Matthew D. Walker

Matthew D. Walker (Ph.D., Yale University) is Associate Professor of Humanities (Philosophy) at Yale-NUS College, and a member of its inaugural faculty. Prior to joining Yale-NUS, Walker was an ACLS New Faculty Fellow in Philosophy at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, a post-doctoral fellow in the Ethics of Virtue at the University of Miami, and a participant in “Traditions into Dialogue: Confucianism and Contemporary Virtue Ethics,” an NEH Summer Seminar. He has also been a Visiting Fellow at the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, and is currently serving a three-year appointment to the American Philosophical Association Committee on International Cooperation.

Walker specializes in ancient Greek philosophy and ethical theory, especially Aristotle and comparative Greco-Chinese ethics. His book, Aristotle on the Uses of Contemplation (Cambridge University Press, 2018), explores Aristotle’s neglected views on theoretical contemplation’s action-guiding utility. He has also published papers and book chapters concerning the nature and value of the philosophical life in Plato, Aristotle, Zhu Xi, and Hume; theories of punishment, political rule, and the wise person in Confucius and Aristotle; and ancient Greek conceptions of love and friendship. He designed and debuted an elective on Philosophy as a Way of Life at Yale-NUS in 2018