The Ohio State Center for Ethics and Human Values' annual Distinguished Lecture in Ethics brings to campus leading ethicists and political philosophers who have demonstrated the value of ethical reflection beyond academia. Past speakers include Amartya Sen, Danielle Allen, Elizabeth Anderson, Miranda Fricker, Michele Moody-Adams, Tommie Shelby, Sally Haslanger, and Andrew Light.
For our 2026 Distinguished Lecture, CEHV is delighted to welcome Harry Brighouse (Mildred Fish Harnack Professor of Philosophy and Carol Dickson Bascom Professor of the Humanities, University of Wisconsin-Madison).
Brighouse's research interests span political philosophy, philosophy of education, and educational policy. His books include: (with Adam Swift) Family Values: the Ethics of Parent-Child Relationships (Princeton 2014); (edited with Michael McPherson) The Aims of Higher Education: Problems of Morality and Justice (Chicago, 2015), which won the 2017 Federic W Ness Award from the Association of American Colleges and Universities; and (with Helen F Ladd, Susanna Loeb, and Adam Swift) Educational Goods (Chicago, 2018). Brighouse is an affiliate with the Institute for Research on Poverty at UW-Madison, and the Stone Center for Research on Wealth Inequality and Social Mobility at the University of Chicago. He was elected to the American Academy for the Arts and Sciences in 2025.
The Civic Aims of a College Education
It's a cliche that universities should foster good citizenship. But what aspects of citizenship should they foster, and how? Harry Brighouse will argue that colleges should foster deliberative responsibility — the skills and dispositions that enable and incline someone to take seriously the views of people with whom they disagree, sometimes profoundly, on political matters. He will explore the many ways in which we fall short of doing this well and suggest ways that we can improve.
The Distinguished Lecture in Ethics is free and open to the public.