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Photo note: To download a photo of Dr. Wolf see end of release.

Carolina philosopher wins national achievement award

CHAPEL HILL -- Dr. Susan Wolf, the Edna J. Koury Professor of Philosophy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has been selected for a Distinguished Achievement Award from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in New York.

Wolf is regarded in the field "as one of the most original and distinguished philosophers of her generation," stated the Mellon Foundation in the award announcement. She is one of five humanities scholars nationwide to receive the prestigious honor this year.

The awards are intended to honor scholars who have made significant contributions to the humanities and more broadly to other fields, and to enable them to pursue their teaching and research interests under especially favorable conditions. Each award includes a grant of up to $1.5 million over a three-year period for the recipient and his or her academic institution.

Wolf is known for a set of provocative and highly original theses on the relationships among free will, moral responsibility and objective values. She wrote "Freedom Within Reason" (Oxford University

Press, 1990), in which she explored the concepts of free will and responsibility in the context of one’s capacity to reason and form values.

At least two of her essays are considered modern classics. "Sanity and the Metaphysics of Responsibility" explored the philosophical implications of the insanity defense for the problem of free will and responsibility. "Moral Saints" considered the question "What would a morally perfect person be like?" and argues that non-moral values, such as humor and beauty, have an important place in personal ideals.

Most recently, Wolf has been reinvigorating discussions of the age-old question "What is the meaning of life?"

"Professor Wolf is an extraordinary philosopher who manages consistently to bring a fresh and penetrating eye to issues that are of central moral concern," said Dr. Geoffrey Sayre-McCord, professor and chairman of the UNC philosophy department. "Her seminal ideas have significantly influenced contemporary analytic philosophy and ethics, as well as law and psychology."

Wolf received a bachelor's degree in mathematics and philosophy from Yale University in 1974 and a doctorate in philosophy from Princeton University in 1978. Among many other honors, she was elected to the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1999.

Before joining the Carolina faculty, Wolf was the Duane Peterson Professor of Ethics and chair of the philosophy department at Johns Hopkins University. She also has held positions at Harvard University and the University of Maryland.

The other Mellon Distinguished Achievement Award recipients this year are from Harvard, Princeton, the University of Chicago and the University of Virginia.

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is dedicated to enabling first-rate scholars and institutions to cultivate and advance humanistic learning and understanding.

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Photo URL: http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/faculty/wolf_susan.jpg

Contacts: Dr. Susan Wolf (919) 962-3315 or (919) 942-2759; Dee Reid, (919) 843-6339.