ACU (Australian Catholic University)

BA Hons, PhD

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.

Recent Publications

“Music therapy and Dementia: rethinking the debate over Advance Directives”, Res Disputandae, forthcoming Dec 2014.

“Addiction, Competence and Coercion”, Journal of Philosophical Research, 39, 2014.

“The imprudence of the vulnerable.” Ethical theory and moral practice, 17 (4), 2014: 791-805.

“Pleasure and value in addiction.” (with Jeanette Kennett and Anke Snoek) Frontiers in psychiatry, (2013): 4 – 117. Doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2013.00117

“Truth, Lies and the Narrative Self.” Co-authored with Jeanette Kennett. American Philosophical Quarterly, 49 (4), (2012): 301-15.

“Attacking Authority.” Australian Journal of Professional and Applied Ethics, 13 (2), (2011): 59-70.

“Personal Identity, the Causal Condition, and the Simple View.” Philosophical Papers, 39 (2), (2010): 183-208.

“Anonymity and the Social Self.” American Philosophical Quarterly, 47 (4), (2010): 351-363.

Selected Publications

“Truth, Lies and the Narrative Self,” Co-authored with Jeanette Kennett. American Philosophical Quarterly, 49 (4), (2012): 301-15.

“Mental Time Travel, Agency and Responsibility.” Co-authored with Jeanette Kennett. Psychiatry as Cognitive Neuroscience: Philosophical Perspectives. Matthew Broome, Lisa Bortolotti (eds.) Oxford University Press. 2009.

“Privacy, Separation, and Control.” The Monist, vol 91 (1), (Jan 2008): 130-150.

“Identity, Control and Responsibility: the Case of Dissociative Identity Disorder.” Co-authored with Jeanette Kennett. Philosophical Psychology, 15, (December 2002): 509-526.

“Survival and Separation.” Philosophical Studies, 98, (April, 2000): 279-303.

Ethics, moral psychology, applied ethics

Ethics, Philosophy

NSW Institute of Psychiatry Ethics Committee