Ethics Initiative
We are living through a century of unprecedented technological, economic, and social change. And each new development poses significant ethical questions that we must study and decisively respond to. The Notre Dame Ethics Initiative will establish Notre Dame as a premier global destination for the study of ethics, offering superb training for future generations of ethicists and moral leaders, a platform for engagement of the Catholic moral tradition with other modes of inquiry, and an opportunity to forge insights into some of the most significant ethical issues of our time.
Status Update
This summer, the Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study (NDIAS) will become the Notre Dame Institute for Ethics and the Common Good, an essential part of the University's Ethics Initiative. Under the leadership of Meghan Sullivan, Wilsey Family College Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Ethics Initiative, the University-level institute will build on NDIAS’s core fellowships, adding strategic programming and partnering with constituents across campus to strengthen the University’s research and teaching in ethics.
The institute will be the home of the new Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., Center for Virtue Ethics, recently established in honor of University President Father Jenkins, who steps down at the end of May. The center will be a signature element of the Ethics Initiative, supporting research that advances human flourishing in both moral and spiritual contexts, facilitating the development of courses that explore ethical topics, and deepening the ethical formation of Notre Dame students and faculty. Notre Dame is unique among major universities in this high-level commitment to virtue ethics, one of the most powerful and enduring contributions of the Catholic philosophical tradition.
This past fall, the Ethics Initiative led a multi-day retreat with the Department of Philosophy to identify hiring priorities in moral philosophy. It continues to convene a sub-area faculty committee focused on technology ethics, is collaborating with the Department of Sociology and the Keough School of Global Affairs on two new joint hires in applied ethics, and is coordinating with other departments, centers, and the graduate school to develop strategies to grow ethics-related research opportunities across campus.
University of Notre Dame to establish Jenkins Center for Virtue Ethics
The new Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., Center for Virtue Ethics will be a signature element of the Notre Dame Ethics Initiative.
March Ethics Initiative event draws a big crowd
Approximately 175 members faculty, staff, students, and postdocs attended the Connect with the Ethics Initiative event on March 5 to learn more about this new University-wide endeavor.
Learn more about the Ethics Initiative
Executive Committee
Partners
- Department of Philosophy
- Department of Theology
- Department of Sociology
- John J. Reilly Center for Science, Technology, and Values
- Keough School of Global Affairs
- Mendoza College of Business
- Nanovic Institute for European Studies
- Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study
- The Graduate School
- The Lucy Institute for Data & Society
- Notre Dame-IBM Technology Ethics Lab
Additional partners will be added as work on the initiative continues in the coming months and years.
