Richard J. Arneson did graduate work at the UC Berkeley in the 1960s and was shaken up and changed by the experience of being a citizen of Berkeley at that time. Upon leaving Berkeley, he joined the Philosophy Department at UC San Diego, where he has remained throughout his academic career, with brief teaching stints at UC Davis, Caltech, and Yale University, and short visiting scholar stays at Australian National University. He writes in ethics and political philosophy, mainly on theories of justice. Prior to retirement in 2023, he held the Valtz Family Chair in Philosophy and was Distinguished Professor at UC San Diego.