David M. Jacobson is a writer, who has been a practicing trial lawyer and a literature professor. He received his JD magna cum laude from the University of Illinois, where he was Order of the Coif, a Harno Scholar and a member of the Law Review. Following law school, he practiced law, mainly in Seattle, handling complex litigation and class-actions for multinational corporations, as well as a wide range of commercial disputes. Among other recognitions, he is AV Peer Review rated by Lexis-Nexis and has been commended by the Washington State Bar Association for his pro bono work. Prior to law school, Jacobson received a BS degree from the University of Oregon in Philosophy and Political Science, an MA in Philosophy from the New School for Social Research, and a PhD in English from the University of Washington. While at UW, he was awarded a Graduate School Dissertation Fellowship to support his work on the pragmatic underpinnings of the writings of Jonathan Edwards, Ralph Waldo Emerson and C.S. Peirce. He was the Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Rochester, and during the year of his fellowship he substantially completed his book, Emerson's Pragmatic Vision. Subsequently, he taught American Literature and Critical Theory at the University of Illinois, where he was a member of the Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory, received several research grants and awards and published and presented essays in various forums. He currently lives in Bellevue, Washington.
Emersonian Eloquence and the Destiny of Reason (2024) (This essay was written in 1992 and is published here for the first time.)
“Technology, Responsibility, and the Limits of Pragmatism” (2019)
"Vision's Imperative: 'Self-Reliance' and the Command To See Things As They Are", Studies in Romanticism 29:4 (1990)
"'Compensation': Exteriority Beyond the Spirit of Revenge", ESQ 33:2 (1987)
"Jonathan Edwards and the 'American Difference': Pragmatic Reflections on the "Sense of the Heart'", Journal of American Studies 21:3 (1987)