For most of us, animal rights are a political afterthought. Even if we regard them as important, our concern for the rights of animals is unlikely to supersede our concern for the rights of people. In part, the hierarchy of concerns that many of us use to prioritize our attention and actions is motivated by [...]
A new event page has been created for the September 19th author-meets-critics event with Katarzyna de Lazai-Radek and Peter Singer, discussing their book, "The Point of View of the Universe: Sidgwick and Contemporary Ethics”. Other presenters at the book symposium will be Thomas Hurka (Toronto), Jennifer Hawkins (Duke), Anthony Skelton (Western), and David Phillips (Houston). [...]
Post by Meghan Winsby As one of the “parents” of the Effective Altruism movement, Peter Singer will speak to Western’s Philosophy department on the subject in two weeks, outlining and defending his views on how to live what he considers a minimally ethical life. To live a fully ethical life, he claims, requires doing “the [...]
Kyle Stanford, of the University of California Irvine, delivered a lecture entitled, "The Difference Between Ice Cream and Nazis: Evolution and the Emergence of Moral Objectivity", where he examined the evolutionary function of moral projection. This lecture took place on March 4, 2011 as part of the Rotman Institute of Philosophy Speaker Series. Video of [...]
Author Meets Critics: Daniel Steel (Philosophy, Michigan State), Philosophy and the Precautionary PrincipleFriday, April 24, Stevenson Hall 1145, 2:30-5pmSponsored by the Department of Philosophy and the Rotman Institute of Philosophy Professor Steel will give an accessible overview of his recent book, followed by critical commentaries by Rotman Institute members Jessey Wright, Amy Wuest, and Daniel Hicks. [...]
The Rotman Institute and Brain and Mind Institute have recently welcomed many new additions into our families. One amazing feature of bringing new babies into the world is to witness, first hand, how our social brains develop, and to reflect on the various philosophical puzzles this information generates. Thankfully, several psychologists, developmental neuroscientists and philosophers have reflected [...]
Check out the post by Reuven Brandt about assisted dying on the Impact Ethics blog: http://impactethics.ca/2014/02/19/the-logical-slippery-slope-is-neither-slippery-nor-logical/
By: Patrick Clipsham On November 19th 2012, Professor Patricia Churchland (UC San Diego) gave the first lecture in the Neurophilosophy Speaker Series, which is jointly sponsored by Western’s Rotman Institute of Philosophy and Brain and Mind Institute. Churchland is, without doubt, the ideal academic to give such an important lecture, as she has long been [...]
1. “I grew up reading Ayn Rand and it taught me quite a bit about who I am and what my value systems are, and what my beliefs are. It’s inspired me so much that it’s required reading in my office for all my interns and my staff.” That’s Paul Ryan, [...]
By Katy Fulfer I’ve recently attended the International Congress of the Feminist Approaches to Bioethics, held in Rotterdam, the Netherlands in late June. One argument that Mary Rawlinson presented in her talk, “The Future of Food: Bioethics, Justice, and the Imperative to Consume,” has stayed with me in the following weeks. In her talk, Rawlinson [...]
