News

"The Two Dark Sides of COVID-19" A Project Syndicate Op-Ed by Peter Singer
March 2, 2020

In his recent op-ed, "The Two Dark Sides of COVID-19", Peter Singer comments on the probable source of the coronavirus.

Philip Pettit has been elected as a Corresponding Member of l’Académie des Science Morales et Politiques, in the Philosophy Section
Feb. 26, 2020

This French academy has five sections, each with 10 full members and ten corresponding members; places become vacant only with the death of an existing member. With four other academies in the arts and sciences, it constitutes l’Institut de France.

UCHV postdoc Annette Zimmermann interviewed about algorithmic fairness on science podcast "The Pulse"
Feb. 26, 2020

Can algorithms help judges make fair decisions? After all, human judges can often be biased—so should we try to use ostensibly neutral technology instead? In a recent interview with WHYY, Philadelphia's public radio…

Tanner Lectures on Human Values Recap: Richard Tuck, "Active and Passive Citizens"
Feb. 21, 2020

Professor Richard Tuck delivered the 2019-20 Tanner Lectures on Human Values at Princeton University on Wednesday, November 6 and Thursday, November 7. In his two-part lecture “Active and Passive Citizens,” Tuck defended the old view of modern democracy held by early theorists such as Jean Jacques Rousseau, who viewed universal suffrage and…

What Are Human Rights?
Feb. 13, 2020

Values and Public Life seminar explores the question, “What are human rights?”

In a U.S. presidential election year, American citizens will inevitably be inundated with rhetoric about human rights, particularly around issues such as healthcare and the condition of border detention facilities. In the fall semester…

VPL Certificate Student Avital Fried Named 2019 Marshall Scholar
Jan. 23, 2020

University Center for Human Values congratulates senior Avital Fried on receiving a Marshall Scholarship for graduate study in the UK.  Read the full story here.

Jan-Werner Mueller publishes New York Times op-ed
Jan. 23, 2020

In "Please Stop Calling Bernie Sanders a Populist," Professor Mueller argues that while the socialist from Vermont is not a threat to American democracy, the President is.

Anna Stilz receives the John H. Pace, Jr. ’39 Center for Civic Engagement’s Community Engagement Award
Jan. 14, 2020

Stilz is the director of the undergraduate certificate program in values and public life.

She is also the Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Politics and the University Center for Human Values.

You can read…

Victoria McGeer quoted in BBC article
Jan. 13, 2020

Senior research scholar Victoria McGeer's 2004 essay "The Art of Good Hope" was quoted in the BBC article "Is it wrong to be hopeful about climate change?"

Jan-Werner Mueller to be one of “55 Voices for Democracy”
Jan. 9, 2020

The series “55 Voices for Democracy” is inspired by the 55 BBC radio addresses Thomas Mann delivered from his home in California to thousands of listeners in Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, and the occupied Netherlands and Czechoslovakia between October 1940 and November 1945. In his monthly…

Barbara Herman Moffett Lecture Recap: "The Challenges of Beneficence: Revising the Terms"
Dec. 19, 2019

When we think about helping others in need, the scenarios that first come to mind are likely the extreme cases we see in the news: a group of strangers forming a human chain to save a drowning person or a passerby catching a toddler falling out of a window. 

We might also feel overwhelmed by the scale of need that exists in the…

Melissa Lane publishes article in Aeon
Dec. 12, 2019

In the Aeon article "Rules or Citizens," Melissa Lane, director of the UCHV and Class of 1943 Professor of Politics, explores how Ancient Athenian and Greek practices afford us insights into how and why to maintain real accountability in public life…

10th Anniversary Edition of "The Life You Can Save" Published
Dec. 5, 2019

The 10th anniversary edition of Peter Singer's book "The Life You Can Save" was published on Giving Tuesday. You can download a free version of the book on the book's website.

Singer and musician Paul Simon, who has followed the philosophy of…

Jan-Werner Mueller’s new book wins Bavarian Book Prize
Nov. 14, 2019

Jan-Werner Mueller’s new book "Furcht und Freiheit: Fuer einen anderen Liberalismus" won the Bavarian Book Prize, which is decided by three jury members deliberating publicly in the presence of the authors. Unlike with other prizes, this procedure is intended to achieve maximum transparency. An English version of Mueller's book is forthcoming.

Kim Lane Scheppele podcast with We the People
Oct. 31, 2019

Professor Kim Lane Scheppele weighs in on the question, "Is Brexit a British Constitutional Crisis?"

Peter Singer makes the case for Global Kidney Exchange Program
Oct. 31, 2019

Professor Peter Singer is one of three bioethicists who have published an argument in The Lancet, one of the world’s leading medical journals, in favor of a Global Kidney Exchange program that matches donors and recipients across low and middle-income (LMIC)…

Philip Pettit delivers the Royal Institute of Philosophy Annual Lecture
Oct. 29, 2019

On Friday, October 25, Philip Pettit delivered the Royal Institute of Philosophy Annual Lecture in London on the topic of "My Three Selves." You can watch the lecture here

Eulogy for László Rajk
Sept. 25, 2019

Because I could not stop for Death – 
He kindly stopped for me –

-Emily Dickinson

László Rajk died on September 11, 2019, peacefully after a painful illness rapidly engulfed him. His beloved and loving wife, the renowned concert singer and professor of music, Judit Rajk, was at his side till the end. Those…

Philip Pettit awarded the 2019 APSA Benjamin E. Lippincott Award
Sept. 10, 2019

Philip Pettit, the Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor in the University Center for Human Values, won the American Political Science Association's (APSA) prestigious Benjamin E. Lippincott Award for his book "Republicanism: A Theory of Freedom and Government." The award is given "in recognition of exceptional work by a living political…

Chignell's New Edited Volume on "Evil" is Now Available
Aug. 1, 2019

Andrew Chignell, Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Religion and the University Center for Human Values, published a new edited volume on "Evil" in the Oxford Philosophical Concepts Series.

A complete overview of "Evil, A History" can be found here.

Former LSR Fellow, Linda McClain, to Publish Book Worked on During Time at Princeton
Aug. 1, 2019

Linda McClain, Professor of Law and Robert B. Kent Chair at Boston University School of Law and former Laurance S. Rockefeller Visiting Faculty Fellow at the University Center for Human Values, completed her book, "Who's the Bigot?: Learning from Conflicts over Marriage and Civil Rights Law," due to be published by Oxford University Press in…

Sandra Bermann Discusses Her Path to Princeton
July 23, 2019

Cotsen Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Comparative Literature, Sandra (Sandie) Bermann, speaks with Princeton's Jamie Saxon on "What I think: Sandie Bermann"

UCHV Postdoc Comments on Importance of Financial Literacy Workshop Held at Princeton
May 24, 2019

A Wall Street Journal article reported on a recent trend to teach basic financial life skills at some of the Ivy's in response to the rise in debt - including student loan debt - and out of concern for young people's economic future and growing…

Laborde Moffett Lecture: A Summary
May 6, 2019
Cécile Laborde, the Nuffield Chair of Political Theory at the University of Oxford and a fellow of the British Academy, delivered the spring 2019 James A. Moffett '29 Lecture in Ethics. Laborde spoke on “Who Needs Secularism? India, Liberalism, and Comparative Secularism.”
Former UCHV Postdoc Named 2019 Andrew Carnegie Fellow
April 23, 2019

Sally A. Nuamah, Assistant Professor at Duke University's Sanford School of Public Policy, was named a 2019 Andrew Carnegie Fellow.

Nuamah was a Values & Public Policy Postdoctoral Research Associate with the University Center for Human Values, in association…

A conversation with “Moynihan” directors Joseph Dorman and Toby Freilich
April 22, 2019

Daniel Patrick “Pat” Moynihan was an American politician, professor and diplomat with a career that spanned four decades. He served New York as a senator for nearly thirty years, advised four presidential administrations — two Democratic and two Republican — and worked at Harvard as a professor of sociology.

The feature-length…

Two of the Center's Past Laurance S. Rockefeller Visitors Awarded 2019 Guggenheim Fellowship
April 12, 2019

Two past Laurance S. Rockefeller Visiting Faculty Fellows - Adriana Petryna (University of Pennsylvania) and Henry S. Richardson (Georgetown University) - were among the 168 scholars, artists, and writers chosen as a Guggenheim Fellow, according to a press release from the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.

"Appointed on the basis of…

A Conversation with Maestro Dudamel and Fintan O'Toole
April 8, 2019
Director of the University Center for Human Values, Melissa Lane, will moderate a conversation between Princeton's Artist-in-Residence, Gustavo Dudamel, and one of Ireland's leading public intellectuals, Fintan O'Toole.
Announcing our Laurance S. Rockefeller Visiting Faculty Fellows for 2019-20!
April 8, 2019
Fellows devote an academic year in residence at Princeton to research and write about topics involving human values in public and private life.
Safra Center for Ethics Hosting Workshop on Johann Frick's Work
March 26, 2019

On Friday, April 19 from 9:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Harvard University's Safra Center for Ethics will host a workshop on Professor Johann Frick's work on "Risk, Luck, and Future People." Commentators from MIT and Harvard will respond to five of Frick's papers on the topic. 

Cécile Laborde (University of Oxford): "Who Needs Secularism? India, Liberalism, and Comparative Secularism"
March 11, 2019
Professor of Political Theory and Nuffield Chair of Political Theory at the University of Oxford, Cécile Laborde, will deliver the James A. Moffett '29 Lectures in Ethics in Computer Science, Lecture Hall 104 at four-thirty in the afternoon.
UCHV Postdoc Annette Zimmermann and Interdisciplinary Team of Colleagues Develop Innovative AI Ethics Course for Ph.D. students
March 6, 2019
The aim of the course is to make foundational concepts and theories in ethics and political philosophy accessible to students from a wide range of academic research backgrounds.
Philip Pettit Produces Short Podcast on Theme of His Recent Book, "The Birth of Ethics"
March 5, 2019
"...when did humans first start using ethical talk? and how did this arise? Philip Pettit has a story, a useful story he says, even if it is not true..."
In "New Statesman," Pettit Writes on Two Models of Democracy and Their Respective Views of Brexit
March 5, 2019
There are personalists and there are populists. Brexit is a disaster for the former.
Interview with Professor Lane on "Stasis" in Ancient Greece
Feb. 27, 2019
Princeton classics graduate student interviews Melissa Lane.
LSR Fellow Nelson Tebbe contributes to "Washington Post" Piece
Feb. 26, 2019

Nelson Tebbe, Richard Schragger and Micah Schwartzman write about a case that the Supreme Court will hear tomorrow regarding a 40-foot peace cross in Bladensburg, MD in "The Washington Post."

Values & Public Life Certificate Students Attend "The Niceties" at McCarter Theatre
Feb. 22, 2019

Last weekend, Values and Public Life students gathered for a group lunch at Cargot followed by a trip to McCarter Theatre to see “The Niceties.”&nbsp…

Professor Stephen Macedo To Give CEACOP Annual Lecture in Hong Kong
Feb. 20, 2019
Macedo will give the Center for East Asian and Comparative Philosophy (CEACOP) Annual Lecture 2019 in Hong Kong.
LSR Fellow Nelson Tebbe Summarizes Michael McConnell's (Stanford Law) Recent Tanner Lectures on Human Values
Feb. 11, 2019

Professor McConnell, a former federal judge who now teaches at Stanford Law School, delivered his lectures on November 28 and 29, 2018, and he titled them "The President Who Would Not Be King."

Jan-Werner Mueller Publishes Volume on Isaiah Berlin's Liberalism; UCHV To Host Event on Berlin's Legacy
Feb. 4, 2019

Jan-Werner Mueller has published an edited volume revisiting Isaiah Berlin’s liberalism (more info here:  https://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9789811327926).  Former LSR fellow Joshua Cherniss contributed a chapter comparing Berlin’s political thought with that of Reinhold Niebuhr.  The…

Melissa Lane Chooses Top Five Books on Plato
Jan. 28, 2019

The website "Five Books" consulted UCHV Director Melissa Lane, an expert on ancient Greek thought, on the best books on Plato. Read Professor Lane's choices and explanations here

According to its website, "Five Books" asks experts to recommend the five best books in…

Kim Lane Scheppele Proposes "Semi-Brexit" Solution in "The Guardian" Opinion Piece
Jan. 23, 2019

A "semi-Brexit does not mean breaking up the UK," says Scheppele. "Rather the reverse: semi-Brexit may be the only way to hold the UK together." Scheppele proposes that Scotland and Northern Ireland remain in the EU, while permitting England and Wales to exit - and discusses how this would be possible.

Read the full article here:

Request for Submissions | 7th Annual UCHV Short Movie Prize | March 1 | "Hope & Despair"
Jan. 23, 2019
This academic year, the jury will consider digital videos that bear in any way on the theme of "Hope & Despair.
"Too Much Gratitude?" A Project Syndicate Op-Ed by Peter Singer
Jan. 16, 2019

In his recent op-ed, "Too Much Gratitude?", Peter Singer, comments on Michael Bloomberg's recent gift of $1.8 billion to his alma mater, Johns Hopkins, in gratitude for the opportunities his education (and scholarship) made possible. While gratitude as a reason for giving is laudable, Singer says, it can often conflict with the "effective…