Jonathan Wolff (born 25 June 1959) is a British philosopher and academic. He was Professor of Philosophy and

Dean Dean may refer to: People * Dean (given name) * Dean (surname), a surname of Anglo-Saxon English origin * Dean (South Korean singer), a stage name for singer Kwon Hyuk * Dean Delannoit, a Belgian singer most known by the mononym Dean Titles * ...

of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

in 2012–16.

Life and career

Wolff was born on 25 June 1959 to Herbert Wolff and Doris Wolff (née Polakoff). He earned his MPhil from UCL under the direction of

G.A. Cohen Gerald Allan Cohen, ( ; 14 April 1941 – 5 August 2009) was a Canadian political philosopher who held the positions of Quain Professor of Jurisprudence, University College London and Chichele Professor of Social and Political Theory, All Sou ...

in 1985. Apart from one year as a Harkness Fellow at Harvard University, he has taught at UCL ever since. As of 1 September 2016, he holds the Blavatnik Chair in Public Policy in the

Blavatnik School of Government The Blavatnik School of Government is a school of public policy founded in 2010 at the University of Oxford in England. The School was founded following a £75 million donation from a business magnate Leonard Blavatnik, supported by £26 million ...

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

. He was formerly the secretary of the

British Philosophical Association The British Philosophical Association (BPA) is a British organisation set up in October 2002 to promote the study of philosophy. Early history During the early 1980s the merging of educational establishments and financial cut-backs meant that so ...

and has been Editor and then honorary secretary of the Aristotelian Society, which publishes ''Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society''. Recently, Wolff's work has specialised in

disadvantage In policy debate, a disadvantage (abbreviated as DA, and sometimes referred to as: Disad) is an argument that a team brings up against a policy action that is being considered. A disadvantage is also used in the Lincoln-Douglas debate format. ...

and

equality Equality may refer to: Society * Political equality, in which all members of a society are of equal standing ** Consociationalism, in which an ethnically, religiously, or linguistically divided state functions by cooperation of each group's elit ...

and

public policy Public policy is an institutionalized proposal or a decided set of elements like laws, regulations, guidelines, and actions to solve or address relevant and real-world problems, guided by a conception and often implemented by programs. Public p ...

decision making. As a scholar on the topic of

Marxism Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

, Wolff published "Marx and Exploitation", an article about Marxist thinking, in ''The Journal of Ethics''. He also co-edited (with Michael Rosen) ''Political Thought'' (), an introductionary reader on political philosophy. He has also published a critique of Robert Nozick's ''

Anarchy, State, and Utopia ''Anarchy, State, and Utopia'' is a 1974 book by the American political philosopher Robert Nozick. It won the 1975 US National Book Award in category Philosophy and Religion, has been translated into 11 languages, and was named one of the "100 m ...

'' called ''Robert Nozick: Property, Justice and the Minimal State'', a short book on

Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...

, ''Why Read Marx Today?'', and ''An Introduction to Political Philosophy''. He currently writes a monthly column for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' and occasionally blogs at

Brian Leiter Brian Leiter (; born 1963) is an American philosopher and legal scholar who is Karl N. Llewellyn Professor of Jurisprudence at the University of Chicago Law School and founder and Director of Chicago's Center for Law, Philosophy & Human Values. ...

's "

Leiter Reports Leiter is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * A family of American baseball pitchers: ** Al Leiter (born 1965), left-hander ** Jack Leiter (born 2000), son of Al, right-hander ** Mark Leiter (born 1963), brother of Al, right-ha ...

" blog. Jonathan Wolff presented a four-part series about the UK's National Health Service for the BBC's Radio 3 programme 'The Essay' during the week of 27 July 2009. The series, entitled "Doctoring Philosophy", marked the 60th anniversary of the NHS and commenced by studying the philosophical background which led to the foundation of the service and the changing definitions of sickness and health. It went on to explore entitlement, issues of equality of service, and issues of priorities in a world of universal access. He was a member of the

Nuffield Council on Bioethics The Nuffield Council on Bioethics is a UK-based independent charitable body, which examines and reports on bioethical issues raised by new advances in biological and medical research. Established in 1991, the Council is funded by the Nuffield Fo ...

from 2008 to 2014 and served on two of the council's working parties; on ''the ethics of animal research'', and ''the ethics of personalised healthcare''Nuffield Council on Bioethics official website-personalised healthcare
/ref>

Bibliography

;Books * * * * * * * ;Journal articles * ::''See also'':

References

External links

Wolff's website at UCL

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wolff, Jonathan 1959 births Living people Academics of University College London English political philosophers Marxist theorists Alumni of University College London 20th-century British philosophers 21st-century British philosophers British ethicists English male non-fiction writers Harkness Fellows