Karen J. Warren

Warren has written extensively in the fields of critical thinking, environmental ethics and ecofeminism. She has written more than 40 articles and edited or co-edited five anthologies, authored Ecofeminist Philosophy: A Western Perspective on What It Is and Why It Matters (2000). She is the author of a groundbreaking anthology, An Unconventional History of Western Philosophy: Conversations Between Men and Women Philosophers (Rowman & Littlefield, 2009). The anthology explores 2600 years of Western philosophy, juxtaposing leading men and women philosophers' writing on ethics, metaphysics and other topics. Her work has been translated into Spanish, Mandarin, French, Japanese and Persian.

Karen Warren received her B.A. in philosophy from the University of Minnesota (1970) and her Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst in 1978. Before her long tenure at Macalester College, which began in 1985, Warren was Professor of Philosophy at St. Olaf College in the early 1980s. Warren was the Ecofeminist-Scholar-in-Residence at Murdoch University in Australia SelectedWorks - Karen Warren, Retired. In 2003, she served as an Oxford University Round Table Scholar and as Women's Chair in Humanistic Studies at Marquette University in 2004. She has spoken widely on environmental issues, feminism, critical thinking skills and peace studies in many international locations including Buenos Aires, Gothenburg, Helsinki, Oslo, Manitoba, Melbourne, Moscow, Perth, the U.N. Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro (1992), and San Jose. Karen was diagnosed with Multiple System Atrophy (MSA) in 2016. Since that time, she worked to promote end of life options for individuals with terminal illnesses. Using ethics as a philosophical framework, Karen argued that humans should have the right to choose when it is time to die when faced with an untreatable fatal illness. Karen articulated her arguments in public forums, including speaking in front of the Minnesota State Senate and writing articles for Compassion & Choices and Psychology Today.

Karen J. Warren (September 10, 1947 – August 21, 2020) was an author, scholar, and former Professor and Chair of Philosophy at Macalester College.