Torbjörn Tännsjö

Torbjörn Tännsjö (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈtuːrbjœɳ ˈtɛnˈɧøː]; born 1946 in Västerås) is a Swedish professor of philosophy and public intellectual. He has held a chair in Practical Philosophy at Stockholm University since 2002 and he is Affiliated Professor of Medical Ethics at Karolinska Institute. Tännsjö was Associate Professor of Philosophy at Stockholm University from 1976 to 1993 and Research Fellow in Political Philosophy at the Swedish Council for Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences between 1993 and 1995. Thereafter, he was a professor of Practical Philosophy at Göteborg University 1995-2001.

Tännsjö has been a member of the medical ethics board of the faculty of medicine at Göteborg University and the ethical committee of Karolinska Institute. He is a member of the medical ethics committee of The National Board of Health and Welfare (the Swedish Government agency responsible for the supervision, evaluation and monitoring of social services, health care and medical services, dental care, environmental health, and control of communicable diseases). Furthermore, he is a member of the editorial board of Monash Bioethics Review, Tidskrift för politisk filosofi (The Journal of Political Philosophy), Philosophical Papers, the ethics section of the web psychiatric journal Psychomedia, and Bioethics.

Tännsjö is one of the few Swedish philosophers who is frequently heard in the public debate. His distinctly utilitarian ethical views have made him a controversial figure, notably within the medical establishment and for the Swedish Christian Democrats.^[1]

Tännsjö has been a member of the Left Party since 1970, and was involved in writing the first party programme after the party dropped the communist label in 1990.

Tännsjö's most recent work in political philosophy is "Global Democracy: The Case for a World Government" (Edinburgh UP) written in connection with the research project Democracy Unbound supported by the Swedish Research Council. The royalties from the sales of the book are being donated to Oxfam. His most recent book is Taking Life. Three Theories on the Ethics of Killing (Oxford UP).

In 2001, he debated analytic philosopher and Christian apologist William Lane Craig on the subject, "If God Is Dead, Is Everything Permitted?".^[2]

Tännsjö is a supporter of the Campaign for the Establishment of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly, an organisation which advocates for democratic reformation of the United Nations, and the creation of a more accountable international political system.^[3]

Publications

• Moral Realism (Savage, N.J.: Rowman and Littlefield, 1990)
• Conservatism for Our Time (London och New York: Routledge, 1990)
• Populist Democracy. A Defence (London och New York: Routledge, 1993)
• Hedonistic Utilitarianism (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1998)
• Coercive Care: The Ethics of Choice in Health and Medicine (London and New York: Routledge, 1999)
• Values in Sport: Elitism, Nationalism, Gender Equality and the Scientific Manufacture of Winners (London och New York: E&FN Spon/Routledge, 2000)
• Understanding Ethics: An Introduction to Moral Theory (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2002), third revised edition 2013: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/understanding-ethics-9780748682256?cc=se&lang=en&%5Bpermanent+dead+link%5D
• Terminal Sedation: Euthanasia in Disguise (Dordrecht: Kluwer, 2004).
• The Repugnant Conclusion. Essays on Population Ethics (Dordrecht. Kluwer, 2004).
• Genetic Technology and Sport (London and New York: Routledge, 2005)
• Global Democracy: The Case for a World Government (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2008). New printing: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/global-democracy-9780748634996?cc=se&lang=en&%5Bpermanent+dead+link%5D
• Taking Life: Three Theories on the Ethics of Killing (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015) https://global.oup.com/academic/product/9780190225582/?cc=us&lang=en&promocode=AAFLYG6

References

External links

• Audio recording of a debate between Tännsjö and Craig on "God and Morality"
• Professor Dr Torbjörn Tännsjö at Centre for Advanced Study in Bioethics, University of Münster (in English)
• Torbjörn Tännsjö - Filosofiska institutionen, Stockholms universitet (in Swedish)
• Torbjörn Tännsjö on IMDb