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  • Video Interview: Rebecca Roache on Passive Aggression

    What is passive aggression? Why is it so annoying? What message does the person being passive aggressive try to convey? Is it usually better to speak our mind about what bothers us, or to be passive aggressive? Is it sometimes better to just swear at people? In this interview with Dr Katrien Devolder (Oxford Uehiro…

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  • Love Drugs: The Chemical Future of Relationships

    Announcement: Brian Earp and Julian Savulescu’s new book ‘Love Drugs: The Chemical Future of Relationships‘, published by (Stanford University Press) is now available. Is there a pill for love? What about an “anti-love drug”, to help us get over an ex? This book argues that certain psychoactive substances, including MDMA—the active ingredient in Ecstasy—may help ordinary couples…

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  • Climate Ought to Change Politics

    Written by Stephen Rainey In the midst of global climate change set to devastate entire ways of life, and ultimately on track to render the biosphere uninhabitable for all but the most adaptable organisms, it seems timely to question how political legitimacy relates to matters of scientific fact. While it seems mostly desirable that groups…

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  • Institutional Conscientious Objection

    by Roger Crisp In a recent work-in-progress seminar at the Oxford Uehiro Centre, Xavier Symons, from the University of Notre Dame Australia, gave a fascinating and suggestive presentation based on some collaborative work he has been doing with Reginald Chua OP, from the Catholic Theological College, on institutional conscientious objection.

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  • Announcement: New Issue of the Journal of Practical Ethics Available Open Access

    We are pleased to announce Volume 7 Issue 3 of the Journal of Practical Ethics, our open access journal on moral and political philosophy. You can read our complete open access archive online and hard copies can be purchased at cost price following links from each issue. The Duty to Remove Statues of Wrongdoers Helen…

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  • Mutilation or Enhancement? What is Morally at Stake in Body Alterations

    By Brian D. Earp (@briandavidearp)   Those who follow my work will know that I have published a number of papers on the ethics of medically unnecessary genital cutting practices affecting children of all sexes and genders (a partial bibliography is at the end of this post). When my writing touches on the sub-set of these practices…

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  • Lying About Santa: The Sequel

    Written by Ben Davies Another Christmas, and another blog about the ethics of Christmas-based lying. Around this time last year, Alberto Giubilini wrote a post about whether we should allow children to believe in Santa. Alberto was pretty scathing about some of the arguments in favour of Santa-based honesty, but I want to offer some…

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  • Human Genetic Enhancement Might Soon Be Possible – But Where Do We Draw the Line?

    Written by Tess Johnson, University of Oxford   How far will we allow genetic enhancement to go? vchal/ Shutterstock The first genetically edited children were born in China in late 2018. Twins Lulu and Nana had a particular gene – known as CCR5 – modified during embryonic development. The aim was to make them (and their…

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  • Cross Post: Is Virtue Signalling a Perversion of Morality?

    Written by Neil Levy Originally published in Aeon Magazine People engage in moral talk all the time. When they make moral claims in public, one common response is to dismiss them as virtue signallers. Twitter is full of these accusations: the actress Jameela Jamil is a ‘pathetic virtue-signalling twerp’, according to the journalist Piers Morgan;…

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  • When the State Distrusts Individuals Based Purely on their Nationality

    Written by Hazem Zohny. The UK government finds my nationality sufficiently suspicious that it requires me to register with the police. Unlike any of the other foreign nationals working at my research centre, I alone have to present myself to the police to get ‘certified’ as part of my visa conditions. This is because I’m…

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