Aaron Preston

Dr. Aaron Preston is DWM's Philosopher in Residence. He studied classics (B.A.) and theology (M.Th.) before earning his PH.D. in philosophy under Dallas Willard at USC, and has been a philosophy professor for 24 years. His early work developed a historical and metaphilosophical critique of the analytic tradition in philosophy, related to its role in what Dallas called “the disappearance of moral knowledge,” and he later helped to complete and publish Dallas’s final academic book on this topic: The Disappearance of Moral Knowledge (Routledge, 2018). Aaron is continuing Dallas's work in this important area as a co-leader of DWM's Moral Knowledge Initiative.

Aaron's current work broadens earlier analyses of the factors behind the disappearance of moral knowledge, and seeks to recover moral knowledge by rekindling interest in the largely forgotten school of Personalism, which was the driving force behind both the Human Rights movement in Europe and the Civil Rights movement in the united States (Martin Luther King, Jr. was a philosophical Personalist). In addition to his work on The Disappearance of Moral Knowledge, he is the author of Analytic Philosophy: The History of an Illusion (Continuum, 2007), editor of Analytic Philosophy: An Interpretive History (Routledge, 2017) and numerous journal articles and book chapters on topics in the history of philosophy, the history of ethics, metaphilosophy, and the philosophy and psychology of religion.

As DWM’s Philosopher in Residence, Aaron will be guiding our efforts to highlight more of Dallas's philosophical work, helping to clarify Dallas's teaching, offering online courses and webinars, and continuing to serve as co-leader of the Moral Knowledge Initiative. His first online course offering is scheduled for January 2026 under the title of “Philosophy 101 with Dallas Willard.”