Jefferson A. McMahan

Jefferson Allen McMahan has been Sekyra and White's Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Oxford since 2014. As indicated in the titles of his books -- including The Ethics of Killing: Problems at the Margins of Life and Killing in War -- McMahan's focus is on moral issues involving harming and killing.

His work on just war theory has reframed the entire debate on that topic, and is the most widely cited treatment of recent times. He has also written on other issues in practical ethics, such as abortion, euthanasia, and infanticide, as well as those elements of moral theory and metaphysics (such as personal identity) that underlie these issues. He is currently writing a book on population ethics and its relevance to a range of issues in practical ethics.

A former Rhodes Scholar and Guggenheim Fellow, he delivered the Oxford Uehiro Lectures in Practical Ethics and the Stutt Lecture in Ethics at the Naval Academy.