PDF of CV

 

Areas of Specialization

Political Philosophy, PPE (Philosophy, Politics, & Economics)

Areas of Competence

Ethics, Moral Psychology, Social Norms, History of Political Thought, David Hume, Adam Smith

Employment

Chapman University Orange, CA USA

  • Associate Professor 2021–Present

  • Assistant Professor 2018–2021

Monash University Melbourne, VIC Australia

  • Lecturer (Tenured) 2014–2018

Education

University of Arizona Tucson, AZ USA

  • Phd, Philosophy 2014

  • MA, Philosophy 2011

University of Colorado Boulder, CO USA

  • BA, Philosophy 2003

Publications

Citations 1073 | h-index 17 | i-index 20

Books

2021 Gaus, Gerald and John Thrasher. Philosophy, Politics, and Economics: An Introduction. Princeton University Press.

  • 2024 Korean Translation published by Purun Communication
  • 2022 Mandarin Translation published in mainland China by Truth & Wisdom Press

2020 Halliday, Daniel and John Thrasher. The Ethics of Capitalism: An Introduction. Oxford University Press.

Edited Volumes

2024 Moehler, Michael and John Thrasher (eds.). 2024. New Approaches to Social Contract Theory: Liberty, Equality, Diversity, and the Open Society. Oxford University Press.

2021 Moehler, Michael and John Thrasher (eds.). “Strategic Justice, Conventions, and Game Theory: Themes in the Philosophy of Peter Vanderschraaf.” Topical Collection in Synthese.

2023 Schmidtz, David and John Thrasher (eds.). 2013. Creating Wealth: Ethical and Economic Perspectives 2nd edition. Cognella.

Journal Articles

2024 Thrasher, John. “Capitalism, Democracy, and Adam Smith.” Journal of Contextual Economics. (Online First)

2024 Moehler, Michael and John Thrasher. “Strategic Justice, Conventions, and Game Theory: An Introduction” Synthese. 204(28)

2023 Nichols, Shaun and John Thrasher. 2023. “Ownership and Convention.” Cognition. 237

2022 Thrasher, John and Keith Hankins. “Smithian Sympathy and the Emergence of Norms.” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research. 105(3): 638–656.

2022 Hankins, Keith and John Thrasher. “Hume’s Politics and Four Dimensions of Realism.” The Journal of Politics. 84(2): 1007–1020.

2021 Handfield, Toby, Thrasher, John, Corcoran, Andrew, and Shaun Nichols. “Asymmetry and Symmetry of Acts and Omissions in Punishment, Norms, and Judged Causality.” Judgment and Decision Making. 16(4): 796–822.

2020 Thrasher, John. “Agreeing to Disagree: Diversity, Political Contractualism, and the Open Society.” The Journal of Politics. 82(3): 1142–1155.

2020 Thrasher, John. “On Minimal Morality.” Analytic Philosophy. 61(1): 45–56.

2019 Thrasher, John. “Self-Ownership as Personal Sovereignty.” Social Philosophy & Policy. 36(2):116-133.

2019 Thrasher, John. “Democracy Unchained: Contractualism, Individualism, and Independence in Buchanan’s Democratic Theory.” Homo Oeconomicus. 36: 25-40.

2019 Handfield, Toby and John Thrasher. “Two of a Kind: Are Norms of Honor a Species of Morality?” Biology & Philosophy. 34(3).

2019 Thrasher, John. “Constructivism, Representation, and Stability: Path-Dependence in Public Reason Theories of Justice.” Synthese. 196(1): 429–450.

2018 Thrasher, John and Toby Handfield. “Honor and Violence: An Account of Feuds, Duels, and Honor Killings.” Human Nature. 29(4):371-–389.

2018 Handfield, Toby, Thrasher, John and Julian Garcia. “Greenbeards and Signaling: Why Morality isn’t Indispensable.” Behavioral and Brain Sciences. 41(e103).

2018 Thrasher, John. “Evaluating Bad Norms.” Social Philosophy & Policy. 35(1): 196–216.

2018 Thrasher, John and Kevin Vallier. “Political Stability in the Open Society.” American Journal of Political Science. 62(2): 398–409.

2017 Abbink, Klaus, Lata Gangadharan, Toby Handfield, and John Thrasher. “Peer Punishment Promotes Enforcement of Bad Social Norms.” Nature Communications. 8 (2017).

2016 Thrasher, John. “The Ethics of Legislative Vote Trading.” Political Studies. 64(3): 614–629.

2015 Thrasher, John and Kevin Vallier. “The Fragility of Consensus: Public Reason, Diversity and Stability.” The European Journal of Philosophy. 23(4): 933–954.

2015 Thrasher, John. “Adam Smith and the Social Contract.” The Adam Smith Review. 8: 195–216.

2015 Thrasher, John and Keith Hankins. “When Justice Demands Inequality.” The Journal of Moral Philosophy. 12(2): 172–194.

2014 Thrasher, John. “Uniqueness and Symmetry in Bargaining Theories of Justice.” Philosophical Studies. 167(3): 683–699.

2014 Thrasher, John. “Ordering Anarchy.” Rationality, Markets and Morals. 5(1): 30–46.

2013 Thrasher, John. “Reconciling Justice and Pleasure in Epicurean Contractarianism.” Ethical Theory and Moral Practice. 16(2): 423–436.

Chapters in Edited Volumes

2024 Thrasher, John. “Polycentric Justice.” In David Thunder and Pablo Paniagua (eds.) Polycentric Governance and the Good Society: A Normative and Philosophical Investigation. Lexington Books.

2024 Thrasher, John. “Consensus, Contract, and Diversity.” In Michael Moehler and John Thrasher (eds.) New Approaches to Social Contract Theory: Liberty, Equality, Diversity, and the Open Society, pg 206-226. Oxford University Press.

2023 Thrasher, John. “Experimental Political Philosophy: A Manifesto.” In Matt Lindauer (ed.) Advances in Experimental Political Philosophy. Bloomsbury.

2023 Nichols, Shaun and John Thrasher. “What Does Labor Mixing Get You?.” In Matt Lindauer (ed.) Advances in Experimental Political Philosophy. Bloomsbury.

2023 Thrasher, John. “Permission, Prohibition, and Dynamism.” In Jonathan Adler (ed.) Climate Liberalism. Palgrave.

2022 Thrasher John. “Game Theory.” In Chris Melenovsky (ed.) Routledge Companion to Philosophy, Politics, and Economics. 67–80. Routledge.

2022 Thrasher, John. “Contractarian Justifications.” In Ben Ferguson and Matt Zwolinski (eds.) Routledge Companion to Libertarianism. 56–67. Routledge.

2019 Freiman, Chris and John Thrasher. “The Right to Own the Means of Production.” In Jahel Queralt and Bas Van Der Vossen (eds.) Economic Liberties as Human Rights. Routledge.

2018 Thrasher, John. “When Equality Matters.” In David Boonin (ed.) The Palgrave Handbook of Philosophy and Public Policy. Palgrave. 182–199.

2017 Thrasher, John and Gerald Gaus. “The Calculus of Consent.” In Jacob Levy (ed.) The Oxford Handbook of Classics in Contemporary Political Theory. Oxford University Press.

2017 Thrasher, John. “Social Contractarianism.” In Brennan, Jason, Bas van der Vossen, and David Schmidtz (eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Libertarianism. Routledge.

2015 Gaus, Gerald and John Thrasher. “Rational Choice and the Original Position: The (Many) Models of Rawls and Harsanyi.” In Timothy Honton (ed.) The Original Position. Cambridge University Press.

2015 Schmidtz, David and John Thrasher. “Bankers, Vampires, and Organ Sellers: Who Can You Trust?.” In Garnett, Robert, Paul Lewis, and Lenore Ealy (eds.) Commerce and Community: Ecologies of Social Cooperation. Routledge.

2014 Schmidtz, David and John Thrasher. “The Virtues of Justice.” In Timpe, Kevin and Craig A. Boyd (eds.) Virtues and their Vices. Oxford University Press.

Reference Works

2024 Gerald Gaus and John Thrasher. “Social Evolution.” In Fred D’Agostino and Ryan Muldoon (eds.) The Routledge Companion to Social and Political Philosophy 2nd Edition. Routledge.

2021 D’ Agostino, Fred, Gerald Gaus, and John Thrasher. “Contemporary Approaches to the Social Contract.” 2021. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

2020 Halliday, Dan and John Thrasher. “Taxation.” The International Encyclopedia of Ethics. Hugh LaFollette (ed.).

Book Reviews

2024 Thrasher, John. “Review of Liberal Freedom: Pluralism, Polarization, and Politics by Eric MacGilvray”. The Independent Review, 29(1), 187-190.

2021 Thrasher, John. “Review of “James Lindley Wilson, Democratic Equality.” Review of Politics 83(4).

2019 Thrasher, John. “Review of Cooperation and Excellence: A Premodern Case for Capitalism, by George Bragues.” The Independent Review, 23(3)

2018 Thrasher, John. “The Price of Sociality: A Review of “Jonathan Birch The Philosophy of Social Evolution.” Metascience.

2014 Thrasher, John. “Review of John Tomasi, Free Market Fairness.” Public Choice 159(1-2): 309–311.

2013 Schmidtz, David and John Thrasher. “Review of “Charles Tilly, Credit and Blame.” The European Legacy: Toward New Paradigms. 18(7): 967.

2011 “Review of “Herbert Gintis, The Bounds of Reason: Game Theory and the Unification of the Behavioral Sciences.” The Journal of Value Inquiry. 45(1): 85–90.

Works in Progress

Democracy and the Diversity Dilemma: From Contractualism to the Open Society

“From the Reign of Saturn to the End of History: Conjectural History and Stadial Theory in Smithian Liberalism”

“On the Moral Conventional Distinction: An Experimental Investigation” (with Erik Kimbrough)

“Conventionalism About Property and the Colonial Objection” (with Shaun Nichols)

“Realistic Realism” (with Keith Hankins)

“The Myth of the Liberal Locke” (with Eric Schliesser)

Invited Seminars and Conference Presentations

2025 University of California, San Diego, George Mason University, International Adam Smith Society Meeting (Lecce, Italy)

2024 University of Texas,The Ohio State University, University at Buffalo, American Philosophical Association (Central), International Adam Smith Society Meeting (Tokyo, Japan), PPE Society Meeting

2023 Adam Smith @ 300 (Edinburgh, UK)

2022 University of California, Irvine (Logic and Philosophy of Science), University at Buffalo, PPE Society Meeting

2021 Virginia Tech

2020 University at Buffalo, International Adam Smith Society Meeting (Tokyo, Japan), PPE Society Meeting [All canceled due to Covid-19]

2019 Harvard Business School, Waseda University (Tokyo, Japan), 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 University of Arizona, Seoul National University, Southern Economics Association, Social Philosophy & Policy, Australasian Association of Philosophy, American Philosophical Association (Pacific),

2015 Australian National University (Philosophy Department), Australian National University (Center for Moral, Political and Social Theory), University of Melbourne, Australasian Association of Philosophy, American Philosophical Association (Pacific),

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)

Research Supervision

MA

Monash University

  • Matthew Ringenbergs (with Toby Handfield) HD1 2018-2019

  • Lucy Mayne HD1 2016-2018

  • James McGuire HD1 2016-2018

HONORS

Monash University

  • Jade Popper 2017

  • Andrew Belyea-Tate2016

  • Lucy Mayne 2015

Teaching

Chapman University

Monash University

Honors Seminars

Undergraduate Classes

University of Arizona

SELECTED GRANTS, HONORS, AND AWARDS

  • 2023-25 Wang-Fradkin Professorship

  • 2022-25 Co-PI, Templeton Project “Markets in the Social and Moral Context,” $2,289,126

  • 2017-22 Co-PI, Australian Research Council, Discovery Project DP170102834, “Informal Sanctions and Bad Social Norms,” $231,500,

  • 2020 Discourse Initiative Grant, $15,000

  • 2020 Grant for Experimental Pilot, $4,000

  • 2015-18 Dean’s Commendation for Early Career Researcher, Monash University

  • 2016 Monash Focus Program Grant, $50,000

  • 2014-15 SoPHIS Research Grants, Monash University

  • 2015 New Appointee Research Grant, Monash University, $5,000

  • 2013 Fink Prize for the Most Outstanding Graduate Student, Philosophy, 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

  • 2024–2025 Evaluator, Philosophical Gourmet Report

  • 2023– Faculty Member, Math, Physics, and Philosophy Ph.D. Program Steering Committee, Chapman University

  • 2022– Director, Law and Liberal Arts Minor, Chapman University

  • 2021– Chair, Philosophy Faculty Review Committee, Chapman University

  • 2021– Committee Member, Gaus Memorial Prize, PPE Society

  • 2021– Founder & Organizer, PPE Summer Graduate Workshop, Chapman University

  • 2022–2024 Senator for Schmid College, Faculty Senate, Chapman University

  • 2019–2020 Search Committee, Research Associate, Smith Institute for Political Economy and Philosophy

  • 2015–2018 SoPHIS Honors Coordinator, Monash University

  • 2014–2018 Philosophy Honors Coordinator, Monash University

  • 2017 Project Editor, Social Philosophy and Policy

  • 2015 Organizing Committee, Australasian Association of Philosophy Conference

  • 2014 Project Editor, Social Philosophy and Policy

  • 2012-2014 Assistant Editor, Social Philosophy and Policy

Reviewing

Journals

Adam Smith Review, American Philosophical Quarterly, American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, American Sociological Review, Analysis, Australasian Journal of Philosophy, British Journal of Political Science, Canadian Journal of Philosophy, Collective Intelligence, Crime and Delinquency, Economics & Philosophy, Episteme, Erasmus Journal for Philosophy & Economics, Erkenntnis, Ergo, Ethical Theory & Moral Practice, Ethical Perspectives, Hobbes Studies, Human Nature, Japanese Journal of Political Science, Journal of Applied Philosophy, Journal of Contextual Economics, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Journal of Economic Psychology, Journal of Ethics, Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy, Journal of Institutional Economics, Journal of Philosophy, Journal of Philosophical Research, Journal of Politics, Journal of Political Philosophy, Journal of Social Philosophy, Journal of Value Inquiry, Legal Theory, Manuscrito, Mind and Machines, 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

  • Cambridge University Press
  • Hackett
  • Oxford University Press
  • Princeton University Press
  • Routledge

Grant Assesor and External Evaluator

  • American Academy in Berlin
  • Australasian Association of Philosophy
  • Australian Research Council
  • Central European University
  • Council for the Humanities of the Netherlands
  • John Templeton Foundation
  • Organization for Scientific Research
  • Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS)

Professional Affiliations

  • PPE Society
  • Human Behavior and Evolution Society
  • David Hume Society
  • International Adam Smith Society