Tim Hsiao | Philosophy Professor / Law Enforcement Officer

I’m a philosophy professor and law enforcement officer. From 2017-2023, I was Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Humanities, and Criminal Justice at the University of Arkansas Grantham. I currently work in both local and federal law enforcement. I also serve as a Research Fellow at the University of Wyoming Firearms Research Center.

My teaching and research interests are in applied ethics, environmental ethics, and criminal justice ethics. I have written on a wide array of topics, including abortion, sexual ethics, the morality of hunting and eating meat, drug control, gun control, police shootings, immigration, and corporal punishment.

I also have occasional interests in the philosophy of religion, specifically in arguments for the existence of God (natural theology).

Check out my CV for a full list of my published works. You can find me on Facebook, Academia.edu, and LinkedIn.

I have over 30 op-eds in various popular outlets, including Quillette, The Federalist, Washington Times, Public Discourse, and Human Events.

Outside of philosophy, I’m an avid practitioner of shooting sports and self-defense training. I hold multiple certifications as a firearms instructor.

While still a philosophy professor, I attended the police academy and received my law enforcement certificate. I’m currently employed as a police officer for a municipality and as a contractor for a federal law enforcement agency.

I attend Southpoint church of Christ in Kansas City, Missouri.

Interested in having me out for a speaking event or debate? Go to this page.

Selected Academic Publications
A full list of publications + PDFs can be found here.

“Eat, Drink, and Be Sober: The Case for Drug Prohibition” [Link coming soon]
in Steven Cowan (ed), Problems in Applied Ethics (Bloomsbury, forthcoming)
“Jesus, Guns, and Luke 22:36: A Response to Barrigar”
Evangelical Quarterly 95:3 (2024)
“Did American Police Originate from Slave Patrols?”
Academic Questions 36:3 (2023)
“A Simple Argument for Respecting Conscience“
The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 22:3 (2023)
“The Lived Experience Fallacy“
Academic Questions 35:2 (2022)
“If Homosexuality is Wrong, So is Contraception“
Philosophia Christi 24:1 (2022)
“Does Jesus Endorse Armed Self-Defense in Luke 22:36?“
Evangelical Quarterly 92:4 (2021)
“The Contingency Argument in Plain Language“
(with Gil Sanders) The Heythrop Journal (2021)
“Guns on Campus: A Defense”
(with Kyle Blanchette) in Bob Fischer (ed), College Ethics: A Reader on Moral Issues that Affect You 2nd ed (Oxford University Press, 2021)
“A Moral Defense of Trophy Hunting“
Sport, Ethics, and Philosophy 14:1 (2020)
“There is Nothing Wrong with Eating Meat” and “Human Lives Matter: Reflections on Human Exceptionalism“
in Paul Copan and Wes Jamison (eds), What Would Jesus Really Eat? The Biblical Case for Eating Meat (Castle Quay, 2019) [Email to request PDF]
“The Case for Marijuana Prohibition”
Ethics & Medicine 35:1 (2019)
“The Moral Case for Gun Ownership”
in Bob Fischer (ed), Ethics, Left and Right: The Moral Issues that Divide Us (Oxford University Press, 2019)
“Industrial Farming is Not Cruel to Animals“
Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 30:1 (2017)
“Consenting Adults, Sex, and Natural Law Theory”
Philosophia 44:2 (2016)

Selected Popular Articles
A full list of over 30 articles + links can be found here.

“No, Police Did Not Stem from Slave Patrols” The Federalist (2023)
“Why Vaccine Mandates That Fail to Respect the Right of Conscience Are Immoral” Foundation for Economic Education (2022)
“The Lived Experience Fallacy” Minding the Campus (2021)
“In Defense of Eating Dogs” Prindle Post (2021)
“Guns Used More for Self-Defense than Crimes” The Washington Times (2021)
“Conscientious Objections to the COVID Vaccine Should Be Honored” American Thinker (2021)
“Background Checks for Alcohol” Prindle Post (2021)
“Lived Experiences Aren’t Special” Quillette (2021)
“A Thinking Person’s Guide to Police Shootings” Human Events (2020)
“Gun Rights Don’t Depend on Statistics” Foundation for Economic Education (2019)
“If Gun Controllers Followed Their Own Logic, They’d Support Banning Alcohol And Cigarettes, Too” The Federalist (2019)
“Almost Everything You Know About Alcohol Prohibition Is Wrong” The Federalist (2019)
“7 Arguments For Legalizing Marijuana That No One Should Believe” The Federalist (2019)
“Don’t Legalize It” Arc Digital (2018)
“Natural Rights, Self-Defense, and the Right to Own Firearms” Public Discourse (2018)
“The Moral Problem with Most Gun-Free Zones” Foundation for Economic Education (2018)
“The Libertarian Case for Drug Prohibition“
Public Discourse (2018)

Contact Information
timhsiaojr@gmail.com