On 11 June, Professor Peter Singer presented the very first Ethox-Uehiro lecture, entitled ‘Disagreeing on Ethical Questions, Fruitfully and Otherwise’, at St Cross College, Oxford. The lecture room was full, and well over 100 people watched the livestream, which is now available here. …………………………………………………………………………………………………… Singer’s lecture was about not the more abstract or a priori… Read More »Event Summary: Peter Singer on Disagreement
by Neil Levy Doomsayers have always been with us. Equally, predictions of doom have always failed to materialise. Apocalyptic cults have been a recurrent feature of American society, in particular. Some have given specific dates for the destruction of the world, which the faithful would survive through preparation and prayer. The failures of the prophesied… Read More »Dreaming of the End of the World
by Alberto Giubilini, Sally Frampton, Tess Johnson, Will Matlock Originally published one the TORCH Medical Humanities website The conference Communication, Narratives and Antimicrobial Resistance took place on the 16th of May at Merton College, Oxford, as part of the TORCH Medical Humanities programme and with the generous contribution of the John Fell Fund and the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical… Read More »Communication, Narratives and Antimicrobial Resistance
We were honoured to welcome Professor Elizabeth Harman, Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Philosophy and Human Values at Princeton University, to Oxford to deliver the 2024 Annual Uehiro Lectures in Practical Ethics. The three-part lecture series, entitled “Love and Abortion”, took place in the H B Allen Centre, Keble College, on 25 April, 2 and 9… Read More »2024 Annual Uehiro Lectures: Professor Elizabeth Harman
In March, we were delighted to have the finalists of our annual Practical Ethics and Responsibility Competition (PERC) arrive in Oxford for a day of ethics and debate. Our four teams were from The Royal Latin School, The Laurels School, and Westminster. They earned their place at the Schools Day through their winning video entries… Read More »Practical Ethics Schools Day 2024
Can we build and use AI ethically? Walter Sinnott-Armstrong discusses how this can be achieved in his new book ‘Moral AI and How We Get There’ co-authored with Jana Schaich Borg & Vincent Conitzer. Edmond Awad talks through the ethical implications for AI use with Walter in this short video. With thanks to the Atlantic… Read More »Moral AI And How We Get There with Prof Walter Sinnott-Armstrong
written by Ben Davies and Gabriel De Marco Many illnesses that risk death or serious harm are at least partly due to behaviours such as smoking, lack of exercise, or extreme sports. The WHO notes that the global prevalence of preventable, noncommunicable diseases is rising, and accounts for a large proportion of deaths worldwide. Some… Read More »Book Launch: Responsibility and Healthcare
Imagine the following case: A few years in the future, neuroscience has advanced considerably to the point where it is able to artificially support conscious activity that is just like the conscious activity in a human brain. After diagnosis of an untreatable illness, a patient, C, has transferred (uploaded) his consciousness to the artificial substrate… Read More »Would You Survive Brain Twinning?
Introducing two journal special issues and a conference Written by Alberto Giubilini Two special issues of the journals Bioethics and Monash Bioethics Review will be devoted to, respectively, “New (Bio)technology and Human Identity” and “Medical Humanities in the 21st Century” (academic readers, please consider submitting an article). Here I would like to briefly explain why… Read More »(Bio)technologies, human identity, and the Medical Humanities
Written by Joseph Moore Gus O’Donnell, once the highest official in the British Civil Service and now a member of the House of Lords, has said, on the topic of well-being, ‘If you treasure it, measure it’.[1],[2] I’ve heard this slogan repeated by empirically-minded researchers of happiness, well-being and flourishing. And to anyone with a… Read More »Do We Need To Measure Well-Being?
