Institute for Practical Ethics and Public Life

The mission of the Institute for Practical Ethics and Public Life is to foster scholarship, education, and research in practical ethics. To this end, the Institute provides an intellectual home for faculty and students from across the University who wish to pursue interdisciplinary scholarship, research, and teaching on the complex ethical issues that underline contemporary professions, organizations, and public policy. Additionally, the Institute aims to connect, build and support programs in practical ethics throughout the University and thus create a model for ethics as an integral part of undergraduate, graduate, and professional education

• To promote the interdisciplinary exploration of the ethical dimensions of individual and social choices in professional roles, organizations, and public policy.
• To bridge the academy and professional and public life by bringing ethical theory and practice into a close relationship.
• To develop an interactive model that brings ethicists and practitioners together so that each can learn from the other.
• To increase opportunities for students at UVA to study ethics in relation to contemporary issues and problems in professional and public life by developing additional full-credit and limited-credit courses and extra-curricular experiences such as internships.
• To foster research in practical ethics in professional life and public policy.