Monday Seminar talk, November 14th, 3-5pm, Larkin 200

“ What to Do When You Don’t Know What to Do When You Don’t Know What to Do”
Andrew Sepielli, Department of Philosophy, University of Toronto

From the introduction: “There’s been renewed interest in the question of what it’s rational to do in the face of normative uncertainty – uncertainty among moral theories, claims about what to do in particular cases, and even accounts of rationality itself. But some fascinating problems have been raised not for any particular answer to this question, but to the very project of trying to answer this question. One of these problems invokes agents who’ve tried to answer the question for themselves, but have arrived at answers that we might regard as mistaken…”

“Office is a Thing Borrowed: Jean Bodin between Sovereignty and Legality”

Ethics at Noon talk, Wed, Nov. 2, 12-2pm, Larkin #200.

Optional background reading for the Ethics at Noon talk, to be given by Ian Lee from the Faculty of Law, this Thursday, Oct. 20 at noon in the seminar room: here.

Thanks to the panel today for an excellent discussion to launch Wayne Sumner’s new book, Assisted Death. From the left: Bernard Dickens, Wayne Sumner, James Downar, Donald Ainslie:

Thanks to the Department of Philosophy for co-sponsoring the event & reception.

Wayne Sumner on the right-to-die movement: “The Morgentaler Effect” The Walrus (January, 2011).

Wayne will be at the Centre for Ethics on Thursday, Oct. 13th, for an author-meets-critics session on his new book, Assisted Death: A Case Study in Ethics and Law, from 3-5pm. Commenting on the book will be Prof. Bernard Dickens, Dr. James Downar and Prof. Donald Ainslie.

Valerie Tiberius will be the second speaker in our Seminar series, this coming Monday, Oct. 3, at 3pm (Larkin 200). Her paper is entitled: “Right in the Middle: Normativity and Idealized Subjective Theories of Well-Being.” Those interested in obtaining an advance copy can email Tim at admin.ethics@utoronto.ca.

Christine Tappolet will be giving the first “Ethics and Noon” talk on Wednesday, Oct. 5 at 12-2pm, again in the Ethics Centre seminar room. Her paper is entitled “Responsibility and Response-Dependence.”

And finally, the Parfit (On What Matters) reading group will be meeting for the first time on Friday, Oct. 7 at 1pm. For further information, contact Kathryn Walker (kathryn.walker@utoronto.ca).

It’s that time of year again. Lots of new things are happening at the Centre for Ethics this term. First, I’d like to welcome our new batch of visiting faculty, post-doctoral and doctoral fellows.

Faculty: Theresa Lee (Guelph), Chris MacDonald (St. Mary’s), Douglas Moggach (U of Ottawa) and Christine Tappolet (U de Montréal).
Post-doctoral: Greg Dinsmore, John Grant, James Sherman, Kathryn Walker
Doctoral: Cameron Sabadoz, Jacob Weinrib

Second, we are starting a new series of brown-bag lunch talks, on Wednesdays in the Seminar Room, every other week throughout the year. Look to this space for further information, or drop by the Centre for a complete list of talks.

And finally, there are a number of different faculty/student reading groups starting up. Schedules are not fixed yet, but if you are interested please ask around for further information.

The Centre for Ethics was pleased to host a reading of a new play, written by Mark Migotti and Richard Sanger, entitled Hannah’s Turn. Mark has been a visiting Faculty Fellow at the Centre this year, and his presence in Toronto provided the occasion for this collaboration with Richard. Presentation of the play was followed by a discussion with the actors and director, facilitated by Mark Kingwell.

One might be tempted to describe the performance as having been before a “sell-out crowd,” except for the fact that the event was free. A full theatrical presentation of the play begins next week, at the Summerworks Theatre Festival. See dates and info here.

Migotti takes questions after the performance:

From now until the end of the summer, the Ethics Centre will be closed on Fridays. (Not much happening anyways.) Normal M-F 9-5 office hours will resume on the last week of August.

Welcome to the new Centre for Ethics website. The only major change is the addition of a blog on the home page (you are reading it right now), which will be updated on a regular basis, mainly to inform members and interested parties of events that will be occurring at the Centre, as well as elsewhere on campus.