View source for Biography:Michael A. Smith (philosopher)

{{Short description|Australian philosopher}}
{{other people|Michael Smith}}
{{Use Australian English|date=October 2016}}
{{Infobox philosopher
| name               = Michael A. Smith
| image              = 
| caption            = 
| birth_name         = Michael Andrew Smith
| birth_date         = 23 July 1954
| birth_place        = [[Place:Melbourne|Melbourne]], {{wipe|Australia}}
| region = [[Philosophy:Western philosophy|Western philosophy]]
| era    = [[Philosophy:Contemporary philosophy|Contemporary philosophy]]
| school_tradition   = [[Philosophy:Analytic philosophy|Analytic philosophy]]
| nationality        = {{wipe|Australia}}n
| institutions       = [[Organization:Princeton University|Princeton University]]
| education          = Monash University (BA, MA)<br />[[Organization:University of Oxford|University of Oxford]] (BPhil, DPhil)
| thesis_title       = Motivation and Moral Realism
| thesis_url         = 
| thesis_year        = 1989
| doctoral_advisor   = [[Biography:Simon Blackburn|Simon Blackburn]]
| academic_advisors  =
| main_interests     = Moral philosophy, [[Philosophy:Philosophy of mind|philosophy of mind]], [[Philosophy:Philosophy of language|philosophy of language]], [[Philosophy:Political philosophy|political philosophy]], [[Philosophy:Moral psychology|moral psychology]]
| notable_works      = 
| notable_ideas      = 
| influences         = 
| influenced         = 
| awards = Centenary Medal, APA book prize, AAA&S Fellow
}}
'''Michael Andrew Smith''' (born 23 July 1954) is an Australian [[Biography:Philosopher|philosopher]] who teaches at [[Organization:Princeton University|Princeton University]] (since September 2004).<ref name="Smith's web page">[https://www.princeton.edu/~msmith/ Smith's web page].</ref>  He taught previously at the [[Organization:University of Oxford|University of Oxford]], Monash University, and was a member of the Philosophy Program at the Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University. He is the author of a number of important books and articles in moral philosophy.  In 2013, he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S36/69/07E29/index.xml?section=people|title=FACULTY AWARD: Eight named to American Academy of Arts and Sciences}}</ref>

==Education and career==
Smith earned his B.A. and M.A. in philosophy at Monash University, while his BPhil and DPhil were acquired at Oxford University under the direction of [[Biography:Simon Blackburn|Simon Blackburn]].<ref>See the preface to Smith's ''The Moral Problem'' (1994, p. xi).</ref> He has held teaching appointments at various universities, including Wadham College, Oxford (1984), Monash (1984–5; 1989–94), Princeton (1985–89; 2004–present), and the Research School of Social Sciences at the Australian National University (1995–2004).<ref name="Smith's web page"/>

In 2000, Smith's book ''The Moral Problem'' (1994) received The American Philosophical Association's first APA Book Prize for excellence in scholarship.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.apa.udel.edu/apa/opportunities/prizes/book.html | title=Website Cannot be Found }}</ref> Smith is considered to be one of the most important philosophers working in [[Philosophy:Meta-ethics|meta-ethics]], and is one of the main proponents of a Neo-[[Biography:David Hume|Humean]] approach to practical reason.

==Philosophical work==

===The moral problem===

In ''The Moral Problem'' Smith diagnoses a longstanding tension between the apparent [[Philosophy:Objectivity|objectivity]] and practicality of moral judgments. The idea of moral objectivity is that "it is a distinctive feature of engaging in moral practice that the participants are concerned to get the answers to moral questions ''right''." (1994 p.&nbsp;5) Moral judgments are thought to be practical because they are thought to motivate those who accept them. But according to the Humean theory of [[Philosophy:Motivation|motivation]], a theory that Smith defends in chapter 4, it is not possible for a belief (a judgement about a matter of fact) to motivate someone without the presence of some antecedently held desire. Thus, if moral judgments are beliefs that motivate, they can only be beliefs about how to get something that we already want. But moral judgments, such as the judgment that murder is wrong, are not judgments about how to get something that we already want. Therefore, either they are not beliefs at all (and are therefore not objective) or they cannot motivate us (and are therefore not practical).

===Neo-Humeanism===

Hume famously claimed that [[Philosophy:Reason|reason]] is, and ought to be, only the slave of the [[Philosophy:Passions|passions]]. [[Philosophy:Humeanism#Practical reason|Humeans]] or Neo-Humeans do not typically hold strictly to Hume's views because, for one thing, they do not think of the passions in the same way that Hume did. Nonetheless, Humeans take their inspiration from Hume in claiming that reason alone is insufficient to motivate us to act. Often this claim is expressed in terms of beliefs and desires, and it is claimed that beliefs are mental states that are insufficient for motivation. Smith gives an analysis of action whereby in order for anything to count as an action at all, it must be explicable in terms of a belief-desire pair. He defends this account against objections by appeal to a dispositional conception of desire.

===Moral realism===

In later work, Smith gives an anti-Humean account of normative reasons. He thus claims to solve the moral problem by giving an account of moral judgments in terms of what one would desire if one were fully rational. As such, he attempts to maintain a form of [[Philosophy:Moral realism|moral realism]] while still accounting for the motivational force of moral judgments.

==Publications==
A partial list of publications by Smith:

===Books===
* (1994) ''The Moral Problem'' (Wiley-Blackwell).
* (2004) ''Ethics and the A Priori: Selected Essays on Moral Psychology and Meta-Ethics'' (Cambridge University Press)
* (2004) ''Mind, Morality, and Explanation: Selected Collaborations'' (with Frank Jackson and Philip Pettit) (Oxford University Press)

===Articles===
* "The Humean Theory of Motivation" (1987), ''Mind'', Vol. 96, No. 381, (Jan.) pp.&nbsp;36–61. [https://www.jstor.org/pss/2253760 JSTOR]

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[https://www.princeton.edu/~msmith/ Smith's web page] -  at Princeton.
*[http://metapsychology.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=book&id=3530 The Best of Michael Smith] - Constantine Sandis' review of 'Ethics and the A Priori'


{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Michael A.}}
[[Category:Analytic philosophers]]
[[Category:Philosophers of education]]
[[Category:Philosophers of language]]
[[Category:Philosophers of mind]]
[[Category:Political philosophers]]

{{Sourceattribution|Michael A. Smith (philosopher)}}