Peter Albert Railton (born May 23, 1950) is an American

philosopher 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 ...

who is Gregory S. Kavka Distinguished University Professor and John Stephenson Perrin Professor 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 Michigan, Ann Arbor, where he has taught since 1979.

Education and career

He earned his Ph.D. from Princeton in 1980, writing a dissertation under the supervision of David K. Lewis. He was a visiting professor 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 ...

and

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 ...

. He was elected a Fellow of the

American Academy of Arts & 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 F ...

in 2004 and 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 ...

in 2016. A public lecture he gave concerning his own struggles with depression attracted widespread notice and praise in the academic community.

Philosophical work

His dissertation concerned scientific explanation. His main research since centers on contemporary

metaethics In metaphilosophy and ethics, metaethics is the study of the nature, scope, ground, and meaning of moral judgment, ethical belief, or values. It is one of the three branches of ethics generally studied by philosophers, the others being normativ ...

and

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 ...

(especially

consequentialism In moral philosophy, consequentialism is a class of normative, teleological ethical theories that holds that the consequences of one's conduct are the ultimate basis for judgement about the rightness or wrongness of that conduct. Thus, from a ...

). He is the author of the book ''Facts, Values and Norms'' (Cambridge University Press, 2003), a collection of his major papers in ethics, and a co-editor (with

Stephen Darwall Stephen Darwall (born 1946) is a contemporary moral philosophy, moral philosopher, best known for his work developing Kantian and deontological themes. He was named Andrew Downey Orrick Professor of Philosophy at Yale University in 2008. He was ...

and Allan Gibbard) of ''Moral Discourse and Practice: Some Philosophical Approaches'' (Oxford University Press, 1996). Railton has playfully described himself as a "stark, raving moral realist". "Moral Realism", ''The Philosophical Review'', Vol. 95, No. 2 (April 1986), p. 165 However, unlike some moral realists, he thinks moral facts that make moral statements true are natural facts.

Bibliography

* 1984, "Alienation, Consequentialism, and the Demands of Morality," ''Philosophy and Public Affairs'', Vol. 13, No. 2, pp. 134–171. * 1986, "Moral Realism," ''The Philosophical Review'', Vol. 95, No. 2, pp. 163–207. * 1991, "Moral Theory As A Moral Practice," ''Noûs'', Vol. 25, No. 2, pp. 185–190. * 1992, "Some Questions About the Justification of Morality," ''Philosophical Perspectives'', Vol. 6, pp. 27–53. * 1992, "Pluralism, Determinacy, and Dilemma," ''Ethics'', Vol. 102, No. 4, pp. 720–742. * 1993, "Noncognitivism about Rationality: Benefits, Costs, and an Alternative," ''Philosophical Issues'', Vol. 4, pp. 36–51. * 1994, "Truth, Reason, and the Regulation of Belief," ''Philosophical Issues'', Vol. 5, pp. 71–93. * 1996, "Moral Realism: Prospects and Problems," in Sinnott-Armstrong and Timmons (eds.), ''Moral Knowledge?'', Oxford University Press. * 1996, ''Moral Discourse and Practice'' (co-edited with Stephen Darwall and Allan Gibbard), Oxford University Press. * 2003, ''Facts, Values, and Norms'', Cambridge University Press.

References

Sources

4 U-M scholars named AAAS fellows

External links

Video interview/discussion with Railton
on Bloggingheads.tv
Peter Railton and the Moral Realism
(in Italian) {{DEFAULTSORT:Railton, Peter 1950 births 20th-century American philosophers 20th-century American essayists 21st-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American philosophers 21st-century American essayists American ethicists American male essayists American male non-fiction writers American philosophy academics Analytic philosophers Consequentialists American epistemologists Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Living people Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters Metaphilosophers American metaphysicians Moral realists Ontologists American philosophers of social science University of Michigan faculty 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers American lecturers