Asa Kasher
Asa Kasher is the Laura Schwarz-Kipp Professor of Professional Ethics and Philosophy of Practice and Professor of Philosophy at Tel Aviv University in Israel. His research covers a broad range of topics in philosophy and ethics, including especially military ethics, medical ethics, and philosophy of language, as well as issues of Jewish Identity. During his service in the Israeli Defense Force, he attained the rank of Major. In 1997, Professor Kasher was a recipient of the Itzhak Sade Prize for Military Literature (Military Ethics) and in 2000 was awarded the Prize of Israel (the most prestigious award made by the State of Israel) for his work in philosophy and ethics. He is the author of The Israel Defense Force’s Code of Ethics published by the Israel Ministry of Defense.
Professor Kasher holds a M.Sc. in Mathematics, Applied Mathematics and History and Philosophy of Science and a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Hebrew University of Jerusalem Israel. He has taught at Tel Aviv University, Bar-Ilan University, University of Texas at Austin, University of California in Los Angeles, IDF College of Command, the Center of Military and Strategic Studies, and the University of Calgary. Kasher has been a research associate at the University of Amsterdam, Ruhr-Universitat, Bochum, and Rijksuniversiteit Gent, Vriej Universiteit Brussel.
The author of more than one hundred and fifty articles, book chapters, and encyclopedia entries, and twenty-three edited volumes and monographs, he is also the editor of the Israeli philosophical journal Philosophia, Philosophical Quarterly of Israel, a founding editor of Hebrew Linguistics, and a founding member of the advisory board of the Journal of Military Ethics. Books he has authored include the monographs Linguistics and Logic, Philosophical Linguistics, Military Ethics, Spirit of Man: Four Gates, A Little Book on the Meaning of Life, Judaism and Idolatry, and 17 Conversations with Asa Kasher and his edited volumes include Morality and Reason, Cognitive Aspects of Language Use, Virtues and Emotions, Meaning of life, The Jewish Warrior in WWII, Making Sense of Dying and Death II, and Making Sense of Dying and Death III.
He has served as President of the Israel Philosophical Association, Head of the Military Ethics Committee IDF Personnel Division, served as a member of the Executive Committee for the Israeli Society of Medical Ethics and the Israeli Press Council, was a member of the Ministry of Health Committee on Medical Administration of Drugs, and has been a Representative for the Israel Delegation to UNESCO.
Professor Kasher also currently serves as a member of the Military Censorship Committee, the Bioethics Advisory Committee, the Committee on the Legal Status of the Embryo, the Public Committee on the Ethics of the Member of Knesseth, and the National Bioethics Council. He is also Head of the 2nd Authority for the Television and Radio Public Committee on the Ethics of Commercials and the Vice Chair of the Steering Committee at the Ethics Center of Jerusalem.