Jed Lewinsohn is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh. Prior to joining the department, he was a Junior Fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows, and received a doctorate in philosophy at NYU and a JD at Yale Law School. He works primarily in moral philosophy, philosophy of action, and the philosophy of law – with a focus on the intersection between these areas and private law doctrine and theory. For example, he has argued that the phenomena of ‘normative powers’ and ‘relational normativity’ are native to custom and law and cannot be intelligibly extended to non-conventional morality. He has also articulated the structure of basic commercial concepts (such as debt and quid pro quo exchange), especially as they figure in contract and commercial law.

Current research interests concern the privity principle in contract, the recharacterization of commercial transactions, and two-level theories of moral obligation. Recent publications include “By Convention Alone: Assignable Rights, Dischargeable Debts, and the Distinctiveness of the Commercial Sphere” (Ethics), "The 'Natural Unintelligibility' of Normative Powers" (Jurisprudence, special issue), “Limited Assurance” (Philosophy & Public Affairs) and “Paid on Both Sides: Quid Pro Quo Exchange and the Doctrine of Consideration” (Yale Law Journal).