The Department of Philosophy and the Faculty of Humanities at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in collaboration with Yad Hanadiv - Rothschild Faculty Planning Initiative in the Humanities have launched the Centre for Moral and Political Philosophy to begin in 2014/15. The Program is co-directed by Daniel Attas (Philosophy/PEP) and David Enoch (Philosophy/Law). The goal of the Centre for Moral and Political Philosophy is: To promote the study of Moral and Political Philosophy within the Department of Philosophy at The Hebrew University, in collaboration with other departments throughout the University. To attract excellent faculty members, thereby strengthening research and teaching in the area of Moral and Political Philosophy specifically, and in the Department of Philosophy in general. To position the Department of Philosophy at The Hebrew University as an internationally recognized centre of excellence in Moral and Political Philosophy.

The Annual Project

Each year activities will revolve around a theme or designated topic. This may be a very general theme such as normative ethics, meta-ethics or political philosophy; or a more specialized sub-field such as rationality/decision theory and ethics, evolutionary theory and ethics, ethics and institutional design, and so on. The themes of the annual 2015 and 2016 projects were well-being and the value of equality; and the theme of the annual project for 2017 will be biology and ethics. One post-doctoral fellowship for a full academic year whose research is related to the theme or sub-discipline of the annual project. Post-doc fellows will collaborate with their sponsors and/or the annual project directors in their research. Post-doc fellows will assist in coordinating the graduate research group (see section 3 below) and may offer a course for advanced undergraduate students on the annual theme. The central component of the annual project is the 6 week international graduate research group (6 students, June-July). Participants will be selected from the best applicants from Israel and abroad who are in the final stages of their doctoral research. They will be expected to take part in the main activities of the group: weekly seminar, two condensed-courses, and international conference (see section 5 below). The graduate research group will be jointly coordinated by the project director and the post-doc fellow, who will both be expected to take an active part in all research group activities. Visiting fellow condensed course (June/July) for advanced undergraduate, and graduate students. The course should be aimed at graduate students – specifically those participating in the research group – but would be open to all graduate students at the philosophy and other relevant departments at the Hebrew University as well as other Israeli Universities. An international workshop/conference on the annual theme or specialized topic to take place some time in July. Expected participation of faculty at other departments and universities in Israel, the graduate research groups, internationally distinguished invited speakers, as well as a general call for papers . A selection from the papers presented at this conference will be published in a book or a special journal issue.