Staff Profile
Ken Cussen
| Room: | E8B 313 |
|---|---|
| Phone: | +61 2 9850 7973 |
| Fax: | +61 2 9850 7972 |
| Email: | kcussen@gse.mq.edu.au |
Profile
After being kicked out of school at the age of 16, I had various menial jobs (labourer, riveters mate on bridge building, managing bookstores, logger) until I went to university as a mature student. I had always had an interest in science and in how people acquire knowledge and belief, why and how we come to believe the strange things we do, and my experience as a logger (i.e. watching and participating in the official orderly destruction of forests) awakened an interest in environmental knowledge, beliefs, attitudes and behaviour.
As a PhD student in Macquarie's philosophy department, while studying and teaching German moral philosophy (Nietzsche and Kant) I developed and introduced Macquarie's first unit on environmental ethics. In 1996 I moved to the Graduate School of the Environment. I see my role as providing a conduit and forum for the rational discussion of environmental matters, and to continually challenge my own beliefs, ideas and prejudices and those of students and peers. I believe I am the only moral philosopher employed full-time in a science-based school in Australia.
My major interest is in the cluster of ideas that arise around the relationship between the individual conscience, the liberal tradition, market society and the environment.
Research Interest
- Classical moral theory
- Liberalism, especially Kant, Bentham and Mill
- Applied ethics
- Environmental ethics
- Issues surrounding the relation of science, religion and market society
- European philosophy, especially Nietzsche
- Philosophy of science
Teaching
Convenor or co-convenor
- GSE800 Attitudes to the Environment
- GSE807 Environmental Measurement and Analysis
- EVSC300 Decision Frameworks in Environmental Science
Contributor
- ENV200 Introduction
Selected Publications
Book
- Cussen, K., (2001) Nietzsche and Nihilism: truth and value in a godless world. Hyperion Academic Publishers, Los Angeles, Sydney, Thailand.
Book Chapters
- Cussen, K., (2005) "Environmental Ethics and Belief Systems." In Staib, R., (Ed) Environmental management and Decision Making for Business Palgrave MacMillan, U.K.
- Cussen, K., (2007) 'Nietzsche's "Radical retreat into solitude": cultural pessimism or self-diagnosis?' in Hart, T., and Cooper, D., (eds.) Nietzsche and Bildung, Oxford University Press (in press)
Refereed Journal Papers
- Hazelton, J., and Cussen, K., (2006) 'The Amorality of Public Corporations' in Essays in Philosophy, Humboldt University, Vol. 6, No. 2.
- Cussen, K. (2002), 'Aesthetics and Environmental Argument', in Essays in Philosophy, Humboldt University. Vol. 3 No. 1
- Cussen, K., (2000) ' "Is" and "Ought" in planning'. Australian Planner, Volume 37, No. 3, pp. 130 – 132.
- Cussen, K., (1996) 'Planning for Post-liberal Society?' Australian Planner, Volume 33 Number 2, pp. 68 – 72.