Michael Stocker

Michael Adam Gerber Stocker was a 20th-century American political philosopher. He held the Irwin & Marjorie Guttag Professorship of Ethics and Political Philosophy at Syracuse University. Stocker is known for his works on ethics; he authored the seminal paper, "The Schizophrenia of Modern Ethical Theories".

Michael Stocker
Born	1939
Died	2024
Education	Harvard University (Ph.D.), Columbia College (B.A.)
Era	20th-century philosophy
Region	Western philosophy
Institutions	Syracuse University
Thesis	Supererogation (1965)
Doctoral advisor	Roderick Firth, John Rawls
Main interests	moral psychology, moral philosophy, ethical theory
Notable ideas	Dirty hands and moral immorality, schizophrenia of modern ethical theories, plural and conflicting values, ethical and moral psychological significance of friendship and emotion

Education

He earned his B.A. from Columbia College, where he was a student of Sidney Morgenbesser, and Ph.D. (1966) from Harvard University, where he wrote his dissertation on supererogation under the direction of John Rawls.

Works

Books

• Plural and Conflicting Values, Oxford: Oxford University Press 1990, reprinted 1992
• Valuing Emotions (with Elizabeth Hegeman), New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996

Select articles, book chapters (co-)authored

• "Act and Agent Evaluations." The Review of Metaphysics, Volume 27, Issue 1, September 1973, pp. 42-61.
• "The Schizophrenia of Modern Ethical Theories." The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 73, No. 14, August 1976, pp. 453-466
• "Desiring the bad: An essay in moral psychology." The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 76, Issue 12, December 1979, pp. 747-765
• "Values and Purposes: The Limits of Teleology and the Ends of Friendship." The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 78, No. 12, December 1981, pp. 747-765
• "Responsibility Especially for Beliefs." Mind, Vol. XCI, Issue 363, July 1982, pp. 398–417.
• "Dirty Hands and Conflicts of Values and of Desires in Aristotle's Ethics." Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, Vol. 67, 1986, pp. 36–61.