I'm Professor of Philosophy at the University of Toronto - more specifically, Chancellor Henry N. R. Jackman Distinguished Professor of Philosophical Studies - where I've been since 2002. Before that I taught at the University of Calgary, starting in 1978. I got a B.Phil. and D.Phil. in Philosophy at Oxford University, after a B.A. at the University of Toronto.
My main area of research and teaching is moral and political philosophy, especially normative ethical theory. I've probably written most about perfectionist moral theories, in my books Perfectionism and Virtue, Vice, and Value, as well as in numerous articles. But I've also discussed the justification of punishment, population ethics, nationalism, friendship, and the morality of war. From 1989-92 I wrote a weekly ethics column for the Globe and Mail newspaper, which was great fun; a selection of my Globe columns was published as Principles: Short Essays on Ethics.
I recently published a trade book on The Best Things in Life, about the many things - pleasure, knowledge, achievement, virtue, personal love - that can make one's life desirable, and am writing a scholarly book on British Moral Philosophy From Sidgwick to Ross, or from 1874 to 1959, a period I consider a golden age in the history of ethics.
I'm married to Terry Teskey and we have a son Alex, who's fourteen.
Business Address: Department of Philosophy, University of Toronto,
170 St. George Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5R 2M8.
Business Phone: (416) 978-2056; Fax: (416) 978-8703.
E-mail:
tom.hurka@utoronto.ca