Evils and Greater Evils

Monday, 09-30-2024

  Query: I’ve been thinking of the ethics of voting for the lesser evil.  The Trump/Vance...

Raising the Political Temperature?

Monday, 09-23-2024

  Even a thick-skulled scholar can sometimes learn something new. I wrote in 2016 that “A...

Why Not Just Set Aside Our Disagreements?

Monday, 09-16-2024

  Some people, like the late John Rawls, say that we should set aside our religious and...

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 Divine Law (Cambridge, 2021); and my scholarly book Commentary on Thomas Aquinas's Treatise on the One God (the fifth and last of my Thomas Aquinas commentaries) is in production.  Except for the last one, you can find out about the them through those links, and you can find out about my other books, both academic and trade, at the Books page.

Abbreviated curriculum vitae

Courses and syllabi

Descriptions and how to obtain

Some new, some old

Description, samples, how to obtain

Description, samples, how to obtain

Description, samples, how to obtain

How the varieties of law are related

Occasional reflections on natural law, faith, philosophy, and anything else I want to talk about

Scholarly, semischolarly, popular

What happened and why it belongs here

Escapades of a virtual colleague

Useful, interesting, some just amusing