Arthur Applbaum

Adams Professor of Political Leadership and Democratic Values
Professor of Ethics and Public Policy
Carr Center for Human Rights Policy
Office Address
Rubenstein-217
Mailing Address
John F. Kennedy School of Government
Mailbox 67
79 JFK Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
Contact
Phone: 617-495-8058
Fax: 617-495-4297
Email: arthur_applbaum@Harvard.Edu
Assistant
Erica Jaffe Redner (617-496-0587)
Arthur Applbaum

Profile

Arthur Isak Applbaum is Professor of Ethics and Public Policy. Applbaum’s work on legitimate political authority, civil and official disobedience, and role morality has appeared in journals such as Philosophy & Public Affairs, Journal of the American Medical Association, Harvard Law Review, Ethics, and Legal Theory. He is the author of Ethics for Adversaries, a book about the morality of roles in public and professional life. Applbaum has written about the ethics of executioners and of butlers, and he has consulted to the government about the ethics of spies. Recent articles include “Legitimacy Without the Duty to Obey” and “Forcing a People to Be Free.” He has been a member of Harvard’s Advisory Committee on Shareholder Responsibility and chairs the ethics advisory board of a stem cell research foundation. From 2007 to 2009, he was Acting Director of the Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics at Harvard. Applbaum holds degrees from Princeton and Harvard. He was a Fulbright Scholar in Jerusalem, a Fellow in Ethics at Harvard, and a Rockefeller Fellow at Princeton University’s Center for Human Values.

Courses

Fall

  • DPI-201-C The Responsibilities of Public Action

Spring

  • DPI-230 Legitimacy and Resistance
  • DPI-220 Political Philosophy for Public Policy

Media Expertise

Arthur Applbaum welcomes media inquiries on the following subjects:

Additional experts may be found by clicking on each subject listed. You may contact faculty directly or if you need assistance contact the Communications Office at 617-495-1115.