Richard Brandt

Richard Booker Brandt (17 October 1910 – 10 September 1997)[1] was an American philosopher working in the utilitarian tradition in moral philosophy.

Richard B. Brandt
Born	17 October 1910 Wilmington, Ohio
Died	10 September 1997 Ann Arbor, Michigan
Alma mater	Denison University Cambridge University Yale University
Era	Contemporary philosophy
Region	Western philosophy
School	Analytic Ethical subjectivism
Institutions	University of Michigan
Doctoral students	Anita L. Allen
Main interests	Moral philosophy
Notable ideas	Rule utilitarianism, cognitive psychotherapy, ideal observer theory, ethical subjectivism
Influenced Allan Gibbard, Peter Railton

Education and career

Brandt was originally educated at Denison University, a Baptist institution he was shepherded to by his minister father, and graduated in 1930 with majors in philosophy and classical studies.[2] In 1933 he earned another B.A., this time in the philosophy of religion, from Cambridge University.[3] He received his Ph.D. in Philosophy from Yale University in 1936.[4][5] He taught at Swarthmore College before becoming Chair of the Department of Philosophy the University of Michigan in 1964, where he taught with Charles Stevenson and William K. Frankena (1908–1994) and spent the remainder of his career.[6] The expressivist moral philosopher Allan Gibbard has mentioned his great intellectual debt to Brandt.[7]

Brandt gave the John Locke Lectures at Oxford University in 1974-75, material that later appeared in A Theory of the Good and the Right (1979).[8]

Philosophical work

Brandt wrote Ethical Theory (1959),[9] an influential textbook in the field. He defended a version of rule utilitarianism in "Toward a credible form of utilitarianism" (1963) and performed cultural-anthropological studies in Hopi Ethics (1954). In A Theory of the Good and the Right,[10] Brandt proposed a "reforming definition" of rationality, that one is rational if one's preferences are such that they survive cognitive psychotherapy in terms of all relevant information and logical criticism. He argued also that the morality such rational persons would accept would be a form of utilitarianism.

Brandt believed that moral rules should be considered in sets which he called moral codes. A moral code is justified when it is the optimal code that, if adopted and followed, would maximise the public good more than any alternative code would. The codes may be society-wide standards or special codes for a profession like engineering.[11]

See also

• American philosophy
• List of American philosophers

References

1. "Richard Booker Brandt - Oxford Reference".
2. Goldman, Alvin I., and Jaegwon Kim (1978), eds., Values and Morals, xiv.
3. Values and Morals, xiv
4. "Philosophy Prof. Emeritus Richard B. Brandt died Sept. 10".
5. Values and Morals, xiv
6. "Philosophy Prof. Emeritus Richard B. Brandt died Sept. 10".
7. Gibbard, Allan (1990). Wise Choices, Apt Feelings. Clarendon Press. viii. ISBN 0-19-824985-3.
8. "The John Locke Lectures | Faculty of Philosophy".
9. Richard B. Brandt (1959). Ethical Theory: The Problems of Normative and Critical Ethics. Prentice-Hall.
10. Richard B. Brandt (1979). A Theory of the Good and the Right. Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-824550-5.
11. Richard B. Brandt (1979). A Theory of the Good and the Right. Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-824550-5.