"Justice, Culture and Tradition," Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, June 2-4, 2008.

This recent conference was devoted to the work of Michael Walzer. Programme: MONDAY, JUNE 2ND 9:45AM - 10:00AM Greeting Session IAS Director Peter Goddard and Conference Organizer Yitzhak Benbaji (Bar-Ilan University) 10:00AM - 12:15PM "Distributive Justice" Thomas Scanlon (Harvard University) Michael J. Sandel (Harvard University) Commentator Amy Gutmann (University of Pennsylvania) Chair Joan W.Scott (IAS) 2:00PM - 3:00PM "The Interpretive View of Ethics" Georgia Warnke (University of California) Commentator Susan Neiman (Einstein Forum) Chair Harry Frankfurt (Princeton University) 3:30PM - 6:00PM Round Table: "The Practice of Social Criticism" Mitchell Cohen (CUNY Baruch College) Martin Peretz (The New Republic) Menachem Lorberbaum (Tel Aviv University) Axel Honneth (Institut fur Sozialforschung) Chair Ian Shapiro (Yale University) TUESDAY, JUNE 3RD 10:00AM - 12:15PM "Multiculturalism, Civil Society, and the Politics of Recognition" Jacob T. Levy (McGill University) Will Kymlicka (Queen's University) Commentator Charles Taylor (McGill University) 2:00PM - 5:00PM Round Table: "The Just War Theory - Moral and Legal Perspectives" Yitzhak Benbaji (Bar-Ilan University) Jeff McMahan (Rutgers University) Brian Orend (University of Waterloo) Michael Doyle (Columbia University) Haim Shapira (Bar-Ilan University) Commentator Noam J. Zohar (Bar-Ilan University) Chair Joel Rosenthal (Carnegie Council) WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4TH 10:00AM - 12:15PM "Tradition, Radicalism and Solidarity" Avishai Margalit (Institute for Advanced Study) George Kateb (Princeton University) Commentator Moshe Halbertal (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem) ChairYaffa Zilbershats (Bar-Ilan University) 2:00PM - 4:00PM "The Moral Standing of States" Ruth Gavison (The Hebrew University) Charles R. Beitz (Princeton University) Commentator Nancy L. Rosenblum (Harvard University) Chair Jacob T. Levy (McGill University) 4:30PM - 6:30PM Round Table: "The Jewish Political Tradition" Leon Wieseltier (The New Republic) David Novak (University of Toronto) Pierre Birnbaum (Columbia University Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies) Chair Noam J. Zohar (Bar-Ilan University) Further information may be found here: http://www.cceia.org/resources/for_educators_and_students/justice_culture_tradition_conf/01/agenda.

Kirsch, Adam. "Between Liberalism and Leftism: a Review of Michael Walzer's THINKING POLITICALLY." NEW YORK SUN December 12, 2007.

"I don't think that I ever managed real philosophy," Michael Walzer says in the interview that forms the last chapter of Thinking Politically (Yale University Press, 333 pages, $30), the stimulating new collection of his essays. This may sound like false modesty coming from Mr. Walzer, who is one of America's leading political philosophers. But in fact, by forswearing the name of philosopher, he is merely trying to give a more precise definition of the kind of thinking he does. "I couldn't breathe easily at the high level of abstraction that philosophy seemed to require," he explains. "I quickly got impatient with the playful extension of hypothetical cases, moving farther and farther away from the world we all lived in." Mr. Walzer's essays take exactly the opposite approach: They set up camp in the midst of the world we all live in bringing the rigor of political theory to the messiness of political debate. It makes sense that Mr. Walzer is both a professor at Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study and an editor of Dissent, the left-liberal journal: His theories are always also interventions. This is true of his major works — books such as Just and Unjust Wars (1977), which sought to redefine just-war theory for the post-Vietnam age, and Spheres of Justice (1983), which argues from liberal principles for a social-democratic politics. It is all the more obviously true of the essays in Thinking Politically, most of which began life as lectures and journal articles. The book offers an informal survey of the major themes of Mr. Walzer's thought, as applied to some of the major issues of the last 25 years. It is thus a good opportunity to come to grips with the strengths and the limitations of both Mr. Walzer's political principles and his way of practicing political philosophy. . . . Read the rest here: http://www.nysun.com/article/67946.