Events

International treaties, including Conferences of the Parties, have been signed and global warming countermeasures are being proposed all over the world. Resources on this page are drawn from the Uehiro-Carnegie-Oxford Conference, 'Global Warming-Environmental Ethics and Its Practice', which took place in New York in October 2015, with an international group of participants seeking to address the following questions: Is it possible to establish an environmental ethics to combat global warming?

• Are there any major differences in environmental philosophies between Eastern and Western thought?
• What are the key values that are necessary to make people recognize the importance of sustainability?
• How can ethics solve obstacles to prevention of global warming?
• How can we get bystanders and free riders to feel a sense of responsibility?
• What should be our role in helping to preserve sustainable environment? Is environmental education helpful for sustainability?

Programme [PDF]

Stephen Gardiner (Professor of Philosophy and Ben Rabinowitz Endowed Professor of Human Dimensions of the Environment, University of Washington)
'Accepting Collective Responsibility for the Future'

Toshio Kuwako (Graduate School of Decision Science and Technology, Tokyo Institute of Technology)
'Theory and Practice of Environmental Ethics Facing the Benefits and Risks from Complex Interaction between Human Activities and Dynamics of the Globe'

Evan Berry (Associate Professor, Philosophy and Religion, American University)
'Is Climate Change One Problem? Culturally Particular Notions of Harm in a Warming Planet'
Audio | Transcript

Guy Kahane (Deputy Director, Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics)
'Climate Change and Human Moral Psychology'
Audio | Transcript

Peter Higgins (University of Edinburgh)
'Global Intimacy: How do we cultivate a care for ‘place’ when the place is the planet? '
Audio | Transcript

Narumi Yoshikawa (Assistant Professor, Institute for Waseda Environmental Science)
'TEIKEI Movement and Agricultural Ethics'
Transcript

Dale Jamieson (Professor of Environmental Studies, New York University)
'How to Live in the Anthropocene'
Audio | Transcript

Mitsuyo Toyoda (Associate Professor at Niigata University, Center for Toki and Ecological Restoration)
'Re-constructing Democratic Culture at the Age of Environmental Crisis'
Transcript

Ingmar Persson (Professor of Practical Philosophy, University of Gothenburg)
'Climate Change – The Hardest Moral Challenge'
Audio | Transcript

Gustaf Arrhenius (Professor of Practical Philosophy, Stockholm University)
'Population Ethics in the Time of Global Warming'
Audio

Takako Takano (Waseda University)
'Ethical Consequences of 'Educations' Linked to Sustainability'
Transcript

Julian Savulescu (Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics)
'The Psychology and Ethics of the Tragedy of the Commons'
Audio | Transcript

Paul Gallay (President, Riverkeeper)
'Defending New York's Hudson River'
Video and Transcript

20-21 June 2013, Oxford

Many people and countries are now beginning to evaluate the success of their lives or society not purely in terms of money or gross domestic product. The currency of traditional economics – preference satisfaction - has fallen into question as an ethical value. The global financial crisis is seen by many as a failure of capitalism. Some countries have proposed a Gross Happiness Index to replace GDP as the measure of the productivity of a country. What is of intrinsic value in human lives? How should we measure how good a human being’s life is? What is happiness and what constitutes well-being? What can we learn from religion, philosophy, economics and the cognitive sciences about happiness and well-being? Are happiness and well-being relative to culture? What roles do pleasure and happiness play in ethics? Should we aim to maximise happiness and pleasure? How should the views of people with disability be incorporated into an ethics of well-being?

Recent advances in the life sciences have posed profound and unsettling ethical questions. We now have an unprecedented understanding of the nature of life on this planet. This has brought us new powers. These powers will change us; our lives going forward will be different than ever before. We now have the technology to regenerate existing life forms, and even to generate new life forms. The science of stem cells, cloning, genetic engineering, artificial reproduction and synthetic biology provides powerful tools to change and create new life. What is the value of these new powers and what is its meaning? What does the ability to create and change life mean for human beings, other life forms and the world? How far should we go? Or have we already gone too far? What possibilities and challenges lie ahead for our medicine and health? What roles can justice and religion play in managing the incessant output of cutting-edge research in the life sciences?

This publication is the outcome of the international conference under the theme ‘Life: Its Nature, Value and Meaning – No Turning Back? Ethics for the Future of Life’ held on 17th and 18th of May 2012, sponsored by the Uehiro Foundation on Ethics and Education, Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, and Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics.

The world’s leading scholars gathered to discuss the possibility and nature of practical ethics for the future of life, chaired by Professor Tetsuro Shimizu and Professor Julian Savulescu.

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Chapters:

1. Karuoko Aita: The family-oriented priority organ donation clause in Japan—Fair or unfair?   pp 1-8.
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2. Akira Akabayashi & Misao Fujita: The Present and Future of Stem Cell Therapy in Japan   pp 9-19
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3. Tom Beauchamp: Common Morality, Human Rights, and Multiculturalism in Japanese and American Bioethics   pp 20-36
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4. Roger Crisp: Future Generations, Sufficiency, and Biotechnology   pp 37-46
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5. Ruth Faden & Madison Powers: Biotechnology, Justice and Health   pp 47-59
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6. Masaki Ichinose: Hybrid Nature of Causation   pp 60-80
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7. Guy Kahane: Designing Children and Respect for the Given   pp 81-88
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8. Satoshi Kodama: Tsunami-tendenko and morality in disaster situations pp 89-96
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9. Masahiro Morioka: Why is It Hard for Us to Accept Moral Bioenhancement? : Comment on Savulescu’s Argument   pp 97-108
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10. Ingmar Persson & Julian Savulescu: The Meaning of Life: Science, Equality and Eternity   pp 109-124
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11. Susumu Shimazono: Risk Assessment of Severe Nuclear Power Plant Accidents and Ethics in Science and Technology   pp 125-133
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12. Tetsuro Shimizu: The Ethics of Unity and Difference   pp 134-143
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13. Tetsuhiko Shinagawa: The Status of the Human Being: Manipulating Subject, Manipulated Object, and Human Dignity   pp 144-154
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14. Shinya Yamanaka: Induction of Pluripotency by Defined Factors   pp 155-158
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The 2010 Uehiro/Carnegie/Oxford Conference addressed the relationships and interconnections between information and technology, law, ethics and society. A highly interdisciplinary group of leading international experts were brought together to address the theme, leading to a vigorous and fruitful discussion that traversed disciplinary boundaries with ease. The presentations could be described as broadly falling into the following three main areas:

1) Legal and Empirical 
Dr Fumio Shimpo (Keio) described the nature of "life-logs" - computer archives of personal everyday life - and discussed the technical and legal issues that arise in relation to them; Dr William Dutton (Oxford) used empirical data about internet usage and attitudes to argue that moral panics over the internet produce a threat of over-regulation that we must resist; Professor Johannes Britz (Wisconsin) described the nature of an information-poor society and the problems it causes for development. A particular highlight in this area was the presentation of Dr David Erdos (Oxford), which gave an overview of UK law on data protection and - with great clarity and insight - went on to describe some of its difficulties and ethical shortcomings.

2) Ethical problems in information ethics
Professor Tadashi Takenouchi (Tokyo) argued that information theory reveals double standards in our treatment of free speech cases. Dr Anders Sandberg (Oxford) discussed the ethical implications of new technologies that extend the self and provide for collective intelligence. Another highlight was the presentation of Professor Helen Nissenbaum (New York), which led to a particularly spirited discussion. It brought a theoretical perspective on the regulation of information flows, setting out Nissenbaum's theory of privacy as contextual integrity and arguing that it need not be taken to imply moral relativism.

3) Broader reflection on how attention to technology, information ethics and systems science can teach us about ethics and the humanities
Professor Wolfgang Hofkirchner (Vienna University of Technology) argued that by adopting the framework of sustainability, we might better understand an apparently diverse range of ethical values. Professor Lucas Introna (Lancaster) argued with admirable clarity that online encounters with virtual Others are of hitherto unrecognized significance for thinking about ethics and the nature of ethical commitment. Professor Rafael Capurro (Steinbeis University Berlin) offered historically-informed reflections on what it means to go beyond humanism, arguing that the angeletic theory of messengers and messages - and the thought of our modern selves as a humanity linked by our communication of messages - can lead us toward an ethics of openness and situatedness. A highlight was the keynote speech that kicked off the conference by Professor Toru Nishigaki (Tokyo). Nishigaki contrased Japanese (relational) and Western (hierarchical) attitudes towards technology and robots, then diagnosed some of the differences in Japanese attitudes as connected with a failure to appreciate the nature and importance of autonomy, as the concept is understood in western philosophy.

The opening and closing addresses by Professor Julian Savulescu (Oxford) and by Mr Hisateru Onozuka (Director, Uehiro Foundation) respectively, and the dinner speeches by Dr Noboru Maruyama (The Secretary-General, Uehiro Foundation), Dr Joel Rosenthal (President, The Carnegie Council) and Professor Andrew Hamilton (The Vice-Chancellor, Oxford University), sounded notes of great appreciation for our generous funders, and for the lasting importance of the scholarship and collaboration that they have provided for.