b. 1941
Fred Feldman is an American analytic philosopher and professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, specializing in ethics, metaethics, and the philosophy of death. He is best known for his rigorous defense and refinement of hedonism as a theory of welfare, and for his influential analyses of the badness of death and the nature of moral obligation. His work combines careful conceptual analysis with systematic normative theory.
Developed an attitudinal hedonism account of welfare distinguishing intrinsic pleasures from sensory pleasures
Authored influential analyses of the badness of death, including engagement with the Epicurean challenge
Refined consequentialist moral theory, particularly around time-indexed obligation and act evaluation
Wrote 'Pleasure and the Good Life' (2004), a landmark defense of hedonism in contemporary ethics
Authored 'Confrontations with the Reaper' (1992), a systematic philosophical study of death and its disvalue