About

Richard S. Matthews, Ph.D.

Author, award-winning lecturer, and ethicist in domestic and political violence

 

 

Mission Statement

 

Challenging and educating community leaders, businesses, and policymakers regarding the nature and impact of violence in the state and in society, in order to mitigate the impact of violence and help develop institutional structures to eliminate it.

 

Notable Experience

 

• Professor and Lecturer, Moral Philosophy and Applied Ethics: 1999-present

‣ King’s University College, University of Western Ontario

‣ Brandon University

‣ Mount Allison University

‣ Memorial University of Newfoundland

 

• Visiting Scholar and Research Fellow: 2007, 2010

‣ University of Western Australia

‣ Queensland University of Technology

 

Selected Publications

 

•The Absolute Violation: Why Torture Must Be Forbidden (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2008)

• “An Empirical Critique of Interrogational Torture,” Journal of Social Philosophy, XLIII, Number 4, 457-470 (Winter 2012),

• “In Defense of Article 2.2 of the United Nations Convention Against Torture,” Sciences et Esprit 62 (no 2-3), 355-371 (2010)

• “Dirty Hands, Cosmopolitan Values and State Evil: Reflections on Torture,” Animus 11 (2006)

• “Indecent Medicine: In Defense of the Absolute Prohibition Against Physician Participation in Torture,” The American Journal of Bioethics, 6 (3): W34-W44 (2006)

 

Selected Presentations

 

• Nearly 40 presentations to conferences, seminars and symposia throughout Canada, Australia, and Germany, including:

 

‣ “Can Lesser-Evils Reasoning be Moral?” Canada, 2012

‣ “Defending the Non-derogability of Torture,” Australia, 2010

‣ “An Empirical Critique of Interrogational Torture,” Canada, 2009

‣ “On neither excusing, permitting, nor justifying torture,” Australia 2007