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Current affairs:

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June 23, 2022

When Is an AI System Sentient?

Blake Lemoine and LaMDA AI
How can we tell whether an AI program “thinks” or “feels”? In the recent debate of Blake Lemoine’s claims about LaMDA, a functionalist approach can help us understand machine consciousness and feelings. (more...)
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June 10, 2022
Sofia Jeppsson

Can We Define Mental Health?

Disclaimer: This is an article about the definition of mental health. It is not meant and should not be used as advice on how to treat mental health problems. (more...)
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June 1, 2022

The Principle of Double Effect

Philosophy and current affairs
Should we teach philosophy to young people when accounting would be better for them? Are we evil when we choose to drive a car? Is it right to accept the small risk that comes with mandatory vaccinations? And what if the fire department floods your home? Meet the doctrine of Double Effect. (more...)
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May 13, 2022
David Villena

Deepfakes, deception, and distrust

Epistemic and social concerns
The main epistemic concern in the light of the potential ubiquity of deepfakes is not that we are going to be massively deceived. Global distrust and not global deception could be the ultimate consequence of deepfakes. (more...)
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March 25, 2022
David Cockayne

Confucianism and Just War

Since governments are charged with pursuing the popular well-being and not state power or prosperity, wars of aggression are illegitimate. - David Cockayne on how classic Confucianism would see wars. (more...)
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March 6, 2022

The Ukraine Conflict: Conduct in War

Philosophy and current affairs
What are the laws that apply during a war? We discuss the jus in bello and the requirements of discrimination, proportionality and necessity. Just War Theory applied to the current conflict in the Ukraine. (more...)
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February 26, 2022

The Ukraine Conflict and the Ethics of War

Philosophy and current affairs
What are the moral rules for war, how can wars be justified and are we obliged to help a country that has been attacked? Just War Theory applied to the current conflict in the Ukraine. (more...)
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October 22, 2021

Roman Yampolskiy on the dangers of AI

Philosopher interviews
Dr. Roman V. Yampolskiy is a professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the Speed School of Engineering, University of Louisville. He is the founding and current director of the Cyber Security Lab and an author of many books. In this interview, he speaks about the future of AI. (more...)
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October 18, 2021
Sofia Jeppsson

Retributivism and Uncertainty

Why do we punish criminals?
Why do we have a criminal justice system? What could possibly justify the state punishing its citizens? Retributivism is the view that we ought to give offenders the suffering that they deserve for harming others. (more...)
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Emanuele Costa

Inventing the New World

Can AIs have intellectual property?
For the first time in history, an AI called DABUS has been granted a patent in South Africa. This article analyses the metaphysics of attributing inventions to non-human agents. (more...)
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Roman V. Yampolskiy

The Uncontrollability of AI

The creation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) holds great promise, but with it also comes existential risk. How can we know AI will be safe? How can we know it will not destroy us? How can we know that its values will be aligned with ours? (more...)
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Seven Reasons to Outlaw Recreational Drugs

The main arguments
Should we legalise recreational drug use? The main arguments against legalising recreational drugs are: 1. The escalation argument. 2. The argument from gateway drugs. 3. The “addiction is dangerous” argument. 4. The argument that the war on drugs is effective. 5. The ethical arguments against taking drugs. 6. There is a moral obligation to take care of one’s own health. 7. Drug users are not free to decide anyway. (more...)
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Six Reasons to Legalise Recreational Drugs

The main arguments
Should we legalise recreational drug use? The main arguments in favour of legalising recreational drugs are: 1. Legalising or decriminalising recreational drugs will bring in additional tax revenue. 2. Prohibition of drugs causes crime and benefits criminals. 3. Legalising drugs would allow the state to control drug quality and access. 4. Other, legal drugs are more harmful (alcohol, tobacco). 5. In a free society, people should be free to choose themselves if they want to use drugs. 6. Drugs have always been used in human societies. (more...)
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Vaccination Ethics

Can the state force us to get vaccinated?
Vaccination ethics is a surprisingly rich field of philosophical inquiry, and it covers issues from all major moral theories, reaching into world politics, poverty, the role of the state and the morality of taxation and car seat belts. (more...)
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Touching Fish

Is laziness a human right?
Being lazy, far from being something good, would be, for Aristotle, a total failure of a human being and the best way for someone to make sure that they will never reach true happiness. (more...)
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What Is a Fair Share of Life?

The Fair Innings Argument in bioethics
The “Fair Innings Argument” assumes that there is such a thing as a fair share of life. If someone has lived that much, then any additional lifetime is considered a bonus. While if someone still has to reach the limits of their fair share, then they seem to have a stronger claim to additional lifetime. The problem with the argument is that it assumes that the two lives being compared are equal in every other respect. And this is never the case. (more...)
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Is Abortion Ethical?

Judith Jarvis Thomson: A Defense of Abortion
Is abortion ethical? Judith Jarvis Thomson, who died five days ago, created one of the most well-known thought experiments in modern ethics. In her 1971 paper “A Defense of Abortion,” she presents the thought experiment of the unconscious violinist. (more...)
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The Ethics of Organ Transplants

Can you kill one to save many?
Are we ever allowed to kill one in order to save many lives? Utilitarianism would look at the overall benefit and conclude that sometimes this might be permissible. Kantian ethics would consider every human life as infinitely valuable, so that we wouldn’t be allowed to “add up” the values of lives. (more...)
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Peter Singer's Drowning Child

Are we required to save lives if we can?
Peter Singer’s Drowning Child thought experiment: If, on the way to the office, we saw a child drowning in a pond, would we think that we have to save it? Would it change anything if we were wearing a new suit and if we came late to our business conference because of saving the child? (more...)
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The Ethics of Eating Meat

Four moral theories and their views
Eating small quantities of meat that was grown organically in a sustainable way might be morally justifiable. Utilitarianism would consider both animal suffering in the process of meat production and the environmental impact of animal farming. Most ethics theories would agree that large-scale animal farming as it is practiced today is morally wrong. (more...)
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October 2: Happy Birthday, Mahatma Gandhi!

Last Friday was the birthday of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, whom they called the Mahatma, the Great Soul. (more...)
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Is it stupid to hoard toilet paper?

Sometimes, weird behaviours can be rational
It is too often assumed that hoarding commodities in a crisis is irrational and that everyone would be better off if nobody was hoarding things. But there are arguments to the contrary. (more...)

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