Alan Goldman

Alan Harris Goldman (born 1945) is an American philosopher and William R. Kenan Jr. Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the College of William & Mary. He is known for his works on philosophy and popular culture, literature, morality, love, and beauty.

Philosophy He has defended an explanationist theory of knowledge, a coherentist theory of moral truth, an ideal critic account of acceptable aesthetic judgment, and a subjectivist view of well-being and value. In an earlier book he argued for preference in admissions and hiring on socio-economic, not gender or racial, grounds. In the first book on ethics across the professions, he introduced the concept of role differentiation, while attacking zealous advocacy by lawyers, medical paternalism, and profit maximization by corporations.

Books Life's Values: Pleasure, Happiness, Well-Being, Meaning, Oxford University Press, 2018 Philosophy and the Novel, Oxford University Press, 2013 Reasons from Within, Oxford University Press, 2009 Practical Rules: When We Need Them and When We Don't, Cambridge University Press, 2002 Aesthetic Value, Westview Press, 1995 Moral Knowledge, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1988 Empirical Knowledge, University of California Press, 1988 The Moral Foundations of Professional Ethics, Rowman and Littlefield, 1980 Justice and Reverse Discrimination, Princeton University Press, 1979 Mark Twain and Philosophy (ed.), Rowman and Littlefield, 2017