James Otteson is Joint Professor of Philosophy and Economics at Yeshiva University, where he specializes in the history of modern philosophy, political philosophy, and the history and philosophy of economics.  His recent books include Adam Smith (Continuum Press, 2011), Actual Ethics (Cambridge University Press, 2006), and Adam Smith’s Marketplace of Life (Cambridge University Press, 2002).  Actual Ethics won the Templeton Enterprise Award in 2007 for the best book in humane economics written by an author under 40.

Professor Otteson’s unusual combination of expertise in history, economics, and philosophy provides an exceptionally broad and deep perspective on the relationship between economic theory and human values.  Professor Otteson received his B.A. magna cum laude from the Program of Liberal Studies at the University of Notre Dame in 1990 and his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Chicago in 1997.  Beginning in 1997, he taught philosophy at the University of Alabama, rising to department chairman in 2005.  From 2003 to 2004 he was a Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland; in 2004 he was also Elphinstone Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Scottish Philosophy, University of Aberdeen, Scotland.  He joined the faculty of Yeshiva University as Joint Professor of Philosophy and Economics in 2007.

In addition to courses in his major areas of the history and philosophy of economic thought, Professor Otteson has taught courses on the ethics of business, the ethics of philanthropy, major figures such as Adam Smith and David Hume, and issues such as capitalism and morality and the question of why some countries are so much wealthier than others.

In Actual Ethics, Professor Otteson draws on Kantian and Aristotelian themes to present and defend a conception of human personhood and the classical liberal political state that this conception entails.  He applies the conception to contested political and moral issues such as poverty and famine relief, affirmative action, public schooling, euthanasia, homosexual marriage, and the nature of human happiness.  Cambridge University Press will publish a forthcoming book by Professor Otteson, with the working title "The End of Socialism," that will defend limited government in answer to the question raised in G.A. Cohen’s book Why Not Socialism?

Professor Otteson is a founder and principal co-blogger at pileusblog.com, which examines contemporary political issues from the perspective of a serious commitment to freedom and virtue.  He is a Senior Fellow at the Fund for American Studies in Washington, D.C.