
Travis Timmerman , Ph.D.
Chair and Associate Professor
Department of Philosophy
(973) 761-9480
Email
Travis Timmerman, Ph.D.
Chair and Associate Professor
Department of Philosophy
Dr. Timmerman's main research interests are in normative ethics, applied ethics, and the philosophy of death. In normative ethics, he primarily focuses on the actualism/possibilism debate and axiological issues concerning the concept of "harm." Recent work in normative ethics includes "The Limits of Virtue Ethics" forthcoming in Oxford Studies in Normative Ethics and "Actualism, Possibilism, and the Nature of Consequentialism" forthcoming in the Oxford Handbook of Consequentialism (co-authored with Yishai Cohen). In the philosophy of death, he primarily focuses on issues related to the question of whether death can be bad for the person who dies and fitting attitudes toward death. Recent publications on death include "The (Un)desirability of Immortality" (2020) in Philosophy Compass (co-authored with Felipe Pereira) and "A Dilemma for Epicureanism" (2019) in Philosophical Studies. In applied ethics, he has written on animal welfare, global poverty, and the ethics of Confederate monuments. Recent publications in applied ethics include "Sweatshops and Free Action" in the Journal of Business Ethics (co-authored with Abe Zakhem) and "A Case for Removing Confederate Monuments" (2020) in Oxford University Press's book Ethics Left and Right: The Moral Issues that Divide Us.
Education
- Ph.D. in Philosophy, Syracuse University
- M.A. in Philosophy, Syracuse University
- M.A. in Political Science, Arizona State University
- B.S. in Political Science and B.A. in Philosophy, Arizona State University
Accomplishments
- A&S Research of the Year 2020
- Recipient of $10,000 University Research Council Grant to for work on the actualism/possibilism debate in ethics.
- Recipient of $6,000 National Endowment of the Humanities (NEH) Grant for his project Accounting for Moral Responsibility in an Agent's Free Actions.
- Co-recipient (with Ben Bradley and Kirsten Egerstrom) of $93,849 Immortality Project Grant for our project Death, Rational Emotion, and Meaningfulness
- Executive Committee member of the International Association for the Philosophy of Death and Dying (IAPDD)
- Recipient of $2,500 MCLI learning grant to develop a Medical and Bioethics course