I am a philosopher and bioethicist, with the intersection of language, action, and ethics providing the foundation for much of my work. My thinking is also shaped by my engagement with various historical thinkers, and my approach to contemporary philosophical questions is therefore rooted in what Myles Burnyeat called the ‘history of philosophy done philosophically’. I received my PhD in Philosophy in 2024 from Durham University, with a thesis entitled ‘Action and Necessity: Wittgenstein’s On Certainty and the Foundations of Ethics‘. (The image above on the left is me standing outside the Philosophy Department at Durham a few days after I defended my thesis.) Besides Wittgenstein, Anscombe has also been a significant intellectual influence, particularly in my approach to ethics and action.
At present I am a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Oxford’s Ethox Centre, an interdisciplinary research centre for ethics and healthcare. I am part of the Wellcome-funded ANTITHESES research platform, which was set up to investigate radical moral disagreements in an age of polarisation and informational uncertainty, from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. My work on this project has a theoretical and philosophical component alongside a more practical, bioethical one. I am interested in distinguishing between broader and narrower conceptions of reasoning, as a key to understanding why some disagreements become or remain radical and polarising. Taking a broader view of what counts as a good reason or argument–for example, by re-assessing the importance of narrative, the imagination, praxis, or perception–may provide new resources for overcoming disagreement. This, in turn, will have practical consequences for how one should engage with contested areas of bioethics. I will be updating my Research page with more news and information on these ideas as my work progresses.
Since 2024 I have been a Non-Stipendiary Junior Research Fellow at Wolfson College, Oxford. I am a longstanding member of the college community, having been a Master’s student at Wolfson quite some time ago, and as a fellow I act as college adviser to a number of graduate students. I also teach undergraduate Philosophy FHS papers as an external tutor to other colleges in Oxford on request (see my Teaching page).
Aside from my professional academic life, I live in Oxfordshire with my wife and three children, who are the love of my life. I am also a choral conductor, and I direct the Schola Magna choir at Blackfriars, the Dominican church in central Oxford (see my Music page). I am an amateur pianist and enjoy playing Mozart and Schubert, among others.
Michael Wee 