Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, Bioethics; Founding Director, Center for Bioethics
Ph.D. 1964 Harvard
M.A. 1963 Oxford
A.B. 1953 Princeton
Office Address: 19 University Place, Room 521 New York, NY 10003
Email: william.ruddick@nyu.edu
Phone: (212) 998-8329
Areas of Research/Interest:
Philosophy of science and medicine, professional and applied ethics.
Bio:
William Ruddick (Ph.D., Harvard) is Professor of Philosophy, Arthur Zitrin Professor of Bioethics, Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry, and Director of the NYU Center for Bioethics. He specializes in normative ethics, especially bioethics. Publications include: “‘Biographical lives’ revisited and extended” (J. of Ethics 2005), “Prejudice against ‘unbalanced families’” (Amer. J. of Bioethics 2001), “Hope and Deception” (Bioethics 1999), “Family and Ethics” (Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ed. E. Craig 1998), “Parenthood: Three concepts and a principle” (Morals, Marriage, & Parenthood, ed. L. Houlgate 1998), “Do doctors undertreat pain?” (Bioethics 1997 ), “Social self-deceptions” (Perspectives on Self-Deception, ed. A.O. Rorty 1988). He has edited Philosophers in Medical Centers (Society for Philosophy & Public Affairs 1980) and (with O. O’Neill), Having Children (Oxford UP 1979). He recently co-authored (with Lori Gruen) “Biomedical and Environmental Ethics Alliance: Common Causes and Grounds” (J. Bioethical Inquiry 2009)—a rationale for the collaboration of the NYU Centers for Bioethics and Environmental Studies and M.A. degree in Bioethics: Life, Heath, and the Environment. He is currently writing a book, tentatively entitled: “Doctors’ Wit & Wisdom: Clinical Quips and Maxims.”
External Affiliations
International Association for Bioethics, American Society for Bioethics and Humanities, Hastings Center.
Fellowships/Honors
Arthur Zitrin Professor of Bioethics. Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship; National Science Foundation Faculty Fellowship; National Endowment for the Humanities Award.
Publications:
Books:
Philosophers in Medical Centers. Ed. W. Ruddick, New York: The Society for Philosophy and Public Affairs, 1980.
Papers:
“Biomedical and environmental ethics alliance: Common causes and grounds” (J. Bioethical Inquiry 2009)
“‘Biographical Lives’ revisited & extended,” J. of Ethics July 2005
“Hope and Deception,” Bioethics 13:3/4 (1999)
“Do doctors undertreat pain?,” Bioethics 11:3/4 1997
“Parenthood: Three concepts and a principle,” Morals, Marriage, and Parenthood, ed. L.D.Houlgate 1998
“Medical Ethics,” Encyclopedia of Ethics, eds. L. & C. Becker, 2nd edition (1998)
Recent Courses
Undergraduate:
Life and Death
Medical Ethics
Topics in Ethics & Political Philosophy
Graduate:
Life and Death
Reproductive Ethics
Clinical Ethics
Advanced Introduction to Bioethics
