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David Schmidtz is the Presidential Chair of Moral Science and editor-in-chief of Social Philosophy & Policy at West Virginia University's Chambers College of Business and Economics.

Dave aspires to continue the work of the Scottish Enlightenment, treating Ethics as a subject that begins not with abstract theory but with concrete observation—specifically, observation of the human condition and of what tends to improve it. While our main moral theories today are theories about what to do, David Hume and Adam Smith studied what observably works, that is, the  organizing principles of actual thriving communities at their best.  (So, instead of trying to deductively prove conclusions about what we should do about famine, Smith reported evidence regarding how some nations got wealthy enough to make famine a thing of the past. Today, we barely recognize his work as philosophy at all.) Explore these ideas in his book Living Together. Dave's current project is Living with Purpose. 

Watch a 16-minute digest of Dave’s talk in Moscow on "The Return of Ethics", featuring an interview by local actor and producer Robert Anthony Peters, known for his short film Tank Man. The executive producer is Patrick Reasonover, who also produced the film They Say It Can’t Be Done.

Dave gave a 50-minute talk on Adam Smith at La Sierra University. 

In Krakow, he explained why he stopped teaching the Trolley Problem. 

He considered parallels between individual and collective self-governance at McGill University's Lin Centre. 

Reflections on the academic job market are available in two 15-minute parts: Part One and Part Two.

Read samples of Dave’s essays on various topics: moral theory, property rights, corruption, Adam Smith, and realistic idealism (essay one and essay two).

Dave continues to explore humanly rational choice in the real world: What makes a strategy rational?  What is the right way to choose a  goal? When is  altruism rational? He still studies connections between real rationality and real morality. He examines drifts in the academy that left theorists unable to track what ordinary people do to deserve their good fortune, and he contemplates the meaning of life. His publications have now been reprinted 117 times in 16 languages.