Tanner Lectures on Human Values

The Tanner Lectures on Human Values is a multiversity lecture series in the humanities, founded in 1978, at Clare Hall, Cambridge University, by the American scholar Obert Clark Tanner.^[1] In founding the lecture, he defined their purpose as follows:^[2]

I hope these lectures will contribute to the intellectual and moral life of mankind. I see them simply as a search for a better understanding of human behavior and human values. This understanding may be pursued for its own intrinsic worth, but it may also eventually have practical consequences for the quality of personal and social life.

It is considered one of the top lecture series among top universities,^[3] and being appointed a lectureship is a recognition of the scholar's "extra-ordinary achievement" in the field of human values.^[2]

Member institutions

Permanent lectureships are established at the following nine institutions:^[4]

• Linacre College, Oxford
• University of California, Berkeley
• Clare Hall, Cambridge
• Harvard University
• University of Michigan
• Princeton University
• Stanford University
• University of Utah
• Yale University
• Southern Utah University

Lecturers

• 1986 (Harvard) T. M. Scanlon—"The Significance of Choice"^[5]
• 1988 (Michigan) Toni Morrison—"Unspeakable Things Unspoken: The Afro-American Presence in American Literature"
• 1991 (Stanford) G.A. Cohen—"Incentives, Inequality, and Community"
• 1991 (San Diego) K. Anthony Appiah—"Race, Culture, Identity: Misunderstood Connections"^[6]
• 1995 (Princeton) Antonin Scalia—"Common-law Courts in a Civil-Law System: The Role of the United State Federal Courts in Interpreting the Constitution and Laws"^[7]
• 1997 (Princeton) J.M. Coetzee "The Lives of Animals"
• 1998 (Oxford): Michael Sandel—What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets^[8]
• 2000–2001 (Berkeley): Joseph Raz—The Practice of Value^[9]
• 2001 (Cambridge) K. Anthony Appiah—"The State and the Shaping of Identity"^[10]
• 2001–2002 (Berkeley): Sir Frank Kermode
• 2010 (Cambridge): Susan J. Smith–Care-full markets – Miracle or Mirage?^[11]
• 2011 (Yale): Rebecca Newberger Goldstein - "The Ancient Quarrel: Philosophy and Literature," ^[12]
• 2011–2012 (Berkeley): Samuel Scheffler—The Afterlife^[13]
• 2012 (Stanford): John M. Cooper^[14]
• 2013 (Oxford): Michael Ignatieff—Representation and Responsibility: Ethics and Public Office^[15]
• 2013 (Berkeley): Frances Kamm
• 2014 (Harvard): Archbishop Rowan Williams–The Paradox of Empathy^[16]
• 2014 (Oxford): Shami Chakrabarti—Human Rights as Human Values (upcoming)^[15]
• 2014 (Cambridge): Peter Galison—"Science, Secrecy and the Private Self" (upcoming)^[17]
• 2015 (Michigan): Ruth Bader Ginsburg—"A Conversation with Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States"^[18]

Notes and references

1. "Tanner Lectures and Philosophy". University of Utah Press. Archived from the original on 2007-05-22. Retrieved 2007-10-16.
2. "The Lectures". University of Utah. Archived from the original on 2007-07-11. Retrieved 2007-10-16.
3. Jaschik, Scott. "Are college faculty too liberal?". Retrieved 2007-10-16.
4. "Universities and Colleges". University of Utah. Retrieved 2007-10-16.
5. Scanlon, T.M. (1988), "The significance of choice", in Sen, Amartya; McMurrin, Sterling M., The Tanner lectures on human values VIII, Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, pp. 149–216, ISBN 9780874803020. Pdf.
6. Appiah, K. Anthony (1996), "Race, culture, identity: misunderstood connections", in Peterson, Grethe B., The Tanner lectures on human values XVII, Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, pp. 51–136, ISBN 9780585197708. Pdf.
7. Scalia, Antonin (1995), "Common-law Courts in a Civil-Law System: The Role of the United State Federal Courts in Interpreting the Constitution and Laws", The Tanner lectures on human values (pdf)
8. Sandel, Michael (1998). What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets (pdf).
9. "Past Lectures". The Tanner Lectures on Human Values at University of California Berkeley. Retrieved 5 April 2014.
10. Appiah, Kwame Anthony (2002), "The State and the shaping of identity", in Peterson, Grethe B., The Tanner lectures on human values XXIII, Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, pp. 235–297, ISBN 9780874807189 Pdf.
11. "The 2010 Tanner Lectures". Cambridge University. 3 November 2010. Retrieved 5 April 2014.
12. Matheson, Mark (ed.). The Tanner Lectures on Human Values XXXI. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.
13. "2011–2012 Lecture Series". The Tanner Lectures on Human Values at University of California Berkeley. Retrieved 5 April 2014.
14. Zaw, Catherine (27 January 2012). "John Cooper delivers 2012 Tanner Lecture". The Stanford Daily. Retrieved 5 April 2014.
15. "Tanner Lectures". Linacre College, Oxford University. Retrieved 5 April 2014.
16. Tanner Lectures website
17. Staff writer. "Tanner lectures". University of Cambridge.
18. Staff writer. "Events page". Michigan Law School.

External links

• Main site at University of Utah with library.
• Princeton University
• University of California at Berkeley