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David Sobel

David Sobel

David Sobel

Irwin and Marjorie Guttag Professor of Ethics and Political Philosophy

CONTACT

Philosophy
534 Hall of Languages
Email: dsobel@syr.edu

Degrees

  • Ph.D., The University of Michigan
CV

Social/Academic Links

Biographic Overview

David Sobel is the Irwin and Marjorie Guttag Professor of Ethics and Political Philosophy at Syracuse University. He works on a range of topics in ethics and political philosophy. He is best known for his extensive research on the connection between what a person values and both what is good for her and what she has reason to do. His From Valuing to Value was published by Oxford University Press in 2016. He is a founding co-editor of Oxford Studies in Political Philosophy. He has held fellowships at Princeton’s Rockefeller Center for Human Values, All Souls College at the University of Oxford, The Australian National University (twice), The Centre for Ethics, Philosophy, and Public Affairs at The University of St. Andrews, The University of Konstanz, and The University of Leiden. He has been on the Editorial Board at Ethics since 2017. He is currently at work on a book length project with Steven Wall trying to successfully combine objectivist and subjectivist dimensions of well-being.

Representative Publications

“The Objectivist Attempt to Appropriate Subjective Value,” forthcoming, Oxford Studies in Metaethics. Co-authored with Steven Wall.

“A Robust Hybrid Theory of Well-Being,” Philosophical Studies, Sept. 2021. Co-authored with Steven Wall.

A two-part blog post on sexual harassment in academia and what we might do about it which was signed by many leaders in the field (here and here). Co-authored with Janice Dowell.

The Case for Stance-Dependent Reasons,” The Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy, 2019.

The Ethics of Eating Meat,” Philosophic Exchange, 2017.

“Disagreeing about How to Disagree,” Philosophical Studies, 2014. Co-authored with Kate Manne.

“Backing Away from Libertarian Self-Ownership,” Ethics, 2012.

The Impotence of the Demandingness Objection,” Philosophers’ Imprint, September 2007.

“Morality and Virtue,” Ethics, 2004. Co-authored with David Copp.

“Subjective Accounts of Reasons for Action” Ethics, 2001.

"Full Information Accounts of Well-Being" Ethics, 1994.

Let me read you some of my recent work
Books