Johnson is the Philip H. Knight Professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Oregon. His research has focused on the philosophical implications of the role of human embodiment in meaning, conceptualization, reasoning and values. He is co-author, with George Lakoff, of the influential Metaphors We Live By (1980). His most recent book is Morality for Humans: Ethical Understanding from the Perspective of Cognitive Science (2014).