Alastair Norcross is an

associate professor Associate professor is an academic title with two principal meanings: in the North American system and that of the ''Commonwealth system''. In the ''North American system'', used in the United States and many other countries, it is a position ...

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

at the

University of Colorado at Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a Public university, public research university in Boulder, Colorado, United States. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a Federated state, state, it is the fla ...

, specializing in

normative ethics Normative ethics is the study of ethics, ethical behaviour and is the branch of Philosophy, philosophical ethics that investigates questions regarding how one ought to act, in a Morality, moral sense. Normative ethics is distinct from metaethics i ...

applied ethics Applied ethics is the practical aspect of morality, moral considerations. It is ethics with respect to real-world actions and their moral considerations in private and public life, the professions, health, technology, law, and leadership. For ex ...

, and

political philosophy Political philosophy studies the theoretical and conceptual foundations of politics. It examines the nature, scope, and Political legitimacy, legitimacy of political institutions, such as State (polity), states. This field investigates different ...

. He is a defender of

utilitarianism In ethical philosophy, utilitarianism is a family of normative ethical theories that prescribe actions that maximize happiness and well-being for the affected individuals. In other words, utilitarian ideas encourage actions that lead to the ...

Education and career

Norcross graduated from

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

in 1983 and earned his Ph.D. at

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York, United States. It was established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church but has been nonsectarian since 1920 ...

in 1991 under the supervision of Jonathan Bennett. While finishing his degree, he also taught at

Hobart and William Smith Colleges Hobart and William Smith Colleges is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Geneva, New York. They trace their origins to Geneva Academy established in 1797. Students can choose from ove ...

in Geneva, NY from 1990 to 1992. He then taught for ten years at

Southern Methodist University Southern Methodist University (SMU) is a Private university, private research university in Dallas, Texas, United States, with a satellite campus in Taos County, New Mexico. SMU was founded on April 17, 1911, by the Methodist Episcopal Church, ...

in Dallas, before moving to

Rice University William Marsh Rice University, commonly referred to as Rice University, is a Private university, private research university in Houston, Houston, Texas, United States. Established in 1912, the university spans 300 acres. Rice University comp ...

in 2002. He joined the Colorado faculty in 2007.

Philosophical work

In ethics, Norcross defends a version of act

known as ''scalar utilitarianism'', which is the theory that there are no right or wrong actions, only better or worse actions ranked along a continuum from the action (or actions) that contributes most to overall

utility In economics, utility is a measure of a certain person's satisfaction from a certain state of the world. Over time, the term has been used with at least two meanings. * In a normative context, utility refers to a goal or objective that we wish ...

to the action (or actions) that contributes the least.

On factory farming

In his 2004 paper, ''Puppies, Pigs, and People: Eating Meat and Marginal Cases'', Norcross invoked a

thought experiment A thought experiment is an imaginary scenario that is meant to elucidate or test an argument or theory. It is often an experiment that would be hard, impossible, or unethical to actually perform. It can also be an abstract hypothetical that is ...

termed "Fred’s Basement" which argued that consuming factory farmed meat is morally equivalent to torturing and killing puppies because both knowingly cause unnecessary harm to sentient creatures just for trivial pleasures. Norcross left open the possibility that consuming humanely-raised meat is permissible, whilst some of his readers have contended that his argumentative approach rules it out.

Selected articles

* (2006) 'Scalar Act-Utilitarianism'. In Henry R. West (ed.) ''Blackwell Guide to Mill's Utilitarianism''. * (2006) 'Reasons Without Demands: Rethinking Rightness'. In Jamie Dreier (ed.) ''Contemporary Debates in Moral Theory''. * (2005) 'Peacemaking Philosophy or Appeasement? Sterba's Argument for Compromise'. ''International Journal of Applied Philosophy'', 19:2. * (2005) 'Contextualism for Consequentialists'. ''Acta Analytica'', 20(2). * (2005) 'Harming in Context'. ''Philosophical Studies'', 123 (1-2). * (2004
'Puppies, Pigs, and People: Eating Meat and Marginal Cases'
''Philosophical Perspectives'' 18. * (2003) 'Killing and Letting Die'. In R. G. Frey and Christopher Heath Wellman (eds.), ''The Blackwell Companion to Applied Ethics'': 451–463. * (2002) 'Contractualism and Aggregation'. ''Social Theory and Practice'', 28 (2): 303–314. * (1999) 'Intransitivity and the Person-Affecting Principle'. ''Philosophy and Phenomenological Research'', LIX (3): 769–776. * (1998) 'Great Harms from Small Benefits Grow: How Death can be Outweighed by Headaches'. ''Analysis'': 152–158.

References

Alastair Norcross's CV (Accessed October 2007)

Alastair Norcross's home page. (Accessed October 2007)

External links

Interview with ''What Is It Like to be a Philosopher''?
{{DEFAULTSORT:Norcross, Alastair 20th-century British philosophers Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American animal rights scholars American political philosophers Hobart and William Smith Colleges alumni Philosophers from Colorado Philosophers from Texas Rice University faculty Southern Methodist University faculty Syracuse University alumni University of Colorado Boulder faculty Utilitarians