Judith Jarvis Thomson | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Judith Jarvis Thomson in 2005 | |
| Born | Judith Jarvis (1929-10-04)October 4, 1929 New York City, U.S. |
| Died | November 20, 2020(2020-11-20) (aged 91) Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Spouse | |
| Education | |
| Education | Barnard College (BA) Cambridge University (BA,MA) Columbia University (PhD) |
| Philosophical work | |
| Era | Contemporary philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy |
| School | Analytic philosophy |
| Doctoral students | Kathrin Koslicki |
| Notable ideas | Thetrolley problem,Thomson's violinist argument in ethics concerningabortion |
Judith Jarvis Thomson (October 4, 1929 – November 20, 2020) was an American philosopher who studied and worked onethics andmetaphysics. Her work ranges across a variety of fields, but she is most known for her work regarding the thought experiment titled thetrolley problem and her writings on abortion. She is credited with naming, developing, and initiating the extensive literature on the trolley problem first posed byPhilippa Foot which has found a wide range use since.[1] Thomson also published a paper titled "A Defense of Abortion", which makes the argument that the procedure is morally permissible even if it is assumed that afetus is a person with a right to life.
Thomson was born in New York City, on October 4, 1929. Her mother Helen (Vostry) Jarvis[2] (1898–1935) was an English teacher, and her father Theodore Richard Jarvis[3] (1896–1984) was an accountant.[4] Helen died from cancer when Judith was six, and on January 29, 1938 Theodore married Gertrude Rubin[5] (1902–1982). Gertrude wasJewish and had two children.[4]
Though she did not receive religious pressure from her parents, she officially converted toJudaism at age fourteen, when she was confirmed atTemple Israel in Manhattan.[4]
Thomson graduated fromHunter College High School in January 1946.[4] She received her bachelor's degree (BA) fromBarnard College in 1950, a second BA atNewnham College, Cambridge in 1952, anMA from Cambridge in 1956, and a PhD fromColumbia University in 1959.[4] All of her degrees were in philosophy.[4]
In 1960, Thomson began teaching at Barnard College.[6] In 1962, she marriedJames Thomson, who was a visiting professor at Columbia University. Judith and James spent the 1962–1963 academic year atOxford, after which they moved to Boston. Judith taught for a year atBoston University and, in 1964, was appointed to the faculty at theMassachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where she was Laurence S. Rockefeller Professor of Philosophy. James was also appointed a professor of philosophy at MIT. The Thomsons divorced in 1980; they remained colleagues until James's death in 1984.[4]
Thomson was a visiting professor at theUniversity of Pittsburgh (1976),UC Berkeley School of Law (1983), andYale Law School (1982, 1984, 1985). She has held fellowships from theFulbright Foundation (1950–1951), theAmerican Association of University Women (1962–1963), theNational Endowment for the Humanities (1978–1979, 1986–1987), theGuggenheim Foundation (1986–1987), and the Center for Advanced Study in Oslo, Norway (1996). and in 1992–1993 she served as president of theAmerican Philosophical Association (APA), Eastern Division. In 1999, she gave theTanner Lectures on Human Values atPrinceton University; her lecture was titled "Goodness and Advice".[7] Thomson taught at MIT for the majority of her career, remaining there asprofessor emerita.[6]
In 1989, Thomson was elected to theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences.
In 2012, she was awarded the Quinn Prize by theAmerican Philosophical Association.[8]
In 2015, she was awarded an honorary doctorate by theUniversity of Cambridge,[9] and in 2016 she was awarded an honorary doctorate byHarvard University.[10] In 2016, she was elected a Corresponding Fellow of theBritish Academy.[11]
Thomson was elected a member of theAmerican Philosophical Society in 2019.
Thomson's main areas of research were moral philosophy andmetaphysics.[12] In moral philosophy she made significant contributions tometa-ethics,normative ethics, andapplied ethics.
"A Defense of Abortion" (1971) introduced one thought experiment for which Thomson is especially well known. Published in 1971, Thomson's work on abortion is historically connected to and located just prior to the court case ofRoe v. Wade (1973). The paper asks the reader to imagine that her circulatory system has, without her consent, been connected to that of a famous violinist whose life she must sustain for nine months. The hypothetical posed by Thomson notably redirects philosophical attention from the rights of the fetus to those of the pregnant woman.[13] Specifically, her argument accepts that a fetus is a person, moving past any discussion which revolved around that topic. Instead, Thomson claims that the bodily autonomy of the woman supersedes any rights of the fetus. This argument has been widely discussed since, so much so that it is accepted in someanti-abortion circles to have changed the way in which abortion is debated.[14]
In regard to ethical theories, Thomson was opposed to consequentialist, hedonist, and subjectivist perspectives.[15][16] Her work relied on specific elements of deontological argumentation.[17]
In metaphysics, Thomson focused on questions regarding the relationship between actions and events, and between time and physical parts.[18]
She also made significant contributions on the topic of privacy.[19]
Thomson died on November 20, 2020, at the age of 91.[20][21] She was buried beside her former husband inMount Auburn Cemetery.[22]
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