Geoffrey Sayre-McCord
Geoffrey Sayre-McCord (né McCord, born December 10, 1956) is an American philosopher who works in moral theory, ethics, meta-ethics, the history of ethics, and epistemology. He teaches at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He is also the director of the Philosophy, Politics and Economics Society.[1]
Geoffrey Sayre-McCord | |
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Born | |
Nationality | American |
Education | BA from Oberlin College and PhD from the University of Pittsburgh |
Occupation(s) | Philosopher, professor, author |
Employer | University of North Carolina |
Known for | Moral realism |
Website | https://philosophy.unc.edu/people/geoffrey-sayre-mccord/ |
Education and career
Sayre-McCord received his BA from Oberlin College and his PhD (under the direction of David Gauthier) from the University of Pittsburgh. Sayre-McCord is the Morehead-Cain Alumni Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Philosophy, Politics, and Economics Program at the University of North Carolina, where he has taught since 1985. He was a Professorial Fellow at the University of Edinburgh from 2013-2016, and a Laurance S. Rockefeller Visiting Professor at Princeton University in 2015-2016. He is a frequent visitor at the Australian National University and has been a visiting professor at the University of Auckland and the University of California/Irvine.
Sayre-McCord is author of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entries on moral realism[2] and metaethics.[3] He has also written on contractualism and on issues at the intersection of philosophy, politics, and economics. He was, for five years, a co-editor of the journal Noûs.
In 2019, Sayre-McCord received the Philip L. Quinn Prize from the American Philosophical Association, for "service to philosophy and philosophers, broadly construed."[4]
Family
Sayre-McCord's parents were William Maxwell McCord and Joan McCord, both of whom were college professors. His brother is Rob McCord, a former Pennsylvania Treasurer.[5] He is married to Harriet Sayre, the daughter of Francis Bowes Sayre Jr. and great-granddaughter of President Woodrow Wilson.[6]
Publications
Selected articles
- "Coherence and Models for Moral Theorizing," Pacific Philosophical Quarterly (1985)
- "Deontic Logic and the Priority of Moral Theory," Noûs (1986)
- "The Many Moral Realisms," Southern Journal of Philosophy, Spindel Conference Supplement, (1986)
- "Moral Theory and Explanatory Impotence," Midwest Studies (1988)
- "Deception and Reasons to be Moral," American Philosophical Quarterly, (1989)
- "Functional Explanations and Reasons as Causes," Philosophical Perspectives (1990)
- "Being a Realist about Relativism," Philosophical Studies (1991)
- "Normative Explanations," Philosophical Perspectives (1992)
- "On Why Hume's General Point of View Isn't Ideal -- and Shouldn't Be," Social Philosophy and Policy (1994)
- "Coherentist Epistemology and Moral Theory," in Moral Knowledge?, ed. by Sinnott-Armstrong and Timmons (1996)
- "Hume and the Bauhaus Theory of Ethics," Midwest Studies (1996)
- "Hume's Representation Argument Against Rationalism," Manuscrito (1997)
- "The Meta-Ethical Problem," Ethics (1997)
- "'Good' on Twin Earth," Philosophical Issues (1997)
- "Contractarianism," Blackwell Guide to Ethical Theory (1999)
- "Criminal Justice and Legal Reparations," Philosophical Issues (2001)
- "Mill's 'Proof': A More than Half-Hearted Defense," Social Philosophy and Policy (2001)
- "On the Relevance of Ignorance to the Demands of Morality," Rationality, Rules, and Ideals, ed. by Sinnott-Armstrong (2002)
- "Moral Realism," Oxford Handbook of Moral Theory, ed. by Copp (2006)
- "Moral Semantics and Empirical Enquiry," Moral Psychology, ed. by Sinnott-Armstrong (2008)
- "Hume on Practical Morality and Inert Reason," Oxford Studies in Metaethics, ed. by Shafer-Landau (2008)
- "Sentiments and Spectators: Adam Smith's Theory of Moral Judgment," The Philosophy of Adam Smith, ed. by Brown and Fleischacker (2010)
- "Real World Theory, Complacency, and Aspiration," with Geoff Brennan, in Philosophical Studies (2020) 178, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11098-020-01531-x.
- "Hume's Robust Theory of Practical Reason," in Routledge Handbook of Practical Reason, ed. by
Ruth Chang and Kurt Sylvan (Routledge, 2021), pp. 141-159.
- "On Cooperation," with Geoff Brennan, in Analyse & Kritik, January 2018, Vol. 40, pp. 107-130.
- "Hume's Theory of Public Reason," Public Reason in Political Philosophy: Classic Sources and Contemporary Commentaries, edited by Gerald Gaus and Piers Turner (Routledge, 2017), pp. 303-329.
- "Do Normative Facts Matter...To What Is Feasible?" with Geoff Brennan, in Social Philosophy and Policy, 2016, vol. 33, #1-2, pp. 434 - 456.
- "Hume on the Artificial Virtues," in the Oxford Handbook of David Hume, edited by Paul Russell (Oxford University Press, 2016), pp. 435-469.
Edited volumes
- Essays on Moral Realism (Cornell University Press, 1988)
- Hume: Moral Philosophy (Hackett Publishing, 2006)
- Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (Oxford University Press, 2015), with Jonathan Anomaly, Geoffrey Brennan, and Michael Munger.
References
- "The Philosophy, Politics, and Economics Society".
- "Moral Realism". The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University. 2021.
- "Metaethics". The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University. 2014.
- "Philip L. Quinn Prize".
- "Ousted Pennsylvania Treasurer Rob McCord was a serious fundraiser, the record shows". 31 January 2015.
- "Harriet Sayre to Marry in Vineyard Haven". The Washington Post.