Michael Walzer's Work Recognized at "Justice, Culture and Tradition" Conference

Michael Walzer's Work Recognized at "Justice, Culture and Tradition" Conference

The work of one of America's foremost political thinkers will be recognized at a three-day conference on the Institute campus from June 2 to June 4. Michael Walzer, Professor Emeritus in the School of Social Science, will be celebrated for his contributions to the ethical and political philosophy of the twentieth century at the "Justice, Culture and Tradition" conference.

Walzer has written extensively on a variety of topics in political theory and moral philosophy. His most acclaimed work to date, Just and Unjust Wars (1977), is the classic contemporary text on the morality of war.

He joined the Faculty of the Institute in 1980, and was named UPS Foundation Professor in 1986, a title he retained until retiring in 2007. At that time, Walzer became Professor Emeritus.

The academic committee for the conference includes Yitzhak Benbaji of Bar-Ilan University and Shalom Hartman Institute, Amy Gutmann of the University of Pennsylvania and Avishai Margalit, George F. Kennan Professor in the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study.

A series of questions will be addressed at the conference, and Walzer will attend and comment on the papers presented. These questions include:

* How should liberalism treat cultures, cultural diversity and cultural identities?

* How should the just society distribute resources and the goods produced by social life?

* When is waging war justified? What is the meaning of national self-defense and how is it related to self-defense in the domestic realm?

* Is an international system constituted from fully sovereign states justified, or should the
international society be federalized?

Among the conference speakers will be the three members of the academic committee, along with Charles R. Beitz, Pierre Birnbaum, Mitchell Cohen, Michael Doyle, Ruth Gavison, Moshe Halbertal, Axel Honneth, George Kateb, Will Kymlicka, Jacob T. Levy, Menachem Lorberbaum, Jeff McMahan, Susan Neiman, David Novak, Brian Orend, Martin Peretz, Nancy L. Rosenblum, Michael J. Sandel, Thomas Scanlon, Haim Shapira, Charles Taylor, Georgia Warnke, Leon Wieseltier and Noam J. Zohar.

Talks will take place on Monday, June 2 from 9:45 a.m.-12:15 p.m. and 2-6 p.m., on Tuesday, June 3 from 10 a.m.-12:15 p.m. and 2-5 p.m., and on Wednesday, June 4 from 10 a.m.-12:15 p.m. and 2-6:30 p.m.

The conference is made possible with generous support from Fritz Thyssen Stiftung, the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, the Institute for Advanced Study, Shalom Hartman Institute, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, Bar-Ilan University Faculty of Law and the Heinrich Böll Foundation.

All sessions are free and open to the public, and seating is on a first come, first served basis. Registration for the conference is required. To register, for a complete agenda and for additional information, please visit the Carnegie Council's website at http://www.cceia.org.