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Sissela Bok (born Myrdal; 2 December 1934) is a Swedish-born American philosopher and
ethicist An ethicist is one whose judgment on ethics and ethical codes has come to be trusted by a specific community, and (importantly) is expressed in some way that makes it possible for others to mimic or approximate that judgment. Following the advice of ...
, the daughter of two
Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...
winners: Gunnar Myrdal who won the Economics prize with
Friedrich Hayek Friedrich August von Hayek ( , ; 8 May 189923 March 1992), often referred to by his initials F. A. Hayek, was an Austrian–British economist, legal theorist and philosopher who is best known for his defense of classical liberalism. Hayek ...
in 1974, and Alva Myrdal who won the
Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Chemistry, Physics, Physiolo ...
in 1982.


Biography

Bok received her B.A. and M.A. in psychology from
George Washington University , mottoeng = "God is Our Trust" , established = , type = Private federally chartered research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.8 billion (2022) , presi ...
in 1957 and 1958, and her Ph.D. in philosophy from
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...
in 1970. Formerly a professor of philosophy at
Brandeis University , mottoeng = "Truth even unto its innermost parts" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = NECHE , president = Ronald D. Liebowitz , p ...
, she is currently a Senior Visiting Fellow at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies,
Harvard School of Public Health The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health is the public health school of Harvard University, located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. The school grew out of the Harvard- MIT School for Health Officers, the nation's firs ...
. Bok is married to
Derek Bok Derek Curtis Bok (born March 22, 1930) is an American lawyer and educator, and the former president of Harvard University. Life and career Bok was born in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Following his parents' divorce, he, his mother, brother and sist ...
, former president (1971–1991, interim 2006–2007) of Harvard. Her daughter, Hilary Bok, is also a philosopher. Her brother, Jan Myrdal, was a political writer and journalist. Bok was awarded the Orwell Award in 1978 for '' Lying: Moral Choice in Public and Private Life''. Bok was awarded the Courage of Conscience award on 24 April 1991 "for her contributions to peacemaking strategies in the tradition of her mother."


Books

* '' Lying: Moral Choice in Public and Private Life'' (Pantheon Books, 1978; Vintage paperback editions, 1979, 1989, 1999). * ''Secrets: on the Ethics of Concealment and Revelation'' (Pantheon Books, 1982; Vintage paperback editions, 1984, 1989). * ''A Strategy for Peace: Human Values and the Threat of War'' (Pantheon Books, 1989; Vintage paperback edition, 1990). * ''Alva Myrdal: A Daughter's Memoir'' (Addison-Wesley, 1991; paperback edition 1992). * ''Common Values'' (University of Missouri Press, 1995; paperback edition 2002). * ''Mayhem: Violence as Public Entertainment'' (Perseus, 1998; paperback edition 1999). * ''Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide'', with Gerald Dworkin and Ray Frey (Cambridge University Press, 1998). * ''Exploring Happiness: From Aristotle to Brain Science'' (
Yale University Press Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day, and became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and operationally autonomous. , Yale Univers ...
, 2010).


References


External links

*
The Pursuits of Happiness - Lowell Lecture
October 2003

n PBS' NewsHour "Mayhem" as Entertainment" 1998

Alumni Bulletin, Harvard University Extension School, Vol. 37, Fall 2003, pp. 3–11.
"Rethinking the WHO Definition of Health"
Working Paper, Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, Vol. 14, No. 7 October 004
Sissela Bok: Honesty in Public Life (Real Audio from WETS FM)


at alumni.ecolint.net * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bok, Sissela 1934 births 20th-century American philosophers Continental philosophers American ethicists Columbian College of Arts and Sciences alumni Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Harvard School of Public Health faculty Living people Swedish emigrants to the United States American women philosophers 21st-century American philosophers Swedish women writers American non-fiction writers 20th-century American women writers American women non-fiction writers Fellows of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 21st-century American women