Dr Steve Matthews

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Dr Steve Matthews

Philosophy

stephen.matthews@acu.edu.au

BA Hons, PhD (Monash)

Dr Steve Matthews is Senior Research Fellow at the Plunkett Centre for Ethics (a joint centre of St Vincent’s and Mater Health, and ACU), and in the Faculty of Theology and Philosophy. He joined ACU in 2011. Prior to that he held posts at Macquarie University (2010-2011), Charles Sturt University (1999-2009), and as a sessional and part time lecturer at Monash University (1994-1998), where he completed his PhD in 1997. His published works relate to the metaphysics of personal identity over time, moral psychology, the philosophy of psychiatry, and applied ethics. Recently he has been focusing on questions of autonomy, agency, and narrative identity where those concepts may test, and be tested by, empirical findings related to those struggling with addictions, mental illness, or dementia.

Key publications

‘Addiction and Mandatory Treatment’. Routledge Handbook of Addiction. Forthcoming.

‘Dementia and the Power of Music Therapy’. Bioethics 29 (2015): 573-9. Second most accessed article for the journal in 2015.

‘The Imprudence of the Vulnerable’, Ethical theory and moral practice 17 (2014): 791-805.

and Jeanette Kennett, ‘Truth, Lies and the Narrative Self’, American Philosophical Quarterly 49 no. 4 (2012): 301-15.

‘Personal Identity, the Causal Condition, and the Simple View’, Philosophical Papers 39 no. 2 (2010): 183-208.

‘Anonymity and the Social Self’, American Philosophical Quarterly 47 no. 4 (2010): 351-363.

and Jeanette Kennett, ‘Mental Time Travel, Agency and Responsibility’. In Psychiatry as Cognitive Neuroscience: Philosophical Perspectives, edited by Matthew Broome and Lisa Bortolotti, 327-351. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.

‘Privacy, Separation, and Control’, The Monist 91 no. 1 (2008): 130-150.

and Jeanette Kennett, ‘What’s the Buzz? Undercover Marketing and the Corruption of Friendship’, The Journal of Applied Philosophy 25 no. 1 (2008): 2-18.

“The Relational Care Framework: Promoting Continuity or Maintenance of Selfhood in Person-Centred Care”. (With Matthew Tieu). Journal of Medicine and Philosophy. Forthcoming.

“Why should HCWs receive priority access to vaccines in a pandemic”. (With Xavier Symons (lead author), Bernadette Tobin.) BMC ethics, 22, article 79. Open Access: Why should HCWs receive priority access to vaccines in a pandemic? | BMC Medical Ethics | Full Text (biomedcentral.com)

“The impact of dementia on the self: do we consider ourselves the same as others?”. (With Sophia Harris, Amee Baird, Jeanette Kennett and Celia Harris), Neuroethics. Forthcoming.

“Respecting Agency in Dementia Care: when should truthfulness give way?” (With Jeanette Kennett), Journal of Applied Ethics. Forthcoming.

“Habit”. International Encyclopedia of Ethics. Hugh LaFollette (ed). Wiley-Blackwell, (2021).

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