Friday 13 December 2024: 2024 Ramsay Postgraduate Scholar Sean Maroney is a philosopher from Sydney studying a PhD in Philosophy at King’s College London (KCL).
He holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Sydney, from which he graduated with Double Honours in English Literature and Philosophy. He also holds a Master’s degree in Philosophy from KCL.
For his PhD, Sean is exploring how empathy with others can help us to develop knowledge of our own emotions. He argues that authentic engagement with others in everyday life is essential to furthering self-knowledge and living a purposeful life, ultimately leading to the betterment of society.
Determined to authentically engage with others himself, Sean has volunteered with Indigenous communities and the arts community in Sydney. He now also works with prison inmates in London, for the charity ‘Philosophy in Prison’, exploring how silencing prisoners’ voices creates injustices. At King’s College, Sean has been recognised as a 2024 ‘Kings Champion for Change’ for his community work, and he is also training as a research impact development assistant to help fellow academics in the UK communicate the impact of their research.
Deeply grateful for his Ramsay Postgraduate Scholarship, Sean is eager to give back by creating a Ramsay Book Club, to further deepen ties within the growing community of Ramsay Postgraduate Scholars.
In his own words:
Inscribed upon the Temple of Apollo in Delphi, first in stone then later in gold, was this maxim: Γνῶθι σεαυτόν, know thyself. Near to the beginning of the tradition of Western thought, we have invoked self-knowledge – but how we come to know ourselves can be far more difficult. I was drawn to the Ramsay Scholarship because of its commitment to these universal human questions that resound throughout history.
My research asks, how it is that we know our emotions? My answer is that we know our emotions through communion with others. This communion is best understood as a special kind of empathy that was theorised by Edith Stein in 1917, who would convert to Catholicism, perish in Auschwitz due to her Jewish heritage, and later be canonised as a Saint (Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross). Following Stein, I argue that in seeing others and others’ emotions, we better come to know our own. This runs against the individualistic grain that underscores a lot of Western tradition, but part of my project also seeks to revise this understanding. Our tradition – and ourselves – are less imbricated in individualism than it seems at first blush.
The Centre’s vision is to help create a community of scholars who contribute to an understanding of the past, improvement of the present, and inspire confidence in the future. By revising an understanding of the importance of the social domain in Western thought and developing this notion of empathy, I hope to show that authentic engagement with others is essential to coming to know ourselves better, and therefore essential to a good human life and a civic-minded society that does not suffer the prejudices caused by unchecked emotion.
I am incredibly grateful for the scholarship enabling me to pursue my PhD at King’s College London (KCL). London is a place where diversity ceases to be a catch-cry and thrusts itself into everyday existence. As bewildering as it can be, the highlight of my time is the immensity of diversity and otherness in London – which somehow still echoes with a sense of home. Cultural collisions abound in ways that lay bare the vastest range of people. I live in Tower Hamlets in East London, a highly Bangladeshi area. Just five minutes’ walk away, though, is the financial district Canary Wharf, with shiny high-rises and designer shops. Five minutes in the other direction is Limehouse, a now wealthy suburb which hosts The Grapes, a pub once frequented by Charles Dickens, now owned by Sir Ian Mckellen (Gandalf’s staff sits behind the bar). Ten minutes in another direction is Whitechapel Road, a highly multicultural high street, where I play pool at a pool club regularly. My grandfather had a pool table, and I feel connected to him and to my family whenever I play, despite the radical differences between his billiards room in Perth and a dusty pool club in Mile End, London.
Any night of the week there are dozens of major theatre shows to see. There are also incredible exhibitions at the numerous galleries from this year’s Expressionist Exhibition at the Tate Modern to the weirdly wonderful permanent exhibit of preserved animal and human remains at the Hunterian museum (in the Royal College of Surgeons). And the seaside, though not something that is picked often, is delightful. I have visited Rochester, Botany Bay, Margate, and Whitstable soaking up the fresh salt air and regional English culture.
Studying at KCL has been incredible. Its philosophy department has been very supportive and encouraging; I could not have made such quick progress, nor developed the depth of understanding without the help of the staff and the cohort which I am privileged to be part of – with many thanks to the Ramsay Centre.
One unique part of KCL’s programme is the AKC (Associateship of King’s College), the original award of King’s, dating back to its foundation in 1829 and reflecting the university’s first motto: sancte et sapienter, “holiness and wisdom”. KCL asserts that “[t]he AKC is at the heart of the College’s commitment to an international, interdisciplinary, and innovative curriculum: it seeks to foster an understanding of different beliefs and cultures that can be taken into wider society.” It is a course open to all students, staff, and alumni and runs via a series of lectures and small assessments over two years. Foregrounding the role of religion in current ethical and political dilemmas, it is research-led and involves a series of online assessments based on each lecture. I enjoyed the following: (i) Professor Marat Shterin’s “What Is ‘Holy’ in This War? Religions and Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine”; (ii) Dr. Kazuyo Murata’s “The Greater War Is Against Your Ego: A Sufi View on Inner Struggle”; and (iii) Dr Moiz Tundawala’s “Is Gandhi Pacifist? Violence and Ethics in Anticolonial Thought”.
The extra-curricular highlight of my time thus far has been my involvement with the ‘Prison Voices’ multidisciplinary research project, part of the Philosophy in Prison charity created by a PhD student at King’s College London in 2018. The ‘Prison Voices’ project explores “how the criminal justice system may silence the voices of those engaged in it, how and why this constitutes an injustice, and how this is a particular concern within the prison system.” It also considers how these potential injustices affect residents of prisons and how these effects can be avoided or tended to. The project has involved online workshops, hands-on work in prisons delivering seminars, gathering testimonial data and feeding that back to a diverse range of scholars, and a day-long conference at Sheffield University where a variety of researchers presented (https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/events/british-academy-conferences/prison-voices/). Excitingly, Professor Miranda Fricker, who pioneered the field of Epistemic Injustice, was a keynote.
Other highlights are my training as a Research Impact Development Assistant to assist academics to understand, frame, and communicate the impact of their research, as well as my role as a 2024 ‘King’s Champion for Change’.
I am incredibly grateful for the Ramsay Scholarship and have enjoyed meeting other London scholars as well as touring scholars through KCL. Seeking to contribute to this incredible network of scholars, I am keen to create and curate a Ramsay Centre ‘Great Books’ style book-club, run quarterly. I have pitched the project to the Centre (and to the social coordinators in the UK), and have chatted to a few new friends within the programme. I think this would provide an easy but effective, reliable quarterly catch-up for scholars to ponder universally potent but accessible writing that has shone bright throughout history.
Interested in a Ramsay Postgraduate Scholarship? Our scholarships support outstanding, thoughtful and imaginative young Australian leaders to study at the world’s best overseas universities and are valued at up to AUD$90,000 p.a. For information go to: https://www.ramsaycentre.org/scholarships-courses/postgraduate-scholarships/
To read more about Sean and his cohort of 2024 Ramsay Postgraduate Scholars go to: https://www.ramsaycentre.org/scholarships-courses/postgraduate-scholarships/2024-ramsay-postgraduate-scholars/
Media contact: Sarah Switzer 0407 816 098/ sarah.switzer@ramsaycentre.org
For more information on the centre please visit our website: www.ramsaycentre.org