Dr. Matthew Shea
Dr. Matthew Shea is joining the Philosophy Department as an assistant professor. Dr. Shea received his B.A. in philosophy from Boston College and his Ph.D. in philosophy from Saint Louis University. His dissertation, written under the supervision of Eleonore Stump, was a defense of a relationship-centered account of human flourishing and natural law-virtue ethics. Before coming to Franciscan, he was a postdoctoral fellow in medical ethics at UCLA; a lecturer at UCLA’s schools of medicine, nursing, and public health; a faculty member at the Bioethics Institute at Loyola Marymount University; and an assistant professor of philosophy at the University of Scranton. Dr. Shea specializes in moral philosophy and bioethics, and his current research focuses on happiness and human flourishing, natural law theory, and various topics in health care ethics. He lives in Steubenville with his wife Kathleen and their three sons.
Education:
- 2018 Ph.D., Philosophy, Saint Louis University
- 2009 B.A., Philosophy, Boston College
- “Value Comparability in Natural Law Ethics: A Defense.” Journal of Value Inquiry (forthcoming).
- “Value Incommensurability in Natural Law Ethics: A Clarification and Critique.” American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly (forthcoming).
- “A Thomistic Solution to the Deep Problem for Perfectionism” (with James Kintz). Utilitas 34 (2022): 461–477.
- “Principlism’s Balancing Act: Why the Principles of Biomedical Ethics Need a Theory of the Good.” Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 45:4-5 (2020): 441–470.
- “The Quality of Life is Not Strained: Disability, Human Nature, Well-Being, and Relationships.” Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal 29:4 (2019): 333–366.
