LEVY, Neil 1967-

PERSONAL:

Born November 6, 1967, in Johannesburg, South Africa; son of Tony (in business) and Ros (a teacher; maiden name, Cohen) Levy. Education: Monash University, B.A. (with honors), 1991, Ph.D., 1995. Politics: Left.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Victoria, Australia. Office—Australian Research Council Special Research Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia. E-mail—nllevy@unimelb.edu.au.

CAREER:

Educator. Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia, lecturer, 1999-2000; Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, Australia, lecturer, 2000-02; University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia, research fellow at Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics, 2002—.

WRITINGS:

Being up to Date: Foucault, Sartre, and Postmodernity, Peter Lang (New York, NY), 2001.

Sartre, Oneworld (Oxford, England), 2002.

Moral Relativism, Oneworld (Oxford, England), 2002.

Contributor to journals, including Social Theory and Practice, Monist, Philosophical Quarterly, Bioethics, Croatian Journal of Philosophy, History of the Human Sciences, Metaphilosophy, Philosophical Quarterly, Philosophical Studies, Philosophy Today, and International Journal of Politics and Ethics.

WORK IN PROGRESS:

What Makes Us Moral?: Crossing the Boundaries of Biology, for Oneworld; research in evolution and morality, cognitive science, and ethics.

SIDELIGHTS:

Neil Levy is an Australian educator who has written widely in the areas of political and continental philosophy. In his 2002 work on French philosopher Jean Paul Sartre, simply titled Sartre, Levy attempts to portray both the man and his philosophy of existentialism: the belief that men and women are not born with predetermined character traits that guide their actions, but that they continue to create themselves via their free choice. Written for the undergraduate student as well as the general reader, Sartre was praised by a reviewer on Sartre.org as an "authoritative" text penned in an "entertaining style."

Other books by Levy include Moral Relativism, which addresses a timely topic in the postmodern era. The concept of moral relativism—that labels of "right" and "wrong" are not universal but rather vary from culture to culture—continues to be hotly debated. Levy presents both sides of the philosophical joust, tracing the history of relativist thinking and viewing its ramifications on such topics as women's rights, terrorism, and various social issues.