University Center for Human Values

Fostering ongoing inquiry into important ethical issues in private and public life and supporting teaching, research, and discussion of ethics and human values throughout the curriculum and across the disciplines at Princeton University. Learn more >

Melissa Lane and social contract theory on Future Hindsight podcast

Melissa Lane, Class of 1943 Professor of Politics and Director of the University Center for Human Values is featured in the October 21 Future Hindsight podcast episode, “The Social Contract-History of a Big Idea: Melissa Lane.”
Philip Pettit delivers address on Republican Democracy

Philip Pettit, Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor in the University Center for Human Values delivered the Wilson H. Elkins Lecture at the University of Baltimore School of Law in early October.
Jan-Werner Mueller in The Guardian

Jan-Werner Mueller, Roger Williams Straus Professor of Politics, writes about the emerging authoritarian-populist art of governance in the September issue of The Guardian.
Peter Singer awarded Berggruen Prize

Peter Singer, Ira W. De Camp Professor of Bioethics in the University Center for Human Values, is the recipient of the 2021 Berggruen Prize for Philosophy and Culture. He received this award for his “widely influential and intellectually rigorous work in reinvigorating utilitarianism as part of academic philosophy and as a force for change in the...
Former LSR Fellow Jennifer Morton’s book is this summer’s Princeton Pre-read

Members of the incoming Class of 2025 have received a copy of “Moving Up Without Losing Your Way: The Ethical Costs of Upward Mobility” by Jennifer Morton, a book Morton says she worked on while serving as a Laurance S. Rockefeller Visiting Faculty Fellow in University Center for Human Values (2015–2016).
Illustration by Jamey Christoph; commissioned by (and used courtesy of) the Center for Religious Studies.

Farewell 5 Ivy Lane

After more than two decades as home to various UCHV faculty, staff, visiting fellows and distinguished teachers, postdocs, sponsored courses and precepts, weekly Human Values Forums and special events like the famed presidential debate viewing parties, the University Center for Human Values is leaving 5 Ivy Lane.
Peter Singer on expanding the right to die

As a growing number of countries pass legislation permitting or regulating physician-assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia, Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics Peter Singer’s latest Project Syndicate op-ed shines a spotlight on Canada...
Melissa Lane during Old Dominion virtual lecture with illustration of Lycurgus (9th-9th BCE). Legislator from Sparta. From "Vita Virorum Illustrium" by Plutarch. Italy, mid 15th CE. Membranaceo, Vol. II, 36.4 x 25.0 cm. Lycurgus Photo Credit : Alfredo Dagli Orti / Art Resource, NY illustration (From "Vita Virorum Illustrium" by Plutarch. Italy, mid 15th CE. Membranaceo, Vol. II, Credit : Alfredo Dagli Orti / Art Resource, NY).

Melissa Lane delivers Old Dominion lecture

In the second of the Humanities Council’s 2020-2021 Old Dominion lecture series, Class of 1943 Professor of Politics, Director of the University Center for Human Values and Old Dominion Research Professor Melissa Lane presented a talk on her current research project “Lycurgus, Solon, Charondas…Figuring the Legislator in Platonic Political Thought...
Elizabeth Harman kicks off the 2020-2021 Old Dominion series

Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Philosophy and the University Center for Human Values and Old Dominion Research Professor Elizabeth Harman gave the first of the Humanities Council’s 2020-2021 Old Dominion Lectures on February 11, with the timely talk “Racist research: What does respect for researchers require? What should academic freedom...
Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images

Melissa Lane: Why Donald Trump was the ultimate anarchist

In a recently published article for the New Statesman, Class of 1943 Professor of Politics and Director of the University Center for Human Values Melissa Lane suggests that Trump not only incited violent anarchy at the Capitol Building on January 6, he personified what an ancient Greek observer would have called “anarchia” during his entire term.