Centre for Ethics, Philosophy and Public Affairs
We are proud to present the Fourteenth Session of Film and Philosophy at CEPPA (aka the CEPPA Film Club). On this occasion we are meeting to watch and discuss Little Buddha (1993) with our very own Mario Bison. As it is the summer there is much less preparation for this, and no pre-reads. Sadly, there ... Read more
Title: Democratic Instrumentalism and the Threat of Authoritarianism Abstract: The instrumentalism of the title says roughly that the form of governance that would be feasibly best in any circumstances is any one whose establishment and operation would bring about consequences morally no worse than those of any other that might instead be put in place. I ... Read more
We are proud to present the thirteenth 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 Tár (see trailer here) with our Ida Miczke. Here is a selection of readings (and one hearing) to do before the session: To read: ... Read more
We are proud to present the Twelfth Session of Film and Philosophy at CEPPA (aka the CEPPA Film Club). On this occasion we have a special guest from the department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Simon Lee, who will be discussing Twister (1996) with us. Simon Lee is, among other things, a storm chaser, so he'll be ... Read more
Title: The Right to a Healthy Environment and the Case of Climate Change Abstract: Once regarded as a marginal proposal in international human rights, the right to a healthy environment has gained surprisingly widespread acceptance in domestic law across the world. Recently, the right has become an important part of global climate advocacy, often anchoring legal ... Read more
Title: Conflated Questions in the Ethics of Belief Abstract: It’s common to suppose that epistemology can be understood in close structural parallel with ethics: as ethics is about what to do, epistemology is about what to believe. In this paper I draw attention to an important limit of such parallelisms: in reasoning to belief, agents are ... Read more
Title: Going First: Integration with Compensation as a Duty of Justice. Abstract: Racial segregation remains deeply entrenched in many societies such as the United States. (Liberal) integrationists argue that we have a duty to integrate because integration is necessary for racial justice (Anderson 2010). (Egalitarian) pluralists reject a duty to integrate (Shelby 2014, 2016). They hold ... Read more
We are proud to present the Eleventh Session of Film and Philosophy at CEPPA (aka the CEPPA Film Club). Dear all, Next Thursday (March 26th) you are all invited to the Eleventh Session of Film and Philosophy at CEPPA (aka the CEPPA Film Club). With this event, we start a special series highlighting the research ... Read more
Title: Relational Value: Problems and Prospects Abstract: The concept of “relational value” is widely used in the environmental ethics and policy literatures. In this talk, I will critically assess this use, considering what relational value might add to our existing value categories and what problems it might produce for our thinking about the value of the ... Read more
Omar Ruiz Rivera - Moral Skill Abstract: This talk is about moral skill—the capacity for morally excellent behaviour. In particular, I engage with Shepherd’s (2022) view that moral skill is “limited in scope, and precarious” (p. 713). To defend this view, Shepherd relies on a distinction between global and local moral skill. The former involves ... Read more