Judith Thomson
contemporaryAnalytic Philosophy1929 – 2020
Judith Jarvis Thomson (1929–2020) was an American analytic philosopher and longtime professor at MIT, renowned for her work in moral philosophy, metaphysics, and the philosophy of action. She is best known for introducing the 'violinist' thought experiment in her landmark 1971 paper 'A Defense of Abortion' and for substantially developing the trolley problem as a tool for probing rights-based constraints on moral reasoning. Her work consistently challenged utilitarian accounts by defending the moral significance of agent-relative rights and side-constraints.
Notable Achievements
1
Introduced the 'violinist' thought experiment to argue for bodily autonomy rights in 'A Defense of Abortion' (1971)
2
Developed the trolley problem literature to challenge utilitarian moral reasoning
3
Articulated a rights-based framework distinguishing killing from letting die
4
Authored 'The Realm of Rights' (1990), a systematic account of rights theory
5
Made foundational contributions to the metaphysics of events and physical objects