b. 1947
David Copp is a contemporary American philosopher specializing in metaethics and moral philosophy. He is best known for defending a form of moral naturalism and social moral reductivism, arguing that moral properties can be identified with natural social properties. His work engages questions about moral realism, normativity, and the metaphysical status of moral facts.
Developed a social reductionist account of moral facts in Morality, Normativity, and Society (1995)
Defended naturalistic moral realism against non-cognitivist and non-naturalist alternatives
Edited The Oxford Handbook of Ethical Theory (2006), a major reference in contemporary metaethics
Contributed influential arguments on the relationship between morality and rationality
Advanced debate on moral relativism and the objectivity of moral standards
The apparent multiplication of word-tokens from a single inscription based on different readings is not a genuine mereological multiplication of entities