I'm a Postdoctoral Associate at MIT. Previously, I was a Postdoctoral Fellow at UC Berkeley's Kavli Center for Ethics, Science, and the Public, and did a PhD in Philosophy at Princeton University.

Here is my CV. My email is mmasny@mit.edu.

My research addresses three topics in moral and political philosophy: well-being, the future of humanity, and work.

My doctoral research examined a range of theoretical issues concerning well-being and the future of humanity: the significance of a life's shape; the relevance of 'wasted potential' for well-being; individual and collective meaning; comparisons between human and animal well-being; the value of societal progress; reasons to prevent the extinction of humanity; and the desirability of life extension technology.

My postdoctoral project expands my research on well-being and the future into the domain of work. Currently, I am writing a series of papers about the role that paid work plays in our lives, the impact of technological and social transformations on our opportunities to attain various non-monetary goods of work, and the desirability of a world without paid work.

As a generalist at heart, I have also written about the theory of epistemic consequentialism, suspension of judgment, and Schopenhauer's practical philosophy.

I am originally from a small town near Warsaw, Poland. My first name, Michał, is pronounced there 'Mee-how', but abroad I go by 'Michael'.

I'm a lifelong runner, and enjoy racing marathons and ultramarathons. On the ultramarathon side, I've done several 50Ks, one 50-miler, two 100K races, and two 100-milers.

Publications

Work in progress

A paper on theories of human and animal welfare

A paper on the value of work-life separation

A paper on shorter working hours and the goods of work

A paper on the fear of becoming obsolete in the arena of work

Teaching

I am an enthusiastic educator with a track record of student satisfaction. At Princeton, I received the highly competitive Graduate School Teaching Award for “a significant and exceptional contribution to undergraduate teaching”.

My teaching, much like my research program, seeks to connect philosophical theory with issues of pressing public concern. At Princeton, I taught the philosophy department’s first undergraduate course on ‘The Ethics of Technology’, which brought together a mix of philosophy and STEM students. Likewise, at UC Berkeley, I taught the philosophy department's first graduate seminar on "The Moral and Political Philosophy of AI". At MIT, I'm teaching courses in biomedical ethics and the ethics of technology.