Derek Parfit (born December 11, 1942) is a British philosopher who specializes in problems of personal identity, rationality, ethics, and the relations among them. His 1984 book Reasons and Persons (described by Alan Ryan in The Sunday Times as "something close to a work of genius") has been very influential. His most recent book, On What Matters (2011), has already been widely discussed, having circulated in draft form for many years. He has worked at Oxford for the whole of his academic career, and is presently an Emeritus Senior Research Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford. He is also a Visiting Professor of Philosophy at New York University, Harvard University, and Rutgers University. He is married to the philosopher Janet Radcliffe Richards.
Read more about Derek Parfit: Early Life, Ethics and Rationality, Personal Identity, Criticism of Personal Identity View, The Future, Prioritarianism; Ethics, Writings (selected)
Famous quotes containing the words derek and/or parfit:
“You must understand. Death must come to all. Sooner to some, later to others.”
—Tom Graeff. Derek (David Love)
“The Harmless Torturers. In the Bad Old Days, each torturer inflicted severe pain on one victim. Things have now changed. Each of the thousand torturers presses a button, thereby turning the switch once on each of the thousand instruments. The victims suffer the same severe pain. But none of the torturers makes any victim’s pain perceptibly worse.”
—Derek Parfit (b. 1943)