Justin Snedegar is a philosopher specializing in ethics and the theory of rationality. He is interested in the ways we think about what to do, both individually and together. His research investigates the role of alternatives in making rational decisions, why it is sometimes okay not to take the morally best option and the moral and social norms surrounding our practices of giving and receiving criticism. 

His book, Contrastive Reasons (2017), argues that our reasons for action are fundamentally contrastive — reasons for acting in one way rather than another — and explores the consequences of this for rational decision-making. More recently, he has published articles on the ethics of criticism, examining how one might lose the right to criticize others, how moral and social norms of criticism are negotiated and how our relationship to the wrongdoer bears on whether and how we should criticize them. 

Snedegar received his bachelor's degree in mathematics and philosophy from West Virginia University and his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Southern California. He comes to UVA after spending eleven years at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. 

As the new Director of the Program in Political Philosophy, Policy, and Law, Snedegar will teach the program’s gateway class, “Morality, Law, and the State,”, as well as classes in ethics, social philosophy and rationality.