Dr. Brian Besong

Education

• Ph.D., Philosophy, Purdue University (2013)
• B.A., Philosophy, Calvin College (2005)

Biography

Dr. Besong joined the faculty at Saint Francis University in 2022, where he serves as Associate Professor of Philosophy and directs the Wolf-Kuhn Ethics Institute. Since 2023 he has also edited The Journal of Natural Law, published by the Catholic University of America Press.

His research centers on moral philosophy and the theory of knowledge, with particular attention to how the two intersect. Much of his work develops the natural law tradition: how people come to know right from wrong, and how virtue and conscience shape good character. He is the author of An Introduction to Ethics: A Natural Law Approach (Cascade Books, 2018) and coeditor of Faith and Reason: Philosophers Explain Their Turn to Catholicism (Ignatius Press, 2019), a collection of essays by professional philosophers on their conversions to Catholicism. His additional publications defend and apply natural law theory to applied issues like political governance and sexual ethics. You can follow his research through Philpapers.org.

Dr. Besong earned his Ph.D. from Purdue University and his B.A. in philosophy from Calvin College. He has appeared several times on the international Catholic network EWTN, where he has discussed his own conversion to Catholicism and related questions of faith and reason.