Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics

Last updated

Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics
Established1986;38 years ago (1986)
Director Eric Beerbohm
Location Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
Operating agency
 Harvard University
Website ethics.harvard.edu

The Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics is a research center at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The center's mission is to "advance teaching and research on ethical issues in public life." [1] It is named for Edmond J. Safra and Lily Safra and is supported by the Edmond J. Safra Foundation. The Center for Ethics was the first interfaculty initiative at Harvard University.

Contents

Founded as the Program in Ethics and the Professions in 1986, the center has supported the work of more than 800 fellows and visiting scholars. Many have spent a year or more at the center. [2] They include professors, graduate students, and undergraduates, journalists, physicians, lawyers, psychologists from many educational institutions and governments throughout the world.

The center does not promote a particular theory or conception of ethics or morality but rather encourages rigorous study of difficult ethical issues, informed by empirical research and philosophical analysis. Although the range of topics range widely, major themes have included professional ethics, institutional corruption, “Diversity, Justice and Democracy,” and "Political Economy and Justice." [3] [ citation needed ]

History

Harvard President Derek Bok argued that there was a pressing need for "problem-oriented courses in ethics" that would prepare students for the moral dilemmas and ethical decisions they would face throughout their careers. [4] He recruited Dennis Thompson, then a professor at Princeton, to come to Harvard to start a new program. [5] [6] It was Harvard's first major inter-faculty initiative.

In 1990, a graduate fellows program was established by Arthur Applbaum, a fellow in the first class and now a professor of ethics at the Harvard Kennedy School.

Thompson worked with Bok, and subsequent Harvard Presidents Neil Rudenstine and Lawrence Summers to raise funds to support the program which now has an endowment of more than $55 million. major benefactors are the Edmond J. Safra Foundation, the estate of Lester Kissel, Eugene P. Beard and the American Express Foundation.

Twenty years later Bok observed that "one of the best new developments in professional education is the wide and growing interest in resolving problems of ethics. Harvard’s Center was instrumental in this effort, and it has exceeded even my own optimistic expectations." [7]

When Thompson stepped down, Lawrence Lessig, a scholar of Internet law at Stanford was appointed to lead the center. [8] He had been a fellow at the center in 1996-1997 and developed his ideas on Internet law there. As director, Lessig led a campaign against institutional corruption. He took the campaign to the public, and ran for President of the U.S. in 2015.

In 2011, the center announced a partnership with InnoCentive "seeking innovative systems to monitor institutions for potential signs of corrupting forces." [9]

After Lessig resigned in 2015, he was replaced by Danielle Allen, a political theorist at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. [10] Her vision took the program from the Thompson and Lessig eras into a larger endeavor to target world problems.

Eric Beerbohm became the center's fourth director. Harvard University Provost and Chief Academic Officer Alan Garber stated that Beerbohm's intellectual achievements in ethics and political thought and his cross-disciplinary engagement both inside and outside the University made him an ideal candidate. [11] Beerbohm has a long history of engagement with the center, having served as a faculty fellow from 2009 to 2010, and then as Director of Graduate Fellowships from 2010 to 2017 and Founding Director of its Undergraduate Fellowship Program. [12]

Faculty

In July 2023, Beerbohm was appointed director of the Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics, replacing Danielle Allen, who served in this position from 2015. She succeeded Lawrence Lessig, who served from 2009 to 2015. Dennis Thompson, appointed by President Derek Bok in 1986, is the founding director. [13]

Fellowships

The center offers four categories of fellowships: undergraduate fellows, graduate fellows, fellows-in-residence; and ethics pedagogy fellows. [14] In 2016, the center entered into a partnership with the Berggruen Institute's Philosophy and Culture Center, as a partner institution for the Berggruen Fellowship Program. The Philosophy and Culture Center supports three Berggruen Fellows each year. Berggruen Fellows engage in scholarship of broad social and political importance from cross-cultural perspectives, and demonstrate a commitment to the public dissemination of their ideas. [15]

Notable fellows and alumni

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lawrence Lessig</span> American legal scholar and activist (born 1961)

Lester Lawrence "Larry" Lessig III is an American legal scholar and political activist. He is the Roy L. Furman Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and the former director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University. He is the founder of Creative Commons and of Equal Citizens. Lessig was a candidate for the Democratic Party's nomination for president of the United States in the 2016 U.S. presidential election but withdrew before the primaries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harvard Kennedy School</span> Public policy school of Harvard University

Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), officially the John F. Kennedy School of Government, is the school of public policy and government of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school has routinely ranked as the best, or among the best, of the world's public policy graduate schools. Harvard Kennedy School offers master's degrees in public policy, public administration, and international development, four doctoral degrees, and various executive education programs. It conducts research in subjects relating to politics, government, international affairs, and economics. As of 2021, HKS had an endowment of $1.7 billion. It is a member of the Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs (APSIA), a global consortium of schools that trains leaders in international affairs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society</span> Research center at Harvard University

The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society is a research center at Harvard University that focuses on the study of cyberspace. Founded at Harvard Law School, the center traditionally focused on internet-related legal issues. On May 15, 2008, the center was elevated to an interfaculty initiative of Harvard University as a whole. It is named after the Berkman family. On July 5, 2016, the center added "Klein" to its name following a gift of $15 million from Michael R. Klein.

Lily Safra was a Brazilian-Monegasque billionaire and socialite who amassed considerable wealth through her four marriages. She had a significant art collection and owned the historic Villa Leopolda on the French Riviera. Her net worth was estimated at $1.3 billion. She became strongly engaged with philanthropy when she married the banker Edmond Safra, and this continued through their foundation after his death in 1999.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aaron Swartz</span> Computer programmer and internet/political activist (1986–2013)

Aaron Hillel Swartz, also known as AaronSw, was an American computer programmer, entrepreneur, writer, political organizer, and Internet hacktivist. As a programmer, Swartz helped develop the web feed format RSS; the technical architecture for Creative Commons, an organization dedicated to creating copyright licenses; the Python website framework web.py; and the lightweight markup language format Markdown. Swartz was involved in the development of the social news aggregation website Reddit until he departed from the company in 2007. He is often credited as a martyr and a prodigy, and his work focused on civic awareness and activism.

Dennis Frank Thompson is a political scientist and professor at Harvard University, where he founded the university-wide Center for Ethics and the Professions. Thompson is known for his pioneering work in the fields of both political ethics and democratic theory. According to a recent appraisal, he has become “influential within the world of political theory" by offering “greater concrete political thought than Rawls” and by showing “an atypical grasp, for a political theorist, of the real political world.”

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martha Minow</span> American legal scholar

Martha Louise Minow is an American legal scholar and the 300th Anniversary University Professor at Harvard University. She served as the 12th Dean of Harvard Law School between 2009 and 2017 and has taught at the Law School since 1981.

Samuel Aaron Moyn is the Chancellor Kent Professor of Law and History at Yale University, previously the Henry R. Luce Professor of Jurisprudence at Yale Law School and Professor of History at Yale University, which he joined in July 2017. Previously, he was a professor of history at Columbia University for thirteen years and a professor of history and of law at Harvard University for three years. His research interests are in modern European intellectual history, with special interests in France and Germany, political and legal thought, historical and critical theory, and Jewish studies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International Institute for Neuroscience of Natal</span> Brazilian research organization

The International Institute for Neurosciences of Natal - Edmond and Lily Safra is located in Natal, capital city of the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Norte. It was projected and is directed by neuroscientist Miguel Nicolelis. The IINN aims to decentralize research in Brazil, currently restricted to South and Southeast regions of Brazil.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David B. Wilkins</span> American lawyer

David B. Wilkins is an American legal scholar who is the Lester Kissel Professor of Law and faculty director of the Center on the Legal Profession at Harvard Law School. He is a senior research fellow of the American Bar Foundation, the Harvard Law School's vice dean for global initiatives on the legal profession, and a faculty associate of the Harvard University Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Real Colegio Complutense</span>

The Real Colegio Complutense at Harvard University (RCC) in Cambridge, Massachusetts is an academic institution aimed at providing intellectual exchange between Harvard and the Spanish Academia. It is named after Spanish largest university, the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, which established it in cooperation with Harvard University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ruth Chang</span> American philosopher

Ruth Chang is an American philosopher and legal scholar who serves as the Professor and Chair of Jurisprudence at the University of Oxford, a Professorial Fellow of University College, Oxford, and a professor of philosophy. She was previously a professor at Rutgers University from 1998 to 2019. She is known for her research on the incommensurability of values and on practical reason and normativity. She is also widely known for her work on decision-making and is lecturer or consultant on choice at institutions ranging from video-gaming to pharmaceuticals, the U.S. Navy, World Bank, and CIA.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Berggruen Institute</span> American think tank founded in 2010

The Berggruen Institute is a Los Angeles-based think tank founded by Nicolas Berggruen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Moshe Cohen-Eliya</span> Israeli attorney and law professor

Moshe Cohen-Eliya is an Israeli attorney and a professor of constitutional law and the President of the College of Law and Business. Prior to his service as the President, he was the dean of the law school at the College (2010-2015). He is the founder and was the editor-in-chief of the journal Law & Ethics of Human Rights (2007-2012).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lawrence Lessig 2016 presidential campaign</span>

The 2016 presidential campaign of Lawrence Lessig, a law professor at Harvard University and cofounder of Creative Commons, was formally announced on September 6, 2015, as Lessig confirmed his intentions to run for the Democratic Party's nomination for President of the United States in 2016. Lessig had promised to run if his exploratory committee raised $1 million by Labor Day, which it accomplished one day early. He described his candidacy as a referendum on campaign finance reform and electoral reform legislation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Haim Sompolinsky</span>

Haim Sompolinsky, is the William N. Skirball Professor of Neuroscience at the Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences, and a professor of physics at the Racah Institute of Physics at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. He is also a visiting professor in the Center of Brain Science at Harvard University and the director of Harvard's Swartz Program in Theoretical Neuroscience. He is widely regarded as one of the leaders of theoretical neuroscience.

Christopher Tarver Robertson is a specialist in health law working at the intersection of law, philosophy and science. His research explores how the law affects decision making in domains of scientific uncertainty and misaligned incentives, which he calls "institutional epistemology." Robertson is professor, N. Neal Pike Scholar, and Associate Dean at Boston University. He is affiliated faculty with the Petrie Flom Center for Health Care Policy, Bioethics and Biotechnology at Harvard Law School. His work includes tort law, bioethics, the First Amendment, and corruption in healthcare and politics. His legal practice has focused on complex litigation involving medical and scientific disputes.

Gillian Greenwall Brock is a New Zealand philosophy and ethics academic. She is currently a full professor at the University of Auckland and fellow at the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, Harvard University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christine Mitchell</span> American filmmaker and bioethicist

Christine I. Mitchell is an American filmmaker and bioethicist and until her retirement in September 2022, the executive director of the Center for Bioethics at Harvard Medical School (HMS).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nir Eyal (bioethicist)</span>

Nir Eyal is a bioethicist and Henry Rutgers Professor of Bioethics and Director of the Center for Population–Level Bioethics at Rutgers University in New Jersey. He was formerly a bioethicist in the Department of Global Health and Population of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine of the Harvard Medical School. He has long worked closely with Harvard bioethicist Daniel Wikler. Eyal's current visibility concerns his role in studying the ethics of human challenge trials in HIV, malaria, and coronavirus vaccine development. He has also written on 'bystander risks' during pandemics and infectious diseases and contract tracing during ebola.

References

  1. ↑ "Mission". Ethics.harvard.edu. Archived from the original on January 12, 2013. Retrieved September 16, 2013.
  2. ↑ Gudrais, Elizabeth (May 2007). "Ethics in Practice". Harvard Magazine.
  3. ↑ "Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics Research Themes".
  4. ↑ Bok, Derek (October 1976). "Can Ethics Be Taught?". Choice Magazine. 8 (9): 26–30. doi:10.1080/00091383.1976.10568973.
  5. ↑ "Director of New Interfaculty Program on Ethics Appointed". Harvard University Gazette. April 11, 1986.
  6. ↑ Winkler, Karen (July 20, 1988). "Harvard Program for Study of Professional Ethics Aims to Advance Scholarly Research in the Field". Chronicle of Higher Education.
  7. ↑ "History".
  8. ↑ "Lawrence Lessig receives two Harvard appointments". Harvard University Gazette. December 18, 2008.
  9. ↑ "Harvard University's Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics Partners with InnoCentive to Identify Systems to Monitor Institutional Corruption". Innocentive.com. Archived from the original on May 31, 2014. Retrieved September 16, 2013.
  10. ↑ "Danielle Allen named to Harvard posts". Harvard University Gazette. December 18, 2014.
  11. ↑ "Beerbohm appointed director of Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Ethics". Harvard Gazette. May 8, 2023. Retrieved July 14, 2023.
  12. ↑ "Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics". ethics.harvard.edu. Retrieved July 14, 2023.
  13. ↑ "Faculty Committee | Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics". ethics.harvard.edu. Retrieved August 22, 2019.
  14. ↑ "Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics Fellowships".
  15. ↑ "Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics Berggruen Fellowship".
  16. ↑ "Chris Hayes Moves To MSNBC Weeknights". Deadline Hollywood . Retrieved September 16, 2013.
  17. ↑ Seidman, Bianca (July 22, 2011). "Internet activist charged with hacking into MIT network". Arlington, Va.: Public Broadcasting Service. [Swartz] was in the middle of a fellowship at Harvard's Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, in its Lab on Institutional Corruption
  18. ↑ "Lab Fellows 2010–2011: Aaron Swartz". Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics. Harvard University. 2010. Archived from the original on May 29, 2013. During the fellowship year, he will conduct experimental and ethnographic studies of the political system to prepare a monograph on the mechanisms of political corruption.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.