Ben Davies

School of History, Philosophy and Digital Humanities

Lecturer in Political Philosophy

PGR Seminar Lead

A photo of Ben Davies.
Profile picture of A photo of Ben Davies.
ben.davies@sheffield.ac.uk
214b, 9 Mappin Street

Full contact details

Ben Davies
School of History, Philosophy and Digital Humanities
214b
9 Mappin Street
Sheffield
S1 4DT
Profile

Ben was awarded his PhD in 2015 from King's College London, writing on the ethics of research into manipulating the human ageing process. His work since then has focused on a range of applied ethical and, increasingly, political issues that arise in health practice. This has included topics such as justice between different generations; responsibility (for patients, medical professionals, and those running health systems); discrimination within the health care system and how to respond to it; and the question of whether we can set thresholds (e.g., saying that someone's level of health is 'good enough' even if not perfect) in a morally acceptable way.

He is now developing work on several projects.

  • The idea of 'health capital', i.e. understanding health as a resource and what that implies for justice (with Prof. Thomas Schramme, University of Liverpool);
  • The politics of health guidance, especially related to infant care (with Dr Clare Moriarty, Trinity College Dublin);
  • The environmental impacts of healthcare, and what steps can ethically be taken to mitigate them (with Dr Joshua Parker, University of Lancaster);
  • How democratic health priority-making decisions should be, and what this would look like in practice.

Ben joined the ±¬ÁÏTV in 2023. His broader teaching interests cover areas of practical ethics beyond healthcare, and topics in political philosophy. 

Qualifications
PhD Philosophy, KCL; MA Philosophy, KCL; BA Philosophy and Politics, University of Edinburgh. 
Research interests
  • Ageing
  • Animal ethics
  • Autonomy
  • Disability, especially its challenge to mainstream ethics and political theory
  • Discrimination
  • Professional ethics
  • Well-being and prudence

He is happy to hear from students interested in these topics, or other topics in bioethics broadly construed. He is also interested in professional collaboration with people who work in health practice at any level. 

Publications

Edited books

  • Davies B, Levy N, De Marco G & Savulescu J (Eds.) (2024) . Oxford University PressOxford.

Journal articles

  • Davies B (2025) . American Journal of Bioethics, 25(4), W3-W7.
  • Davies B & Schramme T (2025) . Public Health Ethics, 18(1).
  • Davies B (2024) . Bioethics, 38(9), 823-824.
  • Davies B (2024) . Ethic@: an International Journal for Moral Philosophy, 22(3), 1048-1062.
  • Davies B & Parker J (2024) . Monash Bioethics Review, 42(1), 1-15.
  • Moriarty CM & Davies B (2024) . Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, 27(2), 167-183.
  • Davies B & Savulescu J (2024) . The Journal of Value Inquiry, 58, 215-234.
  • Davies B (2023) . Ethics, Policy & Environment.
  • Davies B (2023) . Analysis, 83(4), 673-682.
  • Davies B (2023) . Clinical Ethics, 18(3), 287-291.
  • Park JK & Davies B (2023) . The American Journal of Bioethics, 24(7), 66-79.
  • Davies B (2023) . Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, 32(2), 174-185.
  • Zohny H, Davies B & Wilkinson D (2022) . Bioethics, 36(9), 970-977.
  • Davies B (2022) . Utilitas, 34(3), 335-343.
  • Davies B & Parker J (2022) . Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, 31(1), 23-33.
  • Davies B (2022) . Ratio, 35(2), 112-122.
  • Davies B (2021) . Public Health Ethics, 14(3), 268-280.
  • Davies B (2021) . Journal of Medical Ethics, 47(2), 98-99.
  • Davies B & Savulescu J (2021) . Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, 24(1), 137-150.
  • Davies B & Savulescu J (2020) . Journal of Bioethical Inquiry, 17(3), 423-433.
  • Parker J & Davies B (2020) . Journal of Applied Philosophy, 37(4), 646-660.
  • Davies B (2020) . Journal of Medical Ethics, 46(5), 309-310.
  • Davies B (2020) . Journal of Medical Ethics, 46(5), 300-303.
  • Davies B (2020) . Bioethics, 34(5), 459-466.
  • Davies B & Savulescu J (2019) . Public Health Ethics, 12(2), 133-144.
  • Davies B (2019) . Utilitas, 31(2), 191-202.
  • Davies B (2018) . Journal of Applied Philosophy, 35(4), 775-789.
  • Davies B & Felappi G (2017) . Metaphilosophy, 48(5), 745-761.
  • Davies B (2017) . De Ethica, 3(3), 5-19.
  • Davies B (2017) . Moral Philosophy and Politics, 4(2), 325-346.
  • Davies B (2017) . Philosophy & Technology, 30(3), 339-356.
  • Davies B (2016) . Bioethics, 30(6), 462-468.
  • Davies B (2015) Justice Between the Young and the Old. SOCIOLOGICKY CASOPIS-CZECH SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW, 51(3), 562-566.

Book chapters

  • Parker J & Davies B (2024) , Responsibility and Healthcare (pp. 247-268). Oxford University PressOxford
  • Davies B, De Marco G, Levy N & Savulescu J (2024) , Responsibility and Healthcare (pp. 1-32). Oxford University PressOxford
  • Davies B & Douglas T (2022) Learning to Discriminate: The Perfect Proxy Problem in Artificially Intelligent Criminal Sentencing In Ryberg J & Roberts JV (Ed.), Sentencing and Artificial Intelligence
Research group

Please get in touch if you are interested in being supervised in topics in political philosophy and applied ethics, especially related to health and health care, broadly construed.

Current PhD Students
Joseph Holmes (Primary); Nan Li (secondary); Jose Tarín (visiting); Igor Chaves (visiting)
 

Teaching interests

Bioethics
Political Philosophy
Practical Ethics 

Teaching activities

Bioethics
Global Justice 
New Directions in Philosophy
Science, Medicine and Society

Professional activities and memberships

Associate Editor, Journal of Practical Philosophy