The Tanner Lectures, Tanner Lecture Library

Combining Earth science, Native knowledge in climate change battle Margaret Redsteer will draw on tribal land research for Tanner Lectures but wants to make it clear that her work pertains to everyone: “We all breathe air.”

The Tanner Lectures are a distinguished multi-university scholarly lecture series on the subject of human values.

The Tanner lectures are presented annually at each of nine universities including Cambridge, Harvard, Michigan, Oxford, Princeton, Stanford, Utah, Yale, and the University of California, Berkeley.
Appointment as a Tanner lecturer is recognition for uncommon achievement and outstanding abilities in the field of human values. The lecturers may be elicited from philosophy, religion, the humanities, the sciences, the creative arts, and learned professions, or from leadership in public or private affairs. The lectureships are international and intercultural and transcend ethnic, national, religious, and ideological distinctions.
The purpose of the Tanner Lectures is to advance and reflect upon the scholarly and scientific learning related to human values. This intention embraces the entire range of values pertinent to the human condition, interest, behavior, and aspiration. The lectures delivered at all nine universities are published in an annual volume. In addition, a series of books based on the Berkeley Tanner Lectures is published by the Oxford University Press.
American scholar, industrialist, and philanthropist Obert Clark Tanner founded the Tanner Lectures in 1978. In creating the lectureships, Professor Tanner said: "I hope these lectures will contribute to the intellectual and moral life of mankind. I see them simply as a search for a better understanding of human behavior and human values. This understanding may be pursued for its own intrinsic worth, but it may also eventually have practical consequences for the quality of personal and social life."

The Tanner Lectures Committee at the University of California, Berkeley

Chair



Visit The Tanner Foundation to learn more.

Tanner Lecture Library

Welcome to the Tanner Lecture library. To access individual lectures, click on the author's last name.

For easy viewing and printing, each lecture has been saved as a PDF (Portable Documet File). If your browser does not have the Adobe Reader, it is free and available for download from the Adobe website.

A
Allison, Dorothy	Lecture I. Mean Stories and Stubborn Girls Lecture II. What It Means to Be Free	Stanford	2001-01
Appiah, K. Anthony	Race, Culture, Identity: Misunderstood Connections	UC San Diego	1993-94	Harvard University
Appiah, K. Anthony	The State and the Shaping of Identity	Cambridge	2000-01	Harvard University
Arias Sanchez, Dr. Oscar	Poverty: The New International Enemy	UC Berkeley	1993-94	Former President, Costa Rica
Aron, Raymond	Arms Control and Peace Research	Cambridge	1979-80	College De France
Ash, Timothy Garton	The Direction of European History	Prague	1997-98	Oxford University
Ashby, Lord	The Search for an Environmental Ethic	Utah	1978-79	Cambridge University
B
Baier, Annette	Trust	Princeton	1990-91	University of Pittsburgh
Baltimore, David	On Doing Science in the Modern World	Cambridge	1991-92	Rockefeller University
Barber, Benjamin R.	Democratic Alternatives to the Mullahs and the Malls	Utah	2002	University of Maryland
Barry, Brian M.	Do Countries Have Moral Obligations? The Case of World Poverty	Harvard	1980-81	University of Chicago
Bellow, Saul	A Writer from Chicago	Oxford	1980-81	University of Chicago
Benhabib, Sylvia	Reclaiming Universalism: Negotiating Republican Self-Determinism and Cosmopolitan Norms	BERKELEY	2004	Yale University
Bennett, Jonathan	Morality and Consequences	Oxford	1979-80	University of British Columbia
Bildt, Carl	Peace After War: Our Experience	Cambridge	2005	Former Prime Minister, Sweden
Blom-Cooper, Louis	The Penalty of Imprisonment	Cambridge	1987-88	Queens College, London
Bloom, Harold	I. Shakespeare and the Value of Personality I I . Shakespeare and the Value of Love	Princeton	1995-96	Yale University
Brewster, Kingman	The Voluntary Society	Cambridge	1981-82	President Emeritus, Yale University
Breyer, Stephen	Active Liberty: Interpreting Our Democratic Constitution	Harvard	2004	Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court
Brown, Donald D.	The Impact of Modern Genetics	Oxford	1983-84	Carnegie Institute of Washington
Brown, Peter	Aspects of the Christianisation of the Roman World	Cambridge	1993-94	Princeton University
Brown, Peter	The End of the Ancient Other World: Death and Afterlife between Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages	Yale	1995-96	Princeton University
Bruntland, Dr. Gro Harlem	Environmental Challenges of the 1990s Our Responsibility to ward Future Generations	Cambridge	1990-91	Norwegian Storting
Bulger, Roger	On Hippocrates, Thomas Jefferson the Bureaucratic, Technologic Imperatives and the Future of the Healing Tradition in a Voluntary Society and Max Weber	Cambridge	1986-87	Univ. of Texas Health Science Center, Houston
Burkert, Walter	Revealing Nature amidst Multiple Cultures: A Discourse with Ancient Greeks	Michigan	1998-99	University of Zurich
Burnyeat, Myles	Culture and Society in Plato’s Republic	Harvard	1997-98	All Souls College, Oxford
C
Cavell, Stanley	The Uncanniness of the Ordinary	Stanford	1985-86	Harvard University
Cheney, Dorothy	Why Animals Don’t Have Language	Cambridge	1996-97	University of Pennsylvania
Clark, T. J.	Painting and Ground Level	Princeton	2002	University of California, Berkeley
Coetzee, John M.	The Lives of Animals	Princeton	1997-98	University of Cape Town, So. Africa
Cohen, Gerald	Incentives, Inequality, and Community	Stanford	1990-91	All Souls College, Oxford
Coles, Robert	Children as Moral Observers	Michigan	1979-80	Harvard University
D
Dahl, Robert A.	The Pseudodemocratization of the American Presidency	Harvard	1987-88	Yale University
Damasio, Antonio	Exploring the Minded Brain	Michigan	1997-98	University of Iowa
Daston, Lorraine	I. The Morality of Natural Orders II. Nature's Customs vs. Nature's Laws	Harvard	2002	Max Planck Institute and Humboldt University, Berlin
Davies, Robertson	Reading and Writing	Yale	1990-91	Canada
Davis, David Brion	Exiles, Exodus, and Promised Lands	Stanford	2006	Yale University
Dawkins, Richard	I. The Science of Religion II. The Religion of Science	Harvard	2003	University of Oxford
Dasgupta,Partha		Michigan	2000-01
deBary, William Theodore	The Trouble with Confucianism	California	1987-88	Columbia University
Dennett, Daniel	The Moral First Aid Manual	Michigan	1986-87	Tufts University
de Waal, Frans B.M.	Morality and the Social Instincts	Princeton	2003	Emory University
Diamond, Jared	The Broadest Pattern of Human History	Utah	1991-92	UCLA
Diamond, Jared	Ecological Collapses of Pre-industrial Societies	Stanford	1999-00	UCLA
E
Eco, Umberto	Interpretation and Overinterpretation: World, History, Texts	Cambridge	1989-90
Edelman, Marian Wright	Standing for Children	UC San Franscisco	1996-97	Founder & President of Children's Defense Fund
Eisenstadt, S. N.	Cultural Tradition, Historical Experience, and Social Change: The Limits of Convergence	California	1988-89	Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Elster, Jon	Taming Chance: Randomization in Individual and Social Decisions	Oxford	1986-87	University of Oslo
F
Farmer, Paul	Never Again? Reflections on Human Values and Human Rights	Utah	2005	Founding Director, Partners in Health charity, Harvard Medical School
Fei, Xiaotong	Plurality and Unity in the Configuration of the Chinese People	Chinese Univeristy	1988-89	Peking University
Feinberg, Joel	Voluntary Euthanasia and the Inalienable Right to Life	Michigan	1976-77	University of Arizona
Foucault, Michel	Omnes et Singulatim: Towards a Criticism of ‘Political Reason’	Stanford	1979-80	College de France
Frankfurt, Harry	I. Taking Ourselves Seriously II. Getting it Right	Stanford	2004	Princeton University (Emeritus)
Fraser, Nancy	Social Justice in the Age of Identity Politics: Redistribution, Recognition, and Participation	Stanford	1995-96	New School for Social Research
Freeman, Dyson	Bombs and Poetry	Oxford	1981-82	Institute for Advanced Study
Fried, Charles	Is Liberty Possible?	Stanford	1980-81	Harvard University
Fried, Michael	Roger Fry's Formalism	MICHIGAN	2001	Johns Hopkins University
Fuentes, Carlos	A Writer from Mexico	Utah	1982-83	Princeton University
Fukuyama, Francis	Social Capital	Oxford	1996-97	George Mason University
G
Gay, Peter	The Living Enlightenment	Toronto	1996-97
Geertz, Clifford	The Uses of Diversity	Michigan	1985-86	Institute for Advanced Study
Gellner, Ernest	The Civil and the Sacred	Harvard	1989-90
Gibbard, Allan	Thinking How to Live with Each Other	UC Berkeley	2006	University of Michigan
Gilligan, Carol	Joining the Resistance:Psychology, Politics, Girls, and Women	Michigan	1989-90	Harvard University
Glover, Jonathan	Towards Humanism in Psychiatry	Princeton	2003	King's College, London
Gordimer, Nadine	The Essential Gesture: Writers and Responsibility	Michigan	1984-85	South Africa
Gould, Stephen J.	Challenges to Neo- Darwinism and Their Meaning for a Revised View of Human Consciousness	Stanford	1988-89	Harvard University
Gauthier, David	The Incompleat Egoist	Stanford	1982-83	University of Pittsburgh
Gutmann, Amy	Responding to Racial Injustice	Stanford	1994-95	Princeton University
H
Habermas, Jurgen	Law and Morality	Harvard	1986-87	Johann Wolfgang Goethe Universität, Frankfurt, West Germany
Hampshire, Stuart	Justice Is Conflict: The Soul and the City	Harvard	1996-97	Stanford University
Hare, R. M.	Moral Conflicts	Utah State	1978-79	Oxford University
Hartman, Geoffrey	Text and Spirit	Utah	1998-99	Yale University
Herman, Barbara	Moral Literacy	Stanford	1996-97	Univ. of California, Los Angeles
Hill Jr., Thomas E.	Respect for Humanity	Stanford	1993-94	University of North Carolina
Hill, Christopher	T h e Bible in Seventeenth-Century English Politics	Michigan	1991-92	Oxford University
Hill, Geoffrey	Rhetorics of Value	Oxford	1999-00	Boston University
Hirschman, Albert	Two Hundred Years of Reactionary Rhetoric: The Case of the Perverse Effect	Michigan	1987-88	Institute of Advanced Study
Hoffmann, Stanley	The Nation, Nationalism, and After: The Case of France	Princeton	1992-93	Harvard University
Honneth, Axel	Reification: A Recognition-Theoretica View	UC Berkeley	2005	Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt, Germany
Hourani, Albert	Islam in European Thought	Cambridge	1988-89	Oxford University
Howard, A. E. Dick*	Toward the Open Society in Central and Eastern Europe	Utah	1993-94	University of Virginia
Howe, Irving	The Self and the State	Princeton	1989-90
Hrdy, Sarah	The Past, Present, and Future of the Human Family	Utah	2000-01	University of California, Davis
Hudson, Liam	The Life of the Mind	Yale	1996-97	Balas Copartnership, United Kingdom
I
Ignatieff, Michael	I. Human Rights as Politics II. Human Rights as Idolatry	Princeton	1999-00	Free Lance Writer
J
K
Keller, Evelyn Fox	Rethinking the Meaning of Genetic Determinism	Utah	1992-93	Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Kennedy, David M.	The Dilemma of Difference in Democratic Society	Oxford	2003	Stanford University
Kentridge, Sir Sydney QC	Human Rights: A Sense of Proportion	Oxford	2001-01	Britain
Kermonde, Sir Frank	Pleasure, Change, and the Canon	UC Berkeley	2001	University College, London, Ret.
Kleinman, Arthur	Experience and Its Moral Modes: Culture, Human Conditions, and Disorder	Stanford	1997-98	Harvard Medical School
Kohl, Helmut		UC Berkeley	1991-92	Germany
Kolakowski, Leszek	The Death of Utopia Reconsidered	Australian National University	1981-82	Oxford University
Kornai, János	I. Market Socialism Revisited I I. The Soviet Union’s Road to a Free Economy: Comments of an Outside Observer	Stanford	1989-90	Harvard University
Korsgaard, Christine	The Sources of Normativity	Cambridge	1992-93	Harvard University
Korsgaard, Christine	Fellow Creatures: Kantian Ethics and Our Duties to Animals	Michigan	2004	Harvard University
L
Landon, H. C. Robbins	Haydn and Eighteenth-Century Patronage in Austria and Hungary	Cambridge	1982-83	University College Cardiff
Lear, Jonathan	Happiness	Cambridge	1999-00	University of Chicago
Lepenies, Wolf	The End of “German Culture”	Harvard	1999-00	Olden Lane
Lewis, Bernard	Europe and Islam	Oxford	1989-90	Princeton University
Lewontin, Richard	Biological Determinism	Utah	1981-82	Harvard University
Luttwak, Edward Nicolare	Strategy: A New Era?	Yale	1989-90	Georgetown University
M
MacIntyre, Alasdair	Truthfulness, Lies, and Moral Philosophers: What Can We Learn from Mill and Kant?	Princeton	1994-95	Duke University
Maguire, Mairead Corrigan	Peacemaking from the Grassroots in a World of Ethnic Conflict	UC Riverside	1995-96	Belfast, Northern Ireland
Margalit, Avishai	I. Indecent Compromise II. Decent Peace	Stanford	2005	Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Marshall, Margaret H.	Tension and Intentions: The American Constitutions and the Shaping of Democracies Abroad	Utah	2006	Chief Justice, Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts
Meyer, Leonard B.	Music and Ideology in the Nineteenth Century	Stanford	1983-84	University of Pennsylvania
Montgomery, David N.	Citizenship and Justice in the Lives and Thoughts of Nineteenth-Century American Workers	Oxford	1990-91	Yale University
Moore, Barrington	Authority and Inequality under Capitalism and Socialism	Oxford	1984-85	Harvard University
Morrison, Toni	Unspeakable Things Unspoken: The Afro-American Presence in American Literature	Michigan	1988-89	State University of New York, Albany
Muguerza, Javier	The Alternative of Dissent	Madrid	1987-88	Inst. of Philosophy of the Superior Council of Scientific Investigations, Madrid
N
Nagel, Thomas	The Limits of Objectivity	Stanford	1977-78	Princeton University
Nehamas, Alexander	A Promise of Happiness: The Place of Beauty in a World of Art	Yale	2000-01	Princeton University
Nozick, Robert	Decisions of Principle, Principles of Decision	Princeton	1991-92	Harvard University
Nussbaum, Martha C.	Beyond the Social Contract: Toward Global Justice	Cambridge	2003	University of Chicago
O
O'Neill, Onora	Kant on Reason and Religion	Harvard	1995-96	Newham College, Cambridge
P
Pagels, Elaine	The Origin of Satan in Christian Tradition	Utah	1996-97	Princeton University
Parfit, Derek	What We Could Rationally Will	UC Berkeley	2002	All Souls College, Oxford
Passmore, John A.	The Representative Arts as a Source of Truth	Cambridge	1980-81	Australian National University
Paz, Octavio	Poetry and Modernity	Utah	1989-90	Mexico City
Penrose, Sir Roger	Space-time and Cosmology	Cambridge	1994-95	Oxford Mathematics Institute
Pinker, Stephen	The Blank Slate, the Noble Savage, and the Ghost in the Machine	Yale	1998-99	MIT
Pinsky, Robert	American Culture and the Voice of Poetry	Princeton	2000-01	Boston University
Pocock, John G. A.	Edward Gibbon in History: Aspects of the Text in The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire	Yale	1988-89	Johns Hopkins University
Popper, Sir Karl	Three Worlds	Michigan	1977-78	University of London
Posner, Richard	Euthanasia and Health Care: Two Essays on the Policy Dilemmas of Aging and Old Age	Yale	1994-95	United States Court of Appeals
Prigogine, Ilya	Only an Illusion	Jawaharlal Nehru University	1982-83	University of Brussels
Q
Quinton, Lord	The Varieties of Value	Warshaw	1987-88	London
R
Rawls, John	The Basic Liberties and Their Priority	Oxford	1977-78	Harvard University
Raz, Joseph	The Practice of Value	UC Berkeley	2000-01	Oxford University
Reichl, Ruth	Why Food Matters	Yale	2005	Editor in Chief, Gourmet Magazine
Relman, Arnold S.	Medicine as a Profession and a Business	Utah	1985-86	New England Journal of Medicine
Richardson, William C.	Reconceiving Health Care to Improve Quality	UC Santa Barbara	1999-00	W. K. Kellogg Foundation (postponed to 2001)
Robinson, Joan	The Arms Race	Utah	1980-81	Cambridge University
Robinson, Mary	I. Human Rights and Ethical Globalization II. The Challenge of Human Rights Protection in Africa	Stanford	2003	United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
Rorty, Richard	Feminism and Pragmatism	Michigan	1990-91	University of Virginia
Rosen, Charles	Tradition without Convention: The Impossible Nineteenth-Century Project	Utah	1999-00
Rushdie, Salman	Step Across This Line	Yale	2002	Award-Winning Author
S
Sachs, Jeffrey*	Shock Therapy in Poland: Perspectives of Five Years *Howard, Sachs, & Adam Zagajewski, shared lectureship and honorarium at Utah in 1993-94.	Utah	1993-94	Harvard University
Sagdeev, Roald	Science and Revolutions	Oxford	1991-92	University of Maryland
Sahlins, Marshall	Hierarchy, Equality, and the Sublimation of Anarchy: the Western Illusion of Human Nature	Michigan	2005	University of Chicago
Sandel, Michael J.	What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets	Oxford	1997-98	Harvard University
Scalia, Antonin	Common-Law Courts in a Civil-Law System: The Role of United States Federal Courts in Interpreting the Constitution and Laws	Princeton	1994-95	U.S. Supreme Court
Scanlon, Thomas	The Status of Well-Being	Michigan	1996-97	Harvard University
Scanlon, Thomas M.	The Significance of Choice	Oxford	1985-86	Harvard University
Scarry, Elaine	On Beauty and Being Just	Yale	1997-98	Harvard University
Schama, Simon		Harvard	2000-01	Columbia University
Schelling, Thomas C.	Ethics, Law, and the Exercise of Self-Command	Michigan	1981-82	Harvard University
Schmidt, Helmut	The Future of the Atlantic Alliance	Utah	1983-84	Former Chancellor, West Germany
Schuller, Gunther	I. Jazz: A Historical Perspective II. Duke Ellington III. Charles Mingus	Cambridge	1995-96	Newton Center, Massachusetts
Sen, Amartya	Equality of What?	Stanford	1978-79	Harvard University
Sen, Amartya K.	The Standard of Living	Cambridge	1984-85	Oxford University
Shklar, Judith N.	Am erican Citizenship: The Quest for Inclusion	Utah	1988-89	Harvard University
Simon, Herbert	Scientific Literacy as a Goal in a High - Technology Society	Michigan	1983-84	Carnegie-Mellon University
Skinner, Quentin	The Paradoxes of Political Liberty	Harvard	1983-84	Cambridge University
Slabbert, F. Van Zyl	The Dynamics of Reform and Revolt in Current South Africa	Oxford	1987-88	South Africa
Slote, Michael	Moderation, Rationality, and Virtue	Stanford	1984-85	University of Maryland
Slynn, Lord of Hadley	Law and Culture – A European Setting	Oxford	1993-94	House of Lords
Snyder, Solomon H.	Drugs and the Brain and Society	Hebrew University	1980-81	Johns Hopkins
Solow, Robert	Welfare and Work	Princeton	1996-97	Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Spence, Jonathan	Ideas of Power: China’s Empire in the Eighteenth Century and Today	Utah	1997-98	Yale University
Stegner, Wallace	The Twilight of Self-Reliance: Frontier Vulues and Contemporary America	Utah	1979-80	Los Altos Hills, California
Stern, Fritz	I. Mendacity Enforced: Europe, 1914-1989 II. Freedom and Its Discontents: Postunification Germany	Yale	1992-93	Columbia University
Stigler, George	Economics or Ethics?	Harvard	1979-80	University of Chicago
Stone, Alan	Psychiatry and Morality	Stanford	1981-82	Harvard University
Stone, Lawrence	Family Values in a Historical Perspective	Harvard	1993-94	Princeton University
Striker, Gisela	Greek Ethics and Moral Theory	Stanford	1986-87	Philsophisches Seminar der Georg-August Universitat & Columbia Univ.
Stroud, Barry	The Study of Human Nature and the Subjectivity of Value	Buenos Aries	1987-88	University of California, Berkeley
Sullivan, Kathleen		Harvard	2001-02	Stanford University
Sunstein, Cass R.	Political Conflict and Legal Agreement	Harvard	1994-95	University of Chicago Law School
Suzman, Janet	Who Needs Parables?	Oxford	1994-95	South Africa
T
Taylor, Charles	Modernity and the Rise of the Public Sphere	Stanford	1991-92	McGill University
Thomson, Judith Jarvis	Goodness and Advice	Princeton	1998-99	MIT
Toulmin, Stephen	The Idol of Stability	Cambridge	1997-98	University of Southern California
Tribe, Laurence H.	On Reading the Constitution	Utah	1986-87	Harvard University
Tribe, Laurence H.	The Constitution in Crisis	Oxford	2002	Harvard University
U
V
Vendler, Helen H.	Poetry and the Mediation of Value: Whitman on Lincoln	Michigan	1999-00	Harvard University
Verba, Sidney	Representative Democracy and Democratic Citizens: Philosophical and Empirical Understandings	Oxford	1998-99	Harvard University
Von Wright, Georg Henrik	Of Human Freedom	HeIsinki	1983-84
W
Walzer, Michael	Interpretation and Social Criticism	Harvard	1985-86	Institute for Advanced Study
Walzer, Michael	Nation and Universe	Oxford	1988-89	Institute for Advanced Study
Warner, Marina	Spirit Visions	Yale	1999-00
White, Richard	The Problem with Purity	UC Davis	1998-99	Stanford University
Wills, Garry L.	Henry Adams: The Historian as a Novelist	Yale	2003	Northwestern University
Wilson, Edward O.	Comparative Social Theory	Michigan	1978-79	Harvard University
Wilson, James Q.	I. Politics and Polarization II. Religion and Polarization	Harvard	2005	Peperdine University
Wilson, William Julius	The New Urban Poverty and the Problem of Race	Michigan	1993-94	University of Chicago
X
Y
Z
Zagajewski, Adam*	A Bus Full of Prophets: Adventures of the Eastern-European Intelligentsia *Howard, Sachs, & Adam Zagajewski, shared lectureship and honorarium at Utah in 1993-94.