Bjorn Wastvedt

I received my doctorate from the University of Arizona in May 2021. I specialize in ancient philosophy and virtue ethics and am quite generally interested in the philosophical legacy of classical approaches to core ethical problems. I also have teaching experience and research interests in a range of other topics, from applied ethics, especially environmental ethics, to political philosophy, the philosophy of religion, and contemporary moral psychology. My academic background in mathematics and computer science sometimes inclines me to digital humanities-based approaches to my research.

My dissertation examined virtue of character and its development in Aristotle's Eudemian Ethics. I argue that for Aristotle, repeated action forms character through experiences of pleasure and pain, and deliberation aims both at mundane goals and at a contemplative life of virtue. I am currently working on research on three fronts: (1) Aristotelian ideas found uniquely in the Eudemian Ethics, (2) feminist (especially care ethics-based) approaches to contemporary virtue theory, and (3) the legacy of ancient Stoic ideas up to the medieval period.