Conference: "Justice, Culture and Tradition"

"Justice, Culture and Tradition"

To recognize Michael Walzer's contributions to the ethical and political philosophy of the twentieth century, a conference titled Justice, Culture and Tradition will take place June 2-4, 2008 at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), Princeton, New Jersey.

The Conference will consider the following questions:

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

How should the just society distribute resources and the goods social life produces?

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?

The political philosophy of the 20th century intensely explored the themes raised by these questions; however, a conception of the inter-relations among the issues they raise is still under-developed. A penetrating discussion of Walzer's philosophy will allow us to fill this gap.

Michael Walzer will attend and comment on the papers presented.

The conference is organized by Professor Yitzhak Benbaji of Bar-Ilan University and Shalom Hartman Institute.


All sessions are free of charge and open to the public. Please RSVP for each session by contacting Danielle Candy at dcandy@cceia.org, or 212-838-4120, ext. 259.

MONDAY, JUNE 2ND

9:45AM - 10:00AM Greeting Session
IAS Director Peter Goddard and Conference Organizer Yitzhak Benbaji (Bar-Ilan University)

10:00AM - 12:15PM "Distributive Justice"
Speakers
Thomas Scanlon (Harvard University)
Michael J. Sandel (Harvard University)
Commentator
Amy Gutmann (University of Pennsylvania)
Chair
Joan W.Scott (IAS)

2:00PM - 3:00PM "The Interpretive View of Ethics"
Speaker
Georgia Warnke (University of California)
Commentator
Susan Neiman (Einstein Forum)
Chair
Harry Frankfurt (Princeton University)

3:30PM - 6:00PM Round Table: "The Practice of Social Criticism"
Speakers
Mitchell Cohen (CUNY Baruch College)
Martin Peretz (The New Republic)
Menachem Lorberbaum (Tel Aviv University)
Axel Honneth (Institut fur Sozialforschung)
Chair
Ian Shapiro (Yale University)


TUESDAY, JUNE 3RD

10:00AM - 12:15PM "Multiculturalism, Civil Society, and the Politics of Recognition"
Speakers
Jacob T. Levy (McGill University)
Will Kymlicka (Queen's University)
Commentator
Charles Taylor (McGill University)

2:00PM - 5:00PM Round Table: "The Just War Theory - Moral and Legal Perspectives"
Speakers
Yitzhak Benbaji (Bar-Ilan University)
Jeff McMahan (Rutgers University)
Brian Orend (University of Waterloo)
Commentator
Noam J. Zohar (Bar-Ilan University)


Speakers
Michael Doyle (Columbia University)
Haim Shapira (Bar-Ilan University)
Chair
Joel Rosenthal (Carnegie Council)
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4TH

10:00AM - 12:15PM "Tradition, Radicalism and Solidarity"
Speakers
Avishai Margalit (Institute for Advanced Study)
George Kateb (Princeton University)
Commentator
Moshe Halbertal (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)


2:00PM - 4:00PM "The Moral Standing of States"
Speaker
Ruth Gavison (The Hebrew University)
Charles R. Beitz (Princeton University)
Commentator
Nancy L. Rosenblum (Harvard University)
Chair
Jacob T. Levy (McGill University)


4:30PM - 6:30PM Round Table: "The Jewish Political Tradition"
Speakers
Leon Wieseltier (The New Republic)
David Novak (University of Toronto)
Pierre Birnbaum (Columbia University Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies)
Chair
Noam J. Zohar (Bar-Ilan University)