Department of Philosophy: People: Core Faculty: Samuel Kerstein

Samuel Kerstein (PhD, Columbia), Associate Professor of Philosophy. His main interests lie in ethical theory, bioethics, and the history of philosophy, especially Kant. In several articles and a book, Kant’s Search for the Supreme Principle of Morality, he has examined the foundations of Kantian ethics. He is now elaborating and defending moral principles inspired by Kant's Formula of Humanity. With the help of these principles, he is engaging with issues in bioethics, such as how we ought to distribute scarce, life-saving resources and the moral permissibility of offers to purchase organs for transplanation.

Email: kerstein@umd.edu

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Representative Publications

"Death, Dignity, and Respect." Social Theory and Practice, forthcoming.

"Kantian Condemnation of Markets in Organs," Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal 19 (2009):147-169

"Treating Others Merely as Means," Utilitas 21 (2009):163-180

"Deriving the Formula of Humanity." In Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals, Christoph Horn/Dieter Schonecker, ed. (Berlin-New York: de Gruyter, 2006), 200-221.

"Reason, Sentiment, and Categorical Imperatives." In Contemporary Debates in Moral Theory, James Dreier, ed. (Oxford: Blackwell), 2006, 129-143.

Kant’s Search for the Supreme Principle of Morality, (Cambridge 2002 [paperback 2005]).