Michael Pakaluk is Ordinary Professor of Political Economy at The Catholic University of America, Ordinarius of the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas, and Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Institute for Human Ecology. His scholarly work spans Aristotle, Aquinas, classical political economy, and Catholic social thought, which he teaches and writes about with equal facility.

He has published three books on Aristotle: the Clarendon Aristotle volume on Nicomachean Ethics VIII and IX; a widely used introduction to the Nicomachean Ethics with Cambridge University Press; and, co-edited with Giles Pearson, Moral Psychology and Human Action in Aristotle (Oxford, 2011). His first book, Other Selves: Philosophers on Friendship (Hackett, 1991), played a key role in the recovery of the philosophical investigation of friendship. His two books on accounting ethics with forensic accountant Mark Cheffers revolutionized that discipline by situating it in the framework of virtue theory.

His recent publications include The Shock of Holiness (Ignatius, 2025) and The Company We Keep (Scepter, 2025); he is also a lead author of Natural Law: Five Views (Zondervan, 2025). His book on natural law and civic friendship, Walk in the Good Path, will appear with The Catholic University of America Press in 2026.

Pakaluk is currently at work on Luke's Gospel and the Birth of Christian Romanticism, completing his celebrated series on the gospels: The Memoirs of St. Peter; Mary's Voice in the Gospel of John; and Be Good Bankers: The Economic Interpretation of Matthew's Gospel. A recognized Newman specialist, he is also writing a book on reading Newman as a philosopher.

His prose style has been compared to that of C. S. Lewis in its clarity, warmth, and argumentative precision. He writes regularly for The Catholic Thing and maintains a Substack on faith, reason, and culture.

Teaching interests

Ethics, Natural Law, Political Economy, Aristotle, Aquinas, Newman, Brownson, Markets and Prosperity, Accounting Ethics

Research interests

Virtue Ethics, Natural Law, John Henry Newman, Thomistic Moral Psychology and Ethics

“"We must carefully practice what the Savior of our souls was accustomed to say, as the ancients have informed us, ‘Be ye good bankers'."

PUBLICATIONS