James R. Otteson is an American philosopher and political economist. He is the Thomas W. Smith Presidential Chair in Business Ethics, Professor of Economics, and executive director of the BB&T Center for the Study of Capitalism at Wake Forest University. He is also a Senior Scholar at The Fund for American Studies in Washington, D.C., a Research Professor in the Center for the Philosophy of Freedom and in the Philosophy Department at the University of Arizona, a Visitor of Ralston College, a Research Fellow for the Independent Institute in California, and a director of Ethics and Economics Education of New England. He has taught previously at Yeshiva University, New York University, Georgetown University, and the University of Alabama.
