For a Spinozist Bioethics, or Look What I Just Published

I know it’s been a while, and I promise to provide an update on my new job (oh yeah, I’m an Interdisciplinary Research Fellow at the Centre for Biomedicine, Self and Society at the University of Edinburgh now) “soon”, but first I have to blow my own horn: After 18 months in the review process limbo during a pandemic, I have officially published my first solo article (in English)!

“Reframing patient-doctor relationships: relational autonomy and treating autonomy as a virtue” is part of a special issue of the Journal of Global Ethics on relational theory and its applications. I am really proud to be published alongside authors who are really pushing the boundaries of bioethics.

This article is also a milestone because it is my first peer-reviewed publication that includes both some of my doctoral research and my newer forays into Filipino philosophy. In many ways, this is my mark as an independent researcher, a fully-fledged philosopher. I say this not only because I now have an advanced degree, but because I feel I have come into my own, emerged from the chrysalis, and I’m enjoying the sun drying my wings.

In my current role, I will be pursuing philosophy of disability as it intersects with the endemic process of long-COVID, but my roots are always with me. Someday I dream of developing my own theory of para-rationality, but every wing flutter brings me closer to that. In many ways, everything I do is a playful and joyous investigation of a Spinozist bioethics. That is the core, the red thread that connects my diverse plethora of interests, and it is what grounds me as I commit fully to an interdisciplinary practice.

The sun really does feel so good.