The Institute is pleased to announce its 2016 Summer Seminars for high school, undergraduate and graduate students, and young faculty. These intensive programs examine vital moral questions in social, philosophical, legal, and political thought and have attracted young men and women from across the world for over a decade. With discussions guided by leading scholars from the United States and Great Britain, the Summer Seminars comprise the core of the Institute’s efforts to assist the next generation of scholars in reflecting on truly human questions.
The seminars vary in length from four days to two weeks and are all held in Princeton, New Jersey, on the campuses of Princeton University and Princeton Theological Seminary. For more information about any of the seminars, visit the links to the seminar pages below. We look forward to seeing you in Princeton this summer!
Medical Ethics: A Natural Law Perspective (June 12–18, 2016)
This seminar for students of medicine will examine the most important ethical questions that arise in the everyday practice of medicine, including freedom of conscience, proportionality, human dignity, sexuality and reproduction, and life issues.
Application deadline: April 15.
Moral Life and the Classical Tradition (Women: June 19-25, 2016 Men: June 26-July 2, 2016)
This seminar for rising high school juniors and seniors will introduce students to the ancient philosophical tradition and its influence in the Christian moral life. Topics will include the nature of the philosophy, the relationship of faith and reason, the Judeo-Christian tradition and scientific inquiry, sexual ethics, marriage and family, and biomedical ethics.
Application deadline: April 1
Natural Law and Public Affairs (July 13–17, 2016)
This seminar for advanced undergraduate and graduate students will consider natural law moral reasoning and its application to a variety of moral and political issues, including religious liberty, economic justice, just war and capital punishment, abortion, euthanasia, and marriage and sexuality.
Application deadline: March 15
First Principles: Natural Law and the Theologico-political Question (July 17–30, 2016)
This seminar for advanced undergraduate and pre-dissertation graduate students focuses on the relation between natural law and the theologico-political question, that is, the question of the best way of life, enshrined in the best laws, supported by the best form of political regime. Readings will be drawn from Thomas Aquinas, Thomas More, Eric Voegelin, and Pierre Manent.
Application deadline: April 1
Church and State Seminar: Religion and Liberty in the American Founding Era (July 24-30, 2016)
This seminar for untenured faculty and post-doctoral scholars in history, political theory, law, and religion will examine the relationship between religion and politics in the period of the American Revolution, founding, and early republic by exploring primary sources including charters, constitutions, and legal texts, sermons, pamphlets, essays, speeches, debates, and religious texts.
Application deadline: April 1.
Moral Foundations of Law (July 31–August 6, 2016)
This seminar for students of law will consider the relationship between morality and civil law, covering the history and development of legal theory, the positivism-natural law debate, constitutionalism and the judiciary, the nature of punishment, and contemporary social moral debates in the law.
Application deadline: April 1
Thomistic Seminar: Aquinas and the Philosophy of Nature (August 7–13, 2016)
This seminar for graduate students in philosophy and related disciplines will examine the study of nature, unity and diversity, substance and causality, time and creation, physics, and biology in the works of Thomas Aquinas.
Application deadline: March 31
