The Underground Thomist

This is J. Budziszewski's website.  Unbelievable as it may seem, I am not the only person with that name.  One of the others complained to me that he was losing clients because people were getting us confused.

I am the one who has taught since 1981 at the University of Texas at Austin, where I am a professor of government and philosophy.  My academic focus is the ethical basis of politics.  That doesn't mean politicians are virtuous.  It means that choices concerning right and wrong, good and evil, are inseparable from political life -- so, among other things, whether the politicians and citizens are virtuous makes a difference.  I think and write mostly about classical natural law and natural rights philosophy; conscience and moral self-deception; virtue and moral character; human happiness or fulfillment; family and sexuality in relation to political and social order; religion in public life; authentic vs. counterfeit versions of toleration and liberty; and the unravelling (and possible restoration) of our common culture.

I blog, usually on Mondays.  The RSS feed has stopped working; sorry.  At the site you can also find my books, my articles in magazines and professional journals, and my Office Hours dialogues and Ask Theophilus letters.  My newest book of broader interest is How and How Not to Be Happy (Regnery, 2022); my newest scholarly book is Commentary on Thomas Aquinas's Treatise on the One God (Cambridge, 2024), which is the fifth and last of my Thomas Aquinas commentaries.  Another book, on why our culture seems to be going crazy, is in production and will be published in January 2026.  You can find out about these books through the links, and about my other books, both academic and trade, at the Books page.