Tal Brewer

Senior Fellow

Professor of Philosophy at the University of Virginia

Talbot Brewer is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Virginia. He specializes in ethics and political philosophy, with particular attention to moral psychology and Aristotelian ethics.  He is the author of numerous essays, including “Virtues We Can Share: A Reading of Aristotle’s Ethics” (Ethics 115, 2005), “Savoring Time: Desire, Pleasure and Wholehearted Activity” (Ethical Theory and Moral 6, 2003), “Two Kinds of Commitments (And Two Kinds of Social Groups)” (Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 66, 2003), and “Maxims and Virtues” (The Philosophical Review 3, 2002). He has been a visiting professor in the Harvard University Philosophy Department and has been invited to present his work to audiences at a number of universities and professional conferences in North America, South America, Europe, China and the Middle East. He has authored two books, the most recent of which is The Retrieval of Ethics (Oxford University Press, 2009).

“Reflections on the Cultural Commons.” Being Human in a Consumerist Society, edited by Alejandro Nestor García, Ashgate Publishing, Oct. 2014.

“Kant and Rawls on the Cultivation of Virtue.” Theory and Research in Education, July 2013.

“Virtue.” International Encyclopedia of Ethics, edited by Hugh LaFollette, Sarah Stroud, and John Deigh, Wiley-Blackwell, 2013.

“Alienated Emotions.” Morality and the Emotions, edited by Carla Bagnoli, Oxford University Press, Oct. 2011, pp. 275–98.

“Two Pictures of Practical Thinking.” Perfecting Virtue: New Essays on Kantian Ethics and Virtue Ethics, edited by Lawrence Jost and Julian Wuerth, Cambridge University Press, Feb. 2011, pp. 116–46.

The Retrieval of Ethics. Oxford University Press, 2009.

“The Foundations of Neo-Aristotelianism: Critical Notice of Michael Thompson, Life and Action.” Philosophical Books, vol. 50, no. 4, Oct. 2009, pp. 197–212.

“On Moral Alchemy: A Critical Examination of Post-9/11 U.S. Military Policy.” The Day That Changed Everything? The Impact of 9/11, vol. 6: Religion and Philosophy, edited by Matthew J. Morgan, Palgrave Macmillan, 2009, pp. 221–32.

“Is Welfare an Independent Good?” Social Philosophy & Policy, vol. 26, no. 1, Winter 2009, pp. 96–125.

“Three Dogmas of Desire.” Values and Virtues, edited by Timothy Chappell, Oxford University Press, 2007, pp. 257–84.

“The Patina of the Past: Meditations on Memory and Home.” The Hedgehog Review, vol. 7, no. 3, Fall 2005, pp. 46–55.

“Virtues We Can Share: A Reading of Aristotle’s Ethics.” Ethics, vol. 115, no. 4, July 2005, pp. 721–58.