International Political Scholar Avishai Margalit Appointed To The Kennan Chair At The Institute For Advanced Study

Avishai Margalit, one of the foremost thinkers and commentators on the contemporary human condition, the moral issues of our time and current problems facing western societies, has been appointed as the George F. Kennan Professor in the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study. Dr. Margalit, currently the Schulman Professor of Philosophy at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, will officially begin his two-year appointment on July 1, 2006.

While trained as a philosopher, Dr. Margalit is highly regarded for his profound and cogent observations of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the broader conflict between Islam and the West. He injects powerful insight into current international political issues, resulting in incisive and persuasive analyses of radical anti-Western thought, especially in the Islamic world. Dr. Margalit's work in analytical philosophy is chiefly concerned with issues of metaphor, theory of language, logic and theories of rationality.

The endowed Kennan chair, established in 1995 to honor the diplomat, scholar and Institute Faculty member George F. Kennan (1904-2005), was previously held by Jack F. Matlock, Jr. (1996-2001) and by Jos� Cutileiro (2001-2004). The Kennan Chair is designed to bring to the Institute outstanding scholars whose work bears on the understanding of the contemporary world and who combine such excellence with acknowledged importance as a voice or presence in the public arena.

Peter Goddard, Director of the Institute, stated, "Avishai Margalit's work bears on some of the most important moral and political issues of our time. He has introduced fresh insights, born of subtle analysis, to illuminate the most highly fraught international problems and the challenges of modern society. He is an important intellectual figure whose presence will add much to the life of the Institute."

"I eagerly await my stay at the Institute as the Kennan Professor," stated Avishai Margalit. "The intensity of the scholarship and diversity of study there is unsurpassed, and I look forward to many productive and stimulating discussions with my future colleagues on the Institute's Faculty and with the scholars who visit each year."

As the author of many books and articles, Dr. Margalit has transformed philosophical perspectives on a range of contemporary political and societal issues. The Decent Society (1996), Dr. Margalit's major contribution to current political thought, seeks to supplement recent conceptions of what makes a just, democratic society with analyses and admonitions about institutional constructs that consciously or unconsciously generate feelings of humiliation among particular groups. With this book, Dr. Margalit significantly widened the terms of the debate about fairness and a just society, in all of its forms, but especially in the workplace. His recent book with Ian Buruma, Occidentalism (2004), eloquently addresses currents in radical anti-Western thought in the Islamic world and presents powerful, new conclusions on the origins and manifestations of such intolerant ideologies.

Dr. Margalit was born in Jerusalem in 1939. After military service and periods on a kibbutz, he received his BA and MA in philosophy in 1963 and 1965, respectively, at the Hebrew University, where he also received his Ph.D. in 1970. That same year, he joined the faculty of the department of philosophy at the Hebrew University, and has remained ever since. Since 1974, he has held visiting professorships at leading universities around the world, among them Harvard University and the Free University of Berlin, and he has been a Fellow at international institutions including the Max Planck Institute, Wolfson College and St. Antony's College at Oxford University, and the Center for Human Values at Princeton University. A public figure in Israel and beyond, he is a founder of "Peace Now," the Israeli peace movement calling for recognition of the rights of Palestinians to self-determination in their own state, alongside Israel.

In 2001, Dr. Margalit was the recipient of the Spinoza Lens Prize, awarded by the International Spinoza Foundation for "a significant contribution to the normative debate on society." In Spring 2005, Dr. Margalit delivered the Tanner Lectures at Stanford University on "Rotten Compromise and Honorable Peace." A frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books, Dr. Margalit is considered one of the most prominent observers of the current world intellectual scene.

PHOTO: Edna Ullmann-Margalit