ethics news & views

2005 faculty seminar: The ethics of wealth?

By John Banja. Each year, the Center for Ethics hosts a seminar for Emory faculty on some topic of considerable ethical interest. The 2005 topic will be “The Ethics of Money/The Ethics of Wealth.” The seminar will occur May 18-27, 2005.

Summer faculty seminar explores new and ancient approaches to "the moral self"

During the latter half of May, fifteen Emory faculty participated in the 2004 Ethics Center’s annual faculty seminar. This year’s topic, “The Moral Self: Ethical, Psychological, Theological, and Cultural Constructions” witnessed three thematic approaches to the self emerge from the participants.

An interesting facet was the occasional resonance among perspectives that one wouldn’t ordinarily anticipate, such as the Buddhist view of self with the contemporary neurological understanding of self; or the “positionality” conception of self that is current in disability studies and feminism with the antiessentialist epistemology of someone like Richard Rorty.

In the end, our participants were respectful of David Hume’s famous observation that there is no impression of the self, such as the impression I have of this computer screen right now or of my visual memory of my grandmother. Yet, we cannot get very far in our moral lives and our moral communities without talking about one. Indeed, the Eastern insistence on the nonself—which I have great respect for—is nevertheless so persistent that it speaks to the natural human tendency to take our “selves” very seriously indeed. In any event and very briefly, here are three thematic treatments of the self that arose in the seminar:

Neuroethics:
A report of the 2003 faculty ethics seminar

By John Banja. Over the last decade the Center for Ethics has hosted a yearly faculty seminar around a theme of ethical interest. In years past, the seminars has featured topics like “Stem Cells and Genetic Technologies,” “Teaching Ethics,” and “The Ethics of Professionalism.” This year’s seminar—which occurred from May 14 to May 23 and was attended by 18 faculty—focused on neuroethics, that is, the recent contributions of the brain sciences to our knowledge of the nature of moral reasoning and moral behavior. In what follows, I’ll give a snapshot view of a few of the prominent issues that were studied and debated.

One of the most provocative approaches to studying moral reasoning has been through the use of magnetic resonance imaging, wherein the brain activity of human participants is captured while they are in the process of contemplating moral issues and dilemmas. This research has debunked one of the oldest moral observations around: that moral deliberation ought to be absolutely purified of one’s sentiments, passions, and emotions and be based on pure, emotionally detached reason alone.

Neuroethics: Summer 2003 faculty seminar

This year’s Faculty Ethics Seminar theme is “Neuroethics.” We wish to bring together neuroscientists who have an interest in ethics, and persons with considerable background in ethics who have an interest in neuroscience.

The seminar this year will begin Wednesday, May 14 and proceed through the following week (there are eight sessions in all). Each daily session lasts three hours, and we alternate mornings and afternoons. Participants usually number about 15.

Stem cells and genetics: the 2002 Summer Faculty Seminar

Does a virtually invisible blob of genetic material in a Petri dish count as a constitutionally protected person? Who owns that material when it has been created in a laboratory from donor sperm and eggs? Ought America's government withhold research funds from scientists who want to use those biological materials (which are only going to be discarded anyway), when the benefits of such research can be astonishingly great? Are there some forms of scientific research that simply ought not be done? How do we determine when research participants are being exposed to an excessive amount of risk by certain experiments? What does one generation of human beings owe the next?

Teaching ethics: the 2001 Faculty Ethics Seminar

The Center For Ethics faculty seminar this year focused on “Teaching Ethics.” The seminar proceeded with most of the participants discussing their classroom experiences and especially focusing on the various instructional challenges they encounter.

Banja to host summer faculty ethics seminar: Teaching Ethics

This May, Dr. John Banja will host the Center for Ethics' annual faculty seminar. This year's seminar theme is "Teaching Ethics."

Topics are expected to range widely among issues including the challenge of postmodernism, classroom strategies and techniques, teaching ethics in the midst of professional socialization, and teaching decisional models versus nurturing moral agency.

Ethics Center hosts summer faculty seminar

Should the values of responsible citizenship, community service and social criticism be pursued throughout the university, or just in certain contexts?

Faculty Ethics Institute

The following is a brief summary of a report compiled by Dr. Michael Rich, associate professor of political science, and Stacia Brown. Dr. Rich facilitated this year's annual Faculty Ethics Institute, sponsored by the Ethics Center, which brought together faculty from across the disciplines in the university to examine "University and Community: Exploring the Ethics of Accountability, Advocacy, and Activism."

[ Posted by Stacia Brown on September 01, 1999 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) ]