Nicholas Drake
Position: Current PhD Student
School: School of Philosophy
Email: nicholas.drake@anu.edu.au
Thesis title: Engineering Concepts for Public Policy: Wellbeing and Disability
I'm a fourth-year PhD student in philosophy at the Australian National University. I have MAs in philosophy from Victoria University of Wellington and Washington University in St. Louis. I specialize in wellbeing, public policy, disability, and ethics, and have published on moral bioenhancement, Mill's metaethics, utilitarianism, and metaethics and love.
I recently submitted my dissertation, which is about the theory and practice of government approaches to promoting wellbeing and using the tools of conceptual engineering to develop accounts of wellbeing and disability for public policy and other practical contexts.
Ethics and social and political philosophy, especially philosophy of wellbeing, philosophy and public policy, and philosophy of disability; Metaethics; Comparative philosophy; Social metaphysics; Social epistemology
“Utilitarianism.” Ethical Theory in Global Perspective, edited by Michael Hemmingsen. SUNY Press. (2024)
“Love, Reasons, and Desire.” Ethical Theory and Moral Practice. 23(3): 591-605. (2020)
“Choosing Normative Concepts, written by Matti Eklund.” Journal of Moral Philosophy. 17(4): 441-444. (2020) [Book review]
“A Humean Constructivist Reading of J. S. Mill’s Utilitarian Theory.” Utilitas. 28(2): 189-214. (2016)
“Is Moral Bioenhancement Dangerous?” Journal of Medical Ethics. 42(1): 3-6. (2016; first published online 2015)
