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."

The Tanner Lectures Committee at the University of California, Berkeley

Chair
Robert J. Birgeneau
Chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley

Vice-Chair
Martin E. Jay
Sidney Hellman Ehrman Professor, Department of History

Committee Members
Kevis Goodman
Associate Professor, Department of English

Hannah Ginsborg
Professor, Departmemt of Philosophy

Kinch Hoekstra
Assistant Professor, Department of Law and Political Science

Niko Kolodny
Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy

Christopher Kutz
Professor, Jurisprudence and Social Policy Program

R. Jay Wallace
Professor, Department of Philosophy

Visit The Tanner Foundation to learn more.