David Johnston (Ph.D., Princeton, 1981), was Assistant Professor at Yale before coming to Columbia in 1986. A political theorist, he specializes in theories of justice and in the history of political thought.  He was President of the New York Political Science Association in 1993-1994, Chair of the International Conference for the Study of Political Thought from 2001-2006, and is currently Chair and Director of the Society of Fellows in the Humanities at Columbia.  His principal publications include The Idea of a Liberal Theory (Princeton University Press, 1994), The Rhetoric of Leviathan: Thomas Hobbes and the Politics of Cultural Transformation (Princeton University Press, 1986), and, as editor, Equality (Hackett, 2000) and (with Richard Flathman) Leviathan: A Norton Critical Edition (Norton, 1997).  He is currently completing A Brief History of Justice.

Research Interests: Theories of justice; History of political thought.

Professor Johnston is on leave for the 2009-2010 academic year.