Alastair Norcross is an associate professor of philosophy at the

University of Colorado at Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University of Colorado sy ...

, specializing in normative ethics,

applied ethics Applied ethics refers to the practical aspect of moral considerations. It is ethics with respect to real-world actions and their moral considerations in the areas of private and public life, the professions, health, technology, law, and leadersh ...

, and

political philosophy Political philosophy or political theory is the philosophical study of government, addressing questions about the nature, scope, and legitimacy of public agents and institutions and the relationships between them. Its topics include politics, ...

. He is a defender of

utilitarianism In ethical philosophy, utilitarianism is a family of normative ethical theories that prescribe actions that maximize happiness and well-being for all affected individuals. Although different varieties of utilitarianism admit different chara ...

Education and career

Norcross graduated from

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 th ...

in 1983 and earned his Ph.D. at Syracuse University in 1991 under the supervision of Jonathan Bennett. While finishing his degree, he also taught at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, NY from 1990 to 1992. He then taught for ten years at

Southern Methodist University , mottoeng = "The truth will make you free" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = SACS , academic_affiliations = , religious_affiliation = United Methodist Church , president = R. Gerald Turner , ...

in Dallas, before moving to

Rice University William Marsh Rice University (Rice University) is a private research university in Houston, Texas. It is on a 300-acre campus near the Houston Museum District and adjacent to the Texas Medical Center. Rice is ranked among the top universities ...

in 2002. He joined the Colorado faculty in 2007.

Philosophical work

In ethics, Norcross defends a version of act

known as ''scalar utilitarianism'', which is the theory that there are no right or wrong actions, only better or worse actions ranked along a continuum from the action (or actions) that contributes most to overall

utility As a topic of economics, utility is used to model worth or value. Its usage has evolved significantly over time. The term was introduced initially as a measure of pleasure or happiness as part of the theory of utilitarianism by moral philosoph ...

to the action (or actions) that contributes the least.

Selected articles

* (2006) 'Scalar Act-Utilitarianism'. In Henry R. West (ed.) ''Blackwell Guide to Mill's Utilitarianism''. * (2006) 'Reasons Without Demands: Rethinking Rightness'. In Jamie Dreier (ed.) ''Contemporary Debates in Moral Theory''. * (2005) 'Peacemaking Philosophy or Appeasement? Sterba's Argument for Compromise'. ''International Journal of Applied Philosophy'', 19:2. * (2005) 'Contextualism for Consequentialists'. ''Acta Analytica'', 20(2). * (2005) 'Harming in Context'. ''Philosophical Studies'', 123 (1-2). * (2004) 'Puppies, Pigs, and People: Eating Meat and Marginal cases'. ''Philosophical Perspectives'' 18. * (2003) 'Killing and Letting Die'. In R. G. Frey and Christopher Heath Wellman (eds.), ''The Blackwell Companion to Applied Ethics'': 451–463. * (2002) 'Contractualism and Aggregation'. ''Social Theory and Practice'', 28 (2): 303–314. * (1999) 'Intransitivity and the Person-Affecting Principle'. ''Philosophy and Phenomenological Research'', LIX (3): 769–776. * (1998) 'Great Harms from Small Benefits Grow: How Death can be Outweighed by Headaches'. ''Analysis'': 152–158.

References

Alastair Norcross's CV (Accessed October 2007)

Alastair Norcross's home page. (Accessed October 2007)

External links

Interview with ''What Is It Like to be a Philosopher''?
20th-century British philosophers Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American political philosophers Moral philosophers Hobart and William Smith Colleges alumni Syracuse University alumni Southern Methodist University faculty Rice University faculty University of Colorado faculty Philosophers from Colorado Philosophers from Texas {{US-philosopher-stub