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Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics

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A selection of seminars and special lectures on wide-ranging topics relating to practical ethics. The Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics was established in 2002 with the support of the Uehiro Foundation on Ethics and Education of Japan. It is an integral part of the philosophy faculty of Oxford University, one of the great centres of academic excellence in philosophical ethics.

# Episode Title Description People Date
41 Creative Commons Uehiro Special Double Seminar: Enhancement Associate Professor Rob Sparrow (Monash) and PhD student Chris Gyngell (ANU) present talks on the topic of human enhancement. Rob Sparrow, Chris Gyngell 22 May 2013
40 Creative Commons 1st St Cross Seminar TT13: Precarious (bio)ethics: research on poisoning patients in Sri Lanka Self-harm using poison is a serious public health problem in Sri Lanka. As part of an effort to tackle the problem, clinical trials are used to identify effective antidotes. This talk describes the conduct of trials in this unusual and difficult context. Salla Sariola 15 May 2013
39 Creative Commons Uehiro Seminar: Rescuing Responsibility from the Retributivists - Neuroscience, Free Will and Criminal Punishment Legal punishment as the routine infliction of suffering poses a serious challenge of justification. The challenge becomes more urgent as a number of thinkers argue that the dominant, retributivist answer fails in the light of the findings of neuroscience. Frej Klem Thomsen 02 May 2013
38 Creative Commons Astor Keynote Lecture: What Rights May be Defended by Means of War? Many aims that motivate unjust wars could be achieved without violence if not met with military resistance. So is self-defense against aggression always permissible? Are the values of state sovereignty important enough to justify war in their defense? Jeff McMahan 11 Apr 2013
37 Creative Commons Effective Philanthropy: How much good can we achieve? How do we know when our donations are helping, and how much they are helping? Are charities roughly equally good, or are some much more effective than others? Toby Ord and Harry Shannon discuss effective philanthropy from different angles. Toby Ord, Harry Shannon 06 Mar 2013
36 Creative Commons Opening the Black Box: Examining the Deliberation of Assisted Reproductive Technologies in the UK and US; Second St Cross Special Ethics Seminar HT13 How best to govern the field of assisted reproductive technologies? As UK and US authorities utilise different approaches, will the disparate structures and missions of these two bodies result in significantly different answers? Kyle Edwards 05 Mar 2013
35 Creative Commons Uehiro Seminar: The Value of Uncertainty Uncertainty and quality should be integrated into the quantitative sciences of complex systems; this talk offers some practical techniques that illustrate how this could be accomplished. Peter Taylor, Jerome Ravetz 05 Mar 2013
34 Creative Commons Uehiro Seminar: Psychopaths and responsibility Neil Levy explores some of the previous debates about whether psychopaths are fully responsible for their wrongdoing, especially work on the moral/conventional distinction. Neil Levy 26 Feb 2013
33 Creative Commons Debate: The Value of Life John Broome, the White's Professor of Moral Philosophy, debates the value of life with Jeff McMahan, focussing on McMahan's time-relative account of the value of life, which Broome has criticised. John Broome, Jeff McMahan 15 Feb 2013
32 Creative Commons 1st St Cross Seminar HT13: Two Conceptions of Children's Welfare Anthony Skelton examines possible reasons why philosophers have neglected to discuss children's welfare. After outlining and evaluating differing views, a rival account is presented. Anthony Skelton 05 Feb 2013
31 Creative Commons Uehiro Seminar: Sleep and Opportunity for Well-being Discussing a paper co-authored with David Birks, Alexandre Erler suggests sleeping less can provide a greater opportunity for well-being. Alexandre Erler 05 Feb 2013
30 Creative Commons If I could just stop loving you: Anti-love drugs and the ethics of a chemical break-up Emotional pain and difficulty in relationships is potentially dangerous and destructive. In this talk, I explore some of the potential uses and misuses of anti-love biotechnology from a scientific and ethical perspective. Brian Earp 04 Dec 2012
29 Creative Commons 2012 Leverhulme Lecture 1: Some Problems about Religion in the Political Sphere: the dangers of instability and violence This series of lectures attempts to explore whether possible relations between some typical religious virtues, attitudes and practices and typical democratic virtues, attitudes and practices must be a source of conflict or can be mutually supportive. Tony Coady 22 Nov 2012
28 Creative Commons 2012 Leverhulme Lecture 2: Reason, Religion and Public Discourse in a Liberal Democracy This series of lectures attempts to explore whether possible relations between some typical religious virtues, attitudes and practices and typical democratic virtues, attitudes and practices must be a source of conflict or can be mutually supportive. Tony Coady 22 Nov 2012
27 Creative Commons 2012 Leverhulme Lecture 3: Religious Virtues, Democratic Virtues and their interaction in Practice This series of lectures attempts to explore whether possible relations between some typical religious virtues, attitudes and practices and typical democratic virtues, attitudes and practices must be a source of conflict or can be mutually supportive. Tony Coady 22 Nov 2012
26 Creative Commons The bad seed: facts and values in the study of childhood antisocial behaviour The speaker presents some recent work that has been done on children who are seen to be at risk of violence; and raises questions about the social and ethical significance of studying children in this way and for this purpose. Gwen Adshead 19 Nov 2012
25 Creative Commons The Possibility of Religious-Secular Ethical Engagement Debate 1: Abortion The Possibility of Religious-Secular Ethical Engagement: Abortion. Charles Camosy, Julian Savulescu 24 Oct 2012
24 Creative Commons The Possibility of Religious-Secular Ethical Engagement Debate 2: Euthanasia The Possibility of Religious-Secular Ethical Engagement: Euthanasia. Charles Camosy, Julian Savulescu 23 Oct 2012
23 Creative Commons Uehiro Seminar: The Ethics of Creating Designer Babies Julian Savulescu believes that if we can genetically alter the next generation, not only should we be free to do so, it may even turn out that in some circumstances we have an obligation to go ahead and do it. Julian Savulescu 18 Oct 2012
22 Wellcome Lecture in Neuroethics The brain disease model of addiction: Assessing its validity, utility and implications for public policy towards the treatment and prevention of addiction. Wayne Hall 20 Jun 2012
21 Counter-terrorism and its Ethical Hazards Since the terrorist attacks by Islamic militants upon the US and UK in the early 2000s, a host of anti-terrorist measures have been introduced which raise conceptual and ethical issues that have serious implications for practical politics. Tony Coady 14 Jun 2012
20 Creative Commons Philosophical Theory and the Justification of Terrorism There is widespread belief that terrorism can never be morally justified, ut this belief is not widespread amongst philosophers; they offer a variety of justifications for some terrorist acts. Tony Coady 06 Jun 2012
19 Creative Commons St Cross Seminar: Informing Egg Donors of the Potential for Embryonic Research Schaefer is currently reading for the B.Phil in Philosophy at Oxford. His interests lie in moral philosophy, especially applied ethics, as well as political philosophy and personal identity and he has a background in research ethics. G Owen Schaefer 30 May 2012
18 Creative Commons Geoengineering: Science, politics and ethics An introduction to geoengineering, covering the broad range of issues raised by the emergence of climate engineering as a response to climate change. Clive Hamilton 23 May 2012
17 Creative Commons The Ethics of Entertainment: a case study of Popular Cinema in China and India Karanjeet de Feo-Giet's thesis focuses on contemporary Chinese and Indian entertainment films in Mandarin and Hindi and their roles in communicating ideas about identity and Asian-ness today. Karanjeet de Feo-Giet 10 May 2012
16 Creative Commons Lecture: Rumour, conspiracy theory and propaganda David Coady is a lecturer in philosophy at the University of Tasmania. He is the author of What to Believe Now: Applying Epistemology to Contemporary Issues and the editor of Conspiracy Theories: The Philosophical Debate. David Coady 16 Apr 2012
15 St Cross Seminar HT12: Cooperation, altruism and cheating in micro-organisms Santorelli is a research fellow in the Zoology department, University of Oxford. He is interested in investigating the evolution of cooperative behaviors of macro and microorganisms. Lorenzo Santorelli 27 Feb 2012
14 Foundations of Rights of Access to the Benefits of Science in International Law Professor Aurora Plomer is Chair in Law and Bioethics at the University of Sheffield. Aurora Plomer 08 Feb 2012
13 Creative Commons EU ban on hESC Patents: A Threat to Science and the Rule of Law In this talk, Professor Plomer (Chair in Law and Bioethics, University of Sheffield) argues that, from a legal perspective, the EU ban on hESC patents is seriously flawed. Aurora Plomer 23 Jan 2012
12 2nd St Cross Seminar MT11: Dr Margaret Yee Whose Ethics? Six Principles and Six Guidelines determinative of a superior ethics. Note: due to a technical issue the first ten minutes of the presentation are missing. Margaret Yee 08 Dec 2011
11 Bio-ethics Bites: Onora O'Neill on Trust Onora O'Neill, formerly principal of Newnham College, Cambridge, has been thinking about the issue of 'trust': trust is vital in most areas of human interaction - but nowhere more so than in health and medicine. Onora O'Neill 01 Sep 2011
10 Creative Commons 2nd St Cross Special Ethics Seminar TT11: Museum Ethics Museum Ethics. Nick Mayhew 29 Jun 2011
9 Creative Commons Human Rights vs Religion? Professor Roger Trigg gives the St Cross Special Ethics Seminar, Trinity Term 2011. Roger Trigg 20 Jun 2011
8 Savulescu interview: Moral Enhancement Nigel Warburton interviews Julian Savulescu on the topic of moral enhancement. Nigel Warburton, Julian Savulescu 01 Jun 2011
7 Creative Commons Prioritarianism, Levelling Down and Welfare Diffusion Lecture and discussion from Professor Ingmar Persson (Gothenburg University), the discussant is Derek Parfit (Oxford). Ingmar Persson, Derek Parfit 28 Mar 2011
6 Creative Commons New Imaging Evidence for the Neural Bases of Moral Sentiments: Prosocial and Antisocial Behaviour 2nd Annual Wellcome Lecture in Neuroethics, given by Professor Jorge Moll on 18th January 2011 on the subject of new evidence for Neural bases for moral sentiments. Jorge Moll 28 Mar 2011
5 Creative Commons Hug me daddy I hate you: the ethical challenges of a C21 business Dr Mick Blowfield, Fellow of St Cross College, gives the second St Cross Special Ethics Seminar on The Ethical Challenges of 21st Century Businesses. Mick Blowfield 22 Mar 2011
4 Creative Commons Good Intentions and Political Life: Against Virtue Parsimony: St Cross Special Ethics Seminar Dr Adrian Walsh delivers a St Cross College Lecture entitled Good Intentions and Political Life: Against Virtue Parsimony. Adrian Walsh 24 Jan 2011
3 Unfit for Life: Genetically Enhance Humanity of Face Extinction A St Cross Special Ethics Seminar - If we are to avoid annihilation, we must either alter our political institutions, severely restrain our technology or change our nature (22 February 2010). Julian Savulescu 03 Mar 2010
2 The Flipside of Scientific Freedom Scientists have always had to contend with the idea that their research may be misused. The problem, weighing scientific freedom of inquiry against the possibility that research could be used for harm, is known as the 'dual-use dilemma'. Tom Douglas 12 Aug 2009
1 Julian Savulescu's Monash Distinguished Alumni Julian Savulescu and the other Monash Distinguished Alumni discuss how Monash University has influenced their careers. Julian Savulescu 30 Jun 2009