John Jay Professor of Public Management Dan Feldman, who earned his A.B. in economics at Columbia College and his law degree from Harvard, was recently awarded a Ph.D. in philosophy from the CUNY Graduate Center.
Feldman originally joined John Jay as an adjunct professor while he worked as investigating counsel for a New York State Assembly committee. He was later elected to the Assembly representing Brooklyn and, following that, worked in high-level posts in the Office of the New York State Attorney General and the Office of the New York State Comptroller. Feldman then returned to John Jay as an associate professor of public management. Shortly after achieving tenure and full professor rank, he began taking philosophy courses at the CUNY Graduate Center.
“I liked college and law school. But going back to school at a later stage in your life, when you don’t have to worry about a job or a career, is a treat – pure joy. If you find a subject that interests you – a different subject than your career involves – I strongly recommend it,” said Feldman.
Feldman’s dissertation focused on legal philosophy (“Law’s Legitimacy: Lon Fuller in a Consequentialist Frame”), but, “Most of my coursework had nothing to do with that. I took classes ranging from St. Augustine to mathematical logic to the pre-Socratic views of perception and loved every one of them,” he says. On the support his dissertation committee gave him, he says,
"My advisor, Carol Gould, performed heroic feats of guidance, demanding necessary improvements in draft after draft, to the point at which it amazed me that she could stand reading so many of them. Jeremy Waldron, probably the world’s leading expert in legal philosophy, added me to his responsibilities to students at NYU, his own school, and provided profound insights. Stephen Neale, who may be the world’s leading expert on the relationship between law and language and who taught me all I know on that subject, generously came on board with little notice when we needed a fourth dissertation committee member. Steve Ross, who continues to have strong reservations about my argument, stood as a model of academic fairness and integrity in contributing his valuable insights."
Feldman is the author of six books and numerous articles on American law and government and has been a fellow of the National Academic of Public Administration since 2016.
