Skip to content

Oxford Uehiro Prize in Practical Ethics: Feminist in the Streets, Sadomasochist in the Sheets: Are You Morally Aligning Yourself With Women’s Subordination if You Engage in Consensually Inegalitarian Sexual Relationships?

Oxford Uehiro Prize in Practical Ethics: Feminist in the Streets, Sadomasochist in the Sheets: Are You Morally Aligning Yourself With Women’s Subordination if You Engage in Consensually Inegalitarian Sexual Relationships?

  • by

This article was the runner up in the undergraduate category of the 10th National Oxford Uehiro Prize in Practical Ethics. Written by Ayesha Chakravarti. I. Introduction Most feminists argue that “The personal is the political.” Is this true of people’s sex lives? In this essay, I will discuss the implications of having consensually inegalitarian sexual… Read More »Oxford Uehiro Prize in Practical Ethics: Feminist in the Streets, Sadomasochist in the Sheets: Are You Morally Aligning Yourself With Women’s Subordination if You Engage in Consensually Inegalitarian Sexual Relationships?

A sow and her piglets in a bed of straw

National Oxford Uehiro Prize in Practical Ethics: When Eating Meat is OK: A Defence of Benign Carnivorism

  • by

This article received an Honourable Mention in the undergraduate category of the 10th National Oxford Uehiro Prize in Practical Ethics. Written by David Logan. Benign Carnivorism (BC) is a practice where a farmer (i) creates animals with pleasurable lives worth living, (ii) painlessly kills them after a significant proportion of their natural lifespan, and (iii)… Read More »National Oxford Uehiro Prize in Practical Ethics: When Eating Meat is OK: A Defence of Benign Carnivorism

Announcing the Winners and Runners Up in the 10th Annual National Oxford Uehiro Prize in Practical Ethics

  • by

Please join us in congratulating all four of the finalists in the National Oxford Uehiro Prize in Practical Ethics 2024, and in particular our winners, Wyatt Radzin and Jakob Lohmar. We would also like to thank our judges, Prof Roger Crisp, Prof Walter Sinnott-Armstrong and Dr Cristina Voinea. This, the final of the 10th Annual National Oxford Uehiro… Read More »Announcing the Winners and Runners Up in the 10th Annual National Oxford Uehiro Prize in Practical Ethics

four busts of philosophers featuring Aristotle

National Oxford Uehiro Prize in Practical Ethics: To What Extent Has Aristotle’s Conception of a Virtuous Character Remained Relevant in the Face of Situationist Criticism?

  • by

This article received an honourable mention in the undergraduate category of the 2024 National Oxford Uehiro Prize in Practical Ethics. Written by Gabriel McWilliams. The concept of a virtuous character is a foundational tenet of the broader virtue ethics doctrine. It has, though, been subject to noteworthy objection. One such objection arises from the theory of… Read More »National Oxford Uehiro Prize in Practical Ethics: To What Extent Has Aristotle’s Conception of a Virtuous Character Remained Relevant in the Face of Situationist Criticism?

Image of the letters AI on a blue background with computer coding

National Oxford Uehiro Prize in Practical Ethics: Undisclosed Conversational AIs: A Threat to Users’ Autonomy

  • by

This article received an honourable mention in the graduate category of the 2024 National Oxford Uehiro Prize in Practical Ethics. Written by Beatrice Marchegiani. Introduction Recent advancements in Large Language Models have enabled AI systems to engage in conversations with users that are virtually indistinguishable from human interactions. The proliferation of advanced Conversational AIs (CAIs)1… Read More »National Oxford Uehiro Prize in Practical Ethics: Undisclosed Conversational AIs: A Threat to Users’ Autonomy

Why a US State Court Ruling on the Rights of Children Before Birth is Unjust

Dominic Wilkinson, University of Oxford. In 2020, in a medical facility in one of the southern states of the US, a patient wandered into an unsecured nursery for extremely premature children. Unfortunately, the patient managed to accidentally disconnect multiple babies from their life support. Worried that they would get in trouble, they fled the scene.… Read More »Why a US State Court Ruling on the Rights of Children Before Birth is Unjust

Objective Morality

What could be better to relaunch our new blog than a picture of my favourite socks? “Socks!?’, I hear you cry. But these are no ordinary socks. They are Soc. Soc. Socks, presented to me after not so long ago I was invited to participate in a debate at the Socratic Society in Oxford on… Read More »Objective Morality

Cross Post: What’s wrong with lying to a chatbot?

Written by Dominic Wilkinson, Consultant Neonatologist and Professor of Ethics, University of Oxford

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Imagine that you are on the waiting list for a non-urgent operation. You were seen in the clinic some months ago, but still don’t have a date for the procedure. It is extremely frustrating, but it seems that you will just have to wait.

However, the hospital surgical team has just got in contact via a chatbot. The chatbot asks some screening questions about whether your symptoms have worsened since you were last seen, and whether they are stopping you from sleeping, working, or doing your everyday activities.

Your symptoms are much the same, but part of you wonders if you should answer yes. After all, perhaps that will get you bumped up the list, or at least able to speak to someone. And anyway, it’s not as if this is a real person.Read More »Cross Post: What’s wrong with lying to a chatbot?