David Wong is an American

philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...

. He is the Susan Fox Beischer and George D. Beischer Professor of Philosophy at

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

. Wong has done work in

ethics Ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that "involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior".''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' The field of ethics, along with aesthetics, concerns m ...

moral psychology Moral psychology is a field of study in both philosophy and psychology. Historically, the term "moral psychology" was used relatively narrowly to refer to the study of moral development. Moral psychology eventually came to refer more broadly to var ...

, comparative ethics, and

Chinese philosophy Chinese philosophy originates in the Spring and Autumn period () and Warring States period (), during a period known as the "Hundred Schools of Thought", which was characterized by significant intellectual and cultural developmen ...

. He is especially well known for his defense of a version of

moral relativism Moral relativism or ethical relativism (often reformulated as relativist ethics or relativist morality) is used to describe several philosophical positions concerned with the differences in moral judgments across different peoples and cultures. ...

. Wong earned his

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

in 1977 under the supervision of

Gilbert Harman Gilbert Harman (May 26, 1938 – November 13, 2021) was an American philosopher, who taught at Princeton University from 1963 until his retirement in 2017. He has published widely in philosophy of language, cognitive science, philosophy of min ...

and his

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

degree from

Macalester College Macalester College () is a private liberal arts college in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Founded in 1874, Macalester is exclusively an undergraduate four-year institution and enrolled 2,174 students in the fall of 2018 from 50 U.S. states, four U.S te ...

in 1971. He is the author of the book ''Natural Moralities''.

Writings

*''Natural Moralities'' (October 2006), Oxford University Press, 2006 (Korean and Chinese translations in preparation). *"Identifying with the Nonhuman in Early Daoism", ''Journal of Chinese Philosophy'' (accepted, 2009). Written for a symposium at Oxford University in June 2006, Topics in Comparative Ancient Philosophy: Greek and Chinese *"Moral Ambivalence and Relativism", ''Relativism: A Compendium'' (accepted, 2009). *"Cultural Pluralism and Moral Identity", ''Moral Self-Identity and Character'' (accepted, 2009). *"Emotion and the Cognition of Reasons in Moral Motivation", ''Philosophical Issues'' (supplementary volume on metaethics to Nous) (accepted, 2009). *"Translation of 'Zhuangzi and the Obsession with Being Right' into Chinese", ''Chinese Philosophy in the English-Speaking World'' (accepted, 2009).

External links

David Wong's Duke pageDavid Wong's Book, Natural MoralitiesAn in-depth autobiographical interview with David Wong
21st-century American philosophers Living people Duke University faculty Princeton University alumni Macalester College alumni American moral psychologists Year of birth missing (living people) American ethicists {{US-philosopher-stub