Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics

Curricular Development

With the support of a grant from the American Express Foundation, the Center began a project designed to give ethics issues a more prominent place in the curriculum of Harvard College. The goal, fully realized, was to encourage faculty to introduce serious ethical study into undergraduate courses, including courses in which ethical questions had not usually been emphasized. This initiative helped students to confront ethical questions prior to entering professional schools and embarking on their chosen careers.

The following is a sampling of the courses developed or revised with the American Express Foundation grant. Each faculty member is listed with the title they held at the time they developed the course.

America in the Progressive Era
Ellen Fitzpatrick, Assistant Professor of History

Autonomy and Alienation: Hegel's Ethical Thought
Frederick Neuhouser, Assistant Professor of Philosophy

The Biology of Trees and Forests
Donald H. Pfister, Asa Gray Professor of Systematic Botany

Censorship and Aesthetics
Jann Matlock, Assistant Professor, Department of Romance Languages and Literatures

Confucian Ethics
Tu Wei-Ming, Professor of Chinese History and Philosophy

Environmental Quality and its Management
James N. Butler, Gordon McKay Professor of Applied Chemistry

Ethical Issues in High Risk Situations
Jerry R. Green, David A. Wells Professor of Political Economy

Ethical Issues in International Relations
Stanley H. Hoffmann, C. Douglas Dillon Professor of the Civilization of France

Ethics and Medicine: A Clinical-Historical-Philosophical Approach
Leon Chernyak, Lecturer on Pediatrics; Steven Levisohn, Instructor in Medicine

Ethics, Technics and Aesthetics: The Role of Ethics in the Work of Architecture
Clive Dilnot, Assistant Professor of Visual and Environmental Studies

Ethics Then and Now
Marlies Mueller, Senior Preceptor in Romance Languages and Literature

Ethics of Everyday Life: Work and Family
Russell Muirhead, Assistant Professor of Government

The Ethics of Friendship
Jan M. Ziolkowski, Professor of Medieval Latin and Comparative Literature

The Ethics of the Market in Islamic Thought
Roy Mottahedeh, Professor of Islamic History

The Ethics of Property
Janet Farrell Smith, Visiting Associate Professor of Religion and Public Policy

Equality and Inequality
Thomas Scanlon, Alford Professor of Natural Religion, Moral Philosophy and Civil Polity

Expository Writing: Social and Ethical Issues
Judith Beth Cohen, Preceptor in Expository Writing

Facts and Ethics
Amartya Sen, Lamont University Professor

Freedom
Orlando Patterson, Professor of Sociology

Gender and Inequality
Juliet Schor, Associate Professor of Economics; Lenore J. Weitzman, Associate Professor of Sociology

Hindu Ethics
Mary McGee, Lecturer in the Study of Religion

The History, Philosophy and Literature of the Passions
Philip J. Fisher, Professor of English and American Literature

Individual and Social Responsibility
Herbert C. Kelman, Richard Clarke Cabot Professor of Social Ethics

The Indochina Conflict
Yuen Foong Khong, Assistant Professor of Government

Issues and Approaches to 20th Century Literary Theory
Barbara Claire Freeman, Assistant Professor of English

Justice
Michael J. Sandel, Professor of Government

Moderation and Extremism
Isadore Twersky, Nathan Littauer Professor of Hebrew Literature and Philosophy

Moral Dilemmas
Bonnie Honig, Assistant Professor of Government

Persons and Things
Barbara Johnson, Professor of English and Comparative Literature

Political Obligation
Judith Shklar, John Cowles Professor of Government

The Politics of Childbirth and Childhood
Patricia Yaeger, Associate Professor of English and American Literature

Psychology and Business
Philip J. Stone, Professor of Psychology

The Psychology of Decision Making and Perceived Control
Ellen Langer, Professor of Psychology

Public and Private Morality
Stephen Macedo, Associate Professor of Government

Radical Traditions in Modern America
David Hall, Professor of American Religious History

Rational Action
Robert Nozick, Arthur Kingsley Porter Professor of Philosophy

Summary of Moral Philosophic Ideas for Teaching Purposes
Marc J. Roberts, Professor of Political Economy and Health Policy

Thinking About Thinking
Alan Dershowitz, Professor of Law; Stephen J. Gould, Professor of Geology and Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology; Robert Nozick, Arthur Kingsley Porter Professor of Philosophy

Tolerating Difference: The Ethical Limits of Comprehension
Doris Sommer, Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures

Varieties of Human Suffering
Arthur M. Kleinman, Professor of Medical Anthropology

War and the Social Context
Elaine Scarry, Professor of English and American Literature

What is Law?
Peter Berkowitz, Assistant Professor of Government

Women's Movements in the Contemporary United States
Andrea Walsh, Lecturer on Social Studies

World Religions in New England
Diana L. Eck, Professor of Comparative Religion and Indian Studies