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Ethics

The philosophical study of ethics seeks to articulate and justify standards of right and wrong, good and bad, virtue and vice. Ethical theorists also work to understand how the practice of moral judgment relates to other areas of inquiry. (See also: Applied and Professional Ethics)

Faculty doing research in Ethics include:

• C. E. Harris

• Claire Katz: works on the question of ethics as it emerges in 20th century Continental philosophy.  She is primarily interested in the “fissure” in ethics as examined in post WW II European philosophy, e.g., Hannah Arendt, Hans Jonas, and Emmanuel Levinas.  She has taught courses on Ethics after the Holocaust and has published on the work of Emmanuel Levinas.  She is the author of Levinas, Judaism, and the Feminine: the silent footsteps of Rebecca (Indiana 2003) and the editor of Emmanuel Levinas: Critical Assessments (Routledge 2005).

• Michael LeBuffe: has research interests in the history of ethics, moral psychology, utilitarianism, and perfectionism.  His published work focuses on the moral theories of Spinoza and Hobbes, and he is currently finishing a book on Spinoza

• Colleen Murphy

• Gregory Pappas: works within the American Pragmatist tradition in ethical theory, in particular, John Dewey's ethics. He is also working on the value theory of Latin American philosopher Risieri Frondizi.

• Linda Radzik: works on the moral issues that arise in the aftermath of wrongdoing including atonement, punishment and forgiveness. She is interested in the intersection of Kantian moral theory and feminist thought. She has also written on the problem of justifying the authority of normative claims.

• Kristi Sweet: works in Ethics focused on the philosophy of Immanuel Kant. Her work concerns the relation of Kant's moral philosophy to his political philosophy, philosophy of history, and writings on religion. She is also interested in the history of ethical thought.

• Gary Varner: current work focuses the two-level (or “Kantian”) utilitarianism of R.M. Hare.

The following faculty members of other Texas A&M departments also have research interests in ethics:

• Marian Eide (English): concentrates on twentieth-century literatures in English with a focus on gender and ethics. Her book Ethical Joyce was published in 2002 by Cambridge University Press. She is currently researching violence in twentieth-century aesthetics.