Richard Moran is a contemporary analytic philosopher at Harvard University whose work centers on self-knowledge, first-person authority, and the philosophy of mind. His landmark book 'Authority and Estrangement: An Essay on Self-Knowledge' (2001) argues that first-person knowledge is constitutively tied to rational agency rather than being a form of inner observation. He has also written extensively on testimony, the ethics of assertion, aesthetics, and the nature of imagination.
Developed an influential agency-based account of first-person authority in 'Authority and Estrangement' (2001)
Argued that self-knowledge is normatively connected to rational self-governance, not inner perception
Contributed to the epistemology of testimony, including debates on transmission and generation of justification
Written influential essays on aesthetics, fiction, and the role of imagination in emotional response
Professor of Philosophy at Harvard University, shaping contemporary philosophy of mind and action
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