Helga Varden is a Norwegian-American philosopher and Professor of Philosophy and Gender and Women Studies at the

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univ ...

. She was Brady Distinguished Visiting Professor in Ethics and Civic Life at

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

between 2014-2015. She is known for her works on

Kantian philosophy Kantianism is the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, a German philosopher born in Königsberg, Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia). The term ''Kantianism'' or ''Kantian'' is sometimes also used to describe contemporary positions in philosophy of mind, ...

Career

Helga Varden is a professor in philosophy (home department), in gender and women studies, and in political science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Varden’s main research interests are in Kant's practical philosophy as well as

legal Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

political Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...

and

feminist philosophy Feminist philosophy is an approach to philosophy from a feminist perspective and also the employment of philosophical methods to feminist topics and questions. Feminist philosophy involves both reinterpreting philosophical texts and methods in ...

. In addition to her book—'' Sex, Love, and Gender: A Kantian Theory'' (OUP 2020)—she has published on a range of classical philosophical issues, including Kant’s answer to

the murderer at the door The categorical imperative (german: kategorischer Imperativ) is the central philosophical concept in the deontological moral philosophy of Immanuel Kant. Introduced in Kant's 1785 ''Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals'', it is a way of evalu ...

private property Private property is a legal designation for the ownership of property by non-governmental legal entities. Private property is distinguishable from public property and personal property, which is owned by a state entity, and from collective or ...

political obligations Political obligation refers to a moral requirement to obey national laws. Its origins are unclear, however it traces to the Ancient Greeks. The idea of political obligation is philosophical, focusing on the morality of laws, rather than justice. ...

, and

political legitimacy In political science, legitimacy is the right and acceptance of an authority, usually a governing law or a regime. Whereas ''authority'' denotes a specific position in an established government, the term ''legitimacy'' denotes a system of governm ...

, as well as on applied issues such as terrorism, care relations, privacy, poverty, and our

moral responsibilities for animals Animal ethics is a branch of ethics which examines human-animal relationships, the moral consideration of animals and how nonhuman animals ought to be treated. The subject matter includes animal rights, animal welfare, animal law, speciesism, an ...

Selected publications

*'' Sex, Love, and Gender: A Kantian Theory'', Oxford University Press 2020 * (2021). “Towards a Kantian Theory of Philosophical Education and Human Wisdom—with the help of Arendt,” '' Journal of the Philosophy of Education'', special edition on Kant on Education and Improvement: Themes and Problems, eds. David Bakhurst and Martin Sticker, pp. 1-16. * (2021). “Kant and Arendt on Barbaric and Totalitarian Evil,” ''Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society'', Vol. cxxi (2): 221-248. * (2021). “Locke on Property,” in J. Gordon-Roth & S. Weinberg (eds.) 2021, ''The Lockean Mind'', Routledge, pp. 428-437. * (2020). “Kantian Care,” in Asha L. Bhandary & Amy Baehr (eds.) ''Caring for Liberalism: Dependency and Political Theory'', Routledge, pp. 50-74. * (2020). “Kant and Moral Responsibility for Animals,” in Lucy Allais and John Callanan (eds.) ''Kant & Animals'', Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 157-175. * (2018). “Kant on Sex. Reconsidered: A Kantian Account of Sexuality: Sexual love, Sexual Identity, and Sexual Orientation,” ''

Feminist Philosophy Quarterly ''Feminist Philosophy Quarterly'' (FPQ) is an online, open access, peer-reviewed journal dedicated to promoting feminist philosophical scholarship. Founded on 22 July 2015, the journal is published quarterly and strives to include and incorporate ...

'' 4(1): 1-33. * (2017). “Kant and Women.” ''Pacific Philosophical Quarterly'', Vol. 98(4): 653-694. (Electronic publication, Oct. 24, 2015.) DOI:10.1111/papq.12103 * (2016). “Rawls vs. Nozick vs. Kant on Domestic Economic Justice,” in ''Kant and Social Policies'', eds. Andrea Luisa Bucchile Faggion, Nuria Sánchez Madrid, Alessandro Pinzani, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 93-123. * (2014). “The Terrorist Attacks in Norway, July 22nd 2011— Some Kantian Reflections.” ''Norsk Filosofisk Tidsskrift/Norwegian Journal of Philosophy'', Vol. 49(3-4): 236-59. * (2012). “A Kantian Critique of the Care Tradition: Family Law and Systemic Justice.” ''

Kantian Review ''Kantian Review'' is a journal of philosophy, focusing on Immanuel Kant which publishes articles and reviews selected for their quality and relevance to current philosophical debate in relation to Kant's work. It was first published in March 19 ...

'', 17(2): 327-356. * (2012). “The Lockean ‘Enough-and-as-Good’ Proviso - an Internal Critique.” ''

Journal of Moral Philosophy The ''Journal of Moral Philosophy'' is a peer-reviewed journal of moral, political, and legal philosophy with an international focus. It publishes articles in all areas of normative philosophy, including pure and applied ethics, as well as moral, ...

'' 9, pp. 410-22. * (2011). “A Kantian Conception of Global Justice.” ''Review of International Studies'', Vol. 37(5): 2043-2057. * (2010). “Kant and Lying to the Murderer at the Door… One more Time: Kant’s Legal Philosophy and Lies to Murderers and Nazis.” ''The Journal of Social Philosophy'', Vol. 41, No. 4, Winter 2010: 403-421. * (2010). ”Kant’s Non-Absolutist Conception of Political Legitimacy: How Public Right ‘Concludes’ Private Right in ‘The Doctrine of Right’.”'' Kant-Studien'', Heft 3: 331-51. * (2008). “Kant’s Non-Voluntarist Conception of Political Obligations: Why Justice is Impossible in the State of Nature.” ''Kantian Review'', Vol. 13(2): 1-45. * (2006). “Kant and Dependency Relations: Kant on the State’s Right to Redistribute Resources to Protect the Rights of Dependents.” '' Dialogue – Canadian Philosophical Review'', Vol. XLV: 257-84.

References

External links

Personal website
21st-century American philosophers Philosophy academics Living people University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign faculty University of Toronto alumni University of Tromsø alumni Alumni of the London School of Economics Alumni of Newcastle University American women philosophers Political philosophers Kant scholars Year of birth missing (living people) Norwegian women philosophers 21st-century Norwegian philosophers Distinguished professors in the United States {{Norway-philosopher-stub