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Kenneth Shockley

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College

Liberal Arts

Department

Philosophy

Category

Climate Change, Environment, Sustainability, Philosophy, Environmental and Climate Justice

Kenneth Shockley is a professor in Colorado State University’s Department of Philosophy. He also holds the Holmes Rolston III Endowed Chair in Environmental Ethics and Philosophy.

His research explores four major topics:

  • The interdependence of human flourishing and the integrity of environmental systems.
  •  The expression of environmental values in public policy, with a particular focus on the relation between reasons that motivate and those that justify.
  •  The ethical dimensions of climate policy, with a particular focus on disambiguating normative concepts such as “vulnerability” and “harm.”
  • The philosophical underpinnings of ecological restoration, with a particular focus on the underlying presumptions of change and stasis.

Prior to coming to CSU in 2016, Shockley held posts at the University of Buffalo and Barnard College at Columbia University. While working as a Peace Corps volunteer, he also lectured philosophy at the University of Malawi.

Shockley obtained his bachelor’s degrees in physics, mathematics and philosophy at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, his master’s in philosophy from SUNY-Buffalo, and his Ph.D from Washington University, St. Louis.

His work has been supported by organizations such as CSU’s School of Global Environmental Sustainability, the National Science Foundation, Fulbright and the University at Buffalo Humanities Institute. Publications include essays in Environmental Values, Environmental Ethics, the Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics, the Journal of Global Ethics, Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Ethics, Policy, and the Environment, Philosophical Studies, the Journal of Social Philosophy, Social Theory and Practice, Philosophy of the Social Sciences, and contributions in collections published by Oxford, Routledge, MIT, and Cornell. Shockley sits on the editorial boards of Environmental Ethics and Ethics, Policy, and Environment, and he has or is editing special issues of The Monist; Environmental Ethics; Environmental Values; Ethics, Policy, and Environment; and Philosophy and Public Policy Quarterly.