Alan Charles Kors (born July 18, 1943) is Henry Charles Lea Professor Emeritus of History at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest- ...

, where he taught the intellectual history of the 17th and 18th centuries. He has received both the Lindback Foundation Award and the Ira Abrams Memorial Award for distinguished college teaching. Kors graduated A.B.

summa cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sou ...

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

in 1964, and received his M.A. (1965) and Ph.D. (1968) in European history at

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 ...

Career

Kors has written on the history of

skeptical Skepticism, also spelled scepticism, is a questioning attitude or doubt toward knowledge claims that are seen as mere belief or dogma. For example, if a person is skeptical about claims made by their government about an ongoing war then the p ...

atheistic Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no d ...

, and

materialist Materialism is a form of philosophical monism which holds matter to be the fundamental substance in nature, and all things, including mental states and consciousness, are results of material interactions. According to philosophical materiali ...

thought in 17th and 18th-century

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, on the Enlightenment in general, on the history of European

witchcraft Witchcraft traditionally means the use of magic or supernatural powers to harm others. A practitioner is a witch. In medieval and early modern Europe, where the term originated, accused witches were usually women who were believed to have ...

beliefs, and on academic freedom. He was also the Editor-in-Chief of the Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment, which was published in four volumes by

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print book ...

in 2002. Kors co-founded – with

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life ...

advocate

Harvey Silverglate Harvey Allen Silverglate (born May 10, 1942) is an attorney, journalist, writer, and co-founder of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE). Silverglate was a member of the board of the Massachusetts chapter of the American Civ ...

m and served from 2000 to 2006 as chairman of the board of directors of the

Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), formerly known as the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, is a non-profit civil liberties group founded in 1999 with the aim of protecting free speech rights on college campus ...

(FIRE). He has occasionally written pieces for popular

libertarian Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's en ...

journals on political matters such as ''

Reason Reason is the capacity of consciously applying logic by drawing conclusions from new or existing information, with the aim of seeking the truth. It is closely associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, science, lang ...

''. His essay "Can There Be An After Socialism?" was published by the journal ''Social Philosophy & Policy''."Social Philosophy & Policy," 2003: Cambridge University Press, pp. 1–17 He has served on the boards of The Historical Society and the

American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies The American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (ASECS) is an academic society for humanities research related to the "long" eighteenth century, from the later seventeenth through the early nineteenth centuries. ASECS was established in 1969, ...

Books

* ''Witchcraft in Europe, 400–1700: A Documentary History'' (Middle Ages Series) by Alan Charles Kors (Editor), Edward Peters (Editor) (1972, revised edition 2001) * ''D'Holbach's Coterie: An Enlightenment in Paris'' by Alan Charles Kors (Author) (1976, reissued 2015) * ''Atheism in France, 1650–1729: The Orthodox Sources of Disbelief'' by Alan Charles Kors (Author) (1990, reissued 2015) * ''The Shadow University: The Betrayal Of Liberty On America's Campuses'' by Alan Charles Kors (Author),

Harvey A. Silverglate Harvey Allen Silverglate (born May 10, 1942) is an attorney, journalist, writer, and co-founder of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE). Silverglate was a member of the board of the Massachusetts chapter of the American Civi ...

(Author) (1999) * ''Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment'' (4 vol. set) by Alan Charles Kors (Editor) (2002) * ''Naturalism and Unbelief in France, 1650-1729'' by Alan Charles Kors (Author) (2016) * ''Epicureans and Atheists in France, 1650-1729'' by Alan Charles Kors (Author) (2016)

References

External links

Foundation for Individual Rights in Education

Faculty page at the University of Pennsylvania
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kors, Alan Charles 1943 births Living people Free speech activists Harvard University alumni National Humanities Medal recipients Princeton University alumni University of Pennsylvania faculty University of Pennsylvania historian Member of the Mont Pelerin Society