Richard Moran, a Princeton University professor who specializes in the philosophy of mind and moral psychology, confirmed last night that he has accepted a tenure offer in the philosophy department.

"I'm just very excited about arriving in the fall and very happy with the whole decision and looking forward to meeting with students when I get there," Moran said.

Moran said he accepted the offer last week, adding that he mailed a letter yesterday stating that he has "officially accepted the offer from Harvard."

Moran said he will be doing departmental work in the fall, but will begin teaching classes in the spring.

"I will be teaching an undergraduate course on philosophy and literature and a graduate seminar called 'Belief, Trust and Testimony,'" Moran said.

"I'm very excited about coming to Harvard and particularly about teaching these courses," he said. "I'm very excited about the material in these courses and I'm very excited about working with Harvard students."

Moran said he specializes in aesthetics, philosophy of literature and philosophy of mind.

"I work in many different areas, primarily in philosophy of mind and moral psychology," he said. "Also aesthetics of philosophy, philosophy of art and the philosophy of Wittgenstein--he's a 20th century philosopher."

Moran said he had a number of reasons for accepting the tenure offer.

"Harvard has a great philosophy department," Moran said. "I have admired the work of people in the philosophy department for a long time and I have some friends at Harvard and I look forward to living in the Boston area.

"I spent a year living in Cambridge a few years ago," he said, "and I got to know the area [and] the University pretty well during that year and I liked it a lot."

Other professors are just as happy. "We are very pleased that Professor Moran will be joining us," said Professor of Philosophy Warren Goldfarb '69. "He brings us not only extremely interesting views [but] also a wide range of interests in aesthetics."

"He's a very lively fellow, very engaging in conversation with a terrific sense of humor," Goldfarb added.

"I think we are all pleased. He should add a lot new interests to the department and will be a very lively and engaging teacher," he said.

Moran graduated Dartmouth in 1977 and earned his doctorate from Cornell in 1989. That year, he joined the Princeton faculty as assistant professor of philosophy.

Moran is currently on leave from Princeton, performing research at the National Humanities Center in North Carolina.