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The non-identity problem of professional philosophers
By Charles Foster Philosophers have a non-identity problem. It is that they are not identified as relevant by the courts. This, in an age where funding and preferment are often linked to engagement with the non-academic world, is a worry. This irrelevance was brutally demonstrated in an English Court of Appeal case, (‘the CICA case’)
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Using AI to Predict Criminal Offending: What Makes it ‘Accurate’, and What Makes it ‘Ethical’.
Jonathan Pugh Tom Douglas The Durham Police force plans to use an artificial intelligence system to inform decisions about whether or not to keep a suspect in custody. Developed using data collected by the force, The Harm Assessment Risk Tool (HART) has already undergone a 2 year trial period to monitor the accuracy of
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Announcement: James Williams wins Innovative Thinking prize
OUC affiliated student, James Williams, has been awarded the inaugural $100,000 Nine Dots Prize. Williams, a doctoral candidate researching design ethics, beat 700 other entrants from around the world with his 3,000-word answer to the set question ‘Are digital technologies making politics impossible?’ His entry Stand Out of Our Light: Freedom and Persuasion in the
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Guest Post: Crispr Craze and Crispr Cares
Written by Robert Ranisch, Institute for Ethics and History of Medicine, University of Tuebingen @RobRanisch Newly discovered tools for the targeted editing of the genome have been generating talk of a revolution in gene technology for the last five years. The CRISPR/Cas9-method draws most of the attention by enabling a more simple and precise, cheaper
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Article Announcement:Which lives matter most? Thinking about children who are not yet born confronts us with the question of our ethical obligations to future people.
Professor Dominic Wilkinson and Keyur Doolabh have recently published a provocative essay at Aeon online magazine: Imagine that a 14-year-old girl, Kate, decides that she wants to become pregnant. Kate’s parents are generally broadminded, and are supportive of her long-term relationship with a boy of the same age. They are aware that Kate is sexually
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Video Series: Peter Singer on Vegetarianism
Is it okay to eat one hamburger per year? Is it acceptable to eat a hamburger made from a ‘happy cow’? The production of crops may result in more animals killed than the production of meat from grass-fed cattle and sheep – does this mean we should eat more meat and less crops? Should we eat
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Cross Post: Italy has introduced mandatory vaccinations – other countries should follow its lead
Written by Alberto Giubilini This article was originally published on The Conversation In the first four months of this year, around 1,500 cases of measles were reported in Italy. As a response to the outbreak, the Italian government introduced a law making 12 vaccinations mandatory for preschool and school-age children. Parents will have to provide
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The Campaign Trail as a Carnival of Virtues
by Andreas Kappes @AnKappes Imagine you are asked to evaluate candidates who apply for a job. The person who gets the job will interact with you a lot. What would be more important to you, that the person is friendly, honest, and overall a good person or that the person is competent, educated, and good
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Agreement and disagreement about experimental treatment. The Charlie Gard Appeal
by Dominic Wilkinson and Julian Savulescu @Neonatalethics @juliansavulescu Tomorrow, the UK Court of Appeal will review the controversial case of a British infant, Charlie Gard. Charlie’s parents are appealing a recent High Court decision that gave doctors permission to withdraw his life support. They have raised money for Charlie to travel to the US for
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Oxford Uehiro Prize in Practical Ethics:In It To Win It: Is Prize-giving Bad for Philosophy? Written by Rebecca Buxton
This essay received an Honorable Mention in the Graduate Category of the Oxford Uehiro Prize in Practical Ethics 2017 Written by University of Oxford student, Rebecca Buxton INTRODUCTORY REMARKS We live in a culture of prize-giving. The Nobel Prize, the Medal of Honour, the Man Booker and, not least, the Oxford Uehiro Prize in Practical Ethics.