Alan Thomas (born 1964) is a British philosopher in the Department of

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 York The University of York (abbreviated as or ''York'' for Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a public Collegiate university, collegiate research university in York, England. Established in 1963, the university has expanded to more than thir ...

. He is best known for his works on

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

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 ...

Career

Thomas was educated at the Graig Comprehensive School, Llanelli, before undergraduate study at

King's College, Cambridge King's College, formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, is a List of colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college lies beside the River Cam and faces ...

. Following a year at Harvard University as a Kennedy Scholar, Thomas returned to Oxford University to complete his doctorate under the supervision of

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

. Thomas began his career at

King's College, London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public university, public research university in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV ...

before taking up a lectureship at the

University of Kent The University of Kent (formerly the University of Kent at Canterbury, abbreviated as UKC) is a Collegiate university, collegiate public university, public research university based in Kent, United Kingdom. The university was granted its roya ...

at Canterbury. Thomas became a professor of ethics at

Tilburg University Tilburg University is a Catholic research university specializing in the social and behavioral sciences, economics, law, business sciences, theology and humanities, located in Tilburg, Netherlands. Tilburg has a student population of about 19,1 ...

in 2010 before becoming a professor of philosophy at the

in 2016. He has been a visiting scholar 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 ...

(2007–2008), a fellow of the Murphy Institute at

Tulane University The Tulane University of Louisiana (commonly referred to as Tulane University) is a private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. Founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 by a cohort of medical doctors, it b ...

(2009–10), a visiting fellow of the Humanities Research Centre at the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public university, public research university and member of the Group of Eight (Australian universities), Group of Eight, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton, A ...

(2015) and a visiting professor at

St. Louis University Saint Louis University (SLU) is a private Jesuit research university in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Founded in 1818 by Louis William Valentine DuBourg, it is the oldest university west of the Mississippi River and one of the oldest ...

(2015). His research has been funded by the AHRC (2001) and the

Templeton Foundation The John Templeton Foundation (Templeton Foundation) is a philanthropic organization founded by John Templeton in 1987. Templeton became wealthy as a contrarian investor, and wanted to support progress in religious and spiritual knowledge, espec ...

(2015, 2016–18). In 2019 Thomas was funded by the UK'
Independent Social Research Foundation
for work on the regulation of the financial sector. He is currently part of a multi-department (Philosophy, Computing, Law) and multi-university research team working on the UKRI (EPSRC) funded project on the resilience of autonomous systems.

Books

* '' Extravagance and Misery: the Emotional Regime of Market Societies'', co-authored with Alfred Archer and Bart Engelen, Oxford University Press, 2024 November. * ''Bernard Williams, Cambridge 'Elements' Series'', Cambridge University Press, 2024. * '' Republic of Equals: Predistribution and Property-Owning Democracy'', Oxford University Press, 2017 *
Thomas Nagel
', Routledge, 2015 *
Bernard Williams
' (editor and contributor), Cambridge University Press, 2007 * '' Value and Context: the Nature of Moral and Political Knowledge'', The Clarendon Press, 2006

References

External links

Alan Thomas's Blog
21st-century British philosophers British philosophy academics Living people 1964 births Alumni of King's College, Cambridge Alumni of the University of Oxford Academics of the University of York Academics of King's College London Academics of the University of Kent Academic staff of Tilburg University British political philosophers People from Shrewsbury {{UK-philosopher-stub