Kenneth Baynes

Professor, Philosophy Department

Courtesy Appointment, Political Science

Biography

Ken Baynes works primarily in social and political philosophy, with a special focus in critical theory (the "Frankfurt School") and modern and contemporary German philosophy. He is a co-editor of After Philosophy: End or Transformation? (MIT Press), and Discourse and Democracy (SUNY Press), and the author of The Normative Grounds of Social Criticism: Kant, Rawls and Habermas (SUNY Press). His current interests are in the normative or obligatory character of rules and practices, attempts to ground moral principles in practical reason, and the relationship between democracy and basic rights, including "multicultural rights" (if indeed there are any!).