Ralph Lerner (born 1928) is an American political philosopher.

Lerner was born in Chicago, and attended the University of Chicago for his bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in political science.^[1] His Ph.D. was advised by Leo Strauss.^[2] Lerner later joined the Chicago faculty, where he was named the Benjamin Franklin Professorship until 2003, when he was granted emeritus status.^[3]

• Naïve Readings: Reveilles Political and Philosophic, University of Chicago Press, 2016
• Playing the Fool: Subversive Laughter in Troubled Times, University of Chicago Press, 2009
• Maimonides' Empire of Light: Popular Enlightenment in an Age of Belief, University of Chicago Press, 2000
• Revolutions Revisited: Two Faces of the Politics of Enlightenment, University of North Carolina Press, 1994
• The Thinking Revolutionary: Principle and Practice in the New Republic, Cornell University Press, 1987
• The Founders' Constitution, edited with Philip B. Kurland, 1987
• Averroes on Plato's 'Republic', translated by Ralph Lerner, Cornell University Press, 1974
• Medieval Political Philosophy: A Sourcebook, Cornell University Press, 1963