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Track Thyself? Personal Information Technology and the Ethics of Self-knowledge
Written by Muriel Leuenberger The ancient Greek injunction “Know Thyself” inscribed at the temple of Delphi represents just one among many instances where we are encouraged to pursue self-knowledge. Socrates argued that “examining myself and others is the greatest good” and according to Kant moral self-cognition is ‘‘the First Command of all Duties to Oneself’’.
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Should Parents be Able to Decline Consent for Brain Death Testing in a Child?
by Dominic Wilkinson In the recently reported case of Archie Battersbee, a 12 year old boy with severe brain damage from lack of oxygen, a judge declared that he had died on 31st May. This was almost eight weeks after his tragic accident, and five weeks after doctors at his hospital first applied to the
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Archie Battersbee: How the Court Reached its Conclusion
Mother of Archie Battersbee, Hollie Dance, outside the high court in London, England. PA Images / Alamy Stock Photo Dominic Wilkinson, University of Oxford London’s high court has heard the tragic case of 12-year-old Archie Battersbee, who suffered severe brain damage after an accident at his home in Southend, Essex, in early April. On Monday,
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Cross Post: Is Google’s LaMDA conscious? A philosopher’s view
Written by Benjamin Curtis, Nottingham Trent University and Julian Savulescu, University of Oxford Shutterstock LaMDA is Google’s latest artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot. Blake Lemoine, a Google AI engineer, has claimed it is sentient. He’s been put on leave after publishing his conversations with LaMDA. If Lemoine’s claims are true, it would be a milestone
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Healthcare Ethics Has a Gap…
By Ben Davies Last month, the UK’s Guardian newspaper reported on a healthcare crisis in the country. If you live in the UK, you may have already had an inkling of this crisis from personal experience. But if you don’t live here, and particularly if you are professionally involved in philosophical ethics, see if you
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Peter Railton’s Uehiro Lectures 2022
Written by Maximilian Kiener Professor Peter Railton, from the University of Michigan, delivered the 2022 Uehiro Lectures in Practical Ethics. In a series of three consecutive presentations entitled ‘Ethics and Artificial Intelligence’ Railton focused on what has become one the major areas in contemporary philosophy: the challenge of how to understand, interact with, and regulate
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Google it, Mate.
Written by Neil Levy There’s just been an election in Australia. In elections nowadays, politicians attempt to portray themselves as one of us, or at least as someone who is in touch with ‘us’ (whoever ‘we’ are). Hence the (apparently disastrous) pictures of Ed Miliband eating a bacon sandwich. Increasingly, journalists see testing politicians to
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Cross Post: Tech firms are making computer chips with human cells – is it ethical?
Written by Julian Savulescu, Chris Gyngell, Tsutomu Sawai Cross-posted with The Conversation Shutterstock Julian Savulescu, University of Oxford; Christopher Gyngell, The University of Melbourne, and Tsutomu Sawai, Hiroshima University The year is 2030 and we are at the world’s largest tech conference, CES in Las Vegas. A crowd is gathered to watch a big tech company
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Returning To Personhood: On The Ethical Significance Of Paradoxical Lucidity In Late-Stage Dementia
By David M Lyreskog About Dementia Dementia is a class of medical conditions which typically impair our cognitive abilities and significantly alter our emotional and personal lives. The absolute majority of dementia cases – approximately 70% – are caused by Alzheimer’s disease. Other causes include cardiovascular conditions, Lewy body disease, and Parkinson’s disease. In the