S. Matthew Liao
S. Matthew Liao (born 1972) is an American philosopher specializing in bioethics. He currently holds the Arthur Zitrin Chair of Bioethics,[1] Director of the Center for Bioethics and Affiliated Professor in the Department of Philosophy at New York University.[2] He is also the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Moral Philosophy.[3] He has previously held appointments at Oxford University, Johns Hopkins, and Princeton University.
S. Matthew Liao | |
---|---|
Born | 1972 (age 48–49) |
Nationality | American |
Alma mater | Princeton University (A. B.) Oxford University (D. Phil) |
Era | Contemporary philosophy |
Region | Western philosophy |
School | Analytic |
Main interests | Bioethics; Ethics; Moral Psychology; Metaphysics; Epistemology |
Biography
Liao received his undergraduate degree magna cum laude in philosophy from Princeton University in 1994 and then earned his D.Phil. in philosophy at Oxford University in 2001.[4] His doctoral dissertation concerned whether children have a right to be loved. Liao later wrote a book in this topic called The Right to be Loved, a Choice Review Outstanding Academic Title, published by Oxford University Press (2015).[5] From 2003 to 2004, Liao was the Harold T. Shapiro Research Fellow in the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University. From 2004 to 2006 he served as the Greenwall Research Fellow at Johns Hopkins University and as a visiting researcher at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University. From 2006 to 2009 he was the deputy director and James Martin Senior Research Fellow in the Program on the Ethics of the New Biosciences at Oxford University. Since 2009 he has held an appointment in the Bioethics Department at New York University.[6]
In 2013 he gave a TED talk in New York City on engineering humans to combat climate change. His work has been discussed in The Guardian,[7] the BBC,[8] the New York Times,[9] and Scientific American.[10] In May 2007, he founded Ethics Etc, a group blog for discussing contemporary philosophical issues in ethics and related areas.[11]
Work
In addition to The Right to be Loved, Liao was the editor of three other books: Moral Brains: The Neuroscience of Morality (2016);[12] Philosophical Foundations of Human Rights (2015); and Current Controversies in Bioethics (2016).[13]
The Right to be Loved explores whether children hold rights, the extent to which love is an appropriate object of right, and what grounds a child's right to be loved. It argues that children do hold this right, in virtue of human beings having a general right to the fundamental conditions for pursuing a good life.[14]
In other works, Liao considers the ethics of reproductive technologies, neuroethics, cognitive enhancement, consequentialism, and artificial intelligence. For example, he has written on Judith Jarvis Thomson's famous Loop Case and challenged standard intuitions about the thought experiment.[15] He has written about memory modification technologies (MMTs), arguing that their permissibility depends upon individual users' decisions.[16] In another article, Liao argues against seeing intuitions as heuristics, and explores the implications of this point for the debate concerning the reliability of intuitions.[17]
Bibliography
- Current Controversies in Bioethics (ed.), Routledge 2016.
- Moral Brains: The Neuroscience of Morality (ed.), Oxford University Press 2016.
- Philosophical Foundations of Human Rights (ed.), Oxford University Press 2015.
- The Right to Be Loved, Oxford University Press 2015.
References
- "NYU Center for Bioethics". NYU Center for Bioethics. 2016. Retrieved 2017-06-05.
- "Liao, S. Matthew | Philosophy | New York University". philosophy.fas.nyu.edu. Retrieved 2017-06-05.
- "Journal of Moral Philosophy | Brill". www.brill.com. Retrieved 2017-06-05.
- "S. Matthew Liao." Arts & Science. NYU, n.d. Web. 21 July 2017.
- https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-right-to-be-loved-9780190234836?cc=us&lang=en&
- "S. Matthew Liao." NYU College of Global Public Health. NYU, n.d. Web. 21 July 2017.
- Hickman, Leo (2012-03-14). "Bioengineer humans to tackle climate change, say philosophers". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2017-06-05.
- Swain, Frank. "Climate change: Could we engineer greener humans?". Retrieved 2017-06-05.
- Dreifus, Claudia (2012-12-17). "Studying Ethical Questions as We Unlock the Black Box of the Brain". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-06-05.
- Liao, S. Matthew. "Could Deep-Brain Stimulation Fortify Soldiers' Minds?". Scientific American Blog Network. Retrieved 2017-06-05.
- "Ethics Etc". ethics-etc.com. Retrieved 2017-06-05.
- Moral Brains: The Neuroscience of Morality. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. 2016-09-12. ISBN 9780199357673.
- "Current Controversies in Bioethics". Taylor & Francis eBooks. Retrieved 2017-06-05.
- The Right To Be Loved. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. 2015-10-29. ISBN 9780190234836.
- Liao, S. Matthew; Wiegmann, Alex; Alexander, Joshua; Vong, Gerard (2012-10-01). "Putting the trolley in order: Experimental philosophy and the loop case". Philosophical Psychology. 25 (5): 661–671. doi:10.1080/09515089.2011.627536. ISSN 0951-5089. S2CID 18402436.
- Liao, S.M. & Sandberg, A. Neuroethics (2008) 1: 85. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12152-008-9009-5.
- Liao, S.M. (2016) Are Intuitions Heuristics? in Moral brains: the neuroscience of morality. Oxford University Press, p. 365.
Sources
- "Asking S. Matthew Liao Anything American Philosophical Association Blog". Blog.apaonline.org. Retrieved 31 March 2017.
- "Changing the Human Genome to Combat Climate Change". Meaningoflife.tv. Retrieved 20 March 2017.
- "Should We Die?". Theatlantic.com. Retrieved 18 February 2017.
- "Philosophy AMA". Reddit.com. Retrieved 15 February 2017.
- "Why every child in need deserves an urgent response". Aeon.co. Retrieved 12 October 2016.
- "Do Children Have a Moral Right to Be Loved?". Aeon.co. Retrieved 22 December 2015.
- "The Future of the Brain: Implications for Identity in the Face of New Technologies for Changing Brains". Tedxcern.web.cern.ch. Retrieved 14 July 2017.
- "Could Deep Brain Stimulation Fortify Soldiers' Minds, Scientific American". Blogs.scientificamerican.com. Retrieved 4 September 2014.
- "Could We Engineer Greener Humans?". Bbc.com. Retrieved 16 July 2014.
- Engineering Ourselves to Combat Climate Change, TED @ NYC, Oct 8, 2013
- "Little Green Men, Harper's Magazine". Harpers.org. Retrieved 14 July 2017.
- "Interview with Claudia Dreifus at the New York Times". Nytimes.com. Retrieved 17 December 2012.
- "How Engineering the Human Body Could Combat Climate Change". Theatlantic.com. Retrieved 12 March 2012.
- "Tackling Climate Change Through Human Engineering". www.bbvaopenmind.com. Retrieved 2 February 2017.