William J. FitzPatrick

Associate Professor and Graduate Program Director

Department of Philosophy, Virginia Tech

Current Courses

Philosophy 1304: Morality and Justice (Fall 2008)

Philosophy 5324: Contemporary Metaethics (Fall 2008)

Research Areas

Moral Philosophy:

Metaethics: I am particularly interested in defending a robust form of ethical realism that involves a non-naturalistic metaphysics of ethical facts and properties as well as an external reasons theory that allows for the categoricity of moral requirements. In addition to critiquing neo-Kantian constructivism, neo-Humean theories of reasons, and naturalistic forms of realism, I also have particular interests in critiquing common appeals to natural teleology and/or evolution in metaethical or ethical arguments.

Normative Ethical Theory: Much of my work in normative ethics has focused on resisting consequentialism, particularly through defenses of the Doctrine of Double Effect against various recent objections.

Applied Ethics: My work in applied ethics has been mainly in bioethics (the moral status of embryos, non-reproductive cloning, ethical issues in human subjects research) and in environmental ethics (the non-instrumental value of nature; climate change and the rights of future generations).

Publications

Books:

Teleology and the Norms of Nature (New York: Garland, 2000).

Articles:

"Moral Responsibility and Normative Ignorance: Answering a New Skeptical Challenge," Ethics, Vol. 118, No. 4 (July, 2008).

"Robust Ethical Realism, Non-Naturalism and Normativity," Oxford Studies in Metaethics, Vol. 3 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008).

"Teleology," International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, ed. William A. Darity, Jr., Vol. 8. 2^nd ed. (Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2008).

"Climate Change and the Rights of Future Generations: Social Justice Beyond Mutual Advantage," Environmental Ethics, Vol. 29, No. 4 (Winter 2007).

"The Intend/Foresee Distinction and the Problem of Closeness," Philosophical Studies, Vol. 128, No. 3 (April, 2006).

"The Practical Turn In Ethical Theory: Korsgaard's Constructivism, Realism, and the Nature of Normativity," Ethics Vol. 115, No. 4 (July, 2005).

"Valuing Nature Non-Instrumentally," The Journal of Value Inquiry, Vol. 38 (2004).

"Reasons, Value, and Particular Agents: Normative Relevance Without Motivational Internalism," Mind Vol. 113, Issue 450 (April, 2004).

"Ethical Pluralism Without Complementarity," Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, Vol. 47, No. 2 (Spring 2004).

"Totipotency and the Moral Status of Embryos: New Problems for an Old Argument," Journal of Social Philosophy, Vol. 35 No. 1 (Spring 2004).

"Acts, Intentions, and Moral Permissibility: In Defense of the Doctrine of Double Effect," Analysis, 63:4 (October 2003).

"Surplus Embryos, Non-Reproductive Cloning, and the Intend/Foresee Distinction," The Hastings Center Report 33:3 (May/June 2003). *Reprinted in Ethical Issues in Modern Medicine, 7^th edition, ed. by Bonnie Steinbock, Alex John London and John D. Arras (McGraw Hill, 2007).

"Defending Against Biochemical Warfare: Ethical Issues Involving the Coercive Use of Investigational Drugs and Biologics in the Military," with Lee Zwanziger, The Journal of Philosophy, Science and Law (Vol. 3, March, 2003).

"O'Neill and Korsgaard on the Construction of Normativity," with Eric Watkins, The Journal of Value Inquiry, Vol. 36, Nos. 2-3 (summer, 2002).

"Ethical Concerns Over Testing on Human Subjects," Human and Ecological Risk Assessment: Vol. 7, No. 6 (2001).

Reviews:

Review of Richard Dean, The Value of Humanity in Kant's Moral Theory (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), Mind, Vol. 116, Issue 464 (October, 2007).

Review of Michael Byron, ed., Satisficing and Maximizing: Moral Theorists on Practical Reason (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), Philosophical Books (July, 2007): http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1468-0149.2007.00449_9.x

Review of Giovanni Boniolo and Gabriele De Anna, eds., Evolutionary Ethics and Contemporary Biology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, April 2, 2007: http://ndpr.nd.edu/review.cfm?id=9205

Review of Joseph Raz, The Practice of Value (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), Ethics, Vol. 116, No. 4 (July, 2006).

Work in Progress or Under Review:

"How Not to be an Evolutionary Metaethicist" (under review for conference).

"Normative Realism, Kantian Constructivism, and Instrumental Normativity" (under revision).

"Morality and Evolutionary Biology," for the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (completed; under editorial review).

"Recent Work on Ethical Realism," for Analysis Reviews.

Essay Prize

"Metaphysics and Ethical Realism," 2000 Aristotle Prize from The Metaphysical Society of America.

Contact Information

Email address: william.fitzpatrick@vt.edu

Office address and phone: 237 Major Williams Hall; (540) 231-7543

Biographical Information

Degrees:	Ph.D.	UCLA	1995
	MA	UCLA	1988
	AB, with Honors	Princeton	1986

Prior Teaching:

Yale University, Lecturer: 1996-1999

UCLA, Instructor: 1991-1994