The Love Ethic is a way of being.
Inherent Dignity. Unlimited Capacity.
Everyone is worthy of love, because every human has dignity.
Love is the foundation of our moral and social lives. We are thus called to love our neighbors, strangers and even our enemies – everyone. Solving our deepest social problems requires harnessing our limitless capacity for love.
We are living in an era defined by loneliness, resentment, and moral exhaustion. The former Surgeon General has warned that social disconnection poses as grave a public health risk as smoking. Meanwhile, social media platforms have found ways to monetize ridicule and outrage, and our political discourse feeds on grievance. Against this backdrop, the Love Ethic Network seeks to recover an alternative moral framework rooted in a straightforward but demanding vision: love is a virtue we are wired to develop.
Mere human dignity is the only rational basis for love, and our flourishing depends upon expanding this skill even to strangers and adversaries.
Variations of the love ethic appear in many world religions, and they played a vital role in 20th century social movements. But in the 21st century, ethical thinking has become dominated by a utilitarian framework that emphasizes rational optimization. It reduces moral analysis to measurable units of wellbeing. This utilitarian approach to ethics has found a wide footing thanks to its efficiency and complete neutrality on issues of religion, culture, and historical context. It has infused the thinking of many nonprofits and has become a dominant way that ethical reasoning is presented in the media. In reality, however, it is highly atomistic and inegalitarian, further fueling the roots of polarization and offering no way to stop the rapid unraveling of our social fabric.
The unraveling is not the end of the story.
We deserve an alternative.
Meet our Team
Meghan Sullivan
Founding Director of the Institute for Ethics and the Common Good; Director of the Ethics Initiative; Wilsey Family College Professor of Philosophy
Meghan Sullivan is the Wilsey Family College Professor of Philosophy and director of the Institute for Ethics and the Common Good (ECG) and the Ethics Initiative at the University of Notre Dame. ECG is the hub for University research and teaching in ethics, and includes DELTA, the Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C, Center for Virtue Ethics, the Notre Dame–IBM Technology Ethics Lab, and the Love Ethic Network, as well as a robust slate of highly competitive fellowships and programming.
Sullivan’s work and commentary have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, and elsewhere. She has served as Principal Investigator on more than $70 million in grants supporting ethics and human flourishing, from funders including the John Templeton Foundation, the Lilly Endowment, the Mellon Foundation, and the NEH. In 2025, she was a featured speaker at the TED Next Conference.
She has been honored with a Notre Dame Joyce Award for Teaching, the Provost’s All-Faculty Team Award, and the City of South Bend’s 40 Under 40 Award, and is a member of the Board of Directors of Commonweal. Sullivan holds degrees from the University of Virginia (B.A., Philosophy and Politics, Highest Distinction), Oxford (B.Phil, Philosophy), and Rutgers (Ph.D., Philosophy), and studied at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar (Balliol College).
Audrey Scott
Associate Director, Love Ethic Network
Audrey Scott serves as Associate Director of the Love Ethic Network for the Institute for Ethics and the Common Good. In this role, she manages grant operations and partnerships, centered on a storytelling strategy that transforms academic insights into a practical guide for everyday life.
A documentarian at heart, Audrey knows that facts alone don’t change minds—stories do. At Notre Dame she works at the intersection of rigorous research and real-world impact, translating academic excellence into human connection.
Before returning to her alma mater in 2018, Audrey was an Emmy winning producer in Chicago, creating original programming for networks including National Geographic Channel, The Weather Channel, and the Oprah Winfrey Network.
John Templeton Foundation
Founded in 1987, the John Templeton Foundation supports interdisciplinary research and catalyzes conversations that inspire awe and wonder. We are working to create a world where people are curious about the wonders of the universe, free to pursue lives of meaning and purpose, and motivated by great and selfless love.
With an endowment of $3.4 billion and annual giving of approximately $140 million, the Foundation ranks among the 25 largest grantmaking foundations in the United States. Headquartered outside Philadelphia, our philanthropic activities have engaged all major faith traditions and extended to more than 58 countries around the world.