Arthur Applbaum

Arthur Isak Applbaum is Adams Professor of Political Leadership and Democratic Values. His work on political legitimacy, 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.” Applbaum recently completed a political philosophy novel for teenagers and hopes to complete a book on political legitimacy for adults soon. He was Acting Director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard, where he currently directs the undergraduate fellowships in ethics. Applbaum established the core course in political ethics at the Kennedy School, and also teaches the political theory field seminar in the Government Department and a freshman seminar, “What Happened in Montaigne’s Library on the Night of October 23, 1587, and Why Should Political Philosophers Care?” 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. Applbaum holds degrees from Princeton and Harvard. He was a Fulbright Scholar in Jerusalem, a Faculty Fellow in Ethics at Harvard, and a Rockefeller Fellow at Princeton University’s Center for Human Values.

Profile Selected Publications

Academic Journal/Scholarly Articles

• Applbaum, Arthur Isak. "The Idea of Legitimate Authority in the Practice of Medicine." AMA Journal of Ethics 19.2 (February 2017): 207-213.
• Applbaum, Arthur Isak. "Legitimacy without the Duty to Obey." Philosophy & Public Affairs 38.3 (Summer 2010): 215-239.
• Applbaum, Arthur Isak, Jon C. Tilburt, Michael T. Collins, and David Wendler. "A Family's Request for Complementary Medicine After Patient Brain Death." JAMA: Journal of the American Medical Association 299.18 (May 14, 2008): 2188-2193.
• Applbaum, Arthur Isak. "Forcing a People to Be Free." Philosophy & Public Affairs 35.4 (Fall 2007): 359-400.

Books

• Applbaum, Arthur Isak. Ethics for Adversaries, e-Book Edition. Princeton University Press, 2001.

Book Chapters

• Applbaum, Arthur Isak. "Political Legitimacy and Official Discretion." Political Accountability: The Library of Contemporary Essays in Political Theory and Public Policy. Ed. Richard Bellamy and Antonino Palumbo. Ashgate, 2010, 39-73.
• Applbaum, Arthur Isak. "Professional Detachment: The Executioner of Paris." Public Ethics: The Library of Contemporary Political Theory and Public Policy. Ed. Richard Bellamy and Antonino Palumbo. Ashgate, 2010, 103-131.
• Applbaum, Arthur Isak. Forcing a People to Be Free. Legitimacy, Justice, and Public International Law. Ed. Lukas H. Meyer. Cambridge University Press, 2009, 270-310.
• Applbaum, Arthur Isak. "Martyrdom and Desecration." The Jewish Political Tradition, Vol II. Ed. Michael Walzer, et al. Yale University Press, 2003.
• Applbaum, Arthur Isak. "Failure in the Cybermarketplace of Ideas." Governance.com: Democracy in the Information Age. Ed. Kamarck, Elaine, and Joseph S. Nye, Jr. Brookings Institution, 2002, 17-31.

HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series

Applbaum, Arthur Isak. "All Foundings Are Forced." HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP12-042, September 2012.

Research Papers/Reports

Applbaum, Arthur Isak. "Legitimacy in a Bastard Kingdom." John F. Kennedy School of Government Center for Public Leadership Working Papers, Spring 2004.