Jeff McMahan (philosopher)
Jeff McMahan | |
---|---|
Born | Jefferson Allen McMahan August 30, 1954 |
Alma mater | |
Thesis | Problems of Population Theory (1986) |
Doctoral advisor | Jonathan Glover, Derek Parfit, Bernard Williams |
Main interests | Normative and applied ethics |
Notable ideas | The ethics of intensive animal farming, the ethics of wild animal suffering, the ethics of killing in war, the ethics of nuclear weapons |
Jefferson Allen McMahan (
Education and career
In 1976, McMahan completed a B.A. degree in
He taught at the
He was elected a Fellow of the
Philosophical work
Bioethics
McMahan has written extensively on normative and applied ethics, especially on bioethics and just war theory. His publications in bioethics include The Ethics of Killing: Problems at the Margins of Life (Oxford University Press, 2002). The book consists of five parts: about identity, death, killing, the beginning of life, and the end of life. In its first part, McMahan defends a mixed view of personal identity, claiming that individuals are what he calls "embodied minds". In the following parts, he claims that the badness of death and the wrongness of killing depends on our interest in living. He also defends what he calls a "time-relative interest account of living". According to his view, our interest in living depends on our psychological connection to our future selves at each time.[5]
Animal ethics
In relation to his contributions in bioethics, McMahan has also written on the subject of animal ethics, where he has argued against the moral relevance of species membership.
Just war theory
McMahan's main contributions to just war theory are made in his book Killing in War (OUP, 2009), which argues against foundational elements of the traditional basis of just war theory. Against Michael Walzer,[13] he claims that those who fight an unjust war can never meet the requirements of jus in bello.
Other work
McMahan has also co-edited the books The Morality of Nationalism (with Robert McKim, OUP, 1997) and Ethics and Humanity (with Ann Davis and Richard Keshen, OUP, 2010). In the early 1980s, he wrote two books about the political situation at the time: British Nuclear Weapons: For and Against (London: Junction Books, 1981, with a preface by Bernard Williams) and Reagan and the World: Imperial Policy in the New Cold War (London: Pluto Press, 1984). In more recent times, he has also done work on effective altruism.[14][15]
He is on the editorial board of
Selected publications
Articles
- "The Meat Eaters". The Stone. The New York Times. September 19, 2010.
- "Predators: A Response". The Stone. The New York Times. September 28, 2010. Archived from the original on October 30, 2019.
- "Rethinking the 'Just War,' Part 1". The Stone. The New York Times. November 11, 2012.
- "Rethinking the 'Just War,' Part 2". The Stone. The New York Times. November 12, 2012.
- "Why Gun 'Control' Is Not Enough". The Stone. The New York Times. December 19, 2012.
- Cutting, Gary; McMahan, Jeff (December 19, 2012). "Can Torture Ever Be Moral?". The Stone. The New York Times.
Books
- The Ethics of Killing: Problems at the Margins of Life (Oxford University Press, 2002) (ISBN 0-195-16982-4)
- Killing in War (Oxford University Press, 2009) (ISBN 0-199-54866-8)
- The Ethics of Killing: Self-Defense, War, and Punishment (Oxford University Press, 2020) (ISBN 0-195-18721-0)
See also
References
- ^ a b McMahan, Jeff (January 2018). "Curriculum Vitae" (PDF). Jeff McMahan.
- ^ "Jeff McMahan". www.philosophy.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved April 9, 2024.
- ^ "Mcmahan, Jeff(erson Allen) 1954-". encyclopedia.com. Retrieved April 9, 2024.
- ^ "New Members".
- ISSN 1538-1617.
- ^ McMahan, Jeff. 2002. "Animals", in R. G. Frey and Christopher Wellman, eds., Blackwell Companion to Applied Ethics (Oxford: Blackwell).
- ^ McMahan, Jeff. 2005. “‘Our Fellow Creatures’,” Journal of Ethics, 9, 353-380.
- .
- ^ McMahan, Jeff (September 19, 2010). "The Meat Eaters". New York Times Opinionator. Retrieved July 10, 2017.
- ISBN 978-0415806831. Archived from the original(PDF) on November 11, 2020. Retrieved July 10, 2017.
- . Retrieved April 21, 2016.
- ^ Walzer, Michael. Just and Unjust Wars: A Moral Argument with Historical Illustrations, 4th ed. (New York: Basic Books, 1977)
- ^ McMahan, Jeff. 2016. "Philosophical Critiques of Effective Altruism", The Philosopher's Magazine 73 (2nd Quarter).
- ^ McMahan, Jeff. 2017. "Doing Good & Doing the Best", in Paul Woodruff, ed., Philanthropy and Philosophy: Putting Theory Into Practice (New York: Oxford University Press).
- ^ Rosenbaum, Martin (November 12, 2018). "Pseudonyms to protect authors of controversial articles". BBC. Retrieved November 13, 2018.
External links
- Unjust War in Iraq. The Pelican Record XLI, no. 5 (December 2004): 21-33.
- Introduction to the work of Jeff McMahan. By Lucia Sommer.
- Jeff McMahan on Killing in War. An interview for Philosophy Bites, November 21, 2009.
- Jeff McMahan at IMDb