Biography

January 23, 2015

Bill FitzPatrick, our new Gideon Webster Burbank Professor of Intellectual and Moral Philosophy, at a reception for him in the Philosophy Department's Lewis White Beck Library.

Courses Offered (subject to change)

• PHIL 103:  Moral Problems
• PHIL 225:  Ethical Decisions in Medicine

Selected Publications

Books

• Teleology and the Norms of Nature (New York: Garland, 2000).

Articles and Chapters

• "Skepticism about Naturalizing Normativity: In Defense of Ethical Non-Naturalism," forthcoming in Res Philosophica (October 2014), special issue on ethical non-naturalism, edited by Terence Cuneo. Winner of 2014 Res Philosophica Essay Prize.
• "Scientific Naturalism and the Explanation of Moral Beliefs: Challenging Evolutionary Debunking," forthcoming in Kelly Clark, ed., A Companion to Naturalism (Blackwell, 2014).
• "Debunking Evolutionary Debunking of Ethical Realism," Philosophical Studies (2014).
• "Why There is No Darwinian Dilemma for Ethical Realism," in M. Bergmann and P. Kain eds., Challenges to Moral and Religious Belief: Disagreement and Evolution (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014).
• "How Not To Be an Ethical Constructivist: A Critique of Korsgaard’s Neo-Kantian Constitutivism," in C. Bagnoli, ed., Constructivism in Ethics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013). 
• "Intention, Permissibility, and Double Effect," Oxford Studies in Normative Ethics, Vol. 2 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012).
• "Worth/Dignity," in the International Encyclopedia of Ethics (2012).
• "The Doctrine of Double Effect: Intention and Permissibility,” in Philosophy Compass, 7(3): 183-196 (March, 2012).
• "Biology, Evolution, and Ethics," in the Continuum Companion to Ethics (London: Continuum, 2011).
• "Ethical Non-Naturalism and Normative Properties," in Michael Brady ed., New Waves in Metaethics (Palgrave MacMillan, 2010).
• "Recent Work on Ethical Realism," Analysis Reviews 69:4 (October, 2009).
• "Thomson's Turnabout on the Trolley," Analysis 69:4 (October, 2009).
• "Morality and Evolutionary Biology," Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (December 2008).
• "Moral Responsibility and Normative Ignorance: Answering a New Skeptical Challenge," Ethics, Vol. 118, No. 4 (July, 2008).
• "Robust Ethical Realism, Non-Naturalism and Normativity," Oxford Studies in Metaethics, Vol. 3 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008).
• "Teleology," International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, ed. William A. Darity, Jr., Vol. 8. 2^nd ed. (Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2008).
• "Climate Change and the Rights of Future Generations: Social Justice Beyond Mutual Advantage," Environmental Ethics, Vol. 29, No. 4 (Winter 2007).
• "The Intend/Foresee Distinction and the Problem of Closeness," Philosophical Studies, Vol. 128, No. 3 (April, 2006).
• "The Practical Turn In Ethical Theory: Korsgaard's Constructivism, Realism, and the Nature of Normativity," Ethics Vol. 115, No. 4 (July, 2005).
• "Valuing Nature Non-Instrumentally," The Journal of Value Inquiry, Vol. 38 (2004).
• "Reasons, Value, and Particular Agents: Normative Relevance Without Motivational Internalism," Mind Vol. 113, Issue 450 (April, 2004).
• "Ethical Pluralism Without Complementarity," Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, Vol. 47, No. 2 (Spring 2004).
• "Totipotency and the Moral Status of Embryos: New Problems for an Old Argument," Journal of Social Philosophy, Vol. 35 No. 1 (Spring 2004).
• "Acts, Intentions, and Moral Permissibility: In Defense of the Doctrine of Double Effect," Analysis, 63:4 (October 2003).
• "Surplus Embryos, Non-Reproductive Cloning, and the Intend/Foresee Distinction," The Hastings Center Report 33:3(May/June 2003). *Reprinted in Ethical Issues in Modern Medicine, 7^th edition, ed. by Bonnie Steinbock, Alex John London and John D. Arras (McGraw Hill, 2007).
• "Defending Against Biochemical Warfare: Ethical Issues Involving the Coercive Use of Investigational Drugs and Biologics in the Military," with Lee Zwanziger, The Journal of Philosophy, Science and Law (Vol. 3, March, 2003).
• "O'Neill and Korsgaard on the Construction of Normativity," with Eric Watkins, The Journal of Value Inquiry, Vol. 36, Nos. 2-3 (summer, 2002).
• "Ethical Concerns Over Testing on Human Subjects," Human and Ecological Risk Assessment: Vol. 7, No. 6 (2001).

Reviews

• Review of Philip Kitcher, The Ethical Project (Harvard University Press), Ethics, Vol. 123, No. 1 (October, 2012).
• Review of Judith Jarvis Thomson, Normativity (Chicago: Open Court, 2008), Ethics, Vol. 120, No. 2 (January, 2010).
• Review of Richard Dean, The Value of Humanity in Kant's Moral Theory (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), Mind, Vol. 116, Issue 464 (October, 2007).
• Review of Michael Byron, ed., Satisficing and Maximizing: Moral Theorists on Practical Reason(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), Philosophical Books (July, 2007): http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1468-0149.2007.00449_9.x
• Review of Giovanni Boniolo and Gabriele De Anna, eds., Evolutionary Ethics and Contemporary Biology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, April 2, 2007: http://ndpr.nd.edu/review.cfm?id=9205
• Review of Joseph Raz, The Practice of Value (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), Ethics, Vol. 116, No. 4 (July, 2006).

Work in Progress or Under Review

• "Ethical Realism in a Darwinian World"
• "Practical Reason, Good Action, and the Normative Authority of Morality”

Blog

• WalletHub
   "Is Money the Root of All Evil? Experts Pick Sides"
  https://wallethub.com/blog/money-is-the-root-of-all-evil/31418/#william-j-fitzpatrick