Marcel van Ackeren

Marcel van Ackeren is Reader in Ethics at the University of Würzburg. His research focuses on normative ethics and metaethics, especially moral demandingness, as well as on Bernard Williams and the relationship between historical and systematic moral philosophy.

His academic ties with Oxford date back to 1996–1998, when he pursued doctoral research under the supervision of Bernard Williams and Michael Frede. He has held several research fellowships, including at the Wissenschaftskolleg Greifswald, Mansfield College and Jesus College, Oxford. From 2016 to 2020, he was a Gerda Henkel Fellow at the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics. He was also an Associate Member of Oxford's Faculty of Philosophy from 2016 to 2023.

Current Research

His current research projects concern moral demandingness and the normative significance of costs to agents, ethical issues surrounding the use of animals in research, science denial, and responsibility and answerability in Plato.

Selected Publications

· van Ackeren, M. and Queloz, M. (eds.) (2025). Bernard Williams on Philosophy and History. Oxford University Press.

· van Ackeren, M. (2025). “Überforderungsargumente gegen den Utilitarismus” [“Demandingness Objections to Utilitarianism”]. In V. Andrić and B. Gesang (eds.), Handbuch Utilitarismus. J. B. Metzler, 243–252.

· van Ackeren, M. (2025). “The Invention of the Humanistic Discipline: Williams on Plato on Philosophy.” In M. van Ackeren and M. Queloz (eds.), Bernard Williams on Philosophy and History. Oxford University Press, 93–114.

· Queloz, M. and van Ackeren, M. (2024). “Virtue Ethics and the Morality System.” Topoi 43(2), 413–424.

· van Ackeren, M. (2022). “Virtue, Luck and Other Goods: On Williams’s Question and the Demandingness of Ancient Ethics.” In A. Szigeti and M. Talbert (eds.), Morality and Agency: Themes from Bernard Williams. Oxford University Press, 35–61.

· van Ackeren, M. and Derpmann, S. (guest eds.) (2019). Demandingness in Practice. Special Issue of Moral Philosophy and Politics, 6(1).

· van Ackeren, M. and Chappell, S.-G. (eds.) (2019). Ethics beyond the Limits: New Essays on Bernard Williams’ Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy. Routledge.

· van Ackeren, M. and Archer, A. (guest eds.) (2018). Sacrifice and Moral Philosophy. Special Issue of the International Journal of Philosophical Studies, 26(3).

· van Ackeren, M. and Sticker, M. (guest eds.) (2018). Kant and the Modern Debate on Demandingness. Themed section of Kantian Review, 23(3).

· van Ackeren, M. and Sticker, M. (2018). “Moral Rationalism and Demandingness in Kant.” Kantian Review 23(3), 407–428.

· van Ackeren, M. (2018). “How Morality Becomes Demanding: Cost vs. Difficulty and Restriction.” International Journal of Philosophical Studies 26(3), 315–334.

· van Ackeren, M. and Sticker, M. (2018). “The Demandingness of Beneficence and the Kantian System of Duties.” Social Theory and Practice 44(3), 405–436.

· van Ackeren, M. and Kühler, M. (eds.) (2015). The Limits of Moral Obligation: Ought Implies Can and Moral Demandingness. Routledge.