Ethics
Peter Singer: Animal Liberation, Forty Years On
Great Hall - Somerville House Somerville House, Western University, London, Ontario, CanadaABSTRACT Peter Singer's Animal Liberation, often credited with starting the modern animal rights movement, was first published in September 1975. In this lecture, the author assesses how well the argument has stood up over that period, and what progress has been made towards the changes in our treatment of animals that the book advocates. SPEAKER [...]
Katarzyna de Lazai-Radek and Peter Singer: Author-Meets-Critics: The Point of View of The Universe
Room 1145 - Stevenson Hall Stevenson Hall, Room 1145, London, Ontario, CanadaEVENT DESCRIPTION "The Point of View of the Universe: Sidgwick and Contemporary Ethics" is devoted to interpreting and defending in a contemporary setting a number of the doctrines found in Henry Sidgwick’s "The Methods of Ethics". It therefore discusses a wide number of moral problems of interest to contemporary moral philosophers, including the conflict between [...]
Kirstin Borgerson: Toward an Epistemic Justification for Research-Practice Integration in Medicine
Room 1145 - Stevenson Hall Stevenson Hall, Room 1145, London, Ontario, CanadaABSTRACT Arguments in favor of greater research-practice integration in medicine have tended to be ethical, political, or pragmatic. But there are good epistemic reasons to pursue greater integration, and it is important to think through these reasons in order to avoid inadvertently designing new systems in ways that replicate deep and enduring problems within current [...]
Panel Discussion: Responsible Robotics: Shaping a future with robots worth wanting
Wolf Performance Hall - Central Library 251 Dundas St, London, Ontario, CanadaABSTRACT On the cusp of the robotics revolution we will now encounter robots in our day-to-day lives whether it's a robot to deliver our pizza or greet us in the shopping mall, or having a robot assist a surgeon perform a surgery. Not only will this powerful technology provide us with incredible benefits, relieving us [...]
Aimee van Wynsberghe: Robot Ethics: What is it and why should we care?
Stevenson & Hunt Room A - Central Library 251 Dundas St, London, Ontario, CanadaABSTRACT The 21st century is predicted to be the century of service robots. Service robots differ from factory robots in that they function in unstructured and unpredictable human environments and will even co-operate with humans. They can already be found in: neighbourhood stores for greeting us; hospitals to help with surgeries, rehabilitation, or for the [...]
Aimee van Wynsberghe: The Ethics of Ethical Robots
Room 2202 - Spencer Engineering Building Spencer Engineering Building, Western University, London, Ontario, CanadaABSTRACT Robots are no longer fuel for the imagination of science fiction writers; they are now a part of our personal and professional lives and will become increasingly so in the years to come. They are already a part of surgical procedures and are delivering sheets and medications throughout the hospital. They are becoming a [...]
Panel Discussion – Editing the Human Genome: The Ethics of Moulding our Future
Wolf Performance Hall - Central Library 251 Dundas St, London, Ontario, CanadaABSTRACT The groundbreaking discovery of the gene-editing tool known as CRISPR allows scientists to precisely, efficiently, and cheaply modify the human genome. This may provide us with the power to cure disease and to unlock the secrets of early human development. It might, in the future, allow us to modify humans in directions that we now only [...]
Julian Savulescu: The Science and Ethics of Human Enhancement
Room 106 - Physics and Astronomy Building 1151 Richmond Street, London, Ontario, CanadaABSTRACT Scandal after scandal has revealed that sport has been experimenting with human enhancement on a massive scale. These are among the most high-profile cases. But in fact human enhancement technologies influence all aspects of life. From students and professionals taking modafinil to enhance cognition, focus and drive, to evidence that SSRIs (anti-depressants) affect moral [...]
The promises and perils of A(rtificial) I(ntelligence)
Room 1130 - Western Interdisciplinary Research Building Western Interdisciplinary Research Building, London, ON, CanadaThe rise of artificial intelligence inspires both fear and optimism. The creation and use of machines and software capable of learning and developing the ability to think and behave autonomously promises significant social benefits, but also great social upheaval. AI will affect how we travel, work, and receive health care. It will impact the quality [...]
Panel Discussion: Health, Equity, and Well-Being
Wolf Performance Hall - Central Library 251 Dundas St, London, Ontario, CanadaAlthough every citizen of Canada has access to publicly funded health insurance, not all Canadians enjoy the same level and quality of health.
Dan Hausman: Fairness
Room 1170 - Western Interdisciplinary Research Building Western Interdisciplinary Research Building, London, Ontario, CanadaABSTRACT There are few theories of fairness in the philosophical literature, and those theories are controversial. They give conflicting answers to important policy questions, such as whether to rely on cost-effectiveness information to allocate health-related resources. For example, suppose that individuals in group A have a health condition that is slightly less cost-effective to treat [...]
Work in Progress Seminar with Jennifer Flynn: Is Bioethics Action-Centered?
Room 7107 - Western Interdisciplinary Research Building Western Interdisciplinary Research Building, London, ON, CanadaJoin us for a work in progress seminar with Rotman visiting fellow Jennifer Flynn based on her paper "Is Bioethics Action-Centered?" Please register below if you plan to attend. ABSTRACT Iris Murdoch criticized the moral philosophizing of her day as overly focused upon action and choice. I shall explore this criticism and the extent to [...]
Responsibilities to Others: 2020 Philosophy Lecture Series
Virtual (register for Zoom link)Our attempts to deal with the effects of COVID-19 have revived significant interest in a question of enduring philosophical interest: what do we owe to each other? This series of public lectures will examine our responsibilities (if any) to others. It will include discussions on the evolution of altruism, on the idea that both [...]
Meredith Schwartz: It Takes Two – Trusting the Public in Public Health Messaging and Policy
Virtual (register for Zoom link)ABSTRACT Much of the existing public health literature describes strategies by which health authorities can build and maintain trust from the public. Typically, this relationship is assumed to be one-directional and instrumental: the public should trust health authorities because this will increase public cooperation and compliance. However, trust is a two-way relationship, and I argue [...]
Rotman Dialogue with James Wilson: Philosophy for Public Health and Public Policy
Room 4190 - Western Interdisciplinary Research Building Western Interdisciplinary Research Building, Room 4190, London, Ontario, CanadaMaking wise ethical choices is difficult. So, a crucial task of ethical theory is to make such decision-making easier, but without falsifying, or over-simplifying the choices to be made. The difficult question is what counts as good simplification, and what counts as over-simplification. This Rotman Dialogue discusses the theory and practice of making ethical public [...]
James Wilson: What makes a health system good? From cost-effectiveness analysis to ethical optimisation in health systems
Room 1170 - Western Interdisciplinary Research Building Western Interdisciplinary Research Building, London, Ontario, CanadaAbstract Fair allocation of scarce healthcare resources has been much studied within philosophy and bioethics, but analysis has focused on a narrow range of cases. The Covid-19 pandemic provided significant new challenges, making powerfully visible the extent to which health systems can be fragile, and how scarcities within crucial elements of interlinked care pathways [...]
Patrick Fafard: Is Science Enough? Science Advice, Health Essentialism, and Pandemic Decision-Making
Room 4190 - Western Interdisciplinary Research Building Western Interdisciplinary Research Building, Room 4190, London, Ontario, CanadaAbstract: Policy decisions made during the COVID-19 pandemic were commonly defended by decision-makers on the grounds they were 'following the science'. This suggested decision-makers were relying heavily on the advice of experts in public health, notably infectious disease physicians, to inform policy decisions. This raises important questions about the exact nature and role of [...]
Ethical Issues in Artificial Intelligence: 2023 Annual Library Lecture Series
Lawson Room - Central Library 251 Dundas Street - London Public Library Wolf Performance Hall, London, Ontario, CanadaEVENT DESCRIPTION Each year, the Rotman Institute of Philosophy organizes a public lecture series co-sponsored with the London Public Library and the Department of Philosophy. The theme for this year's lecture series is Ethical Issues in Artificial Intelligence. Abstract Questions about Artificial Intelligence and its appropriate use overwhelm recent discourse about technology. What is [...]
(Dis)Trust and AI: Perspectives from Across Disciplines and Sectors
Ivey Spencer Leadership Centre 551 Windermere Road, London, Ontario, CanadaConcerns about trust, distrust, and artificial intelligence (AI) are on the rise as our societies become more and more exposed to these technologies. This event will focus on pressing questions under the general theme of (dis)trust and AI and bring together people working in different academic disciplines and sectors of society to collaborate in [...]
Charles Ling: Turing Test, Chinese Room, AGI, and GPTs
Room 4190 - Western Interdisciplinary Research Building Western Interdisciplinary Research Building, Room 4190, London, Ontario, CanadaAbstract: With the rapid development of large language models such as GPTs, many fundamental and philosophical issues of intelligence and the human mind can be re-visited. In this talk, I will explore these related topics to foster potential collaboration between different disciplines. Register to Attend Turing Test, Chinese Room, AGI, and GPTs Speaker [...]