Political Ethics: Previous Seminars
2011
Seminar held jointly with Philosophy
Department:
Thursday 24 February
2011
Professor Kasper Lippert-Rasmussen
Department of Political Science
Aarhus University, Denmark
The Wrongness of Discrimination
and Equality of Moral Status
There are many different accounts of why discrimination is
wrongful (when it is). One account appeals to the way in
which discrimination harms discriminatees. Another account
points to the way in which, whether harmful or not, discrimination
clashes with some favoured understanding of the ideal of
equality. In this paper, Professor Lippert-Rasmussen takes a
critical look at two influential ways in which the wrongfulness of
discrimination has been tied to the ideal of equality: Larry
Alexander’s suggestion that certain particularly wrongful instances
of discrimination are wrong because they are premised on the belief
that the discriminatee has a lower moral status, and Deborah
Hellman’s recent suggestion that the discrimination is wrongful
because it demeans the discriminatee. He suggests that
neither account is satisfactory. Pace Alexander, he argues
that resentful discrimination based on beliefs about superiority
appears no less wrongful per se. Pace Hellman, he shows that
much wrongful discrimination is not demeaning of persons and that
the wrongfulness of many kinds of discrimination that are demeaning
cannot be based on a basic and uncontroversial requirement of equal
concern and respect.
2010
Monday 15 March 2010 4.30 pm
Prof James Connelly
Director, Institute of Applied Ethics
Hull University
Teaching
Ethics to the Military: A Study in Applied
Philosophy
Professor Connelly is Project Leader of the
Military Ethics Education Network, currently engaged in a project
to compare and analyse approaches to military ethics training
around the world. In January and February this year he went on a
research trip to Canada and the US, visiting a number of military
teaching academies and colleges. The paper summarises the project
and outlines some interim conclusions arising out of teaching
observations and discussions.
Wednesday 3 November 2010 5.00
pm
Raphael Cohen-Almagor
Professor in the Politics and International
Studies Department
University of Hull
The Failed Peace Process in the
Middle East
Since 1977, Israeli society is split over the
question of peace versus land. The aim of this paper is to outline
some of the developments that took place since the signing of the
Oslo accords in September 1993. Professor Cohen-Almagor argues that
the peace agreement was like a Swiss cheese with one difference:
the holes were so big that they questioned the essence of the
cheese. He analyses the major mistakes that were made along the way
by Israeli leaders: Rabin, Peres, Barak and Olmert. Brinkmanship
policy is very dangerous when the two sides are willing to pay a
high price with blood. The fear from escalating the region into a
comprehensive war is very much alive and real. It is argued that
the better way to escape the deadlock is still the Clinton
Parameters delineating a two-state solution.
2009
Monday 14 December 2009 2.00
pm
Professor Asa Kasher
Laura Schwarz-Kipp Professor Emeritus of
Professional Ethics & Philosophical Practice, & Professor
Emeritus of Philosophy
Tel Aviv University
The Gaza Campaign: ‘Operation Cast
Lead’ and the Just War Theory
In this paper Professor Kasher gives an
account, both theoretical and political in basis, of 'Operation
Cast Lead', which took place in the Gaza Strip in January 2009, in
terms of Just War Theory. He places examples of decisions,
policies and outcomes in a framework which utilises specific
principles of the theory.
POLITICAL ETHICS SYMPOSIUM:
‘THE ETHICS OF WAR AND
SELF-DEFENCE’
Monday 23 November 2009 4.30
pm
Speakers:
Dr Helen Frowe
Dept of Philosophy, University of
Sheffield
‘War and Self-Defence’
Dr Suzanne Uniacke
Dept of Philosophy, University of Hull
‘Self-Defence, Just War, and a
Reasonable Prospect of Success’
Wednesday 18 February 2009 4.00
pm
Mike Hannis
SPIRE
University of Keele
Ecological Virtue, Human Flourishing and
Sustainability
How might acknowledgement of our
ecological embeddedness affect ideas of what it is to be a good
person, or to live a good life? Should policy-makers aim to
facilitate ecological virtue? If so, how?
Monday 18 May 2009 4.30 pm
Vittorio Bufacchi
Department of
Philosophy
University College, Cork
Four Faces of Violence
A conceptual
analysis of violence.
2008
Wednesday 20 February
Professor Tom
Campbell
Director, Centre for Applied Philosophy
& Public Ethics (An Australian Research Council funded Special
Research Centre), Charles Sturt University, University of Melbourne
and The Australian National University, Rescuing Human Rights
from Human Rights Law: In Pursuit of an Autonomous Political
Philosophy of Human Rights
Thursday 1 May
Dr
Antony Hatzistavrou
Lecturer, Department of Philosophy, University Of Hull,
Disobedience and the Duty to Change the Law: Socrates in
the Crito
2007
Wednesday 14 February
Avia Pasternak,
Nuffield College, Oxford, Sanctioning Liberal Democracies: on
the right and the duty of liberal democracies to impose sanctions
against unjust democracies
Wednesday 7 March
Sorin Baiasu,
Manchester University, Kantian Justifications of Pratical
Norms: An examination of approaches to justifying basic political
principles
Wednesday 25 April
Stephen
Badsey, Military Historian, Military-Media Relations
Wednesday 6 June
James Weinstein, Visiting Fellow, Law, Trinity College, Cambridge
and Professor of Constitutional Law, Arizona State University.
Hate Speech and Democracy: A Comparative View
Wednesday 24 October
Claire Grant, Reader
in Social and Political Philosophy, University of Warwick, The
Bad and the Dead: The 'loss' of rights
Wednesday 28 November
Katerina Mantouvalou, University College London, The
Greek-Turkish Population Exchange: The People Left Behind
2005