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Matthew McCabe

Faculty
Philosophy Dept
  • Associate Professor of Philosophy, Interim Director: Justice, Law, and Society

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Education
  • PhD, Philosophy. University of Maryland, College Park. Dissertation Title: Ethical Caring and the Physician-Patient Relationship: A Dual Defense of a Virtue Ethics of Care.
  • MA, Philosophy. California State University, Long Beach. Thesis Title: Chaos, Complexity and the Free Will-Determinism Debate.
  • BA, History and Philosophy. University of California, Santa Barbara.
Research
  • “The Moral Education Theory of Punishment Revisited.”
    • Presented at the 10th International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities, Montreal, Canada, 6/12.
  • “Virtue in the Clinic.”
    • in The Handbook of Virtue Ethics, Stan van Hooft, ed. Acumen Publishing Ltd., Durhan, UK, 2014. 329-340.
  • “Admirable Dishonesty in Medical Practice?”
    • Communication and Medicine: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Healthcare, Ethics and Society. Vol. 10, No. 1, 2013. 27-35.
    • Presented at the 16th Annual Meeting of the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics, Cincinnati, 2/07.
  •  “Return to Nowheresville: A World without Rights Reconsidered.”
    • The International Journal of the Humanities, Vol. 9, Issue 7, 2012. 177-184.
    • Presented at the 9th International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities, Granada, Spain, 6/11.
  • “The Physician-Patient Relationship: An Aretaic Formulation.”
    • in An Anthology of Philosophical Studies, vol. II, P. Hanna, ed.  Athens, Greece: ATINER, 2008. 271-280.
    • Presented at the 2nd International Conference on Philosophy, Athens Institute for Education and Research, Athens, Greece, 6/07.
  • “In Defense of Ethically Caring Physicians.”
    • Communication and Medicine: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Healthcare, Ethics and Society. Vol. 5, No. 1, 2008. 15-24.
    • Revised draft presented at the 4th Interdisciplinary Conference on Communication, Medicine, and Ethics, Cardiff University, UK, 6/06.
  • “Ethical Caring, Medical Paternalism, and Respect for Autonomy.”
    • Revised draft presented at the 5th Annual Hawaii International Conference on Arts and Humanities, Honolulu, 1/07.
    • Presented at the 13th Annual Meeting of the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics, Ohio, 2/04.
  • Book Review of Physician Assisted Suicide: The Anatomy of a Constitutional Law Issue.
    • The Social Science Journal, Vol. 41, No. 3, Fall 2004.

Teaching Interests

BioMedical Ethics, Philosophy of Law, Environmental Ethics, Business Ethics, Professional Ethics, Global Ethics, The Ethics of War, Ethical Theory, Virtue Ethics, Social-Political Philosophy, and Metaethics.

Common Course Offerings

Ethical Theory (PHL225), Global Ethics (PHL 226), Environmental Ethics (PHL303), Medical Ethics (PHL325), Philosophy of Law (PHL 335), Introduction to Philosophy (PHL100).

Not So Common Course Offerings

Seminar in Ethics (PHL 425), Foundations of Morality (PHL235), Business Ethics (PHL300), Special Topics: Ethical Issues in Engineering and Information Technology (PHL394), Special Topics: Professional Ethics (PHL394), Special Topics: Philosophy of Humor (PHL394), Special Topics: Metaethics (PHL494), Special Topics: Atheism and the Secular Life (PHL494), and Special Topics: The Good Life (PHL494).

Biographical Notes

Professor McCabe began teaching at Washington College in the Fall of 2005. He began teaching Philosophy and Ethics in higher education in the Spring of 1996 and has worked at eight colleges and universities throughout Maryland and Pennsylvania including, the University of Maryland’s College Park and Baltimore County campuses. Over the years he has offered a wide range of graduate and undergraduate courses in theoretical and applied Ethics.

His research is focused on the continued development and defense of the Ethics of Care understood as a formulation of agent-based Virtue Ethics. Introduced and developed by his mentor at the University of Maryland, Michael Slote, McCabe defended the theory in his dissertation thesis by demonstrating the theory’s ability to be effectively applied and lend substantive insight into issues surrounding the physician-patient relationship. He is currently expanding beyond the field of medicine to explore the insights the Virtue Ethic of Care can offer on the subject of punitive justice and issues in the political profession.