Lewis Williams
Email: lewis.williams "at" philosophy.ox.ac.uk
About
I'm a DPhil candidate in Philosophy and Analysis Student at the University of Oxford. My doctoral research is supervised by Professor Guy Kahane and Professor Roger Crisp and supported by the Ryle / T. H. Green Moral Philosophy Scholarship and a Global Priorities Fellowship. Before coming to Oxford in 2021, I completed an MSc in Philosophy and Public Policy at the London School of Economics and a BA in Philosophy at the University of Warwick.
Research
I work mainly in ethics. To date, much of my research has concerned the practical philosophical implications of normative nihilism. In the near future, I plan to work on the practical philosophical implications of uncertainty and pluralism in meta-ethics. Other research interests include the ethics of AI (especially value alignment), duties of beneficence, and philosophical questions surrounding meaning in life.
Publications
Revolutionary Normative Subjectivism. Forthcoming in Australasian Journal of Philosophy.
Moral Nihilism—So What?. Ethics 134 (2023): 108-121.
Teaching
At the University of Oxford, I have tutored the following courses:
General Philosophy
Moral Philosophy
Ethics
Practical Ethics
Ethics of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Technology
Theory of Politics
Knowledge and Reality
I have also served as a Teaching Assistant for General Philosophy and supervised an undergraduate thesis on welfare subjectivism.
Public Philosophy
Since 2022 I have co-hosted The Philosopher's Nest podcast along with Kyle van Oosterum. The Philosopher's Nest showcases the work, insights, and experiences of graduate students in philosophy.
Between 2019 and 2021 I hosted the Searching For It podcast. Searching For It explored various philosophical thoughts and themes that inform the search for meaning in life. Searching For It peaked at #2 on Apple Podcasts' daily Philosophy charts in the United States of America.