Peter Bach-y-Rita

Infinite Careers is a collaboration between Career Services (CAPD) and the MIT Alumni Association to explore career paths and the non-linearity of career decision-making. Read profiles of alumni with unique career paths, hear their stories, and network at a series of talks.

Education

Ph.D. in Philosophy, MIT
J.D., Stanford Law School
A.B. in Philosophy, Princeton University

Bio

Peter Bach-y-Rita is an attorney, educator, and scholar whose work spans law, philosophy, and education. He earned an A.B. in Philosophy with highest honors from Princeton University, a Ph.D. in Philosophy from MIT, and a J.D. from Stanford Law School. He has practiced complex commercial litigation at several leading law firms, including Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and Chapman and Cutler. He conceived the legal theory underlying the landmark 568 Presidents Group antitrust litigation, challenging the use of a common methodology for setting undergraduate financial-aid policies, which led to the dissolution of the 568 Presidents Group and a series of successful recoveries for students and families.

In 2023, Peter co-founded Reason & Rationality, an educational organization focused on developing critical-thinking skills among high school students, where he serves as Dean of Academics. The program combines analytic philosophy, economics, and decision theory with a distinctive emphasis on reasoned disagreement and convivial conversation.

Peter previously served on the Board of the Prison University Project, supporting educational opportunities for incarcerated students at San Quentin. He enjoys Anglican chant, Palestrina, and is also a hockey dad.

What influenced your choice of undergraduate major? How has it shaped your career choices and professional ability?

When I was in high school, I had a notion that there was a rigorous field of armchair reasoning, but I didn’t know what it was. At Princeton, they had a program of putting students into “freshmen seminars” to get us into a conversational and engaged mode with each other and at least one faculty member. I chose a seminar in the philosophy department about romantic love and that did it.

Is there anything you wish you had done differently or more of while you were at MIT?

Wherever I was at any time in my life, I always look back and wish I had been friendlier, gone to more cultural events and met more people.

Making decisions, especially important-feeling career decisions, is really challenging for people at all stages of their career. What strategies have you used to make career decisions?

Don’t optimize too much. For sure, you will have to compete at things that are obvious paths to success. You already did and won, which is why you are at MIT. But if you are at MIT, you’ve also experienced that competition tends to bid away the surplus available to such paths. You can still win, but only through an exhausting optimization of your time, skills, and effort. As a hedge, you want to spend some of your time and talent on things that don’t obviously pay, preferably ones that activate your moral sense of what’s beautiful, right, or glorious. Also, just be really friendly.

Last Edited: September 2026