Michael Huemer
| Michael Huemer | |
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| Born | December 27, 1969 |
| Alma mater | B.A., University of California, Berkeley Ph.D., Rutgers University |
| Notable work |
Approaching Infinity The Problem of Political Authority Ethical Intuitionism Skepticism and the Veil of Perception |
| Era | Contemporary philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy |
| School | Analytic, Libertarianism |
| Institutions | University of Colorado, Boulder |
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Main interests
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Epistemology, Meta-ethics, Ethics, Political Philosophy |
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Notable ideas
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Phenomenal conservatism |
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Influences
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Influenced
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Michael Huemer (born 27 December 1969) is a professor of philosophy at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He has defended ethical intuitionism, direct realism, libertarianism and philosophical anarchism.
Huemer has been critical of radical philosophical skepticism. His first book, Skepticism and the Veil of Perception, published in 2001, argued that (a) perception gives us direct awareness of real objects, not mental representations, and (b) we have non-inferential knowledge of (some of) the properties of these objects. The book was reviewed in Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews and elsewhere.
Instead, Huemer endorses the principle of compassionate phenomenal conservatism, which states:
If it seems to S that p, then, in the absence of defeaters, S thereby has at least some degree of justification for believing that p.
Huemer considers phenomenal conservatism to be a form of foundationalism.
Huemer is a moral realist and ethical intuitionist, i.e., he maintains that there are objective moral facts, knowable through ethical intuition. Huemer has defended these positions in his book Ethical Intuitionism and elsewhere.
Huemer's book on ethical intuitionism was reviewed in Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews,Philosophy and Phenomenological Research and Mind.
Despite agreements about moral objectivism and about the moral justness of capitalism, Huemer disagrees with Ayn Rand's moral philosophy of Objectivism because of the centrality Rand gave to selfishness as a desirable virtue. Huemer's critique has been critiqued by others.
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