Michael Huemer

Michael Huemer (born 27 December 1969) is a professor of philosophy at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He has defended ethical intuitionism, direct realism, libertarianism, phenomenal conservatism, substance dualism, reincarnation, the repugnant conclusion, and philosophical anarchism.

Education and career
Huemer graduated from the University of California, Berkeley and earned his Ph.D. at Rutgers University in 1998 under the supervision of Peter D. Klein.

Philosophical work
Huemer is a philosophical dualist. His book Ethical Intuitionism (2005) was reviewed in Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research and Mind.

Huemer is the author of The Problem of Political Authority (2013), which argues that the modern arguments for political authority fail and that society can function properly without state coercion. Huemer is an agnostic.

Phenomenal conservatism
Huemer has defended phenomenal conservatism, the idea that it is reasonable to assume that things are as they appear, except when there are positive grounds for doubting this.

Problem of evil
Huemer has stated that the presence of evil in the world such as children with terrible diseases is strong evidence that an omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent God does not exist.

Reincarnation
Huemer has argued that immaterial souls exist. He has defended reincarnation in his paper "Existence Is Evidence of Immortality". In 2022, he debated Graham Oppy on the existence of souls.

Animal ethics
In 2016, Huemer debated Bryan Caplan on the ethical treatment of animals, including insects. In regard to killing insects, Huemer has argued that insects are not raised in horrible conditions like animals in factory farms, animal farming requires killing more insects as they are fed vegetable foods and it is "much less likely that insects feel pain". Huemer has commented: "In the overwhelming majority of actual cases, meat eaters do not have any reasons that could plausibly be claimed to justify the pain and suffering caused by their practice."

His Dialogues on Ethical Vegetarianism (2019) is a series of dialogues on the ethics of eating meat. Peter Singer, who wrote the foreword to book, commented that "In the future, when people ask me why I don't eat meat, I will tell them to read this book."

Ostroveganism
Huemer is an advocate of ostroveganism, a plant-based diet with the addition of oysters and other bivalves. Ostroveganism has been described as a type of "new omnivorism". In a 2023 interview, Huemer stated that it is "fair game" to eat animals without brains such as scallops and he also eats pasture raised eggs. He has argued that is impossible to inflict pain on bivalves because they do not have a brain.

Personal life
Huemer is married to Iskra Fileva.

Authored

 * Skepticism and the Veil of Perception (Rowman & Littlefield, 2001)
 * Ethical Intuitionism (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005)
 * The Problem of Political Authority (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013)
 * Approaching Infinity (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016)
 * Paradox Lost (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018)
 * Dialogues on Ethical Vegetarianism (Routledge, 2019)
 * Knowledge, Reality, and Value: A Mostly Common Sense Guide to Philosophy (Independently published, 2021)
 * Justice Before the Law (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021)

Co-Authored

 * Is Political Authority an Illusion?: A Debate (with Daniel Layman, Routledge, 2022)
 * Can We Know Anything?: A Debate (with Bryan Frances, Routledge, Forthcoming)

Edited

 * Epistemology: Contemporary Readings (Routledge, 2002)