosophy, part of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The raid was in connection with an alleged fraud case involving state-funded translations of Aristotle. At least ten scholars, including acting director Abdusalam Guseynov, were questioned until evening, and academic Svetlana Mesyats was reportedly placed under house arrest on suspicion of large-scale fraud. Pro-government Telegram channels claimed that institute staff misused government grants for translation projects that were never completed, though other commentators suggested the issue may involve bureaucratic reporting errors rather than deliberate theft. This has happened in the context of longstanding tensions between the institute and nationalist, pro-Kremlin figures who have previously portrayed the institute as a hub of “liberal” and “anti-Russian” thought, linking the investigation to wider ideological crackdowns within Russia’s academic and intellectual sphere.

Money for Accepting PhD Students

Alex Guerrero, philosophy professor at Rutgers University, recently posted his concerns on the DailyNous.com website after receiving an unusual recruitment proposal from an organisation offering him ‘pre-screened’ PhD applicants and promising him a donation of $60,000 for each such student he admitted to his department’s PhD programme. According to the email, the payment would be for use at the professor’s personal discretion for research or student support. Guerrero asked whether any other academics had received such offers. Two or three said they had received very similar proposals from study-abroad agencies based in China. Critics wondered whether it could constitute an attempt at bribery or at least might create conflicts of interest.

Texas Philosophy Troubles

Christy Mag Uidhir has announced that he will resign from his post at University of Houston effective June 1, 2026, citing growing threats to academic freedom in Texas higher education. Mag Uidhir said the university administration had embraced an ‘indoctrination narrative’ after Dean Daniel P. O’Connor required faculty in the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences to complete forms affirming they were not indoctrinating students. Mag Uidhir publicly refused to comply, arguing that the policy undermined professors’ autonomy over what and how they teach. His resignation is part of a broader exodus of philosophers from Texas public universities over concerns about political interference and censorship. Linda Radzik is leaving Texas A&M University for Binghamton University, blaming censorship policies and actions by the university’s Board of Regents. Philosopher Martin Peterson is also departing that university after being instructed to remove certain Plato readings from his long-running course on Contemporary Moral Problems (see News, Issue 172). Meanwhile, a federal judge has ruled that Texas State University violated the First Amendment rights of philosopher Idris Robinson by firing him over comments on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.