Among the Center’s initiatives are public programs that address the ethical dimensions of contemporary social problems. In the 2008-09 academic year, we will continue The Ethics of Food and the Environment series and will co-present a new series of public conversations under the rubric: Education for Citizenship: Exploring Virtues and Vices. For details, please see below.

Education for Citizenship: Exploring Virtues and Vices

In collaboration with the Aurora Forum, the Center presents a series of public conversations on virtues, vices, and the conditions that enable education for social improvement. The series aims to generate critical inquiry into virtues and vices as forces relevant to such issues as education, civic engagement, democracy, and globalization.

All events take place in Kresge Auditorium and begin at 7:30 pm.

Thursday, October 2, 2008
Series Inaugural Lecture:
Stranger, Neighbor, Friend:  What is Citizenship in the 21st Century?
In setting the context for our series on virtues and vices, Allen will discuss ways people in institutions of higher education are prepared to develop political friendships to keep democarcy working. 

Danielle Allen
UPS Foundation Professor in the School of Social Science, Institute for Advanced Study
Josiah Ober (respondent)
Constantine Mitsotakis Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences, Stanford University


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Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Consuming Culture and Greed
Join us for a conversation that casts a critical eye on the effects of greed on individual and collective life.

David Loy
Besl Professor of Ethics/Religion and Society, Xavier University
Juliet Schor
Chair and Professor of Sociology, Boston College
Mark Gonnerman (moderator)
Founding Director, Aurora Forum at Stanford

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Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Loyalty: Virtue or Vice?
With class and racial inequalities remaining deeply embedded in our social, political, and economic structures, what is the place of loyalty in America today?

Richard Thompson Ford
George E. Osborne Professor of Law, Stanford University
Glenn C. Loury
Merton P. Stoltz Professor of the Social Sciences and Professor of Economics, Brown University
Eamonn Callan (moderator)
Pigott Family Professor, Stanford University School of Education


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Thursday, March 5, 2009
Responsible Freedom: Liberal Arts Education and the College Idea
What should today's students know in preparation for responsible citizenship in a pluralistic world? What is the role of the humanities in that preparation?

Andrew Delbanco
Director of American Studies, Columbia University
Download Delbanco paper.
Martha Nussbaum
Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics, University of Chicago
Download Nussbaum paper.
Debra Satz (moderator)
Marta Sutton Weeks Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Center for Ethics in Society, Stanford University

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 Thursday, May 21, 2009
Gratitude and Poetry for Water
The purpose of this evening is to bring poetic and scientific sensibilities to bear on life sustaining elements that we often take for granted, especially water.

Jane Hirshfield
Poet
Roger Housden
Poet and Anthologist
Jennifer (“Jenna”) Davis
Assistant Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Fellow, Woods Institute for the Environment
David Freyberg (moderator)
Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Senior Fellow, Woods Institute for the Environment


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2008-2009 Past Events

Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Liberals and Libertarians: Kissing Cousins or Distant Relatives?

Is there room for compromise on contested regulatory and fiscal issues, or are liberals and libertarians destined to be occasional tactical allies with fundamentally conflicting strategic visions? And regardless of possibilities for closer political cooperation, what libertarian insights do liberals need to do a better job of appreciating, and vice versa?

LIBERALS
Joshua Cohen /Political Science, Stanford University [website]
Pamela Karlan / Law, Stanford University [website]
Bradley DeLong / Economics, UC Berkeley [website]

LIBERTARIANS
Brink Lindsay / Cato Institute [website]
Will Wilkinson / Cato Institute, Blogger at FlyBottle [website]
Virginia Postrel / Dynamist [website]


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Ethics Center’s 2007-08 public events

To browse the archive of the Ethics Center's 2004-07 public programs, click here.