Eric Beerbohm is Professor of Government and Faculty Affiliate in the Department of Philosophy at Harvard University. He serves as Faculty Director of the Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics, Faculty Dean at Quincy House, and Senior Adviser on Civil Discourse in the Faculty of Arts and Science. His philosophical and teaching interests include democratic theory, political ethics, and the philosophy of social science. Recent work includes Civic Education in Polarized Times (with Elizabeth Beaumont), Reconciliation and Repair (with Melissa Schwartzberg), and Policing (forthcoming with Ekow Yankah), all part of NOMOS, the annual volume of the American Society for Political and Legal Philosophy. He is working on two book projects. The first considers how we are ruled by rules of order — from Robert's Rules to the Chatham House Rule — which structure and sometimes subvert decision-making at every level of governance. The second manuscript, Gaslighting Citizens (with Ryan Davis), examines how politicians can target our evidence about our evidence — creating alternative realities — and argues that this form of manipulation raises distinctively democratic worries.

His first book, In Our Name: The Ethics of Democracy, considers the responsibilities of citizens for the injustices of their state (Introductory Chapter). A follow-up project, If Elected: The Ethics of Lawmaking and Campaigning, develops a theory for lawmakers and candidates operating within a malfunctioning legislative system. His articles include "Gaslighting Citizens," (American Journal of Political Science, 2023), "The Democratic Limits of Political Experiments" (Politics, Philosophy, Economics), "The Ethics of Electioneering" (Journal of Political Philosophy), "The Problem of Clean Hands: Negotiated Compromise in Lawmaking," (Nomos LIX: Compromise) "The Common Good: A Buck-Passing Account"  (Journal of Political Philosophy), and "Is Democratic Leadership Possible?" (American Political Science Review). 

A Marshall Scholar, Truman Scholar, and Mellon Fellow in the Humanities and Social Sciences, he received his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 2008, B.Phil. in Philosophy from Oxford University, and BA in Political Science and the Program in Ethics in Society from Stanford University. He is a recipient of the Roslyn Abramson Award, Harvard's highest award for teaching given annually to two faculty in Arts and Sciences for "excellence and sensitivity in undergraduate teaching." He was Director of Graduate Fellowships from 2010-2017 at Harvard's Safra Center for Ethics, and Founding Director of the Ethics Center's Undergraduate Fellowship Program. From 2018 - 2023, he served as Chair of the Committee on Degrees in Social Studies.