Bio
Dr David BIRKS is a senior lecturer in Political Theory at the Department of Politics and Public Administration, at the University of Hong Kong. He was previously based at the University of Oxford, first as a Research Fellow in the Faculty of Philosophy, a Junior Research Fellow at Kellogg College, and then as a lecturer in the Department of Politics and International Relations, affiliated with Nuffield College. Between December 2015 and September 2017, he was a Research Fellow at the Institute of Experimental Medicine, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel.
David received HKU’s Teaching Excellence Award for Outstanding Teaching (individual award) in 2025, and the Social Sciences Outstanding Teaching Award in 2023.
Personal website:
Google Scholar:
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=lMAKtrUAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao
Publications
- Paternalistic Punishment, Oxford University Press, (under contract).
- Treatment For Crime: Philosophical Essays on Neurointerventions in Criminal Justice, Oxford University Press, 2018 (edited with Tom Douglas).
Articles and Book chapters
- “Sin, Tyranny, and the Metaphysics of Money” Ethics, 2026 (with Ian Carroll)
- “The Wrongness of Preventive Exclusion” in Sebastian Jon Holmen, Thomas Søbirk Petersen, & Jesper Ryberg (eds.) Preventing Crime by Exclusion: Ethical Considerations, Routledge, 2024.
- “Chemical Restraints and the Basic Liberties” American Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience, 2024.
- “Identity-Relative Paternalism and Allowing Harm to Others” Journal of Medical Ethics, 2023.
- “Sex, Love, and Paternalism” Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, 2021.
- “Paternalism as Punishment” Utilitas, 2021.
- “How Wrong Is Paternalism?” Journal of Moral Philosophy, 2018.
- “Can Neurointerventions Communicate Censure? (And So What If They Can’t?)” in David Birks & Tom Douglas (eds.) Treatment For Crime: Philosophical Essays on Neurointerventions in Criminal Justice, Oxford University Press, 2018.
- “Punishing Intentions and Neurointerventions” American Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience, 2018 (with Alena Buyx).
- “Neuroscience and Social Problems: The Case of Neuropunishment” Cambridge Healthcare Quarterly: Clinical Neuroscience, 2018 (with Alena Buyx).
- “Two Ways to Frustrate a Desire” The Journal of Value Inquiry, February 2017 (with Tom Douglas).
- “Moral Status and the Wrongness of Paternalism” Social Theory and Practice, July 2014.
- “Wellbeing, Schizophrenia, and Experience Machines” Bioethics, February 2013.
