Dennis Rasmussen

Political Theory
Assistant Professor
Ph.D., Duke University, 2005

Biography

Dennis Rasmussen teaches courses in the history of political philosophy and contemporary political theory, and his research focuses particularly on Enlightenment and Counter-Enlightenment thought. His first book, The Problems and Promise of Commercial Society: Adam Smith's Response to Rousseau (Penn State University Press, 2008), received an Honorable Mention for the Delba Winthrop Award for Excellence in Political Science, and his articles have appeared in the American Political Science Review, History of Political Thought, The Review of Politics, and the Adam Smith Review. His current book project seeks to defend the Enlightenment against recent complaints about its alleged hegemonic universalism, blind faith in reason, and atomistic individualism, drawing especially on the thought of David Hume, Adam Smith, Montesquieu, and Voltaire. Professor Rasmussen received his BA from Michigan State University's James Madison College in 2000 and his PhD from Duke University in 2005, and he has previously taught at Bowdoin College, Brown University, and the University of Houston.

Courses

Publications

Books

• The Problems and Promise of Commercial Society: Adam Smith's Response to Rousseau (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2008)

Articles

• "Does 'Bettering Our Condition' Really Make Us Better Off?: Adam Smith on Progress and Happiness" American Political Science Review 100.3 (August 2006): 309-18
• "Rousseau's 'Philosophical Chemistry' and the Foundations of Adam Smith's Thought" History of Political Thought 27.4 (Autumn 2006): 620-41
• "Whose Impartiality? Which Self-Interest?: Adam Smith on Utility, Happiness, and Cultural Relativism" Adam Smith Review 4 (2008): 247-53
• "Burning Laws and Strangling Kings?: Voltaire and Diderot on the Perils of Rationalism in Politics" Review of Politics 73.1 (Winter 2011): 77-104
• "Smith and Rousseau, Enlightenment and Counter-Enlightenment," in The Oxford Handbook of Adam Smith, ed. Christopher Berry, Maria Paganelli, and Craig Smith (Oxford: Oxford University Press, forthcoming 2012)

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