Name Shelly Kagan | ||
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Education Wesleyan University, Princeton University Books The limits of morality, The geometry of desert, Death, Normative Ethics | ||
official is god necessary for morality william lane craig and shelly kagan discuss
Shelly Kagan is the Clark Professor of Philosophy at Yale University and the former Henry R. Luce Professor of Social Thought and Ethics. He is best known for his writings about moral philosophy and normative ethics. In 2007, Kagan's course about death was offered for free online, and proved to be very popular. This led to him publishing a book on the subject in 2012.
Contents
- official is god necessary for morality william lane craig and shelly kagan discuss
- Living well in the light of death nt wright and shelly kagan at yale
- Education and early career
- Philosophy
- References
Living well in the light of death nt wright and shelly kagan at yale
Education and early career
A native of Skokie, Illinois, Kagan received his B.A. from Wesleyan University in 1976 and his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1982. He taught at the University of Pittsburgh and at the University of Illinois at Chicago before taking a position at Yale.
Philosophy
Kagan's first book The Limits of Morality is an extended critique of two key assumptions which underlie what Kagan calls "ordinary morality" - the "commonâsense moral view that most of us accept." Specifically, the book questions the assumption that morality rules out certain actions (such as harming innocent people) even in situations where doing so might create greater good, and the assumption that individuals are "not required to make our greatest possible contribution to the overall good." According to Kagan, these two assumptions are indefensible, despite their widespread appeal.
In 1997, Kagan published a textbook titled Normative Ethics, designed to provide a thorough introduction to the subject for upper-level undergraduate or graduates students. In the spring of 2007, his Yale course "Death" was recorded for Open Yale Courses, and the book Death is based on these lectures. In 2010, Yale University reported Kagan's "Death" course had made him one of the most popular foreign teachers in China.
Kagan also explored the concept of desert, which is a philosophical concept of what individuals do or do not deserve, in his 2012 book The Geometry of Desert.
Kagan has served as a member of the editorial board of the journal Ethics. In 2016, he was made a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.