Richard Yetter Chappell is a New Zealand-born American philosopher and Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Miami. He is known for his work in normative ethics,metaethics,and moral theory,particularly his contributions to consequentialist philosophy and the effective altruism movement.
After completing his doctorate,Chappell held a postdoctoral position in Medical Ethics at the University of Pennsylvania (2012-2013).[1] He then served as Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Bowling Green State University (2013-2014) before moving to the University of York in the United Kingdom,where he was a Lecturer in Philosophy from 2014 to 2018.[1]
In 2019,Chappell joined the University of Miami as Assistant Professor of Philosophy,where he was promoted to Associate Professor in 2022.[1][2] His areas of specialization include normative ethics,metaethics,and bioethics and public policy.[1]
Philosophical work
Chappell's philosophical research focuses on fundamental questions in moral philosophy,particularly what he terms the "big questions":what is fundamentally worth caring about,what should we do about it,and what concepts and methods should philosophers use to make progress on these questions.[2] He advocates for a position he calls "beneficentrism," which emphasizes the fundamental importance of promoting overall well-being while respecting commonsense moral constraints.[2][3]
His work challenges traditional approaches to ethical theory,arguing that philosophers have overemphasized deontic questions (about what is right or wrong) at the expense of what he calls "telic questions" (about what is worth aiming at).[2] He contends that telic questions are more likely to generate deep philosophical understanding and are more intrinsically significant.[2]
Publications
Books
Chappell is the author of three books:
Parfit's Ethics (Cambridge University Press,2021)[4]
An Introduction to Utilitarianism:From Theory to Practice (Hackett,2024,co-authored with Darius Meissner and William MacAskill)[1]
Questioning Beneficence:Four Philosophers on Effective Altruism and Doing Good (Routledge,2024,co-authored with Samuel Arnold,Jason Brennan,and Ryan Davis)[1]
Academic articles
Chappell has published over twenty peer-reviewed articles in leading philosophy journals,including Noûs,Philosophy and Phenomenological Research,and the Australasian Journal of Philosophy.[2] Notable papers include "Fittingness:The Sole Normative Primitive" (2012),"Value Receptacles" (2015),"Willpower Satisficing" (2019),and "The Right Wrong-Makers" (2021).[1]
Public philosophy and outreach
Chappell is deeply committed to public philosophy and making philosophical insights accessible to broader audiences. He co-authored an op-ed on pandemic ethics with Peter Singer for The Washington Post in 2020,arguing for the ethical case for human volunteer experiments during the COVID-19 pandemic.[5]
He serves as the lead editor of the open-access educational resource An Introduction to Utilitarianism (utilitarianism.net)[2] and writes the philosophy blog "Good Thoughts," which has over 5,000 subscribers.[2][3] From 2004 to 2022,he maintained the academic blog "Philosophy,et cetera," which received over 5 million page views and was ranked as one of the most influential philosophy websites used in training large language models.[1]
Awards and recognition
Chappell has received numerous grants and fellowships,including multiple University of Miami Fellowships in the Arts &Humanities,a Forethought Foundation fellowship,and grants from Longview Philanthropy.[1] In 2013,he won the Young Ethicist Prize from the Rocky Mountain Ethics Congress,and in 2024,he received the runner-up prize from AI Impacts for his essay "Philosophy's Digital Future."[1]
Chappell's work has received recognition from leading philosophers in the field. Peter Singer has praised Chappell's contributions to moral philosophy,stating:"As a younger philosopher …I greatly admire Richard Chappell. He's somebody who has a fairly popular substack blog now and …does a lot of interesting work."[6]Derek Parfit similarly recognized the quality of Chappell's philosophical analysis,describing his critique of Parfit's response to Sharon Street's evolutionary debunking arguments as "subtle and thought-provoking."[7]
Personal philosophy
In interviews,Chappell describes philosophy as "the disciplined exploration of logical space" and emphasizes the importance of being guided by reason rather than mere convention or intuition.[3] He draws inspiration from Socrates,particularly the Socratic commitment to rational inquiry and challenging assumptions.[3] His approach to philosophy involves collaborative engagement with students and the public through teaching,blogging,and accessible writing.[3]
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