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About
David Schmidtz is Professor and Presidential Chair of Moral Science at West Virginia University's Chambers College of Business and Economics. He also serves as Editor-in-Chief of Social Philosophy & Policy since 2012. Previously, he held the Kendrick Professorship of Philosophy and Eller Chair of Service-Dominant Logic at University of Arizona, where he founded the Department of Political Economy and Moral Science and the Center for the Philosophy of Freedom.
His research focuses on ethics, political economy, and moral science, emphasizing how communities thrive through principles like justice, rational choice, and institutional design. He explores Scottish Enlightenment thinkers (Hume, Smith) and applies their insights to modern policy and business ethics.
Key trends in his 15 most recent articles include:
- Reconciling ethics with political economy
- Critiques of abstract moral theory
- Applications of cost-benefit analysis
- Re-examining Adam Smith's legacy
- Justice as community organizing principles
- Ethics of global crises and poverty
He has delivered talks on ethics at institutions like La Sierra University and McGill University, and his work has been reprinted 119 times in 16 languages.
