Geoffrey Sayre-McCord

Geoffrey Sayre-McCord (né McCord, born December 10, 1956 in Boston, Massachusetts) is a philosopher who works in moral theory, meta-ethics, the history of ethics, and epistemology and has written extensively in these areas. He is known especially for his work on moral realism and on David Hume's moral theory. He has also written on contractualism. His Essays on Moral Realism is widely used in undergraduate and graduate courses on meta-ethics and he was, for five years, a co-editor of the highly regarded journal Noûs. Sayre-McCord received his BA from Oberlin College and his PhD (under the direction of David Gauthier) from the University of Pittsburgh. The recipient of several university-wide teaching awards, Sayre-McCord is the Morehead Alumni Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Chair of the Philosophy Department at the University of North Carolina, where he has taught since 1985.

Publications

Some Articles

• "Coherence and Models for Moral Theorizing," Pacific Philosophical Quarterly (1985)
• "Deontic Logic and the Priority of Moral Theory," Noûs (1986)
• "The Many Moral Realisms," Southern Journal of Philosophy, Spindel Conference Supplement, (1986)
• "Moral Theory and Explanatory Impotence," Midwest Studies (1988)
• "Deception and Reasons to be Moral," American Philosophical Quarterly, (1989)
• "Functional Explanations and Reasons as Causes," Philosophical Perspectives (1990)
• "Being a Realist about Relativism," Philosophical Studies (1991)
• "Normative Explanations," Philosophical Perspectives (1992)
• "On Why Hume's General Point of View Isn't Ideal -- and Shouldn't Be," Social Philosophy and Policy (1994)
• "Coherentist Epistemology and Moral Theory," in Moral Knowledge?, ed. by Sinnott-Armstrong and Timmons (1996)
• "Hume and the Bauhaus Theory of Ethics," Midwest Studies (1996)
• "Hume's Representation Argument Against Rationalism," Manuscrito (1997)
• "The Meta-Ethical Problem," Ethics (1997)
• "'Good' on Twin Earth," Philosophical Issues (1997)
• "Contractarianism," Blackwell Guide to Ethical Theory (1999)
• "Criminal Justice and Legal Reparations," Philosophical Issues (2001)
• "Mill's 'Proof': A More than Half-Hearted Defense," Social Philosophy and Policy (2001)
• "On the Relevance of Ignorance to the Demands of Morality," Rationality, Rules, and Ideals, ed. by Sinnott-Armstrong (2002)
• "Moral Realism," Oxford Handbook of Moral Theory, ed. by Copp (2006)
• "Moral Semantics and Empirical Enquiry," Moral Psychology, ed. by Sinnott-Armstrong (2008)
• "Hume on Practical Morality and Inert Reason," Oxford Studies in Metaethics, ed. by Shafer-Landau (2008)

Edited Volumes

• Essays on Moral Realism (Cornell University Press, 1988)
• Hume: Moral Philosophy (Hackett Publishing, 2006)

See also

• American philosophy
• List of American philosophers

External links

• Geoffrey Sayre-McCord's webpage at UNC-Chapel Hill
• Geoffrey Sayre-McCord's curriculum vita
• Geoffrey Sayre-McCord's personal webpage
• Papers available on-line
• Video conversations/interviews with Will Wilkinson on Bloggingheads.tv
• Stanford Encyclopedia entry on Meta-Ethics, on-line
• Stanford Encyclopedia entry on Moral Realism, on-line
• Sayre-McCord on Bloggingheads.tv discussing meta-ethics
• Sayre-McCord on Bloggingheads.tv discussing ethics and evolution