1929 – 2020
Judith Jarvis Thomson (1929-2020) was an American moral philosopher and metaphysician best known for her defense of abortion rights and her influential work on the trolley problem. She made significant contributions to ethics, action theory, and metaphysics, often using vivid thought experiments to illuminate complex moral issues.
Authored 'A Defense of Abortion' (1971), one of the most widely reprinted essays in contemporary philosophy
Developed and popularized the trolley problem as a tool for exploring moral intuitions
Authored 'The Realm of Rights' (1990), a comprehensive theory of moral rights
Contributed foundational work on the metaphysics of events and action theory
Served as Professor of Philosophy at MIT for decades, shaping analytic ethics