David J. Clark joined the Freedom Center as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Fall 2023. He is currently a moral, legal, and political philosopher and a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Southern California, Department of Philosophy. He also has research interests in metaethics, philosophy of language, and philosophy of religion.

David’s research focuses on the question of how we should respond to harm and the threat of harm. It is the subject of his dissertation, chaired by Jonathan Quong and Mark Schroeder, which addresses such questions as:

• When and why may we harm someone to defend ourselves or others?
• When should we (not) protect people from harm who don’t want our protection?
• When and why may the state impose harm as punishment?
• When does someone owe compensation for past harms? 
• Who should we save from harm when we can only save some?

​​For more information, please view David J. Clark’s CV and read the Freedom Center News Item welcoming him to the Center.