Debate on ethics of Iraq war set April 13

Jeff McMahan, professor of philosophy at Rutgers University and a visiting research collaborator at the Center for Human Values at Princeton University

8:58 a.m., April 4, 2005--Two of North America's leading moral philosophers will debate the justification of the Iraq war at 7 p.m., Wednesday, April 13, in 007 Willard Hall Education Building.

Jeff McMahan, professor of philosophy at Rutgers University and a visiting research collaborator at the Center for Human Values at Princeton University, will argue against the Iraq war, while Thomas Hurka, Jackman Distinguished Professor of Philosophical Studies at the University of Toronto and a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, will argue in support of the Iraq war.

The debate, "Is the War in Iraq Justified?" is part of the Great Debate Series, sponsored by the Delaware Interdisciplinary Ethics Program. A reception will follow the debate, which is free and open to the public.

Students from Delaware colleges are invited to further analyze the issues raised in the debate through an essay contest with $1,200 in prize money. Contestants should defend an informed point of view on the debate topic in typed, double-spaced essays, up to 10 pages in length. Contest entry forms will be available at the debate.

Thomas Hurka, Jackman Distinguished Professor of Philosophical Studies at the University of Toronto

McMahan received a bachelor’s degree in English literature and a master’s degree in philosophy at Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. He received a doctoral degree at St. John's College, Cambridge University, where he was a research fellow. He is the author of The Ethics of Killing: Problems at the Margins of Life and is presently working on a sequel, provisionally called The Ethics of Killing: Self-Defense, War and Punishment.

Hurka received a doctoral degree in philosophy at Oxford University. His article entitled "Proportionality in the Morality of War" is published in the winter 2005 issue of the journal Philosophy and Public Affairs. The most recent of several books that he has authored is Virtue, Vice and Value.

“There are many difficult ethical issues that we must deal with as parents, voters, community leaders, teachers and professionals,” Frederick Adams, chair of the Delaware Interdisciplinary Ethics Program and of UD’s Department of Philosophy, said. “We are excited to offer a number of public programs, including the Great Debates, which bring national experts to Delaware to share their insights on important ethical concerns such as the moral justification of war.”

The Ethics Program is steered by representatives from a consortium of Delaware institutions of higher learning, health care institutions and research organizations.

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