Alan Brian Carter (born 1952) is Emeritus Professor of Moral Philosophy at the

University of Glasgow The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals; ) is a Public university, public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the List of oldest universities in continuous ...

Life and work

Carter earned a BA at the University of Kent at Canterbury, a MA at the

University of Sussex The University of Sussex is a public university, public research university, research university located in Falmer, East Sussex, England. It lies mostly within the city boundaries of Brighton and Hove. Its large campus site is surrounded by the ...

and a

DPhil A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

at St Cross College at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, 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 List of oldest un ...

. Carter's first academic position was lecturer in political theory at

University College Dublin University College Dublin (), commonly referred to as UCD, is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a collegiate university, member institution of the National University of Ireland. With 38,417 students, it is Ireland's largest ...

. He then became head of the Philosophy Department at

Heythrop College Heythrop College, University of London, was a constituent college of the University of London between 1971 and 2018, last located in Kensington Square, London. It comprised the university's specialist faculties of philosophy and theology with soc ...

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

. Subsequently, he was professor of philosophy and environmental studies 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 ...

. He has been a visiting professor at the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a Public university, public research university with campuses near University of British Columbia Vancouver, Vancouver and University of British Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna, in British Columbia, Canada ...

and at the

University of Bucharest The University of Bucharest (UB) () is a public university, public research university in Bucharest, Romania. It was founded in its current form on by a decree of Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza to convert the former Princely Academy of Bucharest, P ...

. For a number of years Carter was joint editor of the '' Journal of Applied Philosophy''. He works principally in

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 ...

moral philosophy Ethics is the philosophical study of moral phenomena. Also called moral philosophy, it investigates normative questions about what people ought to do or which behavior is morally right. Its main branches include normative ethics, applied et ...

, and

environmental philosophy Environment most often refers to: __NOTOC__ * Natural environment, referring respectively to all living and non-living things occurring naturally and the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism ...

. Carter has published on a wide range of topics: within political philosophy he has written on political obligation, equality, and

property right The right to property, or the right to own property (cf. ownership), is often classified as a human right for natural persons regarding their possessions. A general recognition of a right to private property is found more rarely and is typicall ...

s; within environmental philosophy he has written on the moral status of both nonhuman animals and ecosystems; within

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 ...

he has written on problems regarding future persons and world hunger; within

political theory Political philosophy studies the theoretical and conceptual foundations of politics. It examines the nature, scope, and legitimacy of political institutions, such as states. This field investigates different forms of government, ranging from d ...

he has written on theories of the state and

Third World The term Third World arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either NATO or the Warsaw Pact. The United States, Canada, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, the Southern Cone, NATO, Western European countries and oth ...

underdevelopment; and within anarchism and Marxism Carter has written on their respective theories of history. He is currently developing an environmentalist moral theory that is, normatively, value pluralist and, metaethically, projectivist, topics he has previously written about in moral theory. Some of Carter's work in environmental philosophy is discussed critically by Robin Attfield.See for example Attfield, R., ''Environmental Ethics: An Overview for the Twenty-First Century''. Polity-Blackwell (2003). Carter's state-primacy theory has been discussed by Robyn EckersleyEckersley, R. ''The Green State: Rethinking Democracy and Sovereignty''. MIT Press (2004). and criticized by John Barry.Barry, J. ''Rethinking Green Politics: Nature, Virtue and Progress''. Sage (1999) and, most fully, by Simon Hailwood.Hailwood, S. ''How to be a Green Liberal: Nature, Value and Liberal Philosophy''. Acumen (2004). Carter has responded by arguing that his critics fail to take sufficiently into account the problems the military causes in modern societies: "it is telling how little attention green liberal critics of the state-primacy theory have paid to the role of the military and to its highly distorting effects. Failing to examine in any detail military requirements within ostensibly 'liberal democracies', whether existing or imagined, is more like simply ignoring an argument rather than answering it."Carter, A. "Beyond primacy: Marxism, anarchism and radical green political theory," ''Environmental Politics'' 19, 6 (2010): 951-972, here at 971n. Carter was one of the founder members of the London-based Anarchist Research Group.Goodway, D. (ed.), '' For Anarchism: History, Theory, and Practice''. Routledge (1989).

Colin Ward Colin Ward (14 August 1924 – 11 February 2010)

has described Carter, with

Murray Bookchin Murray Bookchin (; January 14, 1921 – July 30, 2006) was an American social theorist, author, orator, historian, and political philosopher. Influenced by G. W. F. Hegel, Karl Marx, and Peter Kropotkin, he was a pioneer in the environmental ...

, as one of the leading eco-anarchist thinkers.Ward, C. ''Anarchism: A Very Short Introduction''. Oxford University Press (2004). Outside of academia, Carter is a former Chair of the World Development Movement Scotland and a former Board Member of Friends of the Earth Scotland. He is also a former Board Member and a former Trustee of

Friends of the Earth Friends of the Earth International (FoEI) is an international network of grassroots environmental organizations in 73 countries. About half of the member groups call themselves "Friends of the Earth" in their own languages; the others use other ...

Publications

Carter's publications include over 50 articles in academic journals and he is the author of 3 books: * (1999) * (1988) * (1987)

Selected articles

*"A Solution to the Purported Non-Transitivity of Normative Evaluation," ''Journal of Philosophy'' 112, 1 (2015): 23-45 *"A distinction within egalitarianism," ''Journal of Philosophy'' 108, 10 (2011): 535–54 *"Anarchism: some theoretical foundations," ''Journal of Political Ideologies'' 16, 3 (2011): 245-264 *"Beyond primacy: Marxism, anarchism and radical green political theory," ''Environmental Politics'' 19, 6 (2010): 951-972 *"The problem of political compliance in Rawls's theories of justice: Parts I and II," ''The Journal of Moral Philosophy'' 3, 1 (2006): 7–21 and 3, 2 (2006): 135–157 *"A defense of egalitarianism," ''Philosophical Studies'' 131, 2 (2006): 269–302 *"Some Theoretical Foundations for Radical Green Politics," ''Environmental Values'' 13, 3 (2004): 305–28 *"Saving nature and feeding people," ''Environmental Ethics'' 26, 4 (2004): 339–60 *"Value-pluralist egalitarianism," ''Journal of Philosophy'' 99, 11 (2002): 577–99 *"Can we harm future people?" ''Environmental Values'' 10, 4 (2001): 429–454 *"Humean nature," ''Environmental Values'' 9, 1 (2000): 3–37 *"Analytical anarchism: some conceptual foundations," ''Political Theory'' 28, 2 (2000): 230–53 *"In defense of radical disobedience," ''The Journal of Applied Philosophy'' 15, 1 (1998): 29–47 *"Towards a green political theory" in Andrew Dobson and Paul Lucardie (eds.), ''The Politics of Nature: Explorations in Green Political Theory'' (London: Routledge, 1993), pp. 39–62

Citations

External links

Alan Carter's webpage
at Academia.edu {{DEFAULTSORT:Carter, Alan 1952 births Living people Academics of Heythrop College Academics of the University of Glasgow Alumni of the University of Kent Alumni of St Cross College, Oxford Alumni of the University of Sussex Anarchist theorists English anarchists 20th-century English philosophers 21st-century English philosophers English political philosophers Environmental ethicists Green anarchists Scholars of Marxism Academic staff of the University of British Columbia People educated at Monkwearmouth School

Life and work

Publications

Selected articles

See also

Citations

External links