I am a Professor of Political Science and Philosophy at Duke University, and a Senior Fellow at the Kenan Institute for Ethics.

I specialize in political theory with a particular interest in early modern philosophy and political ethics. My most recent book is titled Strings Attached: Untangling the Ethics of Incentives (2011). I am also the author of Hypocrisy and Integrity: Machiavelli, Rousseau and the Ethics of Politics (1999) and John Locke’s Liberalism (1991), and I am the editor of the companion volumes In Search of Goodness (2011) and Naming Evil, Judging Evil (2006). My work originally focused on the historical study of liberal thought and has moved increasingly toward contemporary ethics. I have received fellowship awards from the National Endowment for the Humanities, The American Council of Learned Societies, The National Humanities Center, and The Russell Sage Foundation, as well as a teaching award from Duke University.

For more information, please see my curriculum vitae.

“The Limits of Selflessness” on YouTube: