David Brink is an American moral philosopher and professor at the University of California, San Diego, best known for his defense of moral realism and objective utilitarianism. His landmark work argues that moral facts are objective and that ethical inquiry is continuous with empirical inquiry, resisting both moral skepticism and non-cognitivism. He has also written extensively on Mill's utilitarianism, personal identity, and the nature of practical reason.
Authored 'Moral Realism and the Foundations of Ethics' (1989), a major systematic defense of moral realism
Defended objective utilitarianism, arguing that utility-maximization constitutes the objective criterion of rightness
Advanced the epistemic coherentist case for moral knowledge, drawing analogy between ethics and science
Contributed influential work on Mill's utilitarian ethics and its coherence as a systematic theory
Explored connections between personal identity, self-interest, and the demands of morality