William FitzPatrick
Associate Professor of Philosophy and Director of Graduate Studies
Ph.D. University of California, Los Angeles, 1995
237 Major Williams Hall | Email | (540) 231-7543 | Personal Website
Ethics, Metaethics, Applied Ethics
Dr. FitzPatrick serves as Director of Graduate Studies. He specializes in moral philosophy, and is chair of the New River Valley Local Human Rights Committee. His research interests range from current metaethical debates over the nature and source of normativity, to issues in normative ethical theory concerning non-consequentialist principles, to ethical issues surrounding embryonic stem cell research, climate change, and the value of nature. Some recent projects: critiques of neo-Kantian and neo-Humean theories of practical reason and ethics; a critique of teleological naturalism in ethics; a defense of a robust, non-naturalist ethical realism; a defense and articulation of deontological constraints; a qualified defense of human cloning-for-biomedical-research; a response to recent skeptical arguments against warranted attributions of moral responsibility; an argument that our obligations to future generations can legitimately be construed in terms of justice and rights.
Books
- Teleology and the Norms of Nature, New York: Garland Press, 2000
Selected Recent Articles
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(Follow the link to Prof. FitzPatrick's personal website for a complete list of articles.)
- "Morality and Evolutionary Biology," Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, December 2008.
- "Moral Responsibility and Normative Ignorance: Answering a New Skeptical Challenge," Ethics, 118 (4), 2008.
- "Robust Ethical Realism, Non-Naturalism and Normativity," in Russ Shafer-Landau ed., Oxford Studies in Metaethics, vol. 3, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.
- "Climate Change and the Rights of Future Generations: Social Justice Beyond Mutual Advantage," Environmental Ethics, 29 (4), 2007.
- "The Intend/Foresee Distinction and the Problem of Closeness," Philosophical Studies, 128 (3), 2006.
- "The Practical Turn In Ethical Theory: Korsgaard's Constructivism, Realism, and the Nature of Normativity," Ethics, 115 (4), 2005.
- "Reasons, Value, and Particular Agents: Normative Relevance Without Motivational Internalism," Mind 113 (#450), 2004.
Book Reviews
- "Richard Dean, The Value of Humanity in Kant's Moral Theory," Mind, 116 (#464), November 2007.
- "Michael Byron, ed., Satisficing and Maximizing: Moral Theorists on Practical Reason," Philosophical Books, 48 (3), July 2007.
- "Giovanni Boniolo and Gabriele De Anna, eds., Evolutionary Ethics and Contemporary Biology," Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, April 2007.
- "Joseph Raz, The Practice of Value," Ethics, 116 (4), 2006.