First Principles 2008
A Seminar on Moral and Political Philosophy
in the Natural Law Tradition
(Click here for a PDF version of this announcement)
See the First Principles Seminar website here.

July 28 to August 8, 2008

Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey
Sponsored by: The Witherspoon Institute
email: John Doherty

What are the fundamental principles and premises that inform and guide human behavior at both the individual and societal levels? Does ethical theory have an objective basis, and, if so, how can we come to know and understand it? The Seminar on First Principles offers a unique opportunity to examine these and other issues through study and interaction with scholars renowned for their work in the fields of philosophy and politics. This year’s seminar has been divided into two topics:

Aquinas’s Treatise on Law in Context
(Dr. Thomas D’Andrea, Wolfson College, University of Cambridge)


Thomas Aquinas
These sessions will be devoted to a close reading of Thomas Aquinas’s Treatise on Law, particularly with an eye to how it fits into the rest of his Summa Theologiae, in which it is situated. No document is more im-portant to understanding the first principles of natural law than Aquinas’s Treatise on Law, against which all other theories of natural law are measured. Furthermore, Aquinas’s ideas about law in general are relevant even to those with no direct interest in natural law theory.


The New Natural Law and Its Critics
(Prof. Christopher Tollefsen, University of South Carolina)


Germain Grisez
These sessions will look closely at the New Natural Law theory associated with Germain Grisez, John Finnis, Joseph Boyle, and others, across five areas: the foundations of the theory and its normative structure; its theory of action; its practical ethics, especially its ethics of killing; its associated political theory; and its view of the final end of man. In addition, close attention will be given to criticisms of the New Natural Law.

Guest faculty such as Hadley Arkes (Amherst), Robert P. George (Princeton), and Daniel Robinson (Oxford) will also lead shorter sessions on various topics in political philosophy.

Enrollment information

Enrollment is open to professional students, graduate students, and advanced undergraduates. The seminar begins Monday morning, July 28th and ends the afternoon of Friday, August 8th.

Any student interested in attending should submit by May 1st, 2008 a filled application form (obtainable here), a résumé, and an essay of five hundred (500) words explaining why he or she wishes to participate in the seminar. We also require one faculty letter of recommendation, submitted by the writer directly to the Witherspoon Institute. The recommendation and all other materials should be sent electronically to John Doherty (email).

Selections will be made by June 1st. The fee for attending the seminar is $200. A limited number of partial, need-based scholarships are available.

Updated April 29, 2008

Posted December 18, 2007