Philosophy

Background

Dr. Thompson comes to OSU from the Department of Philosophy and Religion at Clemson University where he also worked with the Restoration Institute, the Rutland Institute for Ethics, and the doctoral program in Planning, Design, and the Built Environment.  As an undergraduate he studied at The Evergreen State College, in Olympia WA, before earning his MA and PhD from the University of Washington, in Seattle.

His primary areas of interest are environmental philosophy (including ethics, metaphysics, and aesthetics), philosophical ethics, social and political philosophy, and practical reason. Recent publications have focused on forward-looking conceptions of human natural goodness and re-visioning our moral responsibility for managing ecosystems under conditions of global climate change.

More information, including article reprints, can be found on his webpage: http://people.oregonstate.edu/~thompsoa/.

Select Publications

Ethical Adaptation to Climate Change: Human Virtues of the Future. MIT Press, 2012 (co-editor with Jeremy Bendik-Keymer)

Select Journal Articles and Chapters

• “Adaptation, Transformation, & Development: Getting Ready for the New World” Old World and New World Perspectives on Environmental Philosophy. Martin Drenthen and Jozef Kelartz, eds. Fordham University Press 2012 (forthcoming)
• "The Virtue of Responsibility for the Global Climate” Ethical Adaptation to Climate Change, Thompson & Bendik-Keymer, eds. (MIT 2012)
• "Development Ethics and the Copenhagen Accord: How Important are the Global Poor?" Ethics, Place, & Environment, Vol. 13, No. 2 (2010)
• "Radical Hope for Living Well in a Warmer World" Journal of Agricultural & Environmental Ethics, Vol. 23, No. 1 (2010)
• “Responsibility for the End of Nature, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Global Warming”  Ethics & the Environment, Vol. 14, No. 1 (2009)
• “Natural Goodness and Abandoning the Economy of Value” Ethics, Place & Environment, Vol. 11, No. 2 (2008)
• “Reconciling Themes in neo-Aristotelian Metaethics” Journal of Value Inquiry, Vol. 41, No. 2 (2007)
• “Environmentalism, Moral Responsibility, and the Doctrine of Doing and Allowing” Ethics, Place & Environment, Vol. 9, No. 3 (2006)

Courses

2013 Fall            PHL 205 ETHICS (4)

2014 Winter        PHL 541 CLASSIC MORAL THEORIES (3)