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 >

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."
Peter Singer discusses Effective Altruism movement in the Washington Post Magazine

Peter Singer discusses the thinking behind the Effective Altruism movement and its impact in the Washington Post Magazine article "The Rise of the Rational Do-Gooders."
The Case for Human COVID-19 Challenge Trials

In this Project Syndicate article, Professor Peter Singer and Isaac Martinez argue that "Regulators should permit and begin to prepare for “human challenge” vaccine trials in order to end the COVID-19 pandemic. In these trials, fully informed volunteers would be injected with potential vaccines (or with a placebo) and then intentionally exposed to...
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
Melissa Lane writes about teaching Plato in the pandemic

Melissa Lane, the Class of 1943 Professor of Politics and director of the University Center for Human Values, writes about teaching Plato in the pandemic. To read the article, click here.