Centre for Ethics, Philosophy and Public Affairs
On 27 November 2024 we are convening a colloquium at the University of St Andrews featuring Dr Emily Postan (Chancellor’s Fellow in Bioethics, University of Edinburgh) and Prof. David Comerford (Economics, University of Stirling). Key words: bioethics, medical ethics, behavioural economics, behavioural psychology, community wisdom, quality of life, right not to know, longevity. There is a revolution in the early diagnosis ... Read more
This week we will discuss Cora Diamond's classic paper 'The Difficulty of Reality'. Location: Edgecliffe G03
Title: The Idea of Ancestry in African Philosophy Abstract: This paper concerns itself with the rationality of belief in ancestral existence. Although belief in ancestral existence remains widespread globally, I shall focus on a-thinned out version of African forms of this belief. ‘Thinned-out’ in that I am not interested in this or that substantive version of ... Read more
We are proud to present the Fourth Session of Film and Philosophy at CEPPA (aka the CEPPA Film Club). This time we will gather from 16:30 onwards to watch and Stories We Tell (see trailer here). The movie will start SHARP at 17:15. Recommended reading and watching material Articles: Bill Nichols - Performative documentaries (in Blurred boundaries : questions ... Read more
This will be an online event (7pm-8pm) for members of the public. The team from the University of St Andrews will be sharing information and inviting discussion. TO REGISTER IN ADVANCE Recent advances in artificial intelligence, biomarker research, genomic sequencing, and big data analytics are revolutionising diagnosis, enabling more accurate life and health expectancy predictions. These advancements ... Read more
We are proud to present the Fifth Session of Film and Philosophy at CEPPA (aka the CEPPA Film Club). This time we will gather from 16:30 onwards to watch and discuss Blue Velvet (see trailer here). The movie will start SHARP at 17:15. DAVID LYNCH IN MEMORIAM As many of you will know or might ... Read more
This week we will be discussing Rebecca Brown - 'Sneaky Persuasion in Public Health Risk Communication'. Location: Edgecliffe G03
Title: Philosophical Challenges in Risk Communication of Rare and Severe Events Abstract: In this talk, I will discusses different philosophical challenges in communicating and dealing with the risk of rare and severe events. As a case study, I use avalanche risk: a form of voluntary risk taking in which the individual is often partly responsible ... Read more
Reading: this week we will meet to discuss two (and a half) short articles by our speakers: Viviane Fairbank, 'Climate change is a fact – but to prove it, scientists are bogged down in a battle about what facts really are' Simon Lee, ' The climate is changing so fast that we haven’t seen how bad extreme ... Read more
Please join us on for the Second edition of the Philosophy of Climate Science (PhiCliSci) working group, which will bring together philosophers and climate scientists to discuss central themes relating to the climate crisis. In the first session, climate scientist Simon Lee and philosopher Viviane Fairbank will give presentations on the topic of ‘Climate Modelling ... Read more