by Professor Neil Levy; Cross-posted from Blog of the APA Don’t feed the trolls arguments. When someone is wrong—on the Internet or in the coffee shop—the temptation to engage can be strong, even though it often seems futile. While it can be satisfying and illuminating to argue with friends and some other people with whom… Read More »When Should we Argue?
Blog post by professor Roger Crisp On 12th March, I was delighted to be invited to attend the 4th Ramadan Community Iftar organized by the Dialogue Society in partnership with The Oxford Academy. The event involved a wonderfully diverse group of participants, including civic leaders, community and faith representatives, charity members, students, academics, parents, and… Read More »Community Iftar
Undergraduate Highly Commended paper in the 2026 National Uehiro Oxford Essay Prize in Practical Ethics. By Leela Kainth. Mainstream pornography refers to conventional, mass-marketed, sexually explicit material produced at commercial scale, typically for consumers to masturbate to. This is distinct from so-called ‘feminist pornography’, which self-consciously aims to resist these norms through alternative representations and… Read More »Can Pornography be Feminist in a Mass Market Economy?
Undergraduate Finalist paper in the 2026 National Uehiro Oxford Essay Prize in Practical Ethics. By Ethan Beri. Despite being the “oldest profession”, prostitution is still hotly debated, both in the academy and in public discourse. Prostitution is often considered worse than other jobs, in part because it wrongs the prostitute: a woman who sells sex… Read More »Is Prostitution Just a Job?
Graduate Highly Commended paper in the 2026 National Uehiro Oxford Essay Prize in Practical Ethics. By James Forsdyke. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-2446-4586 In this paper, I will discuss ethical considerations when it comes to correcting assumptions about people with physical disabilities. In particular, I will discuss the assumption some individuals make that physical disabilities are necessarily accompanied… Read More »‘It’s Physical, Not Intellectual’: The Ethics of Correcting Assumptions About Disability
Reflections on a recent Antitheses Project conversation In a recent ANTITHESES Project podcast, Dominic Wilkinson (Uehiro Oxford Institute), Brian D. Earp (National University of Singapore), and Zainab Nur (Hidden Voices UK) discuss an extended essay published in the Journal of Medical Ethics (2025) examining the unintended harms of the dominant global campaign against female genital… Read More »Rethinking the Ethics and Politics of the Global Campaign Against Female Genital Cutting
By Dr Jeremy Gauntlett-Gilbert; Consultant Psychologist and student, MSt Practical Ethics Chatbots are increasingly being used to deliver an AI version of psychological therapy. Internationally, there is pressure on mental health services and a shortage of human therapists. Mental health providers have a keen interest in such AI technological solutions that might offer treatment “at… Read More »Mental Health Chatbots: on Truth and Bullshit
By Taka Kurogi, Bruno dos Santos Queiroz We were pleased to be welcomed at the Bentham Project by Drs. Isra Black and Tim Causer of UCL’s Faculty of Laws. It was deeply inspiring to learn more about the Project’s ongoing work and its central role in preserving, studying, and, most importantly, making publicly accessible the… Read More »A Visit to the Bentham Project at University College London (UCL)
In recent years, museums and other cultural institutions are increasingly being asked whether they have a moral responsibility to return objects in their collections to countries, communities, families, or individuals who claim a connection to them. These debates about cultural restitution and repatriation have become increasingly visible, involving discussion of artefacts with complex histories. High-profile… Read More »Helping Museums Think About The Ethics of Cultural Restitution: Introducing The Decision Aid for the Restitution of Cultural Artefacts (DARCA)
Join this year’s cohort of MSt in Practical Ethics students – apply by 28th January to take advantage of funding opportunities. The MSt in Practical Ethics at the University of Oxford is designed for those who want to think carefully and rigorously about important ethical questions, while remaining firmly engaged with the real world. Ethics,… Read More »The MSt in Practical Ethics at Oxford University – Apply Before January 28!
