Richard Brandt
Richard Booker Brandt (17 October 1910 – 10 September 1997) was an American philosopher working in the utilitarian tradition in moral philosophy.
Brandt was originally educated at Denison University, a Baptist institution he was shepherded to by his minister father. He received his PhD in Philosophy from Yale University. He taught at Swarthmore College before becoming Chair of the Department of Philosophy the University of Michigan, where he taught with Charles Stevenson and William K. Frankena (1908–1994) and spent the remainder of his career. The expressivist moral philosopher Allan Gibbard has mentioned his great intellectual debt to Brandt.
Brandt wrote Ethical Theory (1959), an influential textbook in the field. He defended a version of rule utilitarianism in "Toward a credible form of utilitarianism" (1963) and performed cultural-anthropological studies in Hopi Ethics (1954). In A Theory of the Good and the Right, Brandt proposed a "reforming definition" of rationality, that one is rational if one's preferences are such that they survive cognitive psychotherapy in terms of all relevant information and logical criticism. He argued also that the morality such rational persons would accept would be a form of utilitarianism.
Brandt, Richard Filmography
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2011, role: actor , character name: Frederick
Brandt, Richard Filmography
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1953, role: actor , character name: Minor Role
Brandt, Richard Filmography
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2009, role: actor , character name: Himself
Podcasts:
You Can Blame It All On Me
Richard Bryant
When you pass me on the street
And someone's heart falls at your feet
You can blame it all on me
If you hear whistling in the dark
When you can't find a place to park
You can blame it all on me
When you're down by the river or the creek
And you can't quit your losing streak
You can blame it all on me
You can blame it all on me
Early in his warning he'll be giving you the morning
To find his misplaced blue suede shoes
Blame it all on me
Scratching on his fiddle don't you hate him just a little
When he calls your name at night
Blame it all on me
You can blame it all on me
When you're lying in his bed
Wond'ring if you're better off dead
You can blame it all on me
When we're all dead and buried in the ground
And you think you hear that digging sound
You can blame it all on me
You'd never think to blame yourself
As long as there was someone else
You can blame it all on -me