University of Tübingen Awards Alfons Auer Ethics Prize to Omri Boehm for Innovative Approach to Universalism
The Israeli philosopher Omri Boehm will receive the Alfons Auer Ethics Prize 2024. The prize is awarded by the Catholic Theological Faculty of the University of Tübingen and the Academy of the Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart. The nomination recognizes the outstanding work of Professor Omri Boehm on the moral responsibility of a radical universalism, which the philosopher also applies to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“Radical universalism demands that people see the lives of the people on the other side as equally as infinitely important as the lives of the people on their side,” says Boehm. Omri Boehm has also been asserting this universalism since the Hamas attack on Israel and since Israel’s military response in the Gaza Strip. He calls for reflection on political alternatives and proposes a joint, federal state for Jews and Palestinians. In doing so, he shows that the universalism he proposes enables us to speak and act in the crises of the present.
Omri Boehm (born 1978) has been Associate Professor of Philosophy at the New York New School for Social Research since 2010. The diverse sources of his philosophy include the biblical narratives of the Torah, the writings of Immanuel Kant and the American Declaration of Independence.
The Catholic Theological Faculty in Tübingen and the Academy of the Diocese of Stuttgart-Rottenburg award this prize every two years. It owes its name to one of the most prominent Tübingen ethicists, the moral theologian Prof. Dr. Alfons Auer (1915–2005). In the early 1970s, Auer freed Catholic moral teaching from denominational boundaries with his concept of “autonomous morality”; in doing so, he opened up the discussion of individual and social ethics with philosophy, sociology and cultural studies. The prize dedicated to him honors “personalities who have distinguished themselves through outstanding ethical commitment in the scientific, religious and social fields.”
The prize is endowed with 25,000 euros and will be awarded on 26 November in the Theologicum of the University of Tübingen.
The first winner in 2015 was Prof. Dr. hc mult. Charles Taylor (Canada). In 2017, the prize was awarded to the human rights ethicist Prof. Dr. Heiner Bielefeldt (Germany) and in 2019 to Prof. Dr. Mary McAlleese (Ireland) for her commitment to religious reconciliation and social balance. Due to the Covid 19 pandemic, the prize could not be awarded regularly in 2021. In 2022, the faculty will honor the philosopher Prof. Leela Gandhi (USA) for her important work on postcolonial ethics.
The Alfons Auer Ethics Prize was donated by Siegfried Weishaupt, an international high-tech entrepreneur interested in ethical and cultural challenges who shares a common background with Alfons Auer. An academic board of trustees chaired by Rector Prof. Dr. Dr. hc Karla Pollmann unanimously nominated this year’s award winner.