Allen W. Wood

Allen William Wood
Born 1942
Seattle, United States
Era Contemporary philosophy
Region Western philosophy
School Revival of Kantianism
Main interests
 trolley problems, Kant, ethics, German idealism, social philosophy

Allen William Wood[1] (born October 26, 1942)[2] is an American philosopher specialising in the work of Immanuel Kant and German Idealism, with particular interests in ethics and social philosophy. He is the Ruth Norman Halls professor of philosophy at Indiana University[3] and has held professorships and visiting appointments at numerous universities in the United States and Europe. In addition to popularising and clarifying the ethical thought of Immanuel Kant, Wood has also mounted arguments against the validity of 'trolley problems' in moral philosophy.[4][5]

Life and Career

Born in Seattle, WA,[3] he has held professorships at Cornell University,[6] Yale University,[7] and Stanford University,[8] where he is now Ward W. and Priscilla B. Woods Professor emeritus.[3] Additionally, he has held visiting appointments at the University of Michigan, University of California at San Diego and Oxford University,[3] where he was Isaiah Berlin Visiting Professor in 2005,[9] and has been affiliated with the Freie Universität Berlin in 1983-84 and the Rheinische-Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn in 1991-1992.[3]

Philosophical Work

Wood has written prolifically on many subjects in moral and social philosophy, and publications he has authored include: Kant's Moral Religion (1970),[10] Kant's Rational Theology (1978),[11] Karl Marx (1981),[12] Hegel's Ethical Thought (1990),[13] Kant's Ethical Thought (1999),[7] Unsettling Obligations (2002),[14] Kant (2004),[15] Kantian Ethics (2007)[4] and The Free Development of Each: Studies in Freedom, Right and Ethics in Classical German Philosophy.[16] He is also working on a book continuing his 'Ethical Thought' series entitled Fichte's Ethical Thought,[3] fulfilling his earlier suggestion that "having written a book on Hegel's Ethical Thought and a book on Kant's Ethical Thought, I should... write a book... on Fichte's Ethical Thought.[17]

Along with Paul Guyer, Wood is general editor of the Cambridge Edition of Kant's Writings in English Translation,[18] having contributed to six volumes.[3] He has also edited Self and Nature in Kant's Philosophy (1984),[19] Hegel: Elements of the Philosophy of Right (1991),[6] Kant: Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals (2002),[8] Fichte: Attempt at a Critique of All Revelation (2010),[20] and the Cambridge History of Philosophy in the Nineteenth Century (1790-1870), with Songsuk Susan Hahn (2012).[21]

Kantian ethics

Wood is a leading scholar of Kant's moral philosophy.[22] He has worked extensively to revise public and professional perspectives of Kant's moral philosophy, and to elucidate the "proper aims and structure of a moral theory and the way moral theories relate to ordinary moral decisions."[17] He has suggested that John Rawls and Onora O'Neill have "made people pay more serious attention to Kantian ethical theory."[22] He suggests that many of the problems reported in respect of Kantian ethics are shared by all ethical theories, and that in the context of the problems concerning free will "no rival theory has a satisfactory solution to it.".[17]

Groundwork to the Metaphysics of Morals

Wood edited and produced his own translation to Kant's Groundwork to the Metaphysics of Morals,[8] which is the book he always uses to introduce Kantian ethics to students, and the only text he teaches in general course on ethical theory.[17] He has suggested that "the first fifty times I read the Groundwork I did not understand it at all, but accepted many of the common errors, because they were easy to commit and had become hallowed by generations of misreading by others.".[22]

Other ethical theories

Although critical of consequentialist moral theories,[7] he has nonetheless engaged with representatives of this tradition and has mentioned that he and renowned consequentialist Shelly Kagan were "always very friendly colleagues at Yale".[22] He has claimed that contemporary virtue ethics has "added another valuable perspective", and traced this to G.E.M. Anscombe's "rather incendiary article"[22] Modern Moral Philosophy.[23]

He has raised doubts over whether moral intuitions are credible data in moral epistemology,[17] and raised especial objections to the use of 'trolley problems' in ethical theory.[4][5][24] Furthermore, Wood's objections can be understood as equally indicting the work of moral psychologist's such as Joshua Greene and Jonathan Haidt whenever their work depends upon such trolley problems.[25]

Wood has suggested that "all ethical theories are uncertain, questionable, and not apt for justified belief",[17] suggesting that foundational principles for ethics (such as those developed by Kant) remain useful because they allow people with different viewpoints to frame their arguments cogently.[24] He has suggested that basic ethical values, such as human flourishing and the dignity of human persons, "have a role to play in helping people to think better about the terribly problematic situations that face us.".[24]

In his keynote address to the Cape Town University Law School in 2007, Wood compared Kant's realm of ends to the African ideal of ubuntu, suggesting that although the two ideas were not the same "I do think they represent very much the same response to the human condition, as manifested in different cultural and historical conditions.".[26]

Selected Writings

Authored Volumes

Edited volumes

Journal articles

References

  1. ↑ https://stanfordwho.stanford.edu/SWApp/detailAction.do?key=DS091M316&search=allen&soundex=&stanfordonl
  2. ↑ https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K5P8-SX3
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Cornell University faculty page accessed 12 April 2012
  4. 1 2 3 Wood, Allen W. Kantian Ethics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007
  5. 1 2 Wood, Allen (2011). “Humanity as an End in Itself” in On What Matters, Volume 2, Derek Parfit, Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
  6. 1 2 Hegel, G.W.F. Elements of the Philosophy of Right, ed. Allen W. Wood, trans. H.B. Nisbet, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
  7. 1 2 3 Wood, Allen W. Kant's Ethical Thought, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
  8. 1 2 3 Kant, Immanuel. Groundwork for the metaphysics of morals, tr. Allen W. Wood, with essays by J.B. Schneewind et al. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002.
  9. ↑ Isaiah Berlin Lectures webpage accessed 3 June 2013
  10. ↑ Wood, Allen W. Kant's Moral Religion, Ithaqa, NY: Cornell University Press, 1970.
  11. ↑ Wood, Allen W. Kant's Rational Theology, Ithaqa, NY: Cornell University Press, 1978.
  12. ↑ Wood, Allen W. Karl Marx, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1981.
  13. ↑ Wood, Allen W. Hegel's Ethical Thought, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
  14. ↑ Wood, Allen W. Unsettling Obligations: Essays on Reason, Reality and the Ethics of Belief, Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications, 2002.
  15. ↑ Wood, Allen W. Kant (Blackwell Great Minds), Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Blackwell, 2004
  16. ↑ Wood, Allen W. The Free Development of Each: Studies in Freedom, Right and Ethics in Classical German Philosophy, Oxford University Press, 2014.
  17. 1 2 3 4 5 6 McComb, Geordie (2008). "An Interview with Allen W. Wood", Sophia: Undergraduate Journal of Philosophy, vol 11, pp. 2–14.
  18. ↑ The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Immanuel Kant page, Cambridge University Books website accessed 3 June 2013
  19. ↑ Wood, Allen W. Self and Nature in Kant's Philosophy, Ithaqa, NY: Cornell University Press, 1984
  20. ↑ Fichte, Johann Gottlieb, Attempt at a Critique of All Revelation, ed. Allen W. Wood, trans. Garrett Green, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010
  21. ↑ Wood, Allen W. and Hahn, Songsuk Susan, Cambridge History of Philosophy in the Nineteenth Century (1790-1870), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012
  22. 1 2 3 4 5 Allen Wood on Ethics (1): Kant and Mutual Respect, Only a Game accessed 3 June 2013
  23. ↑ Anscombe, G.E.M. "Modern Moral Philosophy", Philosophy, vol. 33, no. 124, 1958
  24. 1 2 3 "Allen Wood on Ethics (2): Political Realities", Only a Game accessed 3 June 2013
  25. ↑ Bateman, Chris. Chaos Ethics, Winchester and Chicago: Zero Books, 2014
  26. ↑ Wood, Allen. “Human Dignity, Right and the Realm of Ends”, Keynote Address to the Conference on Dignity and Law, Cape Town University Law School, 2007.

External links

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