People who follow trends in higher education are aware of a renewed emphasis on religious plurality and spirituality on college campuses. But all the articles, conferences, and campus activities surrounding religion and spirituality rarely, if at all, acknowledge one group: students who are atheists. If colleges are to be truly inclusive, they…

Recently the author has been including in her undergraduate seminars Jean-Jacques Rousseau's "Letter to d'Alembert on the Theatre" (1758), the most provocative essay on the arts ever written. It is about the unintended effects of theater--which, for Rousseau, stands in for all of the arts--on an audience. The essay is an impassioned rebuttal to…

Is ethical leadership possible in the politics of this era? Had the question no specific time frame, the answer might be yes, or at least yes and no. In the 21st century, the idea that people can expect ethical leadership in American politics is to believe that hope triumphs over experience. The purpose of politics is no longer to do what is right…

Jonathan Haidt remembers reading "Metaphors We Live By", the influential book that George P. Lakoff, a professor of linguistics and cognitive science at the University of California at Berkeley, wrote with Mark L. Johnson, a professor of philosophy at the University of Oregon. The book drew on cognitive science, psychology, linguistics, and…

America is in the midst of one of the worst economic environments since the Great Depression, and the fallout from dishonest individuals from Wall Street to Pennsylvania Avenue has been breathtaking. As a graduate student, the author has observed that many people easily begin rationalizing dishonest behavior early in their careers. He advocates…

Human beings share a world and its scarce resources with other intelligent creatures, yet humans act in ways that deny other animals a dignified existence. A discussion on why notions of basic justice, entitlement, and law can, and must be extended across the species barrier is presented.

So opined Adam Cohen recently in the "International Herald Tribune", and so, too, according to a recent book by Joshua Foa Dienstag, a political scientist at the University of California at Los Angeles, "Pessimism: Philosophy, Ethic, Spirit "(Princeton University Press, 2006). In his defense of pessimism as an appropriate and realistic philosophy,…

According to surveys, most of the people in the world say that religion is very important in their lives. Many would say that without it, their lives would be meaningless. It is tempting just to take them at their word, to declare that nothing more is to be said-- and to tiptoe away. Who would want to interfere with whatever it is that gives their…

From the top down, says the writer, Russia's universities are impoverished by bribery and insider deals large and small. A new president's dorm at Nizhniy Novgorod is one example of what anti-corruption watchdogs say is widespread mismanagement, and in some cases outright corruption, throughout the country's higher-education system. Presidents use…

To demand trustees take a moral position on a political issue asserts the primacy of political over other social and cultural values and denies the right of people of diverse views to pursue a non-political institution's interests cooperatively. (MSE)

Slavery's unequivocal evil lies at the heart of debates over apologizing for America's "peculiar institution" and awarding reparations. In The Problem of Evil: Slavery, Freedom, and the Ambiguities of American Reform, a provocative collection of original essays, the editors Steven Mintz and John Stauffer, along with 23 contributors,…

Many people in higher education think that "values talk" should be reserved for important ceremonial occasions, like commencements and reunions, or for remarks after a major scandal. In their view, values should take a back seat to the pragmatic reality of empirical evidence. But, in reality, every interesting problem of policy or practice depends…

Charles E. Curran, whose license to teach Catholic theology has been revoked by the Vatican, is part of a broad-based revisionist movement that is challenging the Church's traditional, neoscholastic approach to the discipline. (MSE)

The study of moral development has established itself firmly in American social science and produced some broad areas of scholarly consensus. However, many of education's most vocal critics charge that such scholarship, flawed by liberal biases, is what has led the nation's schools and children astray. (MSE)

A University of Redlands course, intended as an introduction to ethics and morality for college freshmen, is described. The course, "Educational Odysseys," shared personal experiences and books that had helped shape the values of the college administrators who taught the course. (MLW)