Susan Rose Wolf (born 1952) is an American moral philosopher and philosopher of action who is currently the Edna J. Koury Professor of Philosophy at the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...

. She taught previously at

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consi ...

(1986–2002), the

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of M ...

(1981–1986) and

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

(1978–1981).

Education and career

Wolf earned a BA from

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

in philosophy and mathematics in 1974, followed in 1978, by a PhD in philosophy from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

. Her thesis advisor was

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 to 2016. His main areas of philosophical interest are legal philosophy, ...

. After completing her PhD, Wolf began her career teaching at Harvard University. In 1981 she moved to a position at the University of Maryland. From 1986 to 2002 she taught at Johns Hopkins University, where she became Chair of the Philosophy Department. She moved to her current role as Edna J. Koury Distinguished Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2002. Her husband, Douglas MacLean, is also a philosopher teaching at UNC-Chapel Hill. Since 2014, Wolf has served as a trustee of the

National Humanities Center The National Humanities Center (NHC) is an independent institute for advanced study in the humanities. The NHC operates as a privately incorporated nonprofit and is not part of any university or federal agency. The center was planned under the auspi ...

in Research Triangle Park, NC.

Philosophical work

Wolf's work centres on the relation between freedom, morality, happiness and meaningfulness in life. Her book ''Freedom Within Reason'' (Oxford, 1990) argues for a view of

free will Free will is the capacity of agents to choose between different possible courses of action unimpeded. Free will is closely linked to the concepts of moral responsibility, praise, culpability, sin, and other judgements which apply only to ac ...

as the

ability Abilities are powers an agent has to perform various actions. They include common abilities, like walking, and rare abilities, like performing a double backflip. Abilities are intelligent powers: they are guided by the person's intention and exec ...

to do what one reasonably thinks is the right thing. This allows a deterministic universe to nevertheless contain responsibility and the feeling of autonomy for us. Wolf has also written on the topic of

moral luck Moral luck describes circumstances whereby a moral agent is assigned moral blame or praise for an action or its consequences, even if it is clear that said agent did not have full control over either the action or its consequences. This term, in ...

, suggesting a reconciliation between the rationalist and irrationalist positions. She has also published influential work on the demandingness of morality. In this area her paper "Moral Saints" has been particularly influential, attacking the idea that a morally perfect person is actually an attractive ethical ideal. Along with Philippa Foot and

Bernard Williams Sir Bernard Arthur Owen Williams, FBA (21 September 1929 – 10 June 2003) was an English moral philosopher. His publications include ''Problems of the Self'' (1973), ''Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy'' (1985), ''Shame and Necessity'' ...

, she has challenged the overriding of morality in practical reasoning. Wolf has also written extensively on the meaning in human life. She addresses the topic of the meaning of life in her essay: “Happiness and Meaning: Two Aspects of the Good Life”, in which she summaries her view as "Meaning arises when subjective attraction meets objective attractiveness… meaning arises when a subject discovers or develops an affinity for one or typically several of the more worthwhile things…". In other words, living a meaningful life consists of one's active engagement with objectively worthwhile things.

Awards and honours

Wolf was elected a Fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) 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, a ...

in 1999 and of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

in 2006. She received a Mellon Distinguished Achievement Award in the Humanities in 2002.

Works (selection)

* ''The Variety of Values: Essays On Morality, Meaning, And Love'', Oxford University Press, 2014; * ''Understanding Love: Philosophy, Film, And Fiction'' (editor with Christopher Grau), Oxford University Press, 2013; * ''Meaning in Life and Why It Matters'', Princeton University Press, 2012; * ''Freedom Within Reason'', Oxford University Press, 1994;

References

External links