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About Us

The Program in Ethics in Society, which operates under the umbrella of the Bowen H. McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society, is designed to foster scholarship, teaching, and moral reflection on fundamental issues in personal and public life. The program is grounded in moral and political philosophy, but it extends its concerns across a broad range of traditional disciplinary domains. The program is guided by the idea that ethical thought has application to current social questions and conflicts, and it seeks to encourage moral reflection and practice in areas such as business, technology, international relations, law, medicine, politics, science, and public service.

The McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society is committed to bringing ethical reflection to bear on important social problems through research, teaching, and community engagement. Drawing on the established strengths of Stanford's interdisciplinary faculty, the Center develops initiatives with ethical dimensions that relate to pressing public problems. A bridge to the undergraduate Stanford community, the Center houses the Undergraduate Program in Ethics in Society in addition to these current initiatives:

  • Public events, including the Tanner, Wesson and Arrow lectures, and multi-year themed lecture series

  • Postdoctoral Fellowship Program to promote teaching and research in ethics in society

  • An Undergraduate Program that supports an honors thesis option and the opportunity to minor in Ethics in Society for students in every major

  • Conferences, seminars and workshops in partnership with other departments across campus

  • Curriculum development around the undergraduate Ethical Reasoning breadth requirement

  • The Hope House Scholars Program in which Stanford faculty, postdocs, or graduate students teach a course in the humanities to the residents of Hope House, a residential drug and alcohol treatment facility for women, many of whom have recently been incarcerated

  • The Buzz blog, which features the voices of Stanford students and freelance writers on happenings at the Ethics Center.

There are many course offerings at Stanford that address moral and political questions, only some of which are crosslisted by the Program in Ethics in Society. 

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Program in Ethics in Society
Stanford Law School
Crown Building, 3rd floor, Suite 320
559 Nathan Abbott Way
Mail code: 3099
Stanford, CA  94305