Neuroscience, Responsibility, and the Law
Lecture
The law makes assumptions about how people think—how we reason, why we act, and what it takes for us to be responsible. Advances in neuroscience constantly challenge these assumptions. How should advances in our understanding of the brain and mind affect classic legal questions? Join us for a…
The continuum argument is invalid - John Broome
Seminar
Speaker: John Broome Derek Parfit argues by means of something he calls a ‘continuum argument’ that a particular appealing premise in population axiology implies a conclusion that he and many other people find repugnant. He treats this as a paradox, and takes up the…
The Unity of Dreams - Cecily Whiteley
Seminar
Speaker: Cecily Whiteley When we are asleep, we are not uniformly unconscious — rather, our sleep is interspersed with bursts of conscious mental activity. This activity takes different forms throughout the night: some experiences are complex, bizarre, and emotionally vivid simulations which…
Justifying Thresholds
Seminar
Speaker: Caleb Perl You shouldn’t scapegoat someone innocent to prevent five killings. But maybe you should scapegoat someone innocent when the numbers get large enough – if, say, scapegoating would save a million, or a billion. That is, there might be thresholds where the numbers start to…
Pandemic lottery preparedness: Preparing to ethically, fairly, and systematically allocate scarce resources in response to future infectious disease outbreaks
Seminar
Speaker: Gerard Vong Using the recent COVID-19 and MPox international outbreaks as examples, Dr Vong argues that when distributing a public health resource that is too scarce (or logistically challenging) to allocate to all of a group of equally-worthy potential beneficiaries (even when/if…
Speech Acts on Social Media: Algorithms, Amplifiers, and Affordances
Seminar
Speaker: Michael Randall Barnes A great amount of communication now occurs on social media platforms. And sometimes these communicative acts cause and/or constitute harmful acts. The harms of social media raise a number of questions concerning the processes and aims of content moderation—the…
Mitochondrial Donation in Australia: A philosophical report - Catherine Mills
Seminar
Speaker: Catherine Mills In March 2022, the Australian Parliament passed a bill allowing for a clinical trial of the assisted reproductive technology, [[mitochondrial donation]], to be undertaken. This makes Australia the second country in the world to legislate to allow this…