Sissela Bok, PhD

Dr. Bok is a Senior Visiting Fellow at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies. She is a writer and philosopher and received her B.A. and M.A. in psychology at the George Washington University, and her Ph.D. in philosophy at Harvard University. She was formerly a Professor of Philosophy at Brandeis University. The third edition of her book Lying: Moral Choice in Private and Public Life (1978) was reissued in 1999 with a new preface. Other books include Secrets: On the Ethics of Concealment and Revelation (1982, 1989); A Strategy for Peace: Human Values and the Threat of War (1989); Alva Myrdal: A Daughter's Memoir (1991); Common Values (1996, reissued in 2002 with a new preface); and Mayhem: Violence as Public Entertainment (1998). With John Behnke, Bok has co-edited The Dilemmas of Euthanasia (1975) and, with Daniel Callahan, Ethics Teaching in Higher Education (1980). With Gerald Dworkin and R. G. Frey, she has co-authored Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide (1998). Dr. Bok recently contibuted a chaper to the International Encyclopedia of Public Health: “Rethinking the WHO Definition of Health.”

Contact: sbok@hsph.harvard.edu.