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 >

Peter Singer launches Journal of Controversial Ideas

No stranger to controversy, Peter Singer, Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics in the University Center for Human Values, has just launched the Journal of Controversial Ideas with fellow philosophers Jeff McMahan and Francesca Minerva.
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.
Kim Scheppele on the aftermath of the election

In the aftermath of the US election, Kim Lane Scheppele’s expertise on authoritarian regimes and failing democracies has been sought by news outlets and academic forums worldwide.
In case you missed it: a look back at the 2020 Moffett Lecture

Many of us – at least in the pre-pandemic era – spent a third of our daily lives, or half of our waking hours, in what we consider to be work. If we were lucky, our work not only provided us with a source of income but was a source of many other things including relationships, significance, esteem, self-esteem, and even identity.
Kim Lane Scheppele discusses virtual teaching on University homepage

In this article, Professor Kim Lane Scheppele discusses her insights from last semester's pivot to virtual learning and how she continues to innovate in her “Classical Sociological Theory” graduate seminar this fall.
Elizabeth Harman answers pandemic ethics questions in Princeton Alumni Weekly

Elizabeth Harman answers Princeton Alumni Weekly readers' questions about pandemic ethics in "Tiger Ethics: How to Pick a Schooling Option This Fall."
Black Lives Matter: A message from Melissa Lane, Director of the University Center for Human Values

The University Center for Human Values affirms as a fundamental human value that Black Lives Matter. We call for justice for all those who have been the victims of police violence and of other forms of oppression and inequality which are unequally visited upon people of color, and for the systemic changes that are needed to prevent