Home Page

Morton Winston is Professor of Philosophy and Chairman of the Department of Philosophy and Religion at The College of New Jersey. His areas of specialization include human rights theory, applied ethics, cognitive science, and philosophy of technology. Dr. Winston's books include: Explanation in Linguistics (1982), The Philosophy of Human Rights (1989), Society, Ethics, and Technology (2000, 2003, 2006, 2008), and, On Chomsky (2001). He has contributed numerous articles on topics related to human rights, biomedical ethics, cognitive science, and the philosophy of technology to a variety of publications.

Professor Winston has held visiting fellowships at the University of Delaware's Center for the Study of Values, and at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. He has received three Fulbright Scholarships, to South Africa in 1992, to Thailand during 1999-2000, and he was the Danish Distinguished Chair of Human Rights and International Relations at the Danish Institute for Human Rights in Copenhagen in 2007.

In addition to his academic career, Dr. Winston has pursued a parallel career as a human rights activist. From 1985-1991 he served as Director of the South Africa Coordination Group of Amnesty International USA. Dr. Winston was elected to AIUSA's national Board of Directors in 1991, and served as Treasurer (1994-1995) and as Chair of the Board (1995-1997). He was named Honorary Chair of AIUSA in 2003. Dr. Winston is also a member of the Advisory Board of Social Accountability International (1999-present).

Dr. Winston attended Swarthmore College graduating with High Honors and Phi Beta Kappa (1970). His graduate studies were done at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he completed an M.A. in cognitive psychology (1972) and a Ph.D. in philosophy (1978). He is married to Dr. Sally Winston and they have three grown daughters.

Current Research Interests:

My recent research in has focused mainly upon three topics in contemporary human rights theory: (1) the role of national and international institutions in preventing and suppressing massive human rights violations such as genocide, (2) the responsibilities of global economic actors such as multinational corporations in promoting and protecting human rights, and (3) the impact of recent and foreseeable technological innovations on fundamental ethical issues concerning the nature and scope of our moral responsibilities to protect nonhuman animals and nature. These strands are connected by means of the idea of a global moral community in which persons recognize mutual rights and responsibilities towards other living persons, towards future generations, and towards nonhuman animals and nature, which is the subject of the book I am currently writing (see An Ethics of Global Responsibility).

My Blogs:

Outrages and Musings -- an informal blog on which I occasionally post comments on recent events.

An Ethics of Global Responsibility -- a book-blog in which I am e-publishing my current book.

Favorite Poem:

W. H. Auden September 1, 1939

Quotation of the Day:

"Philosophers say that you can't deduce an ought from an is. It's the old "is-ought problem" that has bedeviled Western philosophy since the eighteenth century, when David Hume explained that from a mere description -- this is the way the world is -- you can't infer a prescription -- this is the way the world ought to be. In one sense he is right: You can stare at the world as long as you want, examine it every which way in all its detail, and it will not reveal to you what ought to be. But that doesn't mean you can't infer what you ought to do, from a description of the way the world is. We do it all the time….Logically speaking, the bridge linking "what is" and "what ought to be" is a hidden premise: If a marten is caught in my net, then I ought to free it. The premise is a description, not about the world, but about the moral convictions of the person acting in the world. To reason from facts to moral duties, a person has to make a stand: "Under these circumstances, this is what I ought to do." In taking the stand, in supplying the link between the physical and moral worlds, he creates himself as a moral agent and defines his character…; this may be humanity's unique gift to the universe."

Kathleen Dean Moore. The Pine Island Paradox: making connections in a disconnected world. Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions, 2004. p.112.

The College of New Jersey

Contact Information:

Fall 2009 Courses

Faculty Advisor:

Other Activities:

Brief Biography

Current Research Interests:

My Blogs:

Favorite Poem:

Quotation of the Day:

Cartoon on Office Door:

Visitors