James R. Otteson is the John T. Ryan Jr. Professor of Business Ethics in the Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame. He is also a concurrent Professor of Political Science.
He received his BA from Notre Dame’s Program of Liberal Studies, or “great books” program. He received his PhD in philosophy from the University of Chicago, and he returned to Notre Dame as a faculty member in 2020.
Among his recent books are Honorable Business (Oxford, 2019), Seven Deadly Economic Sins (Cambridge, 2021), and Should Wealth Be Redistributed? A Debate (with Steven McMullen; Routledge, 2023). Among the courses he teaches is “Why Business?” which has the subtitle, “Exploring the Role of Business in a Just and Humane Society.”
He specializes in business ethics, classical political economy, the history of economic thought, and eighteenth-century British moral philosophy. He is an internationally recognized scholar of Adam Smith and lectures widely on Smith, the history of economic thought, and various topics in business ethics. His work has been profiled in the Wall Street Journal and many other venues.
Professor Otteson has served as the Faculty Director of Notre Dame’s Business Honors Program since its founding in 2021.
