Global Ethics Conference “The Search for Common Ground”

Why Global Ethics?

Our new millennium witnesses a rising demand to determine shared standards for justice and human rights, and to find solutions to global problems that can be embraced across a range of nations and cultures. Achieving global consensus at a level beyond simple relativism will require bringing to light shared values and principles that could serve as the basis for collective efforts toward peace and development, as well as for peaceful and productive interaction among nations and societies. We address this issue at a time when some propose that major civilizational traditions can never achieve cooperation, and when distinctions of “right” and “left”, liberal and conservative, seem to be widening. Perhaps the project of imagining a global ethics will be fraught with the same tensions as other elements of globalization, for example, will universal standards be those established in the post-enlightenment West? Will the framework proposed be the one constructed by the forces holding economic and political power? While we invite the participation of all of those with a stake in these important discussions, we, the conference organizers, are particularly interested in contributions regarding the philosophical basis for a Global Ethics, the role of religious and cultural traditions in this area, and suggestions for initiating dialogue and cooperation regarding these issues. So the leading speakers will address, from a myriad of perspectives, the question of the existence of a shared, Global Ethic.

Opening Ceremony: April 13, 2005 Time: 9:00 a.m.-10:00 a.m. Location: Rockefeller Memorial Chapel Opening remarks by Alison L. Boden, Dean of Rockefeller Memorial Chapel and Senior Lecturer in the Divinity School; also in the College Keynote Address by "Professor Leonard Swidler" from Global Dialogue Institute of Temple University

First Session:  April 13, 2005 Time: 10:00 a.m. – noon Location: Rockefeller Memorial Chapel Theological Ethics: Morality, Common Ground, Dialogue William C. French, Associate Professor of Ethics and Society in the Department of Theology at Loyola University of Chicago Rev. Donald Senior, Professor of New Testament Studies / President S.T.L., S.T.D. University of Louvain, Belgium, President of Catholic Theological Union, Chicago, CTU Eboo Patel, The Founder and Executive Director of the Interfaith Youth Core, Chicago Ingrid H. Shafer, Professor of Philosphy and Religion Mary Jo Ragan Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies The University of Science & Arts of Oklahoma Asma Afsaruddin, Associate Professor of The Arabic and Islamic Studies, Religious and Political Thought, Islamic Intellectual History, The Joan B. Kroc Institute, University of Notre Dame.

Second Session: April 13, 2005 Time: 2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. Location: Rockefeller Memorial Chapel Theology and Ethics: Global Dynamics William Schweiker, Professor of Theological Ethics in the Divinity School; also in the College, The University of Chicago John Pawlikowski, Professor of Ethics and Director of the Catholic-Jewish Studies Program, CTU Gulten Ilhan, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Humanities, St. Louis Community College Lisa Sowle Cahill, Professor of Christian Ethics,New Testament and Ethics, Catholic Social Ethics, Feminist Theology and Sex and Gender Ethics, Bioethics, Ethics of War and Peace, Boston College. Gerard F. Powers, Director of Policy Studies, The Joan B. Kroc Institute, University of Notre Dame.

Third Session: April 14, 2005 Time: 9:00 a.m.-noon Location: Rockefeller Memorial Chapel Ethics and Politics: Shared Values in Communal Life Samuel Fleischacker, Professor of Moral and Political Philosophy, the history of Philosophy, aesthetics and the philosophy of religion, UIC Paul Hughes, Professor of Ethics, Social and Political Philosophy, University of Michigan John Garthoff, Professor of Ethics, Moral and Political Philosophy, Metaphysics, Northwestern University James Halstead, Associate Professor of Ethics and Christian Theology, DePaul University Elias Baumgarten, Professor of ethics and Social Policy, Medical Ethics, Ethics of War and Peace, University of Michigan

Closing Ceremony and Assessment Session : April 14, 2005 Time: 12:00 p.m.-2:00 p.m. Location: The University of Chicago Assembly Hall, International House 1414 E. 59th Street, Chicago, IL 60637 Closing remarks by Richard A. Rosengarten, Dean and Associate Professor of Religion and Literature in the Divinity School, The University of Chicago Closing remarks by Ali Bardakoglu, Turkey's Director of Religious Affairs Kemal Kevin Oksuz, Executive Director of the Niagara Foundation

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