Henry S. Richardson

Henry Shattuck Richardson (born 1955) is an American philosopher, author, and professor of philosophy at Georgetown University, where he is also a senior research scholar at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics. His academic career is marked by significant contributions to the fields of practical reasoning, moral reasoning, and bioethics. Richardson earned his Bachelor of Arts from Harvard University in 1977, followed by a J.D. from Harvard Law School and an M.P.P. from the John F. Kennedy School of Government in 1981. He completed his Ph.D. in Philosophy at Harvard University in 1986, with his doctoral thesis supervised by John Rawls. Richardson's scholarly work includes influential books such as "Practical Reasoning about Final Ends" and "Democratic Autonomy: Public Reasoning about the Ends of Policy," the latter earning him the Herbert A. Simon Best Book Award and the David Easton Award. He has also engaged with bioethics, including visiting scholar positions at the National Institutes of Health. Richardson served as the Editor of the journal "Ethics" from 2008 to 2018 and advised UNESCO on ethical issues in science and technology. He also served as president of the Human Development and Capability Association (HDCA) from 2014 to 2016 and was a coordinating lead author for the International Panel of Social Progress report. In 2019, he was honored with a Guggenheim Fellowship.