Dr Michael Frazer

  • Lecturer in Politics (Political & International Studies)

Biography

Dr. Michael L. Frazer's research focuses on canonical moral and political philosophy, with a focus on its relevance for contemporary political theory, ethics, and the philosophy of social science. He is the author of ‘The Enlightenment of Sympathy: Justice and the Moral Sentiments in the Eighteenth Century and Today’ (Oxford University Press, 2010), as well as articles in the "American Political Science Review," "Perspectives on Politics," "Political Theory," "The Review of Politics," and other journals. Dr. Frazer received his BA from Yale University, his PhD from Princeton, and has previously held positions at UEA, Brown and Harvard.

Research interests

Research groups

Publications

List by: Type | Date

Jump to: 2024 | 2023 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2007 | 2006
Number of items: 37.

2024

Frazer, Michael L. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2024) Exploring the path not taken: introduction to the symposium on Adriana Alfaro Altamirano’s The Belief in Intuition. History of European Ideas, (doi: 10.1080/01916599.2024.2355435) (Early Online Publication)

2023

Frazer, Michael L. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2023) Activism and objectivity in political research. Perspectives on Politics, (doi: 10.1017/S1537592723000518) (Early Online Publication)

2021

Bika, Zografia and Frazer, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2021) The affective extension of ‘family’ in the context of changing elite business networks. Human Relations, 74(12), pp. 1951-1993. (doi: 10.1177/0018726720924074)

Burton, Howard and Frazer, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2021) The Power of Sympathy: Politics and Moral Sentimentalism: A Conversation with Michael Frazer. Open Agenda Publishing. (doi: 10.2307/j.ctv22jnn21)

2020

Frazer, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2020) Respect for subjects in the ethics of causal and interpretive social explanation. American Political Science Review, 114(4), pp. 1001-1012. (doi: 10.1017/S0003055420000453)

Frazer, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2020) Activism and Objectivity in Political Philosophy. In: ECPR General Conference 2020, Online, 24-28 Aug 2020,

Frazer, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2020) Our Great Purpose: Adam Smith on Living A Better Life. By Ryan Patrick Hanley. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2019. 176p. $17.95 cloth. Perspectives on Politics, 18(2), pp. 596-597. (doi: 10.1017/S1537592720000365)[Book Review]

2019

Frazer, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2019) Aurelian Craiutu, Faces of Moderation: The Art of Balance in the Age of Extremes (University of Pennsylvania Press: Philadelphia, 2016). History of Political Thought, 40(4), pp. 719-722. [Book Review]

Frazer, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2019) Must the University be Decolonised? Relating Academic and Social Justice. In: ECPR General Conference 2019, Wrocław, Poland, 4-7 Sep 2019,

Frazer, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2019) The ethics of interpretation in political theory and intellectual history. Review of Politics, 81(1), pp. 77-99. (doi: 10.1017/S0034670518000967)

2018

Frazer, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2018) Challenges and Opportunities in the Interdisciplinary Study of Empathy. Video Teleconference on Empathy and Emotions in Morality, Communication and Human Life, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York, United States, 6 September 2018.

Frazer, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2018) Political Philosophy, Political Neutrality, and Scholarly Activism. ECPR 2018 General Conference, Hamburg, Germany, 22-25 August 2018.

2017

Frazer, Michael L. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2017) Interdisciplinary before the disciplines: Moral sentimentalism and the new science of man. In: Debes, Remy and Stueber, Karsten R. (eds.) Ethical Sentimentalism: New Perspectives. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, pp. 15-31. ISBN 9781107089617 (doi: 10.1017/9781316105672.002)

Frazer, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2017) Moderation in all things. In: Forman, Fonna (ed.) Adam Smith Review: Volume 10. Routledge. ISBN 9781315142043 (doi: 10.4324/9781315142043-10)

Frazer, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2017) Moral Sentimentalism. In: Blau, Adrian (ed.) Methods in Analytical Political Theory. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, pp. 91-111. ISBN 9781316162576 (doi: 10.1017/9781316162576.007)

Frazer, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2017) Ryan Muldoon, Social Contract Theory for a Diverse World: Beyond Tolerance, Routledge, 2016, 131pp., $140.00 (hbk), ISBN 9781138681361. Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, [Book Review]

2016

Frazer, Michael L. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2016) Utopophobia as a vocation: The professional ethics of ideal and nonideal political theory. Social Philosophy and Policy, 33(1-2), pp. 175-192. (doi: 10.1017/S0265052516000327)

Frazer, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2016) Natural and artificial impartiality. Econ Journal Watch, 13(2), pp. 284-297.

Frazer, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2016) Anatomist and painter: Hume's struggles as a sentimental stylist. In: Kerr, Heather, Lemmings, David and Phiddian, Robert (eds.) Passions, Sympathy and Print Culture: Public Opinion and Emotional Authenticity in Eighteenth-Century Britain. Series: Palgrave Studies in the History of Emotions. Palgrave Macmillan: London, pp. 223-241. ISBN 9781137455406 (doi: 10.1057/9781137455413)

Frazer, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2016) Robert Lamb, Thomas Paine and the Idea of Human Rights, Cambridge University Press, 2015, 217pp., $99.99 (hbk), IBSN 9781107106529. Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, [Book Review]

2015

Frazer, Michael L. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2015) The Noble Liar's Paradox? Perspectives on Political Science, 44(3), pp. 159-161. (doi: 10.1080/10457097.2015.1038460)

Frazer, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2015) Evoking and describing the moral sentiments: Normative theory in the Smithean mode. In: Adam Smith: Critic of Capitalism?, New Haven, Connecticut, USA, 10 Apr 2015,

Frazer, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 and Slote, Michael (2015) Sentimentalist virtue ethics. In: Besser-Jones, Lorraine and Slote, Michael (eds.) Routledge Companion to Virtue Ethics. Routledge: New York, pp. 197-209. ISBN 9780203071755 (doi: 10.4324/9780203071755)

Frazer, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2015) Seduced by system: Edmund Burke's aesthetic embrace of Adam Smith's philosophy. Intellectual History Review, 25(3), pp. 357-372. (doi: 10.1080/17496977.2014.888610)

2014

Frazer, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2014) Including the Unaffected. Journal of Political Philosophy, 22(4), pp. 377-395. (doi: 10.1111/jopp.12024)

Frazer, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2014) Political Philosophy versus History? Contextualism and Real Politics in Contemporary Political Thought. Edited by Jonathan Floyd and Marc Stears. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011. 238p. $103.00 cloth, $33.99 paper. Perspectives on Politics, 12(1), pp. 222-223. (doi: 10.1017/S1537592714000231)[Book Review]

2013

Frazer, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2013) Reply to Critics. In: Forman-Barzilai, Fonna (ed.) The Adam Smith Review. Routledge: London, pp. 231-236.

Frazer, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2013) Sentimentalism without relativism. In: Fleming, James E. (ed.) Passions and Emotions. Series: Nomos (LIII). NYU Press, pp. 19-37. ISBN 9780814760147

2011

Frazer, Michael L. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2011) Smith contra Slote. Analytic Philosophy, 52(4), pp. 319-327. (doi: 10.1111/j.2153-960X.2011.00544.x)

2010

Frazer, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2010) Three methods of political theory: Historicism, ahistoricism and transhistoricism. In: Canadian Political Science Association 82nd Annual Conference, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 1-3 Jun 2010,

Frazer, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2010) The Enlightenment of Sympathy: Justice and the Moral Sentiments in the Eighteenth Century and Today. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195390667 (doi: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195390667.001.0001)

2009

Frazer, Michael L. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2009) J. G. A. Pocock, Political Thought and History: Essays on Theory and Method, Cambridge UP, 2009, 278pp., $26.99 (pbk), IBSN 9780521714068. Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, [Book Review]

Frazer, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2009) The troubling persistence of injustice. In: King, Gary, Schlozman, Kay L. and Nie, Norman (eds.) The Future of Political Science: 100 Perspectives. Routledge: New York, pp. 31-32. ISBN 9780415997003 (doi: 10.4324/9780203882313)

Frazer, Michael L. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2009) ANOTHER NIETZSCHE - Tamsin Shaw: Nietzsche's Political Skepticism (Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2007. Pp. x, 159. $24.95.). Review of Politics, 71(1), pp. 149-151. (doi: 10.1017/S0034670509000199)[Book Review]

2007

Frazer, Michael L. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2007) John Rawls: Between two enlightenments. Political Theory, 35(6), pp. 756-780. (doi: 10.1177/0090591707307325)

2006

Frazer, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2006) The compassion of Zarathustra: Nietzsche on sympathy and strength. Review of Politics, 68(1), pp. 49-78. (doi: 10.1017/S0034670506000052)

Frazer, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2006) Esotericism ancient and modern: Strauss contra Straussianism on the art of political-philosophical writing. Political Theory, 34(1), pp. 33-61. (doi: 10.1177/0090591705277770)

This list was generated on Tue Jul 8 06:32:58 2025 BST.
Jump to: Articles | Books | Book Sections | Book Reviews | Conference or Workshop Item | Conference Proceedings
Number of items: 37.

Articles

Frazer, Michael L. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2024) Exploring the path not taken: introduction to the symposium on Adriana Alfaro Altamirano’s The Belief in Intuition. History of European Ideas, (doi: 10.1080/01916599.2024.2355435) (Early Online Publication)

Frazer, Michael L. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2023) Activism and objectivity in political research. Perspectives on Politics, (doi: 10.1017/S1537592723000518) (Early Online Publication)

Bika, Zografia and Frazer, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2021) The affective extension of ‘family’ in the context of changing elite business networks. Human Relations, 74(12), pp. 1951-1993. (doi: 10.1177/0018726720924074)

Frazer, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2020) Respect for subjects in the ethics of causal and interpretive social explanation. American Political Science Review, 114(4), pp. 1001-1012. (doi: 10.1017/S0003055420000453)

Frazer, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2019) The ethics of interpretation in political theory and intellectual history. Review of Politics, 81(1), pp. 77-99. (doi: 10.1017/S0034670518000967)

Frazer, Michael L. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2016) Utopophobia as a vocation: The professional ethics of ideal and nonideal political theory. Social Philosophy and Policy, 33(1-2), pp. 175-192. (doi: 10.1017/S0265052516000327)

Frazer, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2016) Natural and artificial impartiality. Econ Journal Watch, 13(2), pp. 284-297.

Frazer, Michael L. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2015) The Noble Liar's Paradox? Perspectives on Political Science, 44(3), pp. 159-161. (doi: 10.1080/10457097.2015.1038460)

Frazer, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2015) Seduced by system: Edmund Burke's aesthetic embrace of Adam Smith's philosophy. Intellectual History Review, 25(3), pp. 357-372. (doi: 10.1080/17496977.2014.888610)

Frazer, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2014) Including the Unaffected. Journal of Political Philosophy, 22(4), pp. 377-395. (doi: 10.1111/jopp.12024)

Frazer, Michael L. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2011) Smith contra Slote. Analytic Philosophy, 52(4), pp. 319-327. (doi: 10.1111/j.2153-960X.2011.00544.x)

Frazer, Michael L. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2007) John Rawls: Between two enlightenments. Political Theory, 35(6), pp. 756-780. (doi: 10.1177/0090591707307325)

Frazer, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2006) The compassion of Zarathustra: Nietzsche on sympathy and strength. Review of Politics, 68(1), pp. 49-78. (doi: 10.1017/S0034670506000052)

Frazer, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2006) Esotericism ancient and modern: Strauss contra Straussianism on the art of political-philosophical writing. Political Theory, 34(1), pp. 33-61. (doi: 10.1177/0090591705277770)

Books

Burton, Howard and Frazer, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2021) The Power of Sympathy: Politics and Moral Sentimentalism: A Conversation with Michael Frazer. Open Agenda Publishing. (doi: 10.2307/j.ctv22jnn21)

Frazer, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2010) The Enlightenment of Sympathy: Justice and the Moral Sentiments in the Eighteenth Century and Today. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195390667 (doi: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195390667.001.0001)

Book Sections

Frazer, Michael L. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2017) Interdisciplinary before the disciplines: Moral sentimentalism and the new science of man. In: Debes, Remy and Stueber, Karsten R. (eds.) Ethical Sentimentalism: New Perspectives. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, pp. 15-31. ISBN 9781107089617 (doi: 10.1017/9781316105672.002)

Frazer, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2017) Moderation in all things. In: Forman, Fonna (ed.) Adam Smith Review: Volume 10. Routledge. ISBN 9781315142043 (doi: 10.4324/9781315142043-10)

Frazer, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2017) Moral Sentimentalism. In: Blau, Adrian (ed.) Methods in Analytical Political Theory. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, pp. 91-111. ISBN 9781316162576 (doi: 10.1017/9781316162576.007)

Frazer, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2016) Anatomist and painter: Hume's struggles as a sentimental stylist. In: Kerr, Heather, Lemmings, David and Phiddian, Robert (eds.) Passions, Sympathy and Print Culture: Public Opinion and Emotional Authenticity in Eighteenth-Century Britain. Series: Palgrave Studies in the History of Emotions. Palgrave Macmillan: London, pp. 223-241. ISBN 9781137455406 (doi: 10.1057/9781137455413)

Frazer, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 and Slote, Michael (2015) Sentimentalist virtue ethics. In: Besser-Jones, Lorraine and Slote, Michael (eds.) Routledge Companion to Virtue Ethics. Routledge: New York, pp. 197-209. ISBN 9780203071755 (doi: 10.4324/9780203071755)

Frazer, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2013) Reply to Critics. In: Forman-Barzilai, Fonna (ed.) The Adam Smith Review. Routledge: London, pp. 231-236.

Frazer, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2013) Sentimentalism without relativism. In: Fleming, James E. (ed.) Passions and Emotions. Series: Nomos (LIII). NYU Press, pp. 19-37. ISBN 9780814760147

Frazer, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2009) The troubling persistence of injustice. In: King, Gary, Schlozman, Kay L. and Nie, Norman (eds.) The Future of Political Science: 100 Perspectives. Routledge: New York, pp. 31-32. ISBN 9780415997003 (doi: 10.4324/9780203882313)

Book Reviews

Frazer, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2020) Our Great Purpose: Adam Smith on Living A Better Life. By Ryan Patrick Hanley. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2019. 176p. $17.95 cloth. Perspectives on Politics, 18(2), pp. 596-597. (doi: 10.1017/S1537592720000365)[Book Review]

Frazer, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2019) Aurelian Craiutu, Faces of Moderation: The Art of Balance in the Age of Extremes (University of Pennsylvania Press: Philadelphia, 2016). History of Political Thought, 40(4), pp. 719-722. [Book Review]

Frazer, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2017) Ryan Muldoon, Social Contract Theory for a Diverse World: Beyond Tolerance, Routledge, 2016, 131pp., $140.00 (hbk), ISBN 9781138681361. Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, [Book Review]

Frazer, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2016) Robert Lamb, Thomas Paine and the Idea of Human Rights, Cambridge University Press, 2015, 217pp., $99.99 (hbk), IBSN 9781107106529. Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, [Book Review]

Frazer, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2014) Political Philosophy versus History? Contextualism and Real Politics in Contemporary Political Thought. Edited by Jonathan Floyd and Marc Stears. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011. 238p. $103.00 cloth, $33.99 paper. Perspectives on Politics, 12(1), pp. 222-223. (doi: 10.1017/S1537592714000231)[Book Review]

Frazer, Michael L. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2009) J. G. A. Pocock, Political Thought and History: Essays on Theory and Method, Cambridge UP, 2009, 278pp., $26.99 (pbk), IBSN 9780521714068. Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, [Book Review]

Frazer, Michael L. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2009) ANOTHER NIETZSCHE - Tamsin Shaw: Nietzsche's Political Skepticism (Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2007. Pp. x, 159. $24.95.). Review of Politics, 71(1), pp. 149-151. (doi: 10.1017/S0034670509000199)[Book Review]

Conference or Workshop Item

Frazer, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2018) Challenges and Opportunities in the Interdisciplinary Study of Empathy. Video Teleconference on Empathy and Emotions in Morality, Communication and Human Life, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York, United States, 6 September 2018.

Frazer, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2018) Political Philosophy, Political Neutrality, and Scholarly Activism. ECPR 2018 General Conference, Hamburg, Germany, 22-25 August 2018.

Conference Proceedings

Frazer, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2020) Activism and Objectivity in Political Philosophy. In: ECPR General Conference 2020, Online, 24-28 Aug 2020,

Frazer, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2019) Must the University be Decolonised? Relating Academic and Social Justice. In: ECPR General Conference 2019, Wrocław, Poland, 4-7 Sep 2019,

Frazer, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2015) Evoking and describing the moral sentiments: Normative theory in the Smithean mode. In: Adam Smith: Critic of Capitalism?, New Haven, Connecticut, USA, 10 Apr 2015,

Frazer, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-3647 (2010) Three methods of political theory: Historicism, ahistoricism and transhistoricism. In: Canadian Political Science Association 82nd Annual Conference, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 1-3 Jun 2010,

This list was generated on Tue Jul 8 06:32:58 2025 BST.

Michael L. Frazer

Dr Michael Frazer on Twitter