University Center for Human Values
Director
Stephen J. Macedo
Faculty
Kwame Anthony Appiah, also Philosophy
Christopher L. Eisgruber, also Woodrow Wilson School
Elizabeth Harman, also Philosophy
Stephen J. Macedo, also Politics
Philip N. Pettit, also Politics
Kim Lane Scheppele, also Woodrow Wilson School
Peter Singer
Executive Committee
Kwame Anthony Appiah, Philosophy
Charles R. Beitz, Politics
Sandra L. Bermann, Comparative Literature
John M. Cooper, Philosophy
Elizabeth Harman, Philosophy
Stephen J. Macedo, Politics
Jan-Werner Müller, Politics
Alan W. Patten, Politics
Philip N. Pettit, Politics
Kim Lane Scheppele, also Woodrow Wilson School, Sociology
Peter Singer
Michael A. Smith, Philosophy
Visiting Professor
Lawrie Balfour, Laurance S. Rockefeller Visiting Associate Professor for Distinguished Teaching
Nannerl O. Keohane, Laurance S. Rockefeller Distinguished Visiting Professor of Public Affairs and the University Center for Human Values
Lecturer
Victoria McGeer, also Philosophy
Faculty Associate
Elizabeth M. Armstrong, Woodrow Wilson School, Sociology
Leora F. Batnitzky, Religion
João G. Biehl, Anthropology
John M. Darley, Psychology, Woodrow Wilson School
Angus S. Deaton, Woodrow Wilson School, Economics
Paul J. DiMaggio, Woodrow Wilson School, Sociology
Mitchell Duneier, Sociology
Caryl Emerson, Slavic Languages and Literatures, Comparative Literature
Susan T. Fiske, Psychology
Daniel Garber, Philosophy
Sophie G. Gee, English
Robert P. George, Politics
Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Religion, African American Studies
Eric S. Gregory, Religion
Gilbert H. Harman, Philosophy
Hendrik A. Hartog, History
Mark Johnston, Philosophy
Thomas P. Kelly, Philosophy
Robert O. Keohane, Woodrow Wilson School
Natasha C. Lee, French and Italian
Thomas C. Leonard, Economics
Douglas S. Massey, Woodrow Wilson School, Sociology
Sarah E. McGrath, Philosophy
Alexander Nehamas, Philosophy, Comparative Literature, Council of the Humanities
Guy J. Nordenson, Architecture
Jeff E. Nunokawa, English
Joyce Carol Oates, Lewis Center for the Arts, Creative Writing
Serguei Oushakine, Slavic Languages and Literatures
Devah Pager, Sociology
Deborah A. Prentice, Psychology
Albert J. Raboteau, Religion
Daniel T. Rodgers, History
Gideon A. Rosen, Philosophy
Michael Rothschild, Woodrow Wilson School, Economics
Rahal Sagar, Politics
Harold T. Shapiro, Woodrow Wilson School, Economics
Tamsin K. Shaw, Politics
Anne-Marie Slaughter, Woodrow Wilson School, Politics
Anna B. Stilz, Politics
Jeffrey L. Stout, Religion
Maurizio Viroli, Politics
Cornel West, African American Studies
Michael G. Wood, English, Comparative Literature
Robert J. Wuthnow, Sociology
Julian E. Zelizer, Woodrow Wilson School, History
The University Center for Human Values fosters interdisciplinary study of ethical and evaluative issues in private and public life. One of its activities within the undergraduate curriculum is to cosponsor courses with departments and programs. The center encourages students to supplement their disciplinary concentrations with a set of these courses, which address fundamental questions about the meaning and value of human life and the ethical relationships of individuals and societies.
The University Center for Human Values assists faculty members in developing new courses and revising existing courses, supplements the offerings of the Freshman Seminar Program, and sponsors occasional lectures and colloquiums on human values to which students, along with faculty and other members of the Princeton University community, are invited. The center awards a senior thesis prize to the senior who has written the most outstanding thesis in the area of ethics and human values. Departments are invited to nominate their best thesis in this area.
The center was created in 1990 with an
endowment by Laurance S. Rockefeller ’32.
Undergraduate courses that are cosponsored by the center include:
Courses
CHV 202 Introduction to Moral Philosophy (see PHI 202)
CHV 212 The Psychology of Moral Behavior (see PSY 212)
CHV 214 The Other Side of Rome (see CLA 214)
CHV 261 Christian Ethics and Modern Society (see REL 261)
CHV 308 Perfecting Life: Designing Children, Designing Memories, Designing Death (also PHI 308) — Fall EM
We now have unprecedented control over how we are born, live, and die. Parents can choose to have a girl or a boy, a deaf or a hearing child. Soon they will be able to choose to have a smarter, more athletic, more beautiful child. Should we allow parents to do this? New drugs enable trauma victims to dampen the memories of painful experiences. Is picking and choosing among our memories an unacceptable tampering with the self? Many people think it is okay to follow a living will in terminating a life that is in a permanent vegetative state. But what about a living will that requests euthanasia as soon as Alzheimer’s develops? Two lectures, one preceptorial. E. Harman
CHV 309 Political Philosophy (see PHI 309)
CHV 310 Practical Ethics (also PHI 385) — Not offered this year EM
Should we be sharing our wealth with people who will otherwise die from poverty-related causes? Is abortion wrong? Does a human embryo have a greater claim to protection than a chimpanzee? Are we justified in eating animals? Can the traditional doctrine of the sanctity of human life be defended? When should a nation go to war? And why should we act ethically, anyway? Students will be encouraged to question their own ethical beliefs on these and other issues, and in the process to explore the extent to which reason and argument can play a role in everyday ethical decision smaking. Two lectures, one preceptorial. P. Singer
CHV 311 Systematic Ethics (see PHI 307)
CHV 316 The Ten Commandments in Modern America (see JDS 316)
CHV 319 Normative Ethics (see PHI 319)
CHV 330 Greek Law and Legal Practice (see CLA 330)
CHV 335 Greek Ethical Theory (see PHI 335)
CHV 345 Ethics and Economics (see ECO 385)
CHV 364 Sociology of Medicine (see SOC 364)
CHV 470 Special Topics in Public Affairs (see WWS 470)
*Freshman Seminars in the Residential Colleges
Diversity in Higher Education (Thomas Espenshade)
The Ethics of Human Enhancement: From Steroid Users to Superhumans (Bennett Foddy)
Freud on the Psychology of Ordinary Mental Life (Susan Sugarman)
The Moral Dilemmas of Political Leadership (Rivka Amado)
A Multidisciplinary Approach to Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov (Ellen Chances)
Life in a Nuclear-Armed World (Zia Mian)
The Problem of Suffering (James Diamond)
Origins of Racism and Ethnic Hatred (Brent Shaw)
The Devil (Soelve Curdts)
For information about courses relevant to the study of human values, visit www.princeton.edu/~uchv/undergrad_curriculum.html.
*One-time-only courses