Guest Post: Scientists aren’t always the best people to evaluate the risks of scientific research
Written by Simon Beard, Research Associate at the Center for the Study of Existential Risk, University of Cambridge How can we study the pathogens that will be responsible for future global pandemics before they have happened? One way is to…
Read MoreAnnouncement: New Publication: Philosophers Take On the World
Philosophers Take On the World is based on this blog, ‘Practical Ethics in the News’, and edited by David Edmonds. It is published by OUP and is due out in September 2016. Every day the news shows us provoking stories about what…
Read MoreCross Post: Ideas for Australia: Rethinking funding and priorities in IVF – should the state pay for people to have babies?
Written by Professor Julian Savulescu and Professor Kelton Tremellen This is a cross posting of an article which was originally published at The Conversation How much should the state spend on helping people to have children? At present, go…
Read MoreVideo Series: Tom Douglas on Asbestos, a Serious Public Health Threat
Asbestos kills more people per year than excessive sun exposure, yet it receives much less attention. Tom Douglas (Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics) explains why asbestos is still a serious public health threat and what steps shoul…
Read MoreOxford Uehiro Prize in Practical Ethics: Are offensive jokes more permissible if they’re funny? Written by Raphael Hogarth
This essay received an Honourable Mention in the Undergraduate Category of the Oxford Uehiro Prize of Practical Ethics Written by New College Oxford student Raphael Hogarth Three moral agents walk into a bar. They get to joking and, with ea…
Read MoreGuest Post: Should you give to beggars? Yes, you should.
Written by Richard Christian. In a stimulating and controversial post on this blog, and later in a paper published in Think, Ole Martin Moen has argued that you should not give to beggars. His argument is simple and familiar. It is t…
Read More“Cognitive Enhancement: Defending the Parity Principle”, St Cross Special Ethics Seminar by Neil Levy
Last Thursday Professor Neil Levy has defended his Parity Principle for analysing the ethics of cognitive enhancement at the St Cross Special Ethics Seminar. Such principle would oppose a common form of objection against enhancement which c…
Read MoreAnimal suffering and the pointlessness of moral philosophy
(Above image here) Consider the infamous Chinese dog market. Dogs are rounded up, sometimes beaten while still alive (ostensibly to improve the flavour of their meat), killed, and eaten. Everyone I know thinks it’s obscene, and that the suf…
Read MoreShould Rhodes stay or should he go? On the ethics of removing controversial statues
This is an unedited version of an article originally published by The Conversation. Picture this: it’s 20 April 2021 and the charming Austrian village of Braunau am Inn – Hitler’s birth place – reveals a new statue of Adolf Hitl…
Read MoreOxford Uehiro Prize in Practical Ethics: “What justifies parents’ influence on their children?” written by Yutang Jin
This essay was a finalist in the Graduate Category of the 2nd Annual Oxford Uehiro Prize in Practical Ethics Written by University of Oxford Student, Yutang Jin In a family, parents can exert enormous influence on their children. Parents te…
Read More