Richard Arneson is the Valtz Family Chair of Philosophy at the University of California, San Diego, as well as a Research Professor at the Freedom Center.  His research and teaching focus on ethics and social and political philosophy.

Richard's recent current research is on distributive justice. Some of this work explores how one might best incorporate a reasonable account of personal responsibility into a broadly egalitarian theory of justice. He also considers how consequentialist morality (one ought always to do an act the consequences of which are no worse than those of any alternative available act) might be developed in a version that is appealing and appropriately responsive to its critics.  This latter project involves exploring the structure of moderate deontology to identify the best rival of consequentialism.