Location: Edgecliffe G03 Title: The Morality of Gossip Abstract: Gossip is pervasive and wide-ranging. It lubricates and wrecks social relationships. Many people openly confess to loving it yet acknowledge that gossiping, while often gratifying, is, if not morally wrong, at least not quite right. Gossip has not received much attention in moral philosophy. In this ... Read more
One-day book workshop on Elizabeth Ashford's Hunger’s Witting Executioners: Structural Violations of the Right to Subsistence Pre-read: workshop participants will be expected to read the book manuscript distributed in advance. Location: Edgecliffe G03 and Teams. Schedule: 10:30am to noon: discussion Lunch break (free time) 1:30pm to 3pm: discussion
Location: Edgecliffe G03 and Teams Title: What’s wrong with teaching our children to be good citizens? Abstract: Character education is a common part of schooling in the U.S. and U.K., and one popular argument in favour of character education is that it is conducive to producing citizens who have the virtues that make someone a ... Read more
Location: Edgecliffe G03 Title: "The Mind that Matters: Degrees of Sentience and Moral Status". Abstract: It is often argued that the capacity for conscious experience is necessary for a creature to morally matter for its own sake and thus have moral status. Entities that lack the capacity for consciousness, such as chairs, philosophical zombies, or anencephalic infants, ... Read more
Location: Edgecliffe G03 Title: Values as Vectors Abstract: Often, two things seem tied in value, though slightly improving one would not break the tie. How can we model such 'insensitivity to sweetening'? A leading answer is that overall values, rather than being like precise numbers, must be imprecise, giving rise to a special nontransitive value ... Read more
Location: Edgecliffe G03 Title: Scientism and Humanities Education Abstract: In this talk I discuss a pedagogical implication of scientism. Because scientism elevates science and derogates what is deemed non-scientific, the arts and humanities become, on such a view, less valuable parts of university curricula. I survey some of the current data on declining study of ... Read more
Location: School III in-person and Teams online (for online attendees, headphones should be worn to prevent a feedback loop from occurring) Title: Social Reproduction and the Politics of Care Abstract: For decades, socialist feminists have insisted that an adequate approach to any economy, and especially to capitalism, must involve attention to social reproduction, i.e., to “the activities ... Read more
The CEPPA Fest is a two-day conference featuring the work of seven prominent moral and political philosophers.
Panel on Climate Ethics at the Energy Ethics 2023 Conference.
Location: Edgecliffe 104 Title: Should hate speech be against the law? Abstract: Hate speech has become increasingly prevalent, fuelled by social media, political polarization, and the rise of extremist groups. It can have a profoundly negative impact on individuals and communities, causing harm, inciting violence, and perpetuating discrimination. However, hate speech is notoriously difficult to ... Read more