Lara Denis, Ph.D.

Lara Denis, Ph.D., has broad interests in moral philosophy – historical and contemporary, theoretical and applied. The topics that most engage me concern the nature of moral goodness, how we ought to live, and what kind of people we should strive to be; a concrete issue close to my heart is the human response to and treatment of non-human animals. Among the courses I have taught recently are Happiness; Life, Death, and Meaning; Environmental Ethics; and Contemporary Moral Problems. Despite the breadth of my interests and teaching, the scope of my published work is rather narrow. My primary area of research to date has been Immanuel Kant’s practical philosophy. Much of my work has focused on Kant’s conception of duties to oneself. My training is in analytic philosophy. I studied at Smith College and Cornell University. I taught at the University of California, Irvine, before coming to Agnes Scott College, where I am currently professor of philosophy and director of the ethics program.