Brian Leiter (born 1963) is an American professor of law and philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin, where he has been teaching since 1995. Before this he taught for two years in the law school at the University of San Diego, and was also a visiting professor of philosophy at the University of California, San Diego. Leiter earned his Bachelor of Arts in philosophy from Princeton University and both his J.D. and Ph.D. (in philosophy) from the University of Michigan. Currently, Leiter holds the Joseph D. Jamail Centennial Chair in Law, and is the Founder and Director of the Law and Philosophy Program at Texas. He is the youngest chairholder in the history of the law school at Texas. He has also been a visiting professor at Yale Law School and University College London, and will be a visiting professor at University of Chicago Law School in fall 2006. He edits the journal Legal Theory and is also editor of the Routledge Philosophers, a new series of introductions to major philosophers. 1963 (MCMLXIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (the link is to a full 1963 calendar). ... The stela of King Hammurabi depicts the god Shamash revealing a code of laws to the king. ... Philosopher in Meditation (detail), by Rembrandt. ... The University of Texas at Austin, often called UT or Texas, is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. ... {{Infobox_University name = University of San Diego established = 1949 | type = Private | president = Dr. Mary E. Lyons | city = San Diego | state = California | country = USA | undergrad = 4,904 | faculty = 706 | campus = Urban | mascot = Toreros (Bullfighters) | free_label = Campus name | free = Alcalá Park | website = www. ... The University of California, San Diego (popularly known as UCSD) is a public, coeducational university located in La Jolla, California. ... A Bachelor of Arts (B.A. or A.B.) is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for a course or program in the arts and/or sciences. ... Princeton University is a coeducational private university located on an extensive campus mostly in the Borough of Princeton and partly in the Princeton Township in New Jersey, United States. ... Juris Doctor (J.D.) is a first degree in law offered by universities in a number of countries, most notably the United States. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... This article is about the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. ... Yale Law School, established in 1843 in New Haven, Connecticut, is a division of Yale University. ... University College London, commonly known as UCL, is one of the colleges that make up the University of London. ... The University of Chicago Law School is a part of the University of Chicago. ...

Leiter's scholarly writings have been in two main areas: legal philosophy and Continental philosophy. Philosophical naturalism has been an abiding theme in both contexts. In legal philosophy, he has offered a reinterpretation of the American Legal Realists as prescient philosophical naturalists and a general defense of what he calls "naturalized jurisprudence." In his writing on German philosophy, Leiter defends a reading of Nietzsche as a philosophical naturalist, most notably in Nietzsche on Morality (London: Routledge, 2002). He has also published work on meta-ethics, social epistemology, the law of evidence, and on philosophers such as Marx, Heidegger, and Dworkin. In philosophy, meta-ethics is the branch of ethics that seeks to understand the nature of ethical properties (if there are any), and ethical statements, attitudes, and judgments. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Knowledge. ... Karl Heinrich Marx (May 5, 1818 – March 14, 1883) was an immensely influential German philosopher, political economist, and socialist revolutionary. ... Martin Heidegger (September 26, 1889 – May 26, 1976), German philosopher, attempted to reorient Western philosophy away from metaphysical and epistemological and toward ontological questions, that is, questions concerning the meaning of being, or what it means to be. Heidegger also challenged the idea of phenomenology as defined by his teacher... Ronald Dworkin (born 1931) is an American philosopher, especially noted for his contributions to jurisprudence including legal philosophy, political philosophy, and moral philosophy. ...

His other publications include several dozen articles and several edited collections. These include Nietzsche (Oxford Readings in Philosophy, 2001) (with John Richardson), Objectivity in Law and Morals (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), and The Future for Philosophy (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2004). His articles include "Determinacy, Objectivity, and Authority" (University of Pennsylvania Law Review) (co-authored with Jules Coleman), "Rethinking Legal Realism: Toward a Naturalized Jurisprudence" (Texas Law Review), "Nietzsche and the Morality Critics" (Ethics), "Legal Realism and Legal Positivism Reconsidered" (Ethics), "Naturalized Epistemology and the Law of Evidence" (Virginia Law Review) (co-authored with Ronald Allen), and "Beyond the Hart/Dworkin Debate: The Methodology Problem in Jurisprudence" (American Journal of Jurisprudence).

Outside his academic specialties, Leiter is known for his popular, influential, and controversial rankings of law schools and graduate programs in Philosophy (see Philosophical Gourmet Report), and for his blog, which includes both philosophical news and topics, as well as attacks on proponents of Intelligent Design, the Anglo-American 2003 Invasion of Iraq, Bush economic and social policies, and various conservative figures. // A law school is an institution where future lawyers obtain legal degrees. ... Philosopher in Meditation (detail), by Rembrandt. ... The Philosophical Gourmet Report (also known as the Leiter Report) attempts to score and rank the university philosophy departments in the English-speaking world, based on a survey of philosophers who are nominated as evaluators by the Advisory Board of the Report. ... It has been suggested that Online diary be merged into this article or section. ... Intelligent design (ID) is the concept that certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection. ... Motto: Dieu et mon droit (Royal motto; French for God and my right) 3 Anthem: God Save the Queen 4 Capital London Most populous conurbation London Official language(s) None at a national level. ... Combatants Coalition Forces (United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Poland) Iraq Commanders Tommy Franks Saddam Hussein Strength 263,000 375,000 The 2003 invasion of Iraq, termed Operation Iraqi Freedom by the US administration, began on March 20. ...

External links

Official sites

• Brian Leiter. Profile at the University of Texas Law School website.
• The Leiter Reports. Formerly Brian Leiter's solo weblog, currently a group weblog with Leiter among others as posters.
• Leiter's Law School Reports. Leiter's companion blog on Law schools.
• The Philosophical Gourmet Report. Leiter's ranking of Philosophy departments.
• Leiter's Law School Rankings. Leiter's ranking of Law schools.

Online publications

• Social Science Research Networks. Includes several recent papers.
• Naturalism in Legal Philosophy. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
• Nietzsche's Moral and Political Philosophy. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

Publications edited

• Legal Theory Journal edited by Larry Alexander, Jules Coleman, and Leiter.
• Routledge Philosophers Book series edited by Leiter.