View source for Michael Walzer

{{short description|American philosopher (born 1935)}}
{{Infobox academic
| name = Michael Walzer
| image = MichaelWalzer-USNA-Lecture.jpg
| alt = 
| caption = Walzer in 2002
| birth_name = Michael Laban Walzer
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1935|3|3|mf=y}}
| birth_place = [[New York City]], [[New York (state)|New York]], US
| death_date = <!-- {{death date and age|YYYY|MM|DD|YYYY|MM|DD}} (death date then birth date) -->
| death_place = 
| spouse = {{marriage|Judith Borodovko Walzer|1956}}
| alma_mater = {{unbulleted list | [[Brandeis University]] | [[Harvard University]]}}
| thesis_title = The Revolution of the Saints
| thesis_year = 
| school_tradition = {{hlist | [[Analytic philosophy]] | [[communitarianism]] | [[socialism]]<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23556625|jstor = 23556625|title = Walzer's Socialism|last1 = Howard|first1 = Michael W.|journal = Social Theory and Practice|year = 1986|volume = 12|issue = 1|pages = 103–113|doi = 10.5840/soctheorpract198612117|url-access = subscription}}</ref>}}
| doctoral_advisor = [[Samuel Beer]]
| academic_advisors = 
| influences = {{hlist | [[Isaiah Berlin]] | [[Charles Taylor (philosopher)|Charles Taylor]] | [[Albert Camus]] | [[Karl Marx]] | [[John Rawls]] | [[Niccolò Machiavelli]]}}
| discipline = {{hlist | [[Philosophy]] | [[political studies]]}}
| sub_discipline = {{hlist | [[Political philosophy]] | [[ethics]]}}
| workplaces = [[Institute for Advanced Study]]
| doctoral_students = <!--only those with WP articles-->
| notable_students = 
| main_interests = {{hlist | [[Human rights]] | [[political ethics]] | [[just war theory]] | [[liberalism]] | [[value pluralism]] | [[social criticism]] | [[Internationalism (politics)|internationalism]]}}
| notable_works = {{unbulleted list | ''[[Just and Unjust Wars]]'' (1977) | ''[[Spheres of Justice]]'' (1983) | ''[[Interpretation and Social Criticism]]'' (1987)}}
| notable_ideas = {{hlist | [[Dirty hands]] | [[complex equality]] | [[supreme emergency]]}}
| influenced = {{hlist | [[Michael Sandel]] | [[Jean Bethke Elshtain]] | [[Amy Gutmann]] | [[Michael W. Doyle]] | [[Ian Shapiro]] | [[Axel Honneth]] | [[Rainer Forst]]}}
| signature = 
| signature_alt = 
}}
{{Communitarianism sidebar}}

'''Michael Laban Walzer'''{{efn|Pronounced {{IPAc-en|ˈ|w|ɔː|l|z|ər}}<ref>{{YouTube|FN_a2u6aItU|Michael Walzer: The Free Market and Morality|time=0m12s}}</ref>}} (born March 3, 1935) is an American [[Political theory|political theorist]] and [[public intellectual]]. A professor [[emeritus]] at the [[Institute for Advanced Study]] (IAS) in [[Princeton, New Jersey]], he is editor emeritus of the left-wing magazine ''[[Dissent (American magazine)|Dissent]],'' which he has been affiliated with since his years as an undergraduate at [[Brandeis University]], an advisory editor of the [[Jews|Jewish]] journal ''[[Fathom Journal|Fathom]],'' and sits on the editorial board of the ''[[Jewish Review of Books]].''

He has written books and essays on a wide range of topics—many in [[political ethics]]—including [[Just war theory|just and unjust wars]], [[nationalism]], [[ethnicity]], [[Zionism]], [[antisemitism]], [[economic justice]], [[social criticism]], [[Radicalization|radicalism]], [[Toleration|tolerance]], and political [[obligation]]. He is also a contributing editor to ''[[The New Republic]]''.  To date, he has written 27 books and published over 300 articles, essays, and book reviews in ''[[Dissent (American magazine)|Dissent]]'', ''[[The New Republic]]'', ''[[The New York Review of Books]]'', ''[[The New Yorker]]'', ''[[The New York Times]]'', ''[[Harper's Magazine|Harpers]]'', ''[[Quillette]]'', and many philosophical and political science journals.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=Michael Laban Walzer|url=https://www.amacad.org/person/michael-laban-walzer|access-date=2021-11-29|website=American Academy of Arts & Sciences|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://salmagundi.skidmore.edu/articles/501-from-the-river-to-the-sea | title=From the River to the Sea }}</ref>

==Early life and education==
Born to a [[American Jews|Jewish]] family<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Arkush |first=Allan |title=Michael Walzer's Secular Jewish Thought |journal=Journal of Modern Jewish Studies |date=August 8, 2012 |volume=11 |issue=2 |pages=221–241 |doi=10.1080/14725886.2012.684859 |s2cid=144959296 }}</ref> on March 3, 1935, Walzer graduated ''[[summa cum laude]]'' from [[Brandeis University]] in 1956 with a [[Bachelor of Arts]] degree in history.  He then studied at the [[University of Cambridge]] on a [[Fulbright Program|Fulbright Fellowship]] (1956–1957) and completed his doctoral work at [[Harvard University]], earning his [[Doctor of Philosophy]] degree in government under [[Samuel Beer]] in 1961.<ref name=":0" />

==Work==
Walzer is usually identified as one of the leading proponents of the [[communitarian]] position in political theory, along with [[Alasdair MacIntyre]] and [[Michael J. Sandel]]. Like Sandel and MacIntyre, Walzer is not completely comfortable with this label.<ref>[https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/communitarianism/notes.html#1 Communitarianism > Notes (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)]</ref> However, he has long argued that political theory must be grounded in the traditions and culture of particular societies, and has long opposed what he sees to be the excessive abstraction of political philosophy.

His most important intellectual contributions include ''[[Just and Unjust Wars]]'' (1977), a revitalization of [[just war theory]] that insists on the importance of "ethics" in wartime while eschewing [[pacifism]];<ref>{{Cite news|last=Cuddihy|first=John Murray|date=1978-02-05|title=What Is the Good Fight?|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1978/02/05/archives/what-is-the-good-fight.html|access-date=2022-02-17|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> 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;<ref>''Spheres of Justice'' (1983); see criticism, Young Kim, [https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781498516518/Justice-as-Right-Actions-An-Original-Theory-of-Justice-in-Conversation-with-Major-Contemporary-Accounts Justice as Right Actions: An Original Theory of Justice in Conversation with Major Contemporary Accounts] ([[Rowman & Littlefield|Lexington Books]], 2015), ch. 11 ({{ISBN|978-1-4985-1651-8}})</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Mounk |first=Yascha |author-link=Yascha Mounk |date=2019-03-14 |title=Why the College Scandal Touched a Nonpartisan Nerve |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/03/college-bribe-scandal-touched-non-partisan-nerve/584923/ |access-date=2022-02-17 |website=[[The Atlantic]] |language=en}}</ref> 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.

In ''On Toleration'', he describes various examples of (and approaches to) [[toleration]] in various settings, including multinational empires such as [[Roman Empire|Rome]]; nations in past and current-day international society; "[[consociations]]" such as [[Switzerland]]; [[nation-state]]s such as [[France]]; and immigrant societies such as the [[United States]]. He concludes by describing a "[[Postmodernism|post-modern]]" view, in which cultures within an immigrant nation have blended and inter-married to the extent that toleration becomes an intra-familial affair.<ref>{{cite book |first=Michael |last=Walzer |title=On Toleration |url=https://archive.org/details/ontoleration00walz_0 |url-access=registration |location=New Haven |publisher=Yale University Press |year=1997 |isbn=978-0-300-07600-4 }}</ref>

==Employment==
Walzer was first employed in 1962 in the politics department at [[Princeton University]]. He stayed there until 1966, when he moved to the government department at [[Harvard University|Harvard]]. He taught at Harvard until 1980, when he became a permanent faculty member in the School of Social Science at the [[Institute for Advanced Study]].<ref name=":0" />

In 1971, Walzer taught a semester-long course at Harvard with [[Robert Nozick]] called "Capitalism and Socialism". The course was a debate between the two philosophers: Nozick's side is delineated in ''[[Anarchy, State, and Utopia]]'' (1974), and Walzer's side is expressed in his ''[[Spheres of Justice]]'' (1983), in which he argues for "[[complex equality]]".<ref>[http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/people/Dionne/dionne-con1.html Interview] with [[E. J. Dionne]]</ref>

==Awards and honors==
In April 2008, Walzer received the prestigious Spinoza Lens, a biennial prize for ethics in the [[Netherlands]]. He has also been honoured with an emeritus professorship at the prestigious [[Institute for Advanced Study]]. He was elected to a Fellowship of the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences|American Academy of Arts & Sciences]] in 1971,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Michael Laban Walzer |url=https://www.amacad.org/person/michael-laban-walzer |access-date=2022-04-19 |website=American Academy of Arts & Sciences |language=en}}</ref> a member of the [[American Philosophical Society]] in 1990,<ref>{{Cite web |title=APS Member History |url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Michael+Walzer&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced |access-date=2022-04-19 |website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref> and to a Corresponding Fellowship of the British Academy in 2016.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Laureates - Michael Walzer|url=https://www.spinozalens.nl/en/laureates/5/Michael-Walzer|access-date=2021-11-29|website=www.spinozalens.nl|date=24 November 2008 }}</ref>

==Personal life==
Walzer is married to Judith Borodovko Walzer. They are parents of two daughters: Sarah Esther Walzer (born 1961) and Rebecca Leah Walzer (born 1966). His grandchildren are Joseph and Katya Barrett and Jules and Stefan Walzer-Goldfeld.

Walzer is the older brother of historian [[Judith Walzer Leavitt]].

==Books==
* ''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}}; fourth edition, 2006, {{ISBN|0-465-03707-0}}); fifth edition, 2015.
* ''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}}
* ''Zivile Gesellschaft und amerikanische Demokratie'' ([[Rotbuch Verlag]], 1992) {{ISBN|3-596-13077-8}} (collection of essays in German collection; the title translates as "Civil Society and American Democracy")
* ''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 (political theorist)|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 ([[:es:Ediciones Paidós|es]]), 2001, in Spanish) {{ISBN|84-493-1167-5}}
* ''The Jewish Political Tradition, Vol. II: Membership''. co-edited with Menachem Lorberbaum, Noam Zohar, and Yair Lorberbaum (Yale University Press, 2003) {{ISBN|978-0-300-09428-2}}
* ''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}}
* ''Law, Politics, and Morality in Judaism''. edited by Walzer (Princeton University Press, 2006) {{ISBN|0-691-12508-2}}
* ''Thinking Politically'' (Yale University Press, 2007) {{ISBN|978-0-300-11816-2}}
* ''In God's Shadow: Politics in the Hebrew Bible'' (Yale University Press, 2012)  {{ISBN|978-0-300-18044-2}}
* ''The Paradox of Liberation'' (Yale University Press, 2015) {{ISBN|978-0-300-18780-9}}
* ''A Foreign Policy for the Left'' (Yale University Press, 2018) {{ISBN|978-0300223873}}
* ''Political Action: A Practical Guide to Movement Politics'' (New York Review Books Classics, 2019)
* ''The Struggle for a Decent Politics: On "Liberal" as an adjective'' (Yale University Press, 2023)

==See also==
* [[Hugo Grotius]]
* [[Emer de Vattel]]
* [[Thomas Nagel]]
* [[Richard Rorty]]
* [[John Rawls]]

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
* [http://www.dissentmagazine.org ''Dissent''] Quarterly magazine of politics and culture edited by Michael Walzer
* [http://www.sss.ias.edu/people#walzer Walzer's biography at the Institute for Advanced Study]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060326184315/http://www.nplusonemag.com/walzer.html "Arguing about War"] Review of Walzer's ''Arguing about War'' in ''[[n+1]]'' magazine
* [https://them.polylog.org/5/awm-en.htm The Argument about Humanitarian Intervention] By Michael Walzer
* Micha Odenheimer, [https://web.archive.org/web/20110727172803/http://acheret.co.il/en/?cmd=articles.312&act=read&id=1975 A “Connected Critic”], Micha Odenheimer speaks with an individual who has carved out a space for himself as a left-wing supporter of Israel, ''[[Eretz Acheret]]'' Magazine
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20111007120520/http://www.barcelonametropolis.cat/en/page.asp?id=22&ui=407 Review of ''Thinking Politically''], [[:en: Barcelona Metropolis|''Barcelona Metropolis'']], 2010.
* [http://www.annualreviews.org/page/audio#walzer A Conversation with Michael Walzer] Video interview, 2012.
* {{C-SPAN|39765}}
* For an analysis of communitarianism see: [[Gad Barzilai]], ''Communities and Law: Politics and Cultures of Legal Identities'' (Ann Arbor: [[University of Michigan Press]], 2003)
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20140814124131/http://www.fathomjournal.org/conversation/the-future-of-liberal-zionism/ The Future of Liberal Zionism: An interview with Michael Walzer], 20 September 2012
* [http://www.fathomjournal.org/conversation/the-jewish-political-tradition/ The Jewish Political Tradition, 26 April 2013]
* Perry Anderson's House of Zion: A symposium - Fathom Journal
* [https://omeka.binghamton.edu/omeka/items/show/950 Interview with Dr. Michael Walzer]  by Stephen McKiernan, Binghamton University Libraries Center for the Study of the 1960s, April 4, 2016

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{{s-bef|before= }}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Tanner Lectures on Human Values|Tanner Lecturer on Human Values]]<br />at [[Harvard University]]|years=1985–1986}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Jürgen Habermas]]}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Walzer, Michael}}
[[Category:1935 births]]
[[Category:20th-century American philosophers]]
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[[Category:Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni]]
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[[Category:Michael Walzer| ]]
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