Cathy Mason

Cathy Mason is an Assistant Professor in Philosophy at the Central European University (Vienna). Her research focuses on Ethics, Epistemology, Aesthetics, and Iris Murdoch's philosophy, particularly metaethics. She is currently completing a monograph on Murdoch's metaethics under contract with Oxford University Press. Prior to CEU, she held a Leverhulme Fellowship at the University of Cambridge and taught at Oxford and Birmingham. She earned her PhD from Cambridge in 2019, with earlier degrees from Oxford and Sheffield.

Her academic journey includes a PhD thesis on 'Neglected Virtues: Love, Hope and Humility,' exploring virtue theory through moral phenomena like friendship and forgiveness. Recent work examines Murdoch's philosophical contributions, the ethics of friendship, and epistemic demands in relationships. Key themes include moral realism, ethical agency, and the intersection of aesthetics with ethics.

Publications span topics such as the ethics of friendship, moral testimony limitations, and hope as a virtue. She co-edits projects on the Wartime Quartet (Anscombe, Foot, Midgley, Murdoch) and collaborates on papers about love and moral repair. Awards include the prestigious Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship (2019–2021).

Teaching focuses on ethics, moral philosophy, and Murdoch's thought. Her work bridges analytical philosophy with literary analysis (e.g., exploring Gilead through Murdochian ethics). Outside academia, she pursues dance, reading, and baking. No grants or lab affiliations are explicitly noted in available texts.