Adela Cortina is a professor of Ethics and Political Philosophy at the University of Valencia and a member of the Spanish Royal Academy of Moral and Political Sciences; she was the first woman to be admitted to this academy since it was founded in 1857. After winning a research scholarship from DAAD (German Academic Exchange) and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation she furthered her studies at Munich and Frankfurt universities. In the latter university she worked with Apel and Habermas, the creators of discourse ethics, which she would introduce into the Spanish and Ibero-American world. She has been a visiting lecturer at the universities of Notre Dame (USA) and Cambridge (UK).
She is the director of the ÉTNOR Foundation’s master’s degree and interuniversity doctoral programmes with mention towards excellence in Ethics and Democracy, as well as a member of the Board of the International Development Ethics Association. She is an honorary doctor and honorary professor of several universities, and winner of the 2007Jovellanos International Essay Prize and the 2014 National Essay Award. She has sat on the jury for the Prince of Asturias Awards for Communication and Humanities and for Social Sciences many times and is a contributor for the newspaper El País.
Adela Cortina works in the field of ethics and political philosophy, focusing on issues such as citizenship, democracy and cosmopolitism, and the application of ethics in science, technology, politics, economics, business, human development, bioethics, the media and education.
She has written many books, including Ética mínima (Tecnos, 1986), Ética sin moral (Tecnos, 1990), Ética aplicada y democracia radical (Tecnos, 1993), Ciudadanos del mundo (Alianza, 1997), Alianza y Contrato (Trotta, 2001), Por una ética del consumo (Taurus, 2002), Ética de la razón cordial (Nobel, 2007), Las fronteras de la persona (Taurus, 2009), Justicia cordial (Trotta, 2010), Neuroética y neuropolítica (Tecnos, 2011) and Para qué sirve realmente la ética (Paidós, 2013).
