John Bengson is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin.  

He has held appointments at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Harvard University, the Centre for Consciousness at the Australian National University, and Universität zu Köln. He was awarded a fellowship by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation for 2021-22 and summer 2023. Since 2024 he has served as an Editor for Noûs.

His research interests span practical and theoretical philosophy, encompassing topics in epistemology, philosophy of mind and action, metaethics, metaphysics, and methodology. These include intuition, perceptual experience, understanding, know-how, skill, intelligence and intelligent action, the epistemology of love, moral knowledge, the nature and grounds of normativity, constitution, essence, explanation, data, thought experiments, and philosophical progress. 

The Moral Universe (OUP, 2024), his most recent book, shows how an essence-based version of nonnaturalist realism fully explains the metaphysical and normative dimensions of morality. 

Recent papers include "Loving Understanding" (Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, forthcoming); "Robust Pluralism about Philosophical Progress" (Philosophical Issues, 2026), "The Source of Normativity" (Mind, 2023), and "Socially Conscious Moral Intuitionism" (Noûs, 2023).