The Department of Philosophy hosted three events during spring quarter. Reaching across campus to other departments, students, faculty, staff and alumni to join us in days of philosophical inquiry and reflection.
In April, Professor Sara Goering organized “Stimulating the Self: Neurotechnology, Identity and Agency” along with the Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering and the Program on Values of Society. The main talks at the symposium were:
"Agency ex Machina: Neuroprosthetics and the Re-emergent Self,” Joseph Fins, Cornell Weill Medical College
"I Am Who I Am, She Is Who She Is: When Illness and Technology Disrupt the Narrative Flow,” Françoise Baylis, Dalhousie University
"When I Becomes We: Ethical Implications of Emerging Brain-to-Brain Interfacing Technologies,” Karen Rommelfanger, Emory University
Later in April, Professor Carina Fourie organized the Benjamin Rabinowitz Workshop in Medical Ethics – “The Sickness of Society – What Kind of Equality Matters for Health?” This interdisciplinary and international one-day workshop aimed to assess which kinds of equalities are significant for public health policies and health care systems. The day featured the following speakers:
“Rethinking responsibility for health: A social connection model,” Erika Blacksher, Bioethics & Humanities, UW
“Gender, status and the social determinants of health,” Carina Fourie, Philosophy, UW
“The consequences of contact with the criminal justice system for health in the transition to adulthood,” Hedwig Lee, Sociology, UW
“Discrimination in health: Do relational and distributive egalitarianism have conflicting implications?,” Kasper Lippert-Rasmussen, Political Science, Aarhus University
“Relational inequality, testimonial injustice and health,” Kristin Voigt, Philosophy; Institute for Health and Social Policy, McGill University
In May, Professor Stephen Gardiner, Ben Rabinowitz Endowed Professorship in the Human Dimensions of the Environment, organized the Ben Rabinowitz Symposium in Environmental Ethics, "Justice for the Future: Climate Ethics, Resisting Domination, and Treating Young People as Equals” featuring the following talks:
“Treating Young People as Equals: what does it mean?,” Juliana Bidadanure, Stanford University
“Climate Change and Distributive Justice: A Truly Splendid Isolation against Arguments from Incompatibility,” Pranay Sanklecha, University of Graz
“Who May Geoengineer? Global Domination, Revolution, and Solar Radiation Management,” Patrick Taylor Smith, National University of Singapore
All three of these events were free and open to the public.