Michael Walzer (3 March 1935) is a political theorist and writer on society, politics, and ethics. Currently, he is a professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey and editor of Dissent, a left-wing quarterly of politics and culture. He has written on a wide range of topics, including just and unjust wars, nationalism, ethnicity, economic justice, social criticism, radicalism, tolerance, and political obligation. He is also a contributing editor to The New Republic and is on the Editorial Board of the Philosophy & Public Affairs. To date he has written twenty-seven books and has published over three hundred articles, essays, and book reviews. He is a member of several philosophical organizations including the American Philosophical Society. Joseph Raz is a legal, moral and political philosopher. ... March 3 is the 62nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (63rd in leap years). ... 1935 (MCMXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar). ... A political theorist is someone who engages in political theory. ... Young people interacting within an ethnically diverse society. ... Politics is the process by which groups make decisions. ... Ethics (from the Ancient Greek ēthikos, the adjective of ēthos custom, habit), a major branch of philosophy, including genetics is the study of values and customs of a person or group. ... Fuld Hall The Institute for Advanced Study is a private institution in Princeton Township, New Jersey, U.S.A., designed to foster pure cutting-edge research by scientists and scholars in a variety of fields without the complications of teaching or funding, or the agendas of sponsorship. ... Dissent Magazine is a left-wing magazine that was started in 1954 by Irving Howe and Lewis Coser. ... In politics, left-wing, political left, leftism, or simply the left, are terms which refer (with no particular precision) to the segment of the political spectrum typically associated with any of several strains of socialism, social democracy, or liberalism (especially in the American sense of the word), or with opposition... Just War theory is an international law doctrine that postulates that a war can be just only if it satisfies a set of moral or legal rules. ... Eugène Delacroixs Liberty Leading the People, symbolising French nationalism during the July Revolution. ... This article or section should be merged with ethnic group Ethnicity is the cultural characteristics that connect a particular group or groups of people to each other. ... The term Radical (latin radix meaning root) has been used since the late 18th century as a label in political science for those favoring or trying to produce thoroughgoing or extreme political reforms which can include changes to the social order to a greater or lesser extent. ... It has been suggested that toleration be merged into this article or section. ... An obligation can be legal or moral. ... For other uses, see the New Republic disambiguation page. ... The American Philosophical Society is a discussion group founded as the Junto in 1743 by Benjamin Franklin. ...

Michael is the older brother of historian Judith Walzer Leavitt. Judith Walzer Leavitt is Rupple Bascom and Ruth Bleier Professor of History of Medicine, History of Science, and Women’s Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. ...

Walzer is usually identified as one of the leading proponents of the "Communitarian" position in political theory, along with Alasdair MacIntyre and Michael Sandel. Like Sandel and MacIntyre, Walzer is not completely comfortable with this label. He has, however, long argued that political theory must be grounded in the traditions and culture of particular societies and opposed what he sees to be the excessive abstraction of political philosophy. His most important intellectual contributions include a revitalization of just war theory that insists on the importance of ethics in wartime while eschewing pacifism; the theory of "complex equality," which holds that the metric of just equality is not some single material or moral good, but rather that egalitarian justice demands that each good be distributed according to its social meaning, and that no good (like money or political power) be allowed to dominate or distort the distribution of goods in other spheres; and an argument that justice is primarily a moral standard within particular nations and societies, not one that can be developed in a universalized abstraction. Communitarianism as a philosophy began in the late 20th century, opposing aspects of liberalism and capitalism while advocating phenomena such as civil society. ... Alasdair Chalmers MacIntyre (born January 12, 1929 in Glasgow, Scotland) is a philosopher primarily known for his contribution to moral and political philosophy but known also for his work in history of philosophy and theology. ... Michael Sandel (1943-) is a contemporary political philosopher. ... Just war is a specific concept of how warfare might be justified, typically in accordance with a particular situation, or scenario, and expanded or supported by reference to doctrine, tradition, or historical commentary. ...

Education

In 1956 Walzer graduated Summa cum laude from Brandeis University with a B.A. in History. He then studied at the University of Cambridge on a Fulbright Fellowship (1956-1957) and completed his doctoral work at Harvard, earning his Ph.D. in Government in 1961. 1956 (MCMLVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Latin honors are Latin phrases used to indicate the level of academic distinction with which an academic degree was earned. ... Brandeis University is a private university in Waltham, Massachusetts, United States. ... Bachelor of Arts (B.A., BA or A.B.), from the Latin Artium Baccalaureus is an undergraduate bachelors degree awarded for either a course or a program in the liberal arts or the sciences, or both. ... The University of Cambridge (usually abbreviated as Cantab. ... The Fulbright Program is a program of educational grants (Fulbright Fellowships and Fulbright Scholarships), founded by United States Senator J. William Fulbright, and sponsored by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the United States Department of State, governments in other countries, and the private sector. ... 1956 (MCMLVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1957 (MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Harvard University (incorporated as The President and Fellows of Harvard College) is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Founded in 1636,[2] Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning still operating in the United States. ... Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated Ph. ... 1961 (MCMLXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1961 calendar). ...

Employment

Walzer was first employed as a professor in 1962 by Princeton University. He stayed there until 1966 when he moved to Harvard. He taught at Harvard until 1980 when he became a Permanent Faculty Member in the School of Social Science at the IAS. 1962 (MCMLXII) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1962 calendar). ... Princeton University is a coeducational private university located in Princeton, New Jersey, in the United States of America. ... 1966 (MCMLXVI) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1966 calendar). ... Harvard University (incorporated as The President and Fellows of Harvard College) is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Founded in 1636,[2] Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning still operating in the United States. ... 1980 (MCMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday. ... Fuld Hall The Institute for Advanced Study is a private institution in Princeton Township, New Jersey, U.S.A., designed to foster pure cutting-edge research by scientists and scholars in a variety of fields without the complications of teaching or funding, or the agendas of sponsorship. ...

Published works

• The Revolution of the Saints: A Study in the Origins of Radical Politics (Harvard University Press, 1965) ISBN 0-674-76786-1
• Obligations: Essays on Disobedience, War and Citizenship (Harvard University Press, 1970) ISBN 0-674-63025-4
• Political Action (Quadrangle Books, 1971) ISBN 0-8129-0173-8
• Regicide and Revolution (Cambridge University Press, 1974) ISBN 0-231-08259-2
• Just and Unjust Wars (Basic Books, 1977, second edition, 1992, third edition, 2000) ISBN 0-465-03705-4
• Radical Principles (Basic Books, 1977) ISBN 0-465-06824-3
• Spheres of Justice (Basic Books, 1983) ISBN 0-465-08189-4
• Exodus and Revolution (Basic Books, 1985) ISBN 0-465-02164-6
• Interpretation and Social Criticism (Harvard University Press, 1987) ISBN 0-674-45971-7
• The Company of Critics (Basic Books, 1988) ISBN 0-465-01331-7
• Civil Society and American Democracy (Rotbuch Verlag, 1992, in German) ISBN 3-596-13077-8
• What It Means to Be an American (Marsilio Publishers, 1992) ISBN 1-56886-025-0
• Thick and Thin: Moral Argument at Home and Abroad (Notre Dame Press, 1994) ISBN 0-268-01897-9
• Pluralism, Justice and Equality, with David Miller (Oxford University Press, 1995) ISBN 0-19-828008-4
• Toward a Global Civil Society (Berghahn Books, 1995) ISBN 1-57181-054-4
• On Toleration (Yale University Press, 1997) ISBN 0-268-01897-9
• Arguments from the Left (Atlas, 1997, in Swedish)
• Pluralism and Democracy (Editions Esprit, 1997, in French) ISBN 2-909210-19-7
• Reason, Politics, and Passion (Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, 1999, in German) ISBN 3-596-14439-6
• The Jewish Political Tradition, Vol. I Authority, co-edited, with Menachem Lorberbaum, Noam Zohar, and Yair Lorberbaum (Yale University Press, 2000) ISBN 0-300-09428-0
• Exilic Politics in the Hebrew Bible (Mohr Siebeck, 2001, in German) ISBN 3-16-147543-7
• War, Politics, and Morality (Ediciones Paidos, 2001, in Spanish) ISBN 84-493-1167-5
• Arguing About War (Yale University Press, 2004) ISBN 0-300-10365-4
• Politics and Passion: Toward A More Egalitarian Liberalism (Yale University Press, 2004) ISBN 0-300-10328-X

See also

• Hugo Grotius
• Paul Ramsey
• Emer de Vattel
• Thomas Nagel

Hugo Grotius (Huig de Groot, or Hugo de Groot; Delft, 10 April 1583 – Rostock, 28 August 1645) worked as a jurist in the Dutch Republic and laid the foundations for international law, based on natural law. ... Paul Ramsey (December 10, 1913 - February 29, 1988) was a professor of religion and a scholar of ethics, applied ethics, bio-ethics, medical ethics, Just War Theory, and Christian Ethics. ... Emerich de Vattel (April 25, 1714 - 1767) was a Swiss Philosopher, diplomat, and legal expert whose theories laid the foundation of modern international law and Political philosophy. ... Thomas Nagel (born July 4, 1937, in Belgrade, Serbia) is University Professor of Philosophy and Law at New York University and member of the Board of Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. ...

Sources and external links

• Dissent
• Walzer's biography at Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study
• Carnegie Council's resources by Michael Walzer
• "Arguing about War" Review of Walzer's Arguing about War in n+1 magazine.

For an analysis of communitarianism see: Gad Barzilai, Communities and Law: Politics and Cultures of Legal Identities [Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2003] Issue One: Negation n+1 is an American literary journal that publishes social criticism, political commentary, essays, art, poetry, book reviews, and short fiction. ...