Press Contact: Kirston Fortune, UT Law Communications, (512) 471.7330
AUSTIN, Texas-John Deigh, a distinguished moral philosopher, will join The University of Texas this fall as a professor of law and philosophy after more than two decades on the faculty at Northwestern University. Deigh has been editor of the leading journal in his field-Ethics-since 1997 and also serves on the editorial board of Law and Philosophy.
Deigh is one of the world's leading figures in the branch of ethics known as moral psychology, which examines the sources and character of moral motivation, including the nature of the moral emotions and practical reasoning. According to UT Law & Philosophy Program Director Brian Leiter, "Moral psychology has been perhaps the most exciting area in philosophical ethics in recent years, with immediate relevance to legal thinking about responsibility and blame. Its new-found prominence is due in no small measure to John Deigh's important work."
Deigh is the author of Emotions, Values, and the Law (Oxford University Press, forthcoming) and The Sources of Moral Agency: Essays in Moral Psychology and Freudian Theory (Cambridge University Press, 1996). His recent articles include "Promises Under Fire" (Ethics, 2002), "Emotion and Authority in Law: Variations on Themes in Bentham and Austin" (in S. Bandes [ed.], The Passions of Law [New York University Press, 1999]), and "All Kinds of Guilt" (Law and Philosophy, 1999). Among his earlier, seminal articles are "Cognitivism in the Theory of the Emotions" (Ethics, 1994), "On the Right to be Punished: Some Doubts" (Ethics, 1984), and "Shame and Self-Esteem: A Critique" (Ethics, 1983).
Deigh joins one of the strongest faculties in law and philosophy in the United States, a faculty that includes:
*Mitchell N. Berman, author of numerous articles on the philosophical foundations of criminal law and constitutional law, he has been a Visiting Professor at both the University of Chicago Law School and the University of Michigan School of Law.
*Leslie J. Green, author of the classic The Authority of the State (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988) and many well-known articles on legal positivism, the duty to obey the law, multiculturalism and rights, and other topics in political and legal philosophy. He serves on the editorial boards of Legal Theory, Law and Philosophy, and Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence, and has also taught at Oxford, Berkeley, and York University, Toronto.
*Brian Leiter, author of Naturalizing Jurisprudence (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming) and Nietzsche on Morality (Routledge, 2002), he has also taught at Yale and University College London, and serves as editor of the journal Legal Theory. His article "Legal Realism and Legal Positivism Reconsidered" (Ethics, 2001) was recently reprinted as "one of the ten best articles in philosophy" of the year in volume 24 of The Philosopher's Annual. Only four other articles by law professors have ever been so honored in the past quarter-century--two by Ronald Dworkin (NYU & London), and one each by Martha Nussbaum (Chicago) and Liam Murphy & Thomas Nagel (NYU).
*Lawrence G. Sager: author of Justice in Plainclothes: A Theory of American Constitutional Law (Yale University Press, 2004) and many seminal articles at the intersection of constitutional, moral, political, and legal theory. He came to UT from NYU, and has also taught at Harvard, Princeton, Michigan, Boston University, and UCLA.
*Jane Stapleton: author of seminal articles on the philosophical foundations of common law concepts such as causation, duty, and good faith; she taught previously at Oxford, and now holds a joint appointment with the Australian National University.