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About Karen

Professor Karen Jones is a Professor in Philosophy in the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies at the University of Melbourne. She obtained her PhD in Philosophy from Cornell University and joined the University of Melbourne in 2002. Her primary academic interests encompass moral psychology, ethics, feminist philosophy, the philosophy of emotions, rationality, moral epistemology, trust, and philosophy of action.

Throughout her career, Karen Jones has produced a substantial body of influential work that has shaped discussions in moral philosophy and related fields. Among her most cited publications are "Trust as an affective attitude" published in Ethics in 1996, which has over 900 citations, and "Second-Hand Moral Knowledge" in the Journal of Philosophy in 1999, also highly cited. Other significant papers include "Quick and Smart? Modularity and the pro-emotion consensus" in the Canadian Journal of Philosophy Supplementary Volume in 2006, "Emotion, Weakness of Will, and the Normative Conception of Agency" in the Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement in 2003, "Moral Expertise" co-authored with François Schroeter in Analyse & Kritik in 2012, "Do Emotions Represent Values?" co-authored with Laura Schroeter and François Schroeter in Dialectica in 2015, and her recent "Wise Trust" in the Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society in 2024. She has edited important volumes such as "Moral Psychology: Feminist Ethics and Social Theory" in 2004, "The Many Moral Rationalisms" with François Schroeter in 2018, and "The Routledge Handbook of Moral Epistemology" with Aaron Zimmerman and Mark Timmons in 2018.

In addition to her publications, Jones has been principal investigator or chief investigator on several Australian Research Council Discovery Projects, including DP0557651 on Agency, Rationality, and Emotion; DP110102445 with Professor Michael Smith; and DP180103687 on moral rationalisms with collaborators at MIT. These grants underscore her role in advancing philosophical inquiry into emotion, agency, and moral reasoning. Her work continues to influence contemporary debates in philosophy.