Professor Richard Norman

Emeritus Professor of Moral Philosophy, founder-member of the Humanist Philosophers' Group, and a Vice-President of the BHA

Richard Norman taught philosophy at the University of Kent for many years, working mainly in the areas of moral and political philosophy, including both theoretical and practical ethics, and is now Emeritus Professor of Moral Philosophy. His books include The Moral Philosophers (a critical introduction to philosophical ethics from Plato to the present, buy it here ), Free and Equal (a defence of an egalitarian conception of social justice),  Ethics, Killing and War (which explores the difficulty of justifying participation in war but stops short of an absolute pacifist position - buy it here), and On Humanism (Routledge, 2004 - buy it here).

He is an active member of East Kent Humanists and a Vice-President of the BHA, and was a founder-member of the Humanist Philosophers' Group in 1999 and of the Humanist Peace Forum. He participated in many HPG conferences including the 2001 conference "Is Nothing Sacred" (buy the book here), the 2002 conference "Death, a Live Issue" (buy Thinking About Death, the book based on the conference, here), the 2003 conference "Faith, Community and the Common Good", in the May 2006 celebration of the 200th anniversary of the birth of John Stuart Mill, hosted by the Parliamentary Humanist Group in the House of Lords, and in 2009 "Evolutionary Psychology - Is That All There Is?".  

He has contributed to BHA’s philosophical web resources "Countering Creationism" and ”So you think you can live without God?” and to HPG publications including:
Free Speech and Incitement to Religious Hatred (which he edited)
For your own good? - paternalism re-examined
Religious Schools: the case against
What is Humanism?

In July 2001 he was one of the signatories to a letter published in The Independent which urged the Government to reconsider its support for the expansion of maintained religious schools. He was one of the 43 scientists and philosophers who in March 2002 signed a letter to Tony Blair and relevant Government departments, concerning the teaching of Creationism in schools. In July 2002 he was one of the distinguished humanists who put their names to the publication and distribution of James Kirkup's poem “The Love That Dares To Speak Its Name” in a public challenge to the blasphemy law in the name of free speech. He also spoke about Human Rights at the 2003 BHA conference and made a submission to the Committee considering the Assisted Dying Bill in 2004.

Read an interview in which he discusses Humanism with another member of the HPG, Nigel Warburton, here.