John Thrasher
Areas of Specialization
Social and Political Philosophy, PPE
Areas of Competence
Ethics, Moral Psychology, Social Norms, Experimental Philosophy, History of Political Thought, David Hume, Adam Smith
Professional Positions
Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy & The Smith Institute for Political Economy and Philosophy, Chapman University, 2021-
Adjunct Senior Research Fellow, Department of Philosophy, Monash University, 2018-
Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy & The Smith Institute for Political Economy and Philosophy, Chapman University, 2018-2021
Lecturer (Assistant Professor), Department of Philosophy, Monash University, 2014-2018
Education
PhD Philosophy 2011-2014 University of Arizona
MA Philosophy 2008-2011 University of Arizona
BA Philosophy 2000-2004 University of Colorado, Boulder
Publications
Books
2021 Philosophy, Politics, and Economics: An Introduction, with Gerald Gaus. Princeton University Press.
2020 The Ethics of Capitalism, with Daniel Halliday. Oxford University Press.
Edited Volumes & Collections
2023 New Directions in Social Contract Theory, co-edited with Michael Moehler. Oxford University Press.
2021 “Strategic Justice, Conventions, and Game Theory” Topical Collection in Synthese, co-edited with Michael Moehler.
2013 Creating Wealth: Ethical and Economic Perspectives 2nd edition, co-edited with David Schmidtz. Cognella.
Articles
“Smithian Sympathy and the Emergence of Norms.” Forthcoming. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, with Keith Hankins.
“Experimental Political Philosophy: A Manifesto.” Forthcoming. In Matt Lindauer (ed.) Advances in Experimental Political Philosophy. Bloomsbury.
“What Does Labor Mixing Get You?” Forthcoming. In Matt Lindauer (ed.) Advances in Experimental Political Philosophy. Bloomsbury, with Shaun Nichols.
“Hume’s Politics and Four Dimensions of Realism.” 2022. The Journal of Politics 84(2): 1007-1020, with Keith Hankins.
“Game Theory.” 2022. In Chris Melenovsky (ed.) Routledge Companion to Philosophy, Politics, and Economics. 67-80.
“Contractarian Justifications.” 2022. In Ben Ferguson and Matt Zwolinski (eds.) Routledge Companion to Libertarianism. 56-67.
“Asymmetry and Symmetry of Acts and Omissions in Punishment, Norms, and Judged Causality.” 2021. Judgment and Decision Making 16(4): 796-822, with Toby Handfield, Andrew Corcoran, and Shaun Nichols.
“Agreeing to Disagree: Diversity, Political Contractualism, and the Open Society.” 2020. The Journal of Politics 82(3): 1142-1155.
“On Minimal Morality.” 2020. Analytic Philosophy 61(1): 45-56.
“Self-Ownership as Personal Sovereignty.” 2019. Social Philosophy & Policy. 36(2):116-133.
“Democracy Unchained: Contractualism, Individualism, and Independence in Buchanan’s Democratic Theory.” 2019. Homo Oeconomicus 36: 25-40.
“Two of a Kind: Are Norms of Honor a Species of Morality?” 2019. Biology & Philosophy 34(3), with Toby Handfield.
“Constructivism, Representation, and Stability: Path-Dependence in Public Reason Theories of Justice.” 2019. Synthese 196(1): 429-450.
“The Right to Own the Means of Production.” 2019. In Jahel Queralt and Bas Van Der Vossen (eds.) Economic Liberties as Human Rights. Routledge, with Chris Freiman.
“Honor and Violence: An Account of Feuds, Duels, and Honor Killings.” 2018. Human Nature 29(4):371–389, with Toby Handfield
“Greenbeards and Signaling: Why Morality isn’t Indispensable.” 2018. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 41(e103), with Toby Handfield and Julian Garcia.
“Evaluating Bad Norms.” 2018. Social Philosophy & Policy 35(1): 196-216.
“Political Stability in the Open Society.” 2018. American Journal of Political Science 62(2): 398-409, with Kevin Vallier.
“When Equality Matters.” 2018. In David Boonin (ed.) The Palgrave Handbook of Philosophy and Public Policy. Palgrave. 182-199.
“Peer Punishment Promotes Enforcement of Bad Social Norms.” 2017. Nature Communications 8 (2017), with Klaus Abbink, Lata Gangadharan, and Toby Handfield.
“On The Calculus of Consent.” 2017. In Jacob Levy (ed.) The Oxford Handbook of Classics in Contemporary Political Theory. Oxford University Press, with Gerald Gaus.
“Social Contractarianism” 2017. In Brennan, Jason, Bas van der Vossen, and David Schmidtz (eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Libertarianism. Routledge.
“The Ethics of Legislative Vote Trading.” 2016. Political Studies 64(3): 614-629.
“The Fragility of Consensus: Public Reason, Diversity and Stability.” 2015. The European Journal of Philosophy 23(4): 933-954, with Kevin Vallier.
“Adam Smith and the Social Contract.” 2015. The Adam Smith Review 8: 195-216.
“When Justice Demands Inequality.” 2015. The Journal of Moral Philosophy 12(2): 172-194, with Keith Hankins
“Rational Choice and the Original Position: The (Many) Models of Rawls and Harsanyi.” 2015. In Timothy Honton (ed.) The Original Position. Cambridge University Press, with Gerald Gaus.
“Bankers, Vampires, and Organ Sellers: Who Can You Trust?” 2015. In Garnett, Robert, Paul Lewis, and Lenore Ealy (eds.) Commerce and Community: Ecologies of Social Cooperation. Routledge, with David Schmidtz.
“Uniqueness and Symmetry in Bargaining Theories of Justice.” 2014. Philosophical Studies 167(3): 683-699.
“Ordering Anarchy.” 2014. Rationality, Markets and Morals 5(1): 30-46.
“The Virtues of Justice.” 2014. In Timpe, Kevin and Craig A. Boyd (eds.) Virtues and their Vices. Oxford University Press, with David Schmidtz.
“Reconciling Justice and Pleasure in Epicurean Contractarianism.” 2013. Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 16(2): 423-436.
“Social Evolution.” 2013. In Gaus, Gerald and Fred D’Agostino. The Routledge Companion to Social and Political Philosophy. Routledge, with Gerald Gaus.
Reference Works
“Taxation.” 2020. The International Encyclopedia of Ethics. Hugh LaFollette (ed.), with Daniel Halliday.
“Contemporary Approaches to the Social Contract.” 2017. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, with Fred D’Agostino and Gerald Gaus.
Book Reviews
“The Price of Sociality: Review of Jonathan Birch, The Philosophy of Social Evolution.” 2018. Metascience.
Review of “John Tomasi, Free Market Fairness.” 2014. Public Choice 159(1-2): 309-311.
Review of “Charles Tilly, Credit and Blame.” 2013. The European Legacy: Toward New Paradigms 18(7): 967, with David Schmidtz.
Review of “Herbert Gintis, The Bounds of Reason: Game Theory and the Unification of the Behavioral Sciences.” 2011. The Journal of Value Inquiry 45(1): 85-90.
Invited Talks & Conference Presentations
2023 Adam Smith @ 300 Conference (Edinburgh, UK)
2022 University at Buffalo, University of California, Irvine, PPE Society Meeting
2021 Virginia Tech
2020 University at Buffalo*, International Adam Smith Society Meeting (Tokyo, Japan) *, PPE Society Meeting*
2019 Waseda University (Tokyo, Japan), Harvard Business School, PPE Society Meeting
2018 Texas Tech University, Monash University, PPE Society Meeting
2017 Australasian Seminar in Early Modern Philosophy (University of Sydney), PPE Society Meeting, American Philosophical Association (Pacific)
2016 Southern Economics Association, Social Philosophy & Policy, Seoul National University, Australasian Association of Philosophy, American Philosophical Association (Pacific) University of Arizona
2015 University of Melbourne, Australasian Association of Philosophy, Center for Moral, Political and Social Theory (Australian National University), American Philosophical Association (Pacific), Australian National University
2014 New Zealand Association for Philosophy, American Philosophical Association (Pacific)
2013 London School of Economics, University of Utah, University of Manchester
2012 University of New Orleans
2011 Southern Economics Association, Rational Choice Contractarianism: 25 Years after Morals by Agreement (York University)
*Cancelled due to Covid-19
Teaching
Chapman University
Toleration and its Discontents (w/Michael Moses)
Philosophy in Literature Fall 2022, Spring 2019
Moral Theory Spring 2021
Utopia and Dystopia in Fiction & Film (w/Michael Moses) Fall 2021, 2020, 2019
David Hume (Junior/Senior Seminar) Spring 2020
Cause, Effect, and Freedom (w/Erik Kimbrough) Fall 2019
Games and Decisions Inter-term 2019
Global Justice Fall 2018
The Tragedy in Morality (w/Brennan McDavid) Fall 2018
Presidential Seminar (w/ Jan Osborn) Fall 2018
Monash University
Intro to PPE 2022
Hobbes and Spinoza (Honors Seminar) 2017
Human Rights Theory 1 (w/ Linda Barclay) 2017
Conventions and Norms (Honors Seminar) 2015, 2016
Moral Psychology (Honors Seminar) 2015
Human Rights Theory 1 (w/ Robbie Arrell) 2015,2016
Democratic Theory 2015-2017
Political Philosophy 2014-2017
Rationality and Morality (Honors Seminar) 2014
University of Arizona
The Social Contract 2013
The Ethics & Economics of Wealth Creation 2009
Research Supervision
MA
Matthew Ringenbergs (w/ Toby Handfield) HD1 Monash University 2018-2019
Lucy Mayne (Primary) HD1 Monash University 2016-2018
James McGuire (Primary) HD1 Monash University 2016-2018
Honors
Jade Popper (Completed) Monash University 2017
Andrew Belyea-Tate (Completed) Monash University 2016
Lucy Mayne (Completed) Monash University 2015
Selected Grants, Honors, and Awards
2022-25 Templeton Grant, “Markets in their Social and Moral Context,” Co-PI with Bas van der Vossen, Bart Wilson, and Katharine Gillespie, $2.2 Million
2017-20 Australian Research Council Discovery Project DP170102834, “Informal Sanctions and Bad Social Norms,” Co-PI with Klaus Abbink, Lata Gangadharan, Toby Handfield, and David Skarbek, $231,500,
2020 Discourse Initiative Grant
2020 Chapman Grant for Experimental Pilot
2015-18 Dean’s Commendation for Early Career Researcher
2014-15 SoPHIS Research Grants
2015 New Appointee Research Grant
2013 Fink Prize for the Most Outstanding Graduate Student in the Philosophy Dept., University of Arizona
2013 University of Arizona Excellence Dissertation Fellowship
2012 Bernard Marcus Fellowship
2011 H.B. Earhart Fellowship
2010 Bernard Marcus Fellowship
2009 Thomas W. Smith Fellowship
Service
2022- Director, Law and Liberal Arts Minor
2022- Senator for Schmid College, Faculty Senate, Chapman University
2022, 2017, 2014 Project Editor, Social Philosophy and Policy
2021- Chair, Philosophy Faculty Review Committee, Chapman University 2021- Gaus Memorial Prize Committee, PPE Society
2021- Co-Organizer (with Ryan Muldoon), PPE Graduate Summer Workshop, Chapman University
2019-20 Search Committee, Research Associate, Smith Institute for Political Economy and Philosophy
2015-18 SoPHIS Honors Coordinator, Monash University
2014-18 Philosophy Honors Coordinator, Monash University
2015 Organizing Committee, Australasian Association of Philosophy Conference
2012-14 Assistant Editor, Social Philosophy and Policy
Reviewing
Journals
Adam Smith Review, American Philosophical Quarterly, American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Analysis, Australasian Journal of Philosophy, British Journal of Political Science, Canadian Journal of Philosophy, Crime and Deliquency, Economics & Philosophy, Episteme, Erasmus Journal for Philosophy & Economics, Erkenntnis, Ergo, Ethical Theory & Moral Practice, Ethical Perspectives, Hobbes Studies, Japanese Journal of Political Science, Journal of Applied Philosophy, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Journal of Economic Psychology, Journal of Ethics, Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy, Journal of Philosophical Research, Journal of Politics, Journal of Political Philosophy, Journal of Social Philosophy, Journal of Value Inquiry, Legal Theory, Manuscrito, Oxford Studies in Experimental Philosophy, Oxford Studies in Political Philosophy, Philosopher’s Imprint, Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, Philosophical Papers, Philosophical Perspectives, Philosophical Psychology, Philosophy, Politics, and Economics, Philosophy of Science, Philosophical Studies, Philosophical Quarterly, Polish Journal of Philosophy, Polity, Public Affairs Quarterly, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Nexus (PNAS Nexus), Ratio, Res Publica, Social Choice & Welfare, Social Theory and Practice, Social Philosophy & Policy, Synthese, Technology in Society, Theoria
Presses
Oxford University Press, Princeton University Press, Cambridge University Press, Hackett, Routledge
Organizations
American Academy in Berlin, Australasian Association of Philosophy, Australian Research Council, Central European University, Council for the Humanities of the Netherlands, Organization for Scientific Research