McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society at Stanford University

What Is Education For?

Above all, preparing students for civic and political engagement.

  • Danielle Allen
with responses from
  • Carlos Fraenkel
  • Deborah Meier
  • Michel DeGraff
  • Debra Satz
  • Lelac Almagor
  • Jeffrey Aaron Snyder
  • Lucas Stanczyk
  • Rob Reich
  • Clint Smith

Matters of Choice

Scholar and retired Army officer Andrew Bacevich on the U.S. war for the Greater Middle East

  • Andrew J. Bacevich
  • Stephen Kinzer

To Hell with Good Intentions

School reform is failing America’s children.

  • Rob Reich

The Logic of Effective Altruism

A minimally acceptable ethical life requires using a substantial part of one’s spare resources to make the world a better place.

  • Peter Singer
with responses from
  • Emma Saunders-Hastings
  • Daron Acemoglu
  • Rob Reich
  • Angus Deaton
  • Paul Brest
  • Jennifer Rubenstein
  • Iason Gabriel
  • Larissa MacFarquhar
  • András Miklós
  • Leila Janah
  • Catherine Tumber

Why Pakistan Chose Coal: Ethics in an Energy Crisis

 Ethicists, economists, and others have developed a set of useful tools for deciding what to do when economic, environmental, and social values conflict. 

  • Debra Satz
  • Mark Budolfson
  • Blake Francis
  • Hyunseop Kim

Where Is Inequality Headed?

What History and Economics Tell Us About Inequality's Future

  • Anthony Atkinson

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Slavery, Emancipation, and Equality

Wesson Lecture Discussion

  • Elizabeth Anderson
  • Joshua Cohen
  • David Hollinger

Slavery, Emancipation, and the Relationship of Freedom and Equality

Two Objections to Slavery

  • Elizabeth Anderson

Democracy and Philanthropy

Rob Reich on the Role of Foundations in Democratic Societies

  • Rob Reich

Beyond Blame

The philosophy of personal responsibility has ruined criminal justice and economic policy. It’s time to move past blame.

  • Barbara H. Fried
with responses from
  • Paul Bloom
  • Christine M. Korsgaard
  • Gideon Rosen
  • Erin Kelly
  • Brian Leiter
  • Adriaan Lanni
  • George Sher
  • Mike Konczal
  • T. M. Scanlon

Our Collaboration with the Stanford Ethics Center

The Bowen H. McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society at Stanford University has partnered with Boston Review to share content from its fellows and guest lecturers.

  • Deborah Chasman

Much Ado About MOOCs

We should examine the potential of online learning with an open mind.

  • Rob Reich

What Are Foundations For?

Philanthropic institutions are plutocratic by nature. Can they be justified in a democracy?

  • Rob Reich
with responses from
  • Christopher J. Coyne
  • Stanley N. Katz
  • Diane Ravitch
  • Deborah Fung
  • Paul Brest
  • Rick Cohen
  • Tyler Cowen
  • Seana Valentine Shiffrin
  • Pablo Eisenberg
  • Larry Kramer
  • Eric Beerbohm
  • Robert K. Ross
  • Gara LaMarche
  • Emma Saunders-Hastings

Lives of the Moral Saints

An Interview with Larissa MacFarquhar

  • David V. Johnson

Taxing Away Inequality

A Conversation with Emmanuel Saez

  • David B. Grusky
  • Emmanuel Saez

An Embarrassment of Riches

Literature and the Ethics of Wealth in the Gilded Age

  • Gavin Jones

Occupy the Future

A Boston Review Book

  • David B. Grusky
  • Rob Reich
  • Debra Satz
  • Doug McAdam

Before Greed

Americans Didn’t Always Yearn for Riches

  • Richard White
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