J. David Velleman
J. David Velleman (born 1952) is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy and Bioethics at New York University and Miller Research Professor of Philosophy at Johns Hopkins University. He primarily works in the areas of ethics, moral psychology, and related areas such as the philosophy of action, and practical reasoning. Education and career. Velleman received his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1983 under the supervision of David K. Lewis. He taught previously for more than twenty years at the University of Michigan before moving to NYU. He has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the  Guggenheim Foundation. He is founding co-editor with Stephen Darwall of "Philosophers' Imprint," an on-line, peer-refereed philosophy journal. Several of his former students are now established philosophers, including Connie Rosati at the University of Texas, Austin and Nishiten Shah at Amherst College. Philosophical work. Velleman is a defender of constitutivism in ethics, arguing that moral standards arise from the nature of action.