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Professor of Political Science, Yale University

Professor of Political Science, Yale University

Steven Smith received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.  He has taught at Yale since 1984 and is the Alfred Cowles Professor of Political Science and has been Master of Branford College since 1996.  He has served as Director of Graduate Studies in Political Science, Director of the Special Program in the Humanities, and Acting Chair of Judaic Studies.  His research has focused on the history of political philosophy with special attention to the problem of the ancients and moderns, Jewish philosophy, and theories of constitutional democracy.


Plato’s notion of the Philosopher-King, guardian of the utopian city of Kallipolis, is a great metaphor for understanding the education of the soul, not a recipe for tyranny.