Lucy McDonald

Research

I work mainly in ethics, philosophy of language, and feminist philosophy. I also like to draw from psychology and sociology. In very general terms, I am interested in the ethical dimensions of everyday interactions and relationships. My research interests fall into three broad categories.

  1. Ethics of personal relationships
  • Love and intimacy. I am fascinated by the nature of intimacy and love. I first got into this topic by writing about flirting. I am currently writing papers on
    • power imbalances in relationships (for the Oxford Handbook of the Philosophy of Personal Relationships)
    • intimacy and sexual violence
    • lying in romantic relationships (with Cathy Mason)
  • Guilt and shame. I have a longstanding interest in negative reactive attitudes like resentment, guilt and shame, as well as in objective attitudes like disgust and hatred. I have published papers about shaming and dehumanization, and I’m currently thinking about moral injury.

2) Philosophy of the internet and social media

I don’t think we’ve yet come to terms with quite how radically the internet has changed how we interact with one another and the ethical questions these changes raise. I’ve already written about likes, emoji, and a phenomenon known as ‘context collapse’, and I’m currently writing papers on

  • Social media feed algorithms, and the ideal way of curating content
  • Catfishing, and how dating apps and social media exacerbate lookism and our obsession with appearance (in connection with the Ethical Dating Online network)

3) Social philosophy of language

  • Speech and social power. I have written a range of papers exploring the nature of speech and its relation to social power (especially relating to gender). I am interested in how uneven power dynamics shape our conversations with one another and enable behaviour like gaslighting and exploitation. I am also interested in the role of the hearer in communication and in how hearers’ responses to others’ speech can shape the meaning of that speech.
  • Speech and morality – I have an ongoing interest in normative powers like consenting and promising, and I am especially interested in the role communication plays in the exercise of these powers.

Before moving to KCL, I was a Junior Research Fellow in philosophy at St John’s College, Cambridge from 2020 to 2023. During this time I co-convened the CRASSH-funded Research Network, Illuminating Friendship, together with a social anthropologist, Susan MacDougall, which explored friendship and intimacy from a variety of disciplinary perspectives.

I have a PhD in philosophy from Cambridge, and undergraduate and master’s degrees in philosophy from Oxford. My PhD project,  ‘Speech, Sex, and Social Norms’, supervised by Rae Langton and Clare Chambers, explored different ways norms of gender and sexuality are enforced through speech.