The Tanner Lectures are a distinguished multi-university scholarly lecture series on the subject of human values.

The Tanner lectures are presented annually at each of nine universities including Cambridge, Harvard, Michigan, Oxford, Princeton, Stanford, Utah, Yale, and the University of California, Berkeley.

Appointment as a Tanner lecturer is recognition for uncommon achievement and outstanding abilities in the field of human values. The lecturers may be elicited from philosophy, religion, the humanities, the sciences, the creative arts, and learned professions, or from leadership in public or private affairs. The lectureships are international and intercultural and transcend ethnic, national, religious, and ideological distinctions.

The purpose of the Tanner Lectures is to advance and reflect upon the scholarly and scientific learning related to human values. This intention embraces the entire range of values pertinent to the human condition, interest, behavior, and aspiration. The lectures delivered at all nine universities are published in an annual volume. In addition, a series of books based on the Berkeley Tanner Lectures is published by the Oxford University Press.

American scholar, industrialist, and philanthropist Obert Clark Tanner founded the Tanner Lectures in 1978. In creating the lectureships, Professor Tanner said: “I hope these lectures will contribute to the intellectual and moral life of mankind. I see them simply as a search for a better understanding of human behavior and human values. This understanding may be pursued for its own intrinsic worth, but it may also eventually have practical consequences for the quality of personal and social life.”

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The Tanner Lectures Committee at the University of California, Berkeley

Chair
Carol T. Christ
Chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley

Vice-Chair
R. Jay Wallace
William and Trudy Ausfahl Chair in Philosophy
Department of Philosophy

Committee Members
Hannah Ginsborg
Willis S. and Marion Slusser Professor
Department of Philosophy

Kevis Goodman
Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies, Department of English

Kinch Hoekstra
Chancellor’s Professor of Law and Political Science

Stefan-Ludwig Hoffmann
Associate Professor, Department of History

Niko Kolodny
Chair, Department of Philosophy

Christopher Kutz
C. William Maxeiner Distinguished Professor of Law

Rebecca M. McLennan
Associate Professor, Department of History

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Visit The Tanner Foundation to learn more.