Speculating about technology in ethics
Many important discussions in practical ethics necessarily involve a degree of speculation about technology: the identification and analysis of ethical, social and legal issues is most usefully done in advance, to make sure that ethically-i…
Read MoreWas the Draw Muhammad Competition an Incitement to Violence?
by Nigel Warburton, @philosophybites On May 3rd two men opened fire on a security guard near the ‘Muhhamad Art Exhibit & Contest’ an event in Garland, Texas, that advertised a $10,000 prize for the best cartoon drawing of the prophet. T…
Read MoreWhy do we like our artist on drugs, but not our sportspeople?
The internet and print media are happy to herald that movie director Lars Von Trier can’t work without alcohol. He reports that he tried to be sober and went to AA meetings for half a year, but has now started drinking again in order to be …
Read More‘Competitive Altruism’ – Why attractive women are the most successful fundraisers
By Nadira Faber Why do humans help others even when it is costly and nothing is to be expected in return? This question has not only developed into a classic in different empirical disciplines, but is also of high interest for fundraisers l…
Read MoreHow can journal editors fight bias in polarized scientific communities?
By Brian D. Earp In a recent issue of the Journal of Medical Ethics, Thomas Ploug and Søren Holm point out that scientific communities can sometimes get pretty polarized. This happens when two different groups of researchers consistently ar…
Read MoreLord Janner: Sex, dementia and the public interest
In deciding whether or not to prosecute, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) applies a two-stage test. The first stage is the evidential stage: is there a realistic prospect of conviction? The second stage is the public interest stage: is i…
Read MoreHow morality might ask less of scrooges (and more of kinder folks)
Could the fact that someone is more scroogelike – less willing to sacrifice for the sake of doing good – entail that morality is less demanding for her? The answer to this question has important implications for a host of issues in practic…
Read MorePress Release: The moral imperative to research editing embryos: The need to modify Nature and Science
The first study in which the DNA of human embryos was intentionally modified has been published in the journal Protein & Cell, released on Saturday. This research is significant because it may be an important step toward a world where w…
Read MoreThe moral imperative to research editing embryos: The need to modify Nature and Science
Chris Gyngell and Julian Savulescu Human genetic modification has officially progressed from science fiction to science. In a world first, scientists have used the gene editing technique CRISPR to modify human embryos. While the study itse…
Read MoreThe Luck of Oskar Groening
Oskar Groening – the so-called ‘Bookkeeper of Auschwitz’ who counted money taken from prisoners – is now on trial in Lueneberg. Some philosophers suggest that our moral assessment of people like Groening should take into account his ‘bad lu…
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