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Alex Schaefer

Assistant Professor of Philosophy

Murphy Core Faculty
Center for Ethics
Undergraduate Program in Political Economy
Young man with curly hair and glasses smiles by a waterfront with a bridge at dusk.

Biography

Alexander Schaefer is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy and a Murphy Core Faculty member in the Murphy Institute's Center for Ethics. He works at the intersection of philosophy, politics, and economics, with research spanning social and political philosophy, political economy, and the history of political and economic thought. He earned his PhD in Philosophy, with a doctoral minor in economic theory, from the University of Arizona, and previously held positions at SUNY Buffalo and New York University. His work has appeared in journals including the American Journal of Political Science, Economics and Philosophy, Synthese, Philosophy of Science, and The Philosophical Quarterly. His current research applies formal methods to questions about the evolution and stability of social and moral institutions.

Publications

Matthew Jeffers and Alexander Schaefer, "The Function of Hypocrisy Norms," Utilitas, Volume 37, Issue 2, pp. 123 - 140 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1017/S0953820825000044 

Otto Lehto and Alexander Schaefer, "When Less Is More: A Defense of Narrow, Humean Justice," Journal of Moral Philosophy (2025). https://doi.org/10.1163/17455243-20254543. 

Jordan Lofthouse and Alexander Schaefer, "Expert knowledge and the administrative state," Public Choice, Volume 202, pp. 433 - 454 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11127-024-01228-3 

Alexander Schaefer, "Polycentricity and adaptation: A multilevel selectionist approach,” Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Volume 210, pp. 265 - 87 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2023.04.004 

Mario Juarez-Garcia and Alexander Schaefer, "Exit & isolation: Rousseau’s state of nature," Synthese, Volume 200, article number 252 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-022-03736-5. 

Alexander Schaefer, "Hayek’s twin ideas: reconciling methodological individualism and group selection," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Volume 45, Issue 6, pp. 1209 - 1226 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1093/cje/beab036.  

Alexander Schaefer, "Is Justice a Fixed Point?", American Journal of Political Science, Volume 67, Issue 2, pp. 277 - 290 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12631 

Education & Affiliations

  • PhD in Philosophy, University of Arizona