Ben Vilhauer

Ben Vilhauer is Professor and Chair of the Department of Philosophy at City College of New York (CUNY) and the CUNY Graduate Center. He earned his PhD from the University of Chicago.

His research specializes in free will theory, Kantian ethics, and philosophy of punishment, with a focus on developing non-retributive justice frameworks compatible with free will skepticism. Vilhauer reconstructs Kant's ideas on remorse, sympathy, and responsibility through contemporary ethical debates.

Vilhauer's publications systematically analyze perspectives on retribution, propose social-contract justifications for punishment without moral desert, and reinterpret Kantian concepts like rational sympathy through imagination-based models. His work bridges historical analysis with applied ethics in criminal justice contexts.