James R. Otteson received his BA from the Program of Liberal Studies at the University of Notre Dame and his PhD in philosophy from the University of Chicago. He specializes in business ethics, political economy, the history of economic thought, and eighteenth-century moral philosophy. He has taught previously at Wake Forest University, New York University, Yeshiva University, Georgetown University, and the University of Alabama. His books include Adam Smith’s Marketplace of Life (Cambridge, 2002), Actual Ethics (Cambridge, 2006), Adam Smith (Bloomsbury, 2013), The End of Socialism (Cambridge, 2014), The Essential Adam Smith (Fraser Institute, 2018), and Honorable Business: A Framework for Business in a Just and Humane Society (Oxford, 2019). His most recent books are The Essential David Hume (Fraser, 2021) and Seven Deadly Economic Sins (Cambridge, 2021). His just-released book is Should Wealth Be Redistributed? A Debate (with Steven McMullen; Routledge, 2023).
Education
Ph D, University of Chicago
MA, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
BA, University of Notre Dame
"Adam Smith on Public Provision of Education", Journal of the History of Economic Thought - Accepted (awaiting publication)
"Adam Smith on Government versus Private Provision of 'Publick Works'", Oxford University Press, Oxford Handbook of Private Enterprise - Accepted (awaiting publication)
"Introduction to Socialism and Capitalism", Realities of Socialism, 2023
"Adam Smith on the Dangers of the Digital World", Routledge, 2022
"The 'Poor Man's Son': The Role of Deception in Adam Smith's Case for Free Enterprise", Cambridge University Press - Accepted (awaiting publication)
"A Business Ethics Challenge", 30th International Vincentian Business Ethics Conference, 2023
"Honorable Business", Center for the Study of Economic Liberty, Arizona State University, 2021
"The Morality of Markets", Bethel University, 2021
"Two of the Seven Deadly Economic Sins", Cambridge Fest, Cambridge University Press, 2021
"Honorable Business", The Adam Smith Society, 2021
Award
"Favorite Business Professor of the Class of 2020", Poets & Quants, 2020