Samuel Ira Scheffler (born 1951) is a moral and political philosopher, who is University Professor of Philosophy and Law in the Department of Philosophy and the School of Law at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

Education and career

Before moving to NYU in 2008, Scheffler taught for 31 years at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

. Scheffler received his PhD from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

, where he was a student of the philosopher

Thomas Nagel Thomas Nagel (; born July 4, 1937) is an American philosopher. He is the University Professor of Philosophy and Law Emeritus at New York University, where he taught from 1980 until his retirement in 2016. His main areas of philosophical interest ...

. He was elected a fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

in 2004. He is the son of the Harvard philosopher Israel Scheffler. He is a member of the

Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters (, DNVA) is a learned society based in Oslo, Norway. Its purpose is to support the advancement of science and scholarship in Norway. History The Royal Frederick University in Christiania was establis ...

Philosophical work

Scheffler's book, ''Death and the Afterlife'', based on his Tanner Lectures at

, has generated considerable attention for its argument that much that we value in life depends on the assumption that life will continue long after our death. As the Princeton philosopher Mark Johnston explained in ''

Boston Review ''Boston Review'' is an American quarterly political and literary magazine. It publishes political, social, and historical analysis, literary and cultural criticism, book reviews, fiction, and poetry, both online and in print. Its signature form ...

'': Assessing the argument, the English philosopher

John Cottingham John Cottingham (born 1943) is an English philosopher. The focus of his research has been early-modern philosophy (especially René Descartes, Descartes), the philosophy of religion and moral philosophy.Athanassoulis, Nafsika and Vice, Samantha ...

wrote: "Scheffler has produced a superb essay – indeed it seems to me about as good as analytic philosophy gets. It is entirely free from obfuscating jargon and other tiresome tricks of the trade, yet it is meticulously argued and demanding in exactly the right way – forcing us to think about hitherto unexamined implications of our existing beliefs."

Selected books

*''Why Worry About Future Generations'' (Oxford University Press, 2018) *''Death and the Afterlife'' (Oxford University Press, 2013) *''Equality and Tradition'' (Oxford University Press, 2010) *''Boundaries and Allegiances: Problems of Justice and Responsibility in Liberal Thought'' (Oxford University Press, 2001) *''The Rejection of Consequentialism'' (Oxford University Press 2nd ed., 1994) (editor) *''Human Morality'' (Oxford University Press, 1992)

References

External links

Video interview with Scheffler
{{DEFAULTSORT:Scheffler, Samuel New York University faculty Living people 20th-century American philosophers 21st-century American philosophers 1951 births Princeton University alumni Harvard University alumni University of California, Berkeley faculty Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Analytic philosophers American political philosophers Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters