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Daniel Jacobson is the Bruce D. Benson Professor of Philosophy at the 乐播传媒 Boulder and Director of the Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization. He was previously a professor of philosophy at the University of Michigan, where he founded and directed the Freedom and Flourishing Project. He directs an annual Workshop in Heterodox Moral and Political Philosophy which began at Michigan and is now under the auspices of the Benson Center.

Jacobson has publishes extensively in ethics, moral psychology, philosophy of emotion, aesthetics, freedom of speech, and on the moral and political philosophy of John Stuart Mill. His essay, 鈥淯tilitarianism Without Consequentialism: The Case of John Stuart Mill,鈥� published in The Philosophical Review, was named one of the top 10 essays in philosophy in 2008. His essay, 鈥淪idney鈥檚 Dilemma: On the Ethical Function of Narrative Art,鈥� was awarded the John Fisher Prize in aesthetics. He has held fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Council of Learned Societies, the John Templeton Foundation, and the Princeton University Center for Human Values.

Jacobson鈥檚 coauthored book, Rational Sentimentalism, written with Justin D鈥橝rms, was recently published by Oxford University Press. D鈥橝rms and Jacobson鈥檚 co-edited volume, Moral Psychology and Human Agency: Philosophical Essays on the Science of Ethics, was published by OUP in 2014. They have published over a dozen collaborative essays on similar topics.

Another major research project concerns the relation of aesthetic and moral value in art. In a series of papers, beginning with 鈥淚n Praise of Immoral Art,鈥� Jacobson pioneered the view that has come to be known as immoralism 鈥� or, better, contextualism 鈥� on which moral flaws in art can figure either as aesthetic flaws or merits (or as aesthetically irrelevant). His most recent and comprehensive statement on this ongoing debate, 鈥淚mmoralism and Contextualism,鈥� was published in The Oxford Handbook of Art and Ethics (ed. James Harold).

Jacobson's third main area of research concerns the moral and political philosophy of John Stuart Mill. He has published a series of articles on Mill, with special emphasis on Mill鈥檚 arguments for freedom of speech. He is currently working on a book manuscript entitled, Mill鈥檚 Reconciliation of Liberty and Utility.

Recent Activities and Publications

May 2021 Member, 听

May 4, 2021听Cambridge University Press |Social Philosophy and Policy |听

Mill advocated an unqualified defense of the liberty of conscience in the most comprehensive sense, which he understood to include not just the freedom to hold but also to express any opinion or sentiment. Yet considerable dispute persists about the nature of Mill鈥檚 argument for freedom of expression and whether his premises can support so strong a conclusion. Two prominent interpretations of Mill that threaten to undermine his uncompromising defense of free speech are considered and refuted. A better interpretation can be founded on Mill鈥檚 claim that the liberties of conscience are inseparable in practice. This claim can be defended with modern psychological insight about the nature of cognitive bias, and epistemological insight about why justification of creedal beliefs requires the universal toleration of opinion, insights which are largely anticipated by Mill. This argument is especially vital because it highlights the divide between classical liberalism and progressivism that has become a flashpoint in the current political debate over free speech.

March 25, 2021 Stanford Graduate School of Business | | 听

March 9, 2021 University o|f Michigan | Public Lecture |听"John Stuart Mill Does Not Have a Harm Principle"

October 12, 2020 | Philanthropy Roundtable Interview |听Daniel Jacobson on the Idea of Merit and Meritocracy

September 18, 2019 | 乐播传媒 Boulder | Public Lecture |听

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