David Machek (Ph.D. University of Toronto, 2015)
Principal Investigator
David works in ancient philosophy and normative ethics. His latest book, The Life Worth Living in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy, has been published by CUP in 2023. Within the "Role-Ethics" project, David plans to finish a monograph on self-cultivation in Greco-Roman and Chinese ethics, under contract with Bloomsbury Press. This study contends that social roles in these ancient traditions were regarded not only as sources of normative constraints, but also as practical frameworks that structure and support the process of becoming a good human. His next book project, prospectively entitled Playing Roles, Living Well endeavors to develop a new eudaemonist theory inspired by the ancient Stoic view that good human life amounts to a successful enactment of different types of "roles" (personae). This theory will plead for a "role-centered eudaemonism" as a promising alternative to the popular "virtue-centered eudaemonism".
Laura Fearnley (Ph.D. University of Glasgow, 2023)
Postdoctoral Research Scholar
Laura's primary research focus to date has been in ethics, causation and the relationship between the two. She has worked on moral responsibility, praiseworthiness, blameworthiness, and on issues of omissions in moral philosophy and metaphysics. Her related area of research has been counterfactual and interventionist theories of causation, and how these causal theories are currently being deployed to build Artificial Moral Agents. Within the "Role-Ethics" project, she plans to investigate what kind of special moral obligations we have in virtue of occupying different social roles, and what grounds these special moral obligations. Does one have certain moral obligations in a political role that go beyond obligations that ordinarily bind us? Is one free from some moral obligations simply in virtue of occupying a certain social role? She also aims to build upon my work into praise and blameworthiness by assessing whether, and when, one is praiseworthy or blameworthy for meeting/failing to meet these special moral obligations. For more information on Laura's research, consult her personal website at laurafearnley.com.
Filip Váňa
Doctoral Research Scholar
Filip is currently working on the foundations of ethics and ontology of organisms. In response to the long-standing problem of reconciling normativity and the natural world, his dissertation offers an account of normativity grounded in the concept of life. Within the "Role-Ethics" project, Filip plans to develop (and build on) a key part of that account: humans, as essentially rational, self-conscious organisms, constitute themselves by understanding themselves "in" their various practical identities, or roles. Moreover, this self-understanding is inherently social, mediated by how we are recognized by others, both at the individual level and at the level of social/political institutions. As a result, the very form of self-conscious life—and its satisfaction—turns out to consist in the irreducibly ethical activity of navigating and negotiating these norms (roles/practices), of giving them adequate content, such that they are perceived not as externally imposed and restricting, but freely chosen and enabling.
Václav Valtr
Doctoral Research Scholar
Václav is a sinologist with a specialism in early Chinese philosophy. His research interests lie in the Warring States and the Han dynasty periods, as well as in the Chinese aesthetics and poetry broadly considered. Currently, he works on a dissertation dedicated to the early Chinese text Guanzi. Within the "Role-Ethics" project, he plans to focus on "roles" in the context of early Chinese theory and practice of "ritual" (li 禮), especially in the Book of Rites (Liji 禮記), one of the Confucian classics. The ritualistic endeavour should be understood in a broad manner of specific entanglement of aesthetics and ethics in Chinese culture as a complex approach of moderation of emotions, regulating the society and creating harmony. This concept is not only present in Liji but also in other ancient Chinese texts, which should be taken into consideration in order to grasp the specificities of role-ethics in Chinese culture.