Guest Post: “Gambling should be fun, not a problem”: why strategies of self-control may be paradoxical.
Written by Melanie Trouessin University of Lyon Faced with issues related to gambling and games of chance, the Responsible Gambling program aims to promote moderate behaviour on the part of the player. It is about encouraging risk avoidance…
Read MoreGuest Post: What puts the ‘mental’ in mental illness?
Written by Anke Snoek Macquarie University I have a 3 year old who doesn’t eat. He seems not to be interested in food in general. We were offered many explanations for why he doesn’t eat and most specialists suspect a psychological source f…
Read MoreVirtually reality? The value of virtual activities and remote interaction
By Hannah Maslen The Oxford Martin School recently held a two-day symposium on virtual reality and immersive technologies. The aim was to examine a range of technologies, from online games to telepresence via a robot avatar, to consider…
Read MoreGuest Post: An Unfortunate State Of Affairs
Hilary Greaves, University of Oxford Ashley Madison is an online extramarital dating service, running with the succinct subtitle “Life is short. Have an affair.” On July 20, 2015, the service announced that hackers had breached its data sec…
Read MoreANNOUNCEMENT: Journal of Medical Ethics now accepting longer papers
Please note: this blog is was first published at the Journal of Medical Ethics Blog. The Journal of Medical Ethics is pleased to announce the addition of a new article type – Extended Essays – that will allow authors up to 7,000 words to pr…
Read MoreThe reproducibility problem and the status of bioethics
There is a long overdue crisis of confidence in the biological and medical sciences. It would be nice – though perhaps rather ambitious – to think that it could transmute into a culture of humility. A recent comment in Nature observes…
Read MoreGuest Post: Is social media bad for friendship?
By Rebecca Roache Royal Holloway Follow Rebecca on Twitter here I run a practical ethics course at Royal Holloway for second- and third-year undergraduates, and today our topic was friendship and social media. More specificall…
Read MoreGuest Post: Vampire Judges and Blood Money: Blood Donation as Criminal Sanction?
Written by Christopher Chew Monash University Early one September morning, plaintiffs at a rural Alabama County court in the US, were greeted with an unexpected and highly unusual offer. To quote presiding Judge Marvin Wiggins: “There’s a b…
Read MoreFrom Self-Interest to Morality: How Moral Progress Might Be Possible
One of the most stunning successes I have personally seen in my life is the emergence of the Effective Altruism movement. I remember when Will Crouch (now MacAskill) first presented 80 000 hours to our Graduate Discussion Group and Toby Ord…
Read MoreTreatment and Understanding in Psychiatry
Understanding is a fundamental concept in medical ethics. I want to discuss two contrasting senses in which medical treatments require understanding on behalf of the patient. The first of these is very familiar, and much discussed. The seco…
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