About
I received my Ph.D in Philosophy from Brown University in June 2015. I am currently the IE/Brown International Teaching Fellow at IE University in Madrid and Segovia, Spain.
My primary specializations are in moral, social and political philosophy, including the philosophy of social science, with related interests in the history of philosophy, modern continental philosophy, moral psychology and the philosophy of action.
I’m interested in the ethics of everyday life. The everyday details of our lives are shaped by vast social structures while simultaneously helping to shape and change those structures. The choices that we make when we dress, eat, work, shop, have sex, fall in love, move house and raise our children have ethical implications not just for ourselves and those around us but for everyone, for people far away who we will never know or meet and whose lives we can barely imagine. These personal, intimate and quotidian choices help shape society – its organising structure of common rules and norms – and must be evaluated in terms of how well or poorly they do so. My work explores the ethical, practical and philosophical consequences of this idea. I think that taking this issue seriously has radical implications for how activists and politicians pursue social change, how individuals in general can pursue justice, our understanding of freedom and equality and the disciplinary divide between ethics and political philosophy.
For more information about my education, research, and teaching experience, you can download my CV or see my Research and Teaching pages. You can also contact me at timsyme@gmail.com and follow me on Academia.edu