Justin Oakley

Who is Justin Oakley?

Dr Justin Oakley is a bioethicist and moral philosopher. He has been part of the revival of the ethical doctrine known as virtue ethics, an Aristotelian doctrine which has received renewed interest in the past few decades.

Oakley is particularly well known for his work on professional ethics and also the so-called "problem" of friendship. The problem of friendship looks at how a strict application of impartialist ethical doctrines, such as utilitarianism and Kantianism, conflicts with our notions of friendship. In 1995, he published, with Dean Cocking, the now widely cited article "Indirect Consequentialism, Friendship, and the Problem of Alienation" in the journal Ethics.

Currently, Oakley is Director of the Centre for Human Bioethics at Monash University and Deputy Head of its School of Philosophy and Bioethics. He joined the Centre in 1990, after graduating from La Trobe University with a PhD in Philosophy in 1988.

In 2004, he was awarded the Eureka Prize for Research in Ethics.

Oakley supports the Australian Rules Football team the Geelong football club.