Who the Hell is Roderick T. Long?

Department of Philosophy
6080 Haley Center
Auburn University
Auburn, Alabama 36830
U.S.A.
1-334-844-3782
longrob@auburn.edu

I was born in Los Angeles on February 4th, 1964. I grew up in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, and New Hampshire. I studied philosophy at Harvard (A.B., 1985) and Cornell (Ph.D., 1992). I’ve taught at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Michigan, and the Institute for Humane Studies, and served as Visiting Scholar at the Social Philosophy and Policy Center. I now teach philosophy at Auburn University, the coolest philosophy department in the world (tenured as of 12/02!).

I’m President of the Molinari Institute and Molinari Society; Editor of the Journal of Libertarian Studies; Content Editor of Formulations, the newsletter of the Libertarian Nation Foundation; a Senior Scholar of the Ludwig von Mises Institute; a Consulting Editor for Episteme; a Director of the Free Nation Foundation; and have served in the Alabama Philosophical Society as Secretary-Treasurer (1999-2000), Vice-President (2000-2001), President (2001-2002), and Webmaster (2000 to present). I maintain the web journal Austro-Athenian Empire (formerly In a Blog’s Stead). For a brief intellectual autobiography (focusing on libertarian aspects) click here.

Chief interests: Greek philosophy; virtue ethics; moral psychology and action theory; philosophy of social science; libertarian and anarchist theory. Interests outside philosophy include reading (e.g., science fiction, history); classic movies; damn good music (e.g., Mozart, Puccini, Leonard Cohen, Yeni Türkü); and travel to exotic climes whenever possible.
Chief influences: ancient and medieval philosophy (e.g., Socrates, Aristotle); analytic philosophy (e.g., Wittgenstein, Kripke); classical liberalism (e.g., Rand, the Austrian School).
Chief targets for annihilation: relativism, subjectivism, irrationalism, skepticism, antirealism, empiricism, psychologism, reductionism, materialism, scientism, fideism, utilitarianism, collectivism, sexism, racism, militarism, statism, and slimy compatibilism.
Countries visited: Austria, Bahamas, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, France, Greece, Honduras, Iceland, Italy, Mexico, Poland, Scotland, Turkey, Vatican City.
(Plus Germany, Netherlands, and Switzerland, but only technically – changing planes.)
Northernmost, easternmost, southernmost, and westernmost points visited: Gulfoss, Anadolu Kavağı, San Pedro Sula, Honolulu [previous champions: Inverness, Sounion, Key West, Vancouver]
Personal Saviour: Zeus!

Some publications not listed on my main page:[note: this is seriously out-of-date; check back soon for updates]


• “Hellenistic Philosophers of Law.” Forthcoming in Fred D. Miller, Jr., ed., A History of Philosophy of Law from the Ancient Greeks to the Scholastics (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2004).
• “Socratic Philosophers of Law” (with R. F. Stalley). Forthcoming in Fred D. Miller, Jr., ed., A History of Philosophy of Law from the Ancient Greeks to the Scholastics (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2004).
• Entries on “Epicureanism,” “Stoicism,” and “Liberty in the Ancient World.“” Forthcoming in Deirdre McCloskey, Tom Palmer, Aaron Steelman, and Jeffrey Schultz, eds., The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism (Washington: Cato Institute, 2004).
• “Two Cheers for Modernity.” Free Radical, no. 58 (September-October 2003): 16-18.
• “Austro-Libertarian Themes in Early Confucianism.” Journal of Libertarian Studies 17, no. 3 (2003): 35-62.
• “The Value in Friendship.” Philosophical Investigations 26, no. 1 (2003): 73-77.
• “Aristotle’s Conception of Freedom.” Review of Metaphysics 49 (June 1996): 775-802; to be reprinted in Richard O. Brooks and James B. Murphy, eds., Aristotle and Modern Law (Aldershot: Ashgate, forthcoming 2002).
• “Robert Nozick, Philosopher of Liberty.” Ideas on Liberty 52, no. 9 (September 2002): 30-33.
• “Keeping Context in Context: The Limits of Dialectics.” Journal of Ayn Rand Studies 3, no. 2 (Spring 2002): 401-22.
• “The Benefits and Hazards of Dialectical Libertarianism.” Journal of Ayn Rand Studies 2, no. 2 (Spring 2001): 395-448.
• “The Irrelevance of Responsibility.” Social Philosophy and Policy 16, no. 2 (Summer 1999): 118-145; reprinted in Ellen Frankel Paul, Fred D. Miller, Jr., and Jeffrey Paul, eds., Responsibility (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998): 118-145.
• “Toward a Libertarian Theory of Class.” Social Philosophy and Policy 15, no. 2 (Summer 1998): 303-349; reprinted in Ellen Frankel Paul, Fred D. Miller, Jr., and Jeffrey Paul, eds., Problems of Market Liberalism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998): 303-349.
• “Immanent Liberalism: The Politics of Mutual Consent.” Social Philosophy and Policy 12, no. 2 (Summer 1995): 1-31; reprinted in Ellen Frankel Paul, Fred D. Miller, Jr., and Jeffrey Paul, eds., The Just Society (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995): 1-31.
• “Abortion, Abandonment, and Positive Rights: The Limits of Compulsory Altruism.” Social Philosophy and Policy 10, no. 1 (Winter 1993): 166-191; reprinted in Ellen Frankel Paul, Fred D. Miller, Jr., and Jeffrey Paul, eds., Altruism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993): 166-191.
• Review of J. David Velleman, Practical Reflection. Philosophical Review 101 (1992): 903-905.
• “Mill’s Higher Pleasures and the Choice of Character.” Utilitas 4 (1992): 279-297.
• Index for Léon Baudry, ed., The Quarrel Over Future Contingents (Louvain, 1465-1475): Unpublished Texts, trans. Rita Guerlac (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1989).
• Other writings.

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