A leading figure in the philosophy of the social world, Margaret Gilbert has regularly applied her ideas in that area to significant problems in moral, political, and legal philosophy, and her work has been influential in such fields as developmental psychology. She has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Council of Learned Societies, and was awarded the Lebowitz Prize for philosophical achievement and contribution. Gilbert was President of the Pacific branch of the American Philosophical Association in 2023-4, and is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.