Gerald Gaus

Gerald Gaus is the James E. Rogers Professor of Philosophy at the University of Arizona. He is the author of On Philosophy, Politics and Economics; Contemporary Theories of Liberalism: Public Reason as a Post-Enlightenment Project; and Justificatory Liberalism: An Essay on Epistemology and Political Theory, among other books.

Gaus’ main area of work is on public reason. He is currently writing a book on The Order of Public Reason to be published by Cambridge in which he argues that respect for all as free and equal moral persons requires that our social morality be publicly justified — however, the project of identifying such a morality is indeterminate. Drawing on ideas in game theory and social evolution, Gaus tries to show how respect for the moral freedom of all is still possible in the face of this indeterminacy. Other recent work concerns economic approaches to philosophy and politics, the place of religious belief in public reason liberalism, the problem social complexity poses for public policy, liberal neutrality, and a theory of rights as devices to cope with evaluative incommensurability.

Gaus has published in a wide array of scholarly journals. He is co-editor of Politics, Philosophy, and Economics, and was co-editor of The Australasian Journal of Philosophy from 1997-2002.