Rate My Professor Paul McNamara

Paul McNamara is a Professor of Philosophy in the College of Liberal Arts at the University of New Hampshire, where he has served on the faculty since 1990. He earned his Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, his M.A. in Philosophy from the University of Missouri Columbia, and his B.A. from the City University of New York. McNamara concentrates his research in ethical theory, deontic logic, and the philosophy of moral language. He is best known for his work in deontic logic, having authored or co-authored book-length overviews in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, the Handbook of the History of Logic, volume 7 (2006), and the Handbook of Deontic Logic and Normative Systems, volume 1. His formal articles identify logical schemes that accommodate supererogation and other concepts central to common-sense morality, with some of this work and related contributions summarized in his entry 'Logics for Supererogation and Allied Normative Concepts' in the Handbook of Deontic Logic and Normative Systems, volume 2 (2021).

McNamara edited the volume Agency, Norms, Inquiry, and Artifacts: Essays in Honor of Risto Hilpinen (Springer, 2022). Other key publications include 'Making Room for Going Beyond the Call' (Mind, 1996), 'Doing Well Enough: Toward a Logic for Common-Sense Morality' (Studia Logica, 1996), 'Praise, Blame, Obligation, and DWE: Toward a Framework for Classical Supererogation and Kin' (Journal of Applied Logic, 2011), and 'Neighbourhood Canonicity for EK, ECK, and Relatives: A Constructive Proof' (Review of Symbolic Logic, 2022). Beyond his academic role at UNH, he is a Fellow at the Institute of Philosophy, School of Advanced Studies, University of London. McNamara oversees the Northern New England Philosophical Association as its executive secretary and serves on the steering committees for the DEON conference series and the Formal Ethics conference series. In 2013, he received the Pink Triangle Award from the University of New Hampshire President's Commission on the Status of GLBTQ for his contributions to equity.