Joseph Alden (1807 - 1885) was an American academic.

He was professor at Williams College in 1835, president of Jefferson College in 1857, and principal of the State Normal School in Albany, New York until 1882. Among his many books, more than seventy, the most well known were Christian Ethics or the Science of Duty (1866), The Science of Government (1867) & Thoughts on the Religious Life (1879).