Thomas L. Carson
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Professor Philosophy Department Loyola University Chicago 6525 North Sheridan Road Chicago, Illinois 60626 Contact Information: Office: Crown Center, 3rd floor Lake Shore Campus Phone: 773.508.2729 Fax: 773.508.2292 E-mail: tcarson@luc.edu Personal Web Page: http://orion.it.luc.edu/~tcarson |
Thomas L. Carson is Professor of Philosophy at Loyola University Chicago. He taught previously at Virginia Tech (1977-1985) and UCLA (1976). He held an NEH Fellowship during 1980-81. Carson graduated from Saint Olaf College in 1972 and received his Ph.D. in Philosophy from Brown University in 1977. He wrote his doctoral dissertation on the concept of happiness.
Carson's teaching and research are in the general area of ethics. His book The Status of Morality (Reidel, 1984) discusses the foundations of ethics and defends a version of the ideal observer theory. He is also the author of Value and the Good Life (Notre Dame, 2000). This book addresses the nature of a good life and defends the rational desire satisfaction theory of value. It also argues that the most plausible version of this theory is the divine preference theory of value.
Carson has also co-edited (with Paul Moser) two anthologies: Morality and the Good Life (Oxford, 1997), and Moral Relativism (Oxford, 2001). He has published papers on utilitarianism, the concept of happiness, metaethics, ethical relativism, W.D. Ross, Rawls, and Kant's Perpetual Peace. Carson has written many papers on business ethics dealing with such topics as bluffing, deception in advertising, bribery, corporate social responsibility, conflicts of interest, and sales. Carson's papers have appeared in Philosophy & Public Affairs, Mind, Noûs, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Philosophical Studies, Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, Business Ethics Quarterly, Erkenntnis, Theoria, Encyclopedia of Ethics, The MacMillian Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2nd ed., The Oxford Handbook of Business Ethics, The Blackwell Companion to Business Ethics, and The Philosophy of Deception.
He is currently working on a book manuscript, Lying and Deception: Theory and Practice, a project that combines his work on ethical theory and business and professional ethics. His other major research interests at present are metaethics, morality and religion, the social responsibilities of business, and existentialism. Carson works mainly in the Anglo-American tradition, but he has serious interests in continental philosophy, particularly Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Scheler, and Brentano.
Carson is a member of the editiorial boards of Business Ethics Quarterly and The Journal of Business Ethics, and was previously a member of the editorial boards of American Philosophical Quarterly and The Journal of Happiness Studies.
In addition to his philosophical work, Carson is a train enthusiast and has published articles on baseball history. He is a Chicago native and a passionate, but despairing, Cubs fan. Carson is married and has two children.
