Prof Veronique Munoz-Darde

Professor of Philosophy

Dept of Philosophy

Faculty of Arts & Humanities

Joined UCL: 1st Sep 1994

Research summary

My research is principally in practical reasoning, ethics and political philosophy, as well as in eighteenth century political thought, particularly that of Rousseau and Hume.

In recent years I have written articles on a range of issues, worrying about ethical problems at different levels of abstraction: aggregation and numbers in practical reasoning; the transitivity of ‘better than’; the social significance of risk; the justification of taxation; the nature of regret and what it reveals about the role of value in practical reasoning; the nature of social goods such as universities and museums; and the nature and importance of the political ideal of equality. In some of my earliest work I pursued questions of justice of the family and the possible abolition of marriage and I have now returned to the cluster of problems which I label ‘regulation of intimacy’. I draw on contributions from historians, anthropologists, sociologists, economists and legal theorists to ask whether there is a good reason to regulate market transactions involving sexual behaviour. And, more generally, if there is any particular area of human behaviour which should be removed from and preserved from economic transactions. I also study the regulation of marriage, and ethical issues to do with consent to sex.

Academia.edu page: https://ucl.academia.edu/VeroniqueMunozDarde

Teaching

I am away from UCL for the first term of every in academic year and teach in the Department of Philosophy at Berkeley. At UCL in recent years I have offered seminars on the Equality, Hume’sTreatise, Raz’s Morality of Freedom, Contractualist thought (particularly that of Rawls and Scanlon), and Regulation of Intimacy.

Teaching summary

I am away from UCL for the first term of every in academic year and teach in the Department of Philosophy at Berkeley. At UCL in recent years I have offered seminars on the Equality, Hume’s Treatise, Raz’s Morality of Freedom, Contractualist thought (particularly that of Rawls and Scanlon), and Regulation of Intimacy.

Education

European University Institute, Florence: Doctorate, Doctor of Philosophy | 1994

Biography

I am a Professor at UCL and UC Berkeley

Descartes is responsible for first sparking my interest in philosophy. While I still feel the attractions of rationalism, my own concerns have stuck resolutely with practical matters. My research is principally in practical reasoning, ethics and political philosophy, as well as in eighteenth century political thought, particularly that of Rousseau and Hume.

In recent years I have written articles on a range of issues, worrying about ethical problems at different levels of abstraction: aggregation and numbers in practical reasoning; the transitivity of ‘better than’; the social significance of risk; the justification of taxation; the nature of regret and what it reveals about the role of value in practical reasoning; the nature of social goods such as universities and museums; and the nature and importance of the political ideal of equality. In some of my earliest work I pursued questions of justice of the family and the possible abolition of marriage and I have now returned to the cluster of problems which I label ‘regulation of intimacy’. I ask whether there is a good reason to regulate market transactions involving sexual behaviour. And, more generally, if there is any particular area of human behaviour which should be removed from and preserved from economic transactions. I also study the regulation of marriage, and ethical issues to do with consent to sex.