Daniel Weinstock

If there is one event that transformed Professor Daniel M. Weinstock, as a student, into a young man with a genuine passion, it was a seminar given by Charles Taylor, who was back at McGill University in the early 1980s after a stay in England. Taylor convinced Weinstock that the most complex theoretical debates of political philosophy could have a real impact and major consequences in the real world.

Daniel Weinstock is MacDonald Professor of Law at McGill University, where he teaches both law and philosophy. Before moving to McGill, he held a Canada Research Chair in Ethics and Political Philosophy at the Université de Montréal, where he was also the founding director of the Centre de recherche en éthique de l'Université de Montréal. A graduate of McGill and Oxford universities, where he studied under Charles Taylor, and of Harvard University, where he studied under John Rawls, Professor Weinstock has published about 100 scholarly articles on a wide range of issues in ethics and political philosophy. His current interests focus on the political philosophy of the city, on health equity, and on ethical issues that arise with respect to education, children, and the family. He has contributed to public debate on important policy issues by taking part in a number of commissions on subjects as diverse as religion in schools, reasonable accommodation, euthanasia and assisted suicide, and flu pandemic response.