Benjamin Sachs

Biography

I was born and raised in San Diego, California.  I thought I wanted to be an engineer, but taking calculus in my last year of high school changed that!  Then I thought I wanted to be a journalist, but that turned out to just be something I needed to get out of my system.  I finally stumbled into philosophy while at the University of Illinois, and knew right from the start that it was the subject for me.  I went on to spend six wonderful years in Madison, living in a co-op, eating hearty midwestern food and working toward my PhD in philosophy.  After that I was a postdoctoral fellow in bioethics at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, while living in Washington D.C. and exploring ever nook and cranny of the Smithsonian.  I then became an assistant professor/faculty fellow at the Program in Environmental Studies and the Center for Bioethics at New York University.  I pretty much lived like a tourist there, and came away thinking that the observation deck of Rockefeller Center is one of the most special places on earth.  I now live in Edinburgh, Scotland, and work as a lecturer in the department of philosophy at the University of St. Andrews--a postcard of a town and a wonderful place to work if there ever was one.

Education

BA in Philosophy, University of Illinois, 2001
MA in Philosophy, University of Wisconsin, 2004
PhD in Philosophy, University of Wisconsin, 2006

Areas of Research / Professional Expertise

Within philosophy, I do research on applied ethics (especially bioethics and animal ethics), theoretical and applied political philosophy, ethical theory, philosophy of law, and coercion.

Personal Interests

Sports--playing and watching--dancing (blues, lindy hop), singing, hiking, visiting castles, doing puzzles, and finding excuses to spend time with dogs!

Books

Articles

Photos