From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

Peter Railton

American philosopher

Field	Value
region	Western philosophy
era	21st-century philosophy
caption	Railton at Amherst College
name	Peter Railton
birth_date
spouse
school_tradition	Analytic
main_interests	Ethics, philosophy of science
notable_ideas	Moral realism
doctoral_advisor	David Lewis
doctoral_students	Heidi Li Feldman, Brian Leiter

Peter Albert Railton (born May 23, 1950) is an American philosopher who is Gregory S. Kavka Distinguished University Professor and John Stephenson Perrin Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where he has taught since 1979.

Education and career

He earned his Ph.D. from Princeton in 1980, writing a dissertation under the supervision of David K. Lewis.

He was a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley and Princeton University. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2004 and the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters in 2016.

A public lecture he gave concerning his own struggles with depression attracted widespread notice and praise in the academic community.

Philosophical work

His dissertation concerned scientific explanation. His main research since centers on contemporary metaethics and normative ethics (especially consequentialism). He is the author of the book Facts, Values and Norms (Cambridge University Press, 2003), a collection of his major papers in ethics, and a co-editor (with Stephen Darwall and Allan Gibbard) of Moral Discourse and Practice: Some Philosophical Approaches (Oxford University Press, 1996).

Railton has playfully described himself as a "stark, raving moral realist". "Moral Realism", The Philosophical Review, Vol. 95, No. 2 (April 1986), p. 165 However, unlike some moral realists, he thinks moral facts that make moral statements true are natural facts.

Bibliography

1984, "Alienation, Consequentialism, and the Demands of Morality," Philosophy and Public Affairs, Vol. 13, No. 2, pp. 134–171.
1986, "Moral Realism," The Philosophical Review, Vol. 95, No. 2, pp. 163–207.
1991, "Moral Theory As A Moral Practice," Noûs, Vol. 25, No. 2, pp. 185–190.
1992, "Some Questions About the Justification of Morality," Philosophical Perspectives, Vol. 6, pp. 27–53.
1992, "Pluralism, Determinacy, and Dilemma," Ethics, Vol. 102, No. 4, pp. 720–742.
1993, "Noncognitivism about Rationality: Benefits, Costs, and an Alternative," Philosophical Issues, Vol. 4, pp. 36–51.
1994, "Truth, Reason, and the Regulation of Belief," Philosophical Issues, Vol. 5, pp. 71–93.
1996, "Moral Realism: Prospects and Problems," in Sinnott-Armstrong and Timmons (eds.), Moral Knowledge?, Oxford University Press.
1996, Moral Discourse and Practice (co-edited with Stephen Darwall and Allan Gibbard), Oxford University Press.
2003, Facts, Values, and Norms, Cambridge University Press.

References

Sources

4 U-M scholars named AAAS fellows

References

"Curriculum Vitae Peter Railton".
[https://record.umich.edu/articles/4-u-m-scholars-named-aaas-fellows/ 4 U-M scholars named AAAS fellows]
(26 February 2016). "Nye medlemmer i Vitenskapsakademiet". [[Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters]].
"Professor's reflections on his battle with depression touch many at recent disciplinary meeting".

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

1950-births 20th-century-american-philosophers 20th-century-american-essayists 21st-century-american-non-fiction-writers 21st-century-american-philosophers 21st-century-american-essayists american-ethicists american-male-essayists american-male-non-fiction-writers american-philosophy-academics analytic-philosophers consequentialists american-epistemologists fellows-of-the-american-academy-of-arts-and-sciences living-people members-of-the-norwegian-academy-of-science-and-letters metaphilosophers american-metaphysicians moral-realists ontologists american-philosophers-of-social-science university-of-michigan-faculty 20th-century-american-male-writers 21st-century-american-male-writers american-lecturers

Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about Peter Railton — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report