About Me

George Klosko, Professor Emeritus, Department of Politics - University of Virginia

I am Henry L. and Grace Doherty Professor Emeritus, Department of Politics, University of Virginia (Ph.D., Columbia, 1977).  I retired in 2024, after 41 years at the University of Virginia, and earlier appointments at Purdue University and Columbia University.  The menu above contains links to my curriculum vitae and to many of my publications, about fifty articles (in different formats) and about thirty-five book reviews.

My main interests iare contemporary political theory, especially issues in analytical and normative theory, and the history of political thought.  In the latter, I focus on Greek political theory, especially Plato, and the liberal tradition.  My work on contemporary political philosophy focuses on different aspects of liberal theory, especially problems of political obligation and the theory of John Rawls and Rawls's critics.

My most recent book is The Oxford Handbook of Political Obligation (Oxford University Press, 2026) which I edited.

Other books include: The Development of Plato's Political Theory (Methuen, 1986; Second Edition, Oxford University Press, 2006); The Principle of Fairness and Political Obligation (Rowman and Littlefield, 1992; New edition, 2004); Democratic Procedures and Liberal Consensus (Oxford University Press, 2000; paperback edition, 2004); Jacobinism and Utopianism (Notre Dame University Press, 2003);  Political Obligations (Oxford University Press, 2005); The Transformation of American Liberalism (Oxford University Press, (2017); and  Why we should obey the law? (Polity Press, 2019).  I have also written a two-volume introduction to the history of political theory: History of Political Theory: An Introduction, Volume I: Ancient and Medieval Political Theory; Volume II: Modern Political Theory (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1993, 1995; Second Edition, Oxford University Press, 2012, 2013);  

Political Obligations was awarded the 2007 David and Elaine Spitz Prize by the International Conference for the Study of Political Thought, "for the best book in liberal and/or democratic theory" published in 2005.

I edited The Oxford Handbook of the History of Political Philosophy (Oxford University Press, 2011), Aristotle for the International Library of Essays in the History of Social and Political Thought (Ashgate, 2007), and co-edited The Struggle for Women's Rights, with Margaret G. Klosko (Prentice Hall, 1999), and Perfectionism and Neutrality: Essays in Liberal Theory, with Steven Wall (Rowman and Littlefield, 2003). 

The Principle of Fairness and Political Obligation has been translated into Chinese, and History of Political Theory: An Introduction has been translated into Farsi and is currently being translated into Greek.  Some of my work on political obligation was recently translated into Farsi: Essays on Political Obligation (Naqd-e Farhang Publications, 2024),

Recent articles include: "Fair Play and Discretionary Response," Legal Theory, 31: 3 (2025), 248–269.  "Content-Independence and Political Obligation: Scope-Limitations of Content-Independent Moral Reasons," Political Studies, 71 (2023), 30-46. "Political Obligations of Refugees," with Andrew Gates, International Studies Quarterly, 66 (2022), sqac025

Other recent articles include Oaths and Political Obligation in Ancient Greece," History of Political Thought, 41 (2020), 1-14; "Fair Play, Reciprocity, and Natural Duties of Justice," Ratio Juris, 33 (2020), 335-50; and "What Socrates Says, and Does not Say," Classical Quarterly, 70 (2020), 577-91.