Colin Heydt
Assistant Professor

Ph.D. Boston University, 2003. Joined the Philosophy Department at USF in 2005. His research focuses on the history of ethics. Heydt is the author of Rethinking Mill's Ethics: Character and Aesthetic Education (Continuum, 2006) as well as articles published in Journal of the History of Philosophy , British Journal for the History of Philosophy , History of Philosophy Quarterly, and Hume Studies.

He is currently working on a book—Directing the Conscience and Cultivating the Mind: Practical Ethics in Eighteenth Century Britain. Histories of eighteenth century British moral philosophy have focused on debates concerning the nature and ground of moral judgment, will, and value—debates that British moralists like Hutcheson, Hume, and Reid would have included under the “theory of morals.” But this leaves out the other half of moral philosophy, namely, “practical ethics,” which both presented systems of duties, virtues, or rights in order to direct the conscience “in the general conduct of human life,” and claimed to cultivate the mind’s moral capacities. This will be the first book-length study that examines different accounts of practical ethics.

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