Rate My Professor Matthew Hammerton

Dr Matthew Hammerton is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Singapore Management University in the School of Social Sciences. He joined SMU in 2018 as an Assistant Professor of Philosophy and was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2025. He previously held a Lee Kong Chian Fellowship at SMU from 2023 to 2024. Hammerton earned a PhD in Philosophy from the Australian National University in 2017, an MPhil in Philosophy from the University of Sydney in 2010, and a BA with Honours in Philosophy from the University of New South Wales in 2007. His research explores different categories of value important for living a good life and acting ethically. He is known for work on agent-relative value, examining moral theories such as consequentialism and deontology, as well as research on meaning in life, its connections to well-being, sacrifice, achievement, and luck. More recently, he has focused on the philosophy of work and is writing a monograph on workism. His publications appear in journals including the Australasian Journal of Philosophy, Ethics, Utilitas, the Canadian Journal of Philosophy, the Journal of Value Inquiry, and others. He has also contributed chapters to the Oxford Handbook of Consequentialism and the Oxford Handbook of Deontology. Hammerton teaches courses such as Critical Thinking in the Real World and Big Questions: Happiness and Suffering. He serves as Associate Dean (Curriculum and Teaching) and Area Coordinator for Philosophy at SMU, and has received Core Curriculum Teaching Excellence Awards in 2021 and 2024.