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.
Transformed Institute for Ethics and the Common Good advances Notre Dame’s commitment to excellence in the study of ethics
The University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Advanced Study is now the Institute for Ethics and the Common Good. The transformed, expanded Institute will play an essential role in advancing the University-wide Ethics Initiative.
Director, Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study; Acting Director, Notre Dame Technology Ethics Center; Wilsey Family Collegiate Professor of Philosophy
Associate Dean for Research and Strategic Initiatives, College of Arts and Letters; Director, Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts; Associate Professor, Department of English