- Fri, Nov 15, 2019
Author Meets Critics
Sophia Moreau, Faces of Inequality: A Theory of Wrongful Discrimination (Author Meets Critics)
Faces of Inequality: A Theory of Wrongful Discrimination (OUP 2020)
Sophia Moreau
Faculty of Law
University of TorontoCommentators:
Rebecca Cook (University of Toronto, Law)
Deborah Hellman (University of Virginia, Law)
Niko Kolodny (UC Berkeley, Philosophy)
Seana Shiffrin (UCLA, Philosophy)
Kasper Lippert-Rasmussen (Aarhus University, Political Science)
☛ please register here
This book defends an original and pluralist theory of when and why discrimination wrongs people. Starting from actual legal cases in which claimants have alleged wrongful discrimination by other people or by the state, Sophia Moreau argues that we can best understand these people’s complaints by thinking of them as complaints about different ways in which they have not been treated as equals in their societies–in particular, through unfair subordination, through the violation of their right to a particular deliberative freedom, or through the denial to them of access to a basic good, that is, a good that this person must have access to if they are to be, and to be seen as, an equal in their society. The book devotes a chapter to each of these wrongs, exploring in detail what unfair subordination consists of; what deliberative freedoms are, and when each of us has a right to them; and what it means to deny someone access to a basic good. The author explains why these wrongs are each distinctive, but are each a different way of failing to treat some people as the equals of others. Finally the author argues that both the state and we as individuals have a duty to treat others as equals, in these three specific senses.
01:30 PM - 03:30 PM
Centre for Ethics, University of Toronto
Rm 200, Larkin Building - Mon, Nov 18, 2019
Perspectives on Ethics
Sunit Das, Encountering Moral Distress in Neurosurgery (Perspectives on Ethics)
Encountering Moral Distress in Neurosurgery
In a recent survey of neurosurgery residents in the US, a large majority of trainees stated that they felt inadequately trained to discuss issues of end-of-life care and palliation with patients. Further, 87% of respondents said they had participated in surgeries with which they disagreed. My own experience as a staff physician has suggested that the lack of clarity regarding end-of-life decisions in the care of neurosurgical patients is as present an issue following the completion of training and the primary assumption of these responsibilities. I will attempt to contextualize these issues with the following framework questions:
1. The burden of uncertainty–how do we proceed when we don’t know what is “right”? How do we cope when it doesn’t turn out as we had hoped?
2. The burden of hope–how do we proceed when we are asked to pursue the nominal? Our hope, our patients’s hope, our patients’s family’s hope.
3. The burden of duty–what is the cost of action that we do not believe in or feel is a wrong choice?
➡︎ please register here
Sunit Das
08:00 PM - 06:00 PM
University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine, Division of Neurosurgery, St. Michael’s Hospital & Centre for Ethics, University of Toronto
Centre for Ethics, University of Toronto
200 Larkin - Tue, Nov 19, 2019
Ethics of AI in Context
Anna Goldenberg, Advances and Challenges of AI in Healthcare (Ethics of AI in Context)
Advances and Challenges of AI in Healthcare
The great promise of AI in healthcare is taking time to materialize. Besides difficulties with access to the data and unrealistic expectations of the AI due to the hype fueled by the media, there are many fundamental machine learning advances that need to be made to achieve the widespread use of AI in healthcare. I will start my talk by discussing what AI can and cannot do at present by illuminating not only definitions but also the common misconceptions. I will then provide several examples of successes of AI in healthcare followed by a set of challenges that still exist both from the technical and cultural perspective.
➨ please register here
Anna Goldenberg
04:00 PM - 06:00 PM
University of Toronto
Computer Science
Centre for Ethics, University of Toronto
200 Larkin - Wed, Nov 20, 2019
Ethics at Noon
Natasha Hay, The Ethics of Study: Walter Benjamin’s Counter-Pedagogy and the Communicability of Historical Violence (Ethics@Noon)
The Ethics of Study: Walter Benjamin’s Counter-Pedagogy and the Communicability of Historical Violence
I will investigate some ways in which the ethical practice of study, the use of language, and the critique of force, authority, or violence (Gewalt) come together in Walter Benjamin’s reflections on pedagogical strategies in the research seminar. Deeply concerned with the histories of violence that state power perpetuates and occludes in the civic institutions that structure social life, Benjamin was even more attuned to the modalities of this historical violence inscribed in the languages of cultural texts. His concept of history will bring out both the emancipatory and the counter-revolutionary power of certain practices of study that enter into relation with the irreconcilable ambiguity of these archives in which “there is no document of culture that is not at the same time a document of barbarism.” Reading some key publications from Benjamin’s participation in the student movement in conjunction with his early writings on language and translation, I will focus particularly on the ethical significance of silence and listening for the construction of a linguistic medium of study that is capable of letting itself be addressed by and perhaps in turn redressing the semiotic effects of structural violence. The guiding purpose of this talk will be to elucidate the ethical stakes of the communicability of histories of violence that is resistant to and can radically alter the paradigms in which the research seminar functions as a privileged site for knowing mastery over objects of reference and as an ‘ideal speech situation’ for intersubjective discourse.
➨ please register here
Natasha Hay
12:30 PM - 02:00 PM
University of Toronto
Comparative Literature
Centre for Ethics, University of Toronto
200 Larkin - Thu, Nov 21, 2019
Ethics of Pedagogy
Vicki Zhang, The "Invisible Majority"?: Sampling the Chinese International Students' Experiences
The “Invisible Majority”?: Sampling the Chinese International Students’ Experiences
With the internationalization of Higher Education in Canada, universities have been striving to provide a welcoming and inclusive environment for international students. However, sometimes their efforts fall short due to a lack of deep understanding of the international student body. This talk focuses on one particular international student group – students from mainland China – and aims to uncover some of the crucial reasons behind the widely reported self-segregation of Chinese students (Cheng & Erben, 2011). It sets to understand why many students from mainland China feel turned off by cross-national communications with students from the host nation (Dewan, 2008). Various frameworks will be used to understand the phenomenon, including host nation hospitality, social identity theory, and the impact of colonial mentality and Chinese nationalism. The goal of the talk is to shed light on strategies educators may employ to help mitigate the self-segregation pattern among Chinese international students and encourage more inclusive learning environments and communities.
☛ please register here
04:00 PM - 05:30 PM
Vicki Zhang
University of Toronto
Statistical Sciences
Centre for Ethics, University of Toronto
200 Larkin - Tue, Nov 26, 2019
Ethics of AI in Context
Daniel Greene, Making Ethics in Machine Learning (Ethics of AI in Context)
Making Ethics in Machine Learning
Machine learning systems are implemented by all the big tech companies in everything from ad auctions to photo-tagging, and are supplementing or replacing human decision making in a host of more mundane, but possibly more consequential, areas like loans, bail, policing, and hiring. And we’ve already seen plenty of dangerous failures; from risk assessment tools systematically rating black arrestees as riskier than white ones, to hiring algorithms that learned to reject women. There’s a broad consensus across industry, academe, government, and civil society that there is a problem here, one that presents a deep challenge to core democratic values, but there is much debate over what kind of problem it is and how it might be solved. Taking a sociological approach to the current boom in ethical AI and machine learning initiatives that promise to save us from the machines, this talk explores how this problem becomes a problem, for whom, and with what solutions. Comparing today’s high-profile ethics manifestos with earlier moments in the history of technology allows us to see a nascent consensus around an approach we term ‘ethical design.’ At the same time, the recent surge in labor activism inside tech companies and anti-racist organizing outside them suggests how this expert-driven vision for more humane systems might be replaced or augmented with something more revolutionary. This talk draws on research conducted with Anna Lauren Hoffmann (UW), Luke Stark (MSR Montreal), and designer Geneviève Patterson.
☛ please register here
Daniel Greene
04:00 PM - 06:00 PM
University of Maryland
iSchool
Centre for Ethics, University of Toronto
200 Larkin - Wed, Nov 27, 2019
Ethics of AI in Context: Emerging Scholars
Petra Molnar, Immigration, Iris-Scanning, and iBorderCtrl: The Human Rights Impacts of Technological Experiments in Migration
Immigration, Iris-Scanning, and iBorderCtrl: The Human Rights Impacts of Technological Experiments in Migration
Mandatory detention of migrants at the US-Mexico border. The wrongful deportation of 7,000 foreign students accused of cheating on a language test. Racist or sexist discrimination based on social media profiles. What do these examples have in common? In every case, an algorithm made a decision with serious consequences for people’s lives.
This presentation explores the human rights impacts of experimental and unregulated technologies that are used to manage migration. Nearly 70 million people are currently on the move due to conflict, instability, environmental factors, and economic reasons. As a result, states and international organizations involved in migration management are exploring various automated decision-making experiments to increase efficiency and support border security. These experiments range from big data predictions about population movements in the Mediterranean, to Canada’s use of automated decision-making in immigration and refugee applications, to AI lie detectors deployed at European borders. However, these technologies are developed with little oversight, transparency, and accountability and often fail to account for the far-reaching impacts on human lives and human rights, resulting in potentially serious breaches of human rights and civil liberties.
☛ please register here
Petra Molnar
04:00 PM - 05:30 PM
International Human Rights Program
Faculty of Law
University of Toronto
Centre for Ethics, University of Toronto
200 Larkin - Thu, Dec 5, 2019
Events on Campus, Ethics of AI in Context
Barbara J. Grosz, From Ethical Challenges of Intelligent Systems to Embedding Ethics in Computer Science EducationFrom Ethical Challenges of Intelligent Systems to Embedding Ethics in Computer Science Education
Computing technologies have become pervasive in daily life, sometimes bringing unintended but harmful consequences. For students to learn to think not only about what technology they could create, but also whether they should create that technology and to recognize the ethical considerations that should constrain their design, computer science curricula must expand to include ethical reasoning about the societal value and impact of these technologies. This talk will describe Harvard’s Embedded EthiCS initiative, a novel approach to integrating ethics into computer science education that incorporates ethical reasoning throughout courses in the standard computer science curriculum. It changes existing courses rather than requiring wholly new courses. The talk will begin with a short description of my experiences teaching the course “Intelligent Systems: Design and Ethical Challenges” that inspired the design of Embedded EthiCS. It will then describe the goals behind the design, the way the program works, lessons learned and challenges to sustainable implementations of such a program across different types of academic institutions.
Barbara J. Grosz
Higgins Research Professor of Natural Sciences
Harvard Universitypresented by:11:10 AM - 01:00 PM
Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto
St. George Street - Mon, Jan 13, 2020
Perspectives on Ethics
Yannik Thiem (Perspectives on Ethics)Yannik Thiem
04:00 PM - 06:00 PM
Columbia University
Philosophy
Centre for Ethics, University of Toronto
200 Larkin - Tue, Jan 14, 2020
Ethics of AI in Context
Zack Lipton (Ethics of AI in Context)Zack Lipton
04:00 PM - 06:00 PM
Carnegie Mellon University
Business
Centre for Ethics, University of Toronto
200 Larkin - Wed, Jan 15, 2020
Ethics at Noon
Nikolas Kompridis (Ethics@Noon)Nikolas Kompridis
12:30 PM - 02:00 PM
Centre for Ethics, University of Toronto
200 Larkin - Wed, Jan 15, 2020
Ethics of AI in Context: Emerging Scholars
Mohamed Abdalla (Ethics of AI in Context: Emerging Scholars)Mohamed Abdalla
04:00 PM - 05:30 PM
University of Toronto
Computer Science
Centre for Ethics, University of Toronto
200 Larkin - Mon, Jan 20, 2020
Perspectives on Ethics
Alia Al-Saji (Perspectives on Ethics)Alia Al-Saji
04:00 PM - 06:00 PM
McGill University
Philosophy
Centre for Ethics, University of Toronto
200 Larkin - Tue, Jan 28, 2020
Ethics of AI in Context
Parisa Moosavi (Ethics of AI in Context)Parisa Moosavi
04:00 PM - 06:00 PM
York University
Philosophy
Centre for Ethics, University of Toronto
200 Larkin - Wed, Jan 29, 2020
Ethics at Noon
Josée Johnston (Ethics@Noon)Josée Johnston
12:30 PM - 02:00 PM
University of Toronto
Sociology
Centre for Ethics, University of Toronto
200 Larkin - Wed, Jan 29, 2020
Ethics of AI in Context: Emerging Scholars
Vinyas Harish (Ethics of AI in Context: Emerging Scholars)Vinyas Harish
04:00 PM - 05:30 PM
University of Toronto
Medicine and Public Health
Centre for Ethics, University of Toronto
200 Larkin - Wed, Feb 5, 2020
Ethics & the Arts, Ethics & Film: Lights, Camera, Ethics!, Ethics in the City
The Last Black Man in San Francisco (2019) (Ethics in the City Films)06:00 PM - 08:00 PMJimmie Fails is in love with a Victorian house built by his grandfather in San Francisco’s Fillmore District. When the house’s current occupants leave for good, Jimmie and his friend Mont attempt to repair and reclaim the place that Jimmie most considers home, despite its prohibitive price tag and place in a gentrified, rapidly changing neighbourhood. Based on a true story, Joe Talbot’s directorial debut is a love letter to a disappearing side of San Francisco and a touching look at how communities are made — and kept alive — by the people who care for them.
Centre for Ethics, University of Toronto
Rm 200, Larkin Building - Wed, Feb 12, 2020
Ethics at Noon
Anna Su (Ethics@Noon)Anna Su
12:30 PM - 02:00 PM
University of Toronto
Law
Centre for Ethics, University of Toronto
200 Larkin - Wed, Feb 12, 2020
Ethics of AI in Context: Emerging Scholars
Suzanne Van Geuns (Ethics of AI in Context: Emerging Scholars)Suzanne Van Geuns
04:00 PM - 05:30 PM
University of Toronto
Religion
Centre for Ethics, University of Toronto
200 Larkin - Mon, Feb 24, 2020
Perspectives on Ethics
Ashwini Vasanthakumar (Perspectives on Ethics)Ashwini Vasanthakumar
04:00 PM - 06:00 PM
Queen’s University
Law
Centre for Ethics, University of Toronto
200 Larkin - Tue, Feb 25, 2020
Ethics of AI in Context
Ida Koivisto (Ethics of AI in Context)Ida Koivisto
04:00 PM - 06:00 PM
Law
University of Helsinki
Centre for Ethics, University of Toronto
200 Larkin - Wed, Feb 26, 2020
Ethics of AI in Context: Emerging Scholars
Matt Mahmoudi (Ethics of AI in Context: Emerging Scholars)Matt Mahmoudi
04:00 PM - 05:30 PM
University of Cambridge
Development Studies
Centre for Ethics, University of Toronto
200 Larkin - Wed, Mar 4, 2020
Ethics at Noon
Christina Starmans (Ethics@Noon)Christina Starmans
12:30 PM - 02:00 PM
University of Toronto
Psychology
Centre for Ethics, University of Toronto
200 Larkin - Wed, Mar 4, 2020
Ethics & the Arts, Ethics & Film: Lights, Camera, Ethics!, Ethics in the City
My Winnipeg (2007) (Ethics in the City Films)Guy Maddin blends fact and fiction, documentary and drama, reality and myth in this dreamy black-and-white tour of Winnipeg. Widely regarded as Maddin’s best film, My Winnipeg won the award for Best Canadian Feature Film when it premiered at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). A 2015 poll conducted by TIFF named it one of the Top 10 Canadian films of all time, while another in 2016 listed it as one of 150 essential works in Canadian cinema history.
06:00 PM - 08:00 PM
Centre for Ethics, University of Toronto
Rm 200, Larkin Building - Mon, Mar 9, 2020
Perspectives on Ethics
Denise Ferreira da Silva (Perspectives on Ethics)Denise Ferreira da Silva
04:00 PM - 06:00 PM
University of British Columbia
Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice
Centre for Ethics, University of Toronto
200 Larkin - Wed, Mar 18, 2020
Ethics at Noon
Teresa Heffernan, The Immortality Industry and the Ethics of Death (Ethics@Noon)The Immortality Industry and the Ethics of Death
Teresa Heffernan
12:30 PM - 02:00 PM
St. Mary’s University
English
Centre for Ethics, University of Toronto
200 Larkin - Mon, Mar 23, 2020
Perspectives on Ethics
Sally Haslanger (Perspectives on Ethics)Sally Haslanger
04:00 PM - 06:00 PM
MIT
Linguistics & Philosophy
Centre for Ethics, University of Toronto
200 Larkin - Tue, Mar 31, 2020
Ethics of AI in Context
Azim Shariff (Ethics of AI in Context)Azim Shariff
04:00 PM - 06:00 PM
University of British Columbia
Psychology
Centre for Ethics, University of Toronto
200 Larkin - Wed, Apr 1, 2020
Ethics at Noon
Lauren Bialystok (Ethics@Noon)Lauren Bialystok
12:30 PM - 02:00 PM
University of Toronto
Social Justice Education
Centre for Ethics, University of Toronto
200 Larkin
Centre for Ethics, University of Toronto
