Dr Toby Handfield
Ph.D. (Monash, 2003)
Email: Toby.Handfield@monash.edu
Phone: +61 3 9905 3202
Room: W914
Career Highlights
- Visiting Scholar, MIT (Fall 2009)
- Vice-Chancellor's Award for Teaching Excellence (2008)
- ARC Postdoctoral Fellowship, "Chance and Necessity in the Physical Sciences" 2006–2009
- CEU Summer School in Philosophy of Physics (2006)
- British Academy Visiting Fellowship, at University of Bristol (Autumn 2005)
Research Interests
I have a wide range of research interests, from philosophy of physics to moral theory and political philosophy.
I recently completed the manuscript of a book, titled A Philosophical Guide to Chance, to be published in 2012 by Cambridge University Press.
In collaboration with Patrick Emerton, I am working on topics related to the morality of warfare and the status of state and non-state institutions.
In collaboration Daniel Cohen, I have been working recently on moral psychology and how rational agents can cope with choices between incommensurate goods, or between goods which vary in their attractiveness over time. We also have some plans to work on act consequentialism and the nature of causation.
I have had a longstanding interest in dispositional properties, causation, and laws of nature. I recently edited a book, published with OUP, on these topics.
Since 2009 I have been working on an ARC-funded project with Graham Oppy, Jeremy Butterfield, Alexander Bird, and Barry Loewer, on a variety of topics revolving around time, chance, and natural law. For 2010–11, we have been joined by Alastair Wilson on this project as a postdoc.
Recently I have become interested in population ethics and what duties we owe to future generations.
Publications and works in progress are available on my personal webpage.
Teaching Activities
My main teaching activities are ATS1371 (Life, Death, and Morality) and ATS2869/3869 (Political Philosophy). I also teach honours seminars in moral theory and metaphysics.
With my colleague Sam Butchart, I have been trying out the Peer Instruction method of lecturing for the last few years. We have put together some helpful resources for those who are interested in the method here.